Ep 10: Spare No Expense

Speaker1: Good morning. I'm Daniel Delp, and this is for your Sunday morning drive. The short podcast designed to help put us in a Colossians three two mindset and focus our minds for worship on those hectic Sunday mornings and for your Sunday morning drive, is a part of the Ministry League network of podcasts. I encourage you to download their app or go to Ministry league.com. They are a fantastic place to find worship and study materials for both you and your family. And look at us. We made it to episode ten. It's hard to believe that we've been going at this for ten weeks already, and I so appreciate everyone that has joined me on this journey so far, and I look forward to many, many more Sunday mornings together. And if you do enjoy the podcast, please take a moment and share us with a friend. That's the best way to help us grow and I appreciate it so much. And before we get started this morning, I do have one more small request going forward. Each Wednesday, I plan to post the discussion questions from that week's episode on our Facebook page, and I'd love to see if maybe we can foster some sharing and discussion to further help us all grow spiritually. So if you feel like sharing any thoughts or discussion that this week's episode has prompted, please consider doing so. This Wednesday, there's a link to our Facebook page in the show notes for every episode, and I would really appreciate it. And I'm looking forward to seeing if we can get some really great conversations started. I think that just about wraps it up. I'm excited to jump into the episode for this morning. It was a fun one to record for sure. Let's grab our Bibles, get our coffee, and our car keys. This is episode ten. Spare no expense. Let's go to church.

Speaker2: Are we there yet?

Speaker1: Jurassic Park is one of my favorite films, and as a kid it both terrified and amazed me. Well, I recently tried to introduce it to my daughter and as a six year old might be, she was terrified. Oops. But you live and you learn. One of the best characters in the movie is John Hammond, the wealthy, enigmatic financier and creator of Jurassic Park itself. And he mentioned several times throughout the plot of the film that he.

Speaker3: Spared no expense.

Speaker1: Spared no expense. In fact, he mentions this no less than five times during the entirety of the movie. You see, John Hammond had a dream, and he spent and did whatever it took to make it a reality. Now, I think it's a very real criticism that maybe he spent so much time asking if he could, that he never considered if he And that was to the detriment of many lives, but also to the benefit of the sequel. Heavy film franchise. And all of this got me to thinking about how we see the early church interacting with one another in the book of acts. Specifically, if we look at acts chapter four. Let's start in verse 32. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, 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 all. Now notice this part in verse 34, for there was not a needy person among them. For all who were owners of land or houses would sell them, and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. Friends, look at the behavior that the early Christians exhibited.

Speaker1: They had so much love for one another, and when it came to the needs of their brethren, they truly spared no expense. Not out of a sense of greed or worldly ambition, or of disastrous hubris, but as each had need. What would it look like in our communities and in our congregations if we did this? What kind of an impact would we have for Jesus? Think of the care and the love we could show in the good works that could be done for the Lord. Now, I understand this is an area where I can personally do better, and you don't see me selling my house and my property and laying that at the feet of the church today. But I do think that the message we can take away from this is that sometimes we hold on to things a little too tightly. For instance, let's contrast what we see in Scripture with many of the let's just call them spiritual equivalents of John Hammond today, where they spare no expense on those things that don't really matter private jets, fine clothing, the list could go on and on. And all of that seems to be so self-centered, so selfish. We don't see that in Scripture. We see the Lord's people being sacrificial, taking care of others, especially of the household of faith. And I bring this forward to ask a simple question this morning.

Speaker1: Do we hold on to possessions and material means a little too tightly? Have we let avarice and greed seep into our hearts when we don't use what the Lord has blessed us with to help our brethren and our fellow man? I think back to Jesus. Of course he is our pattern. He gave everything for us. He gave up the glory of heaven. He came to live on this earth as a man. He lived a perfect life. He died a cruel death and he rose again. He truly spared no expense. Friends, if our Lord withheld not even his very life from us. How can we justify having such a tight grip on the gifts that he has given to us? Proverbs 327 says, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. I guess what I'm saying this morning, friends, is when it comes to doing good and giving God the glory, spare no expense. I'm Daniel Delp and these have been some thoughts for your Sunday morning drive. Our discussion questions this week are. In what ways can we use our financial and material means to truly bless others? And do we hold on to those things that we've been blessed with more tightly than we ought? How can we be better about that?