The Gift of God // The Gift of the Holy Spirit // Acts 2:38-47

Amen. Well, listen, it is good to see you here today. And we use that just as a way to introduce our new series today entitled the gift of God. Well, listen, it is good to see you. I know it's a rainy rainy day here today. And and so many of you have shown up today, which I greatly appreciate.

I hate to say this, but on rainy days pastors have little faith in who's going to come. Okay, and so we're always impressed. And so you guys always amaze me and and I appreciate your faithfulness here today. And if you are new to our church and we haven't had the opportunity to connect with you, we would love the opportunity to do that here today.

And if you're wondering our stage doesn't always look like this. I don't preach from a jail cell very often. And so so this is for our cantata here tonight, and I'm sure you picked up on that. But I am tasked with not running into this here today. And so we will see how well I can stay away and that kind of thing. So I'm trying to decide do I preach from jail or did I preach over here?

I don't really know and so we will we will see how that goes. But like I said, we are kicking off a brand new series here today entitled the gift of God. Can we say that together the gift of God and this Christmas season? We're going to look at this as a three-week series last week.

We concluded our last series or our last week of the series entitled altered. And so now we're kind of full-blown turning our attention to Christmas as you can tell we sang all Christmas songs here today and I want you to know I love every single thing about the season of Christmas. How many of you this is you're not scared to many you are full-blown Christmas. It's your favorite time of the year raise your hand.

Okay, I love it. I love everything to do with Christmas, you know the programs here at Union Grove. We're trying to fit in as many programs in one week as we possibly can and and so especially if your kids go to our elementary school. We have theirs this week even last week middle and high school did a thing during the day as well. And and then we have our cantata here at the church.

And so we are just packing it in and I'll tell you this. I love every second of all of the programs. I love the lights and I love just going around and looking at the lights.

I know our senior adults this week get to go to Tanglewood and I love that we make that a yearly tradition as a family to go to Tanglewood and that kind of thing. And so I know many of you how many of you have lights outside your house? You've decorated. Okay, several of you and that is that is good.

And I know Kyle Phelps does there's no doubt about that. And so he's all into that and he judges everybody else in his neighborhood that doesn't have them and it's a joke and but lights I love lights and and I love the music. I love Christmas music. We've been playing Christmas music. I'm not going to tell you when we started because some of you would judge me and we don't want that and but we love the music the family time. We love movies Christmas movies. We try to watch all the good holiday classics around this time of year and and and I just love Christmas time, but I also love gift giving and receiving gifts is good, but I'll tell you this it when you're a child receiving gifts is like awesome, right? I remember when my family would get together and my grandmother when I was a kid my grandmother. We always ate before gifts right when we got together with all my family and so we'd all get together and for Thanksgiving and Christmas my grandmother had actually a a routine that we would do is we would eat and but before we ate we would all like get in our in this small house. My parents live in this house today and we would get in this small house and we'd hold hands and we would I'm not kidding and nobody in my family is really good singers or anything. We'd sing a song like and I'm just like why are we doing this? You know and as a kid you're kind of holding hands with somebody you really don't I mean you're just like hey, I just want to find out what I'm getting for Christmas and all these people that I'm with it's like hey, can we get this over with and that kind of thing and so we would always sing a couple songs couple hymns is what we usually did and and then we would eat and then as kids you'd be like when are we opening presents parents? You know what I'm talking about.

It's just like never-ending and and you keep telling them the same thing. You're like just a few minutes just a few minutes just a few minutes just a few minutes and as a kid that frustrates you I can remember though the greatest gift that I received as a kid. I still remember this and I carry this picture with me pretty much because it's like the most awesome thing because it's something I vividly remember wanting and receiving and I'm sure you probably have some gift that comes to your mind when you're like waiting for this is a picture of little Josh when he was young.

Okay, and I really don't know what my style was but I wore a shirt to my ankles. I don't understand why and so when I see this picture, I'm like what in the world was I doing but this was me and here's what I wanted when I was young. I think I was six years old or something like that.

I can't really remember maybe a little bit older than that. But here's what I wanted is I wanted a Nintendo right and by the way, if you play video games and you know kids I'm talking to the kids for a few moments in here if you play video games nothing compares to what you are seeing in that right there. Okay, and so this was where it was at and so I wanted a regular Nintendo and I will never forget opening up that that Nintendo and seeing it and knowing that I that I wanted that more than anything else and as a kid opening up gifts was was the thing but then it's like you transition as you get older and now as an adult, I love to give gifts. I love it like shopping for my kids and my wife.

I love to do it. I know my wife. She always gives me a budget every single year. How many of you dads your wife gives you a Christmas budget any of you want to admit that? Okay, maybe just us but my wife says my wife says every year they this is the amount that you can spend on the kids. This is the amount that you can spend on me and and I always like I never meet the budget.

I honestly forget about the budget and I just go all in. I love it. I love just going out and just buying stuff like crazy things. They don't even need and I enjoy it because we love gifts whether that means receiving gifts or whether that means giving gifts. You see we've all been given gifts and we love that but I want you to know like the video kind of introduced for us today. The gift that God has given us is greater is greater than any gift that you've ever given and it's any gift that you have ever ever received and so over these next few weeks.

We are going to look we're going to look at just three specific things that God has given to you in his son Jesus Christ. And so this time of year we celebrate the birth of Jesus and that's why we do Christmas. That's why we have a cantata. That's why we have a family Christmas service.

That's why we celebrate is because Jesus came to be born to eventually die to take away the sins of the world. But as Jesus died, he has given us specifically as followers of Jesus. He's given us a few things. I mean, he's given us a lot of things but I'll tell you I want to boil this down to three specific gifts that God has blessed you and I with and so today we're going to look at the first one and it's the gift of the Holy Spirit the gift of the Holy Spirit if you turn in your Bibles Acts chapter number two Acts chapter number two.

You see this phrase the gift here and and this is you know, what he has has given you so I want to kind of bring you up to speed. So Acts chapter 2 is in a very important passage of scripture for all of us as the church but in Acts chapter 1 where you pick it up Luke is writing this passage and he's writing it as an eyewitness to what Jesus had done. So he had seen it. He was an actual witness and he had seen Jesus live his life here on this earth, but he also saw him ascend back up into heaven. And so Acts chapter 1 all of the disciples are gathered together and they're with Jesus. Jesus had already revealed himself to over 500 men. He'd already revealed himself to the disciples a couple of times. He'd already revealed himself to Mary and he revealed himself numerous different times. And so now he has gathered all of the disciples together and they're all there and he commissions them with the greatest commission any of us could ever give and he tells them to go and be a witness of what you seen Acts 1 a he says hey, here's the commission for you.

I'm about to go. I'm about this end up into heaven and now the mission that I came and remember Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. That was the mission of why he came and now he's about to sin and that same mission. He is releasing that to the church to the disciples. It's now their responsibility as disciples to now go and to be a witness someone. You know what a witness is someone who has seen or someone that could testify to what they have experienced and they're supposed to go and be a witness of Jesus to the whole world and in Acts chapter 1 you find that Jesus is ascending and then he says as I go you need to wait isn't it interesting that he told them to wait after giving them the greatest commission that they could ever been have ever been given Jesus says but first you need to wait for the comforter to come the comforters the Holy Spirit and so in Acts chapter 2 we see the the Holy Spirit come through as a mighty rushing wind and the Holy Spirit now in dwells the believers the reason why Jesus told them to wait when he ascended up into heaven is because he was reminding them that they can do absolutely nothing nothing good in ministry without the in dwelling and leading of the Spirit of God and in Acts chapter 2 the Spirit comes and he in dwells all of the believers thousands of people were were saved as a result of this and Peter preaches his very first sermon here in Acts chapter number 2 and we're going to pick it up in Acts chapter 38 as Peter is kind of in this sermon and he is challenging all these people who just witnessed who had just witnessed this incredible incredible thing where the Spirit is in dwelling them so he says this first number 38 then Peter he said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive here it is the gift of the Holy Ghost the gift of the Holy Ghost he goes on for the promise is unto you that promise is the gift of the Holy Ghost that's the promise that that Jesus when he was ascending that's the promise that he left him that's the comforter that he promised to them for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are a far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call with many other words that he testify and exhort saying save yourselves from this unto word generation then they that gladly received his word were baptized in the same day they're added unto them about 3,000 Souls and they continued steadfastly and the apostles doctrine and Fellowship and a breaking of bread and in prayers and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved the gift of the Holy Ghost if you believe if you repent Peter was saying that you can experience and have the gift the gift that God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit and today I want to look at that gift briefly now in scripture there's a lot to do with the Holy Spirit. In fact, sometimes we especially in our Baptist churches we get a little nervous when we talk about the Holy Spirit only get a little nervous because we're a little you know concern. We don't want to be associated with maybe a charismatic movement over here or something like that. So we get a little concerned when we start talking about the movement of the Holy Spirit or the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I'll tell you this. I think a lot of us probably would have been very uncomfortable with the early church and I want you to know something that the Holy Spirit is in dwelling every believer. So if you're in here today and you say I have trusted in Jesus is my Savior.

I've trusted in him. I've stopped trusting in myself and he is my Savior and my Lord if that's you here today, then you the scripture says have the in dwelling Spirit of God. Okay, you have the in dwelling Spirit of God within you and the Spirit does a bunch of different things we can look at these and I'm going to try to boil it down to two specific things that we see here in this text, but I want you to know the Spirit is what comforts you that's why it's called the comforter. The Spirit is what comforts you the scripture also says the Spirit intercedes for us the Spirit intercedes for you the Spirit also he does a bunch of different things. He reproves or you could say it he convicts you of sin righteousness and judgment the Holy Spirit is what is leading you to do what you know to be right.

Okay. He's the one who is leading you to not do what you know is is wrong. You see that voice inside of you.

That's not your conscience. That's the Holy Spirit leading you and convicting you of what is right and what is what is not right. He does all of these different things but here when Peter is talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He mentions two specific things that I want to kind of zero in on and he mentions a couple things. The first one is good news to you is this is found in verse number 39 and it's this the Holy Spirit is a gift that is offered to everyone. The Holy Spirit is a gift that is offered to everyone look at verse number 39 of our text. He says this for the promise.

That's the Holy Spirit. That's that's the promise of salvation what Jesus coming to be born. This is the promise that we have here for the promise is unto you and do your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall shall call now his phrasing there is so so important.

So I don't want you to miss it. I don't want you to get ahead of yourself because I know that verse number 42 to 47. You could probably almost quote because we talk about it all the time about the church. And this verse is kind of tucked right there in the middle, but this is so important.

He says for the promise. That's the Holy Spirit is unto you. So we have to understand who's Peter talking to who's Peter talking to Peter's talking to a bunch of people. Here's why the people were gathered to begin with on Pentecost. They were gathered there to celebrate one of the Jewish feast. And so here's what I want you to understand is that all of these people there was a lot of religious people that were there that day.

There was a lot of religious people that were trusting in religion and trusting in good works and trusting and living by the law and trusting in you know, dotting all of your eyes and crossing all your T's they were trying to do all of these things right and those people were were in the audience and Peter says this that the promise is for you. It's for it's for you. I want you to know it's for the religious, but it's also he says this it's to your children. It's for your family the promise that that God and the gift that God has freely offered to you.

It's not you know for just certain people. It's for the kids. That's why we that's why we believe in kids ministry here at Union Grove. That's why we have kids ministry. That's why we put kids up on a stage like last night and so that they could sing so that we could teach them that the promise and the gift of God is for them.

It's for them and it's also for for you. You see the gift of God is freely offered to all of us. But but he goes on here and he says but the gift of God it's it's unto you. It's to your children. And then this is the good part and it's also to everyone that is a far off now this could mean a couple of different things Jesus when he came he changed everything and so before Jesus in order to have a relationship with God you had to become Jewish.

You had to be a part of Israel and you had to do that. And then when Jesus came it changed everything and it paved the way for not only the Jews to be God's chosen people but now all of us Gentiles everybody else that was on the outside looking into the nation of Israel during that day Jesus coming to be born changed everything for them and so what put Peter was saying is this not only is the promise and the gift that God has blessed you with it's not only for Israel. It's not only for the religious. It's not only for your families.

Hey all you Jews that are looking at me that have gathered together to celebrate this this feast that were the way we've come to commemorate. It's also for all of those that are a far off everyone that's not gathered together to celebrate a Jewish feast because they're not Jewish. It's for all of them.

All the Gentiles that are outside of our community. It's for them as well. It's for the whole world is what Peter is saying. Listen, I'll tell you this it's for it's for you. It's for your neighbors.

It's for the person that you don't like it's for your enemy. It's for all the people in the entire world. It's not just for a certain group of people the gift that God has offered to every single one of us. It is for every one to every one that believe it. That's for those who are religious. It's for our families, but it's also for all of those that are a far off and by the way, you might have slipped in here. I don't know your testimony here today, but you might have slipped in here today and you are a far off.

You might characterize yourself as man. I'm far from God. I've ran from him maybe maybe at some point in your life you were walking with God and and you had a relationship with him and and then maybe you you got into a different crowd of people or or maybe you just got busy doing a lot of things and and you slowly found yourself slipping out and going the opposite direction and you would say today where I'm at right now is I am so far from God.

I don't know if I can ever find my way back to him or possibly some of you are in here today and you don't know Jesus as your Savior at all and you don't have a relationship with God and maybe you've been trying to trust in your good works or trust in religion and trust and being at church when the doors are open and trust in all of these things and there's nothing wrong with some of those things but I'll tell you this if you're trusting in those things to reconcile your life to a holy righteous God, you're always going to fall short. And here's what the scripture says the gift that God is offering to us this Christmas season. It's a gift that is freely offered to everybody to all of us to every single person in this place. It's not just a certain group of people. It's not a certain race of people. It's not a certain classification of people. The gospel is for every race in every tribe and every tongue and that's one of the reasons I can't wait to get to heaven where we're gathered around the throne of God looking our Savior in the face and singing worthy is the lamb with people from every tribe tongue and nation sometimes here in our communities.

We think it's just for English-speaking American people. Right and I'll just tell you this the gospel is for all people. It's for every single person in our community. That's why our church. We are a church for the community we should reflect if we're reaching our community our church should eventually if we're accomplishing the mission.

God's called us to it should reflect the community in which we live. There's Rich people in the community. There should be Rich people in our church. There's poor people in our community. There should be poor people in our church. It's white people in our community. There should be white people in our Church. There's black people in our community. there should be black people in our church you see the point is is that for us the gospel is not for people that just look like you and who are exactly like you the gospel is for everybody and that's what Peter was saying here in his sermon is he's saying hey the gospel the promise the gift it's unto you it's unto your family but it's also to everybody else on the outside that would consider themself afar off it is for all people that's the first thing that we learn about the gift of the Holy Spirit from this text but the second thing that I want you to get is this the Holy Spirit changes our behaviors listen when you receive the gift of God and you receive the gift that he's freely offered to you and by the way if you're in here today and you don't know Jesus let me just say this is that you don't have to work to get any of it that's the best thing about the gift right it's not up to your life it's not up to your achievements it's not up to your good works in order to inherit the gift that he's given you no it is freely offered to you it is freely handed for you all we have to do is believe and receive that's all we have to do you have to believe that Jesus is who he says he was you have to believe that Jesus came to die for you when you could not pay the penalty that you deserved he came to die in your place and when you receive that and you trust in him and stop trusting for in yourself you receive the gift that he has given you the gift of the Holy Spirit he comes to indwell in you and here's the thing that gift the Holy Spirit it changes our behaviors you see that right here and I think the progression is important verse number 2041 verse number 41 says they all the people there they received the word that Peter had just preached they were baptized and they were added unto the church so they become you know members they become they receive the gift they believe and receive the free gift that he has given them and then verse number 42 everything about them changed he says this and they that's all these new people all these people people that were religious you know their families maybe some kids in the audience got saved that day and then even some that were a far off right all of them everyone that believed that day they continued steadfastly now that that just means that they were devoted they were focused they weren't distracted right our churches today have become so distracted with other things and we have lost sense of the reason of why churches exist to begin with and here we see that the gift of the Holy Spirit it changed everything about him you say what did it what did it change verse number 42 the first thing that you see change it says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine here's the first thing is now because of the gift of the Spirit in your life we now desire biblical teaching or you should desire biblical teaching it says this that all those people that believed here's what changed in their life they now started wanting to get together to continue steadfastly in doctrine in doctrine you say okay what is doctrine simply means teaching simply means teaching here here's the point is that here the Holy Spirit the gift of the Spirit it changed their behavior to now they wanted to come together to receive the Word of God they wanted to gather together to study the Word of God think about how far we've come in our churches today listen I'm not here to harp on anything I'm not here to make you feel bad here today but I'll tell you this we have come a long way from what you see here in Acts chapter 2 when it comes to our intake of the Word of God right we we struggle you know getting to church sometimes once a week don't we a lot of us we struggle with kind of going a little bit deeper into biblical teaching like like the early church did right we can only handle so much and I know I think it's funny is a lot of times here in our churches we think you know if you talk to most church experts about 60 to 80 minutes is about all you can do a church service a lot of times because that's about all that our people can handle right right we're so we've come so far from where they were because here in the early church what happened is those that believed those that received were given the gift of the Spirit and here's what that led them to we can't get enough of what is in this book we can't get enough of it we want to continue gathering together let's get together more let's don't talk about having less let's talk about getting together more let's don't talk about sometimes you know like hey how can we skip this week or how can we skip that no let's talk about how we can study the Word of God more that's what you see in the early church you find that in Acts chapter 11 if you remember Barnabas and saw right after Saul right after Saul or you know he got saved changed his name to Paul and and Barnabas comes to Tarsus and he's looking for Saul and Paul he's looked for can't find finally founds him and he begins to disciple him and he helps everybody receive him because people were scared of him because at one time they were you know he's killing Christians I'd be scared of him too I don't know if I'd allow him to serve in my church and and here he comes and and Barnabas pulls him aside and you know what they do together is they take a year to study the Word of God together before Saul and Paul is used in ministry can you imagine studying the word for a year and then Acts chapter number 20 Paul was preaching and you know what it did it says he preached till midnight right preach till midnight could you imagine being in that service we can't we can't get our kids quiet can we right I just wonder how many times they went to the you know if I had my kids in the room I wonder how many times they would probably go to the bathroom during that service right over and over listen midnight all I'm saying is this is that one of the things that the gift of the Spirit changes in your life it's you should desire the Word of God and the teaching of the Word of God it should be something that you look forward to something that you crave something that you want more of and listen we give you opportunities one of the best ways for you is is jump into a Bible Fellowship class like we talk about that all the time and listen some of you you haven't jumped into a Bible Fellowship class we're not just saying get into one because we have nothing else better to say on Sundays the reason why is we want you to receive more teaching of the Word of God and to be in community with other people that's what the early church was for we have Wednesday nights that's an opportunity that we have Bible studies for your kids what a missed opportunity if we're not trying to have our kids there no it's an opportunity for you so that you can teach your kids more of the Word of God and that is a response to the gift and receiving the gift you're gonna desire biblical teaching I think about our church studied Nehemiah several months ago and it always amazes me as is Nehemiah and we know the story Nehemiah came to rebuild the walls there in Jerusalem and when he came back everything was in you know disarray and and so he felt compelled by God to be a part of rebuilding the nation of Jerusalem there that city and so he put up the walls and really restored so much of the city and here's what the people did and by the way the book is more about rebuilding the people of God than it is the the city of God but here I'll tell you this is all the people that that God used Nehemiah to to speak to and to restore you know what they do they go to Ezra the prophet and here's what they do they beg him to get them together and read the the Torah the Pentateuch is what they did they gathered him together they're like hey listen all we want you to do we're gonna come all we want you to do is read the Word of God to us first five books of the Old Testament so he just started started reading through it and that's what they wanted more than anything else listen the word is the most important thing by the way the power does not lie in your pastor the power is not in me like I know we want to grow this church and and we want to reach more people we want to grow this community and listen I know many of you you you mean well but you think that like I or our staff is the answer to that we're not you know what the answer is it's the power of God moving through the power of the Word of God that's where the power lies every single week that I get up and share God's Word I'll just tell you right now is I just all the pressures off of me all I have to do is communicate exactly what God has for me and when I come off the platform whether it did anything in your life today is up to you receiving and allowing the power of God through the Word of God to do something in your heart you see that's where the power lies it's in the word and you see the gift of the Holy Spirit it gives you the desire for biblical teaching number two it gives us the gift of now we want to embrace Church community we want to embrace Church community and I love this passage so much because it speaks to the church so much and I've spoke to this to you before but if you look in verses 46 and 47 here and they that's all those people you know the ones are far off and and the one the religious crowd and their families who had just received the thousands of people that had just received now they continuing daily with one accord in the temple breaking bread from house to house did eat of their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily as it should be saved listen I want you to know the early church had favor with its community and here's why you say why in the world did the early church had favor with his community it's because what was happening within the congregation was different fact much different than what was happening outside of the congregation say say what do you mean is there was a different way that people were treating one another within the congregation that everybody on the outside was looking in saying wow something's different about that I wonder what everybody that drives by here thinks of us I wonder what our community thinks of Union Grove Baptist Church I wonder what you know people that drive by or hear of our school and and the ministries that we have here I wonder what they think of Union Grove because here the reason why this church had favor with its community is because they were acting and behaving in a much different way than those outside of the church that's why the scripture when it talks about the church it talks about the one and others right we should submit to one another we should forgive one another right like the scripture says that the church community that's how we should we should act with one another right and that's the point is is when we are functioning that way and the local New Testament Church is acting and behaving that way it says something to all the community around as they look at us and they say wow there's something different about the way they treat each other because that's not the way that I treat people on the outside but listen I've been a part of a Baptist Church my whole life and when I read stuff like submit one to one another here's what that means for Baptist a lot of times I will submit as long as the person across from me looks believes behaves and wants the same exact thing that I want because if they don't that verse doesn't apply to me it got real quiet there didn't it yeah listen I've been I've been and I know all about how Baptist or how about this one forgiving one another right we struggle with that in Baptist churches people hold on to stuff people try to make things right and and they don't want any part of it they'd rather bury things than forgive and face things and I'll tell you this stuff like that that's the point of why we should be functioning and the gift of the Spirit is what changes or how about this one encourage one another or here's here's a good one restore one another that means that if somebody falls in our midst instead of casting and throwing stones and bringing them up here to try to make them you know a public example in front of everybody else why don't we do what the scripture says the church should do and that's restore somebody you see the point is is that's why they had favor in their community is because what was happening inside the walls of the church was much different than anything that was happening outside the church they accepted one another they cared for one another they bear one another's burdens they carried those you see the point is the church community should function differently and for us that have received the free gift the gift that's offered to everyone the Holy Spirit it changes to where now you should crave biblical teaching you should embrace and desire community the way that the scripture says but then in verse number 44 it says not only that the Spirit the gift of God the comforter that he promised when they received it they got unified around the mission of God verse number 44 says all that believed were together and they had all things common this is why I question if this was a Baptist Church sometimes I'm thinking man it's very rare to find a Baptist Church that have all things in common and that's focused on the same thing we can hardly agree sometimes on on you know productions and carpets and colors and and music and songs and and everything else that we want to divide over and that we get all upset about because it doesn't meet our criteria of how everything should go I want you to understand something and if you're challenged today that's probably a good thing okay and I want you to understand something that the early church when they received the Holy Spirit into their life they had all things common now were they different people of course they were did they have different preferences of course they did did they see some things differently from time to time of course they did but here's what they did everything that they saw differently paled in comparison to the main thing of reaching people with the gospel and taking the mission that God has led for them to take everything paled in comparison to that in other words the mission got way more important to them than their preferences and that's where a lot of times we go wrong you see the gift of God the Holy Spirit it drove them to be changed and have different behaviors to where they unified around the mission or how about this verse number 45 they practice generosity so we see that when you receive and believe on Jesus you're given the gift of God the gift of God the gift of the Holy Spirit comes into your life to indwell you and now because of that you can now crave and desire biblical teaching of the Word of God you want it you're looking forward to it you now embrace church community the way that the early church embraced it you unified around the mission of God that became the main thing that you are unified around and everything else is secondary to the mission of God and then in verse 45 they practice generosity look at what they did they when the spirit came into their life they sold their possessions and goods and what they did was they parted them everything that they sold they parted the money to all men as every man had had need in other words they'd sell their possessions to meet the P needs of the people around them here's what that tells me the needs of other people in our community should mean more to you than what you own then the possessions that you have that's that stuff right because I know I love possessions I love things I love all of that stuff but listen when there's a need in our community the early church here's what they would do if somebody came forward said man I have a need got laid off my job and and now I don't have any money and I'm trying to provide for my family here's what the community would do oh well listen here's what I'm gonna do I got I got excess over here let me go sell something I'll bring the money back to you and we're gonna part it to everybody that had needs I got too many you know cars I got too many TVs I got too many belongings I got too much stuff over here and so let me let me get rid of some things over here and I'm gonna take all that money and I'm gonna part it to those who have who have have needs in my community that's what the Holy Spirit the gift of the Spirit that's what it does for you it's what it does for me it changes us to where now we want to practice radical generosity and this is not a giving sermon this is not hey make sure you tie that's a part of it that's a biblical principle but that's not what we're talking about here today what I'm talking about is meeting the needs of the people around you the people in our community it's like we should be the first ones not the last ones that people should ask when they have a need in front of them you see the Holy Spirit the gift of the Spirit it changes our behaviors it's a free gift offer to everyone and then I want you to see this in verse number 47 the Holy Spirit is the power to grow the church the Holy Spirit is the power to grow the church I can't say this enough it's not in me it's it's not even in I believe in strategy I read a lot of books and and stuff like that but I'll just tell you this it's not even in a church growth strategy there's a lot of people have a good strategy of building a large group of people that might not function as a church okay but the power to grow the church the way that God intended for it to be grown is not in a strategy or an idea or in a person or in a really good staff the power lies within the Holy Spirit moving through the Word of God that's where the power is verse number 41 says that there was added 3,000 souls verse number 47 says people were added daily to the church chapters 3 & 4 you know the story the layman gets healed as Peter and John are going into the temple after that people are questioning them they preach a sermon 5,000 people got saved and added to the church the point is that the early church grew it grew it added it multiplied but I cannot stress to you enough that the power to see all that come to life it's not in us it's in the Word of God and it's in the gift that has freely been offered to every single one of us it's in the Spirit of God for us to multiply you see here as we kind of wrap this up the gift of God Jesus what we celebrate this season what we celebrate Jesus coming to be born it changed everything it changed everything for you it changed everything for me and that's what you see here in Acts chapter 2 the gift of God of the Spirit of God he's given us this and now if you would stop trusting in yourself and start trusting in him the one that was sent to us to rescue us from the sin debt that we could never be rescued from any other way if we but trust in him and receive him his free gift you then get the Holy Spirit of God the third person of the Trinity in dwelling your heart forever forever and once you receive him once you believe on him and you receive him he changes everything he changes everything he changes your behaviors when you're being led by the Spirit of God he changes your behaviors he changes what you desire he changes what you crave he changes what you look for in a church he changes everything so my question is for you today have you accepted the gift have you accepted the gift