WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?
ACTS 20:17-27
$3 Worth of God
I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.
It’s Not Enough to be Busy
Two men were out hunting. Neither was a good shot. After they had tramped through the fields for hours, they had seen plenty of rabbits but had yet to hit one. With evening coming on, both were getting tired. One turned to the other and said, “Tom, what about it? Let’s just miss two more and call it a day.” Despite the lack of anything to show for their time, these two hunters probably expended as much energy and effort as if they had bagged twenty rabbits. The same thing, unfortunately, can and does happen to people. “It is not enough to be busy,” someone once said, “one must also get results.”
INTRODUCTION: What constitutes enough? It is a hard question this day in age, and would require panoply of experts to achieve a politically correct answer to the question. Yet, for the believer in Christ, the answer is not long, drawn out or hard. In fact the answer is quite simple. According to Scripture – enough is enough when we have been successful in testifying to the gospel of the grace of God.
Consequently, this applies to every area of our life. We have done enough in each area of our life when that area of our life has been a testimony to the Lord!
I ARRIVING IS NOT ENOUGH – 20:17-19a
Acts 20:17-19 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18When they arrived, he said to them: "You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.
A Devotion starts from day one! -- “served the Lord”
B Paul had a clear picture of who he was serving
1 Lord – One who is supreme in authority
C Paul had a clear picture of how he was serving
1 Served – been a slave to either voluntary or involuntary!
2 Being bound to one – voluntary act
II THE TYPE OF SERVICE REVEALS DESIRE – 20:19-21
Acts 20:19-21 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. 20You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
A The Attitude of Service
1 Service with Humility
a Humility is a willingness to do for someone else
b Humility is behaving in an unassuming manner
c Humility is identifying with the need and not the person
d Humility is taking on a spirit of gentleness
EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT BEING HUMBLE, SO, HOW DO WE GET THAT WAY?
§ Measure ourselves against Jesus, and not our friends or neighbors. – Measure against perfection produces humility because we see how far we need to go.
§ Continue to remain conscious of God’s permanence. Self-exaltation comes when we get caught up in everything that we have, or think we have. Everything we have either, rusts, breaks, wears out, loses value, or in one form or another deteriorates! But, EVERY TIME we see a bit of rust, we need to remember that God does not rust or wear out, or lose value, or break!
§ Actively move us away from the center of the picture. I read once where the best way to take photograph is to place the subject in one of the corners of the picture, and not in the center. That placing the subject in this way actually enhances their appeal in the photo
2 Service with Tears
a Tears for those who did not know Christ as Savior
b Tears for those who had slipped from Christ
c Tears for those who thwarted the cause of Christ
B The Urgency to Serve
1 Teaching plain, simple, and direct – holding nothing back
2 Using every opportunity to serve – both public and private
3 Serving with conviction – “testifying”: giving a strong message
4 The message, not the recipient was the important thing.
5 Remaining true to the message – faith and repentance!
III THE GOAL IS THE GOAL – 20:22-35
Acts 20:22-35
"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
25"Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
32"Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ’It is more blessed to give than to receive.’"
A A Zeal to see the right thing done – regardless of the cost – verse 22
B A Willingness to be “inconvenienced” for the right thing – verse 23
C Dedication to the right thing – verse 24
1 Paul was dedicated because he wanted to finish well
2 Paul was dedicated because he wanted to finish what God had given him to do.
D A commitment to see the right thing carried on – verses 28-35
1 Watch yourselves from the inside – the moment we get cold inside to the message of the gospel we are in trouble
2 Feed yourselves regularly – verse 28. If we are not fed we are weak!
3 Live for the right things – verse 32
4 Don’t covet what you don’t have – give what you got – verse 35
What we have is far more valuable than what anybody else has.
Let me bring this a little closer to home, in fact let me bring this right into your home!
I believe that God has put you into your homes, in your communities for the very reason that just being there is not enough, and that you can make a difference in your neighborhoods for Jesus.
I am asking you to pray about letting your house become a focus for evangelism in your neighborhood.
1. To be a prayer center – you will begin praying for your neighborhood
2. To be a contact point – as we go out from your house, your house will become a contact point for questions and information
3. To be a place of testimony – you would open up your home for bible study and fellowship.
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