Sunday, November 16, 2025

Scripture: Acts 4:32-37

Sermon Title: Sharing in the Kingdom

When Snap Benefits (commonly referred to as “Food Stamps”) were not funded due to the Government Shutdown, I was amazed at the outpouring of help in our community. This past weekend at the Speedway, together the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and the Jewish Federation organized a food drive in under 4 days. 200,000 pounds of food were collected. Can you believe that? 200,000 pounds? On Sunday, there were pictures of cars lining up for miles to pick up the food. One news story said that some lined up the night before at midnight to receive food.

Here in our own congregation, we are currently collecting food for Halifax Urban Ministries, Community UMC, and Thanksgiving Baskets for Tomoka Elementary School. On Monday night, WOW collected pajamas for children of all ages in Foster Care. We are a generous church.

Giving, sharing the blessings of God, is what we are called to do as followers of Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ.

We see this clearly in our scripture today. Our scripture is from the book of Acts. Remember Acts is the history book of the Early Church. This is shortly after Pentecost, and we are seeing how the Early Church functioned.

Acts 4:32 pretty sums up the whole passage for us. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.”

All one in heart and mind. Can you imagine if everyone were one in heart and mind? As we watched the news of the Government Shutdown I couldn’t help but think, “what if Congresswere all one in heart and mind?” How much we could get done in our world? Now this isn’t to say the Early Church agreed on absolutely everything. In the early church we saw plenty of disagreements as well. But to be one in heart and mind means they were united in their purpose. They were one in heart and mind about their love of Jesus.

We are called to be one in heart and mind about our love of Jesus. We are called to be united in our faith, despite our disagreements.

Because the followers of Jesus in the Early Church were one in heart and mind, they shared everything that they had.

And I love what we hear in verses 33 and 34, “And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.” Because of the power of the Holy Spirit moving and working among them, there were no needy people among them. Can you even imagine? What would our world look like if there were no needy people among us because we as the Church took care of one another? How might our sharing and giving point others to the power of our God?

On social media this week there was a story trending of a woman in Kentucky calling around churches to see if they would help get her baby formula. Has anyone seen this story on Facebook? It wasn’t a real situation; she didn’t have a baby. But it was a social experiment to see if churches would help. It was saddening to hear the number that said no. And don’t worry, when churches said “yes,” she explained the situation was just an experiment and she thanked them for their kindness. She didn’t take advantage of them.

Sadly, at least in her experiment, it often seemed like it was some of the larger, wealthier churches who turned her down, and often the smaller churches who offered to help her.

And before I’m too critical, as someone who has pastored churches for 9 years, I understand why churches sometimes say no. We often have policies in place where we say things like “we don’t give out cash.” There have been times in my ministry where I have offered to go buy people what they need and they’ve turned me down, and there have been times where I have offered and they have graciously taken me up on the offer. And sometimes we have policies directing people toward ministries like Food Pantries that truly do this work all the time.

So while I don’t want to be too critical, we must understand how this experiment might shape how people view the Church and our Witness in the world. If a lot of people see a lot of churches denying help, it doesn’t make the Church look good. If a lot of people see a lot of churches wanting to help this woman, it says a lot about our witness in the world. People want to know this God who transforms people into sharers and givers.

This social experiment personally got me thinking, are we known in our community as a church who gives? Are we known in our community as a church who shares in the kingdom? Or are we known as a church who keeps what we have for ourselves? I think we’re known as a church who shares in the kingdom, and for that I’m very grateful and honored to be your pastor.

As a mom of two young kids only 22 months apart, I find myself telling my girls to share quite a lot. “Sharing is caring,” is a phrase they are very familiar with. Kids don’t like to share, do they? Especially if it’s a new toy they just got for their birthday or Christmas.

And the truth is, as much as we can get on kids about sharing, we as adults don’t always like to share either. We like our stuff. We’ve often worked hard for our stuff. But we are called to share with one another, we are called to care for those in need, we are called to give to the Body of Christ.

When I was in college, I interned at a church the summer before my senior year of college. It was an internship program for college students discerning a call to ministry. And I can still remember a conversation with my mentor at the church where I was serving that summer.

He asked me if I tithe, and I said that I wasn’t the most intentional about tithing. My income as a college student was sporadic. But I did say when I did get money, I did tithe. He encouraged me to be intentional about tithing and said these convicting words “Don’t be a pastor if you don’t tithe. You can’t expect others to do something you don’t do yourself.” And he said, “if you don’t tithe when you have little, what makes you think you’ll tithe when you have more?”

And I have pretty much tithed ever since that conversation. It has been a personal spiritual discipline for me.

Now I won’t say this is easy. It’s been difficult. There have been times in our marriage where Jesse and I have laughed and thought, “you know, we’d have a lot more money if we didn’t tithe.” But the thing about tithing, it’s a spiritual practice. It’s all about trusting God with the first of our money. First thing’s first, when one of us gets paid, I go online and give to our church. That’s where our money goes first.

And I’ve always been amazed that God shows up and provides, and there has always been enough for us.

Last week we talked about worry, and how money can prevent us from giving to God. When I first graduated seminary 9 years ago, I remember worrying about what we were going to do after graduation. We had about 6 weeks or so between graduation and when I was going to start at my first church. We had to move out of our seminary married housing in Kentucky but would have about 6 weeks or so before we could move into the church parsonage at my first appointment in Jacksonville.

We decided we would stay with Jesse’s dad for 6 weeks or so, until we could get into the parsonage, Jesse would work for his dad those 6 weeks, and I was worried about income for myself. Although we wouldn’t have rent and utilities, we would have other living expenses.

My home church in Lima invited me to preach since I was graduating seminary. That morning the pastor surprised both Jesse and I with taking up a Love Offering for us. And we were blown away by their generosity. It was a few thousand dollars. They had no idea we were worried about money for the next 6 weeks before I would begin at my first church. We felt like it was a blessing from God, and that God provided for us.

My home church was sharing in the Kingdom of God; they were living out the way the Early Church lived by helping to share and provide for one another.

And then we had a choice to make as well, did we keep all this money for ourselves, or did we continue to share in the kingdom as well? We felt called to give some of that money away, like a tithe. So we shared it with our neighbors in seminary who were International Students from Indiawith a young family of two girls. I believe we also gave their daughter my bike away before we moved.

Again, a few weeks ago, I was blown away at the generosity we received through your generous Love Offering collected for Pastor Appreciation Month. Thank you again. And it feels like an answer to prayer to me because it will help us with a major medical bill. I immediately took a tithe and gave that back to God first. That’s just how I’m wired. Tithing has been a spiritualpractice for over 10 years for me.

Now I don’t share this to brag on myself, but I share this to say, when we are blessed, we are called to use our blessings to bless others as well. We see this as far back as the Old Testament as well. The Israelites were called to be a blessing to others.

Here in the Early Church in Acts, we see those sharing with one another.

We are in our Stewardship Campaign, talking about giving to God in 2026. You should havereceived Estimate of Giving Cards for 2026. If you could pray over that card and fill it out, and return in worship, next week, that would be great. It helps the Finance Team to make our budget for next year. And if you won’t be in worship next week, you can mail it in to the office or turn itin at another date.

But as you fill out this Estimate of Giving card, I encourage you to pray about how God is calling you to share in the Kingdom Work that God is doing. When we give, we are making it possible for others to know the love of Christ. We share what we have, because we can do so much for together than we can do alone.

Now I know the sharing and giving we often find fun is when we’re blessing the needy in our community. We are great at doing that. But we forget that we must give to the operating budget so that we can fund the more boring things. Things like staff salaries, electricity, water, building maintenance. And while those things might not seem “fun,” it’s through those ministries being funded, that we are able to exist in our community as Tomoka UMC to be able to do the fun work as well. It is through this giving that we can come together, be the Body of Christ, and share the love of Christ with others through our various missions and ministries.

This year, would you consider put God first in your finances, and giving to Tomoka UMC if you don’t already? And if you do already give, would you keep giving, and maybe even consider giving more than you’re currently giving?

Let’s share in the Kingdom work of God. Let’s work together to be the Body of Christ. Let’s be a wonderful witness pointing others toward the Kingdom of God. Through our giving, through our sharing, may others look at us and truly see a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

Amen