Whose Wallet Are You Holding?

This past Sunday at Gaylord E-Free we finished our three week series on Barnabas by seeing that Barnabas was "High on Giving" (seen in Acts 4) and "Low on Greed" (seen in Acts 11).  The two are tied together.  If you are "High on Giving" you are most likely "Low on Greed."  But if you are "Low on Giving" you are most likely "High Greed."

To show this last Sunday I used an interactive illustration that we like to call "Forced Fun" here at Gaylord E-Free.  "Forced Fun" means that everyone must participate or they don't get to go to heaven.

I asked every man in our church to pull out their wallet and stand up holding their wallet in their hand.

I then had them exchange their wallets with someone else who was not part of their family.

I then had them hold that wallet high into the air.

I then called for the ushers to come forward to take the offering and encouraged the men of our church to give like they have never given before using the wallet they were holding.

OK - we didn't really take the offering at that point but there was a point to this act of "forced fun."  You see, it would be very easy to give generously when we were using someone else's wallet.  It's when we are holding our own wallets that giving becomes hard.  Today we tend to want to keep as much as we can keep rather than give as much as we can give, especially when we are opening our own wallet.  Today we are "Low on Giving" and "High on Greed," even in the church.  But my interactive illustration wasn't yet done.

I then had the men get their own wallet back and remain standing holding their own wallet.  I then reminded them that though they were holding their own wallet, what they were holding still wasn't there own money.  It actually belongs to God.  Everything we have comes from God.  It's really His even though it's our wallet.

Maybe we would become more like Barnabas - "High on Giving" and "Low on Greed" - if we would remember that it all comes from God and it all belongs to God.  We are simply stewards who have been entrusted with everything we have in order to use what we have been given to bring the most glory to God as possible.