Okay, this can be a hard one for us today. I have been stymied by Acts 19. I’m wondering how many times I’ve been like the silversmiths in this passage. No way you say! No way I said in the beginning and then I re-read these verses…
23 About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. 25 These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. (Acts 19:23-26 [ESV])
Now I would never worship an silver idol, but I do have idols in my life. Those idols may include sports, family or benign pleasures. And there are times when I have spent the financial resources that should have gone to the work of God to those idolized pleasures. Isn’t that – in a way – like these silversmiths? I haven’t worshipped Artemis but have my own needs and pleasures and robbed God. I have slowed down the work of the gospel. The Great Commission has been stalled.
I may be overstating what I can give compared to what it takes to spread the gospel and see the Great Commission fulfilled, but then there are thousands of us that have been in this silversmith mindset. Did you know that the born again believers in the United States hold 98% of the Christian wealth in the world? What God could do through me/us if we laid aside our silversmith attitudes and focused on the fulfillment of this Great Commission Jesus gave us almost 2,000 years ago.
Father God, thank you for the resources you have given us. Help us to steward them all wisely so that your kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven. We pray these things in the strong name of Jesus, Amen!
Sixty-six books in a year 