"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22:34-40‬

I. Living the Greatest Commandments:

II. Being a Barnabas:

“But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.”
Acts 9:27

Being someones Barnabas:

• Taking a chance in bringing someone into your group of friends.
• Giving someone a chance to take a lead role in something you may have been apart of for years.
• Inviting someone along to be apart of something even if you have done it by yourself for years.

“When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,”
Acts 11:23

Being someones Barnabas:

• Seeing what God is already doing around you and committing to an extended amount of time and energy in one area.
• God wants you to make a personal call of encouragement to someone this week.

“Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.”
Acts 15:37

Being someones Barnabas:

• Affirming and recognizing the gifting of someone.
• Not giving up on someone who is in the midst of brokenness.

III.Being a Ananias

“If we set our hopes on those things, we will find that, at best, we are sorely disappointed; or that, at worst, we, like Ananias, walk a dangerous path of hypocrisy.”
- Mohler Jr.

How do we lie to or withhold from the
Holy Spirit?

Withholding of relationship by not communicating through prayer.

When the Holy Spirit tells us to pray for, or to act, or to encourage and we choose not to listen.

If you continue to lie to the Holy Spirit or keep things in your life segregated, taped off as untouchable for God to transform and use, how will we ever be the church God is calling us to be?

IV. Being a Sapphira:

“All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?"”
Exodus 17:1-2

Quarreling and grumbling eats away at the church.

Quarreling and grumbling proves that we, at the very least, have forgotten how God has proven Himself in our life and, at most, proves we have not learned or grown as much as we might have hoped.

What did the early Church learn from this?

“As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord 's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."”
2 Chronicles 7:1-3

“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
2 Corinthians 3:16-17

God is calling you to be a Barnabas today in order that His Church would be built and strengthened.