Churches want to grow, to meet people far from God and introduce them to Jesus; to help them take first steps and next steps in practicing Jesus’ way of life; to invite them to participate in our common work of helping each other grow healthy and mature so we can do the work that God has given us to do as his people and his partners.

This church wants to grow. You want to grow, healthy and whole. You want to be the person God lovingly made you to be.

But when churches want to grow, there's often something that's missing: churches struggle with the strength of their relational connections.

Tune in as we explore the fact that growing together is not automatic and provide practical steps on how you can grow through life-giving relationships.

Duplicity is defined as deceptive, double-dealing, funny business, or fraud. At its core, duplicity is failing to be who we say we are.

We need to be keenly aware of the dangers of duplicity.

Though this may seem aimed more at those of you who follow Jesus, if you are not a Christian, there is something helpful for you, too.

You want to be known as a person who is trustworthy and deals honestly with people. I know you do. So whether you are a Christian or not, there is resonance here.

We need to be keenly aware of the danger of being duplicitous in our work. We must be keenly aware of the dangers of duplicity in our marriage. We must be keenly aware of the dangers of duplicity in our friendships, parenting and politics.

But more than any other area, we need to be keenly aware of the dangers of dealing falsely with God.

Listen in as we continue in The Jesus Revolution sermon series and dive into how to live a life of integrity.

For more information on Renovation Church, visit renovationchurch.com.

Your heart desires to share your person and possessions and love people freely. After all, Jesus said, “​It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). If Jesus has changed your life, I believe you aspire to be like Him and live by His words.

But here is our reality: Our culture has groomed us to keep instead of release. We intuitively know that there is little satisfaction beyond a certain point of financial comfortability, but my goodness, this hurdle of keeping and collecting keeps getting in the way.

I know that can sound nebulous, but it is the best way I can say it. Proximity to Jesus and encounters with the Holy Spirit freed me to move from keeping to sharing, sharing my person and possessions.

We see the same in Luke’s record of the early church. The encounters with God’s Spirit motivated the first followers of Jesus to be bold in telling people about Jesus and incredibly open-handed with their person and possessions.

The same can happen for all of us.

Tune in for the continuation of "The Jesus Revolution" sermon series as Pastor Leonce uncovers three observations about the moment Luke records in Acts 4.

If you embrace these observations, you will find the same freedom they did.