Practical Daily Holiness

The Danger of Sinless Perfectionism

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 2 and to find your way down to verse 42. Acts chapter 2, we're going to be looking today at verse 42 to 47 when we get to the reading in just a moment.

One of the most insidious false teachings that has made its way into the church is often presented in a way that would sound very good, very positive. And that is the false teaching that Christians can be sinless in this life.

It's known as sinless perfectionism. It has been championed by a few denominations as the ultimate progress of our sanctification, that we could one day in this life, in this flesh, be without sin in thought, word, and deed.

Just this past week I responded to a man who was preaching at a church, looked like it was a church, small, similar to ours, and he stood before his people. He says, he said, I am not a sinner and I do not sin.

And anyone who tells me I do, I tell you I do not sin. I am not a sinner. And I said, there's a Greek word for that and it's baloney. There are two reasons why a person would come to the conclusion that they are not a sinner.

Either they have radically reduced what qualifies as sin, which is in a sense what the Pharisees did. You think the Pharisees increased what counted? No. What they did was they reduced it to a set of lists that they could keep.

That's what legalists do. I'm not a sinner because I keep my list. That's a radical reduction in what counts as sin because now you've created your own list of what is and what isn't sinful. And I don't do those things, therefore I'm not a sinner.

But it's also a radical reduction of the glory of God because the very first commandment according to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the codification of the first table of the law, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, is such a powerful command that none of us have ever fully kept it.

None of us can say that even for a moment we have perfectly loved the Lord our God without any self-motivation, without any pride, without any internal failure, that we have loved the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind and strength, without any imperfection.

And then the second, which is the codification of the second table of the law, to love our neighbor as ourself. And Jesus said, upon these two are the whole law and none of us have done either of them perfectly.

So not only is it a reduction in what count us in, it reduces what it means to love God and love our neighbor as we should. And none of us do it perfectly as we should. And you know what's interesting about this entire idea of sinless perfectionism?

Even Rome never fell into that failure of thought. Because Rome maintained the confession of sin and the need for the assurance of forgiveness. This is why they would go to the priest to confess sin and receive assurance.

And I agree with R .C. Sproul. You know, there's a lot of good things that came in the Reformation, but one thing that sometimes we may miss is the ability to just go and confess to someone. To just go and have someone hear.

Now we don't want to have a Roman Catholic priesthood. We don't want to fall into the failures that go along with that system. But the idea of just being able to confess to someone and hear that the Lord has forgiven us is such a blessing.

This is why we do it every week. We'll do it here in a few minutes when I finish the sermon, right before we take the table. We'll confess corporately that this week we've sinned. Amen? And this week we need again to be reminded of our forgiveness.

Amen? That none of us has reached sinless perfection. And so the doctrine that the Bible teaches, which is the opposite of sinless perfection, or as I would say, the answer to the question of sinless perfection, is what we refer to as progressive sanctification.

Progressive Sanctification and the Ordinary Means of Grace

Progressive sanctification. Progressive sanctification says this. When you have been brought to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have been justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, you will begin in that moment to be conformed to the image of God's Son.

Now that conformation will not be perfected in this life, but it will begin the moment you believe, and it will progress throughout your lifetime. And as I said last week, if you think of it like this microphone going up a scale, we begin and we bend it.

Now it might go like that sometimes, and it might go like that sometimes. It's not always a perfect upshot, but it is growth. We grow in our conformity to Christ, however imperfectly we do. And I think I said this last week, but I'll repeat it again.

I got saved when I was 19, I'm 46 years old now, and I'm not the same man I was. I'm not the man I want to be. I'm certainly not the man I look forward to being. On that day when we see his face, as we sang earlier, on that day when free from sinning we shall see his lovely face, I look forward to that day.

But I'm thankful that God continues to grow me. The only problem that I find with growth and sanctification is I sometimes feel worse than I did when I was 20, or 26, or 36, because now I know more, and I recognize more of my own sin, and as one said, the more you know and the more you grow, you find yourself feeling the more low.

Because you're like, oh my goodness, I feel like sometimes I haven't grown very much. But when I look at my life and see what God has done, and those of you who have been in the Lord for any length of time, you see what God is doing in your life.

That's progressive sanctification. But what is the means by which we go through this process of sanctification? That is the subject of today's message. Because I fear that sometimes we believe that there is some type of radical thing that we must do to experience the change of sanctification.

In fact, again, going back to some denominations, hold to what's known as sort of a second blessing, that there's some type of a radical thing that's going to happen, and it's going to create this perfected sanctification in you.

That's what you need to be truly conformed to Christ. And then, of course, there are others that aren't in that type of thinking who might say something like, well you need some type of radical experience in your growth.

There was a book that came out about 15 years ago now, and the title of the book was Radical. And it was all about how we need to be seeking out the radical Christian life, living this radical Christian life.

And some of what the book said was good. I don't want to just say the whole book was not good. Some of it was encouraging self-sacrifice, encouraging missions, and encouraging... And I'm not saying that those things aren't wonderful and good.

And if God has called you to be a missionary, if God has called you to extreme radicality and turning away from everything and going across the world and preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, then certainly don't let me be one who would hold you back.

But when that book was written, a comparative book was written. It was a book in sort of response to it by Michael Horton. Michael Horton is a good Reformed theologian. Michael wrote the book entitled Ordinary.

So as opposed to radical, what is the ordinary means? Mike already said, that ordinary means that God uses to grow us. Are we just looking for radical experiences? Or does God have an ordinary way of taking us from where we are to where He wants us to be?

I believe there is an ordinary path. And that doesn't mean that it is a path that is not exciting or blessed or wonderful. But it's ordinary in that it's the regular Christian life. And I believe we see it modeled for us in these verses in the book of Acts.

What we're going to see when we read this is we're going to see what the early church did, how they lived their life day by day. And what we're going to see is how we ought to be living our lives if we want to see this growth that God gives us through the Spirit.

What are the means He gives us to grow? So with that, let us stand to give honor and reverence to God's Word. And we will read verses 42 to 47. I'll have it on the screen if you'd like to read along or read from your own Bibles.

I'll be reading from the English Standard Version and it says,. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word. As I seek to give an understanding of it today, Lord, I pray that you would keep me from error.

And I pray that you would use this message to do multiple things today. One, that you would help us to see the means that you've given us to grow in our faith, to grow in sanctification. I pray also, Lord, that you would use this to cause believers to yearn for that growth, but to do so through the methods, the ordinary means that you have given.

And Lord, moreover, if there are those who have not yet been saved, not yet believed, I pray, God, that you would use this message to remind them again of the gospel. And later, Lord, when we pick up that bread and pick up that cup and we see the living picture of the gospel, Lord, use it to draw people to yourself.

In Jesus' name, amen. This series that we started a couple of weeks ago is on the subject of holiness. And we have already looked at the holiness of God. That was our first message. And last week we looked at our holiness in Christ.

And we talked about the fact that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are made holy. You're declared righteous. That's your legal standing. But you are also placed into Christ. You are in him.

You are made separate from the world. We are called a holy people, a royal priesthood. You're separate in that regard. And it is interesting how that operates when we consider the difference between the Old Covenant and the New.

Under the Old Covenant administration, there was this temple that had to be used. And the sacrifices that were made outside the temple. And the priests would go in and they would do their daily administrations.

And then there would be these feasts and other administrations where there would be sacrifices. But once a year, there would be this tremendous Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, where the sacrifice would be made and the blood would be taken into the Holy of Holies.

And the blood would be brushed onto or sprinkled onto the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant by the high priest. And thereby making an atonement for sin. But when Jesus died, if you remember what the Gospels tell us, it tells us that the curtain that was between the holy place and the most holy place, a curtain which would have been a broad, thick cloth about the width of a man's hand, it was torn from top to bottom, indicating that God himself had opened up the way to the Holy of Holies.

No longer would we have to go through a priest who was in front of us. Now we would go through the Lord Jesus Christ, who the book of Hebrews says has become our high priest forever. He is now the one who takes us before the Lord forever.

We have this wonderful new covenant. It is the blessed covenant with a better priesthood, a better sacrifice. And now we have been made holy by him. And yet we go through daily life and daily living still dealing with the problem of sin.

And so Christ has sacrificed for us. Christ has made atonement for us. We are saved in the sense that we are justified. But we are also being grown, being conformed, being changed day by day. And this is what I'm calling our practical daily holiness.

Today we are going to look at this passage in Acts, and we're going to walk through how the early church went through their ordinary lives, and how I believe that applies to our life. Next week, just to give you a preview, we are going to look further into holiness, and look at the holiness of the family and marriage specifically.

The holy, what do we call marriage? Holy wedlock. It is a sanctified union. And it has the purpose, it has many purposes, but it has one particularly beautiful purpose is it sanctifies us. And I could say this to anyone in here who is married.

What is the most sanctifying experience you've had in life, maybe outside of being a parent? And that's being a husband or a wife. Because it's our wives, it's our husbands, it's those people that God puts in our home that we have to live with, that we have to endure with, that we have to love, and we have to care for and cherish till death do us part, that sometimes are the ones who draw out the most difficult in our lives of need for repentance.

And all God's children said, amen. Okay, I didn't get one, so I'm going to ask for one. Because you know I'm right. So next week, that's where we're headed from here. And even if you're not married, still come.

I don't want anybody to say, oh, well, that one's not going to apply to me. It's going to be hopefully a blessing for everyone who comes to here. But what I want us to see today in this passage is three things, three things.

If we want to see growth, and I would hope that we do, if we want to see conformity to Christ, if we hope to grow in this most holy faith, I think that there are three things that we need to learn to embrace.

And as we learn to embrace these, we're going to see them in the text. As we learn to embrace these, these ordinary things that Christ will bless us and grow us, and he will use that which he's given to conform us to his son.

So the three things, I'll give them to you right away. I don't have them all on one screen, so I'll do these very quickly. We're going to first embrace the ordinary means of growth. Second, we're going to embrace the church as spiritual family.

And third, we're going to embrace a daily passion for the things of God. Those are the three things we're going to look at. Let's look first at embracing the ordinary means of growth. This is verse 42.

It says, they devoted themselves to four things. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Right there, we are given a simple outline of what the early church service would have looked like.

These are the four things that they were devoted to when they gathered together to worship. It's interesting because we have what we call a liturgy. A liturgy is simply the outline of what we do on Sunday morning.

All churches have it. You'll hear some churches, we're a liturgical church, a non-liturgical church. There's no such thing as a non-liturgical church. Even if all you do is you come in, you sing, you preach, and you leave.

You got two points of liturgy, but you still got a liturgy. That's still the order of worship. That's what happens. The word liturgy comes from the word which means the public outworking. And it means to do this thing, and that's what you're doing.

And I would say these four things constitute the basic liturgy of the early church. The basic things that the church did when they gathered together. And I want you to notice what it says. It says they devoted themselves to these things.

They were actually committed to being together for these things. And I want to say this with as much compassion as I can. I fear for the devotion of the modern church. And I'm not just talking out there.

I think I could say it for here too. I mean, look around. Why do we feel so comfortable making church a part-time effort? Why do we feel so comfortable with the national average of 1 .6 times per month?

That's the national average for people who are regular church attenders. 1 .6 times per month. Less than 20 times per year. The average attender, the person who is considered to be by all statistics a regular church goer, attends less than 20 times per year.

And they devoted themselves to this, is what this text says. Now someone may get offended. I don't want you offended. I want you here. But I also want you to hear what the scripture says. The early church, by the way, we're going to see in a moment, they didn't do this once a week.

They did these things daily. I do believe there was a particular thing they did on the Lord's Day. So I want to be clear about that. But they were daily with one another doing the work of ministry. Twice in this text, down in the latter verses that we read, it says day by day they did these things.

Day by day. And some of your translations say every day. Are we devoted to these things? We're devoted to a lot. Devoted to our favorite television shows. Never miss an episode. Devoted to our social groups.

Never miss a meeting. But the church is going to be there whether we're there or not. They devoted themselves to four things. Let's look at those four things. The first it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.

The King James says to the apostles' doctrine. Right, Mike? Okay, just want to make sure. The word here is actually the word didache. It's where if you've ever heard of that early church book called the Didache.

It wasn't part of the scripture, but it was an early church manual on how the church operated. It's that same Greek word. It means the teaching or the doctrine of the church. And this is what the early apostles did.

This is what the early church did. They devoted themselves to what the apostles were teaching. They actually cared to know what the truth of the scripture was. They wanted to know the truth. And you know what the early church leaders devoted themselves to?

If you go over to Acts 6, you don't have to turn there. But if you remember in Acts chapter 6, what did it say? It says they lifted up several men and made them into the servants of the church who had to fill a need.

We would say those were the proto-diaconate, the earliest of the deacons. And what did they do? They said we have to give you this job because we have to devote ourselves to the teaching of the word and prayer.

We have to devote ourselves to this because that's our responsibility. It was the responsibility of the apostles, which I think gave way to the elders of the church, whose responsibility it was to teach the word of God and to pray for the people of God.

That was their thing that they had to be devoted to. So this was a mutual devotion. The devotion was the apostles had to devote themselves to preparation and the people had to devote themselves to learning.

The apostles had to devote themselves to prepare, to give, and the people had to prepare themselves to receive. Do you prepare yourself to receive from the word of God on Sunday morning? It's not as if you don't know what we're going to be doing.

Brother Andy asks often times when he comes up here, Have you read the scriptures this week that we're going to be studying? Often times you know exactly where we are because we're right where we left off last week.

Now I know over the summer I take a little summer series and right now you may not have known today we were going to be in Acts 2. But you know where Mike's going to be in Sunday school because he only goes a half a verse at a time.

He's going to be right where he was last week in Revelation. And he'll probably be there until Jesus comes and that's okay too. But being devoted to the apostles' teaching means being devoted to what they taught.

Because it was valuable, because it was important, because it actually made a difference. So I don't see where it's making a difference in my life. Well maybe it's because you're not here half the time.

Maybe the reason it's not making a difference in your life is because it leaves you as soon as you leave. To be devoted to the apostles' teaching is to actually invest in what's being invested in you.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine. Why does it say the apostles' doctrine? Because beloved, that's what our church is. That is what the church is. We are called one holy catholic, don't let it fool you, it means universal, one holy catholic and apostolic church.

What does apostolic mean? It means we are in a church that is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone. That is what we are told in Scripture. You know, you don't have one sentence that was written by Jesus Christ in your Bible.

You don't have one sentence that was penned by your Lord and Savior. The only thing we believe that he ever wrote was when he dug his finger in the sand when the woman was thrown at his feet. And even that story we know is a difficult one because that's a textual variant.

But that's the only thing, we know he was literate because he read the Scriptures in the synagogue and we wrote with his finger in the ground. So we know he could write, but he didn't write anything that we have.

Everything that you have is from the apostles. That's why it's called an apostolic faith. Jesus said, you're going to be given by the Spirit the remembrance of all that I have told you. Why were they given the remembrance?

So that they could teach it, so that they could preach it, and so they could write it down so we would have it. Where's the apostles' faith come from? Right here. The Word of God. Our faith is founded on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone.

That's why he says they devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine. So that's number one, they devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine. Number two, they devoted themselves to the fellowship. Now, the word fellowship here, koinonia, literally means mutual relationships or partnerships.

And here's the thing that I think, again, is so important and often missed, is when we talk about fellowship, oftentimes we get that confused with our friendly banter that happens in our mutual circles of relationships.

And there is nothing wrong with the friendly banter of mutual circle relationships. All that is great. We love to eat together. We love to be together. We love to have people to our homes. We love to go into other people's homes.

And all of those things are great. But when we see the fellowship, the fellowship here preceded by the definite article, this is not just referring to gathering together to talk about the latest in politics or to get together to talk about our favorite television programs or even to get together to talk about something as important as hunting or fishing.

As I realize those are some very important topics to some of you and I love it. I think it's great. But the fellowship here, the koinonia that is here, is fellowship in the Word. It's fellowship in mutual up-building.

What does the book of Hebrews tell us that we are supposed to do? Not neglect meeting together as is the habit of some, but we gather together for what? That we would build one another up in the faith.

That we would spur one another on in love and good works. When was the last time you were actively used in the life of another believer in this church to spur them on to love and good works? Okay, praise the Lord.

I was letting it sit in silence, but Frank broke the silence. It's okay. But you're right. I'm not saying we don't do it. I'm just asking, are we? Are we considering this? Because the fellowship, this idea of actually doing this and being active with it, this is part of the normal thing that God uses to grow us.

God uses you to grow me and God should use me to grow you, but that cannot happen if we never see one another. Someone says, I'm not growing. Well, I don't doubt it. I haven't seen you in weeks. If it sounds like I have an agenda this morning, it's not intended to be.

It just so happens that this is what is coming out. It's the thought of how are we to complain of no growth when we are not connected to the body. If you cut your arm off, it's not going to keep growing.

It's like the story of the pastor who went to the man's house. He'd been out of church for several months. He went to the man's house and they sat before the fireplace and the man just said, you know, I don't really want to come.

I don't really want to be there. I don't see the need. The pastor walked over to the fireplace and he took the tongs from off the fireplace and he reached down and he picked up one of the coals from within the fire and he set it outside of the fire and they both watched as the coal grew cold and finally went out.

And the man said, I understand. Being disconnected from the fellowship, being disconnected from the body is being disconnected from the very means which God has given you to grow. So that's the second thing.

We are to devote ourselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the fellowship and thirdly, to the breaking of bread. Now, there's debate on this one and I will grant you that I cannot say with absolute certainty that what the writer here, which is Luke, is conveying.

But there is debate as to whether this breaking of bread here refers to a normal meal that they had simply as gathered together or if this refers to the Lord's Supper. I am convinced in my own understanding of this text that it refers to the Lord's Supper and it is because of this, because it is again preceded by the article.

This isn't just any breaking of bread. This is the breaking of bread. And when we have the breaking of bread, especially as that term was used in the early church, it was almost always associated not with just eating a meal but with the bread which was broken and represented the body of Christ.

You say, well, how in the world is the Lord's Supper supposed to grow me in my conformity to Christ? And my answer is this. It is the very means by which God has given to grow you because of this one simple fact.

Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show forth not only the death of Christ but your faith in it. And you are forced to come to the table in self-examination. Every single time. You have to understand something, folks.

When it comes to the table of the Lord, I get really bothered by the way that people who hold the position that we hold often speak of the table. Because as you know, we don't hold the position of Rome, which is the position of transubstantiation.

Time does not allow me to explain all the differences, but just suffice it to say, we don't hold the position of Rome. Neither do we hold the position of the Lutherans, which is known as sacramental presence, where Christ is in the bread and in the cup, sacramentally.

And neither even do we, as a Reformed church, hold the typical Reformed view. The typical Reformed view, which was espoused by Calvin, is the view known as spiritual presence, which is still a sacramental presence of the Lord in the table.

We would espouse a memorial view. Now, two things on that. One, I realize that is the minority report in history, and I'm willing to concede that. And I also believe that that position is the hardest, and I say it's the hardest for this very reason.

Because when you say you believe the table is a memorial, people will automatically discount it and call it the low view. And if you want to upset me, tell me I hold a low view of the table. Because I say it's not low if it's right.

It's not low if it's right. That's the first thing. The second thing, and even more important, is I don't have to believe that the elements change, or the elements are added to, spiritually or physically, to believe that Jesus Christ is being represented in that bread and His blood is represented in that cup.

And when I come to that table, I should have even more reverence than someone who has mistook what it means, if in fact my position is correct. This is why people say a bare memorial. Don't call it that.

Because it's not a bare memorial. God gives us images, pictures to point to greater truths. He's done it throughout the Bible. He gave Noah a rainbow, and Noah didn't look and say, hey, that represents the fact that God's not going to destroy the earth with water again.

That's a bare memorial. Nobody ever says that. You see the regality of the rainbow, and what do you say? That's a beautiful promise from God that I get to see with my eyes. It's not a bare memorial. It's a promise from God.

It's not just a memorial. It is a beautiful picture of what God has promised me. You understand, for the vast majority of church history, nobody owned a Bible. They might have one Bible in the whole community, and it was chained to the pulpit.

People said, oh, Rome chained the Bible to the pulpit, because they didn't want the average person to have it. That wasn't the reason. The reason was, is because this was a valuable book. There wasn't very many in the whole place, and they didn't want it to get stolen.

You understand, we are among the first in human history to even be almost universally literate. The vast majority of human history is made up of people who could not even read. And we have Bibles on our devices.

I can get any translation I want. I can look up anyone that you're looking at at any moment I want to. And I sit bathed in a wealth of riches. But the medieval church, the early church, they didn't have that.

If they had a Bible among them, if they had a Bible in their home, that was a big deal. Usually meant, because how did a Bible come about before Gutenberg? Gutenberg, the printing press. What did the Bibles have?

They had to be handwritten. Imagine if you, the only way you could have a Bible is if you wrote it yourself. How many of you would own one? Or you had to pay for it to be handwritten? How many of you could afford it?

But what did they have, beloved? They had the table. They had the visible picture of the Word of God right in front of them. And then they had the man of God who stood behind the Word of God to read them the Word of God.

So this is why we say the Lord's Supper is never to be administered without also the administration of the Word. It's Word and sacrament. They go together. We preach the Word and then we participate in what points us to the Word.

So we can see it with our eyes and taste it with our mouth and hold it in our hands. This is the beauty of the table. And why it is not only necessary, but it's necessary to be done regularly. I don't understand how a church could do it once a year.

I understand how some might do once a month. That would be about as far as I'd be willing to take it. But I love that we do it every week. Because this is what the early church devoted itself to. To the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread.

And again, definite article, the prayer. The prayers. Last year I did a sermon series on worship. And I talked about the prayers that are mentioned here. I don't have time to go through it again today.

But if you're interested, there are at least seven different prayers that are done in worship. And I do think it's the prayers. Often times, again, we so minimalize everything. Everything is extemporaneous.

Everything is simple. Everything is basic. You understand there are different types of prayer in scripture. There are prayers of invocation where we ask God's spirit to be with us in this moment of worship.

There are prayers of benediction where before you leave today, I'm going to pray God's blessing over you. There are prayers of dedication. God, take these offerings we've given and use them for your service.

There's prayers of illumination. God, open our eyes to the word as we hear the word priest. There's prayers of intercession. Lord, pray for our sick and our hurting and our marriages and our lives. Each one of these is different and focused and dedicated.

And each one of them has purpose. And we could even go as far as to say that when we gather together, we should pray even imprecatory prayers. God, show yourself true against your enemies. And stand with your people.

The church in Nigeria right now is suffering persecution like we could never imagine. And we should pray that God would protect them and would convert or remove their enemies. Because that is our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hurting.

So those are the ordinary means of growth. Those four things, the apostles doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers. Those are ordinary means by which God has given us to grow. Now, the last two things, the next two things won't go as long.

I knew the first one was longer because it had four parts. We need to embrace the church as a spiritual family. Look with me again at verse 43. It says... Beloved, this is one of the blessings of the early church.

They actually cared about each other. They actually sought to lovingly not only, hey, I'll pray for you. But actually devote themselves to ministering to one another in times of need. This was a time where some of them had been put out of their families.

Some had been put out of work. Some had been put out. They had all been put out of the synagogue. And yet they were able to continue to live and even flourish because they cared for one another. I say it every time, so I'll say it again.

This is not communism. The Bible does not endorse communism. And what's the difference? This is voluntary. Communism is share by force. The early church didn't force anybody. Ananias and Sapphira, what did Peter say to them?

Your property was yours to do what you will before you even sold it. And when you sold it, the money was yours to do what you will. Nobody told you to do this. But people did it. Why? Because they loved one another.