The Book of Acts | What Are You Spending Your Life On? | Pastor Billy Humphrey

The question of purpose starts in ordinary places: a first job, a little praise, a sense that hard work can finally make a person matter. Hard work can become more than a good thing when it turns into a way to prove worth, protect an image, or build a life around something that will not last. A life can drift toward the next degree, the next sale, the next scroll, the next purchase, or the next achievement without ever stopping to ask whether all that busyness is actually meaningful.

Acts 20 puts Paul near the end of his third missionary journey, headed toward Jerusalem, knowing that jail and suffering are waiting for him. The Spirit has told him “city after city” what is coming, but Paul does not treat his life like something to keep safe in a drawer. Paul says, “My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus.” Paul is not saying his life does not matter. Paul is saying an unspent life would not be worth much.

Paul’s calling is not reduced to church staff, public preaching, or some impressive religious achievement. Paul’s life in Ephesus was spent humbly, with many tears, in public and in homes, telling Jews and Greeks to repent, turn to God, and trust Jesus. Paul’s tent-making also mattered, not because the trade itself was holy, but because the reason underneath it was holy. Paul worked with his hands so he would not be a burden and so others could be helped.

The warning from deathbeds exposes how much of life can be spent protecting the wrong things: image over honesty, schedule over people, walls over vulnerability, comfort over relationships, and safety over joy. The phrase from John Maxwell lands plainly: a person can spend life however desired, but only spend it once. Paul’s life shows that life was meant to be spent, not protected.

Jesus is the reason that kind of spending makes sense. Jesus purchased the church with his own blood, spending his life first for rebels who were not running toward God. Paul’s tearful goodbye at Miletus proves what years of pouring into people had produced. No plaque, no applause, no big moment of honor was needed. People could not let him go because his life had been invested in them.

Grace keeps the call from turning into shame. Shame and fear may motivate for a weekend, but they make terrible guides. Paul entrusts the elders to God and to the word of his grace, because grace still stands after failure and does not send a faltering believer back to zero.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Busy does not equal meaningful. A packed life can still be a protected life if activity keeps the deeper question out of sight. The human heart can hide behind productivity, achievement, and responsibility while quietly wondering whether anything eternal is being built. Meaning is not measured by motion, but by whether life is being given to what Jesus has assigned. [03:42]
• 2. Life was meant to be spent. Paul does not treat suffering as proof that the assignment should be avoided. His life is not worthless, but it would be wasted if it remained untouched, unused, and guarded from cost. The safest life can become the smallest life when protection becomes the highest goal. [07:32]
• 3. Work reveals its true master. Paul’s tent-making shows that ordinary labor can serve holy purposes when the reason underneath it belongs to Jesus. The job itself matters less than the lord it serves. A paycheck can become self-protection, or it can become a way to carry responsibility, generosity, and love without needing applause. [10:31]
• 4. Closed circles can still protect. Deep friendships are good, but they can become safe rooms where no one new is ever invited in. A person can be surrounded by relationships and still avoid the risk of pouring into someone younger, messier, or less convenient. Paul’s pattern was not a closed circle, but an open hand that made room for others to be strengthened and sent. [23:26]
• 5. Grace stands after faltering. Shame waits until after failure and then calls the stumble a final verdict. Grace tells the truth more deeply: the failure was already accounted for by the God who gave everything. The call to spend a life for Jesus rests not on flawless performance, but on being entrusted to God and to the word of his grace.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:42] - Searching For Place And Purpose
• [05:24] - Paul Heads Toward Jerusalem
• [07:07] - Bound By The Spirit
• [09:27] - Paul’s Life In Ephesus
• [10:31] - Work Done For The Right Reason
• [12:31] - Taking Stock Before The End
• [13:57] - Five Regrets And Self Protection
• [18:44] - A Life Spent, Not Protected
• [19:23] - Jesus Spent His Life First
• [21:31] - A Goodbye That Proved A Life
• [23:26] - Pouring Into Others
• [26:16] - Shame Is A Terrible Guide
• [27:33] - Entrusted To God’s Grace
• [30:45] - Today Is The Day To Decide

Bible Reading

Acts 20:24
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” [07:35]

Acts 20:18-21
“And when they came to him, he said to them: 'You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.'” [09:35]

Acts 20:33-35
“I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” [10:37]

Acts 20:28
“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” [19:33]

Acts 20:32
“And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” [27:49]

Observation questions

1. In Acts 20:18-21, what words does Paul use to describe how he served people in Ephesus, and where did that ministry happen?
2. According to Acts 20:33-35, what reasons does Paul give for working with his own hands? [10:37]
3. What are some of the things people can drift toward when they stop asking whether life is actually meaningful? [03:07]
4. What kinds of regrets were described as forms of self-protection, and what was being protected in each case? [13:57]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says his life would only have value if he finished the work Jesus gave him. What does that show about the difference between valuing life and protecting life? [07:35]
2. Paul’s tent-making was ordinary work, but the reason underneath it was holy. How does that reshape the way a Christian should think about a job, career, or paycheck? [11:19]
3. Acts 20:28 says the church was obtained by Jesus’ own blood. How does that help explain why spending life on people is not a waste? [19:33]
4. Paul entrusts the elders to God and to the word of his grace. What does that suggest about how believers keep going after they fail, grow tired, or fall back into self-protection? [27:49]

Application questions

1. Where does busy life currently feel meaningful on the surface but empty underneath? Is there a part of life that stays full mainly to avoid deeper questions about purpose? [04:01]
2. What is one area where life is being protected more than spent right now—image, schedule, comfort, safety, or something else? What would it look like to loosen that grip this week? [14:36]
3. Work can serve many masters. What most often sits underneath daily work right now: proving worth, staying in control, building comfort, caring for others, or serving Jesus? [12:10]
4. Paul invested in people publicly and from house to house. Who is actually being poured into right now, not just enjoyed or stayed comfortable with? Is there a younger, newer, messier, or less convenient person who may need an open door? [23:26]
5. Closed circles can feel loving and still become self-protective. Has friendship become a place to be poured into without much pouring out? What might an “open hand” look like in this season? [24:13]
6. Shame often speaks after a missed opportunity, a failure, or a season of drift. When that happens, what kinds of accusations tend to show up, and what would it look like to answer them with the grace of God instead? [26:33]
7. A life can be spent only once. If Jesus were to bring one change into focus today, what would be the clearest next step: a conversation to have, a relationship to re-engage, a risk to take, a habit to repent of, or a person to serve? [30:45]