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The Heart of the Church - The Blueprint Series
50 Plays1 year ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about the importance of unity and selflessness within the church, drawing on Acts chapter 4 as a model for believers to follow. He emphasized the need for Christians to be of one heart and mind, showcasing the early Christians' dedication to serving and caring for one another's needs. Ridley Barron challenged the congregation to align their hearts with Jesus, avoid compromising their faith, and prioritize the spread of the gospel above all else, urging them to seek personal revival and humility before God to truly live out their faith.
Timestamps:
05:48 Give me all or take none.
08:00 Satan's focus shifts from outside to inside.
12:50 Avoid gossip, show empathy, and reach out.
16:47 Rain blesses all but specific grace demands obedience.
19:20 Wealthy man offers $50, receives $5.
23:39 Demonstrating love and care for one another.
26:18 Encouraging legacy, choose your legacy word wisely.
29:15 Followers of Jesus compromise, face severe consequences.
34:03 Moving forward with incredible momentum, undeterred by distractions.
35:01 Recognize God's holiness and your own sin.
38:55 Restore healthy fear of God, seek humility.
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Transcript
Missionary Transitions in Argentina
00:00:00
Speaker
So for those of you who are new today, you don't recognize those faces possibly. Last week was our sixth anniversary and on Monday morning I got to the office, had this email from Ron and Claudia Clausen who are two of our people who have relocated down to Argentina and are doing God's work down there. They are currently in between churches so I encourage you to be praying for them and that's because they had to relocate within Argentina to a new town.
00:00:22
Speaker
and are in the process of finding a new place there to serve. We believe, we practice, we affirm here that we will be able to change the world for Jesus Christ from right here in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. And we do that by living sent lives.
Spreading the Gospel in Daily Life
00:00:35
Speaker
You do it every day when you go to work, you go to school, you go to different places, you take the name of Jesus with you. But we are sending out people right now in Eastern Europe. Alan Kurtner's sister, Christine, is over there serving, taking the gospel to places that you and I can't talk about for safety reasons, right?
00:00:52
Speaker
You can't twist your arm and you can't say a thing, can you? We have the Kallsens down in Argentina. We are in the process right now of getting ready to launch a church in Lewisburg, Tennessee. You know, we're going from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Lewisburg's not the ends of the earth.
New Church Initiatives in Tennessee
00:01:09
Speaker
And then also we're in the process right now are talking about strategic partnership with a church in a church plant in Denver, Colorado Many of you may not know this but Denver is one of the most unreached cities in the United States What the numbers like astounding how many people lost people? Like 92 percent unchurched
00:01:30
Speaker
right here in the United States of America. So we are going, we're sending, and it's because of you and I'm thankful for you and all that. Now I wanna take a second just to brag on some people who are really, really meaningful to me and I think to you as well, and that's this incredible staff you've been given.
Church Staff Appreciation
00:01:44
Speaker
Lori Harbor, yeah, we saw the results of her ministry here this morning, three kids that got baptized, who've been under her influence and Kyle's as well. Kyle, new people, this is my pet name for him, he's the big cheese.
00:01:58
Speaker
So Big Cheese brought the sermon last week and then he brought the sermon last week, did a fantastic job. I will tell you if you're here today and you're looking for a place to inject your kids and get them plugged in, our student ministry is hands down the best one around because he is keeping them focused in the gospel. It's not about necessarily playing games or entertaining kids, we're entertaining our kids to death right now. Our kids need Jesus and he has given them Jesus on a consistent basis. This young man over here,
00:02:25
Speaker
PJ, Pastor John, rocking it with our small groups. If you do not have a place to, over the summer or even into the fall, to connect with other believers, see that young man and he will get you connected with some people. Guys, you are not meant to do the Christian life by yourself. You need people around you and he can help you get connected with some of those people. And then lastly, Jayden and this entire worship team, just a fantastic job week by week. I was reminded last week
00:02:52
Speaker
Last night, as we were praying at prayer time for you guys this morning, every single one of you have been prayed for intentionally because we believe that prayer changes lives.
The Role of Worship in Spiritual Warfare
00:03:02
Speaker
But last night as we were praying, somebody reminded me, if you read through the Old Testament, one of the things you see is that when God would lead his people out into battle, most often it was the worship leaders and the musicians that led them.
00:03:15
Speaker
Now think about this, you and I, every single day the Bible says we are in spiritual warfare, that we battle against things that we don't see, that they're always going on around us, but think about how intense that battle gets when you and I walk in these doors week by week to begin to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and to worship what God has done. Warfare gets intense, and how cool is it that our praise team is leading us into that battle? And I know you're in a battle, because some of you right now say, pastor's up, he's fixing to preach, time for me to sleep.
00:03:46
Speaker
So wake up, stay with me. All right, stay with me because this is a good one today.
Explosive Church Growth Amidst Persecution
00:03:51
Speaker
Acts chapter four verse 32, really good stuff this morning. There's about three or four sermons here. We're gonna try to get through every single one of them before the day is over with and hopefully you will be encouraged and blessed as we walk out of here. Now, we are just four chapters into the book of Acts.
00:04:08
Speaker
But most scholars believe that between Acts chapter one and the end of chapter four, where we are today, that only about a year and a half to two years has passed. So I want you to keep in mind that what has happened is the church has gone from 11 devoted followers of Jesus Christ at the crucifixion to now 15 to 20,000 people who are professing Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
00:04:34
Speaker
Now the reason I want to start with that is two-fold.
Total Commitment to God's Kingdom
00:04:37
Speaker
Number one, you are a bunch of whiners. And so am I. What do I mean by that? We love to point our finger at the culture, right? Look how bad the culture is. Look how awful the culture is. Look at what's going on in our society. Look what's going on in our schools. Look what's going on in entertainment. And I'm not saying you're wrong, but what I am saying is you don't have it any worse than the people who lived under the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago.
00:05:04
Speaker
2,000 years ago, they didn't have a vote to decide who was going to be their next leader. It was the emperor or bust. 2,000 years ago, they were literally watching brothers and sisters be dragged out of their homes, taken into an arena and put to death for entertainment.
00:05:19
Speaker
2,000 years ago, the name of Jesus Christ wasn't allowed to be spoken, and so people were literally being stoned in the streets because of their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. You think you have it bad? They had it worse, but in two years, Jesus took that church from 11 people to more than 15,000 believers. Now we like to celebrate around here that in six years, God has taken us from 50 to 600, and that's really, really good, but what's holding us back? What's holding us back?
00:05:50
Speaker
Well, the answer, say it again, brother. Did you read my sermon? Okay, all right. The answer is in this, that second song we sang just a minute ago. Lord, whatever you desire, take it away from me. Purify me. Take away the desires that aren't yours. You see, we've given a half-hearted effort to a wholehearted kingdom and think we're gonna get the same results.
00:06:16
Speaker
We keep praying, Lord, we want to see revival, we want to see your spirit going, we want to see it outpouring. Use our church and God's saying, I would love to when you give me all of you. Because I'm not gonna take half of you, I'm not gonna take half of your effort. How many of you run a business? How many of you are over a team at work? Or administrate some people at work? How many of you would see somebody come in week after week and give you half of an effort and go, way to go, good job.
00:06:45
Speaker
Not at all. And yet we bring that kind of mentality to the kingdom of God and we say, this is who we're going to be, but we want your revival. We want your outpouring. And I believe that what we're going to read today is going to enlighten us a little bit about why we aren't seeing the same kind of results.
Unity and Shared Possessions in Early Church
00:07:01
Speaker
You see, they were more than persecuted that early church. They were literally being put to death. But the more they were persecuted, the more they prayed.
00:07:10
Speaker
And the more they prayed, the more bold they got. And the bolder they got, the more the church grew because people were watching their boldness.
00:07:21
Speaker
If you and I are willing to live a life that is completely contradictory to the culture we're in, we won't have to wait for our vote to take effect in November. We won't have to wait for somebody to pass a law or an act or whatever we think is gonna change this. The world doesn't change by congressional action. It changes by an action of the Holy Spirit.
00:07:42
Speaker
and that's where we've got to turn our attention. We have got to get on our knees as a body of believers, the body of Christ, and we have got to seek what He desires for us. You see, Satan had been chipping away at this early church as best he could. He was beginning to apply the pressure. Remember, we read about Stevens being a martyr just last, a few weeks ago, and so as that's unfolding, all this stuff is going on, well, Satan has seen he can't beat him from the outside, so now he turns his attention to the inside.
00:08:09
Speaker
And we're gonna look at that this morning as we read through the scripture.
Maintaining God-given Unity
00:08:13
Speaker
Acts chapter four beginning in verse 32. It says now the, what group? The entire group, the whole group, the entire community of those who believed were of one heart and mind. And no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common. Let me ask you something, how do you get 15,000 people to be one heart and one mind? Better yet, how do you get six people to get into a minivan and decide where you're going to eat dinner?
00:08:41
Speaker
The Bible says very clearly, they were of one heart and one mind, and I think that as simply as this, they believed the gospel to be true, and they lived like they believed it was true. They centered their lives on its truth. They were living out what Paul would later write in the book of Philippians and write into the church at Philippi where he said, I want to hear that you were standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
00:09:09
Speaker
Now, I want you to understand something. We don't create unity. God creates unity. What we do is we maintain the unity that God brings to us. We maintain what the Spirit pours out on us. And this comes out of pure humility. When we get to a place where we properly see ourselves, first of all, before God, as well as in our relationship with other brothers and sisters, when we get to that place of humility, then we are finally at the place where God can use us the way he desires to.
00:09:40
Speaker
Our strongest source of unity is not our common affinities. We're doing these affinity groups this summer, really cool place for you to connect and get to know people and do fellowship. They're built around things like playing golf, my personal favorite, kayaking, gardening, all kinds of stuff. So I encourage you to get plugged in there. But affinities are not what draw us together because you can have the same kind of affinities with lost people in the world. What draws us together is our gospel identity.
00:10:08
Speaker
are standing before Jesus Christ because of the work that the Holy Spirit has done in us. When we choose to follow after Jesus Christ, when we get to that place of obedience, we are drawn into unity with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Now here's the interesting thing. We don't like to think about this very much. One of these days, your physical relationships will end. There's a lady sitting on the front right here. Be very clear, there's three ladies, but there's one that I'm married to, right?
00:10:35
Speaker
sitting right here in the blue. I love this woman very dearly. She is my wife. One day that will come to an end. She is also my sister in Christ. That will never come to an end. I will live in eternity in that relationship with her. And that's what the Bible talks about when it says that these relationships that we have spiritually are much stronger because of their eternal nature and because they are brought together by the Holy Spirit putting this together around the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:11:01
Speaker
So I want to talk a little bit about this church, this amazing church. Let me finish reading this passage, but I want to talk about what made this church so incredible and so remarkably strong.
Strengths of the Early Church
00:11:11
Speaker
Verse 33 it says, with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was on all of them.
00:11:19
Speaker
For there was not a needy person among them, because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas, which is translated son of encouragement, sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
00:11:47
Speaker
So I wanna talk just a second, like I said, about things. By the way, the typo in the program this morning is not my ministry assistant's fault, it's mine. I was gonna cheat and tell y'all that it says three remarkable things and I gave you a bonus one, but it's actually four things in the sermon. So four things that I think made this church special. Number one was the loving unity they had with one another. The loving unity. What do I mean by that? They were too busy loving and serving each other to have any petty differences.
00:12:15
Speaker
They were too busy looking out for the needs of one another to have selfish pursuits or to have idle chatter or to have endless gossip or to have pointless criticism. They were not so busy with their own desires that they got involved in divisive conversations. They instead were always looking for the kingdom purposes and the gospel driven motivations that they had among them and it kept them from being a part of the problem.
00:12:41
Speaker
So what am I saying to you?
Serving the Congregation
00:12:43
Speaker
If you have a tendency to criticize, shut your mouth and open your hands. Go serve somebody.
00:12:50
Speaker
If you have a tendency to gossip, shut your mouth and open your heart and ask yourself, what if I was in their shoes? I don't know their story. I don't know their background. Maybe it's time for me to pick up the phone and call them and go sit down with them and talk to them about what they're going through. What would happen if instead of talking about people, we talked to people and said, how can I pray for you? How can I help you in your need? How can I minister to you?
00:13:19
Speaker
I'm telling you, the problem is, the problem is we get so drawn into our self and our selfish desires, we lose sight of what Jesus is trying to do in our congregations. I had a former church, and I do mean a former church, I'm not telling the story about you, this is not one of those, I have a friend.
00:13:35
Speaker
This is honestly a former church that I had that I was involved in where I literally would have people who would come up to me and instead of talking to me about what the spirit had told them that morning or what the music meant to them that morning, they would have conversations like this with me. You don't need to wear horizontal stripes. You're too thick. Yeah. That's why I don't turn sideways when I preach anymore. They would have conversations about the lighting. You need to turn down the light. Your hair's not thick enough. The light's shining off your head.
00:14:07
Speaker
That's a real problem, isn't it Elvis? Those are the kind of conversations we're having. I was thinking to myself, seriously, this is where we are as the body of Christ. You're more concerned about the way my head looks than you are about the way your heart looks. And see, that's where our problem comes in. We start turning our focus on everybody else. And before this is over with, I'm going to hopefully pray that you and I are drawing our eyes back in on ourselves and saying the same thing that the psalmist said, where he said, search me and try me and see if there be any wicked way about me.
00:14:36
Speaker
about me. Second thing that was drawn together was this, strong preaching. Strong preaching. So let me ask you this, who's responsible for strong preaching?
00:14:49
Speaker
Oh, y'all cheated, y'all heard the first sermon. Now the first sermon I had somebody go, God, I was like, nice Jesus answer. That's partially true. Yes, you see, God poured out his spirit when God's people pour out their prayers on behalf of the man who's delivering the word. If you don't like what's being preached up here week after week, whether it's me or Pastor John or Pastor Kyle or one of our other leaders, if you don't like what's being preached, then shut up and pray harder.
00:15:15
Speaker
Shut up and pray. You're going, that's not very nice. You're not supposed to say shut up. I'll say it again. Shut up and pray harder. Because I mean it. Pray harder. If you don't like what's being preached up here, then ask yourself, why am I not hearing what the spirit's saying through this word this morning? If I get up here and start to preach a sermon, you're going, man, first five minutes have been dry. Stop what you're doing. Pray right there in that moment. This morning, first service, I rewrote my sermon on the front row during the second song. Somebody was praying for me.
00:15:43
Speaker
Somebody was praying for me, and I want you to know, Kyle talked about it this morning, we talk about it regularly, this moment right here before we pray every Sunday is the most incredible moment of my week. It matches right up with that moment that she puts her arm around me every single service and prays over me. Because I take this responsibility very, very seriously. I am scared to death about what I'm gonna have to stand for and account for with God. If you don't like the preaching, then do something about it.
00:16:13
Speaker
If you can't pray, then offer to preach. Number three, it says that great grace was on all of them.
00:16:26
Speaker
Great grace was on all of them. God was pouring out his blessings. Many of us want God's blessings, right? I mean, none of us in here would say, no, I don't want to be blessed by God. But what you need to understand, there's two kinds of grace. There is the general or universal grace. What do I mean by that? The sun comes up tomorrow. It comes up on the lost, just like it does the saved.
00:16:45
Speaker
There are universal blessings that are poured out. The rain that came yesterday morning blessed everybody, even the lost people who would never profess Jesus Christ. That's the universal grace. But there is specific grace that is poured out only on his people and only when they are obedient and they're following of Jesus. So if you're sitting there going, man, my relationship with God is really iffy these days, ask yourself, what am I doing to make sure that I have laid my life on the altar and he's burning up the impurities that I have in me?
00:17:15
Speaker
What's he doing to remove those things?
Generosity and Ministry Involvement
00:17:19
Speaker
Number four, they held everything loosely. I had to confess this to the first service, I think many of them caught what I was saying, but is every, like over the last six months as I've kind of come back to the sermon over and over again and been preparing for it, I keep thinking when I read that about the 38 special song, Hold On Loosely. I just can't get it out of my head. Now some of you youngsters are going, who in the world is 38 special?
00:17:44
Speaker
But it's a great song and it kept thinking about it, but it's an entirely different meaning. This is a much more important meaning, okay? Why? Because this is not, this is not, remember we talked about this in chapter two when it was talking about this. This is not communism.
00:17:58
Speaker
Okay? Communism fails. Communism doesn't work. Why? Because it takes away ownership for people. They still had ownership as you're going to see in this story of their things. It was theirs to do whatever they wanted to with. But the point was that they had a proper view of their possessions. You want to know what it is? What you think you own, you don't. What you think you earned, you didn't.
00:18:23
Speaker
what you think you receive because of your good looks, good brain, good work, whatever, not the cause. I go back to the idea that you have received the grace of God. Now, I wanna use this illustration. I'm gonna use my man over here, Josh, all right? Thank you. You're wearing that UK hat this morning? I'll do it. All right, here we go. Let's say I walked up to Josh today after church and said, I'm gonna give you a million dollars, brother. I've been blessed.
00:18:52
Speaker
Got an amen from the wife, there we go.
00:18:56
Speaker
And right now, five or six of you are going, how do I become friends with Josh, right? I give Josh a million dollars. Next week we come to church and somebody walks up to me while Josh and I are standing there and says, hey, you remember that $50 you owe me? And I go, oh yeah, I forgot. Oh, I left my wallet at home. Hey Josh, can I just borrow $50 from you? I'll pay you back. Can I get you that $50 from you so that I can pay them? So that I can bless them because they need that $50. Josh looks at me and goes, $50, are you kidding me? I'll give you five.
00:19:28
Speaker
Now, if you're sitting there and you're overhearing that conversation, you know what's going on, you've got two problems. Number one, you're going, why in the world is Ridley giving Josh a million dollars? Because he doesn't deserve that. And the second question is, why in the world is being so stingy to only give five back? The holy God of heaven has given you everything you've got. Everything. He's given you his son, which you couldn't have possibly earned.
00:19:58
Speaker
And so when he looks at you and says, give back to me so I can do the ministry of the kingdom, how dare us be stingy? How dare us throw $20 in the plate and go, he should be okay with that. Let's not just talk about money, because I know when I talk about money, y'all get all tight lipped. And some of your heart beats skip a little bit, which is not me, that's the Holy Spirit by the way. Let's talk about your talents.
00:20:28
Speaker
You know, without Jesus, you would have no talent. Some of you don't have any talent anyway, but I'm just kidding, that's a joke, that's a joke. I would never know because you don't offer it. I forgot to tell you this sermon was gonna be personal today. But you would not have one ounce of personality, talent, skill, passion, or gifting if the Holy Spirit didn't give it to you.
00:20:57
Speaker
And so when he says, I really need somebody to help out in that whole and vacation Bible school, which prays God we don't have any, how dare us hold back? How dare us look at him and go, I just don't have time for you. So what's a proper perspective on our possessions?
00:21:19
Speaker
Well, he says that all of them were involved, so all of us should be involved. He said they did it all the time, which means there's no exemption, time-wise, on when you're supposed to offer everything you have back to God. And it says that it was everything they owned. Nothing was held back.
00:21:39
Speaker
whatever they owned, they were willing to sell to take care of people. Now keep in mind the situation. You remember what's going on. We talked about this in Acts 2. Everybody is there because it's Pentecost. Literally millions have come from all over the Middle East. The Jews, remember, were widespread over the Middle East because of the persecution and all those other things. So there are millions of them in Jerusalem for Pentecost. They get saved by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 3,000, 5,000. Remember those stories? And now they don't want to go back home because they don't have a church to go to.
00:22:10
Speaker
And so they're there with no means of making ends meet, no way to earn an income. And so they literally are at the mercy of the church. Now I wanna applaud you and I wanna pat you on the back. And guys, if you're a guest this morning, I really mean this. In all the churches I've ever been, this is the closest I've ever seen to a church that takes care of this kind of business. Our people go on our Grove Hill page and they go, hey, I need a chainsaw. Man, there's seven chainsaws at their door.
00:22:38
Speaker
Somebody says, hey, I've got to go into the hospital this week. For the next two weeks, they don't have to worry about food because casserole dishes are showing up at the front door. People pop on there and go, hey, I need somebody to pray for me. I need them to pray for the situation. I need to pray for my friend. And people, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, they're on it. We're good, but we're not there yet. How many of you have a sibling? I have my sibling here this morning. That's my sister right there.
00:23:08
Speaker
She wins the award for driving five hours to come to church with me this morning. And my cousins and my brother-in-law over here, all of them here visiting this morning, so thankful to have them here. If something happened that my sister needed something, you better believe I would drop what I was doing and get to her to take care of her. She would do the same for me. Now how much more important is it when we're talking about eternal relationships that the Spirit has given us with one another?
00:23:38
Speaker
It's one thing to take care of your brother and sister physically, something entirely different to take care of a brother and sister in Christ who spiritually will be spending eternity with you. And the reason that's so important is because the world is watching us to go, what are you doing to take care of one another? You talk about loving one another, show me you love one another. So I pray that we get to a day where there's never a moment where anybody in our congregation has a need that we are, boom, right there, right on top of it.
00:24:07
Speaker
I did that on purpose because three of you were going to sleep. Right there in that moment to serve them, to take care of them. I believe that often our talk and our excuses are just a smokescreen because we have an unwillingness to obey God.
00:24:24
Speaker
We throw up these diversionary tactics and think somehow we can get away from it. You see, when God's grace is at work as it is in our congregation and as it is in it's evident in so many of your lives, when God's grace is at work, people naturally become more generous. You see, when you realize how much has been gifted to you, you don't have a problem turn around gifting somebody else. Again, not just always financial, sometimes it's just can I give you an hour of just sitting and listening to you as you're going through your heartache.
00:24:52
Speaker
Can I go move your trash can while you're out of town on vacation? Gotta help take care of your dog, because he's running all over my yard, pooping in my yard. You didn't expect to hear that at church this morning, did you? This is why, I want you to hear this, this is why true followers of Jesus who don't give to the kingdom are an oxymoron.
00:25:17
Speaker
Let me say that to you again, true followers of Jesus who don't give to the kingdom are an oxymoron. Because if you're not given to the kingdom, you're not a true follower of Jesus. Not because I said it, because the word didn't. And don't try to give me this excuse, why give to a united way? But one united way that Jesus cares about, and that's his church.
00:25:42
Speaker
I give to the Red Cross. There ain't but one cross that Jesus cares about. It's the one he died on and the one that unites us. You want to bless all those other things? That's fine. Do it with your money, not his. So, let's get off that because I got to get to some heavier stuff.
Legacy of Encouragement and Christ-like Qualities
00:26:06
Speaker
I want to read the
00:26:10
Speaker
I wanna read the rest of the passage, but I wanna talk about Barnabas for a second. Barnabas is known as the son of encouragement, right? That's pretty cool. That was his legacy. Here we are 2,000 years ago, later, excuse me, 2,000 years later talking about a man who's known for being an encourager of other believers. So let me ask you this question. What is it you want to be known for? What is the legacy you want to leave?
00:26:40
Speaker
What if your brothers and sisters in this church, you know you well? What if they were given the opportunity to pick one word to describe your life? Would it be son of bitterness? Would it be daughter of gossip? Would it be a child of anxiety? Would it be a son of fear?
00:27:09
Speaker
What is it that describes your life? I've done hundreds of funerals over the course of my ministry, all the way from my own child at 17 months old up to people who were in their 80s. I can tell you that there is no more sad event than to be at the funeral of a believer where nobody can find anything good to say. And you can tell it because you can see they're struggling trying to come up with words.
00:27:38
Speaker
They're trying to pull out some evidence that proves they really were followers of Jesus. Guys, if people are having to search to find proof of your relationship with Jesus Christ, I would argue that it might not really be there at all. It should be so evident who we are, it should be pouring out of us all over the place. People should be able to look at you and go, that's the true follower of Jesus. So how do you want to be known? What legacy do you want to leave?
00:28:09
Speaker
All right, let's keep reading. Acts chapter five, verse one. Somebody tell me what the first word of this verse is for you in your scripture. Now, but, like I said, so let me remind you the reason this is important. In the original writings of the Greek, remember there were no chapters. There were no verses. This is one long story from Acts one to one all the way to Acts 28 at the end, okay? So there were no chapter breaks.
00:28:38
Speaker
This story is one big story. The story of all the people having everything in common, the story of Barnabas, and then it goes but, or now, depending on your translation, there are other words that are used there. The word but is a conjunction for those of you who haven't been in English in a little while, and it is a word of comparison and contrast. So what Luke is doing is he's setting up a story to say, here's all these great things that are happening as the result of people who are selling out their lives for Jesus Christ,
00:29:09
Speaker
But there's the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
Ananias and Sapphira's Lesson on Integrity
00:29:15
Speaker
This is what happens when followers of Jesus choose to compromise on their values. Let's read what happens. He says, but a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property. However, he kept back part of the proceeds with his wife's knowledge and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.
00:29:34
Speaker
Ananias Peter asked, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? Wasn't it yours why you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn't it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people, but to God. When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead and a great fear came on all who heard.
00:30:01
Speaker
The young man got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Tell me, Peter asked her, did you sell the land for this price? Yes, she said, for that price. Then Peter said to her, why did you agree to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out.
00:30:26
Speaker
Instantly, she dropped dead at his feet. When the young man came in, they found her dad, carried her out, and buried her beside her husband. At this point, these young men are going, holy cow, every time we walk in here, there's another dead body. What's going on in this place? And that's kind of joking, but it's kind of serious, because look what it says. Great fear came on the whole church and all who heard these things.
00:30:53
Speaker
This is an ugly, sad portrait of what happens when two people who betray the integrity of the church think they can get away with their sin. See, we like to pretend that if nobody sees, then nobody knows. But your sin, regardless of the nature of your sin, is always against a holy God. And that God knows your heart before you ever commit the sin. He knows it after you commit the sin. Your life is wide open before him.
00:31:25
Speaker
Even in the most Spirit-filled churches, Satan is at work. Even in this church, he's working. He's doing everything he can to disrupt the momentum of what's going on in this congregation. Every gospel preaching church will face opposition from Satan from the outside. Most of them will face opposition from the inside as well. And this is why we have to hold each other accountable.
00:31:51
Speaker
We need to be able to, out of love, look at a brother or sister and say, uh-uh-uh, don't you compromise on your faith because your choices hold consequences for us and this entire body. I've never been in a church where I saw a believer compromise on their faith that it didn't have at least an impact or ripple effect on somebody else around them, sometimes large groups of the congregation.
00:32:14
Speaker
Most often division in a church starts because somebody chooses to take the path of sin instead of following Jesus Christ and nobody stops them to hold them accountable. The story of Ananias and Sapphira is one that reminds us of how important it is that we keep our hearts aligned with Jesus in all situations.
Appreciating God's Holiness and Accountability
00:32:35
Speaker
Now, I want you to understand something. What's most frightening about this story is that Ananias and Sapphira were not punished for holding money back from Christ. Peter himself says, it was yours. You could have done what you wanted to with it. Even after you sold it, the proceeds were yours to do whatever you wanted to with it. The sin is not that they held back money, the sin was that they lied to Jesus about it. They lied to the Holy Spirit. They were punished for lying to God.
00:33:04
Speaker
And what made this so easy for them to do was not because they diminished the wrongness of their sin, it's because they diminished the holiness of their God. It wasn't because they looked at their sin and said, it's no big deal. It's because they looked at God and said, you're no big deal. You hear what I'm saying? You see, the problem is we can convince ourselves with the help of Satan that God really doesn't care so much about our sin.
00:33:32
Speaker
We can convince ourselves that it's no big deal to him, and so what happens is you and I get complacent. And when you and I get complacent about the awesomeness of our God, it's easier to be more comfortable with the vile nature of our sin. Many of you have read this story before. It's very much like the story of Achan over in Joshua chapter seven. And you see this incredibly extreme punishment that God hands down. And you might ask yourself, why such a severe punishment?
00:34:02
Speaker
Well, the answer is because God wanted his church to be pure. They were moving forward with incredible momentum and he was not going to allow anything to derail it. He was not gonna allow anything to get it off of its course. He did not want anything to stop the spread of the gospel. So he enacted this radical purification plan. So here's how I wanna end this message today. I wanna ask you this question.
00:34:32
Speaker
What if he did that with us? What if we quit looking at others' issues and put the spotlight on our own line? Pointed the finger at our own selfishness, our own apathy, our own greed. What if we really truly understood that our little white lies God does not think are little or white? Instead, he sees them as an affront to his holiness.
00:35:01
Speaker
He sees them as sin. What if your wandering eyes, your wondering heart, your wondering mind, your wondering loyalties were graded on the same scale as Ananias and Sapphira? You see, what's missing for many of us in our walk with Christ is that we've forgotten that He is holy and we are not.
00:35:26
Speaker
We are forgotten that everything about our relationship, everything about our relationship with Him depends on Him.
Humility and True Revival
00:35:33
Speaker
Depends on His glory, His purity, His righteousness, His holiness. And so when we begin to let that slip and we begin to lose our awe and our amazement at the purity of God, He slides off of His throne and we insert ourselves where we don't belong.
00:35:54
Speaker
And then we find it easy to say, my sin is no big deal. Many of you in this room have prayed for years, years that revival would come. That we would see revival in our churches, in our city, in our state, in our nation. We desire that kind of revival. We long for it. But revival can't happen until we properly see our sin.
00:36:23
Speaker
because God doesn't pour out revival on a people who have not humbled themselves before him. In the Old Testament it says this, my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face. God's holiness matters.
00:36:49
Speaker
And it's time we restore a fear, a healthy fear, like the one that possessed the church in Acts chapter four. And then we'll begin to see the spirit move the way he did the rest of the book of Acts.
Call to Repentance and Prayer
00:37:03
Speaker
Will you bow your heads with me? I'm gonna invite you just to, I don't usually do this, but I feel like I just need to today. I'm gonna invite you just to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed for a second.
00:37:14
Speaker
I just want to ask you some questions of self inspection right here.
00:37:22
Speaker
I said earlier, the psalmist prayed this prayer. The Lord searched me and tried me to see if there'd be any wicked way about me. Man, first service was just a sweet, sweet time of transparency. Is there anybody in here this morning who would just simply say, I recognize right now that I have personal areas in my life where I have chosen to compromise and to sin. If you would just lift your hand because I'm gonna pray for you. Amen, thank you, all over the place, thank you.
00:37:47
Speaker
How many of you would say, I know, I'm fully aware of the fact that my relationship with Jesus isn't where it needs to be, and that's because I'm not where I need to be. Amen. Amen. So here's what I'm gonna say to you. Completely out of love, completely out of a word of encouragement to you. The only thing that stands between you and your freedom is you.
00:38:17
Speaker
It's time to stop thinking as much for yourself and about yourself and start thinking more about who God is and what he desires for you. And that starts with a little word we know as repentance. Repentance. Just simply says, you're God, I'm not. You're holy, I'm not. You're perfect, I'm not. I need you, you don't need me. You just love me enough to die for me.
00:38:47
Speaker
Father God, this morning as we turn our hearts towards you and your voice, may we hear with complete clarity what you're saying to us. I pray that you would put the Holy Spirit's finger on every little area of our lives where we're still holding back from you.
00:39:04
Speaker
I pray that you would restore in us the fear of God that we need, the healthy fear that reminds us that it's only your grace that saves us. It's only your mercy that completes us. It's only your existence that gives us purpose and meaning. How dare us try to live life without you?
00:39:23
Speaker
So this morning as we sing and as we respond to this message, I pray that you would lead us to this altar, that you would lead us to that spouse that's got a broken relationship with us, that friend where we're not being the kind of friend we need to be. Maybe we're just gonna turn where we are right here at this chair and turn this in, altar and pray. Pray, pray all our hearts that we would become humble before you.
00:39:50
Speaker
and that we would receive the spirit that you want to implant in us that will lead us to change. This culture will not change because of what we do, it will change because of who you are. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.