NOV 22 2015 | Acts 5:1-11

Sea Change Church · "Acts 5:1-11" · Adam Stadtmiller · November 22, 2015
Acts 5:1-11
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Acts chapter 5 verses 1 through 11. All right. And Sean, where's Sean Butlin? If that dog doesn't be quiet. Actually, watch this. I'm gonna throw a Holy Spirit fireball at it. There we go. That's what I thought, dog. I'm just kidding. I didn't do that. It was a joke, okay? That is pretty effective. I wish I could do that with my kids. He just threw a Holy Spirit fireball at a dog and it stopped barking. That was amazing. If the dog barks again, will you close those windows, Sean? Thanks. Acts 5, 1 through 11. Wow. A powerful story and a scary story. I don't know what to do with Ananias and Sapphira. I just, I don't really like the story. It isn't kind of, when I think about God and the, and because Jesus is a big teddy bear for me.

We kind of hang out. We bro out and he's my buddy and God's my father and no matter what I do, he's there with me and for me. And, and then we got this story where people do some things that are unique and go against the spirit of what God is doing in a community. I think we need to really value when God is moving in a direction and people are agreeing in that. And there's a flow of unity in a certain direction. That's my job as the leader is to find where God is going. And like Brian said last week, where can we go that the God is not?

So we don't really need to search and seek after God, even though the scripture speaks about that. If you seek him, you'll find him, but he's, where can we go where he is not? It's recognizing him in the moment and in the culture of your life of where he is. And so my job is to recognize what he is doing amongst you, because a lot of the cues that I get are from you.

You tell me what God's doing in your life. You tell me where he's working. You tell me where he's moving. And I say, that's a great idea. We need to lean into that. Maybe it's prayer. Maybe it's working with people with mental illness. Maybe it's marriage and family therapy. Somebody spoke to me about that today. And I'm thinking, okay, that is an area we need to, we kind of need to lean into a little bit, I think. So I'm praying on that now all of a sudden.

But my job is to find out the direction that God is going and then to unify people around Jesus and his direction. Basically what pastors do besides take out the trash, clean, pick up chairs, make coffee. We do everything. Okay, by the way. But our job is to organize people around spiritual causes. And that sounds a little, it sounds a little stoic.

But to organize people around what God is doing in the world. And around especially what he's doing in this church. That's what religion is. People say, I don't believe in religion. I definitely believe in religion. I love religion. Religion is taking people and organizing them around God himself. It is taking people and calling them to a higher standard and calling them to a different way of life.

And religion can be what you make. It can be full of grace. It can be full of love. It doesn't have to be controlling. It doesn't have to be manipulative. I have a problem when we just want to throw something out. I like religion. I like Christianity especially well. Okay. And I like following Jesus. Jesus didn't have a problem with religion.

But I think sometimes we want to throw out this whole religion and say it's just relationship. Brian spoke about relationship last week. But I think it's also a blending of the two. Where we have those two. Coming here together as a body and creating unity. Because it's hard to create unity by yourself. It's hard to create unity by yourself. But when a group of believers come together, we see a powerful thing happening.

And so that is what is happening in this passage. Somebody goes against the spirit of what God is doing in the community. And this is a big deal to God. When somebody comes against that. Sean, would you do me a favor and close that back door behind there? I'm getting the high school group in my left ear. Thank you, my friend. So they go against this understanding that God is moving in a direction.

And somebody says, I want to go in the opposite direction. That's what happens with Ananias and Sapphira. And God wants to make it clear in this unique setting. And let's just understand this with the book of Acts. Acts is a unique church. I was talking to Brian Hardin this week. We went to lunch. And he said, you hear people. How many people have heard somebody say, I want to go to a first century church?

An Acts church, right? How many have heard somebody say, raise your hand, anyone? Brian? Bueller? Bueller? Okay, a couple. One of the things Brian... Thank you, D. Thank you. Laugh louder. No one's with me today. So there you go. Stay with me. I'm just going to preach to you. Great. I love it. He said, if people don't understand, they want certain parts of the story, but they don't understand the whole story.

First of all, you'd have to go live in something that looked like the first century under persecution and threat of death. Like, we want the first century church, but we don't want to live under persecution, the threat of death. Next, this unique church was sharing everything they owned. How many people want to sign up for that? No, I don't want that.

But we pick and choose. We have to also understand that when God disciplines this church, it was a unique thing that God was doing in that church. And I'm not saying that every time that something like this happens, this is the way that God works. But in this situation, God did. Let's read the story about this church that was being tested. Now, a man named Ananias, together with his wife, Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.

Now, remember, they had decided the congregation, they weren't told by the apostles, they weren't told by the church leadership to do it. The congregation, that means you, had made a decision, we were going to start selling all of our property, everything we own, and sharing it in a communal way. That was a decision that was not made by the eldership, that was not made by the apostles, but by the congregation.

It shows the power of a congregation. It shows the power of your responsibility and how you can change the culture of a church and the culture of an entire community by following in a way that honors Christ. What has God called you to do in this church? It says, so Ananias, together with his wife, Sapphira, thought that they would get on board with this.

Great, great, Ananias and Sapphira. And they also sold a piece of property. That is benevolent and it is awesome. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself. Let's underline that because we're going to get back to that. But brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. Then Peter said to him, and where he got this knowledge, I don't know, but I'm sure God was just speaking to his heart.

He said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received from the land? Now it's easy to look at this and say that he was upset that he didn't get all the money given to the church. What we're going to see is that it was completely up to Ananias whether he was going to give 1% of that, all of it, 50% of it.

And the sin was not in him holding back some of the money because we're going to see that Peter says to him that that was completely acceptable. It was up to him completely. The fact is, is that he was deceitful and deceptive in it because he wanted in a prideful way for people to think something about him that wasn't true. That he was more benevolent.

He was able to keep this, but he lied and it says that he deceived the Holy Spirit. Now verse 4, this is where we know this. Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And that statement right there is saying this. It was yours. Do with it what you want. I want to say that that is the difference between New Testament giving and Old Testament giving.

In Old Testament giving, God said you had to give how much? 10%. In New Testament giving, you were completely free from that law. Now God's laws are set up for a reason and they work. But we are free from having to live under that law. So in the New Testament, it is no longer 10%. It is whatever you choose. See, God no longer tells you in the New Testament what you should give.

He leaves it completely up to you. That is probably one of the most free areas you can be as a believer is in regard to giving. You'll see in this that God says as we go through this, you go figure it out and then come back and let me know what you want to give. He no longer is in the business of telling you how much, when, where. It completely is up to you and up to your spirit and as we'll see up to your heart.

I want to do this. Imagine Christmas. Imagine Christmas and God is there and you're getting God a Christmas present and God comes over and on Christmas Eve he says, Hey look, I want the new Gucci man bag. Okay? I want a Gucci man bag and some matching slippers. Okay? That wouldn't be a bad idea. Would it just roll around the house in your satin PJs with your Gucci man bag and that's a bad image.

And if you don't give that to me, I will be displeased with you. Okay? This is the law. Gucci man bag, Gucci slippers. Okay? And they have to show up in this way on Thanksgiving morning and if you don't do it, you are breaking the law. That was the Old Testament. That is how the Old Testament worked. This is how God wanted it. We had these sacrifices.

He said you have to give it this way. Do you think God wants to have gifts given to him that way? Do you? It's not a gift, is it? Now people still did that and God still honored it but God wanted to be free from that. God doesn't want to have to have you have to do something for him. He wants to have a relationship in freedom where you come up to him and this is how it works in the New Testament.

Go on the other side of the cross. Imagine this is the cross. Now we're on the other side and Jesus has fulfilled all the requirements of what? The law. There is no law in giving. There is probably no more place that you can be free, more free than in giving these days. That's why I don't have you sign anything on the card and sign on the dotted line.

It is up to you and that box represents people that said I want to do something with God. I want to bless God. There was no command. There was no nothing. And so on this side of the cross God says, Hey Christmas is coming up and you say to God, What do you want? He goes, I don't know. Surprise me. No, but I want to know how much do you want because if I know how much you want then I can click off the box, God.

I can click it off and feel good like I did my bit. And he's like, No, no, come on, dude. Just surprise me. Whatever you want. Or dude or she or whatever you want to say. Do that. You are completely free to get me whatever you want and if you don't get me anything, I still love you. You're so, you are the apple of my eye. I care about you so much. I just want to hug you.

If we just want to spend time together, you don't have to get me anything. But God, I want to get you something. Well, then it's up to you. And then this thing goes back and forth and God says, You just do whatever you want. You go decide on your own. Actually, I know that we want to seek God in all things. But from what I can see, and I'll show you some scriptures here in a second, this is one thing where God is like, You know what?

Do this one on your own. Don't seek me on this one. Maybe. But if you do it on your own, it's totally cool and I'm going to bless it. Just surprise me. And let's see what you do and be cheerful about it. That's giving in the New Testament. That's giving. And that is how the entire thing is changed. It has become so free. And the thing is, is we are removed from the law.

So Ananias and Sapphira are not being punished or God took their life. There's not that discipline because they broke some law against God's idea of what they should have been giving. They were completely not under compulsion. But instead, they lied and they were breaking what God was doing in the community. God wanted unity in the community. And he wanted people, they were going in a direction and it was sacred.

And it says in the scripture that power and grace were coming from the unity. There's power when a group of people who follow Christ come together and say, we will do this together. We're all on board. And so we see that here in the scripture. It says in verse 4, didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal?

Look at that. Whose disposal was it at? Theirs. Completely at their disposal. Everything you have is at your disposal. God doesn't need it. And I'm not even sure he wants it. You know what God wants? He wants your heart. He wants your heart. God doesn't need your money. Okay? The church doesn't need your money. This church will succeed and I believe that whether you give or not, God is still going to have his way in this church.

But I believe there's an anointing and a blessing that comes when a church says we are going to work together to go after certain initiatives and it releases power and grace as we saw. It says, what made you think of doing such a thing? That's a great question. I think the Lord has to ask me that on a regular basis about a lot of different things. What? What made you think of that?

I want to say, Satan himself, Satan can only be in one place at once, right? He's not omnipresent like God. We tend to make Satan like God. Satan is not God. He's a created being. He can be in one place at one time and the scripture talks about where he lives. Where does God live? Everywhere. Everywhere. Where he dwells. His name dwells in the temple. But only his name.

Not even his presence but it's only part of his presence. The enemy, Satan, is a created being and can only be in one place. But it was so important that Satan was actually focusing on this one couple. I want to say that Satan cannot be everywhere. You have to get that, you have to realize, we have to keep giving Satan the attributes of God. He is not all-knowing.

He can make mistakes. He can be fooled. There's a whole bunch of things that he cannot do because he is not God. But it was important enough that Satan himself wanted to destroy this church. And so Satan himself attacked two members in the congregation. That spooks me a little bit. Ananias and Sapphira. Thank God that God watches over us completely. But they gave into it.

It says, didn't it belong to you? And it goes down and it says, it wasn't the money at your disposal. What made you think of doing such a thing? Just on a separate note, maybe there's something you're doing right now. What made you think of that? Maybe it's time to change. What's making you think of that? Where are you getting that idea from? Not every idea comes from you.

You know, we do fight against the spirits of principalities of darkness. And they will come and give you ideas that oftentimes we'll think that's a good idea. What good idea is not really a good idea that you're following right now and needs to be changed? Think through that. I know there's some of them. This scripture convicted me. There's one area of my life I thought, what made me think of that?

You know, I don't know what made me think about it, but I know what the scripture says and I know I can change it. You have not lied to just human beings, but to God. That's a big deal. We have to realize this. Even with Jesus, the cross and the goodness and how much God loves us, he's still God and he's not to be trifled with. We tend to trifle with God and I will be 99% on grace and love but in the end, he's God and we need not to trifle with him and it's okay to have a fear of God.

I've had twice in my life where I've had to run out of a room because I was in worship and the presence of God showed up so strong. Once I jumped behind a couch, Bryce was there with me, Candice. We were up at a Joshua Project retreat. I jumped and hid behind the couch and then I ran outside and then another time where I felt God was just going to crush me and I was at an altar and I felt like he was going to kill me.

It was like, and it was just, and it wasn't like he was threatening me. It was just that he was so awesome. I just had to go. I just couldn't be there. I had to, you know, and you see this in the scripture. John, Jesus' best friend in Revelations, falls that, you know, terrified of Jesus. Jesus is his best friend but Jesus shows up that time with a sword coming out of his mouth so it looks a little different than the last time he saw him.

He's terrified. We need to take God seriously. We need to realize that when we sin, it's a big deal. Now, I'm 99% grace, all that, and 100% grace but let's take God seriously. Maybe there's some areas you think, goodness gracious. Maybe, not that you have to be afraid of God because there's a lot of people that preach fear of God constantly and we've probably overdone that but let's not forget who he is.

Let's not forget who God is and that he's worthy to be cared for. He's worthy to be bowed down to. He's worthy of our sacrifice and our praise and he is God but he's also your father and he says, I love you and he reaches out and he's willing to send his son. You want to know how generous God is? Let's talk about generosity. He sent his son to die on a cross.

You can't outdo that. There's no more generous of an act in the world that you can think of than to send your own child for the sins of others, to die innocently. That's the generosity of God. That's the generosity I want to model my benevolence upon, my generosity upon. That's the bar that we go to. When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. You wonder if just, did God kill him or did he just get so aware of who God was that he died?

It didn't say that God killed him. It just says that he heard it and died. People die all the time when they hear things. You know, they hear, oh, this happened or that happened or there's some news. All of a sudden they have a heart attack and die. You know, it didn't say that I see here that God killed him. And great fear seized all those who heard that it happened.

Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, they carried it out and they buried him. About three hours later, which is interesting, the same amount of time was it, was, oh, I don't know, better not say that because I'm not sure. About three hours later, his wife came in not knowing what had happened. It's good to be in the know, right? Need the info, as Dr. Evil says.

No one wants? Okay, forget it. Peter asked her, tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? Yes, she said, that's the price. Peter said to her, how could you conspire to test the spirit of the Lord? Listen, you could hear a pin drop. Listen, the feet of the men who buried your husband at the door are at the door and they will carry you out also.

That's pretty heavy. That's full on. I mean, on occasion, the Bible freaks me out a little bit. At that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. Did God kill her? It didn't say it in the scripture here. He fell down and died. And the young man came in. I think it's interesting. They kept saying the young man. The young man came in and finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

It doesn't mean they didn't spend eternity with God or weren't saved or that God doesn't love them any less. They just died because God needed to cleanse and keep clean what he was doing because it was so important and we are here today because of that. You see, God will clear the wheat from the chaff when he needs to. I think the church in the world right now, the sheets are being shook and it's a good thing.

Like Brian said, you know, the church in France, this might be a window where they begin to pray and revival comes. I grew up in the Catholic church and let's say in the last 20 years, some things have come out that have shook the sheets. Shook the sheets. I grew up, my whole family's Catholic. They love Jesus. Loved, know Jesus. Not just Catholic, but they know Jesus and the sheets have been shook and I pray for that church on a regular basis.

I pray for our church. God is shaking the sheets and sometimes because things contract doesn't mean it's bad. It says that the church is becoming smaller. I don't care if Starbucks puts Christmas on their cup. If you're not Christian, I don't care if you put Christmas on the cup. I'd rather have you not put Christmas on the cup. Putting Christmas on the cup and then when the financial model changes that you take it off, now all of a sudden we're going to remove it because the financial model changes and it's not making as much money or it might offend somebody.

I don't want it on the cup. Please take it off. You know, the amount of people that no longer are saying we are Christian now, thank you. Because now it's going to cost you something to be a Christian. You're going to get stereotyped. You're going to get, you know, persecuted. We see it happening in the world today. Are you a Christian? People bringing guns in.

See it happening in Syria. People being beheaded. Say, are you a Christian? And it says like the martyrs that went before him like it speaks about in Hebrews that were willing to be sawed in half, they would not deny Jesus. You see, Jesus is, is, is, I would say, clarifying and concentrating the church. You see, it might be shrinking, but it's becoming more powerful.

There's nothing wrong with contraction when you have God in the mix. Because God takes you, he wants unity. He doesn't want a bunch of people to say, yeah, we're Christian, yeah, we're Christian, put Christmas on this, put Christmas on that, Merry Christmas. I don't care if it's a Christmas parade, if Jesus isn't part of it. I just don't care. I'm not going to, and by the way, I'm not going to spend my time fighting that battle.

What I would rather do is teach people how to be real Christians in the world and make a difference. That when you see a Christian, you know it. There's just something about that person and they start to remind me of other believers. They start to remind me of Christians. Don't call anything Christmas. Say happy holidays all you want. I don't care. But if you're a Christian, speak up for Jesus when you need to speak up for Jesus.

I decided this year no more Merry Christmas for people. I'm going to say, you know, I want to give you a Christmas blessing. That's it. Who's going to say, no, I don't want a Christmas blessing. That's my new thing. I'm going to try it out this year. Christmas blessing. Maybe you can join me. Hey, a Christmas blessing for you. Get my coffee. Hey, thanks so much.

A Christmas blessing for you. I don't want a Christmas blessing, man. I want a holiday blessing. Okay, I'll give you a holiday. You can have that one too. Great fear sees the whole church and those who heard about it, these events. Value unity. Here's what happened. They went against what God was doing in the church and it was so crucial that God allowed them to die because I don't know if he killed them.

We tend to think that he killed them but they just died and maybe because it was so powerful and so awesome and maybe the God's presence just showed up in that moment because if you stood in front of God, you'd just be vaporized. You couldn't even, Moses, you couldn't even look at his face. The glory of God. If you stood, only through Jesus can we spend time with God.

He's so perfect. You know, if you stood in front of God, it's like being in the middle of an atom bomb. You snuffed out. You get that, right? If you just show up in front of God, you don't just burst in the door. Hey, hey, only because of Jesus can we go boldly before the throne of God because of Jesus because before that it was like keep out and be careful but God doesn't want that.

He wants to be with you. He wants to hug his children. He wants to hug his creation. He wants to love you deeply and so through his son, he allowed his son to be crushed that he might have that unity with you and so they're there and I just bet the presence of the Lord just snuffed him out. Just God being there. He didn't even have to do anything. He just shows up and they're out.

I don't know but let's not ascribe to things that the scripture doesn't say happened. Look at it. Wrong interpretation. God wants your money. Wrong interpretation. God don't need your money. Wrong interpretation of this verse. God is a harsh dictator who demands all that you have and if you don't fully comply, he will kill you. Okay? Although we live like that sometimes, right?

If we don't do exactly what God wants, he's going to snuff me out. Okay? God wanted to snuff you out. You'd already be snuffed out. Okay? This story has to be understood in the context of what God was doing in a unique community. This is a unique community. Do you get that? This is a new generation in a church in La Jolla that God has his eye on that is unique from any other community in the world.

That God has his own desires for and hearts and there's a unity happening and we want to get on board and do everything through the bonds of peace to maintain what? Unity. Unity. Unity. Few things can destroy a church like being easily offended or holding on to your own opinions like they're biblical truth. Myself included. Being easily offended is a spiritual weakness.

And some of us, I've met people, that's their whole deal. Like being easily offended. We live in a world right now that's easily offended. Everyone's offended. Everyone's offended. We need to get some thicker skin, I think. This is a unique church and so the core movement of God in this community of faith was a spirit of unity. Verse Acts 432 from last week.

All the believers were of what? One heart and mind. The displeasure of God towards Ananias and Sapphira had to do with a spirit of deception and pride within the community. That was the deal. That would have dismantled the power and grace that God was working at within the community. That the actions of two people would have dismantled, begun the dismantling, which we see in Israel over and over again.

It just takes one person to come up with a really bad idea before it takes a nation. Germany, 1931. The brown shirts. One guy. Some really bad ideas. Another person gets on board. Another person gets on board. Then you have the SS. Another person gets on board. Pretty soon, you have housewives that are going to the rallies and putting their hand up and saying, we are the most amazing race in the world and everyone else should be killed.

Where does that start? With an idea. Starts with an idea. And so, there was an idea that was planted in Ananias and Sapphira that we can put on pretense. That we can have pride, but we can keep back some of it ourselves. God sent you. It was all yours anyways. What a ridiculous reason to die. But they wanted to be somebody in the church. They wanted to be like everyone else.

They wanted to be seen. God doesn't want that. He wants hearts. And we'll see this here. It says in Acts 4.33, we know that this power and grace was at stake because when they gave all their possessions together, which was a decision of the congregation, not of the leaders, with great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

First thing, when the church steps up and unifies around supporting what the church is doing, it releases the leaders to go about the work of the kingdom. When Brian Harden left this church last week, he said, I go all over the world. I don't know if you know, but he has 150, I found out, to 200,000 listeners a day. He could have gone, he had invites from some of the most well-known churches in this area and in the world.

Invites to go be a part of that. He said, I want to come here because I have a relationship with you and I want to do things out of relationship. And a lot of times when I go to bigger churches, he says, you're just the next guy. There's been another woman that was there the week before and it's just, oh yeah, here's the next one. We got a whole bunch of these.

But for us, it was a big deal. And I love that most people in the church didn't know what he does or how he does it or what he does. But he said to me afterwards, he said, you know, looking at where you guys are, you were poised to strike for the kingdom. He said, where you are as a community, the unity you have, what's gathering around you, the way that you've been financially responsible as a church.

He says, you're not chasing debt to try to pay for this massive morgue, on and on and on. He said, you were poised to actually do the things God's called you to. That was so encouraging. This guy sees a lot of churches. He said, in the top percentage, 1%, 2% of churches that actually don't have to go chase after all these things so they can get about what they're supposed to do, we are in a position to do it.

Now God, lead on. God, lead on. And I was encouraged by that. So it says here in verse 433, with great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all. That means all of you. Power and grace. How far can a church go on power and grace? Generous. You know how generous God is?

With his gifts, with his goodness, with his thankfulness for you, with his kindness. He's generous. He's just overly generous. That is the spirit of God. I want to give you more. I want to give you more. And I'm not just talking financial. I just want to be with you. I want to give you myself. He doesn't want to just give you. These churches that they just talk about, you give and then you're going to get money from God.

It so limits what God wants to give you. God's eternal. He wants to give you more than money. He wants to give you himself for eternity. You get that. That's how much he wants to be with you. That's how much he loves you. You are the apple of God's eye. You need to remind yourself of that and convince yourself. Here's a rule for modern day giving. Don't give from a place of compulsion.

God puts giving completely in your court as a modern day believer. 2 Corinthians 9, 7. Each of you should give what? What does it say there? What you have decided in where? Your heart. Where does giving come from? Your heart. We keep living from the minds because our hearts have been broken over and over again. I believe that the human heart because of things like the breakdown of the family, the breakdown of relationships, that we live in a place that we live in a world that breaks hearts.

And so we shut our hearts down and we live completely from our mind. And this is why our minds are overloaded. This is my theory. Okay? I believe that our minds are overloaded because we've shut our hearts off. We're tired of having when our dad left at 4 or 3 or your wife cheated or whatever that thing is, all of a sudden you say this place is off limits. Completely off limits anymore.

So I'm going to live from here. The problem when our mind gets detached from our heart is our mind overloads. And so we see a rise in things like anxiety because we know God in our hearts and our hearts are the drug, so to speak, of knowing God in our hearts and having peace in our hearts that can cull the thoughts of the mind. You see, it is our mind. And I'm not speaking against modern medicine and some people need to be on that.

That's not a statement about that. But I believe the meteoric rise that we are seeing, even in children, four years old, three years old, everyone's OCD, ADD, I mean, and some of those diagnoses are, I'm not speaking against them, but it is a meteoric rise. Why? I just believe, this is my theory, because as the scripture talks about the heart, we're no longer, we have broken hearts.

And so we live from a mind that gets overactive with fear, with anxiety, with worry. And if we can sit in and allow, rest back into, know the Father's heart and allow the heart, the Father into our hearts, to give peace to our hearts, where does peace dwell? In our hearts. We will be changed. I believe that we, I want to live from the heart and see our hearts restored.

And I really want to see, one of the things that I feel like this church is called to is to help people to begin to live from their hearts again, that our minds might be healed. That the tide of mental illness will be broken. because we begin to live from our hearts. Just do a scripture, go to Google and put in verses on the heart in the Bible and then just do a study and see if what I'm saying does not make sense to you as you read through God's word.

It doesn't come from a place of compulsion. It says, what you have given in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. When something, was something compelling Ananias and Sapphira to give out a compulsion, giving's a heart issue. We already spoke about verse five. We're going to go to the final thing here and kind of come in for a landing.

I was talking to my daughter this week. We're driving and she's been begging me to take her to Harry's for breakfast. So we went this morning to Harry's. I want to go to Harry's for breakfast. I said, okay. I said, if you do go, I'm going to get you the waffle special. Okay? Because the waffle, the Belgian waffle is phenomenal. Matter of fact, I didn't get the Belgian today.

I accidentally got the non-Belgian. Oh, darn it. I went with a couple guys from the church too. Adam, that was a mistake. I should have gotten the, there's another Adam in the congregation now. So we went there this morning. But we were driving there this week and my daughter says, you know, I just, I should read my Bible more. I should, I should pray more.

And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we, there's a word in there I really don't like. Should. I said, let's, let's remove, as soon as that should thing comes in, spiritual life is not fun anymore. I want church to be fun. I want my, God is fun. I woke up about a week or two ago with a song going through my head. God is glorious and God is fun. I can't make that up.

I'm not writing that. I'm not going to sit down and write that because that's not my experience of God. God is a benevolent dictator that wants me to jump over some, some stuff and dance a little bit. And if I do a good job, he'll hug me. Okay. And I'll get a $20 bill or whatever it is. But God is glorious and God is fun. And so I said to her, I said, look, we're not going to live in shoulds or coulds.

I said, how about wants? Do you want to pray more? Yeah. I said, okay, let's take our shoulds. Let's throw our shoulds out and let's go to want. If you want to pray more, what should you do? Hey, figure it out. If you want to worship more, what should you do? Right. You want to read God's word? Read God's word. You can have what you want. We don't always get what we should.

Let's, let's, let's be a people of want. And you know what? When we want God, it tends to want more God. And the more we have relationship, inviting him to all the areas of our life, did any, I invited God into my sin this week. Oh, you know where God wants to be? He went on the cross and all the sin went on Jesus. Lepers would come to him and say, here, here's a wound.

Touch it. But what do we tend to do? Oh, I'm wounded. Okay, go away God until I feel a little bit better. You know, Adam and Eve hid in the bushes. Look, God, Jesus died on the cross. You don't have to hide in the bushes anymore. Come to him like a leper. Show him your wounds. And even in the midst of your sins, say, Jesus, touch this. And my favorite four letter prayer is what?

Does anybody know what it is? Help! Help! Anybody else pray that? I've been praying, ever since, that came to me when I was preaching up here. I've been praying that, you know, I'm glad that, you know, some of you raised your hand. Help! Help! Yesterday, I got this thing, I don't know what to do. I said, God, I don't know. I can't craft a good prayer. I'm not Billy Graham.

Francis of Assisi. You know, people are going to pray my prayers. But I got, you know, 500 years after I die, they're going to pray my prayers. The prayer of Adam. No. It's going to be a four letter prayer. It's going to be one. It's going to say, help! Help! God, I just need help. I just need help and grace. Let's say, sin is contagious. First of all, let's get to wants.

Sin is contagious. Like the unity that was spreading rapidly in the early church, the power and the grace, sin can easily become a collaborative effort. We will collaborate on sin. And humankind has shown that. Ananias and Sapphira, I put, if you go above to the notes just a little bit, it says, they were free to experience God, but you're also free to put yourself outside of a window of his blessing.

You see, the rich generosity that this church was doing was opening windows of God's grace and blessing. Just, you're free, you are free to put yourself, imagine a train of God coming down the tracks, and if you want to jump in the middle of that track and just experience the full weight of God's train hitting you, you can do it. It's a choice. It's a choice.

Do you want it? My problem is I want too little. My thing has never been that I can't find God. I just haven't dealt with that. I have, I've rarely asked myself, where's God? Other people deal with it. I have my own things. We all have our different stuff. I've rarely asked, where is God? The question that has always haunted me is, do I really want all that he's offering me?

Am I happy at B average? Do I really want to live at that next level? Because it might take sacrifice and I can't have what I want. But to put myself in the middle of God's grace and say, God, just run over me with all of your power. Obliterate me. Annihilate me with your grace and your love. And Ananias and Sapphira said, I don't want that. I want everyone to see when I walk forward with this deed of land and all the people what they think.

Because what you think really matters, right? Because the thoughts that you think are going to last for eternity. No. But we live our lives for other people's thinking. We post on Facebook. We do whatever we can so that everybody can think what God thinks didn't matter to them. And they took themselves outside of that rich blessing of God. There's so many ways.

Whatever you sow seeds in, you will be blessed. I have four 20-something and 30-something women right now that are actively pursuing time to hang out with my 13-year-old. To say, we want to spend time with her. Three of them are here right now. We want to spend time with her because she's cool not only, but we once said, I've been looking for girls to disciple.

I've poured my entire 20s into other people's teenage children. And you know what God has said to me? Now you can have it back. Because at a certain point, Dad, what? I'm the most amazing person in the world. She doesn't want to listen to me anymore. Okay? I wrote some books, Lily, on parenting. Have you read them? You should. Really good. But she seems to care a lot about what Molly thinks and Kelly and Rebecca and Jen, my assistant, who puts pictures of them on Facebook because I picked her up after school and Jen, my assistant, who's so godly, took my daughter down and they hung out at the tide pools together because God said, you put, you sowed into here and what you sow, you will what?

Reap. I have godly women. Those are, I just named four godly women. Okay? None of us are perfect but godly women that want to pour their lives into my 13-year-old. Right. Praise the Lord is right. Where you sow, you will reap. You will throw yourself, and look, that's 10, I'm 20 years removed from a youth pastor. 15 years removed. But God is restoring the years of the locusts that were eaten away from my life and my daughter is being blessed by that.

Cast yourself before God. Cast your talent, your time, your treasure, just cast everything before him and see if it does not come back because God loves a generous giver, not just of your money, but of what does he want, where were those decisions made? Right. Because the decision of Ananias and Sapphira, it said, was in their where? Their heart. Give them your heart.

Give them your heart and see if your heart doesn't fix your mind. You give God your heart and see if it doesn't fix your mind. They were tested. Final verse is out of Malachi. This is an Old Testament thing. It says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. This is an Old Testament understanding that there may be food in my storehouse. Test me in this, God says.

Now, Peter had said to them, why did you test the Lord? So he must think, you know, hey, why did you test him? He wasn't testing what God said to test them in because God in Malachi had said, hey, when it comes to giving, test me. See what I can do. He asked to be tested. The thing that they were testing, besides God's patience, they were testing the spirit of the Lord.

And whatever the spirit was happening was this. The spirit was moving in unity. The spirit was moving in generosity. The spirit was moving in grace. The spirit was moving in power. The spirit was moving in evangelism. There was a power that was flowing out of this church and they tested that spirit. And when they did, the presence of the Lord was so strong that they fell down dead.

It's not so scary anymore when I read this scripture because I see a God that wants my heart and he wants yours. Give yourself to him. I don't care if you give a penny to this church. I think if we're going to be powerful as a congregation, we all need to get on board. But ultimately, your heart matters so much more. Start with your heart. Just start with your heart.