Honesty is the Best Policy
Ekklesia: Discovering the Beauty of the Church • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsBe Honest with God
Notes
Transcript
Hook: Grim Tale of Annias and Saphira (10 min)
What? They died? That Escalated quickly! Did they die because they did not give everything?
No - Communism/Socialism is not in alignment with what the bible says - Its not biblical. The belief you do not own your work/product is not biblical - not in alignment with what the bible says. Taking it away and giving it to another is theft. Bible says that's bad, not good.
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
The early church was sharing but not requiring it. It came out the the desire to help others not the requirement to do so. No one said any of the things that belonged to him was his own… but they did belong to him.... and they were his own… but they shared with open hearts.
Look here at Peters conversation with Ananias...
While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
The Land, the money from the land, and the proceeds from the land were theirs to do with as they pleased.
So their death was not because they didnt give all the money… what was it then?
“You have not lied to man but to God”
What did they lie about? They presented money as if it was all of the proceeds like barnubus had, but they had not given all the money to the Church… they gave a portion of it.
Why would they do that?
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Temtation Algorithm
Temtation Algorithm
A little computer program that came into our system when we were marred by sin
Temtation Algorythm
Get Desire (lure and entice user)
Temptation and desire are not the same things - We can desire good things, but temptation is our trying to accoplish that desire outside the boundries (submitting to the moral law) of God
Desire Grow +1
While Desire greater than Submission to God
Get Sin
Sin and temptation are diffrent - Temptation is the preform of sin. It is the potetial sin. Sin does not become sin untill it is acted upon mentaly, physicaly, or in the attitudes of our heart
Think Ball - Potential Energy before dropped; Kinetic energy after drop; in fall.
Temptation is the predrop - all the potential of sin is there but not acted on. Sin is the ball dropped; even the act of releasing the ball, or the attitude deciding to drop the ball, but it has placed the temptation into motion.
Grow Sin +1
While Sin greater than Submission to God
Get Death
Death is seperation - Sin leads to seperation. Seperation between us and God (relationaly not positionaly once saved by grace); seperation between us and others (harmed relationships); seperation between us and ourselves (cant look at ourselves in the mirror); seperation beween us
Illistration:
The Desire
The Desire
For aninias and saphira what was the desire?
We dont entirly know, but we do know humanity dosen’t really change at our core.
We can imagine what they desired, because it would at least be similar to what we would desire...
They wanted to be known, to be popular, to be seen as generous, to be lifted up and encouraged by the new movement
are these bad things?
No they are not nessecarily evil.
God wants us to be known by Him (Rev 3:20)
He wants us to be joyful givers/ Generous (2 Cor 9:7)
He wants us to be encouraged (2 Cor 1:3-4)
The desires are not wrong - Looking for fufillment of these things out side the grid (the moral law) God has given is evil. We do it all the time, and dont even think about it but desire is step one in Anninas and Saphiras Death and paves the way to our own.
That desire not taken to God or relied on God for fufillment lead them to temptation
Finally that desire out weighed their submission to God and lead them to...
The Sin
The Sin
Sin means to miss the mark - they missed the mark in the perfection of God. That may not seem like a big deal, we miss the mark all the time. each time we miss the mark a life is required.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Everytime we miss the mark, dont live perfectly, ultimatly do evil, we are requiring a death to be made. Fortunatly for the beliver Jesus being fully God and fully man is that sacrifice for all the sin we have done, and ever will do… but it is not to be taken lightly.
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
again, keeping the land was not evil… selling the land was not evil... keeping any money from the sale was not evil… lying that it was all the money was evil… it was a lie.
They sinned by not telling the truth to the Church and ultimatly to God
The Death
The Death
Remember Death means seperation
For adam and eve in Gen 3 it was a seperation in many ways spritualy from God, relationaly from each other, humainy from rest of creation, between work and fufillment (toil), between celebration of our childrens birth and adding pain… sure there are more...
anninias it was a physical seperation of his body from his soul and spirt
When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
for Saphira, she was given an oportunity to come clean, but ultimatly her death was the same has her husbands
After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
A great fear came over the church - as you can imagine. It does not say that God has done that again, but there are other death repecussions that can come from us lying to God
Eternal Repecussions
Eternal Repecussions
We can lie to others - The pharassies (oponets of Jesus) would have been seen as Godly Men and Women.
We lie to ourselves all the time - One more wont hurt, I look good in these jeans, its ok to be nasty to others because ive had a hard day… but if we are the slightest honest, we know the truth.
We think we lie to God
We tell God “I love you”, but we don’t submit to God in obediance
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
We say God is our King, but we treat him like a consultant
We cannot lie to God for He knows all
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
It is not about what we do. Its about our relationship to Jesus by grace through faith
The mighty works dont matter - The relationship Matters
Yes - Our actions express the submission in our heart but that is a
if you go after obedience with out the relationship you are lying to yourself, thinking that you are fooling God.
What should we do?
1st
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Repent - Have a change of heart
Believe You cannot obey perfectly
Believe your way, on your own leads to death
Believe you need a Savior
Believe Jesus is God
Believe His death on the cross was entirely sufficient for your lack of perfection, not and forever
Believe He rose again and through that sealed the your eternity
Do this and you will be
you are saved from a today alone and trapped with your sin
you are saved from a tomorrow with out hope
You are saved from an eternity separated from God
Want to do this right now? - Pray (talking with God)
Father I know I am missing the perfect mark you have laid out for me and all creation. I know I run away and rebel against you. I cannot live this life perfectly.
Thank you for sending Jesus to do what I can not. Thank you for sending Jesus to live a prefect life and die in my place. Thank you for raising Him up from the grave that someday I can be with you too.
Thank you for restoring my relationship with you. I submit my life to you, but i dont know how to do it. Please show me and teach me how to grow into a life that pleases you
In Jesus Name - Amen
Make that decision now? Let us Know! Talk to an elder, Friend, chat in youtube, send me a message - Pastormag57@gmail.com
We want to encrougae and love you, help you take the next steps to living God’s way!
Then what?
Submit to God - Live His way - Not out of requirement or salvation, but out of joy, service and worship to Him
Need help - Talk/Pray with elder (online?) ; Email me Pastormag57@gmail.com
Bottom Line
Be Honest Before God
Be Honest Before God
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Small Group/ Personal Study Questions
We grow best in the community. When we gather and discuss God’s word in a safe environment we grow more like Him. If you are here at Crossroads we encourage you to join a Small Group and talk over the Questions below. The Questions in Bold, are great places for your group to start. The other questions are for further study. May God Bless you in your pursuit of Him - Pastor Neil
1) Have you ever gotten yourself into a mess? How did you get there? Have you ever back tracked and found where you first went wrong? Where was it? What happened?
2) Read James 1:1-18
3) Toward the end of the passage James talks about how we get ourselves into trouble. What is the timeline James lays out (vs 14-15)? Did those problems come from God? Why or Why not? What is the difference between desire and temptation? Is desire evil? Why or why not? if not, where does the problem come from? Have you seen this pattern in your life? where have you seen it? When something good happens where should we give the credit to?
4) From looking at this, do we have a tendency to lie to ourselves? Why or why not? if we do, how do we? Do we use this to trick others? How or why not? Can we fool God with this? How or why not? Are we, others, or God the most susceptible to being fooled by these lies? Why do you believe that? Can believers be fooled about their eternity? How or why not?
5) Read Matthew 7:21-23
6) What is Jesus saying here? What are the people who think they are God’s placing their hope in? What are we to place our hope in? Where in the bible would you find that?
Who needs to hear about the Good News of Jesus this week? Need help? Ask us, we want to help :)