The Tongue (July 26th, 2026)

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I thank you for ministering to our hearts and our minds today. Father, I pray for the classroom workers as they move from this place to the next. Give them a double portion of your anointing as they teach our children. As they teach the next generation of the church. Prepare the hearts of the children. Father, give them grace and mercy this day. We thank you, we praise you, we give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen. You may be seated. Let the kids start moving. Some who are excited, some who are not excited. It's a mixed bag today. Guys, I promise this will be the last message I preached like this. I'm going to wrap up the past two weeks into one good week, okay? Like, listen, the past two weeks, I've loved the messages, and I thought I kind of skated around what I needed to say. So we're just gonna say it this week. Is that okay? Amen. Alright. So the thing that I want to talk about this morning, um, first of all, can you pull up my sermon graphic for me? I gotta tell the story, cuz. Okay. So it's yeah, it's a little strange, right? I just want to tell you that it is the least strange of the versions that existed. Alright, so I, when I when I put my sermons together and I get all of my notes and I do all of my things, I will um I will have AI create the sermon graphic for me. The first one that we had looked like something you might see on a website you don't want to find on somebody's phone. Does that make sense? It was wildly inappropriate, and I thought to myself, I would cause somebody to have a stroke if I used that. And so I begged it to make me something a little more tasteful, and that's what we got. I still think it missed the mark, folks. But it's where we ended up. So I want you guys to prepare your hearts for this because this is what we're really going to talk about this morning. There are few things in the world that are smaller than our tongues, yet there are few things that are as powerful. Amen. Can we agree to that? For the past two weeks, we have had the same conversation, and I think we need to address it very directly. Tongues have started wars. Tongues have started churches. Amen. We've seen tongues that have shattered lives, we have seen tongues that have brought healing. We have seen tongues that have spoken life, and we have seen tongues that have spoken death. Amen. And I need to say it very plainly that sometimes you don't have to carry a sword to kill somebody. Sometimes all you need are your words. Because our words can be devastating in the face of adversity. And I'm really struggling because I think that the church is struggling with words, but it's not really the words that hurt us. It's the heart attitude. The words come from a place of unrest or a place of hurt or a place of frustration, but they aren't always what we need. Sometimes words will leave wounds that time will never heal. Has somebody ever said something to you that you are still thinking about today? Said something to you that maybe didn't make you feel good and you are still living with that today. The devil doesn't always need your hands in order to destroy somebody. Sometimes he simply needs your words. See, God is after more than what we just say while we're in the building, right? Because I know this for the most part, when we walk into the building, we are really genuinely kind people, right? Most of us are genuinely kind people when we walk into the building. The problem is when we leave the building and the heart attitude changes. Because I told you guys this. If you put me in a room full of women, I may never say a swear word. But you put me in a room full of men, who knows what's going to come out of my mouth? We do the same thing when we walk into church. Amen. God bless you, right? And when we leave the church, I can't believe them. Is it true? Can you imagine living like they live? Can you imagine doing the things that they do? I think the problem is, is the church has gotten really good at identifying sin that we don't live in. Right? Because, see, if you do something that I don't do, it's easy for me to call it out. But if you call out the sin that I'm living in, it makes me uncomfortable. Right? The church has gotten really good about pointing out the sin that they don't live in. See, Jesus never told us to watch our vocabulary. I'm not justifying speaking ill things, I am not justifying having foul language. What I'm saying is, is he said, watch your heart. Because we know that whatever fills our heart overflows from our mouth. How many of us have ever said something that we didn't mean? Typically, your heart is feeling a certain way, right? Have you ever said something you did mean but didn't mean to say it? Here's something I've learned. Don't say it in front of a kid if you don't want it repeated. Right? Because if you say it in front of a kid, and here's the best time, this is my favorite part. You know when it comes out? Sunday morning. Isn't it the truth? I can tell you, if you have kids in this church, your kids have told me something about you. It's true. Because when they my mommy said, it's true. The problem is, is a lot of times that honest stuff from comes from a place that our heart is in that is not healthy, good, or fruitful. Matthew 12, 34. We used this one last week. We're gonna do a couple of these over the past three weeks. It says, You brood of snakes, how could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever whatever is in your heart determines what you say. Jesus looks at the Pharisees and he essentially says to them, You don't have a speech problem, you have a heart problem. Whatever lives in your heart determines what you will say. See, the mouth is simply the microphone of the heart. Right? We speak the things that we feel, we speak the things that we live, versus speaking the things that will glorify the kingdom of God. Now, I'm gonna give you some truths, and these aren't gonna feel good for a lot of us. A person with a harsh tongue often has an angry heart. A person with a harsh tongue often has an angry heart. A person with a negative tongue, anybody know any negative people in their lives? All they do is, woe is me, I can't ever get ahead. It's always somebody else's fault, somebody else's fault. A negative tongue often has a fearful heart. They're fearful of failure. Something so simple. I learned this a long time ago. I don't fail. I either succeed or I learn and I move on, right? If something bad happens in my life, I'm not excited about it, but I look at it as an opportunity to grow and move on. This is one of my favorites. A person with an overreactive tongue. Anybody that just says the first thing that comes to their mind? Yeah? They have an unsettled heart. They have a heart that is constantly bouncing back and forth between all of the emotions that they're feeling. A person with a boasting tongue. Anybody ever met that person that brags all the time about everything? Everything they do is bigger and better than everything everybody else does. They have an insecure heart. Their heart posture is guided by what makes them look good. A person with a filthy tongue, Lord forgive me, is a person with an impure heart. A person who is critical all the time, anybody know those people? Somebody who is bitter all the time, or critical all the time, has a bitter heart. Pastor Roger and I have been on this uh this list of projects at the church. There's always something to do around here. This place is big. There's always something that has to be done. And one of the things that was on the list was to paint that little fence out in front of the air conditioners. Anybody ever noticed that fence? Most people don't, and that's okay. But it was looking really rough, right? So Pastor Roger went and got a paint, got some coat, put a paint of coat on it, put a second coat of paint on it. But can I tell you that eventually that fence has to be replaced? Because, see, you can put a coat of paint on rotting wood, but eventually, what's rotting inside will still show through. Amen? What's rotting inside is still going to show through. See, we can fake spirituality on Sunday morning. We can show up and we can be spiritual beings in the building, and we can do that for a little while, and it works. People believe it, and then we leave. And the real person that we are becomes apparent to the world around us. The struggle that the church has today is that we lack fellowship so badly that oftentimes we don't know. Right? Because we don't call one another, we don't see one another. And so what we see on Sunday morning is what we believe about that person. Listen, I've been following some of these megachurch pastors who have been getting in trouble for all of these big things that have been going on in their churches. Have you guys been seeing that? I think three in the past week have had major allegations against them. And every time I see it, I think to myself, it's because we lack fellowship and we lack accountability. Right? We think that we can cover it up with what happens on Sunday morning. The fact remains that we will never hide what is truly living inside of us. We may hide it for a season, we may hide it for an hour, but we will not hide it forever. I know you guys know this, but God knows your thoughts before you ever say them. The impure heart that we live with, God knows and sees it long before we're ever willing to admit to it. Eventually, our tongue will always expose what is actually living inside of us because our tongue will always reveal our heart. Luke 6, 45. It says, A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. The mouth is the overflow of what is living in your heart, and your words are the evidence of what you live with. Amen? We're still here, right? Okay. What lives in your heart is what comes from your mouth. I want to take just a quick second. I don't need you to raise your hands. How many of us are sitting here thinking, I really need to look at my heart attitude right now? How many of us are saying, my heart posture is not the posture of Jesus? I am not considering what God would have me do or say, I am considering what feels good to my flesh. I promise, if we're not all admitting to that today, we are running from the truth in our lives. See, people often pray, and I've been this person, God changed my mouth. Right? If it's not of you, God, don't allow me to say it. But God is saying, let me change your heart. Your mouth is a small portion of the problem. Your heart is the real problem. The church today has a heart problem. See, we chase the programs, right? We look for the things that we can do. How can I be involved? And we want to say we're doing all of these things because it looks as though we're glorifying God, but really what we're doing is putting ourselves on a pedestal. I've showed up. I've volunteered, I helped tear all those tables down. I moved all of those chairs. And really, your heart attitude is hi, here I am, see me, not here I am, God, use me. Oftentimes we think that stacking chairs and putting away tables is below us. I spray weeds in the parking lot. I mow grass. Do you think I want to do that with my time? No. But I look at that as service to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Emmett learned the hard way. When we make a commitment, we follow through. I don't make a commitment to the kingdom of God without following through. Amen? Why? It's not because I need to be glorified, it's because I need to give glory to God, and sometimes that glory is giving of my time. Listen, we need tithe money to keep the building open, right? You guys like it to balm me 68 degrees in here, right? Why you guys got sweaters on? I'm sweating. You guys like to have air conditioning and heat, right? You like the comfy chairs that you sit in, the pretty new front doors. We like to have those things so that we can be in the building together. Those don't come free. But it also requires giving of time. Have you ever laughed and wondered, who empties the trash in that building after church on Sunday? Have you ever left and thought, did anybody turn off the lights? Do you ever leave and think, who's gonna sweep the floors? No. Because you show up on Sunday, you take, you receive, but you don't give. A rule for life is simple. Give more than you take. Always. Give more than you take. That's not just about kingdom mindset, that's about how to be a good neighbor, right? If you ever see somebody in your life struggling, help them. Help them. I don't care what it is. I don't care how simple it is. We have this little lady that lives in Genatin and she walks all over town. She doesn't speak any English. Not a bit of English. So when she walks up to you, she gets her phone out to translate. And I love it because she walks by and she wants to talk about our plants in our garden, right? She thinks they're tomato plants, they're zinnias. There's a big difference, right? She's asking for a start off of our tomato plant. That's gonna be disappointing when she puts that thing in the ground and gets a flower instead of a tomato, isn't she? Listen, do you know what we do? We go get her a tomato plant. It sounds silly, but it's simple, isn't it? It's simple to love people who have never been loved or who don't understand what it means to be loved. When God says, Let me change your heart, he produces transformed words in your life. Proverbs 18, 22. It says, the tongue can bring death or life. Those who love to talk will reap the consequences. I've always said that the best way, the easiest way to determine when somebody is lying to you is to ask them exactly what happened before and exactly what happened after. Because chances are they have focused so hard on that lie that they can't tell you what happened before and after the story that they've told. It's the truth. Almost always, it is the truth. Because they love to tell the story because the thicker they lay it on, the more you're going to believe it, right? The easier it is to hear and to swallow. Oh, that makes sense. I was watching this show last night about this girl who had a boyfriend who assaulted her. He was uh he was he was hitting her, he was doing all this crazy stuff. And he ran away from the police. And she said, if I can get him back here, will you arrest him? And the police said, Yeah, absolutely. So she convinces him to come to her house. The police show up and arrest him. What does she do? Bails him out of jail. I love him. Right? Listen, I'm not saying that's not a hard situation. What I'm saying, though, is that we make decisions that determine the trajectory of our lives. Those words that you speak determine the trajectory of your life. Listen, he didn't say life and death are in your wallet. How many of us, how many of us love to have electricity at home? And when you don't have electricity, you can't figure out if it's a candlelit dinner or a regular dinner, right? Is this romantic or is this you can't figure that out because you don't know. All you have is what you have seen in the past. Your wallet, money, will never buy you happiness. You will not get life from having money. Listen, the power of life and death are not in your education. I know somebody who is a career student, been in college for probably 20 years, ain't got a degree to show for it. Not a single degree in everything, in anything. Just keep changing classes and changing classes. You will not find life or death in education. And this is the hard one. Even for me, you will not find the power of life and death in a job title. You can be whoever you think you want to be. You can go and get the best job, the CEO. But I promise you, you are hiding behind that title. The power of life and death are in your tongue. The tongue creates the atmosphere. The tongue creates Do you guys remember? Last Sunday before I started to preach, I started to talk about something that somebody said in this building. That sets the atmosphere. That sets the at-when you say something mean or disheartening about somebody, I promise you, you have set the atmosphere. I tell people at work this all the time. I'm a thermostat, not a thermometer. What does that mean? The room comes to my temperature. I don't go to the room's temperature. Right? So when I walk into the room, I'm bringing joy, I'm bringing peace, I'm bringing patience, I'm bringing love, I'm bringing grace, I'm bringing mercy. Because if I bring anything outside of that, the room is gonna feel it. Two Sundays ago when I stepped into the pulpit, I was not prepared to preach. When we did announcements, after announcements, I walk back to the sound booth. My dad says to me, He says, You better get it in check. He said, They can tell. Church, let me tell you something. People can tell when you are not living a life for Christ. They can tell by the atmosphere. Listen, your words will build your family. This is something I'm struggling with. Listen, I don't like physical touch. I don't want my kids touching me. I don't want them hanging on me. I don't want them, you know. And Easton, his love language is physical touch. All he wants to do is hold my hand, get a piggyback ride, kiss me on the cheek. I'm like, dude, stop touching me. Is it true? It's hard. It is hard. And that kid, he he called me at work yesterday. Dad, I need you to come home. I miss you. I'm thinking I'm only here to get away from you. I love the kid. Don't get me wrong, but listen. Listen. Then we went to Canton together yesterday after he missed me all morning. Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus. Whew. Oh man. I'm gonna say this. Because I wrote it. I have to say it. Don't judge me. Word. Words build your children and words destroy. Stop laughing, it ain't funny. Thank you, Jesus. You know, some people are still trying to recover from words that were spoken to them when they were children. Some people are still trying to recover from words that were spoken to them as children. And it is something that me, maybe even 20 or 30 years down the road, they don't even realize they're trying to recover from it. Somebody has said it, they don't even realize that it's a problem. That's what we're talking about when we talk about generational curses, right? Because then you grow up thinking this is how I should be, this is what I should do. I want to give my kids better than anything I ever had as a kid. The problem is the perspective of what I had as a kid, right? I remember as a kid, this is not in my notes, but I remember as a kid, about October, my dad would come home from work, he would make dinner, and he would immediately leave work or he'd leave the house again. Never understood it. It wasn't until I was probably a teenager, maybe even into adulthood, that I realized what was happening. In October, my dad would get a second job so that we could have Christmas. Because without the extra income, there was no way that we would have presence on Christmas morning. Now, as a child, you perceive that as a parent who is always gone. Right? As a child, you perceive that as somebody who is cold and uncaring. That was not the case. As a matter of fact, it was the exact opposite. But the perspective was different. I want you to think about that for a second. Examine your heart and ask: is the perspective that I have the perspective that I should keep? Listen, my testimony is wild. I'm not going to share it this morning, but let me tell you something. It took me years to be able to tell my testimony truthfully. Because what do we do when we testify? We tell this story about how God brought us out of the miry clay and he stood us upon a solid rock, and all of a sudden my life is all better. Amen? And I would make other people the problem of that story. That was never the case. My heart, my heart posture was the problem in that story. And it wasn't until I surrendered that heart to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, until I laid it at his feet, that I was able to be restored. And I lived years, even after doing that, fighting and arguing about how it happened. God restored me from a place that I never wanted to be. He restored me from something that I never thought that I could see the end of. But I promise you this. I stood this morning in the back waiting to come and preach. And I was asking God, why? Why did you ever call me to this? What was the point of all of this? I'm trying to rationalize with God before I come and preach to you. Lord, show me what your purpose is. He still hasn't done that. He says the same thing every time for such a time as this. We're calling you to greater. I love it when he says those things, but can you give me some meat and potatoes, Lord? Can you show me? Can you tell me? Can you open my eyes so that I can see? Trust me. Trust me. How many of us honestly trust the Lord with our lives today? How many of us honestly trust the Lord with our lives? Somebody has said to you, you'll never amount to anything. Somebody will say to you, you are just like your father. Somebody will say to you, nobody wants you. Somebody will say to you, it is your fault. Somebody will say to you, you cannot be forgiven, but God's word will destroy every prison wall that man builds. Every prison wall that man builds. We're going to go back to Genesis 1. Um, you don't need to turn there for me because I just want to talk about this briefly. But I what I want to remind us is that when there when before the earth was created, before creation existed, it was a black void, it was darkness. And when darkness covered the earth, God didn't show up and dig a ditch. God didn't show up and start planting plants. Instead, God spoke, let there be light. And he called the light good, and he called the dark evil. God's word spoke us into existence. Let's jump for just a second to Lazarus in the tomb. Jesus didn't walk into the tomb and lay hands on Lazarus. Jesus didn't anoint him with oils. Instead, Jesus spoke the words, Lazarus, come out. If the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us, we believe that. Amen? Some of us, I guess. If the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us, then we have the ability to speak life to the lifeless. We have the ability to speak life to those who are light to those who are living in darkness. Amen. I think so many times we get wrapped up with just saying, oh, that's okay. God will understand, God will handle, God will do. Listen, He calls us as Christians to action. Amen. To prayer, to supplication, to fasting. I promise, this is something that drives me crazy. I do this regularly, but I don't do this publicly. I fast regularly. When I'm in disagreement with what I think God is calling into my life, I fast. Because I know that that is when I am going to seek God. This is my commitment to being in your face every day until we understand this. But can I tell you that the enemy also understands that? He also understands that. And when I'm fasting, all of a sudden, I'm struggling with new things. I'm finding myself lost in chaos. I'm feeling myself in darkness. I'm feeling myself in the valley. We talk about the valley a lot. We get into the valley. We don't know how to get out. We want to live there. And we want to blame everybody around us because we're there. Amen? I'm not in the valley because of something that somebody else has done. I am in the valley because my heart posture, my heart attitude is not where it needs to be. I want to tell you something. God does not need anything from any one of you. He doesn't require anything from you. And what I mean by that is you can't outwork God's work in your life. You can't ever do in order to reach salvation. You have to believe to receive salvation. Salvation is a free gift given to any of us at no cost. Now, this isn't an infomercial where you only pay shipping and handling. This is the truth. Believe in the name of Jesus. Believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, rose again, and is coming soon. And I promise you, there is no sinner's prayer that you can pray. It won't get you to heaven. It won't. That is an outward sign of an inward work, just like baptism. You can go be baptized. Yes, please. Let's get baptized. But I promise you this: baptism does not get you into heaven. You will never reach heaven simply because you got put in the water. I promise it's not how it works. The enemy will continue to whisper those lies. It doesn't matter where you are in your life, you can be at the top, you can be at the bottom. He will never stop whispering those lies. Because if he can change your confession, if he can change your testimony, if he can change what you believe, then he will always be able to influence your direction. He does not attempt to change your mindset. He's attempting to change your heart attitude. They say the battlefield, the mind is a battlefield. I agree with that. But you only struggle in your mind if your heart is not right with Jesus. That is why you struggle in the mind. Listen, set all good things upon Jesus. Stop focusing on the things in your life that are wrong. Say, My God is bigger than all of the things that I will face today. My God is bigger than all of the things that I will face this year. Some of us have to stop repeating the things that have been whispered to us. Because when we agree with the devil, when we agree with Satan, our mindset becomes just like his. You have to quit rehearsing your failures. You have to stop accepting defeat. We have to quit saying, I'll never change. I'll never be enough. Nobody likes me. Nobody cares. I've never had any friends. Nobody's ever, I'm hopeless. My children are bad. I hate that one. Your children aren't bad. Kids want structure and discipline. I don't mean discipline like beat your kids. What I mean is understanding there are consequences for your actions. Right? Emmett needed to come mow the front yard. Emmett mows the front yard of the church every week. Friday night, I said we need to go mow. He got mad, he didn't want to mow. Got upset, stormed to the basement. I said, well, we can do it tomorrow, right after work, if you want. I'll just go tonight. That was an actual depiction of him, by the way. It was almost perfect. Almost perfect. And then all of a sudden, his big brother came over. And now they're playing video games together. And then the neighbors came over. And we're all playing in the driveway. And the next thing you know, guess what? We didn't get to mow the grass. So yesterday morning, my sister shows up. She picks him up. They drive to Dayton to go to Bucky's. I not kidding. They it was that was the only reason they were going to Dayton, my friends. I mean, I don't blame them, right? Like that's perfectly understandable. Bucky's is Bucky's, right? Rush brisket on the board. If you've never been there, you don't get it. It's delicious. It's the best. But I find out that Emmett's gone to Bucky's. Well, what's not done? The grass isn't mowed. And I sent him a text and I said, hey man, you're on your way to Bucky's, but the grass isn't mowed. And he says, I'll do it when I get home. Well, he didn't know that we were gone. We got home at 7 p.m. last night. And I said to him, I said, get your shoes, we're going to mow. Do you think he was happy about that? When you make a commitment, you follow through. Because if we allow ourselves to be stuck in this mindset that I'm the victim, nobody cares, my children are hopeless. If we say those things, if we believe those things, we will end up living that life. We were done in under an hour. He went home and got his video game time. And nobody died, believe it or not. Children require those two things in their lives. He learned that there was a consequence for not doing it the first night. Right? Church, we're failing our kids. We're failing one another. Because we just let everything go. We think the best way to be a Christian is to be passive aggressive. Can I promise you, we have to learn to be direct? We have to learn to be able to say the things that need to be said. We're going to go to Acts 2, 1 through 4, and this is we're going to talk about the day of Pentecost. Because I think this is an important part of the tongue conversation, of the heart conversation. Because when the day of Pentecost had fully come and the Holy Spirit arrived, we had something incredible happen. Because God could have just placed fire upon their heads. And it says, on the day of Pentecost, all of the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like a roaring of a mighty windstorm, and the house was filled where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. He could have sent anything. He could have sent flaming doves. He could have sent flaming pigeons. And it looks like tongues. This wasn't accidental. It was God declaring, I am taking what has caused the most damage, and I'm going to sanctify it for my glory. I want to remind you that Peter with his mouth denied Jesus three times prior to his crucifixion. And Jesus told Peter he would do it. And Peter said, Not me, Lord. Oh, not me, Lord. I would never, Lord. I will remind you that at the Last Supper, every disciple with their mouth did not confess but asked, Is it me, Lord? when he told them that one of him, one of them would deny him. They could not say it with fact. They had to ask the question. It wasn't until it reached Judas. And Judas says, Is it me, Lord? And Jesus responds, You have said it. Judas at this point uses that same tongue to send Jesus to the cross. How did he betray Jesus? With a kiss in the garden where Jesus had been praying. Church, if all of these things aren't bringing us to one point, the things that we do and say will always cause us chaos if we do not focus on Christ, if we don't center our hearts on Christ. I think about how many times, you know, there was a time in my life that I would have thought every person sitting in this room was absolutely crazy. And I love that time in my life. I thought, you know what, I'm gonna show them they're all stupid. I'm gonna show each and every one of them that they're all crazy. And why did I do that? I didn't do it because I didn't believe in Jesus. I did it because somebody who was in the church did something to me that I felt was incredibly wrong. And if they are that way, the church is that way. It wasn't until Jesus restored my heart on a Wednesday night at a Bible study where he said, lay it all down, and I was finally willing to do it, that I was able to see restoration, true restoration. And I realized that blaming the church, blaming Jesus for what the world had done was never going to gain me anything. I was never going to enter into heaven with a bitter and hateful heart. Acts 2, 41. Those who believe Peter, those who believe what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day. About 3,000 in all. Now I want to remind you something. That Peter once hated Jesus. He once hated Christians. Church, hear it. We don't need to come to church to get goosebumps because of a worship song. We don't need to show up to church to hear, just hear the word. We need to show up so that the Holy Ghost can transform our lives and our hearts, not just our minds, but our hearts and our tongues. The last thing I want to tell real quick before we button this up, and I've got a handful of notes still, but we're just gonna tell this story. Let's go to Acts 5.11. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It says, but there was a certain man. Sorry, 5.1 through 11. But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife Sapphira, sold some property. That's a good idea, right? Right now, I always say this: if you're gonna invest in something, invest in land, because God ain't making more of it. Until we go to Mars and then start buying that up. But right now, all we've got is the land around us. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife's consent, he kept the rest. Does anybody know how the story ends? Show of hands, just so you know how this story ends. Not a lot of us. This is a wild story, okay? Then Peter said, Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? Now Ananias is thinking, he's a smooth talker. He's just gotten away with something, right? Why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit and kept some of the money for yourself. Now, this is the point we need to get, church. The property was yours to sell or not sell as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give or not give. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us, you were lying to God. Ready? For those of you who haven't heard this, as soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. It was his to sell or not sell. It was his to donate the money or not donate the money. It was not acceptable for him to say that he had given everything when really he was keeping it for himself. His lies. You know, the Bible tells us that one of the things that God hates is a lying mouth. One of the things that God hates is a lying mouth. Then some young men wrapped him in a sheet. They took him out and they buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter asked her, Oh, Peter, oh Peter, was this the price your husband received for the land? Yes, she replied. That was the price. And Peter said, How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out too. Instantly she fell to the floor and died. And when the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone who heard what had happened. I'm not trying to scare you into giving money or to all I'm telling you is that we should be focused on doing what is right at every turn in our lives. Amen. And that's why I said if you see a neighbor in need, help a neighbor in need. I don't even have to like them to want to help them. I don't have to be friends with them to desire helping them. My heart is that every person that interacts with me will see Jesus through me. Amen. I think we've lost track of what actually matters in the flesh, and that's dealing with the heart attitude. Listen, our spirits can remain strong on Sunday mornings, but when we walk out of here on Sunday mornings, that heart attitude takes over, and all of a sudden we don't believe that we can be restored, or we think that we have to do a certain thing. Grace is not a ladder that you have to climb. You receive it at the bottom. You continue to grow in your relationship with Christ because you choose to be in relationship with Christ. Let's stop focusing on the flesh, let's start focusing on the spirit. Let's look at our hearts, determine the changes that need to be made, and stop worrying just about the words that are coming out of our mouth. Let's adjust the heart posture so that the words become natural. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you and I praise you for your move in this place today, Lord. I pray that as we move from here and into the next calling in our day, that you bless us, that you lead us and guide us. Father, in this moment, with every head bowed, with every eye closed, Father, that you you are just exploring our hearts and allowing us to realize the things that you would have us change. Father, we've talked about two things can't live in the same place. Father, we've called out the question of who told us that we were these things. And Father, now we are focused on the thing that is believing it, the heart. We are worthy of your love because you have said so. We are worthy of your grace because you have given it so freely. I'm calling upon you, Lord, to rest on our hearts. Transform us today. Allow us to grow from glory to glory. We thank you and we praise you. We give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen. Love you guys. We'll see you on Wednesday night.