SPEAKER_00: I like being a part of the Mud Creek family too.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are part of the family here, let me say it's good to see you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not part of the family, if you're just visiting with us today, we are glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: And we're thankful that you have come to worship with us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: For those that may not know me, my name is Jesse, and I am blessed to be the lead pastor here at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say, on behalf of our entire church family, how thankful we are that you are here with us today.
SPEAKER_00: We want to make you welcome.
SPEAKER_00: We want to help you feel at home, and we want to help you in any way that we can take your next steps in your relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you received a copy of our bulletin this morning, there will be a tear-off visitor's card in that bulletin.
SPEAKER_00: And I would ask you if you would please take a few minutes and fill that out if you haven't already, because we would love to get to know you better.
SPEAKER_00: And if you'll do that, if you let us know if there's some way we can pray for you or some way we can help you, we will do our best to do anything that we can to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: And one of our pastors this week will be in contact with you, and we will do whatever it takes to let you experience the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We'll even let you buy us lunch if you have questions about the church or anything at all like that.
SPEAKER_00: But take your Bible this morning, if you would, please, and turn with me to Acts chapter number five.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter number five, and we're gonna begin reading in verse number one.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter five and verse number one.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime that I read this passage of scripture that we're gonna read for our text this morning, my mind always goes back to this particular book.
SPEAKER_00: This book entitled Salvation on Sand Mountain is one of my favorite books that I have ever read.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime people come to me and say, Pastor Jesse, I'm kind of burnt out in my reading, I'm looking for something new to read, I will recommend this book without fail because this is such an engrossing, captivating story.
SPEAKER_00: Now, at its core, this book, Salvation on Sand Mountain, is a true crime thriller.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on a true story.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a true crime thriller.
SPEAKER_00: In all transparency, I don't do true crime.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of y'all do.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you here are married to a woman who listens to true crime podcasts and read true crime books and it scares you to death, right?
SPEAKER_00: I love my dear sweet wife, but if anything ever happens to me.
SPEAKER_00: But this book is about a snake-handling preacher, and it's set in the great state of Alabama because, I mean, it's of course it is.
SPEAKER_00: And this particular snake-handling preacher attempts to murder his wife by forcing her at gunpoint to put her hand into their rattlesnake den, thinking that the rattlesnake will bite her, she will die, and then he can move on without his wife.
SPEAKER_00: And so this book is an amazing story of a broken family, a weird subculture of Appalachian Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: It's a book about drunkenness, a book about crime, and a book about an attempted murder at church.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fascinating book.
SPEAKER_00: I would recommend it to you.
SPEAKER_00: And in this passage, we're going to read today.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read about a man and wife who are killed in church.
SPEAKER_00: Death.
SPEAKER_00: Deception.
SPEAKER_00: But in this passage, it's God who does the killing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read in Acts chapter 5, beginning in verse number 1.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that a certain man named Ananias, with his Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession.
SPEAKER_00: And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle's feet.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?
SPEAKER_00: While it remained, was it not your own?
SPEAKER_00: And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?
SPEAKER_00: Why have you conceived this thing in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: You have not lied to men, but to God.
SPEAKER_00: Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last.
SPEAKER_00: So great fear came upon all those who heard these things.
SPEAKER_00: And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.
SPEAKER_00: Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter answered her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Yes, for so much.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
SPEAKER_00: Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.
SPEAKER_00: And the young men came and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband.
SPEAKER_00: So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abideth forever.
SPEAKER_00: As we have been studying the book of Acts together on Sunday mornings this year, you've probably noticed that the book of Acts, in many ways, is a book of new beginnings.
SPEAKER_00: As you see the beginning of the church, you can read in Acts chapter number two, for instance, about the first Christian sermon.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of Acts chapter number two, you can read about the first Christian baptisms.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter number three, you can read about the first genuine miracle of healing done by the hands of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And even in Acts chapter number four, you can read about the first persecution that was faced by the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in Acts chapter number five, there is another new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: A new new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Because here we have the first recorded deaths in the early church.
SPEAKER_00: We have the backstory for the first Christian funerals that the Bible tells us about.
SPEAKER_00: And it happens when this man named Ananias and Sapphira lie to their church and lie to the Lord, and the Lord stops them dead in their tracks, and they pay for their deception with their lives.
SPEAKER_00: But I think perhaps more importantly than all of that, in Acts chapter number 5 and verse number 3, in the verses that we just read, we have in the book of Acts the very first mention of Satan himself.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been with us on Sunday morning studying the book of Acts, I hope you recall from Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 3, the Apostle Peter's early sermons.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the main themes of those sermons is the wickedness and the sinfulness of man that has led to the crucifixion of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But even in the middle of all of that preaching, though Satan was certainly involved in Jesus' crucifixion, he's never explicitly named.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 4, you read about the religious leaders of the day who were trying to stamp out the early Christian movement with threats of violence.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, even while Satan was behind the scenes animating those evil actors, he's never mentioned explicitly until here in Acts chapter 5 and verse number 3.
SPEAKER_00: This text shows us the first time that the devil came to church.
SPEAKER_00: I would submit to you today, having been in church my whole life, that this may have been the first time the devil came to church, but it was far from the last time.
SPEAKER_00: That he still sneaks in through the back door of our secret sins.
SPEAKER_00: That he still finds a way to disrupt the work of God and the people of God in the way that he hides away in the dark places of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So then maybe even some of you brought the devil with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so today what I want to do is work through this passage of scripture and talk about what happens when the devil comes to church.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want us to talk too much about the devil this morning.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to talk about is how God responds when the devil comes to church.
SPEAKER_00: How does God react to this deception and through this sin in this church?
SPEAKER_00: What I want to show you today is this, very simply.
SPEAKER_00: That when the devil comes to church, God is the one who's going to handle that snake.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who's going to handle the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: He does it first by detecting our lies.
SPEAKER_00: Notice this in this text.
SPEAKER_00: God detects our lies.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as you come to Acts chapter number five, immediately after Acts chapter number four, the early church seems almost like heaven on earth.
SPEAKER_00: You read in Acts chapter number four about this incredible movement in the church where people are stepping up and people are digging deep.
SPEAKER_00: People are selling their property and selling their goods to provide for the needs of other people around them.
SPEAKER_00: They have embraced the radical generosity that the gospel calls us to.
SPEAKER_00: This looks like a new humanity and a new way of life.
SPEAKER_00: And by the end of Acts chapter number four, you're introduced for the first time to one of the Christians in the church who embodies that perhaps as good as anybody ever has in all of the 2,000 years of the history of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Barnabas.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas has a piece of property.
SPEAKER_00: He sells that piece of property and he brings the proceeds to the apostles, lays the money at their feet, and says, Guys, put my money in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And because I'm a Baptist pastor and I'm talking about money, let me just say this real quick while I'm here, bear with me.
SPEAKER_00: A good place for your money is in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas says, put my money in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And when he does that, he gains the attention of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 5, we meet a couple named Ananias and Sapphira who want the attention of the apostles, who want the applause of their church family, who want to be seen as generous and spiritual and giving and godly.
SPEAKER_00: And so, like Barnabas, they have a piece of property that they can live without.
SPEAKER_00: And they sell it and they bring part of the money to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say it happens like this, put it in terms we can understand.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say they've got a couple acres for sale for$100,000.
SPEAKER_00: $100,000 to buy you a good size tent in Hendersonville these days.
SPEAKER_00: And so they sell, they sell their piece of property, list it for$100,000, sell it for$100,000.
SPEAKER_00: But they bring$50 to the church.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, well, we only sold it for$50.
SPEAKER_00: But we're bringing everything that we got, even though secretly they're holding part back.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that they didn't give everything, they were under no mandate to do that.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that they didn't give enough.
SPEAKER_00: There was no maximum or no minimum.
SPEAKER_00: The problem, as Peter identifies them in his conversation here, is that they lied.
SPEAKER_00: That's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is that in a moment of self-righteousness, wanting to be seen as something they were not, they made themselves out to be more generous and therefore more spiritual than they were, and the Holy Spirit sees right through it.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this passage should remind us of what the Bible teaches us in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, that our God is much more concerned with the heart of the worshiper than he is merely our external religious performance.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would say in the book of Matthew, he would say, quoting the prophet Isaiah, Matthew chapter 15, he would say, You hypocrites, you honor me with your lips, but internally your heart is far from me.
SPEAKER_00: And now when I read this, I'm just going to tell you, I get under a fair amount of conviction.
SPEAKER_00: Because I wonder today if we could somehow evaporate every self-righteous motive.
SPEAKER_00: If we could somehow eliminate our desire to be seen of men.
SPEAKER_00: If we could remove from Mud Creek Baptist Church our desire for the applause and approval of other people, would there be anybody to preach to today?
SPEAKER_00: Would there be anybody even preaching today?
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's something in us, like Ananias and Sapphira, that wants to be seen.
SPEAKER_00: How many times have I stood in this pulpit and preached a sermon thinking, man, I really hope they see how great I am today?
SPEAKER_00: How many times have people stood on this stage with a microphone in their hand and sang in worship to the Lord when really they were hoping for the applause of men?
SPEAKER_00: How many times have you heard people that have prayed in church and you got the impression very, very quickly they weren't talking to the Lord, they were talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: We give money sometimes not to the Lord, but to buy influence.
SPEAKER_00: We're just giving to ourselves, even though we write the check to the church.
SPEAKER_00: This passage warns us about all of those things, and it confronts us with how easy it is for us to fall prey to this dangerous attitude of where we're only doing the things of God for our own selves.
SPEAKER_00: So that other people think we're righteous and other people think we're better than we are.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have done it just this morning, haven't you?
SPEAKER_00: Like some of us do it every week.
SPEAKER_00: Stay up too late on Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get up on Sunday morning in a rush.
SPEAKER_00: We run to Dunkin' Donuts, and we get 24 fluid ounces containing 200 milligrams of caffeine, 600 grams of sugar, and we try to ride that energy to church.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're trying to get the kids ready.
SPEAKER_00: And what do the kids do?
SPEAKER_00: They bite into the Pop-Tart and they squeeze that strawberry stuff all over themselves and ruin their clothes, and then we're behind, and we've got to go change them again.
SPEAKER_00: And our husband's too lazy to get out of bed and help.
SPEAKER_00: And we're fussing at the kids and we're fussing at him, and then we drive into church, throw everybody in the minivan, rush across town, flip off the guy at the stop sign, run through the stoplight, listening to gangster rap the whole time, and then as soon as we pull in the parking lot, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: Blow the dust off our Bible we hadn't read all week.
SPEAKER_00: And we see somebody, oh, sister, it's so good to see you.
SPEAKER_00: How's your mom and them?
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been praying for y'all all week.
SPEAKER_00: Is everybody alright?
SPEAKER_00: And we laugh at that because we know it's true, but also exposes the attitude that Ananias and Sapphira had that if we're not careful, friends, if we're not careful, this can all become a stage show.
SPEAKER_00: Where all we care about is the applause of other people, the approval of other people, so that other people look at us and see how great we are.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that's fatal.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason it's fatal is not so much for the lie that we share.
SPEAKER_00: The reason it's fatal is because the lie that we had believed.
SPEAKER_00: I assure you that Ananias and Sapphira had believed a lie before they ever lived a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And the lie that they believed was that ultimately their identity came from what other people thought.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, their value came from what other people could ascribe to them.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, what was most important is what other people saw.
SPEAKER_00: And we can understand today that religion, apart from the gospel, will always lead you there.
SPEAKER_00: It will always lead you to performance, it will always lead you to do, it will always lead you to try and impress other people.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ tells you you're not nearly as impressive as you think.
SPEAKER_00: But it also tells you that you do not have to perform to win God over.
SPEAKER_00: It also tells you that even if everybody turns their back on you, God is pleased with you in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it tells you that even though you may be far more sinful than you would ever want to believe, you are far more loved than you could ever hope to know because God in Christ loves you at your worst.
SPEAKER_00: And when I believe that, you know what happens to me?
SPEAKER_00: Then I can come to church and I can do what we're terrified to do.
SPEAKER_00: I can be honest.
SPEAKER_00: And I can say, I've sinned this week.
SPEAKER_00: But my God is a God who loves sinners.
SPEAKER_00: I can come to church and I can say, I'm not okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not holding it together, and the only hope that I have is that God is merciful to a sinner like me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I wonder how many of us today have really been transformed by the gospel to say, we can come to church and be free of what other people think because our Savior has loved us like that.
SPEAKER_00: God sees that lie and he detects it immediately.
SPEAKER_00: But as the text go further goes further, we see that not only does God respond to Satan's activity by detecting this lie, but he also responds by defending the church.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Ananias and Sapphira, in turns, when they lie at the word of the apostle Peter, they're struck dead.
SPEAKER_00: That's serious.
SPEAKER_00: Understand, preacher.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Bible says that they were struck dead, that their willingness to lie to others and the lie to their church cost them their very lives.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that the Bible says in both instances that the young men come and bury them.
SPEAKER_00: How would you like it if our youth group turned into our cemetery committee?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: God is defending his church.
SPEAKER_00: And we read that and we're kind of blown away by it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, who does God think he is killing people discriminately like this?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just what's happening here?
SPEAKER_00: I think if we really understand what's happening in this story, we'll understand that God is, of course, just in his judgments of Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_00: But before I explain why that is, can I just remind us today?
SPEAKER_00: Can I remind us today that Scripture still says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God?
SPEAKER_00: Can I remind you today that the Bible still says that our God is a consuming fire?
SPEAKER_00: And throughout both Old and New Testaments, you realize that God takes us seriously, even if we do not take Him seriously.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Leviticus, you can read about two priests by the name of Nadab and Abihu, who go into the tabernacle, and the Bible says they offer unauthorized fire before God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they said, we know how to worship God better than God knows how to be worshipped, and we'll do this our own way.
SPEAKER_00: And God struck them dead.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Samuel chapter number 4, you read about the Israelites going into battle against the Philistines, and they think, well, we can just will out the Ark of the Covenant, that ancient symbol of God's presence, and we can use it like a lucky rabbit's foot, and God will deliver us from our enemies.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when they had that attitude towards God, God destroyed their leadership and shipped the Ark of the Covenant off for decades.
SPEAKER_00: When they bring the Ark of the Covenant back in 2 Samuel chapter 6, under the leadership of King David, you read the sad story of a man by the name of Uzzah who should have known better.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when the Ark of the Covenant stumbled on that ox card, he reached out and touched it to steady it, and God killed him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God does not want us handling holy things with dirty hands and dirty hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And beloved God still does not want us handling holy things with dirty hands and dirty hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, let's be real, it's all too easy, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It's all too easy to take a casual approach to church and a casual approach to the Word of God and a casual approach to prayer and a casual attitude to worship.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, is God pleased in that?
SPEAKER_00: Donald Gray Barnhouse, a great Presbyterian preacher of a previous generation, said about this text.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You see, if God acted in the same way today that he did in the fifth chapter of the book of Acts, he said, You'd have to have a morgue in the basement of every church and a mortician on the pastoral staff.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me put your mind at ease.
SPEAKER_00: I was a mortician.
SPEAKER_00: Been there, done that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still really good at makeup.
SPEAKER_00: You just have to lay down first.
SPEAKER_00: But you take his point, right?
SPEAKER_00: That when we handle eternal things, they are life and death for us.
SPEAKER_00: So why does God treat this so seriously?
SPEAKER_00: Well, part of it has to do with the period of development of the church itself.
SPEAKER_00: Understand that this is a church in its infancy.
SPEAKER_00: This is early in the story of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And those of you that are moms, I think you can probably understand this very, very well.
SPEAKER_00: If you have teenagers currently, you've probably contemplated murder this week.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord told us that if we have anger in our heart, that we're guilty of murder already.
SPEAKER_00: So some of you are guilty of murder, and the altar is open if you need it.
SPEAKER_00: But those kids with that smart mouth and that sorry attitude that have tested your patience and sanctified you this week, when those kids Were two weeks old?
SPEAKER_00: You let somebody sneeze within 50 yards of that baby.
SPEAKER_00: And you're ready to claw their eyes out.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you were to defend that baby, protect that baby, and that mama bear instinct raises up inside of you, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is a church in its infancy, and the Lord is going to defend his people from this satanic and deceptive threat.
SPEAKER_00: But also, think through what would have happened if Ananias and Sapphira's scheme had worked.
SPEAKER_00: What if they pulled this off?
SPEAKER_00: What if in their deception and in their self-righteousness they come forward and they get away with it?
SPEAKER_00: And then the apostles celebrate them and then elevate them.
SPEAKER_00: And they come to a place of leadership in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And then they start to elevate other people like them.
SPEAKER_00: What would have happened to the church if people like this had been celebrated and applauded?
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't have taken very, very long for the church to have turned inward and become about people and their performance and not about God and his work in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But I also think that God is acting here to remind us of the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That sometimes in the life of the church, subtraction is as important as addition.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as you read through the book of Acts, you'll see these great phrases about how God adds to the church daily.
SPEAKER_00: You can see it in Acts chapter number two.
SPEAKER_00: And we love that.
SPEAKER_00: That's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: God adding to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Later, as you get in the book of Acts, God moves from addition, God moves to multiplication.
SPEAKER_00: Here, God is engaged in some divine subtraction, removing what needs to be removed from the church for the sake of the health of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talks about how important this is in our own spiritual lives in John chapter number 15, as he talks about God pruning things that we need removed.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.
SPEAKER_00: Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
SPEAKER_00: Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bring forth more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is saying is that all of us in our lives and each of us in our churches have things that need to be removed so that we can be fruitful and so that we can be healthy.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Mud Creek, I want to say this to you today.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is something that American churches have forgotten, but I believe it's thoroughly biblical, and that is that church health is more important than church growth.
SPEAKER_00: Church health is more important than church growth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, church growth is exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Church growth is fun.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing new people, having new faces, going to two services, building new campuses, those kinds of things are exciting.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to think, well, anything that's healthy is growing.
SPEAKER_00: And there may be some truth to that, but tumors grow too.
SPEAKER_00: And tumors need to be excised, they need to be removed.
SPEAKER_00: What's God doing here?
SPEAKER_00: God is removing a tumor.
SPEAKER_00: Church health is more important than church growth.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot that I could say about what constitutes a healthy church.
SPEAKER_00: But I've got the next 30 years to do that.
SPEAKER_00: We could talk about healthy theology.
SPEAKER_00: It's critical.
SPEAKER_00: Healthy preaching, that's critical.
SPEAKER_00: Healthy leadership, that's essential.
SPEAKER_00: All of those things are vital for a healthy church.
SPEAKER_00: Mud Creek understand this.
SPEAKER_00: A healthy church is made up of healthy people.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias and Sapphira are not spiritually healthy.
SPEAKER_00: And if they would have had their way, the church would have become cancerous.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to ask you today.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask you.
SPEAKER_00: Are you spiritually healthy?
SPEAKER_00: And do you have any reasonable expectation that the church will be any healthier, any stronger than you are?
SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps ask it another way, what if every part of our body, every member at Mud Creek Baptist Church, what if all of us had the exact same spiritual life you do?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be a God-honoring church?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be a gospel preaching church?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be a Bible reading church?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be a praying church?
SPEAKER_00: Would we be a giving church?
SPEAKER_00: God defends his church.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, when the devil slithers in the back door of this church, the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira, God responds, not just by detecting the lie and not just by defending his church, but God is, through the whole story, displaying his glory.
SPEAKER_00: God displays his glory.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says there in Acts chapter 5 and verse number 11 that great fear comes upon all the church.
SPEAKER_00: And upon all who heard these things.
SPEAKER_00: People are dying because they lied and people are afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Great fear comes upon the church.
SPEAKER_00: I'd say.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we are should be about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in our mission statement as a church, we claim that we are a family of believers who glorify a never-changing God by impacting an ever-changing world through sharing the life-changing message of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to be about all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: But at the very beginning, we want to be explicitly, abundantly clear that we are a family of believers who glorify a never-changing God.
SPEAKER_00: And that God's glory, the fame of His name, the celebration of His person, that that is the heart of everything that we do.
SPEAKER_00: That the reason we want to preach the gospel is because it glorifies God, because it makes much of Him and makes a little of us.
SPEAKER_00: That the reason we want to gather together this Wednesday evening and go knock on doors and invite people to our church services and events is because we want them to see the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we want them here to glorify God with us.
SPEAKER_00: The reason that I'm encouraging you to invite just one more for Easter is because God is glorified when He saves sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And we want God to be exalted in rescuing the lost and in resurrecting those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
SPEAKER_00: The reason we want our choir to sing songs that magnify the name of God is because God's glory stands above anything that we do and anything that we can ever be about.
SPEAKER_00: God is defending his glory that the church will never be about the glory of Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_00: But the church will be about the glory of the God who has sent Jesus to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know we're all tempted, like Ananias and Sapphira, to want the applause to be on us, to want the attention to be on us.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I implore you, please.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever let Mud Creek Baptist Church be about your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not nearly as glorious as Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: I've known him for a long time, and I've known most of you for about a year.
SPEAKER_00: His glory far eclipses yours.
SPEAKER_00: And let me say to you as plainly as I can, don't ever let Mud Creek Baptist Church be about the glory of your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Because he ain't much either.
SPEAKER_00: I know him a whole lot better than I know you.
SPEAKER_00: And what is he except a sinner that has experienced grace?
SPEAKER_00: And I do believe, as hard as this passage may be, as stern as this passage may be, as scary as this passage may be, we read this and we think, man, God's killing people for lying.
SPEAKER_00: Like we probably just need to leave quietly today.
SPEAKER_00: Just process out.
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at anybody, don't talk to anybody, just get in your car and go.
SPEAKER_00: We read this and we think, man, this is grave, his grave.
SPEAKER_00: People are in their graves.
SPEAKER_00: This is serious, it's deadly.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but can I submit to you that this passage of Scripture reveals the grace of God in the most surprising and incredible way?
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the shock should not be that God killed Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_00: The shock should be that any of us are still alive.
SPEAKER_00: That God has spared us.
SPEAKER_00: Because as much as we might think we're better, we're not any different, are we?
SPEAKER_00: We want people to see us.
SPEAKER_00: We want people to see how much we love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We want people to see how gifted we are and how capable we are and how smart we are and how incredible we are.
SPEAKER_00: We are just as wrapped up in all of this junk that Ananias and Sapphira is.
SPEAKER_00: But God has shown grace to us and given us another opportunity this morning to be reminded that our God cares and our God is patient and his mercies are new every morning, and his compassions will never fail.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what God is doing in this passage is he is reminding his church one time and for all time that Jesus alone will be the hero of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Ananias and Sapphira are not going to be the hero of the story.
SPEAKER_00: You are not going to be the hero of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the hero of the story because he is the one who fought the battle for us on Calvary's cross.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who defeated our enemies when he walked out of death with all power and authority in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one that pursued us when we were lost.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the one that has brought us out of our graves.
SPEAKER_00: And he alone, because of his grace, deserves all glory.
SPEAKER_00: And so the good news, the good news I would say to you today, if you find yourself like Ananias and Sapphira, is that you don't have to perform.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to make yourself the hero of the story.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to improve yourself to convince other people you're something you're not.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to wear a mask and play a game.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God invites us to come to himself sincerely, openly.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: This is so good, I don't know if we can handle it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, in Matthew chapter 11, come unto me all you who.
SPEAKER_00: See, y'all know the verses.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.
SPEAKER_00: All of you who are worn out.
SPEAKER_00: All of you who are worn down.
SPEAKER_00: All of you who are exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Come to me.
SPEAKER_00: I am for people like you.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to submit to you today that there's something far worse than being suddenly struck dead for being a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: Something far worse is when God allows you to keep living it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been living it for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Been wearing a mask for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Putting up a front for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to hold your image together.
SPEAKER_00: Just so that other people will look on you and applause.
SPEAKER_00: And when they do, it makes you feel great for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But then in the secret places and in the sleepless nights, you realize I am a fake and I am a fraud and you fear being exposed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.
SPEAKER_00: All of you who are worn out.
SPEAKER_00: All of you who are worn down.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, Come to me, all you hyper-religious people.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, Come to me, all you people who've got it together.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, Come to me, all of you people who know all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Come learn of me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You don't have to come with all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: Come to learn.
SPEAKER_00: Come with your questions.
SPEAKER_00: Come learn of me.
SPEAKER_00: For I'm meek, he says, and lowly of heart.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, when we see the grace of God in Christ inviting us to come as we are, changing us into what he wants us to be, we can drop the mask.
SPEAKER_00: We can drop the act.
SPEAKER_00: We can say, Lord, I am nothing but a sinner who needs grace.
SPEAKER_00: And his grace is always greater than our sins.
SPEAKER_00: I started today by telling you about the little book Salvation on Sand Mountain.
SPEAKER_00: One of the best books I've ever read.
SPEAKER_00: But the best book that I've ever read, apart from the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You're not more spiritual than me.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the best book I've ever read is the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Apart from the Bible, I think the best book that I have ever read is a book about another crime.
SPEAKER_00: Not a real crime, a fictitious crime.
SPEAKER_00: Crime and Punishment by Theodore Dostoevsky.
SPEAKER_00: The great, hopelessly despairing Russian novelist.
SPEAKER_00: If you've not read Crime and Punishment, you should do it to enrich your life and your understanding of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: But in the book, the hero of the story is not a hero at all.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's in the name, Crime and Punishment.
SPEAKER_00: He's a bad guy.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Raskolnikov.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how my Russian is, but that's close.
SPEAKER_00: Raskolnikov.
SPEAKER_00: He commits a terrible crime early in the book.
SPEAKER_00: Confused by his own mind, he commits this crime, and then the punishment that he carries is not so much the legal punishment, but it's the battle of guilt, the paranoia of being found out.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that his own understanding of who he is has now collapsed, that he cannot carry the weight of who he is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: But finally, you have to wait till the very last page of the book for the moment you've been longing for.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, in the last page of the book, that's conical.
SPEAKER_00: It's transformed by the simple, loyal love of a lady named Sonia.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the book, you meet her as a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: The relationship is not what you think it would be.
SPEAKER_00: But her loyalty to him, her commitment to him, finally transforms him.
SPEAKER_00: Brings him to repent.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if this is what Dostoevsky was trying to get across.
SPEAKER_00: If it wasn't, it's what he should have gotten across.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us, all of us hold up an image of ourselves that's not real.
SPEAKER_00: All of us deal with paranoia, all of us deal with guilt.
SPEAKER_00: All of us feel the collapse of the identity that we've constructed.
SPEAKER_00: And the only thing that will transform us is the loyal love of the Lord Jesus who will never let us go, will never let us down, and will never walk away.
SPEAKER_00: Now many of you know that.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know that.
SPEAKER_00: And yet you have tried to erect for yourself a spiritual house of cards designed to impress other people.
SPEAKER_00: And you're tired of trying to hold it together.
SPEAKER_00: You're tired of keeping the plate spinning, and you need to just come to Jesus and say, Lord, you are a God of grace.
SPEAKER_00: I've been reminded of that today.
SPEAKER_00: Transform me, renew me again.
SPEAKER_00: Others of you today have never trusted in Christ at all.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're still confused about what God killing people in Acts chapter 5 has to do with snake handlers in Alabama and 19th century Russian fiction.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: We can explain that to you, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: What we would like to explain to you, though, is that you have a Savior who loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And he does not ask you to change yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He says he will change you.
SPEAKER_00: He does not ask you to be better.
SPEAKER_00: He does not ask you to give.
SPEAKER_00: He asks you to receive.
SPEAKER_00: He asks you to simply be honest and come as a beggar who needs bread, as a sick person who needs a doctor.
SPEAKER_00: He asks you to come as somebody who needs a savior.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to you again, His grace is greater than your sins.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I do know today, it'd be good to get the devil out of the church, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe it'd just be good for some that are here today to come and say, Lord, preserve us and protect us, defend my heart so that I don't bring the devil with me.