Lies and Misplaced Loyalty

Who has your loyalty? Who do you follow, first and foremost? It must be God Almighty. 

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Good afternoon, good afternoon, and welcome to our noonday service today. I'm so excited to have you here. I'm a little bit nervous about the word God has given me, but I'm excited to deliver it to you. Let us begin in prayer. Father God, in the name of Jesus, we thank and praise you today for another opportunity to come together and worship you. We ask for you to be with us, Lord. Be with those that are sick. We call the name of Brother Roscoe Alderman Jr. and Sister Loretta Kite. We call the name of Sister Ray Francis Joyner. And Lord, we ask you to be with the Purnails. We ask you, Lord, to be with Reverend Carl Brown today and the bereaved family of Mrs. Tanya Brown, the Weston family, and those that are still recovering from the hurricane, those in war-ravaged places, those that are incarcerated in hospitals, nursing homes, the homeless, those that are poverty-stricken, and those that have all manner of issues and challenges. Lord, we ask you to be with all of us. And today, Lord, we ask that you would give us encouragement. Instruct us, Lord, in your ways, empower and enable us to be strong and obedient, that we might witness to others. Let your Holy Spirit, Lord, speak through me. Lord, I'm your servant, and I ask that you would allow your word to come powerfully through me today, that others might be inspired and encouraged. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Our word today comes from the New Testament book of Acts. Acts chapter 5. And I'm going to be reading the first eleven verses from the book, from the New Living Translation. Acts chapter 5, verses 1 through 11. And this is what the word says. Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property with his wife's full knowledge. He kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. Then Peter 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 for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold was it the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings, but to God. When Ananias heard this he fell down and died, and great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? Yes, she said, that is the price. Peter said to her, How could you conspire to test the spirit of the Lord? Listen, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also. At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and finding her dead carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. So our subject for today is lies and misplaced loyalty. Lies and misplaced loyalty. This story of Ananias and Sapphira is one of those stories that sticks with you and keeps teaching you. There's so many lessons here. But let me give you some background first. You see, in the early days of Acts, the early days of the church, as the disciples and other followers of Jesus who were led by the Great Commission went out teaching and preaching to the people, the church was growing daily. And in order to keep those believers together and to accommodate their needs, those who had resources and means would do things like sell property and give the money to the church leaders to buy food and clothes and distribute them among the believers in need. Well Ananias and his wife Sapphira, they did that. They sold their property and it was a decision of their own. Nobody made them do it. There's no evidence that they were persuaded to do so or coerced into selling it. No, it was a decision they made together. The scripture says now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. So they gave some and they kept some. But what they told the church was that they gave all of the money for the sale, from the sale to the church. And so apparently, when they made the decision to sell the property, it was for the purpose of helping the believers, the church family. But then somewhere in the course of the action, Satan entered the picture and tainted their decision. And when they were questioned, and notice they were questioned individually. When they were questioned, they lied and they said they gave all of the money, the whole amount, when they knew full well that they did not do so. They doubled down on the lie. They clearly lied to God and they lied to God's people. So why? Why did they do it? Why didn't they just tell the truth? We sold it for more, but we held back some of the money because I don't know, maybe we didn't think we could give it all at this time. Perhaps if they had at least told that, their lives would have been spared. But what they did, they did it to make themselves appear to be more generous than they actually were. And you have to ask yourself: was looking good in the eyes of their buddies and maybe their other church members or other believers, was it worth it? No, it was not. And both times we see that one of the commandments is not to give a false testimony, not to give a false testimony, not to tell lies. Lying is bad, y'all. And we have almost normalized it in today's society. But it's an egregious act, one that God hates. And to be clear, when we say lying, it means that we're giving a false testimony by doing any of these things, by leaving something out that's pertinent and consequential to a story, by telling a half truth, by twisting the facts, or even by inventing a falsehood. There we go. All of us are guilty of at least one of these kinds of deceptions, if not all of them, at one time or another. But hopefully, we are not making a lifestyle and not becoming habitual liars. That's not good. That's not who we should be as the people of God. But we see and hear it every single day in the media, on the airwaves, in social media, and everywhere we turn we hear lies. We see habitual liars. But God wants to remind us today of the seriousness of lying because lies hurt us and they hurt other people. Just think about those poor Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, that have been hurt tremendously by falsehoods and the lies that have been told about them. So this story, as much as we might think that it's about greed and covetousness, it's mainly about dishonesty. Because the land was Ananias and Sapphira's. They had the right to keep it or sell it, but they sold it for the purpose of giving the money to the church, and then somehow they gave some of it, but they made everybody think they were given all of it, and then they doubled down on it, on the lie, and said they gave it all. Most of us have been recipients of God's grace. Because He didn't strike us down dead when we pulled out that $20 bill and we decided maybe no, that's not too much. I'm gonna give this dollar or this $5 because the church doesn't need my money. I've got bills to pay, and besides, they're not gonna use it responsibly, and the pastor and the officers are stealing it, or whatever else we say to ourselves about why we don't give what we should. But God commands us to give, and so we need to remember this story in our future giving that whatever God places on our heart to give, do that, be obedient to God, follow his ways, and he will bless us for our obedience. Now as a wife, I understand that Sapphira wanted to stand by her husband and support her man. But the fact is that right is right and wrong is wrong, and she should have stood up to him and been a good accountability partner. She should have told him, No, honey, it's wrong for us to keep some of the money and tell them that we're giving it all. And then later she had the opportunity to tell the truth and save her own life. But she had misplaced loyalty. Part of the title of our sermon today. I have often been called down by my husband and reminded of the right thing to do and how God expects me to behave. Because sometimes I've had to speak to him that as loyal as we are to each other and to our vows, we are clear that there is nothing right about being loyal to each other when we know the other person is wrong, and there's no benefit in it. There's no benefit for us when we do that with other Christians, when we know they're wrong, but we stand with them and we go against what God clearly says we should do. We see a lot of that today in the political arena, and frankly I find it frustrating to see Christian leaders that I once listened to and admired standing loyal to a man that tells lie after lie after lie. Really? Really? Just think about what if when Eve offered Adam that apple or whatever fruit it was that he wasn't supposed to eat, when she offered it to him, what if Adam had been strong enough to say to her How dare you think that I could go against my God and do what he clearly told me not to do? I'm not that loyal to you, Eve. I am loyal only to my God. What if he had been strong enough to do that? Now I know that's conjecture, and we probably wouldn't be where we are today and all of it, you know, kind of somehow goes with the way our faith goes. But I'm just thinking, sometimes we need to be strong enough to tell the other person, get a life, do the right thing. As Christians, we have a responsibility, a responsibility to stand up to each other and be good accountability partners. Jude 1 and 23 tells us to snatch others from the fire. That means that by being a good witness and being studious and faithful believers and followers of Christ, we can show other people what to do. We can give them the courage to also stand up for right. Because two wrongs don't make a right. If you're wrong and I know it, then I must gently point it out to you and try to correct you. Notice I said gently. If I see you about to run off a cliff and I don't warn you, then what does that say about me? Ananias made a mistake, lied about it, and was killed for it. Sapphira being loyal to the deceptive plan and to him repeated the lie, and she died for it as well. Misplaced loyalty. Now I know the gang says we don't like a snitch, you know. Be loyal to us, you know, keep keep our secrets, do what we say do. But what does it profit a gang member to be loyal to the gang? And in the end, in most cases, they all die. What good is that? So today the word is that we should examine ourselves. We should all examine ourselves, and in the end we must answer. We all will have to answer to God for ourselves. We'll have to stand before God and answer for what we did. Make sure you're on the right side and not just being loyal to someone who means something to you, but who is rebelling against God Himself. Don't be guilty of lies and misplaced loyalty. Liars are not respected by God, and being a good witness for God means being his follower first and foremost. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for your word on today, sometimes a hard word. But Lord, we know that you love us and you instruct us in ways that teach us and that will help us follow down the right path. And in the end, might be bitter medicine, but will make us well. We thank you. We ask you to help us to be courageous and to stand for right, even in the face of those who won't like us or talk about us. But Lord, help us to be salt and light. Empower us and enable us. And then Lord, let us be led by your Holy Spirit to do the right thing. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, everybody. Amen. On today, we want to thank you. And um I I don't know if I called in my prayer earlier that we needed to pray for the Weston family, but I want to make sure that I point that out. They were at it's been asked that we pray for them, and so let us do that. Thank you all for joining us today, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and as soon as you can, make sure you go out and vote. This is an historic election, no matter what the outcome, and so let your voice be heard. Let us repeat our benediction now unto him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say Amen. Don't be a member of lies and misplace loyalty. Go out and be great for God.