So that you and I understand that how we live impacts the generation that is coming behind us. That how you and I worship, how you and I give, how you and I forgive, how you and I serve, how you and I encourage, how you and I lead. There are some young men and some young women that are watching our lives.
And we need them not to be carrying out dead bodies. But they need to see us lifting up the name of Jesus. So our teenagers and our elementary kids.
our babies and our college students go past where we are. We love you. I'm excited about today. We have been in a series for a number of weeks now called The God Who Can't Be Ignored.
And the title for today's message, if you're taking notes, you can jot this down. The title is Not For Sale. Not for sale.
This past week I went to another terrible workout class. Okay. Terrible in the best way.
Terrible in the best way possible. Haley, I think you were teaching the class I went to earlier this week. And I went there with Charlie. It's called Sculpt.
What? Class Studios, right? Class Studios.
It's here in Dallas. It might be, I think there's other locations too. So, when you go into Class Studios. Let me put this all right here.
Hold my Bible for me real quick. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you, Jacob.
Okay, so at Class Studios, there's a weight rack in the back, okay? Frisco, stay with me. There's a weight rack in the back, and there's a bunch of different size weights.
And there were some five-pounders and some eight-pounders, and then these 15-pounders as well. Hopefully that doesn't fall, okay? And so I went there with Charlie, and so there's only like two dudes in there, okay?
Okay, so. because it's like how you describe it it's like aerobic meets like hotbox okay so it's 98 degrees in the room and you're like you know but not just those kind of jumping jacks y'all should be like So you gotta kind of follow you gotta follow the the instructor, you know, then you know you're doing like these like I mean Step touch, you know, so you're gonna step touch and I'm like wow, man. I'm like losing every man card I've got right now But but then then you realize no you're not because you are being beat down in this class and you think it's gonna be easy It's not easy at all.
So it's a great great workout. But when you go in there are different weights So you got you know, five pounders eight pounders 15 pounders and if fellas you will know this if you're a dude and You walk into a class and there are five pounds eight pounds and 15 pounds. Which ones are you grabbing?
Thank you. One dude said 20. Exactly. As a man, you do not see five pound weights and go... You just, you can't do it. No, I know your manhood's not connected to how much weight you can lift, yada, yada, yada, yada.
It's about your character, yada, yada, yada, yada. I'm just saying in this moment of pride that we were in, in the class. We were grabbed. So Charlie got there a little bit before me, and I appreciate it, and he grabbed the 15-pounders.
And I was like, yeah, Charlie, you know what's up. And so he had them too. And about halfway through the class, Charlie and I look at each other, and we both. both know we should have grabbed the five pounders okay because you are doing rep after rep after rep after rep with the and you're just it's 98 not kidding 98 degrees in the room and we're we're like dying here but we got pride still so i'm not putting them down if he doesn't put them down i'm not putting them down i'm here to grow i'm here to get better give me the head weights possible. Okay, so I'm about to read some scripture to us today.
That's not a five pounder. It's not an eight pounder. It's a 15 pounder. Okay, I'm just letting you know the text that we're about to walk through today will feel like it's 98 degrees in the room and we got 15 pound dumbbells.
And there might be a point we go, ooh, I'd rather have five pounders. Now, it's not that five pounders are easy. It just might be a little bit easier.
But the text that we're going to look through today, I think, is going to push all of us forward. It's going to challenge us deeply, and it's going to help us grow in this understanding and our knowledge of the fear of the Lord as we've been walking through this topic the last number of weeks. Go with me to the book of Acts.
Oh, I need my Bible. I need my Bible, okay? Y'all can come steal these weights away from me, too, because I don't need to keep them there. Go with me to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5. Go with me.
First, go. Acts chapter 5, we're going to begin reading in verse number 1. Now a man named Ananias, this is not the same Ananias we talked about last week. It's a different Ananias, okay? Ananias was a common Jewish name. 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?
After it was sold? Wasn't 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. Verse number five, when Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.
And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came, 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 man came in, 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. I told you. This is 15 Pounders.
This text right here is a lot to digest. First, I got to tell you this. This is very, very important, incredibly important, vital for every time you come to the Bible.
You have to make sure you and I are always reading the Bible through the right filter and context, okay? So do not ever, and I wrote this down for us, I'm going to put it on the screen, do not ever interpret the Bible disconnected from the gospel and the character of God. Every time you come to the Bible, you and I have to read it through the right filter.
If you don't read it through the right filter, you'll misinterpret what is happening and what is being said. So we have to understand the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you and I were separated from God, that our sin kept us separated, that we were bound to an eternity separated from God, but God did not want that, so he took the initiative. And while you and I were still sinners, Christ did not want that.
Died for us. God paid the ultimate sacrifice for every single one of us saying, I'm going to come to you. I'm not going to force you to come to me.
And we see in the beauty and the power of the cross that you and I cannot earn the favor of God. We cannot earn the grace of God. This is a free gift of salvation. And it was because God is so good, not because we are so good. You and I cannot lose sight of the fact that he came after us.
and saved us this is incredibly important let me talk about husband talk to husbands and wives for a second um you guys have been in an argument spouses yeah okay yep if you have it You're lying, right? You get in an argument, you get in a tiff, your spouse does something. I did something last night. I did something last night. Last night, I'm not kidding, I ate a garlic clove.
Okay? Ate a garlic clove. One whole clove.
Because I felt like, man, there's a lot of sickness going around. And I heard somebody say one time, you eat garlic, it'll keep you protected. So I was looking in the fridge, you know, it's 11.30 at night. I'm looking in the fridge, and I grab one, I go, I peel it off.
I go, ugh. Woo! Have you ever eaten a garlic clove? Just straight up? It's no joke, okay?
This thing came for me at 11.30 last night. So I chew it, I swallow it, I'm like, okay, good, now I'm healthy. And I walk, I go to the bedroom, and Ricky goes, ooh!
Did you just do a beef burp? That's what she said to me. It's kind of gross. I apologize. I go, no, no.
I ate some garlic, trying to stay healthy. She's like, I don't think you can stay healthy, you know, eating garlic. So now we're Googling and laughing. She's not really laughing because my breath smells terrible.
And it's still with me today. So you don't want me praying for you today. Today you want to avoid five feet. You want to be five feet away from me because it's coming through my pores. So I just did this last night.
Now, Onique and I, thankfully, we have not a perfect marriage, but it's a healthy marriage. It is a good marriage. We're honoring each other, honoring God, trying to encourage each other, push each other forward.
If, though. If Onika and I, or she was misinterpreting our relationship, or she, say there was a break in our relationship. Say she and I weren't getting along at that particular time. It's easy if we're in like a little bit of a tiff time to take me eating garlic and go, I can't stand you, Earl. That little behavior, that little silly thing I did all of a sudden.
of a sudden becomes, oh, you're trying, you're saying you don't want to sleep in the bed with me tonight? Or you're saying you don't want to be near me? Or you're saying you don't like me now? You're saying you're just going to do what you want to do?
It's like, whoa, whoa, no, no. I was literally doing something stupid because I heard something, you know, online or, you know, on, I don't know, TikTok or Instagram at some point in time. My point is, if the relationship gets broken, Any type of behavior all of a sudden gets distorted. So if your relationship with God gets distorted, anything you and I see God do gets distorted, gets twisted.
It gets, it gets, it looks funky. And that's why if, if there's a relational break with a person, there's almost nothing you can do behavior-wise to fix that thing. the relationship is not mended and you can apologize and you can repent and you can do all the things that you know to do but if the relationship is not right everything has like a film over it so this is why we have to understand the character of god in the gospel of jesus christ I have to have a right relationship with God. So when I come to a text like this, I don't remove the truth of the gospel.
I don't remove the character of God. I keep... Keep it in place.
And now try to understand the passage of scripture through that filter. Y'all following me? Okay, keep on following with me here.
That's the first context. Next context, we got to look at what was going on here. this passage of scripture. So go back up with me to Acts chapter four. Campus pastor read it.
I'm sure Pastor Ben probably read it up in Frisco. Pastor Eric read it here. Go with me to Acts chapter four, verse number 36. Again, it says, Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles'feet.
So you and I cannot read chapter 5 disconnected from chapter 4. In chapter 4, a guy named Joseph sells his land, and not everybody owned land, but he sells his land. He takes the proceeds. He brings it to the apostles'feet.
We've talked about Barnabas before. This man was such an encourager, they changed the dude's name from Joseph to Barnabas. Son of encouragement.
He is a life... Giving human being you get around him. He tells you I believe in you you got this God's hand is on your life He's the person everybody wants to be around son of encouragement, but not only is he an encourager He's generous.
He has sold his land and he has brought all the money Put it at the apostles'feet, symbolizing apostles, use this as you need to. They would use it to feed the poor, advance the cause of the gospel, minister to the needy, do all the things that were necessary to get the message of Jesus to the world. Joseph lays it down, or Barnabas lays it down at the feet of the apostles, and this gives him abundant favor.
Ananias and Sapphira see this and they go huh wait he just got favor with the Apostles but maybe Ananias goes home and goes hey hey hey hey I was at church today and and this guy he brought an offering When he brought this offering, it was a real, it was, I mean, it was an extravagant gift and he brought it and you should have seen all the pats on the back he got. You should have seen how people were celebrating him. You should have seen all the favor that he had in his life.
Honey, you know what we should do? We should sell a piece of land. And let's see if we can get that same kind of favor on our lives. So now go with me to Acts chapter 5. Y'all with me?
Y'all with me? 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. Now you can see, connected to chapter 4 to chapter 5, that this man Ananias and his wife, these two individuals are not ultimately after the applause of heaven. They're after the applause of people.
Can I tell you this? When the fear of the Lord, I wrote it down for you, I'll put it on the screen. When the fear of the Lord has captured your heart, the applause of people can't steal your call. When the fear of the Lord has captured your heart, When you understand who God is and the majesty and the awesomeness and the power of who God is, when you and I have submitted ourselves under his authority and leadership, when you and I have said, God, I'm going to align the will of my life with your word. and with your way, even when it's not comfortable for me, even when I don't understand, even when it's hard for me, even when I'm walking through trials, even when I have tears streaming down my face, even when I don't understand.
God, I trust you. you anyway I do not know what's going on here right now but I believe you're good I believe you're mighty I believe you're just I believe you're holy I believe there's no one like you I believe you're the creator of the heavens and the earth so God I yield my life to you no man or woman can steal your call your confidence because your your your security is now found in who God is and the finished work of Jesus Christ. So for me and you I had to ask myself whom I more like?
Shoot because I want to be Joseph Barnabas right that's what I want to be. And we'll read the Bible like to be the hero right? Oh yeah but I was like Lord check my heart. Is there any stuff in me?
That's like Ananias and Sapphira. Now let me tell you this, and maybe I'm just telling myself this, but this is what I believe is true. I have maybe heard texts like this dealt with, or maybe even heard preachers, you know, talk about it. and people who have really a genuine desire to honor the Lord end up living with undue guilt and shame and fear because we get paralyzed into thinking, Oh!
Am I a bad one? Oh my goodness. And listen, I do think it's good for us to confront and allow the Spirit of God to confront our souls.
That's what we're doing here today. You got to have that. We got to be willing to look in the Word of God and go, am I seeing myself correctly?
Got to be willing to do that. But if you are even praying the prayer, God... Is there any wicked way in me?
I'm telling you, you're already pointed the right direction. I'm telling you right now, you're already headed the way you need to be going. Now, I will not say you're headed the way you need to be going just by coming to church. Because sometimes you can come to church to check a box. It's like whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever.
I like this girl. She comes to church, so I'm going to come to church. And listen, I'm glad you're here.
You're welcome. Everybody's welcome. But it's very, very possible for you to have your body here, but not your heart and your mind here. So, so, so, online, at every location, what I'm wanting for you is I'm wanting all of us to have a heart that is incredibly open, saying, Holy Spirit, work in me the way you need to work in me. Since you took the time to be here, does it make any sense to go to the gym and just walk around?
It makes no sense. I don't know why I see people at the gym. They've been there for an hour and a half. They ain't done nothing.
Hey, what's up? What's up? Hey, what's up? You're not sweating. You haven't lifted anything.
No, no, no, I'm here. Well, just being here, you gotta grab some weight. You gotta open yourself up. You better get on a treadmill. You gotta do some walking.
You wanna engage with what God is doing. Just like the devil cannot force you to sin, God can't force you to grow. So you and I got to be willing to go, Lord, all right, I'm open. But don't go there.
Stay away from that part of my heart, Lord. I'm not ready to deal with that one yet. He goes, I know you're not ready, but I think you are.
Actually, I think you're closer than you even think you are. Open yourself up to me. Okay, I got to keep on going through this text.
So, so, so, so now, now you can see that they have, they have a fear of people more than they have a fear of the Lord. They're looking for the approval of people more than looking for the approval of heaven. So the scripture tells us this. When you're reading it, it says they kept back part of the money for themselves. That's verse number two.
Put that Greek word up there for me. I don't know how to say this. Chad, you probably know this.
probably know you're getting you're getting your your master's right now doctorate whatever you're getting pastor chat so uh uh so i don't know how to say this greek word but but it means to misappropriate so they kept back some of the money for themselves they were they misappropriated uh and when i was reading this story i was like huh it reminded me of another story in the old testament and joshua you Chapter 7. It's the story of Achan. Go there with me real quick. Okay?
This too much? How we feeling? This too much? Come on. Let's keep on walking.
Let's go and walk through the Bible here. We're going to grow today. We're going to grow today. Go with me to Joshua chapter 7. Look at this. Joshua chapter 7. Joshua chapter 7. In Joshua chapter 7. Oh man.
Did I start this at verse 19? What scripture did I put up there? Verse 19?
Is that my first one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory to the Lord.
the God of Israel and honor him. Tell me what you have done. Do not hide it from me. Let me just tell you real quick, then I'll tell you what happens.
The children of Israel are coming out of bondage, are coming into the promised land. This is the very first city that they have been called to conquer, which was Jericho. This is when they marched around the city and then they shouted and God caused their shout. He amplified their shout and the walls came tumbling down.
And as the walls came tumbling down, God told them, this first city right here, you can take none of the place. plunder. You can have none of it. Everything that's of value in this city belongs to me, is what God said.
You cannot take anything for yourself. When they got into the city, Achan didn't listen. He chose to take some of the stuff himself.
He kept back part of it. He's holding on to it now. This is not just about money.
This happens to be about, you know, resources and this text. But don't just think money. That might be where the Holy Spirit is leading some of y'all right now.
I want us thinking hearts. I want us thinking our whole lives. I don't want us just kind of limiting this to like... oh just my pocketbook or my wallet or my debit card that's not where I want our minds to be I want our minds to be whole thinking thinking holistically God you you can have all of me I want you to have all of me but Akin here he sees some stuff he goes I'm gonna take this I'm gonna this. I'm going to keep it back.
I'm not giving this to the Lord. This is going to belong to me. So I'm keeping my family back. I'm keeping my business back.
God can't have that. I'm keeping this. God can't have my money.
That belongs to me. My time does not belong to God. My time belongs to me. I'm keeping that back.
My education, that doesn't belong to God. That belongs to me. My friends, they do not belong to God.
That belongs to me. I'm keeping all of this to myself. I'll go to church on Sunday.
I might even serve. but God you cannot have all these other things in my life they belong to me and he takes them and he hides them but you cannot hide from God it is the grace of almighty God that shows up in this moment and says Akin you you think what you're doing is just impacting you But we lost the whole battle because you weren't willing to be honest. You can read it later.
You can read it. So many people died. Akin thought, oh, this is just me. This is my family. This is not bothering anybody else.
This is the lie of today. It's me and my relationship with God. Mind your business.
It's my truth. No, he is the truth. So since Jesus is the truth and he's the one painting the picture and leading the way for all of us We do not get to come to the Lord on our terms and tell God what he is or who he is or what he can't do Listen, I am not upset.
I'm not it might feel I don't know. I don't want to feel I don't feel upset. I do feel urgent I feel urgent.
I do feel a sense of, whoa, God, man, do it in me. So you're kind of on my own journey, my own Jesus journey. Okay.
I'm in this as well. Asking God to excavate my heart, asking God to purify me, asking God to open up my eyes, asking God to draw me closer to him. I want all of that.
So Achan here keeps this back, and he ends up being stoned to death. They put a heap of rocks over the man and his family. It's a reminder for everyone to go, dang. This is what happens when you go your own way because the wages of sin is actually death. So now go go back with me to axe go back with me to axe okay go back to the axe I told you 15 pounders I told you I told you I I warned you at the beginning I warned you at the beginning okay but we'll keep on lifting we'll keep on we're not we're not leaving class okay we're not gonna let God do in us everything he needs to do in us then peter verse number three then peter said uh ananias how is it that satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the holy spirit have kept for yourself some of the money that you received for the land didn't belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold wasn't 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.
Turned to him and said, I hope that doesn't happen today. Tell him, tell him, I hope. I mean, not today. Okay, not today. I was like, Lord, what if you still did this?
I was looking at some of y'all and I thought, oh you're dead, you're dead. I'm just kidding. I was looking at myself.
I was like, whoa. What if? What if God did it like this today? This would be crazy. My wife, I'm talking about her because she's so awesome.
My wife, can I tell them what we call your hands, honey? The hot, I guess, okay, we call them the paws. Why? Because she can grab hot things and it seems not to bother her, okay? She takes things out, pulls them out of the, maybe not all the way out of the oven, but basically like, you know, something's on the stove, it's hot, she just goes.
We're all like, what is going on? This is crazy. Me, Parker, and Grace are like, oh my gosh, mom did it again. It's wild. You can just grab, grab stuff.
I mean, I'm like you. I got regular hands. So I grab something that's really hot.
I go, whew. That informs me. Don't grab that. Go put on some little mitts, get your little oven mitts, grab it, then you pull it out.
It's the immediate pain that informs me. Don't do it like that. We have misinterpreted us not having the consequences right away as God not caring. We think, I just looked at all this pornography and, wait, I went to work? Seems like nobody knew.
I sent those texts. It doesn't seem like anything bad happened. I'm good. I got this little bit of bitterness in my heart, just a little bit, a little offense.
It's not my whole heart, just a little bit, but I still got my friends and I still got my job. Man, I even got a promotion. I guess, I guess I'm good. In actuality, it's the grace of God.
Saying, son, daughter, I love you so much. I'm giving you a chance to turn before that sin tries to kill you or your family. You know, we're not a shame church here.
We're not a guilt church. We're not going to do that. I don't think it's consistent with the cross. It's not consistent with the cross. So since that's not consistent with the cross, I don't want to shame or guilt anyone.
I don't want to do that. I want to open our eyes to the beauty of who God is a little bit more. I want us to open our eyes to the beauty of who Jesus is and what he has done. And we'll begin to see that more clearly and see some texts like this.
We can go, oh my goodness, Lord. cleanse me purify me wash me cleanse me i gotta go through these last few pieces real fast okay stay with you stick with me you guys ready you guys ready okay so so now so now uh you you got some of us thinking that maybe god doesn't care but he does care because i gotta bring this point I thought it was really, really important. In the text, it talks about the young men came in. The young men grabbed him. The young men.
There's a couple verses that say the young men. The young men. And I was like, oh, this is important back then. Number one, it's the beginning of the church.
It was the start of them coming into the promised land in the book of Acts. acts. It's the beginning, the start of the church.
It weren't like a bunch of churches everywhere. This is like the beginning of the church. So God's like, I got to keep this thing incredibly pure.
And right, right now, I cannot let this toxicity be in there. So I got to deal with this right now, right away. But you see the young men were the one that came in and carried about, carried out the man's body and the woman's body. And I thought that was really, really important so that you and I understand that how we live impacts the generation that is coming behind us.
That how you and I work together. worship, how you and I give, how you and I forgive, how you and I serve, how you and I encourage, how you and I lead. There are some young men and some young women that are watching our lives, and we need them not to be carrying out dead bodies, but they need to see us lifting up the name of Jesus so our teenagers and our elementary kids and our babies and our college students go past where we are.
There's so much hope here. Let me tell you this. Ananias, this is interesting, the name Ananias, Ben can come out here, the name Ananias actually means, Sapphira means beautiful. It's Aramaic for beautiful. Ananias is actually, in Hebrew, means God is gracious.
So I'm reading these two names. When I found that out, I was like, oh my goodness, beautiful and God is gracious in the midst of a story that's pretty heavy. and very hot but here is God saying beautiful and I'm gracious so maybe go back to Psalm 23 go with me to Psalm 23 real fast Psalm 23 I was reading Psalm 23 uh go with me to verse number four it goes even though I walk through the darkest valley I will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me I thought about the darkest valley and When I read this text, and I think this is right, he's talking like, man, life is kind of coming at me. I'm in the darkest valley. So, yes, I think it actually ought to be interpreted that way.
But I thought maybe a secondary interpretation that can work for all of us is maybe he wasn't put in the darkest valley. Maybe he brought himself there. Maybe I'm in the darkest valley because of my choices.
I'm in the darkest valley because of my decisions and notice I don't think the shepherd will change the character of God doesn't change so I will fear no evil because you're with me you're riding your staff they cover me even when I go there on purpose and I made the mistake you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows surely oh goodness and mercy you So I go back all the way to Acts chapter 5 and I see it said beautiful and God is gracious and I look at what's following him in the darkest valley. Goodness and mercy is following him in the darkest valley. So right now, I don't want you leaving this moment thinking that anger is hunting you down, that vengeance is hunting you down, that some type of lightning bolt from God is hunting you down.
No, I think beautiful and God is gracious is hunting you down. I think goodness and mercy is hunting you down. I think the love of God and the grace of God is hunting you down. And it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.
My last verse. Psalm 51. Psalm 51. I have a little note in my Bible that says, we don't know this for sure, but enough people think it might be true that this was a psalm that David wrote after his sin of cheating on his wife and or or cheating with another man's wife and killing her husband was found out. And he says these words, have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love.
According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb.
You taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within. me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Would you bow your heads family?