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So, today I'm going to start off the panel. Be patient with your past today. I have several people who are in diapers and saying they're delivered from diapers and not quite delivered from diapers. It kind of goes into my message a little bit this morning. I'm okay, you know. You're not okay. You're not okay. And so I, people are telling me, Sister Keisha said this to me this morning because she loves me, Pastor, you've got to get some rest. And I said, yes, I have to, but I can't. So pray for me that we will grow and rest and get some rest in that our tribe will be extended. Amen, because we raised You know, one or two people by yourself. And then after a while, you try to raise several people. You know, and all of them are looking at you like, I ain't asking none of this. You brought me here. Now you got all these rules and things that I got to do. And I didn't sign up for none of this. Ms. Vidya is here. And I told several people today that she has had nothing nice to say. to us this week in terms of some of the things that she has not been able to get from us. Amen. Amen. So pray, our strength in the Lord, pray for us. Sister Pastor, we doing it. We doing it big. We doing it big. We drove up one day and the neighbor, we pulled out Lydia and the neighbor was like, We are doing! You know what we're doing! We are producers! Let's get to the Word. Not just music. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Alright! Enough of all that. Keith is looking at me like, just pray for him. Let's get to the Word. I wanna speak to you today, the mask, the title, The Mask and Its Consequences. A heavy, heavy message, amen? This is a prayer for you. The Mask and Its Consequences. Amen? At the end of the book, of the fourth chapter of Acts, rather, Barnabas is used as an example of a man that is under the control of the Holy Spirit. In an unselfish way, he is giving to the Saints, unselfishly. Amen? But not only that, it's really also not just about giving, it's about his motive. It's about his heart position, amen? And how he's giving. He sold the field that he owned, and he gave all the money, all the proceeds. to the apostles, later at the apostles' speech, for people who were in need at that time, who were just becoming Christians. As I said last week, just a bit of review, there were people who were becoming Christians, and when they became Christians, they lost everything. They were totally disowned, they lost jobs, they lost clout, they lost prestige, they lost status, they lost family members. Amen? People were kicking them out. I mean, do you believe in this Jesus nonsense? And there were consequences for believing in Christ. And so Barnabas, used by the Holy Spirit because he's so excited about the fact that he's saved, he's a believer, he's not holding on to anything. He's like, I got a little bit of something, and I'm gonna give it to the people who are in need. And it is a picture of what Christ does when he has control of the believer. Amen? It says in Acts 4, chapter, I'm just going to read it, it's not on the screen, just remember what we said yesterday, last week. Acts 4, 36 says, and Joses, who was, by the apostle, was surnamed Barnabas, and it gives in parentheses what Barnabas means. It means, which is being interpreted, the son of consolation, a Levite. That says he didn't have a whole lot of nothing. Okay, he gave of what he had, and in the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought it to, brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. Now, I want you to understand, this name, Joses, Barnabas is never called Joses ever again. The Bible never, ever calls Barnabas Joses ever again. Or, as you would say, Joseph. I believe what's happening here is the Holy Spirit wants to make sure that we understand Barnabas or Joseph by his character. Amen? We know him by his character, not the name his daddy gave him. That's important. All Christians should be known by their character. Amen? If you're going to say something about me, call me holy, faithful, dependable. Amen? Maybe we all get nicknames like that. Amen? Where we're not known by, you know, that's just settled. That's a hockey ball. No, no. Hopefully it is by character attributes that represent who I serve. That there's been transformation in my life. Amen? So we should all be known by our characters. They never called Barnabas Joseph. Never again. Now he's not known by that in the Bible. The Bible has not let us know that they ever said his name was anything other than Barnabas from this point on. Okay? Now, he's used as an example here in the fourth chapter for giving. Matthew 6 and 1. You got that? Matthew 6 says this. Watch out. Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others. For you will lose the reward from your father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do. Blowing trumpets in the synagogues and in the streets to call attention to their acts of charity. Here I go again. I'm coming. I'm the giver. Notice me and how good I am. Amen? All right. I tell you the truth. They have received all the reward they will ever get. Wow. But when you give to someone in need, don't let your luck end. Know what your right hand is doing. I love that. You get it? Okay. Give your gifts in pride of your Father who sees everything. I love that King David is in secret. We'll reward you openly. So this is an example of giving what the right heart looks like. Now, we don't know exactly what happened in Acts, the fifth chapter, as far as how they gave or the circumstances of how this particular couple that we talked about last week gave. Amen? But we do see that here, in Matthew 6, that's the right heart position. And then in Acts, the fifth chapter, we see the exact opposite. The wrong heart position. All right. Brother JR, can you do me a favor? I'm getting excited. I'm going to say it in my own voice. At five, can you read one to about, let's say, 10? Just briefly, just go over the story again so we know what happened, OK? All right, great. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphire, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price. his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle's feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan built thy heart? Underline one word. Why. Why. That's right. Why. That's a very important word, Bill. We'll get to that in a minute. Why I say what? Build thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the lamb. So there's nothing wrong with giving a piece. The problem is if you pretended like you gave it all. So the issue here is lying, hypocrisy. I want the folks to think something about me that ain't true. Read it. While it remained, was it not thine own after it was sold? Was it not in thine own power? Why? Why? Underline that again. Why? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up on those. He died. Read. And great fear came on all them that heard these things. Another key thing. Underline that. Great fear came on all them that heard these things. Amen. Somehow it got out. Great fear. Whatever hazard they gave, people knew about it. And it spread, and people are fearful. And the young bitter rose wound him up and carried him out and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, telling me whether he sold the land for so much. And she said, yea, for so much. This chick is lying. She's agreed with her husband to present their offering like they gave it all. And I told you ladies last week, make sure that you agree with your husband as he's agreeing with God. Amen? It's very important. Submission is a must for women. Yes, we want to submit. Some women don't like that word. But if you submit to a godly man, there is safety. When you're submitting to foolishness, you are not saved. Amen? That's the time when you throw your husband under the bus. I told him. He did not listen to me. Amen? Read. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye agree together to tell the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then she fell down straightway at his feet, and muted up the ghost. She died. And the young man came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. Amen. Amen. That's good. Start right there. Question. How did Peter know that Ananias was lying? Right. Peter has the Holy Spirit. Amen. Next question. Could Peter have struggled with the desire not to rock the boat at this moment? I mean, think about it. The church is booming. Things are going well. Why mess up the church's good reputation? By exposing sin and hypocrisy. Amen? Membership is going great right now. People are coming to church by the thousands. They are megachurch, they are huge. Why mess up everything by exposing sin? Ananias would make a great leader in church. Why? He's giving money. In my imagination, I'm thinking that God wants something. Think about it. You've got a Levite who gives, and he doesn't have much. Levites technically weren't allowed to own a whole lot. So how he got it, we don't exactly know. But more than likely, he doesn't have this much. He just has money laying around. And he gives it all. And then you've got this couple who say, I don't think that's a good idea. I see the attention that Aaron and I is getting. He's getting nicked, and people are starting to, you know, he looks really good in the church. We got a little bit of land on this side. You don't just sell land just to somebody else selling it. You got to have a little something. So, you know, him and his wife, they got a little bit of money. So they're probably going to be a great leader of the church. People that have money have great influence. Why don't we let them be over something? Amen? So why mess it all up, Peter? Well, I'll tell you why. For the same reason, Peter has the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost is not going to allow this. Amen? He knew that Ananias' line and Peter must, must expose Satan. Amen? Amen. He knows what's at stake when we get smart and start rationalizing what we should do in God's church and bash that up against the goal of the Holy Spirit for God's church. They can be two totally different things. We've got to be careful we don't get so smart Okay? And we don't do things in God's way. We don't follow the Holy Spirit and say, listen, we got to deal with this. Amen. All right. One more passage of the scripture and I'm going to leave you alone. Give me Acts 2, 42 through 47. This is, this is deep. Watch this. Huh? Wait, how many? All the believers. Just some of them? All the believers. Interesting. Read. Devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Oh, wait, wait. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Read. And to fellowship. Huh. And to sharing in meals. Huh. Including the Lord's Supper. Uh-huh. And to bread. Uh-huh. Keep reading. A deep sense of awe came over them all. How many of them? And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all of the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. Wow. How many of them did it? All of them. They worshiped together at the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's summer, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity. Wait a minute. Church attendance was off the hook? They met in homes for summer? Hospitality was off the hook? Uh-huh. They shared? Giving was off the hook? People were generous? Uh-huh. 47, really? All who are praising God and enjoying the goodness of all the people. And each day the Lord added to the fellowship those who were being saved. Who added to the fellowship? The Lord. The Lord added. So, this is what's in Acts 4. What it's saying in Acts 5 is that the church is full of believers. Wait a minute, Pastor. Then who are anagrams in Acts 5? Believers. Some people don't like to say that. Can a believer be possessed by the devil? No. A believer cannot be possessed. Let me correct you. The believer cannot be possessed by the devil. So what's happening here? Watch this. Can believers give themselves over to do the work of Satan? Yes. I've seen some people riding my road. Watch this. There is nothing in this passage of the scripture, in the contents of the scripture, that says that Ananias and Sapphira were not believers. So what's going on here? Let me ask you another question. Will God take a believer who is saved right up on out of here because they're throwing around with sin? Oh. So, what's happening here? Let's look a little closer. Some words here give us a clue of what's happening. Acts 5 and 3. But Peter said, Ananias, what? Why has Satan, uh-huh, built thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the lamb. He didn't ask how. He asked why. Is Peter asking a rhetorical question? No. Peter knows how it happened. He's asking Ananias, why did you allow this to happen? Why did you allow Satan to gain access to your heart and mind, and then feed on those thoughts to the point where you do the will of the evil one? Oh boy. Interesting word that we have to look at here. Why hath Satan filled? There's a word that we want to look at. It's the Greek word pleura. Okay? We've seen this word before. Alright? That word is the same word that we find in Ephesians 5.18. But watch this. Plerul means to make full. To fill up. To fill to the full. To fill to the top. So that nothing can be wanting to measure, or full measure. To fill to the brim. Amen? In Ephesians 5.18, take me there real quick. We've seen this scripture over and over before, right? Don't get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness. All right? This is an amplified version, so we can see this a little bit carefully, OK? All right? All right? For that is wickedness. What is this? In parentheses, corruption, stupidity. OK? You don't make great decisions when you're filled with drink. Nobody does. He's making a parallel here so he can draw a contrast and we can make some sense out of this, okay? So he said, but be filled. There, that's part again. Play a rule, there's a word. To make full, to fill up. I.e., to fill to the full, to fill to the top. So that nothing shall be wanting. Full measure. You can't put anything else in there because you're already full. You filled up. So, that nothing will be wanting. To be firm, to be filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit. What this is doing is to be constantly guided by Him. Paul in Ephesians, just like Peter in Acts 5, was not talking to unbelievers. That's key. Paul was not talking to unsaved folks here. He's talking to Christians. Unregenerated people, people who are not saved, people who have not been transformed, people who have not been redeemed, those people are already filled with the enemy. Unregenerated people are not already filled with the Holy Spirit and cannot continue to fill themselves with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. So he has to be talking to believers. Just in case, like I said last week, you could take, you know, your little side eye and look at Ananias and Sapphires and say, well, I'm nothing like you. Because I would never find myself in that kind of position. I am safe. Careful. Careful, people. Got a question for you. Has God ever killed a believer? Oh, yes. Oh, it's nice and quiet here. Mm-hmm. Let me ask you another question. How serious is God about sin? And before you answer that question too quickly, remember back in the beginning, Genesis 3. Okay? Uh-huh. In the garden. Uh-huh. Eve. was given the wrong interpretation of what God said by the first crooked theologian with a degree on how to dot dot. Eve, you shall not surely die. What happened? Somebody call Eve and ask her why she didn't miss a verse. She's not here. What happened? God said you would die. Did she die? Yes. Amen. What are we seeing here? When God says something, we should take him just like the other people said earlier. Seriously, people. Seriously. And let's not excuse or slide through and say that he's talking about somebody else. So we can slither and be like, ah, but that's the devil over there. Because over here, we doing it right. OK? Back to Acts 5 and 11. So what happened? They died. And great fear came upon all the church. And upon as many as heard these things. Now, let me say something to you. Nowadays, it seems like hypocrisy can hang out in the church for years. Years. It can go undetected. Amen? But at the beginning, at the church of Pentecost, God himself let everybody know just how serious he was about the impurity of his newly established institution, the church. I see your faces, and it's good. Because the same look on my face, like, well, Lord. OK? But think about it. What does he do? What does God do? OK? A few days in the church service, they hang him out. And what does God do? Instantly, kills two members of the ministry. Right after, I mean, just straight up. You come in one Sunday in this offering time. And we all get up, and let's not say we do it like we used to do back in the day, when we used to... Walk around the choir the same kind of song, and then we'd sing the remix, the 12-inch remix. We just, just to say it, the folks that's giving their outfit, if you showing off your outfit, let's give it a... You know how it is. We'd go around greeting folks and be like... blowing kisses to people, you know how it is, okay. Old school church. It's offering time, everybody's giving, and two people right in front of you in the line, when you're getting ready to drop off, you're offering, the pastor comes up and says, wait a minute! Brother and sister Johnson, I got a question to ask you. I'm gonna ask you a question about the offering. And they get through answering some questions, and right in front of you, you next in line, I want you to know that church will never be the same. Never be the same. For some people That would be the day that everybody in the church got real serious. And for some other people, that would be the last Sunday we ever saw. That's it. I need my membership card back. Done. I'm out of here. What's happening? Well, now, very seriously, let's look at this scripture. First John 5, 16. Not gonna be before you all. Help me, Lord, to preach this. Watch this, people. If you see a fellow believer, my God, sinning in a way that does not lead to death, what you should pray. Now, let's examine this for a minute. There's a lot of argument over this scripture, and I don't want to go into all the ins and outs of what people believe. But let's just look at what's obvious. There is a way for a believer to sin in a way that leads to death. And there's a whole lot of argument on what that really is. Some people think it's black magic, it's all the Spirit. Some people think there's several other things. Some people think it's adultery. Some people think it's murder. Lots of argument about that. That's not the point I'm looking for. The point is, whatever you believe it is, it can be done. Amen? All right. He said, if you see a believer, a fellow believer who's sitting in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray. And God, will give that person life, extend life. You catch that? You catch that? We're dealing with a very holy God here, people. But there is a sin that leads to death. Why? And I'm not saying you should pray for those who commit it. Come on, don't even pray. What is this? Let me give you a suggestion of what I believe has happened here. Even with all the argument about this, there's one thing that's very, very obvious that we can see here. Let's just say that the sin that leads to death for you or the sin that leads to death for me may not be exactly the same thing. Let's just say that, okay, Moses, don't strike the rock. If you strike the rock, you're not going in as a prophet. It's like, what happened, Moses? With your ministry, as great and as wonderful as you are, you didn't make it, bro. Moses argued with God. God said, I've shut it down. And I tell you, I've made the decision. He left him in leadership. Let him lead, knowing he wasn't going in. But then you see Moses went on the Mount of Transfiguration. Thank you, Lord. That's right. Talking with Jesus. Huh? There's conversations about him. There's references there. So what's really happening here? Did he die with hell? Oh boy. Let me say this to you. There are things that we continue to hear as the leaders, and there's a phrase called, the straw that breaks the camel's back. And that may be very different for me or for you. The point is not to try to figure out what sin you can get away with. The point is, take God seriously. And then when he says something, you just stop. Stop. Oh Lord. I'm not talking about hell. Stop condemning folks to hell. We're not talking about that. I don't have the heavy weight of hell to put you into. But what we can clearly see here by the scriptures is there's a point in time, and I've seen this, when I came in the ministry, I'm very careful when I say this, when I came in the ministry, I came in understanding this point very, very clearly. There's a point in time when God says, that's it. That's it, I'm done. Amen? Amen? Saul. led his people for years, thinking he was still high when God fired him. David was on his way. Amen? Let's not play with this. Amen? OK, fast, I need a little more proof. OK, give me James 1.18. Help me, Holy Spirit. All right, let me just read it. James 1.18 through 21. Of his own will begat he us. with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Verse 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rap. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And then he gives a solemn warning in verse 21. Wherefore, lay apart. Stop. That means to put off, cast off, put away, put it back in whatever closet you took it out of. Okay? Put it away. Don't wear this. Cast it off. Cast off all filthiness. Uh-huh, and superfluity of modesty. Okay, what is that? That is that old nature that wants to creep up every now and then and hang out with you and make your representation of who you no longer are. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Oh, I hope that was clear. Uh-huh, and receive with meekness. So put off that stuff that you used to be and receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls. Wait a minute. you're talking about Christians, then you can't be saying, you can't be talking about believers here. Why are you saying, I thought I was already saved, I thought my soul was saved. Well, there's a misunderstanding of what that word soul actually means. What does that mean? It's Tzuke, which is able to save your Tzuke. Save your what? What does Tzuke mean? Tzuke is the breath of life. The vital force which animates the body and shows itself to be breathing. So what is he saying? Take in the one seriously which is able to save your neck. Save your life. That word soul, suke, means your earthly life. early life. My Lord. We're not talking about whether or not you're going to heaven or hell. We're not even going to go there. What I'm talking about is there is a point in time where you play with God and he says, okay, I've had enough. That's it. We're done. Okay. So when people come up and warn you, uh, and say, you know, God wants us to stop doing certain things. Amen. Take them seriously. It's speaking the words. It's true to you. Amen? All right? All right. So back to Acts 5. Let me just say this. Killing saints is not a way that most of us would decide to grow our church. We've got a great idea, Pastor. We've got a great church growth strategy. Let's just pop a cap in two of them And I know the church will grow by leaps and bounds. No! That's not what most of us would think. But the Lord says our ways are not His ways. Uh-huh. My thoughts are not His thoughts. Uh-huh. We don't think the way of God. Amen? All right. So what happened here? Two people died at church, folks. They weren't offering. This is serious. Amen? What happened? How did the church grow? Watch this. Let me just read it again a little bit. Give me Acts 5.12. I'll give you a little context of what's happening. Anabasis earned God, and then says this. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders brought upon the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's horse, and the rest Durst no man joined himself to them, but the people magnified them. And then guess what happened to verse 14? You see it? And believers were the more added to the Lord, most of you, both men and women. Two people die at church and the church grows? What? That's a whole other kind of strategy for growing your church. What happened here, people? Let me tell you what happened. How did the church grow? Back up to 12. The church got serious. And when the church gets serious, that's when the church grows. What? Are you serious, Pastor? Yes. Uh-huh. You bought a hand to the apostles where many signs of money didn't stop the miracles. Amen? It's a sign of the wonders. And they were all with one accord. Of course, they were unified at that point in time. Everybody's real serious. Now, what verse are we teaching today? I just want to make sure I'm on point. What we're doing today? What time is service? When do I need to be here? What's the memory verse for this week? I'm very serious. What do you need us to help with in ministry? Do you need me to pick up the diamonds? Because I will pick them up. No, I don't fight no choir members for no songs. I'm not fighting no ditties for no positions. I will get back there and rock the ditties with joy. So don't brag. Whether you be here or still be here. Unify. Unified in doctrine. That's not what it says. Don't play. Don't you play. Don't play. Amen. They were serious. And then verse 13 says this. I love this. Oh, this is what I miss, bro. Thank you, Lord. Is this good, y'all? Is this good? Verse 13 says, and the rest durst. No man joined himself to them, but the people magnified them. King James is real deep sometimes. Now we have to look at it up a little bit just to make it real simple and to give you a good understanding of what's happening here. Give me that same verse in the Amplifier. You see it? I'll put it in there. You see it? You see it? Good. Doing a great job. All right. But none of the rest of the people, who are they? The non-believers, dare to associate with him. Wow. Isn't that interesting? The death at the offering of brother and sister Ananias Jackson, whatever that last name was, sent a signal to the non-believers that this was a serious church that served a serious God. What does that say? Don't come to TLC and play. Wouldn't that be a miracle? Don't come to the Pentecost, Baptist Church, whatever they called themselves back then, and play around. This is very serious. And whatever you do, don't come to the offering. That's right. All bad. All bad. After I ask a question, you better run. Okay, so what happened? The people began to, not only that, it says, however, even though that the outsiders, the non-believers did not come in, which causes confusion in the church. However, the people were holding them, the outsiders, in high esteem. What? And speaking highly of them. Ah, the world spoke highly of the church. Woo-hoo! Uh-oh! What happened? When they got serious, the world took them seriously. Isn't it interesting how people perceive the church nowadays? Oh, this is good. Thank you, Holy Spirit. The one thing to be able to say, watch this, I don't go to church because the church is full of hypocrites. Isn't that what they say? I don't take none of y'all seriously, because y'all don't take each other seriously. You supposed to be a Christian? That's what they do to you. Don't they do that? You say you're going to serve the Lord, and some family member, some friend, some co-worker, you know what I'm saying? You try talking about Jesus, and here they come. You ain't no better than me. Y'all didn't say anything either. And in some cases, it's true. Shouldn't it be so? No. The one thing that they always say is, the church is full of hypocrites. The church loses respect in the world when we don't act like the church. One of the reasons why we have declining influence in the world is because we have deteriorating influence in our own church. Let me give you another example. 1 Corinthians 11. We do this all the time. Verse 26. For as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he comes. Verse 27 says, Wherefore, whosoever shall eat of this bread, and drink of this cup, the cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Then here comes the good news. But let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the bread, and drink of that cup. He's not talking to sinners, people. He's not talking to folks that are not saved. He's talking to the church. What was happening? They were coming in, turning the Lord's Supper into an all-you-can-eat feast, smorgasbord, getting greedy, coming in, snatching all the food, not showing any love. And some people were taking the wine and going a little too far with that. So they were getting drunk. They had a very irreverent, picture of God and what Christ had done to bring us into his family. Can you come in smashed and take the Lord's Supper? Amen? Don't you have food at home, you greedy people? Why are you acting like this? Why are you tipping in to the Lord's Supper? Amen? That's what's happening. And then it says this. Watch this, verse 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not deserving of the Lord's body." If he's talking to Christians, he's not talking about eternal damnation, people. What is he talking about? He's saying God will take you right the way out of here. Amen? Why? Because you're not being reverent. You're not taking Him seriously. Huh? For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many Not talking to unbelievers. He's talking to me and to you. Are you getting this? Now some people would say, Pastor, this is the way you lose numbers. Preaching stuff like this, talking about stuff like this, doing things exactly like the Bible says. But you know we got strategies for this? But look at what happened right after they exposed sin. Verse 14 again, Acts 5, 14 says, And believers were the more added to what? The Lord, not to your program. So, what's happening here? If you don't deal with sin, you will cause your church to grow with infection. I've said it before, there's a swelling of infection where it looks like you're doing good, but you're just diseased and infected by not taking God seriously. And the core begins to get smaller, and the outer core, those people who really do not take God seriously, get bigger and bigger and bigger. And people fool themselves and deceive themselves into thinking that we are doing a great work for God, because we have great numbers. I heard a preacher say a long time ago, and I never forgot it, when I came into ministry, he said, don't ever forget the James. He said, if Jesus Christ is passing the church right now, there'd be 11 people. The apostles. That's it. And they'd be like, oh, come on in, Matthias. Thank God you joined the church. Wow. That's deep. He said, because by the time he got to talking about eat of my flesh and drink of my blood and do exactly what I say, let me be your king, by the time he got to talking about that, folks would be like, oh, well, now. Now it's going in a different direction. And I turned my Hosanna choir song into a crucifying song. That's what happened. They were like, oh, Hosanna, be our king. Why? Because you know how to make food out of nowhere. You don't have to bless the people. And then we're talking about, well, let's go a little bit further. Let me be your Lord and pastor. And I came to say, you're not just Get you out of your situation. I can't even say you. You're the one I love. I may leave you in your situation and allow that situation to make you more like me. Because Christians grow better not only in club medication situations. They grow better sometimes in adversity. Huh? I said before, God will give you what you need. Huh? Huh? Everything that you need. Huh? According to his riches and glory. I will supply your needs. That's good needs. that feel good to you and badly that don't feel good to you. That's the truth. Amen. So that's what happened. So what we got here is a church growth mechanism. Why? Because here's the point. We don't want to grow in infection. We want to grow in godliness. The church is a place that all sinners are welcome to. Everybody's welcome to come. But it's also a place where people who have decided to live in sin should totally feel uncomfortable. Oh! Did you hear that, people? Hey, nothing happened in this church. What's going on? What's going on? I'll tell you what's going on. Some people don't want to come because after a while they're going away. Are you serious right now? It's getting uncomfortable. Is it me? Are you hot? When he starts talking about infidelity, and sexual sins, and money, and covening, and you know, all these things, and unforgiveness, and my mouth problems, I just, suddenly I don't want to join the choir. I don't want to say I'm an usher boy. I want to go to the door. I want to go to the bathroom. You're getting in trouble, isn't it? Why would God save you from yourself and tell you to attend a place where on a weekly basis you are encouraged to be yourself. Why would he save you from you and then send you to a place where everybody around you is encouraging you to be you? Think of it this way. When the church got started, In Pentecost, there was no church policy procedures yet. There was no membership class yet. There was no leadership. There was no manual. There were no policies. None of that was there. All they had was the Holy Spirit. And he decided to let people know very early how he feels about hypocrites. Straight up. Nowadays, church membership is set up in a way Church membership is set up in a way to make people feel as comfortable as possible. As many people that can feel as comfortable in our church as possible with only having a superficial relationship with God. In other words, people who only want to go so far with Jesus can find a church on every corner. in almost every city. There's plenty of them. For churches that stress true fellowship with God, true fellowship with its members, churches who are full of truly redeemed people that love what God loves and hate what God hates, and will deal and expose sin and hypocrisy, those churches are rare. We love the statement that says come as you are and But we rarely embrace the statement that says, while you're here, become like Jesus. That's true. Oh, come, Jesus will accept you in everything. Really? Is that what the Bible says? He says he knows all about it. Yeah, come with your stuff, yeah. But he's like, now, do you see me? Imitate this. Do what Jesus is doing. Love how Jesus loves. Forgive how Jesus forgives. Stay away from things that God hates like Jesus would. Be the visible representation of the Holy Spirit that you claim that you have. Amen? Just like Jesus. So, how then do we stay filled? Ephesians 6 and 10. Finally, my brother, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. put on the whole armor of God that he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That is schemes, deception. I love this. Subtle influence. Ooh, I learned that this week. Subtle influence. You need the armor of God to protect you from the subtle influence of the enemy. Some of us are feeding on things we should not be feeding on and thinking that our minds are not being changed. Think about it, Saints. If the devil gives a Saint an idea and lets them know that it's of the devil, more than likely the Saint's not going to fall for it. But if it's subtle, if it's sneaky, if it's dressed up just right. The only way, you know how to deal with that, you've got to armor yourself. You have no defense against the enemy's tricks without the armor of God. God supplies the armor for a reason. Let me tell you what armor in yourself is not. Cable. Come on, Pastor. I just bought this TV. Yeah. That one-eyed demon is telling you every week, I got an idea for you. It's okay if you're going to do this. And your flesh gets a green light before you know it. You know, you're just compromising every time you turn around. Why? Because you're feeding on stuff. These people that sit in these chairs have a worldview that is diametrically opposed to the gospel. They don't agree with the Word of God. There are things in them that are not of the Holy Spirit, and they have the power to sell TV shows and show that to the masses. Amen? So you feed on all that stuff. I'll never forget. I took my son just yesterday, him and Elijah, to go see You know, they have the halftime shows. It's like... And it's just on and off. There's a worldview that is coming across, and they're saying things, and the music is saying things. I'm into beats and rhymes, and I like bass. I like, you know, I'm thinking about, you know, like, ooh. I like that. But eventually, when I'm not saying, I start listening to what they were saying, and then people are like, ooh. And so the girl's dancing, and my son's like, you know, because he's not used to all that. And he's like, what? What did he just say? Now because I'm not hooked to the table, I unplugged the line from the back of my head, but Comcast is not feeding me their worldview. I can recognize it. And immediately say, now, let me give you the interpretation. of what's happening from a biblical point of view. And I can teach my son not to show the world and never be in it, because he can't do that. We don't live in a hall. What we do is we stay away from a certain point and take in the Word of God to a certain degree to where our worldview is changing. And when we see it, we're shocked. We're not just like, oh, that ain't nothing. See? It's subtle. These reality TV shows, it's somebody else who's battling. And they are feeding us things that do not go with the Word of God. You've got to unplug people to recognize this. This is arming yourself. You're putting on the armor of God. You are protecting yourself. You've got the Word of God shielding you. If you do not do that, you are just plugged in. Why did you allow it? Why did you allow it? That's the question. We're tricked. The only way around this is protection. Verse 12 says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. but against principalities, against powers, against rulers, against darkness, against this world, against spiritual witnesses in high places. Those are platforms of influence. Amen? Because the truth of the matter is, no demon in hell, without the authority of God You cannot do it. You don't have to ever fear being wrestled down. I'm so appreciative. I don't care how long it takes. You don't have to fear Satan coming and snatching you and throwing you down the street. No, no, no. But this is what you do have to pretend about. If you let the game in. Just let the game in. Come on in. Let me start thinking about what you just said. What's Satan doing? That sounds pretty good. The more you start to side with him, The more you start to do what the enemy wants you to do, and your flesh will go right along with it. Do not kid yourself. I said it before, you're not all that, neither am I. We got all these people talking about when a certain pastor recently died, there's a lot of negative comments. You know, people are just being mean. Unnecessarily me. Yes, I said Bishop Eddie Long passed. If you do not know. And people are tearing him apart. Not realizing and understanding that staying in a pastoral position is dealing with temptation all day long. We didn't pray. But we honor ourselves. Take off masks off of people. Pray for yourself. Honor yourself up. You don't even know what happens if we can't really speak on everything. Be careful what you say. But the other side of it is you know what could happen. If you let that guard down. Amen? Alright, that's my little rant. Galatians 5, 19, 23. I'm going to teach all of those. That's why. All of them. Be patient. Here we go. Galatians 5, 19, 23. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, that's what I'm talking about, what are the results? The results are clear. The results are very clear. Sexual immorality. Not some way of cutting up what that actually means. Jesus said, you know, Jesus even talked about sexual immorality. You know what I'm saying? He didn't give it some kind of specific statement. He said the whole blanket statement, whatever you're doing with whoever and whatever you're doing. But it's not the content that I say is marriage. That's out. Sexual immorality. It's sin. Amen. Impurity. Lustful pleasures. Just want everything you see. Idolatry! Making up a God that don't exist and you can say you're serving. Woo-hoo! My God is cool with that. No, that's the one you made up. Me and God have peace. No, you got peace with something that you made up. That ain't Him. Amen? Hostility! Quarreling! This dang guy, nothing nice to say. Just looking to fight a fight. Jealousy! God help us. Outbursts! That's in all up in this church. Outburst! Anger! Watch this! And here's Ananias and Sapphires. Selfish ambition. Oh, if I give like Barnabas again, they'll give me some attention. And I'll look like I'm more than I actually am. You see it? Envy. Drunkenness. Wild parties. And other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, anyone living like that will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But, the Holy Spirit produces this kind of person. You want to know who you are? You want to know who the Holy Spirit looks like? What does He look like? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law against these things. Let me say this too. I've got what you need. Help me, Lord. Give me 2 Corinthians 12 real quick. 2 Corinthians 12. And give me the 25th verse. No, 20th. 25th. Paul says this to the Corinthian church, For I am afraid that when I come, I won't like what I find. And you won't like my response. I'm afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behavior. Verse 21 says, Yes, I am afraid that when I come again, God will humble me in your presence. Why? Humble me in your presence. And I will be grieved, because, what? Many of you are not giving up your old sins. Clear! And in the next chapter, he goes on talking about, he won't spare anybody from the church. He's basically saying, I'm going to call it out. No matter what. There's consequences for wearing a mask and for grieving. Can you hear me? There's consequences for wearing a mask even for believers. We have to be very, very careful, people, that we're not allowed sin to get in. Amen? I'm not talking about whether or not you're safe going to heaven or hell. I'm talking about we got things that we're not honest with God about. I'm reading this book on prayer. And it's changing how I pray. There's things I've learned about prayer that are very programmatic and very sterile. And I learned in the church, this is how you do that. And some of that caused me to get so much into the formula that I wasn't really having a one-on-one authentic conversation with God. It was like I put on a mask to talk to God. Instead of starting right where I am, look, you'll see all this anyway. You already see it. Jesus said, come to me, all you that are heavy laden, I will give you rest. But you have to come. Not the version that you put on a mask and show up and pretend like it ain't even you. You come to Jesus. I want to have a real conversation with God with the real me. Amen? Not being a hypocrite. Some of us talk to God like we do our presentation on Facebook. We put a picture up where we want everybody to think this is how we really are. And God can see all through that. You ain't fooling nobody. Just go ahead and be honest. Come to me. Bring your problems. Bring your loneliness. Bring your depression. Bring your worry. Bring your shame, your habits, and your sinful habits, all your anxiety. Bring your broken promises. Cause He sees it all anyway. He says, come to me! You! Be authentic! Be real with me! When you go to Matthew, the 23rd chapter, there are references when Jesus Christ gives us a real understanding of the kind of person that He does not particularly like to be imagined. The scribes and the pharisees. There's so many times in that one laid out scripture, that chapter alone, not because they have tongues. They weren't real. Don't you realize, if you go through Matthew 23, you see all the terrible things that Jesus said about the Jews. And he let them have it. He blew them a new sea of snakes, vipers. I mean, it was like, I can't even name them all. They're just all bad. The very loving, sweet baby Jesus blew up and let these people have it. Okay? He's not like the way the scribes and Pharisees were. Why, Pastor Rick? I'll tell you why. Because they were the one group of people who were pretending like they didn't know anything. And thinking that they were all following what the man said. And here's the catch. God is so loving, and so patient, and so kind, and so forgiving, that all he's asking is for you to come for real. And don't you know that if every last one of those Pharisees, and you can keep naming them name by name, if they are called in the center, and you walk out and say, you know what? It's me. I'm the one that's faking the call. I'm the one that's acting. I'm telling everybody to be like this. My world's dirty. I'm messed up. Don't you know Jesus would forgive every last one? So what does that tell us? Back to prayer. How do you have a conversation with God when you're not even paying heed? Huh? Prayer is a conversation in the air. How will I talk to God if I refuse to even accept the truth of what I am about to say? In all its ugliness. Huh? I knew it. Don't be hypocritical. He brought it up. I'm telling you, there are things out there. In my church, I want to start off like this. Lord, it's from A to Z. Let's stop there. This is my list. I want to thank you. for putting up with me for this long. Yes, that's right. I got some stuff, and I'm asking you to help me with it. That's right. And by the city is near to it. Yes, it is. It's near, people. It's near, but it's distant from the folks that think they know you. Am I right about that? Yes, sir. Am I right about that? What killed them? Well, what happened? It's a church, not just this church, it's a church of God. Well, what happened, people? People thought that you could do a church program to raise, you know, membership and raise funds. He owns everything. That's right. I've told you before. He is the majority. He is the majority. You can stack everybody on everybody's shoulders from a baby to the oldest person in the area. That's right. And you still want to be married to God. That's right. You got tripping on that. No. Well, this is real. Yeah. Why? Because that's how we influence people. That's how we change. When we say, it's me, Lord. That's right. I'm the one in need. That's right. In this area. Specifically in this one. This ain't right. That ain't right. I need your help. I have anger problems. I don't want to talk to people. I get upset. You've got to do something in my heart to change how I feel. This is me. Not coming in saying, well, you know. I love all that. And a bag of morality tips. The beautiful thing is, no matter how bad it is, it comes. It comes. I didn't get over my lust problem, and I said get over it very quickly, because I still do it. But I overcome it every day. Every day. And it's how I got where I'm at. And I don't expect it to. But I did not get to that point until God had to make me answer for myself. I meet with my God's voice over. I need help. I cannot do this on my own. And this is the specific, dirty, messy thought. Come to me like children. Children are very honest. They're just straight up. My daughter asked me, Daddy, what happened to your hair? I said, it's gone. She said, who took it? I said, no one took it. She said, I don't do that. You go to the barbecue shop and ask for it back. And I said, all these years, I do not know. What am I saying? What am I saying? She's just out there. I mean, there's that girl growing up. For children. That's straight up. That's called messy. You know? Just messed on herself. Just pooped on herself. This is how you pick people up. Just like this. I'm messy. I got it on everyone. I tried to cover it up. It was very brief. After a while, I'm not. I'm taking the mask off.
The Mask and its Consequences
Does God kill believers? Are believers able to be possessed by the devil? Is it true that there are sins that can end your life here and now, while there are others that can cause you to go to Hell? How does the church really grow?
For answers to these questions and more, please listen to the “Mask and its Consequences” by Jamie Hawkins.
Identifiant du sermon | 115172310302 |
Durée | 1:10:31 |
Date | |
Catégorie | Service du dimanche |
Texte biblique | Actes 2 |
Langue | anglais |
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