Jesus prayed, disabled spread, where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people, come and dine. With his men he doth feed, and supplies of every need. O too sweet to serve with Jesus all the time. Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine. ♪ You may feast at Jesus' table all the time ♪ He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine ♪ To the hungry calling come in time Let's go around and check each one's hand. And as we make our way back, we'll start that second. The disciples came to learn, thus obeying Christ's command, for the Master called unto them, Come and dine. There they found the hearts' desire, bread and fish upon the fire, those who should have sons are hungry every time. Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine. You make peace to Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now, come and dine. Soon the Lamb will take His bride to be ever at His side, all the hosts of heaven will assemble me. Oaks will be a glorious sight, all the saints in spotless white, and with Jesus they will feast eternally. Come and dine, the Master calleth. Come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now. Come and dine. Remain standing there and turn on back to page 436. Page 436. Let's do our verses and then you come on the last. A pilgrim was I in a wandering, in the cold of the night in my home, when Jesus, the kind shepherd, found me, and now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy He shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. He restoreth my soul when I'm hungry. He giveth me strength by our day. He leadeth beside the still waters. He guardeth each step of the way. Surely goodness is ♪ Shall follow me all the days, all the days of life ♪ ♪ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me ♪ ♪ All the days, all the days of my life ♪ ♪ When walking through darkness and valley ♪ ♪ My Savior will walk with me there ♪ And safely his great hand will lead me To the mansion he's going to prepare. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Been a while since we've done that one there. I don't know if we've done that here, but that's been a while since I've done it, anyway. Only the goody. Brother Bond, would you lead us in a word of prayer? And you may be seated. Good morning. Welcome to the 11 a.m. Service our scripture reading today is Acts chapter 4 verses 31 through 37 Acts chapter 4 31 through 37 stand when you find it for the reading of God's Word. And when they had prayed The place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet. And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted, the son of Consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus. having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Thank you, and you may be seated. Pastor? All right, looking forward to this passage this morning. Good to see everybody out today and those that were able to make it out. I noticed on the radar this morning all of our Sparta people already had ice this morning. They had a big batch of big ice went through there on the east. And Brother Neil had told me yesterday morning at men's prayer that they tend to get snow and ice that we don't. Thought well, yeah, look at that. You sure do. I don't know what it is with the Topography of the land or whatever. I don't know what it is. You'll never figure out, Missouri weather and so It's just what it does. I don't get it. So we'll probably have a tornado tomorrow and 90 on 90 on Wednesday, you know and then snow Thursday and whatever so it's we don't know but it's never boring that's for sure so but too good to see everybody out today and We'll keep up to date on the weather tonight. It's supposed to drop pretty cold and a little bit of ice and snow before the evening service, and it might just not be good to even head out in it, so we'll see. And I'll keep you up to date. All right, let's take a moment to pray and just kind of get all of this other stuff off of our brain and kind of get focused here on the message coming up here. So let's pray, and I'll close this out in just a moment. Our Father, we thank you this morning, Lord, just for the opportunity to get out and the weather is just ugly right now. And we're just thankful for just the safety of getting here and those that have been able to even get out and to be out in the weather. We just thank you for that. Pray bless them in a special way today. Lord, as we open your word this morning, we just want to be changed. I want to be changed. I want places in my life to be more conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. And I'm so thankful that you promised to do that. And Lord, we know that process comes from the preaching of your word, and not only the preaching of your word, But the second under that is the response to the preaching of the word. And we just pray that you'd give us a hearty response today, that we'd say yes to you today on whatever you point out in our life, and to know that you're trying to do that work in us, and that we'd allow you to do it. We just want to see that in our hearts. pray for those that could not have been here today because of sickness and thankful for those that are well and back with us but the others we just lift up to you today and we ask you to do a work in their heart and life and and uh lord we'd love to see a physical healing in in in the bodies of some and but some are just going to need your grace and some are just going to need to draw close to you and and allow you to do in their life what you are attempting to accomplish and And we know, Lord, that sometimes you accomplish things in our life through trials and sickness and pain and struggles. And we would never want to get in the way of what you are trying to do in a life. How on earth could we know enough to try to intervene and to stop certain things? But we trust you and whatever you're trying to accomplish in a life Lord. We just pray that you'd That the response of those would be right to you and and Lord that they would know you in a deeper way than they ever have Well, thank you for what you do in our services today in the lives of your people the lives of those that could not be here today the lives of those that are watching live stream and I just pray that your word would go out with power today. You'd give me liberty to preach today. And then, Father, would you just bind Satan, rebuke demons, command them just to be gone from this place, and that you'd just give a clear opening for the work of the Holy Spirit. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. Please stand one more time and turn to page 448. He giveth more grace when the burdens grow bitter. He sendeth more strength when the labors endure. He multiplied triumph, He multiplied pain. His love has no limits, His grace has no measure. His power is no measure ignored unto men. and riches in Jesus he giveth and giveth and giveth again when every exhaust of endurance. When our streak has failed, e'er the days have done, when we reach the end of our wounded resources, our Father's forgiving has only begun. has no limit. His grace has no measure. His power over mountains is known unto men. For out of the You may be seated pastor But you're glad the God of heaven is a God who gives. He is a giver. He gives and gives and gives and keeps giving and sometimes it's almost embarrassing when you look at how often you fail and how often you sin and some of the ways we just can get in places of our life here and there of disobedience and then He gives again. And you say, sometimes like, stop, please. It's just, it's His nature, amen? Aren't you glad for that? And He is a giving God, and I'm so thankful for that. The God of this world, the God of this world is a taker. Man will either allow God to give to them and give to others, they will in turn give to others as God does, or they'll just give to themselves and be a bunch of takers, right? because they don't want to receive of God, they'd rather receive of themselves. And that's a real challenge that we live with in our life. When I think of the season that we have just come through in recognizing the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can't but help to have this word come to my mind all the time, give, give, give. God is a giver. In John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He what? Gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, that have everlasting life. I know it's kind of obvious, but you know, in order to have a gift, you must have a receiver. You've got to have a receiver. Could you imagine? Even if you said, well, I've got this set aside, and you didn't even know who you had it set aside for, you still had in your mind somebody you desired to receive a gift that you wanted to give. You've got to have a receiver. And there's a great joy that comes, doesn't there? There's a great joy that comes to the giver when they see the joy of the receiver. There's something just wonderful about that. I am one of those people, if I get my wife a gift and I get her something and I'm going to tell myself she ain't getting it until the day, it don't happen. Sorry, it doesn't happen. I got her something she was wanting for Christmas and one of these things that made no joy to me, I don't care about this thing, I mean it builds cool stuff and builds clothes and she can build dresses and stuff with it and it's a sewing machine, okay, and I'm like whatever. Right? I would find zero joy in sitting down on that thing. Right, Brother Allen? I don't know if you would or not. Maybe if I was sewing something cool. Right? But I don't know how to do that. And so I was determined. The box came and of course she saw the box and she knew about it. And she's like, can I have it now? And I said, no, you're not. You're waiting to Christmas. And I'm going to wrap this thing up and you're going to wait. And then one of the daughters said something about she'd put on the text thread she wants to get it now. And I said, it's not happening. And all I forgot, one of them thought I was good for saying no, right? And you know what the next picture sent out were? of her with her new little thing. I am terrible at waiting because I love to see the response. I enjoy that. I like to see, I mean she knows what it is, but she's picking the thing up and all the parts that come with it and she's like, it's like watching a kid again, all excited. I mean, there's joy in that, amen? There really is, in being a giver. And listen, not everybody gives gifts for the right reason, do they? How many people give things for ulterior motives? Deuteronomy 16 and verse 19, the Bible says this, Judges and rulers, they were warned about receiving gifts from those with ulterior motives. Listen to what it says here, Thou shalt not rest judgment, right? And thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift. For a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous." My brother's pastor in Philadelphia never would receive a gift from anybody. He goes, you watch, you watch, they'll start wanting to give you cars. He goes, I had a guy in the church, Brother Pinochetti, he said, I had a guy in the church wanting to give me a station wagon. He goes, there's no way I was taking that thing. I said, no thank you. He goes, he was wanting to get something out of me. And you know what happens? Listen, we're human. We have flesh. And there's times when you will back off of preaching the Word of God, because somebody just gave you something. And there is something that needs to be said, right? And you'll watch. You've got to be careful, right? The Bible warns us to be careful of receiving gifts, because some people give them for the wrong reason. They want to control you. They want to spread out the net. The Bible says the flattering tongue is like a net that's spread out. Your watch says, you ever seen those? They flatter you. Oh, that was the best. That was great. You're just so good at that. Careful. The net's been spread out. They want to capture something. They want you somehow. Listen. People don't always do things for the right motives. Proverbs 17, 23, a wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. Some people, as a pastor, I've seen it, some of those that have been pastors for a long time, you've seen it, they've come up and they want to do something for you and you go, hmm, why? This is interesting. Makes you nervous, brother. Have you ever had that kind of go, oh, this is weird. Yeah. And anyway, yeah, you got to be careful sometimes. And here we are, we're coming into the book of Acts here, chapter 5, and some people only give things for selfish motives. It's just fact, friend, it is what it is. They give things for ulterior motives, for selfish motives. And when we come into Acts chapter 5 this morning, The church is absolutely busting at the seams. They're praying and God is showing up and the place, the building is absolutely, literally shaking from the presence of God. They had just preached. Peter had just preached. 5,000 had gotten saved. They had been healing. They had been in jail. They'd been, got out of jail. I mean, and now the church is praying that Peter and those preaching would have even more boldness with the gospel. I mean, this is a great church. It's busting at the seams, like I said. They are making an absolute difference on Jerusalem where they were at this time. And it was a great thing. But here the Holy Spirit of God gives us some evidence of what a church should look like who's doing everything right. Right. There's some evidence here. and the church body here the Bible says was of one heart that a single desire what was the single desire you see here back in chapter 4 verse 31 when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they all spake not with tongues They spake with the Word of God. They spake the Word of God. This was the evidence of the church in unity and the filling of the Spirit of God in every individual was what? They spake the Word of God, how? With boldness. With boldness. I've said it before, if miracles brought people to Jesus, if miracles help people walk closer to God, the Israelites should have never strayed away. They got more miracles than anybody's seen in our lifetime. They still strayed away from God. But here they are, this church here, they're filled with the Holy Ghost. They are walking in the Spirit and they are speaking the Word of God with boldness and the multitude of them that believe, verse 32, were of one heart, there is unity in the body, and of one soul, they were like just completely knit together. Their will, their mind, their emotions, their desires, oh, it was just, there was no schism in the body whatsoever. Neither of them had aught of the things which he possessed was his own, but they all had, they had all things in common. This is not communism, right? This was not, people say, oh, this was, you know, the communism was the original way. Oh, stop it, that's so silly. It has nothing to do with being a commune. What it had to do with was when they came to Christ, they were kicked out of the temple. Some of these people would have lost their jobs. Some of these people would have lost their way of making a living. And the church recognized this and the people began to help one another because of the sacrifice. And this is the theme for this year. I'm not going to get into this today, but I'm building up the message this week or this morning's message is going to build to next week's message, which will hopefully build on our theme this year. And it was a theme of sacrifice. I'm telling you, we don't know how to sacrifice anymore. God has sacrificed everything for us. And what do we do? I mean, we just throw pennies at them when it's convenient. Oh, I'm going to get ahead of myself. Stop it. Okay. They're of one heart. They had a single desire. There was unity in the body. They're of one soul. They were single in mind, will, and emotions. They had one possession. What mine is yours. Now, my wife has an opinion. And when we got saved, she says, what mine is mine and what's yours is mine. Right? And I'm like, wait, that's not how that saying goes. She goes, oh, yeah, it is. It is. It's the way it goes. I was just amazed about that. It really is. I didn't know that. But notice they had great power and authority to preach. There was care for one another. They were concerned for one another. But here at the end of chapter 4 we're introduced to this man Joses, Barnabas. Verse 36, And it is Barnabas who by the Spirit of God lives a life that the Holy Spirit believes we need to know about. You see what it says of him? And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, I like this, who is by interpretation the son of consolation. He was a peacemaker. He loved, he was a help. He was the one who brought the Apostle Paul up to Antioch and said, no, it's okay. I'm vouching for him. You know, that's where we get the practice of sending a letter with church membership. what was Barnabas doing? He was vouching for the salvation, the authenticity of Paul's testimony of salvation, that he was baptized into that church scripturally, baptized in the church of Damascus, and that the church at Antioch should accept that testimony, and Barnabas was the one who brought him up. And people were like, oh, we don't want him. He's been killing people. No, Barnabas says, no, it's legit, he's okay. Here's this Barnabas, he's a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. You see what the Holy Spirit wants us to see in the life of Barnabas is that he was a giver. Barnabas was a giver. He was concerned about others. He was concerned about others and what marked his life so much so that the Holy Spirit of God said, of all the things I could include in the Word of God, I want it included that Barnabas was a giver. Well, that's interesting, isn't it? Why would he want that included? Well, that is so perfectly mirrors the life of God, a giver. You know, and there is godly giving, isn't there? There is a godly giving, amen? You can say amen to that, it's true. There is godly giving. Members had financial needs. I'd said just a little bit ago, when they had left the temple and they had lost status and they could have maybe lost their jobs, and so the members had taken it upon themselves to give to one another. This is godly, godly giving. Certain members here were selling their land and houses, watch, why? To meet the needs of the other brothers and sisters in Christ. They were selling land. They were selling property. They were selling extra things. They may have been going through their house and emptying out the cupboards or going to the shop building and realizing, yeah, I know, I haven't used that in 36 years. Okay, I'll sell it. And you went, but I might, you know what happens though, right? You'll need it tomorrow. But anyway, they were selling things. They had concern for the body. This was a great act of love. This was a great act of selflessness among the body. This was godly giving. These saints, they were more concerned with the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ than they were of their own wealth and possessions. They were concerned. And so what happened, they did? They came and they brought it to the apostles' feet. Now this is interesting to me. because Jesus chose the apostles and the apostles, of course, had authority from Jesus. Apostle meaning a sent one. I'm of the opinion that apostle is the biblical term for a missionary. You won't find the word missionary in the Bible. It's a Catholic word, actually. They were missionists and things like that. We don't have to throw the word out or anything like that, but I think probably a more biblical word would be an apostle, sent once. they went out and they started works and they left them and they went on to other ones. But they had this authority. And watch this now, Barnabas is recognizing this authority by bringing his money to the apostles. Do you remember what the Holy Spirit reminded us of and told us here of Barnabas? He was a Levite. His role was in the temple. His role was with the sacrifices. The tribe of Levi, all of it was about receiving the gifts and the offerings and making offerings for the people of Israel. And here it is this Levite, who is one of the most prominent ones, who is a giver in bringing of his own needs and of his own things. Watch, do you realize the Levites didn't have property usually? I don't know how he had any, maybe he inherited some. But the Levite status was normally that of receiving because they didn't have anything. Watch, the one who under the law, the Levite, who was commanded by God that they should receive of all of the other tribes to pay for their service in the temple, this one who was normally a receiver became a giver. It's totally contrary to what God had designed for them to be. But this is who he was in his heart. This is what Jesus had made him. He made him a giver. And here it is, Barnabas is recognizing not only that he's a giver, but he's recognizing the authority that God has established. He brought it to the apostles. And he said, here you go. What is this doing? This is an act of trust. He trusted God's blueprint. Amen? This is what we do every time we bring our tithes and our offerings into the church. We trust God's blueprint of storing up and bringing in and having this blueprint that God has designed for the way that monies get out into the work of the gospel. Right? Notice he trusted the apostles with it. He didn't put any stipulation on it. Well, I'm going to give this, but this is what I want done with it. I'm sorry, that's not a godly giver. I want my name, I want a plaque over here. I am so thankful I've never been in a church where somebody demanded a plaque somewhere for the money they gave. I know a church that put a plaque up on a building to recognize somebody and the family wasn't really that happy about it because they didn't want their name up there. Right? They were just givers. And it wasn't wrong to acknowledge them, right? Give, you know, render, whatever the word I'm thinking of. The verse I'm thinking of, I can't even think of it right now. Give honor where honor is due. There we go. That's what I'm thinking of. And so what I'm saying here, listen, there was no stipulations. He trusted God's blueprint. He trusted the apostles. Watch. Just very simply, Barnabas gave the money from the land to God. And he walked away from it. You know what the tithers in this church do on a weekly basis? And the givers do to missions? You know what you do? You give your money to God and there's an element of trust where you say, God knows and God will deal with it. I know of people that are close to me. They don't go to this church, but they're close to me. And they're constantly, in a lot of ways, they have a lot of trouble with not knowing every exact way that the money's spent. And we do. I mean, we have a business meeting next week. You'll see, you'll have reams of paper where everything goes. But I've said, you know, eventually you gotta just trust God. If you've given it to God, That's what it is. People say, well, I gave to the church. We give through the church to God. He's who we give to. And this is what Barnabas was, right? He was just a giver to God. He was. Can I remind you here this morning that God has created no other institution on this planet besides the church and the home? Those are the two institutions that God created. The church, the home first, the church number two. And the church alone was given the responsibility of the Great Commission. And let me ask you this. Oh, we got new tracks. You need to load up on the way out. The white ones finally came in. But how do you buy tracks? How do you support missionaries? How do you turn the lights on? How do you have vans? How do you have gasoline for the things? How do you have money for the food and the events and the friend days to get people in? How do you do any of that without money? I know, I'm preaching to the choir. Let me enjoy it, okay? It's very simple. It's easy right now. But come on, how do you do this without money? I've noted this, you know what givers don't mind? Preaching on giving. They actually enjoy it. Amen. Why? Because they've seen God faithful and true. They've proven Him faithful and true. The church alone was given the responsibility of the Great Commission and nothing gets accomplished without money. Now I'm thankful I don't know what people give. I'm glad because I have a lot more liberty this morning. I don't know. I can just fling her down. By the look of everybody's faces, everybody looks like a giver, so I think we're okay. Everybody looks all right. Help me, Lord. I have had our bookkeepers say, does somebody still attend here? I say, well, sure. Oh, okay. Don't need to say anything else. What about giving to other prayer church ministries like Bible colleges and radio ministries and Christian publications and things like that? Oh sure, go ahead. Nothing wrong. But our priority is it comes to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers are supposed to be a member of a body when they get saved. Giving your tithes and your offerings to ministries beside your local church and outside of your local church is like giving all of your food away. Can I tell you something? You can do it for a while. You can go through your cabinets and just give food away and give it away and give it away and give it away and never eat. You know what's going to happen? You're eventually not going to feel good. And your own body's going to suffer. Yeah. My grandmother, my great grandmother, the family had to kind of intervene for her once. She was up in her, probably, I don't know how old she was at the time. She lived to be 99. But they found out she was given all of her social security, which, born in 1879, she probably didn't have much social security. Didn't have a lot of working years to get anything. But she had a little bit of something. She just sent it off to all the radio preachers. And they had to put it, she was just, it was going everywhere, right? And what a great heart that is. But, you know, if you give your money, if you give your food away long enough, the body is going to start starving. Besides that, Jesus said to give. Do you know Jesus' church had a money bag? It's not even the point of the message, but it's just right here. Don't worry, I'll get moving off of this in just a second. Maybe somebody watching online is under conviction right now and they're going to go back to their church and get right with God and start giving, right? But here next, chapter 5, right? they're selling their possessions to give to God through the church. Listen, if Old Testament saints were called robbers of God when they didn't tithe under the law, what does it make you or I, what does it make us when we don't give under grace? Come on. 1 Timothy 5.8, but then he'd provide not for his own, and especially those of his own house, provide for his own. I think you have two distinctions here in 1 Timothy 5.8. You have the distinction of providing for his own on a general sense. What's some of our own? Well, our own church body. And especially those of his own house, the context here was widows, taking widows in. He hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. Ouch! That's pretty rough. Why are you worse than an infidel or an unbeliever if we don't give? Well, they say they are a believer, but their actions are really that they don't believe, which is a complete contradiction. What am I saying? Giving is godly. God is a giver. And the first church here we see, Jesus, the church, the body that Jesus put together, his own self when he called him out, gave to God through the church. They trusted God through his authority. They did it voluntarily. They did it in love. And we see the Holy Spirit points out one individual, this Barnabas, who was a godly giver. But not everybody was. Not everybody was. Look at verse 1 of chapter 5. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price. So they had obviously just like Barnabas, they had some stuff. They brought the money to the apostles' feet, just like Barnabas did. They were going to give it through the church, just like Barnabas did. What a great thing. Everything's looking pretty kosher so far. There's still Jews here. I can say kosher. It's all right. And it's looking pretty good so far. But they didn't give all of it. Well, why is that such a big deal? Now, it seems like they made this decision together because later we're going to see Sapphira says, yeah, she was aware of it. And actually, you'll see it here, even in verse two, his wife also being privy to it. She knew it. She agreed, obviously. But Peter knew and found out the scam. Well, how did Peter know? Well, I think God told him. Think how big of an issue this is, this deception, this ungodly giving. Think how big of a situation this is that the Holy Spirit of God intervened to tell Peter he's lying. He's lying. Yeah. Peter here is the pastor of the first church here in Jerusalem. He has the gifts of the apostle and obviously, yeah, the Holy Spirit here told him. The giving of Ananias and Sapphira, I don't know if it started well. Obviously, the Holy Spirit of God put it and pressed it upon their heart to do it as well, right? Notice what Peter says in verse three, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? Why has Satan filled thine heart There's a very important distinction here in this verse. Satan entered into Judas when he betrayed Jesus, right? The Bible says when Satan entered into Judas, but here the Bible says Satan put this thought into Ananias' heart. I don't want to pass this. This is some great news here, is that Satan doesn't enter the life of a believer. He, listen, he attacks from the outside, he oppresses from the outside, he can throw maybe thoughts from the outside, but you're not Judas. Jesus even said to the eleven, you're clean, but not all of you, right? Judas was not born again. He had never been saved, which is why Satan was able to enter into Judas, but he wasn't able to enter into Ananias or Sapphira, but especially into Ananias. But here it is, you know, Satan was able to put the thought from the outside in. Hey listen, be very careful of what you allow to lodge into your heart. Be very careful what you allow to get in there. Satan will put all sorts of wicked ideas out there hoping that one will just take root. Oh yeah, absolutely. You ever been astonished at your thoughts? Where'd that come from? Good grief. I actually like that person. I don't want to run him over with a truck. That's weird. I just made that up. I've only thought that about Martin. Nobody else. Oh, since we're confessing. Proverbs tells us to keep thy heart with all diligence. That word means to guard or to protect. Protect your heart with all diligence. Why? For out of it are the issues of life. Jesus says it's not what comes into the body that defiles, it's what comes out, what comes out of the heart. Evil thoughts and murders and adulteries, all of these things come out of the heart. That's what defiles an individual. And this is why the Bible says that Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost of God when he kept back part of the price, when he came up and laid it at the apostles' feet and in some way said, here's the money of what we sold the land for. Right? He lied. He lied to the Spirit of God. On top of that, he portrayed himself to the church that he was doing what God wanted him to do. So he's lying to the church as well. But really, his lying was ultimately against God. Look at verse 4. While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. Here's the ultimate problem. David said against thee, and thee only have I sinned. Did he sin against Bathsheba? Yes. Did he sin against his own family? Yes. Did he sin against Israel? Yes. But the first one he sinned against was God. Did Ananias sin against his church? Yes. Against the people? Yes. But ultimately, the first one he sinned against, he sinned against God. He gave in to demonic deception. He gave in. You know what he could have said? It would have been okay. I sold the land for this much and I need about 10% for some needs. And so we're going to give 90%. Praise the Lord. It's not what he did. Peter says, wasn't it not in thine own power? You could have kept it. You could have done something else with it, right? Maybe the Holy Spirit didn't say give at all, maybe He just said give. You sold the land, you need to give. Sometimes the Lord does that. You ever open your billfold? The Lord puts it on your heart, plates coming around, open the billfold up, and you say, oh, there's that one. Holy Spirit says, nope, next one. Oh, that's a 20. No, not that one, the next one. That's a 500. He says, not that one, that's Albania, that's five bucks, the next one. Oh, that's a 50. Yeah, that one. No. Sometimes he kind of helps us along, doesn't he? Listen, Ananias was just told to give, maybe he wasn't told to give it all. But he lied about it. He lied to the Spirit of God. He had, listen, he portrayed that he had a heart of yes, right, but his deception made it look like he had a heart of no, which he did. He just wanted to be recognized. Oh, we can dive into this for weeks. I don't have time. There's so much here. But selfish giving and demonic deception, these two things, listen, they always have costly consequences in our life. Look at verse 5. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear come on all of them that heard these things. You think? Yeah, we're just standing there, this guy brought in this money, gave it to Peter, and Peter, all silent, you know, man. Ananias, why did you lie to the Holy Ghost? You lied to God. Everybody goes... Obviously, Ananias was in, listen, they were in the assembly, they were assembled. Yeah, this is what churches do, they assemble, I don't know if you knew that. But they assembled, and they brought their money into the assembly, and he went... You know what happened? Told the young men, take him out and bury him. Ho-hum. This is rough. You know, they started getting afraid, obviously. And so, daddy is. Look at verses 7 through 10. We're going to go on. You know the story. And it was about the space of three hours after then when his wife came, not knowing what is done, she came in. They had to have been married a long time because she had no idea where he was or what happened to him and whether he was dead or not, right? And if they'd been married a few weeks, she'd have been there still. But anyway, we don't need to get into marriage counseling this morning. But anyway, she didn't know where he was. She shows up and Peter confronts her. Did you all get the money from the land you sold? Oh yeah, we gave it. Look what she says here. Tell me whether you sold it, verse 8, for the land for so much? And she said, yeah, for so much. And Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Notice that word tempt, the Spirit of the Lord. That word tempt there means to test God's justice and patience. That word tempt there means to make, I've got another definition here, to make a trial of for the purpose of ascertaining his quality or what he thinks or how he will behave himself. What were they doing? I think they are well aware that maybe this isn't right. Well, I guess we'll see what God does. Well, they found out. Yeah. They listened to Satan and they essentially said, I guess we'll find out what God thinks about this. Look at verse 10. Then she fell down straightway at his feet. Another one goes down. Healed it up the ghost. Young men came in. They just got done burying her husband came in and they're like, Oh, another one. Yep. Get her out. I mean, this is incredible. And carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon the church, and upon as many as heard these things. So here we have two believers, two members of the first church, who agreed together to say yes to the Spirit of God, then to lie about it to profit themselves. And they acted as if God didn't care. They acted as if maybe if God, we'll find out if He even understands or knows or even cares in the first place. We'll just see how God responds to this. But I can't help but these two Hebrews, at one point in their life, in their growing up, in their time in the synagogues, growing up as children, and growing up as young adults, if they did not remember confronting Deuteronomy chapter six, when it said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God as thou temptest Him, and the place of temptation." No doubt they would have known this, but they did tempt God and the consequences were incredibly costly. They died. They will go through the judgment seat of Christ, think about this, with no works that will go through the fire. They didn't live long enough to do anything. Can we all agree today that obviously the Lord thinks this is a really huge deal? You know the Apostle Paul even told the church at Corinth, we don't think about it in these terms because we haven't seen anything so drastic like that. But can I remind you the Apostle Paul told the church at Corinth, some of you are sick and many sleep. Why? Because of disobedience. I'm convinced, I mean there's, people have chronic illnesses and absolutely these things happen, but I'm convinced sometimes sickness is just disobedience. Yeah. Is that not what the Holy Spirit of God said through Paul? Some of you are sick, and yea, some even sleep. You're dead. People are dying. Why? Because of disobedience. It's a big thing. It's a big thing. Oh, I know. You have all the preachers out there now that they know how to grow a big church, right? They can tell you it doesn't matter. Oh, don't worry, tithing isn't for today, this isn't for today, but let me get your W-2 and we'll go ahead and take it out automatically. Oh, no, they still get your money. I am shocked what people will give themselves to, right? Yeah, sure, we'll just let you take it out ACH, but we're not going to trust God by faith and give according to our own character and love and desire for God on our own, no. We're not going to be priests and kings unto God. We're not going to be, you know, self-govern ourselves in our own self-autonomy and serve God on our own, but we will let somebody else do it for her. It boggles my mind, it really does. Maybe we should just, what do you think Brother Martin? Just do automatic withdrawals? They'll give their WN2's so they can verify how much they make. So Ananias and Sapphira, they were in kind of a quandary. They wanted to look good to their fellow believers and they wanted to satisfy their own desires. But they wanted to keep some of their own money for themselves more than they wanted to obey God. How did somebody get to this place? Well, they weren't saved. No, not true, they were saved. Satan couldn't enter them. The Holy Spirit of God was working in them and drawing them and directing them. How does a believer get to this place? Well, it's really just one thing, it's self. Of all the idolatries in the idols of the world, the greatest idol we have is the one looking in the mirror. Self. They wanted people to think that they were sacrificing. They wanted the money. They wanted the praise of men. It was self. Don't miss this please. They had no problem with lying to God and their church if it would get them the praise of men. They had no problem lying with God, lying to God and lying to people if it just made them look good. They could have said nothing at all. It was purely self-motivated. And why is this so evil? Because self-motivation is completely opposite and contrary to the one that they are in a relationship with. Is God a giver? Does He give grace? Is there a greater gift than grace? I mean, if you have the grace of God and the divine enablement of God and the favor of God, what else do you need, right? God is a great, great giver. And for us to live a selfless, self-centered, just a self-sacrificed, self-serving life, it is completely contrary to the one who indwells us if we're a child of God. They were telling the people that the actions of their life were born out of their relationship with God. We are living the way God would want us to live. We are doing what God would have us to do. We are giving what God would have us to give. But actually, they were living completely contrary to the will and the character of God. And God says, no, you're not going to get away with this. We just spent time recognizing the birth of Jesus Christ about a week and a half ago, I think. And it is the birth of Jesus Christ that reveals the absolute selflessness of God. Shows us what a selfless life even looks like. Of obedience, and selflessness, and sacrifice, and love, and truth, and giving it all. Philippians 2.8 said, Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. Watch, and being found in the fashion of man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Everything that was represented in that manger was the opposite of what was represented in the life of Ananias and Sapphira. So, what kind of giver are you? I know we all have room to grow, right? I know we all haven't arrived. This isn't a let's look at the checklist and see who's doing better than somebody else. It's a heart issue. It's a heart issue. Is your life marked by selflessness? When was the last time you asked the Lord, could you check my motives and see why I'm doing what I'm doing? Because I want to make sure my heart's right. Can I tell you, if this church doesn't get to that place, it'll be sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, as Paul said. The ministry here will be a bunch of noise, but it won't be real. It won't be real. You know what? I don't want a bunch of noise. And I don't think you want a bunch of noise. Not at all. You know what I think? People that are in love with the Lord Jesus, they want a heart that's real. And you know what we understand? Satan, at times, chucks stuff at us. Sometimes they stick. And sometimes we wake up one morning and we realize, boy, my heart's gotten away. And I'm just going through the motions, acting like everything's wonderful, when really my heart's away from God. I've turned inward. I've become selfish. I've become self-centered. Everything's become about me. And it is completely opposite. of the way that the lover of our soul lives and desires to live through us. Completely opposite. I've told the men I've had this word on my mind from the beginning of the year. It's a theme for my life, so now I'm going to inflict it on you. It's going to be the theme for the church. And it's the theme of sacrifice. Sacrifice. Giving. I think in our American culture, and it doesn't mean you go live in a cave and throw everything away. That's not what sacrifice means. But sacrifice in itself is a hard attitude. It's the heart that says, God, whatever, whenever, whoever, whatever you need, it's yours. It's yours. Sacrifice. Ananias and Sapphira, they didn't sacrifice. Why do you say that? Well, because they were still looking to get something out of it. It was ungodly giving. They wanted the praise of people. They wanted the adoration of people. They wanted to be looked at, right? And it wasn't sacrifice. It was for their own selflessness, selfishness. And I would pray this year that God does a work on us, that he would make us and mold us that we have a desire this year to become people who have lives that are marked by sacrifice. I mean, people can't even sacrifice for the simplest things. You know, children of God, we're just having the hardest time. The hardest time. Everything's about convenience. Well, this is just not convenient. I don't mean to be trite, and I don't mean to be overly cliched, right? But the cross wasn't convenient. Jesus wrapping himself in filthy human flesh He was tempted in all points as we are. Just go down the line, the list, and think about all the things that Jesus had to endure. I don't think he chose a convenient road. And for some reason, we have gotten this idea that our life is all about convenience. And really, we miss the joy of a sacrificial life. And it starts here with being a giver. Are you a giver? Are you a giver? I don't have money. Do you give your time? Do you give your prayers? Are you concerned with others? Or is it all about you? I pray that God would reveal anything. You know what I've said, right? We've not arrived. The person in this room walking the closest with the Lord has still not arrived, which leads all of us to say and ask the Lord today, ask Him if He would challenge our own heart and reveal in our own heart, is there somewhere Is there something, is there someplace where I just don't have a giving spirit and I've become self-centered? I've wanted to look like I am, but really deep down inside there's something that Satan has thrown at me that is attached to my heart and I'm not living real before you and before the people. Our Father, would you help us today? that we would put away with this selfish giving. Lord, that we would be like you. One of the great marks of a child of God is for us to be a giver. Would you help us to do that? Would you make us like Jesus in that way? If there's any place in our life that is not right with you, Or maybe some just need some encouragement today. They could look at their life and in all honesty, between them and God, they can say, God, you know my heart? I don't see anywhere where you have pointed out that I have a problem in this area. And they may just want today, say, Lord, would you help me to continue? They may just want to come and say, Lord, I don't see it. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing, but I certainly want to know it. I want to see if there's something in the way. Lord, however your spirit works today, would you do that work in our heart. Lord, make us givers. Help us to know the sacrificial life that you desire us to live. We pray you do that work today. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand today, if you would, please. The piano is going to play. However the Lord has spoken to you this morning, maybe you just need to spend some time with the Lord. How many would just come today and just tell the Lord, I just want to be a giver. You probably already are a giver if you're coming, but most guarantee the people that cry out to God say, Lord, make me a better giver. You already are. What a joy that is. But you just want the help of the Lord to continue on and to be a better giver and have a greater heart of giving. If that's you, you come today. I love you. Maybe you need to come this morning and ask the Lord just to do a health checkup. Lord, how's my heart? Is it all right in this area? Is there anything? Is there anything? You don't have to be gravely ill to go to the doctor and get a checkup. You know the greatest thing it requires to allow God to make you a giver is just surrender. Surrender. It's not mine. It's all His. It's all His. How do you know it's all His? Because the moment you die, He doesn't take a lick of it with you. And the moment you die, you don't need a lick of it either. Isn't that wonderful? Joseph told his brothers, leave your stuff behind. You're not going to need it. When you come back, you won't need it. Why? I'm going to provide everything, everything. You don't need your old junk. I love that. Amen.