How Do We Break Free From Secret Sin? | Acts 4:32-5:11 | James Savage

Well, welcome Cross Point. Would you stand with us? Good morning. Good morning. Hi, my name is Christina. It is so glad that you guys chose to worship with us today. And we want to especially welcome our friends at God Behind Bars. We love you and we're so glad you joined us as well. Listen, I wanna know how many visitors do we have in the congregation today? Your visitor, can I see those hands? Welcome guys, let's give them a welcome. Yeah. We love to have you here. We love to have you here. Now listen, for the month of July, our team's gonna do something a little different. We're doing something called a singing church. And what that looks like is we're gonna dial it back a little bit here with the band. And we're gonna play the same songs. We're gonna still worship because that's what we come to church to do, right? We come to church to worship for all that God has done for us, for who He is. We come to give Him praise. We come to give Him honor and gratitude. And one of the ways we do that by showing gratitude is lifting our voice.

We lift our voice to Him. He loves to hear our praises. He loves to hear our praises. So with a singing church that we'll be doing this month, we're gonna want to hear more of your voice. Now you may not be a great singer. That's okay. Let's see our non-singers. I'm kidding. Don't show me. They'll hear you next year. Also a joke. I'm so sorry. They should never give me a microphone. I should just say that. But all that to say, we wanna hear your voice. We wanna hear you sing. We wanna hear you worship. So as we sing these songs, you'll hear these songs and be like, oh man, I haven't heard that song since. Way back when or whatever. But as you're listening to, sing with us, will you? Sing with us and remember His goodness. Remember how He's shown up for you. What He's done and just who He is. So let's lift our voices together as one church, one voice, and we'll worship together. Does that sound good, church? Sounds good, all right. Come on.

Sing it. We give Him honor. Sing. ♪ My Jesus, my Savior ♪ ♪ Lord, there is none like you ♪ ♪ All of my days I want to praise the Lord ♪ ♪ The wonders of your mighty love ♪ ♪ You're my comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength ♪ ♪ And let every breath, to all that I am ♪ ♪ Never cease to worship you ♪ ♪ Shout to the Lord on the earth, let us sing ♪ Come on, church, sing. ♪ Power and majesty, praise to the King ♪ ♪ Mountains bowed down, and the seas will roar ♪ ♪ At the sound of your name ♪ ♪ Sing, I sing for joy at the work of your hands ♪ ♪ Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand ♪ ♪ Nothing compares to the promise I have in you ♪ Yeah. ♪ My Jesus, my Savior, Lord there is none like you ♪ ♪ All of my days, I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love ♪ ♪ All of my days, I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love ♪ ♪ Cause you're my comfort and my shelter, tower of refuge and strength ♪ ♪ Let every heart be filled with your love ♪ All that I am, all that I am Never cease to worship You Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing Power and majesty, praise to the King Mountains bow down and the seas will roar At the sound of Your name

I sing for joy at the work of Your hands Forever I love You, forever I'll sing Nothing compares to the promise I have I sing for joy at the work of Your hands Forever I love You, forever I'll stand Nothing compares to the promise I have Oh, nothing compares to the promise I have Oh, nothing compares to the promise I have in You Sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind, but now I see T'was grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed See my chains are gone, I've been set free My God, my Savior has ransomed me And like a flood, His mercy rains An ending now, amazing grace God, we thank You for Your amazing grace Sing the Lord has promised me His Word my hope secures And He will my shield and portion be As long as I live Sing my chains are gone, I've been set free My God, my Savior has ransomed me And like a flood, His mercy rains An ending now, amazing grace Sing the earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forbear to shine Good God God who called me here below Will be forever mine Will be forever mine Cause my chains are gone I've been set free My God, my Savior Has ransomed me And like a flood His mercy rains Unending love Amazing grace Your unending love And amazing grace Amen Thank you for your amazing grace Sing worthy of every song we could ever sing And worthy of all the praise we could ever You're worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you Oh we live for you Come on we sing his name Sing Jesus the name above every other name And Jesus the only one who could ever say Amen He is worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you Lord we live for you Sing holy

There is no one like you There is none beside you Open up my eyes and wander And show me who you are And fill me with your heart And lead me in your love To those around me Oh lead me Lord Come on he's worthy Sing worthy of every song we could ever sing And worthy of all the praise we could ever breathe You are worthy Jesus And worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you Oh we live for you Lord Sing holy There is no one like you There is none beside you Open up my eyes and wander And show me who you are And fill me with your heart And lead me in your love To those around me Lead me Lord Lead me Lord I will go Oh lead me Lord Lead me Lord And I will go Oh

Sing I will build my life upon your love It is a firm foundation And I will put my trust in you alone And I will not be Hold on we'll sing it again Sing I will build my life upon your love It is a firm foundation And I will put my trust in you alone And I will not be Hold on we'll sing it again Sing I will build my life upon your love by the life of a poor love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in you alone. And I will not be shaken. Oh, you're holy. And there is no one like you. There is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. And show me what you are. And fill me with your heart. And lead me in your love to those around. Oh, you're holy. And there is no one like you. There is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. And show me who you are. And fill me with your heart. And lead me in your love to those around. It's a firm foundation.

Yes. Your love is a firm foundation. Yes. And I will build my life upon your love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in you alone. And I will not be shaken. And I will build my life upon your love. It is a firm foundation. I will put my trust in you alone. And I will not be shaken. Thank you. All right, Crosspoint, how are we feeling? Feeling pretty good? Y'all, there are two groups of people that go to church on July 5th. Happy July 4th weekend, by the way. The only people that are here are people who really love it here. And the other ones are people who really need to be here. And listen, if you fall into either of those categories, I think the Lord's got something for you today. This is a really good day. Thank you for being here. I'm honored to be here. If you haven't met, I'm James Savage. I get to be the campus pastor out at our Dixon campus. We're going to pick up in our story, we're going to pick up in the book of Acts, in Acts 4, verse 32. As Pastor Darren said, we are on a year-long journey looking at the definitive account of what happened in the first 30 years of the movement of Jesus. And while you're turning there, if you've got a Bible with you, while you're turning there, I want to ask you this question. When was the last time you underestimated something? Like the last time you underestimated how much work that renovation project was going to take? Or you underestimated how much traffic was in between you and where you needed to be?

Or if you're a student, maybe last semester, did you ever underestimate the amount of studying that it was going to take in order to be able to pass the test? In 2015, my wife, Lindsay, and I, we underestimated the Louvre. If you're not familiar with the Louvre, it is the most famous art museum in the world. It's in Paris, France. We were in Paris. We've got a fan of the Louvre somewhere in here. It's cool. We were in Paris, and we were going to walk from our hotel to the Louvre. So we put in our GPS, walked for about half an hour. And then the GPS eventually said, you have arrived at your destination. Now, the one thing that I knew about the Louvre at this point was that it is famous for when you walk in, you walk into this giant glass pyramid. And as I understood it that day, most of the museum was underneath it. But when I looked at my GPS and it said, you have arrived at your destination. I didn't see no glass pyramid. Instead, we were surrounded by these huge brown buildings that were all. connected and I looked around and I thought, well, we're obviously in the wrong spot. The GPS is wrong or what I put in was wrong because there's no giant glass pyramid. Now I don't speak French, we'd never been to France. So the only thing that we need to do was just start wandering around and seeing if we could find something that would point us in the direction of the Louvre. So we turned right, we turned left, we eventually turned a corner, looked ahead of us. And what we saw a few hundred yards in front of us was the giant glass pyramid. But what we also noticed was the giant glass pyramid was surrounded by those huge brown buildings. And all at once, Lindsay and I both said out loud, we said to each other,

oh, the pyramid is the entrance to the Louvre. All of these buildings are also the Louvre. That day going in, I knew that the Louvre was the most famous museum, art museum in the world. But what I didn't realize that it is also the largest art museum in the world. If you combine all of the buildings and all of the courtyards, that property sits on two and a quarter million square feet. We had fully underestimated the Louvre. It was much bigger and much closer than we ever realized. Today, we're gonna read some scriptures that are going to draw the same conclusion about God. That God is much bigger and much closer than we often imagine and realize. In fact, we're gonna read two different passages. There's two stories. They're kind of like inverses of each other. The first one is in Acts at the very end of Acts chapter four and the second one takes place at the beginning of Acts chapter five. The first tells a story of people pursuing kingdom importance. The second tells a story of people pursuing personal importance. The first is a story about truth. The second is a story about lies. The first is a story about freedom. And the second is a story about bondage. I'll cut to the chase.

The first story is a story that paints a picture of heaven on earth. And the second story is a story that paints a picture of hell on earth. By the time we get done digging into and studying these scriptures, I think it's gonna be clear that each of us will realize that we underestimate all of it. That we underestimate the power and the weight of sin. And we often underestimate the power and the weight of grace. That sin is greater and grace is greater, justice is greater, mercy is greater. God is greater than we have ever imagined. And heaven on earth, hell on earth, man, they are closer than we often realize. And if you're here today and you're thinking, yeah, I know, because hell on earth is what I'm living right now. I want you to know that today you can make a decision that can change the trajectory of your life. Today, you can make a decision that will put you on a pathway to say that my yesterday does not have to be my tomorrow. But before we get there, we need to get into these passages. Anybody wanna read some Bible? Oh yeah, that was a robust yeah from out of here. Yeah, all right. So before we get to Acts chapter four, verse 32, let me remind you,

this is after Jesus's life and death and resurrection. This is after he ascended into heaven and told his disciples, now you guys go teach everything that I taught you. If you've been here for the past few weeks, you've seen how the Jesus movement grew from nothing to be thousands of people. If you've missed any messages, go back on the website or go to YouTube or go to the podcast and listen to them. You'll see the story about how the Holy Spirit began to infuse the early church and people were healed and Jesus's name was proclaimed. And at this point, when we get to Acts chapter four, there's about 5,000 people in the entire world that call themselves followers of Jesus. And the story moves at a breakneck speed until this moment, when Luke, the author of Acts, pauses the story and steps back and has us look in at this moment where heaven met earth, where a group of people who had heard the gospel of Jesus start living the gospel of Jesus. The whole thing pauses so we could get a glimpse in, a glimpse of heaven on earth. And Luke says, starting in verse 32, that this is what that looked like. He said, all believers were, hey, let's say this word in bold together. All believers were one. It's important.

All believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them, in them all, that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from their sales and put it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to. anyone who had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. He sold the field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. Luke paints this picture of heaven on earth. It happens when people live out the things that Jesus taught them. As you notice, he kind of gave a heading, an introduction. He said that this took place when this group of people were of one heart and one mind. Now, what does that mean? I can tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that everyone there had the same politics or the same preferences or the same personalities. It doesn't mean that they all had the same possessions. It's 5,000 different people.

They didn't all have the same interests, but it does mean that above their interests, they all shared one value that was greater than anything else in their life. They all shared this value that said there's nothing more important than the expansion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This was a group of people who had everything, who had nothing in common, yet they shared this same value because each one of them had been wrecked by the gospel. They had been wrecked by the gospel, which says that there is a God who made all of this and who made you and who made me and who sees us in our brokenness and our sin. And instead of forcing us to crawl out of a hole that we can't get out of, instead of forcing us to solve the problem of sin on our own, this almighty God is also an almighty good God who is our heavenly father, who put on flesh and stepped into our world in the person of Jesus, died a death that we owed so that when we put our faith in him, we could be resurrected to new life, to have abundant life here on earth and eternal life with him in heaven. This was a group of people who had been wrecked by the gospel of Jesus. And then they began to rebuild their lives on their identity found in Christ. And they said, there is nothing more important

than that prayer that says, would your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Nothing more important than the expansion of the gospel of Jesus. And heaven and earth met. Now you wanna know something really cool about this moment? Cool, I'm gonna tell you. In this moment, this group of people are answering Jesus's prayers. I didn't say that backwards. Often we are asking Jesus to answer our prayers, but in this moment, they are answering Jesus's prayers. Because if you rewind the tape three months or so, Jesus was still alive and Jesus knew that soon he would be arrested and executed. And we have it recorded that Jesus started to pray for the future. Jesus started to pray for the people that his disciples would minister to. And if you go to John chapter 17, you get to read that prayer. Listen to this, Jesus prayed this. He said, my prayer is not for them alone, speaking of his disciples. He says, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one. One. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I am them, you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Now, I know that this is Jesus doing his best Dr. Seuss impression. It's kind of hard to read that without tripping up on some of those words, but hear what Jesus is saying. Jesus is literally praying for those in the future. He's praying for you and me. He's praying for those who won't get the luxury of being able to hear his actual voice. He's praying for those who won't be able to touch his physical skin. And he is praying that they will be unified in his name. He is praying that people will be unified, having one heart and having one mind for people who will not only proclaim the name of Jesus with their mouth, but live the name of Jesus with their lives. And he's praying this because Jesus knows that there is nothing more dangerous or damaging to the expansion of the gospel of Jesus than when people proclaim Jesus's name with their mouth and deny Jesus with their lives. But when those two things are linked, words and deeds, when they're linked, heaven comes down to earth and a group of people

get to live with one heart and one mind, celebrating the gospel of Jesus as it expands, not only outward, but also as it expands inward. Luke paints a picture. picture of heaven on earth. Notice that he's not talking about programs either. I mean, I'm a believer, government programs should exist and church programs should exist, but Luke's not talking about everyone saying, okay, we're gonna hook you up with the right person, we're gonna get this taken care of. Luke paints a picture of people living out the gospel of Jesus, and he even singles somebody out. Does anybody remember his name? Joseph. Listen to this, I love that this is in here. Back in 36, Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. I don't think I can overstate how significant it is that we know this much about Joseph. Think about this from Luke's perspective. Luke has the tall task of taking 30 years of the most significant movement that the world has ever seen and condensing it into what you and I see as 28 chapters. There's loads of things that did not make it

into the book of Acts. And yet Luke has decided that it's important for you and I not only to know Joseph's name, to know where he's from, to know his nickname and what his nickname means. And what a boss nickname, Barnabas, son of encouragement. You think people called him bus? What's up, bus? What's up, son? I mean, most of our nicknames, they come from the things that we're known for, right? That's obviously the case with Barnabas over here. What about you? Show of hands, who had a nickname growing up? Are you already raised your hand? Just shout it out. What's the nickname? It's gotta be appropriate. Look at you guys over there. I'm sorry. Yeah, what's the nickname that you had growing up? Toots? Toots, I love it. What else? Anybody else got a good nickname? My daughter's nickname is Tootie. Tootie? Make sure you write that down and embarrass her about it when she gets a little bit older, that's great. Yeah, I wanna be honest. I've had nicknames my whole life

and I got a new one about a month and a half ago. I probably shouldn't say this. We'll just jump in. Okay, you wanna hear the nickname I got a couple months ago? All right, so I started going to this workout group that meets in my neighborhood and it's a bunch of guys. And the whole thing is like, you can say your name, but everyone gets a nickname after the first time that they work out. And your nickname is based off of something about yourself. So I go, I meet the guys. At the end, they're like, all right, James, come into the middle, tell us about yourself. And at some point, when someone thinks of a nickname, they'll say it and that will be your nickname. So I start telling them about myself. I start telling them that I'm from Georgia. And as I say that, I see one of the guy's eyes lights up and he points his finger in his ear and he goes, oh, Georgia. And he points his finger at me and he goes, peaches. Y'all, my last name is Savage, but I go by peaches. This is true. So now every time I go, this is, I literally have met grown men for the very first time, extended my hand, shook their hand and say, hey, my name's James, but you can call me peaches. It's a true story. Anyway, we should get back to the scripture.

Here's why this is important. This is so significant that Luke wants us to know these things about Joseph because he is a part of creating an environment where he is not only talking about Jesus, he's living Jesus and it's creating heaven on earth, not only for himself, but for those around him. And I love the value system in this heaven on earth culture. Now in our Western culture, what gets your name written down? What gets your name celebrated? It's when you have influence and power and wealth and you use it for yourself. Do a quick check in your mind. Who do you know? They have influence, power and wealth and they use it for themselves. But in this kingdom culture, in this heaven on earth culture, what gets your name written down? It's when you have influence and power and wealth and you give it away so that one more person could be repped by the gospel of Jesus. They had one value above all, the expansion of the gospel of Jesus. And they were of one heart and one mind. Everyone was cared for and God's grace moved powerfully among them. Get a picture of heaven on earth. But Luke doesn't stop there.

He then tells us the inverse of that story. The next passage, it starts in chapter five. It's not a story of kingdom importance. Like I said, it's one of personal importance, not of truth, but of lies, not of freedom, but of bondage. He paints a picture of hell on earth. This is the very next verse that Luke writes. He says, now a man named Ananias together with his wife, Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostle's feet. And what we'll learn later on in this passage. passage is Ananias and Sapphira told everyone that they had donated 100% of their proceeds, which was a lie. Somehow Peter got caught wind of this lie. And Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings, but to God. When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. A great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

About three hours later, his wife came in, and not knowing what had happened, Peter asked her, tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? Yes, she said, that is the price. Peter said to her, how could you conspire to test the spirit of the Lord? Listen, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also. At that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in, finding her dead, carried her out, and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. It's a strange story. What's happening here? What's this story about? I tell you what this story is not about. This story is not about money. It's not about generosity. It's not about donations. The story is not about rich, or it's not about poor. This story is a story of two people whose hearts had been filled by the unholy spirit of Satan. And I'm not saying that to sound extreme. I'm just repeating what the scripture says. Peter himself said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart? This is the first time in the book of Acts where the name Satan has been used.

And up until this point, if anyone was filling anybody's hearts, up until this point, it has been the Holy Spirit of God. Remember, it was Jesus who told the disciples, go to Jerusalem and there the Holy Spirit will come upon you. It was the Holy Spirit that came into that room in the form of wind and fire. It was the Holy Spirit that allowed people to hear and understand languages that they should not have been able to understand. It was the Holy Spirit that allowed Peter and John to heal a lame man. It was the Holy Spirit that allowed the disciples to stand boldly on the name of Jesus. Up until this point, if people's hearts had been filled with anything, it was the Holy Spirit. But here, Ananias and Sapphira were not filled with the Holy Spirit, but filled with the unholy spirit of Satan. And let me be clear, Satan is not a metaphor. Satan is not an idea. Satan is a created being who hates you and wants you to suffer. In fact, if you want to go to some definitions, in Hebrew, Satan means adversary. It means accuser. In Greek, Satan means slanderer and deceiver.

Jesus spoke about him like this, saying that he is the father of all lies. Jesus says there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of all lies. Jesus says that he is the enemy who has come to steal, kill, and destroy, to steal your hope, to kill your future, and destroy your peace. And he led Ananias and Sapphira to come up with a lie that was completely unnecessary. No one made them sell the land. No one made them donate it. In fact, Paul called them out. Paul said, didn't this land belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? Nobody, Ananias and Sapphira, were well within their right to withhold whatever they wanted from the proceeds of that sale, but they were not within their right to lie about it. And you know, I've known about this story for years, and honestly, for most of my life, when I've come across this story, I've seen Ananias and Sapphira as the villains. If you track through the opposition that's been in the early church up until this moment, it's always been from the outside. It's the religious leaders who are opposing the church,

or it's the government who are opposing the church. And I've always seen Ananias and Sapphira as the first example of those who are infiltrating from the inside. They're the villains that are trying to shake things up from the inside. And that might be true. But the more time I've spent in this passage these past couple of weeks, the more I've started to feel a bit of sympathy and even empathy for Ananias and Sapphira. Because yeah, it's true that they're the villains of the story, but I've started to wonder, man, what was going on in their life that led them to the conclusion that the only option for me here is to lie? What led them to say, I need to pretend to be something I'm not in order to get validation that I know that I don't deserve? And when I start thinking about the story from that lens, then I start to realize that maybe I've got more in common with Anne and I since the fire than I originally realized. I'm not saying you, I'm saying we, how often do we do the same thing? That we project a better version of ourselves? How much time do we spend in the car on the way to the meeting or on the way to the party thinking like, okay, this is how I'm gonna handle that conversation, these are the words that I'm gonna use?

How often do we edit and edit and edit and edit and edit before we post because we wanna make sure that we get all the words right? Or how many times do we say, I'm not making the post until I get this filter to work properly? And how often do we project a version of ourselves and then have these moments where it's quiet, we're alone or we're standing in our kitchen and we realize, man, there is a version of myself that is out there that is completely different than who I am in here. And every day it feels like the chasm between the projection of myself and who I actually am gets wider and wider. And the danger is the more that we live that double life, the more that we keep our brokenness and our sin and our suffering hidden away, and the more that brokenness and sin and suffering has a place to grow and grow and grow. And before we know it, we're living a double life. And you know what we call someone who's living a double life? A hypocrite. And if you know this feeling where your life is upholding this lie, you know exactly what hell on earth looks like. Because you know what it looks like to look in the mirror and see? Hypocrite. You know who had very little patience for a hypocrite?

Jesus. Jesus, sweet Jesus. I forgive you, Jesus. I don't condemn you, Jesus. Jesus had very little patience for hypocrisy. If you want to read some of his quotes, you can go to Matthew 23, but I want to read you just two of them. This is what Jesus says about hypocrisy. He says, woe to you, which is an old school way of saying, better be careful. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees. First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Jesus says, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You're like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way on the outside, you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside, you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Now, I don't know if Ananias and Sapphira

were close to Pharisees or not, but I know that what Jesus would say to and about them is that Ananias and Sapphira, I know from the outside, everyone would say, look, you look so benevolent. You look so generous. You look so religious. You look so charitable, but on the inside you're dead and you're not fooling anybody. Jesus had such little patience for hypocrisy because hypocrisy is the opposite of the gospel. Hypocrisy says, I must uphold this lie. The gospel says, it's the truth that's gonna set you free. Hypocrisy says, my sin is too great, while the gospel says that the grace of Jesus is always greater. Hypocrisy says, conceal, conceal, conceal, while the gospel says, isn't it time to confess? Jesus had such little patience for hypocrisy because in order for you to live a double life of hypocrisy, you have to adopt a lie that looks so ridiculous from the outside looking in. It's a lie that you tell others. It's a lie that you tell God. It's a lie that you tell yourself. Who's the first person that Ananias and Sapphira lied to? Themselves. When they told themselves, this concealed sin is only going to affect me.

I want you to think about hypocrisy and living a double life like this. Let's say I've got two glasses of water here. One is filled with clean drinking water and one is filled with E. coli. E. coli is that bacteria that grows in raw chicken. That's why you need to cook your chicken because if you ingest it, that'll change your week or your month. It might send you to the hospital. Bad news bears. Let's say one of them is filled with clean water and one is filled with E. coli. You tell me which one has E. coli in it. Can't tell, right? It's concealed. But let's say that I need to drink from one of these. If I drink from one of these, what are the chances are, what are the chances that I'll drink from the clean one? 50-50, right? And there in lies the lie of hypocrisy. Because we can say, look, I'm trying to do a good job. I'm going to church on July 5th. I'm trying to be a good dad. I'm trying to make good decisions and not lose my temper too much. I don't cuss in front of the people that really care about that. And I'm trying to do a good job.

And yeah, I've got some concealed sin over here, but as long as I keep these things separate, I can manage this on my own. This is the lie that you and I can manage two lives because you and I do not have two lives. We have one life to live. And just like E. coli, concealed sin contaminates everything that it touches. You see, the lie is that I can manage this on my own. The lie that we tell ourselves is, hey, my pornography addiction, that's my addiction. That's something for me to worry about. So I'm going to keep that concealed. But the truth is that your unwillingness to be honest about that addiction is contaminating your future marriage. The lie is that the body shaming that I struggle with, the terrible things that I say to the person in the mirror, every time I see that person in the mirror, that's just for me to worry about. That's for me to navigate. But the truth is your unwillingness to let someone in on what you're struggling with is contaminating your ability to parent your future daughter. The lie is, this is my business, it's my company, and maybe I'm making some unethical decisions and cutting some corners, but it's mine to worry about who's being harmed. But the truth is that your unwillingness to allow someone else to hold you accountable is contaminating the livelihood of your future employees.

Or maybe like Ananias and Sapphira, the lie is who's being harmed. Yeah, I like the praise that I get for being generous. I like being seen as altruistic, and maybe I'm not as generous as people think I am, but man, I really like the praise and I really like the power that it gives me. What's the harm? The truth is that that concealed sin is contaminating the legacy that God is trying to build in you and through you as he has given you things to bless people with. The lie is that we tell ourselves, man, if I just sipped from the right side of this glass, everything will be okay. But you wanna know what hell on earth is? It's drinking from this every day, knowing someday soon this sickness is gonna set in. And I'm just praying that today is not the day. But it's coming. Jesus taught that everything that is concealed will one day be revealed. It was true for Ananias and Sapphira. Somehow Peter got wind of what was happening and he confronted them. And we had confronted them, Ananias fell down and died. Men came in, dragged off his body. When he confronted Sapphira, she fell down and died at Peter's feet. And young men came in and finding her dead,

they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Now, I don't wanna be a hypocrite in this moment. I wanna be honest. I don't fully understand what's happening in this moment in scripture. I mean, I don't know if Ananias and Sapphira were so overwhelmed with getting caught that they had heart attacks and dropped dead. I don't know if somehow God is striking them dead from above or if Peter somehow accessing the same power that he used to heal someone in Jesus' name is also striking Ananias and Sapphira dead in Jesus' name. I sincerely don't understand the mechanics of what's happening in this moment. But I do know two things beyond a shadow of a doubt. I know that God is a good, righteous God who is filled with justice. And as almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, alpha and omega, the creator of all things, who is good and righteous and just, is he within his right at any moment to enact his divine judgment on his creation? Yeah. In fact, it's only because of God's abundant grace that this story is strange to us. If it weren't because of his abundant grace, it would be a much more strange story. What I know is that God is good, righteous, and just. And the second thing that I know is you and I don't have to be struck dead

on a random afternoon to be confronted with the reality that concealed sin contaminates and kills everything that it touches. Some of you know this firsthand because it was concealed sin that killed the friendships that you had. you used to have. Some of you know this because it is concealed sin that killed the relationship you used to have with your children. Some of you know this because it was concealed sin that killed your career on the day that you got caught. Some of you know this because it was concealed sin that killed your marriage. Concealed sin stole and killed and destroyed everything that you were working towards. And if that's your story, then you know. You know hell on earth. And if that's your story, I'm sorry. I'm also really glad that you're here. But don't you ever forget that our faith is not a faith of death, but it is a faith of resurrection. And our king does his greatest work in the presence of death. And it might be the case that you underestimated the power of concealed sin, but don't you ever underestimate the power of God's grace, the power that rose Jesus from the dead and the power that invites you out of your own tomb and into eternal life.

And if you find yourself today saying, no, hell on earth is where I am, then I want you to know that your yesterday does not have to be your tomorrow. I want you to know that you are invited into a new life that is built on Jesus. So how do we do that? How do we begin to live this heaven on earth life? What will remind you that when Luke was describing heaven on earth, where everyone was of one heart and mind sharing for each other and caring for each other, at the center of that paragraph, he says that God's grace was a thing that was moving powerfully among them. And if you're gonna move out of hell on earth and even into heaven on earth to prepare for heaven for eternity, then we're gonna stand not on our ability to conceal, but we're gonna stand on God's grace. We're not gonna stand on what I can keep hitting, but instead I'm going to be willing to confess my sins because what scripture says is anyone here who pretends that they don't have sin, they're a liar and the truth is not in them. But when we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just is faithful to forgive our sins. And when we confess sins to one another, then you and I can be healed. So here's the plan. For the rest of the time that we have together today,

we're going to rebuild a moment of heaven on earth. We're gonna build a time where there is prayer and confession and repentance and worship. What I hope that we do is that we each find someone in this room to pray with, whether it's the person who came with or it's the prayer team down front. In fact, if you're part of the prayer team, you can go ahead and find your station to find your spot. So people can see, okay, that's where they are. That's the person I'm gonna come pray with. As we step into this moment of prayer and confession and worship, I wanna ask something of a particular group who I know it's in this room, who I know are in this room. When you hear this, you're gonna know that this is you. Some of you love praying with people down front. It's not weird at all. You're like, I ain't gonna miss an opportunity to pray with someone. As we step into this moment where we pray for each other, would you go first for two reasons? One, again, why would you wanna miss an opportunity to be prayed for and to pray for someone? But second, there is someone here, there's someone at home, there's someone at all of our campuses whose heart is beating out of their chest right now because for years they've been living hell on earth

trying to maintain a double life. And today they are finally ready to step into the light and experience the freedom and the new life that Jesus offers, but they're not gonna go first. So as you come and pray with someone on the prayer team, what you will be doing is that you're also carving a path for them to follow in your footsteps, to tell them, hey, it's okay because all of us here have something to pray for. And look, maybe it's not something huge. Maybe you need to turn to the person you came with and say, look, I was kind of short with my coworker on Friday. Will you pray with me that when I apologize to them on Monday, that that conversation goes well? Or maybe you are the person whose heart is beating in your chest. Hey, if that's you, I wanna acknowledge that what you're about to do is not easy. I know that what you're about to confess is gonna change things. And the next couple of days, next couple of months might be hard because of what concealed sin has already contaminated. But you wanna know what my prayer is for you? I hope today the gospel of Jesus wrecks your life so that you can begin building a new life, not founded on the lie,

but on the truth that Jesus says, hey, today you are forgiven. So if today you're ready to say, man, my tomorrow is gonna be different than my yesterday, I want you to know that you've come to the right place. God is bigger than you ever imagined. His grace is closer than you think. And if you're looking for heaven on earth and you're ready to step forward, let me tell you the good news, you've reached your destination. Let me pray, and then we're gonna continue the spirit of worship and prayer. Jesus, thank you. God, that your grace is always enough. God, that confession leads to freedom because you bring forgiveness. So Jesus, I pray in this time that we have left, that you would do something more than songs and sermons could do. Jesus, would your Holy Spirit fill this place and fill us with courage to say, I am ready to take the two lives that I've been living and form them into one life found on the gospel of Jesus. Jesus, I pray, God, as we have this vision for the gospel of Jesus to expand across 10 counties, to light up a star in middle Tennessee, Lord, would the gospel of Jesus first expand into the hearts in this room. And Lord, would we walk out of here with a testimony.

God, this says that he's bigger, his grace is here, and I'm forgiven. I pray this, Jesus, in your powerful and your present name. Amen. Friends, I invite you to stand, find someone down front or someone next to you to pray with as we celebrate the name of Jesus. You understand me. You understand me. You understand me, God. You understand me. So I throw all my cares before you. My doubts and fears don't scare you. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought. So I stop all negotiations with the God of all creation. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought. So I throw all my cares before you. My doubts and fears don't scare you. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought. So I stop all negotiations with the God of all creation. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought you were. I will rest in the father's hands. Leave the rest in the father's hands. I will rest in the father's hands.

Leave the rest in the father's hands. I will rest, I will rest in the father's hands. Leave the rest in the father's hands. I will rest, I will rest in the father's hands. Leave the rest in the father's hands. My doubts and fears don't scare you. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought. So I stop all negotiations with the God of all creation. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought. You're bigger than I thought you were. You're bigger than I thought you were. Bigger than I thought you were. I will rest in the Father's hands. Leave the rest in the Father's hands. I will rest in the Father's hands. Leave the rest in the Father's hands.