How to Experience a Spirit-Filled Community

Well, good morning. Would you help me welcome all of our Brave Church family that's worshiping with us today? So great to have all of you. For those of you that call Brave Church your home, you know that we started a three-year capital campaign a month ago. We've been taking pledges and donations that have been coming in. They're still coming in, and we thank you for your generosity. We kinda wanted to let you know where we're at in that process of trying to raise $35 million over the course of the next three years. And I just wanna let you know, we've been a generous church from the beginning, so what you're gonna see is not surprising to me. But God is so good here, and I wanna make sure he gets all the praise for all of your generosity when we unveil the numbers. So guys, if you just go ahead and put up the slide as to what we've been either received or pledged to date, just over $20 million. Let me just say, that's gonna go a long way to advancing Christ's kingdom for all the different things that we've talked about, and we're super excited. Plus we know the church will continue to grow, more people will continue to give. God's gonna be able to provide everything we need

for everything he wants us to accomplish as a church. But let me just say to you as your pastor, thank you, thank you, thank you for your personal generosity. As a matter of fact, when they gave me the number this morning, I looked in the slide, I'm like, there's no like change. When we talked about the widow's mite, there was no change. I said, actually there was. There was, you know, it was like something in change, like 78 cents in donations, and then pledge were something in 22 cents, so it rounded off to zero. I'm like, so that's an exact number. They said, yes. So you're seeing the exact number that we've either had pledged or has been given. So super excited about that. And with that, let's continue our worship this morning is to go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and his active word among us. Will you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, all the honor and all the praise because you and you alone are worthy of it all. Lord, we thank you for being able to gather with our family here today, our brothers and sisters in Christ to worship your name, to sing praise to you, to pray and seek your face for what you want to accomplish during our time together.

And Lord, we're encouraged and excited to hear your living and active word because we as a people believe every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. And so our prayer this morning collectively is, speak Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, would you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen, amen. Everybody is looking for harmony in relationships. Everybody wants relationships where there's harmony, where there's peace, where everyone's getting along. We can be talking about a team, we can be talking about the family, we can be talking about marriages, we can be talking about friendships, we can be talking about your neighbors. And there's this expectation when we're in a relationship that it's gonna go well. And especially for those of us who are born again, who have the spirit of God and dwelled inside of us and dwelling inside of us, we have this understanding that, hey, this should work. And when it doesn't, it challenges us and we wonder what's wrong? Why is my marriage struggling?

Why am I struggling with my kids? Why am I struggling with my neighbors? Why am I struggling in school? Why am I struggling on the team? Why am I struggling in my church? And yet that's what God wants to talk to us about. God is the one who created relationships. God's the one who wants to put us in relationships. God's the one who's put us into community together. And it's important for us to understand what God is trying to accomplish when things don't go our way. It's important for us to understand what do I need to do when things don't work out? Because there's this tendency in us as human beings when relationships aren't harmonious to blame the other person or people that are in that community as to why it's not going well. If you're in a marriage and it's not going well, it's your spouse's fault. If she would just fix these three things or he would just change these two things, everything would just be fine. Or with your kids, if they would just act this way, if they would just talk this way, we'd be fine. If my parents would just change it, we think it's everybody else's problem. And I wanna let you know, even if it is somebody else's problem, God wants you to be the one to change.

There are people, even when it comes to the church, that leave church, not once or twice or three times, but leave church after church after church after church after church because they're trying to find that church that just has great unity and community where everybody gets along. To which I will tell you this, that church doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. The reason it doesn't exist is because God is trying to change you. And God wants you to be the catalyst to bring change in the relationships that you're in in order to experience the harmony and peace that God would want. And so today, I wanna talk about how it is that we can experience a spirit-filled community. If we're raising up a spirit-filled army to fight for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in our lifetime, how do we develop a spirit-filled community? What does it look like? in a church where people are living, filled with the Spirit, doing the things that God wants, and relationships are going according to His plan. And to do that this morning, we're gonna start off in Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four, starting in verse 32, and we're gonna go through Acts chapter five in verse 11, and we're gonna talk about how to experience

a Spirit-filled community, and in doing that, I'm gonna highlight four different points for you as to what you can do to contribute to being part of the Spirit-filled community that God's in. Now, just so you know, this is not a message that you wanna forward to your friends and say, you should've been there, bro. This was totally for you. This is one that we're gonna listen to, and while it may be for your bro, it's definitely for you. You need to hear this in your own heart, because no matter where you go geographically, no matter what relationships that you're in, this is what the Word of God teaches us that we need to become. And as we pick up in Acts chapter four, verse 32, you'll remember in the chapter before, they had just seen this man that had been paralyzed for more than 40 years being healed. They're celebrating the fact that even though they've been arrested, they've been released, because they say, we're not gonna stop talking about Jesus, and there's great things going on. They had prayed, the whole place was shaken by the Holy Spirit, and they all began to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and they were speaking with boldness. So what you've seen in this community from the beginning is this group of people was praying and waiting on the Lord. The Holy Spirit indwelled them. They were speaking the Word with boldness,

and God was doing amazing things. And even when people tried to stop that, they continued to pray, wait on the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, speak the Word with boldness, and God was continuing to move. And so what you're seeing in this early church is God's presence among them, and they wanted to see it to continue. And this is where we pick up in Acts chapter four, verse 32. He says, and the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. Let me give you the first point. As the Spirit of God creates unity within the community, be selfless. As the Spirit of God creates unity in the community, be selfless. Notice what he says. And the congregation of those who believed they were of one heart and soul. We see that throughout the New Testament. They're unified. It doesn't mean they think all the same things. It doesn't mean they believe all the same things, politically or about education. It means they were unified in their thoughts

about who God was and why they were being brought together. Here's what happens. When you're born again by the Spirit of God, through Jesus Christ, you have access to the Father, which means all of us who have been born again share relationship with the same Father, which makes all of us brothers and sisters in Christ. It means when you're born again, you're baptized into the family of God. All the relationships around you today of those who have been born again are part of your family. And so what happened was is when the Spirit of God changes a man, woman, boy, or girl, you recognize other believers as they're my family. And you begin to think of them as your family. You don't begin to think of them as church attenders or they go here or they live, they're my family. And you begin to treat them as you would your own family because you recognize that you serve the Father and the Father sees you as kids and you're gonna treat his kids with the same kind of compassion and grace that he would. So notice what they do. It says they were of one heart and soul and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to himself was his own, but all things were common property to them. Now let me explain what this means. It means they recognize at the time that they were born again,

that everything that they had, everything in their possession monetarily, everything that they owned, all the gifts, treasures, talents, relationships, they all belong to the Father. They all belong to God. There's nothing that they individually possess. They started to recognize themselves as stewards of everything that God had given them, which guess what, is the same as it is today. If you've been born again by the Spirit of God, everything you own, every gift that you have, every talent that you have, every ability that you have, it is not yours. It is a gift that's been given to you to steward to others to bless the body of Christ. That's true of everybody, right? And this is what the early church was doing. They recognized, hey, everything I have and everything that I thought was mine, it's not mine. It's God's. God's the one who's given it to me. So I'm asking God now, how can I use what I have to meet needs of my family members? How can I use what I have to encourage my family? How can I take the gifts that I have to build family members up? Because that's how I see the world now. I see it differently than before. Before I was saved, I saw the world as mine.

I saw possessions as mine. I saw gifts as mine. I was out for me. But now that I've been born again, I recognize the teaching of Jesus is to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. So my focus goes vertical first and then it goes horizontal to my family. That's why we read all throughout the New Testament. You see it, you see it everywhere. In Ephesians chapter four, verses three and four, be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. What's he saying? Now that you're members of the same family, do everything in your power to keep harmony and unity and peace in those relationships as far as it's up to you. Or how about this great chapter in Philippians chapter two, where it talks about the humility of Christ. Just think of these two verses. These should be a placard on every American's front door, house, bathroom, living room. Think about this. Philippians chapter two, three and four, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

How about that? As a believer, do nothing out of selfishness. Not one thing. Not in your marriage, not in your friendships, not in your work, not in your church. Do nothing from selfishness. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. But with humility of mind, consider others more important than yourself. Think about that. If in every relationship that you're in, you preference other people and you thought they were more important than you, how would your life change? When you're standing in a line at the store, everybody in front and in back of you, and even the cashier, they're more important than you. You're in traffic on I-25. Every other car is more important than you, right? In your marriage, your spouse is more important than you. I'm gonna preference them. In your school, your teacher, your other fellow students, they're more important than you. And I'm not doing anything selfishly, but I'm gonna preference them. How would the world change if every single born-again believer just lived that? And said, because Jesus is in me, this is my heart, I'm gonna honor God by preferencing others. For even the son of man did not come to be served,

but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. I mean, if you wanna see who would act like that, study Jesus. That's exactly what he spent his life doing. And when the spirit of God is working to create unity in the body, which is his desire, and our enemy, the devil, is trying to create discord and dysfunction and all those things, when he's talking about how to build unity, who's he talking to? He's talking to me and you individually to say this, be selfless, not selfish, in case I wasn't enunciating correctly. Selfless, it's not about you. Or how about in Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three, in verse 12 and following, he says, so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And then he says this, bearing with one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. How about this? So I'm in a relationship, I'm in a cadre,

it's just not going so well. Okay, well then put on compassion and humility and do everything in your power to show love to the other people and preference them and put them first. And when they don't listen to you, bear the burdens that they're going through. And when they hurt you, forgive them. Because that's exactly what Jesus did. What would happen to community if you saw that? See, in the early church, very early on, this is what people were seeing. They were hearing the proclamation of the resurrected Christ but then they were seeing the results of all these people who claimed to be born again who were radically loving one another, compassionate towards one another, humble with one another, forgiving one another, and they had never seen anything like it. And there's nowhere else you can see it other than in the church. The challenge becomes, when you do get hurt, you've never been hurt by the church. Just let me clear that up. You may have been hurt by people who attend the church but you've not been hurt by the church. And what tends to happen is when we get hurt by people, we don't show compassion, we don't preference them, we don't go speak honestly with them

and show them what their fault was. We don't forgive them. We don't wanna reconcile with them. What do we wanna do? I wanna find a new church. And if it's bad there, in the next one, I'm done with church. I just love Jesus, I just hate the church. God never put that spirit in your heart. That is the spirit of the enemy. Every single believer needs to be part of a life-giving church. And no matter who your community is, they'll be challenged to it. Case in point, take the couple that just got engaged. That when you come alongside of them and tell them you wanna help them, they kindly tell you, really don't need your help. Like we love in a way that nobody's ever loved in the history of the world. Like you and your wife may have not known what love is, but we know. Which is fine until they get married and then they realize there's some things that maybe need to get worked out. There's things where you need to preference the other, there's ways that you need to communicate and do that. Or pick a cadre where you pick all your best friends you've been friends with for 10 or 12 years and you get in a group.

God brings things into that group that are challenging so that it's not just easy street because he wants to grow you. And so when you have difficulty in relationships and harmony is not working, look inward, not outward. Don't try to fix somebody else. It'll save you a lot of time. You can't fix anybody. You can't change anybody. The only person you have the ability to change is yourself and that's only with God's help if you're willing. So start with you, be selfless. It's everything opposite of what the world tells you. Preference others, put them ahead of you, send them on, let them do it, let them go, help them become what they need. Don't worry about you, amen? And we see this all over. I mean, I just wanna tell you, I pastor a church where so many of you are already this way. I mean, I've been on the receiving end and I've seen it happen. Recently, I was going to visit Pastor AJ, our campus pastor up in Westminster when he got diagnosed with a throat issue, which you can still pray for him. He's still in the middle of it, but he's doing much better. And when I got to the hospital, his family was there. People from the church were there. Everybody, I mean, the hospital waiting room

was like a prayer room by the time I got there. It was so cool. I've been on the receiving end of that when I've been in the hospital and had people coming there and praying for me. I've seen it. And sometimes it's just being present with people. Other times it's serving. It's getting outside of your comfort zone and doing something that you feel uncomfortable doing, but you feel prompted to do it. When we started our church, I was so compelled by prayer and thought prayer is the most essential thing that we can do as a church. If we can be a praying church, God will take care of everything else, but prayer has to be foundational. And so we started doing prayer meetings all the time. At least once a month, we would do a prayer meeting. But when we did our prayer meetings, I mean, if we had 15 to 25 people show up, we thought that was a good night. And then people wanted to sing, but we didn't have anybody that played an instrument or sang. So guess who played an instrument and sang? I did. Aren't you glad we're not there anymore? But why'd I do it? Not because I'm so talented and gifted and I love singing.

No, because I wanted God's people to get excited about prayer. Sometimes it's you serving in a way that's uncomfortable for you for a season until God brings somebody else in, but you wanna do what God wants you to do because of a greater good he wants you to have. But sometimes, can I just tell you, being selfless involves the humility of just being able to receive it. Sometimes it's easier for us to serve other people than it is to receive from other people that wanna serve us. When I was a youth pastor, we used to do this camp up in Northern Minnesota and the camp would end every single week with this talent show where all the kids would do all these things and some of them were crazy and some of them have a Bible memory and it was a variety show. And I was kind of the emcee of it and I would see the list of what it was, but I wouldn't know what everything was. And sure enough, I'm reading down the list and we're going through it and everybody's having a good time. And the last one was called Toe Jam. And I remember, okay, high school, I know what this is gonna be, it's gonna be crazy.

And one of the other leaders came up and three of the other leaders came up and said, here's what we're gonna do, Jeff. Here's what we wanted to let you know. We've been so blessed by your teaching all week because you've taught us the word, you've taught all day long, you've taught every day. We as a camp wanna wash your feet. And I remember thinking, you ain't gonna touch my feet. And they proceeded to have me sit in a chair and they took off my shoes and they took off my socks and they had a bucket of water and every kid in that camp and every leader came and knelt down and washed my feet and told me how thankful they were for me being able to teach them the Bible. And I wept. Because sometimes being on the receiving end of somebody serving is more difficult than serving somebody else, amen? And some of us are in a season where people have tried to serve you or tried to help you or try to do, and you've kind of pushed them away and it's really not them you're pushing away, it's your pride that's getting in the way of saying, okay, I'll receive what you have for me. And as the Spirit of God creates unity in the community, be selfless, be able to receive, be able to serve, be able to give however the Lord would help you.

A second way you can do this is as the Spirit of God produces generosity in the community, be surrendered. As the Spirit of God produces generosity in the community, then be surrendered. Notice how this story continues. It says, for there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostle's feet and they would be distributed to each as he had any need. Now, let me be clear on this. The reason this worked and still works is when it's the individual's choice to do it. This is not socialism. Socialism is totalitarian rule saying you must sell this, you must give this, you must do that. That is not what's going on here. What's going on here is the spirit of God is working so well in this community that there are individuals in the community that say, this is my family and there's some needs in my family and I have a way to meet that need, so I'm gonna sell some of my property, I'm gonna give it to the leadership of the church and I'm gonna let the church distribute it to the needs that people have. And just so you know, needs are or should be temporary. If you have a financial need, that should be temporary. The only reason it's a long-term need is because you have some spiritual things

out of whack in your life. Like if you really have a financial need, then let's meet that need, but maybe within the next month, you should get a job. Maybe you should spend less than what you make. Maybe you shouldn't take a $10,000 vacation if you only make $5,000 a month. I mean, there's choices that you can make. And so to give out to people in need didn't mean that the church was just doling out programs to everybody. It meant that they were meeting with people and as they had need as a family, they were making sure the needs were met, but it was all voluntary. It was all willing. Nobody was forcing it. Nobody was making it happen. Nobody should ever make it happen today. All giving in the New Testament is grace giving. It's as you're compelled, because why? Because God loves a cheerful giver, the Bible tells us. So this is what they were doing. They were seeing family members in need and they were saying, I'm gonna help do this. And here's what you can learn. There's so many things to learn. I mean, Acts 20 verse 35 said it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. If you've ever been on the receiving end or the giving end,

it's way better to be on the giving end. It feels way better to be able to serve somebody to give. Takes a lot more humility sometimes than to receive. But when you understand how God is and how generous he is, you know, like in the Proverbs, Proverbs 11, 25, the generous man will prosper. Or when Jesus teaches in Luke 6, 38, give and it will be given to you. You realize you cannot out give God. And I taught this over the last month. The problem with the prosperity gospel and word of faith people is what they're teaching is you need to give to me. And if you do, you'll get more and you'll be rich. That's such junk, it's garbage. What the New Testament teaches is be generous to God and his people, and you'll never run out of what you need to accomplish what God has for your life. And if he does give you more, then you have more opportunity to serve and bless more people. That's the point of it. Not so that you can have more stuff. More stuff won't make you happy, right? Being able to serve in God's kingdom will. But if you understand the generous principle that God will meet all of your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ, you can be generous to God and with God's people knowing he's got me, he'll take care of me.

He's always taking care of me and I trust him to take care of me. So whatever he prompts me to do individually, I'm gonna do that cheerfully. I'm gonna do that sacrificially. I'm gonna do that because I know that my God will meet all of my needs. And this is what you see. So when the spirit of God is moving in a spirit of generosity, you just stay surrendered. Surrendered means this. God, my life and everything I have is yours. How can I possibly best serve you? You've given me certain gifts. You've given me certain talents. You've given me certain resources. You've given me a certain amount of influence. What I would like to do, Lord, is to know how to steward those things best for you. What would that look like for me? Lord, search me and try me. Are there any changes that I need to make? Is there anywhere that I'm not aware of selfishness in my life that's keeping me from giving you my best? Because Lord, I just wanna know that when I stand before you that I've done everything I can to give you glory. And when you live this way, you're not gripping onto your resources, you're gripping onto your Redeemer. You're holding onto Christ and you're telling him,

hey, you get whatever I want. Because the spirit of God, you know what he loosens? The spirit of God loosens up your greed. I mean, we live in a culture that thinks it's all about us. I mean, I don't know how many times I've met somebody young who will say, I know God's calling me in the ministry, I know God's calling me to do this, or I know he's calling me to do that, but I'm gonna go do this, this, this, this, and this first, and once I do that, then I'll have enough money so I can go do this. Wherever God's calling you, just go do what he's asking you to do in the moment and be obedient and God will then unfold your next step. That's what he does. And so this is what we see. We see in this community, as people are generous, the people in the community are saying, okay, I'm in. and I'm surrendered, Lord, what does it look like for me? See, generosity is really humility in action. It's open hands that meet the needs. And notice how this happens. We're gonna hear about a man next that you know. It says in verse 36, "'Now Joseph, a Levite from Sepparian birth, "'who was also called Barnabas by the apostles.'" That's how we know him, we know Barnabas. Barnabas, which translated means son of encouragement. "'The brother was so encouraging, "'he had the nickname Encouragement.'"

Barnabas, Barnabas. Every time you saw him, you were encouraged. You ever have anybody in your life like that? You just like being around them because when you're around them, you feel better about yourself? That's Barnabas. "'Who owned attractive land, sold it, "'and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.'" So he's giving an example of a man that was doing this. And this is the reality in the church. There's no have to in the church. My pastor made me, that's legalism. There's a compelling of the spirit that says, this is what I have for you, will you walk in that? And when we walk according to the spirit and we do it willingly and cheerfully the way that God wants, that's when we experience joy because we're surrendered. Because we recognize my life's not mine. I mean, the only reason I'm still breathing is Jesus gives me oxygen. The only reason I'm still alive is Jesus beats my heart. Only reason I can see is because I blink my eyes once every six seconds to get the moisture where it needs to go. Only reason I can see is because of my retina that Jesus gave me. I mean, everything I have is his. So I'm surrendered. So what would you have me do, amen?

And we see it in Barnabas. We see it in the ripple effect, but you see it this day. I mean, I know in our church, I've seen it over the years. I mean, we've had people in our church give cars away to people that need cars. We've had people go into people's homes and work on their homes. I've been on the receiving end of that more than once. Serving others in selfless ways. I mean, you hear story after story of people that are gifted and can do and see a need, and I'll meet that need and I'll do that. And what you realize is you can't do it too much. Some of you may remember the movie Schindler's List from years ago that highlights a story of a man named Oscar Schindler that saved Jews during the time of the Holocaust. And at the end of the movie, there's a very, very sobering scene after this man had saved hundreds and hundreds of Jews. He's walking through at the end and he notices his car. And he's like, this car, why did I keep this car? That would have been 10 more lives. Now this pen, why did I keep this pen? This pen I had, that would have saved two more lives. Like, why did I hang on to all this stuff? And it's so compelling in that story because he recognizes in that moment the most valuable thing is life and giving to life. Friends, the most valuable thing we can do

is honor the Lord and serve the body of Christ. Not hang on to stuff. I'm not saying it's wrong to have stuff. It's not wrong to have stuff as long as that stuff doesn't have you, amen? But if you get to heaven and realize, had I not held on to this or not held on to this or not held on to this, I could have helped the kingdom greater, that's not the place you wanna be. Here's the place you wanna be. Knowing that you've given the most that you can give according to what the Spirit of God has asked you to do. Knowing we can always give more, right? But I've been obedient to how I've been led by the Lord and I've been growing in my obedience to serve him more greatly than I have. That's where you wanna be when you meet Jesus. Now, if you've been born again because you've trusted his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, you will be saved. Do not get me wrong, you will be saved. God's not judging your eternal salvation on works, but if you have been saved, you're gonna be rewarded on the things that you've done from the time that you were born again until you meet Jesus. And I'm telling you as your pastor, because I love you, be as generous as you possibly can be to the Lord, that's it. And what's that look like for you? It's gonna look like something different for somebody else.

It might look different in different seasons, but just be as generous as the Spirit of God would prompt you to be, amen? Because the Spirit wants to create unity, he wants to produce generosity. But let me give you a third one the Spirit of God wants to do. As the Spirit of God exposes sin in the community or sin in relationships, be honest. As the Spirit of God exposes sin in the community, be honest. See, we look at the first century church and we're like, man, what a great place. They're so awesome. The Spirit of God is moving. His presence is great. Boldness is being proclaimed. Jesus is resurrection of the dead. Everybody's there. The houses are being shaken. I wanna be a part of that. But notice what happened. It said, but a man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of property. Now, how many of you have heard about Ananias and Sapphira by show of hands? Isn't it tragic this is the only thing you know about Ananias and Sapphira? I mean, maybe they led student ministry. Maybe they did premarital counseling.

I mean, maybe they served in the school. I don't know what they did. The Bible doesn't tell us what they did. We only get one story about this couple and this is it. Ananias, along with his wife, sold a piece of property, verse two, and kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge, keep that in mind, we'll come back to it, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet. Now I want you to understand what's going on and you'll see it spelled out here in a minute. So Barnabas went and sold a piece of land and brought all the proceeds and laid it at the apostles' feet. Ananias and his wife Sapphira go sell a piece of property and they bring a portion of it back and here's what we're gonna discover. They sold it for such and such a price, kept some for themselves, and then went to the apostles and turned that in. Now, is that a problem, is that sin? No. Matter of fact, if they would have not sold the property, is that a sin? No, they could have kept the property. Was it a sin if they, let's say they sold the property for 100,000 and they decided to pocket 50,000 and brought 50,000 to the church, is that a sin?

No, that's not a sin. Here's what they did. I'm making up numbers, I don't know what they sold it for, the Bible doesn't tell us, but let's assume they sold it for 100,000 and they pocketed 50 and they came to the church and they said, we sold it, this is all of it, it's 50,000, that's all we had. So what are they doing, what's that called? That's called a lie, that's called a lie. Does God like liars? No, do you know why? Because your enemy is a liar, he's been a liar from the beginning, he's the father of all lies. You read through in the New Testament with the cowards and all of those that are gonna be thrown in the lake of fire, liars are part of that group. So parents, if you're gonna discipline your kids, especially when they're young, discipline them for lying. Make them be truth tellers. Don't let them speak the devil's language. Tell the truth. If you're gonna tell the truth, there's times where the truth is gonna hurt. There's times where there's gonna be a consequence, but always tell the truth, right? So that's what's going on here. You're gonna see this unfold,

but I wanna spell out this story so you see what's happening. So Ananias, along with his wife's understanding, sold a piece of property, pocketed some for himself, but when he came to the church, he said, this is it, I'm giving you everything we sold it for. That's what he did. But notice verse three. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? I wanna know why you're a liar. I wanna know why you're lying. Now, whether this was supernatural revelation or word had gotten out of Peter understood what had happened, he's telling the truth to Ananias. He's asking him, why are you a liar? He says, well, it remained unsold. Did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Understand this, when you sin, you always sin first against God. When David sinned against Bathsheba, he said against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Certainly he sinned with Bathsheba, but first he was sinning against God.

When you lie, when you're immoral, when you steal, when you covet, you're first sinning against God, even if you're sinning against somebody else because that's someone that God created in his image. Sin first goes to the Lord, it goes against him. Then it goes to other people. So Peter's asking him, why are you lying? Like, why did you wanna make yourself look good? Like, what was the business of you like trying to save face and do all this? You could have kept the property, there's no problem. You could have sold it and kept some for yourself. That's not a problem, but you're not honest. And when you're not honest, you're not just lying to our church community, you're lying to the God of the universe. And why would you do such a thing? It's a big deal. Can I tell you sin is a big deal still to this day? We live in an era that says this. Oh, it's not that big of a deal. Jesus died for me and I'm going to heaven anyway. No, sin is still a big deal. It breaks God's heart. It breaks your fellowship with him when you sin. It keeps you from serving God to the fullest. You can't hide what the spirit is trying to heal. Can I give you an example? There are some of you here that do not serve in our church

because of a sin pattern in your life that makes you feel that you're unworthy. Men, for some of you, it's pornography. I talked to enough of you. I read enough statistics and I know our church, just because you walk into brave doesn't mean that your flesh dies. It means if you're not going to bring those things before the Lord, God can't heal them. So there's some that would say, I'd love to serve the Lord, but I'm not worthy. And you make all the excuses. I just give money or I do this, or I'm busy over here. But the real reason is you're steeped in sin and you have a hidden secret in your life and it's keeping you and it's robbing you from the joy that God has for you. And instead of confessing it and forsaking it and believing that God can heal it, you care too much about your image to do that. And it's keeping you from serving God at his best. Some of you ladies, it's your image. You look in the mirror, you say, why did God give me this body? And you try to get up at five in the morning to spend three hours putting on your makeup and doing all those things so you can look like the women in the magazines and the women in the magazines don't even look like the women in the magazines.

But our identity has to be shaped by what other people think about us and what they're gonna say and how we feel. And so we focus on things other than God. And we could go down the list. We could talk about immorality and those of you that are single and the way that you date or those of you that are married that have wrong relationships with other people that are married or single. I mean, we could go down the list and we could sit here and talk about sin all day. But most of us would say, yeah, but God still loves me. I'm still going to heaven. So pastor, just calm down a bit. That's why Jesus died. That's why he died. But how serious did God take sin? Study the last day of Jesus Christ's life. See the crown of thorns, the helmet of thorns on his head. See him beat until his back was split wide open. See him carrying his cross until he can't do it anymore. See him had nails driven in his hands and his feet. See him pushing himself up until he asphyxiates after six hours of being on a cross. How serious does God take sin? He took it so serious that the full measure

of God's wrath was poured out on his son. He hates sin. He hates it. And here's the truth. When we confess sin and forsake sin, there's mercy for us. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Friends, you are only as sick as your secrets. God takes sin serious. If you're new to the body of Christ and if you started reading the Bible and you're like me when I first started reading the Bible and God was pointing out all my sin and I got mad because I'm like, I don't like this Bible at all. Every time I read it, I think I'm a bad person. That's a good thing. To this day, it's a good thing in my life. When the word reads me and I think I'm doing okay and God begins to expose parts of my flesh that are still under construction, that he's still fixing them up, it's a good thing. Friends, if you're a believer and you're not being convicted of sin from time to time, there's something wrong in your walk with Christ because you're meeting with the perfect holy God of the universe and he's speaking to you about himself. There are going to be times

where he highlights things in your life. I mean, here's the reality. I mean, it's like this. Sometimes, you know, I've heard of people that have called a home inspector before because they noticed a little stain up in the corner of their house and the home inspector comes in and says, that's not a little stain, you have mold. And they're like, okay, you can cut it out and put new drywall. No, no, no, you don't understand. We gotta strip all your drywall in every room down to the studs and rebuild your drywall because you have mold. And you might think, I'm not spending that kind of money. I'm not gonna go through a two-month process to do that. I'll just paint over the mold. And guess what happens if you do? Eventually, all that drywall's coming down one way or another. Some of you need to strip down some of your drywall to the studs. Some of you need to pause and say, yeah, I'm done going through the motions and just attending church. God's been speaking to me about this for a long time. And God, have your way. Take away everything you need. Rebuild in me, create in me a clean heart, oh God.

Renew a right spirit within me because I wanna do it your way. And if you'll take the time to do that, God will heal you. He will, and he wants to. He already loves you so much in your sin. I mean, God loves us enough in our sin to accept us just as we are, but he also loves us enough to not leave us where we're at. He's always growing us into sanctification. And sin's like a trap. It's like, for those of you that fish, it's putting bait on the end of the line. Satan knows just how to put the right bait in the water at just the right time, and you swim around and you bite down on it. And you know what it's like when you've bitten down on a sin. And you're no longer free. And you're being sworn, you know, taken around and doing all this other stuff. There's only one way to get free of that. It's to repent and confess and let the Lord cut the lure off and then pull that out of your mouth so that you can be free again. Friends, there's no price tag on a clean conscience. If you have freedom and joy in your life, you will live for the Lord. So I think this, I mean, when I read through the New Testament,

I see all the people that are free. Every single one of them that's been freed by Jesus goes and shares the gospel with everybody. They don't even have a class. There's no evangelism class. It's just, I'm so free and he did it. You gotta come, right? If you're not sharing your faith on a regular basis, it's because you're just not free. If you're free, you'll talk about Jesus in your life. He comes out of you. I mean, in some way, no matter where you work or who you're with or whatever, if you can go the whole week without talking about Jesus, you're not free on the inside. Jesus doesn't need you, okay, I'm gonna go share the gospel this week and prove that I'm, no, that's not what the point is. The point is, if he's highlighting a sin in your life, would you confess and repent of it now? Yeah, but if I do, that's gonna cause a lot of problems in my marriage. Yeah, but if I do, that's gonna cause a lot of problem with my parents. Yeah, but if I do, it's gonna cause, if you don't, it's gonna cause a lot of problems down the road. And even if you can keep that thing a secret until the day you die, know this, you're gonna stand in front of the one that died for you,

who knew everything, who wanted to free you from it the whole time you were on the earth. You're not going to escape it. And you don't want to. You just wanna confess. I mean, God's given us so much mercy. Come to the cross, confess and repent. I'll forgive you afresh right now. I'll rebuild it right. I'll do it right. And I'll use you in great ways, amen? I mean, I wish I could tell you that since being a pastor, I don't sin anymore. I mean, that'd be pretty cool. But I know my life. I know what I was and I know what I've become. And I know God still has me under construction and in process to do the very things he wants to do. And it's true of me. And it's true of every single born again believer that you know. And it's not to shame you. It's to tell you there's better for you and want you to grow. Can I say one other thing too? We're talking about ourselves, but when you're in community with people, and by the community, I mean this. If you go to Brave Church, you're in community with me and I'm aware of your sin.

I need to be honest with you. Well, they're in a cadre, but I would never have, I don't want to tell them that. No, if you don't, if you're not honest with someone else about their sin, then you're complicit with it. I'm not saying you're rude to somebody or mean, like you're a real jerk. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying, hey, do you realize why you're struggling? Because what you're talking about, that's a sinful behavior. And you talk about it every single week and you really need to repent of that and change so that the Lord can heal you. Like that's what honesty looks like. I mean, do you have people in your life that can talk to you honestly like that? Like I don't air my dirty laundry every Sunday. You never come here. Like I'm not going that pastor, he's a mess. But do you have some people in your life that can? My wife can ask me questions about whatever she wants to. She can look at my phone, she can read my email, she can do whatever she wants. She's my wife. She has full access. There's nothing I'm hiding from her. I have friends in my life that I give full access to that sometimes I wish I didn't give full access to. You know why?

Because my flesh thinks I'm okay. I think I'm pretty good. I think I can handle this myself because my flesh works the same way your flesh does. But what the spirit of God tells me every time I read the word is my flesh is a liar. I can't handle this. I'm not good enough. If I don't have people speaking in my life, I won't finish well. I need people that will be honest with me. You need people that will be honest with you. And most of the time we don't do that because to cause confrontation or to tell somebody the truth sometimes costs you and you don't want that and it's easier to live a comfortable life than it is to be godly. And can I just say this? God did not call you to be happy. He called to make you, he's called you to make you holy, which leads into point number four. As the spirit of God cultivates holiness in the community, be reverent. I mean, notice what happens here. He says, you've not lied to men but to God. Notice verse five. And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last.

Boom, God took him. And the next few words are pretty awesome. And great fear came over all who heard of it. You think? This brother lied about his offering and he falls dead. Like I don't know if I wanna go to that church. That's pretty scary. Now notice this, verse six. The young men got up and covered him up and after carrying him out, they buried him. Let me ask you this. Have you ever dug a hole? Have you ever dug a hole? I mean, digging a hole is not a fun task. I mean, if I was one of these young guys, I'd be like, are you serious? We gotta go dig a hole for Ananias? I mean, it's gonna take him over a couple hours to do. They're gonna have to go through limestone and all this stuff, put him in there, cover him all up and then come back. I mean, it's gonna be a full day's work where they're gonna sweat, be outside in the hot sun doing all this stuff just because some brother lied about his offering. Now notice verse seven. And they're in a lapse in interval of about three hours. So it took him three hours to do that. And his wife came in. Here comes Sapphira, not knowing what had happened.

She didn't get word. Nobody was going to social media posting what had happened to her husband. She doesn't know he's dead, right? And Peter responded to her. Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price. Did you do this? Did you bring it all? And she said, yes, that was the price. In other words, I'm lying with my husband and I'm gonna protect him. And notice what happens. Then Peter said to her, why is it you have agreed together to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well. And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. So she comes, not knowing what's happened. Peter's like, hey, did you sell the land for this price like your husband said? She's like, yeah, that was the price. Boom, she's dead. And then there's men at the door, those young boys, they're coming back in and they're like, are you kidding me right now? Quit asking other people about their offering, we're tired.

And they had to go out and they got to bury her right next to him. Now, we don't know anything about Ananias and Sapphira. They might've been good church members. They might've done a lot of good stuff. The only thing the Spirit of God tells us is that they lied to God and they lost their lives in that very moment. Why? Because God cares about His holiness and God's presence was doing something special in the church. And His holiness was more important than people's comfort. His holiness is still being put on display today. He cares about His holiness. See, when we think God cares about our happiness, we have a hard time being reverent. As the Spirit of God cultivates holiness in the community, be reverent. Be reverent. Be reverent for His holiness. Here's why. Because in the Old Testament, He dwelt in the tabernacle and He dwelt in the temple. Where does He dwell now? He dwells in us. He indwells every single person. We're the temple of God. Are we living in such a way where His Spirit's presence can reside in us and be enjoying it?

Does He get His way with every part of our house to do whatever He wants? Is He the one that's working in and through us? I mean, the Bible says in Hebrews 4.13, all things are open and laid before the eyes of Him. Luke 12 says, nothing is covered up that will not be revealed. That's why Proverbs 9.10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But think about this. I mean, Hebrews 12.29, our God is a consuming fire. He's a consuming fire. Yes, if you're born again, you're going to be loved when you meet Jesus. But I also think that there's just as much terror to meeting our Lord as there is beauty to meeting our Lord. There should be a holy reverence and a holy fear when you meet Jesus as well. We're not to treat God's presence as casual. We're to treat Him as holy. We're to bow low and allow Him to do what He wants to do. See, revival, people are talking a lot about revival in our culture. Revival's a call and desire for holiness. I don't know if we're in revival or not. I say we're in awakening. I mean, there are people buying more Bibles than ever before. People professing Jesus more than ever before. I'm seeing athletes do it.

I love it. But let's give it six months to a year and see, are these same people growing in holiness and a desire for Christ? If they are, let's call it revival. If they're not, let's call it just a flash in the pan. Right, revival changes your heart. Revival is the idea that what you were before, you're no longer. So when you come to Christ, what God wants you to do is burn the ships of what you once were because you're a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. When I came to Christ, I didn't know this. When I came to Christ and people asked me what I was, I would say, well, I'm a football player who happens to be a Christian or I'm a student who happens to be a Christian or I'm in a fraternity and I happen to be a Christian. And by that I meant, I'm doing all the same things you do, but I'm better than you. But as I grew in the Lord, I'm like, no, I'm a Christian who happens to do some of these things and some of these things I'm doing, the Lord doesn't want me to do anymore. But because I'm a Christian first, that's who I'm becoming and that's who I'm gonna be. So I'm burning the ships of those things that aren't helping me grow in what God wants me to be. And I'm embracing some of the things

that I didn't wanna embrace before so I can become the fullness of the Christian man that God wants me to be. That's what it means to be born again. That's being a champion of his holiness. And God wants us to place him first and champion his holiness and to be reverent to him. I mean, it reminds me of a story. I used to do a lot of itinerant preaching. I was preaching in Naperville, Illinois one time outside of Chicago. I was preaching on a Saturday night and I shared the gospel and a number of people came to Christ. And this guy came up to me and he was just so excited about trusting Jesus. He's like, let me see if I got this right. And he spelled out the whole gospel. He's like, Jesus loves me so much that he came, he paid for all my sin, he died on the cross for me, he rose for me, he left heaven to do that for me. And all I gotta do is repent of my sin and believe him and go live for him. I'm like, that's it. That's the best news I've ever heard. I wanna live for him. He goes, what do I have to do? I said, well, you need to be obedient to God every step of the way. He's like, I totally wanna do it.

I know what he wants me to do. I'm outta here. And he left. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. So I started meeting with some other people. It was about 25 minutes later. He came running back into the church. And I saw him and he's like, I gotta talk to you. I'm like, just a second, I'm finishing up. And finished up, he's like, man, he goes, I did what you said. I'm like, I didn't tell you to do anything. He's like, well, while you were preaching, he goes, I've been in porn my entire adult life. It's been killing my marriage. I went home, I told my wife what it was. I gave her access to all my magazines. I just threw them all out in the garbage. I'm the most free I've ever been in my life. Isn't that what you told me to do? And I said, no, that's what the Spirit of God told you to do and you did exactly what he wanted you to do, amen? I mean, that's what it's like. When the Spirit of God comes on you, you're not the same as you once were and you're free to serve God in new and fresh ways. It's not just the, oh, I sinned and everybody sins. It's sin keeps you from freedom. Sin leads to death.

God has freed you from sin. And as believers, we have an opportunity to become what non-believers can't become, the holiness of God. Amen? And this is what the marks of a spirit-filled church does. Marks of a spirit-filled church don't look for other people to create unity. They themselves stay selfless. They don't look for other people to be generous to them. They themselves are surrendered to the Lord. They don't look for the sin in other people in the community. They look within and when they see it, they're honest and they confess it before the Lord and they forsake it. They don't look for the holiness in others. They look for it in themselves and they wanna be reverent. So if you wanna experience spirit-filled community in your marriage or your church or your cadre or your core team or whatever, then be selfless, be surrendered, be honest and be reverent. And friends, that's exactly what God's growing here. And it starts with me and it starts with you. And when we look inward rather than outward and we focus upward at Jesus and then look to serve others rather than judge them, God creates a community that sustains time. God creates a team that's greater than any other team because this team is made up of men, women, boys and girls. Every socioeconomic background, every ethnicity, every tribe, every tongue, every nation are welcome

at the feet of Jesus to serve him with every single thing that they have and you're invited into that community which is a taste of the community that's coming because I tell you, when Jesus Christ gets back and establishes his kingdom, think about this, you will get along perfectly not only with Jesus but every single person who's there. Isn't that interesting? I mean, as Christians, I mean, I say it as a pastor because I see it all the time. I mean, there's some people don't even like each other in their own church and you're gonna be best friends for eternity. So why not practice it now, right? You spend time focusing on you. You spend time asking God, God, what do you wanna change in me? God, how can I contribute in these four ways to my marriage, to my family, to my church, to my community, to my cadre? Lord, I want you to change me so I can become that. You watch the Lord grow you and he will grow all those around you. Isn't that a great word? That's what God wants to do in and through you. Would you stand with me? Our Father in heaven, we're asking you to build that very life in us, the life of Christ. Lord, not because we're able to do it apart from you but because with your Holy Spirit,

you're the one who will build it in us. So Lord, we ask you to move and move mightily today. Lord, show us the areas of our life that you wanna change. And Lord, in this moment, help us just to repent of our sin and believe that you can change us. And Lord, help us take the next step to see you do everything you want to do. Lord, we love you, we bless you and we praise you for all that you are and all you're doing. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Can we give God praise for his word this morning? Amen.