Playing Church | Tyrone D. Jones | Book of Acts | Full Service

Good morning. Man, it's a great day to be at church. Will you stand, please? Well, it's so great to see you all. Welcome to Church for the City. If you're new, we would love to get to know you and to serve you. And if that's you and you're watching online, there'll be a digital Connect card that's shared with you there in the chat. You can just click that, and you can sign up for things like baptism or baby dedications or open house to learn more about the church. And, of course, if you're here in person, you can just go to the Connect table there in the lobby. And we'll be right back. Good morning. Man, it's a great day to be at church. Will you stand, please? Well, it's so great to see you all. Welcome to Church for the City. If you're new, we would love to get to know you and to serve you. And if that's you and you're watching online, there'll be a digital Connect card that's shared with you there in the chat. You can just click that, and you can sign up for things like baptism or baby dedications or open house to learn more about the church. And, of course, if you're here in person, you can just go to the Connect table there in the lobby. And we'll be right back. All right, well, who likes to read the Bible? OK, great. Because we're gonna open up the Word here. Before we get into worship, we're gonna be in Zechariah chapter 10, verse 1.

And he says, ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain to everyone, the vegetation of the field. Now, I spoke through the apostle Zechariah and his message was, hey, you're in a season of waiting. You're waiting for the blessing. You're waiting for my promises. You're waiting on me. So don't get distracted. Don't start asking men and women to answer your prayers. Ask me. I'm the one who made the storm clouds. I bring the rain. If you need rain, ask me for I am the Lord, right? So if that's you this morning, let's ask the Lord for what we need. Before we even get into worship here as we go into prayer, Father God, thank you so, so much for being a God that answers prayers, for being a God that's faithful in your promises, faithful in seasons of waiting, even when we're not. Even when we stray, God, you never go anywhere. You're right there with us. Jesus, thank you for loving us, for dying for us, and making it possible to assemble today and glorify your name. Lord, help us as we worship to just lift up your name and praise the only name worthy of it all. Jesus, we love you. And the church said, amen. Let's worship. Come on, church. Let's clap this morning. I'm standing in your victory.

Oh, hallelujah. I'm washed in the water, washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I'm washed in the water, washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I'm free. It's not what I have heard. What you've done for me. You made it all upon that tree. Oh, hallelujah. I'm clean. Your love has overcome. And your mercy is supreme. I'm dancing in your victory. Oh, hallelujah. I'm washed in the water, washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I'm washed in the water, washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Sing it again. I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I'm washed in the water, washed in the blood. I'm as good as new. Oh, hallelujah. Because you took away my sin.

And you made it to the cross. You got me running out the rain. Hallelujah, here I come. Because you took away my sin. And you made it to the cross. You got me running out the rain. Hallelujah, here I come. Because you took away my sin. And you made it to the broken cross. You got me running out the rain. Hallelujah, here I come And He fell into the cross And He came running to you Hallelujah, here I come Sing hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Oh ooooh Cause I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood I'm as good as dead Oh hallelujah I'm washed in the water, washed in the blood I'll be cursed as dead Oh hallelujah

Oh Breathe on me, grace of God I throw my hands up in the air You can take me anywhere Would you breathe on me, grace of God I throw my hands up in the air So you can take me anywhere Holy Spirit I surrender forever Take over me God I wanna be baptized in your fire Take over me Would you take over us Jesus So carry me, wind of God Somewhere over the hills Somewhere so we couldn't fall Would you carry me, wind of God I'm getting good at letting go It's better when you're in control Holy Spirit I surrender forever Take over me God I wanna be baptized in your fire Take over me My body is a temple For all my life I'll be a blessing Would you come take over Take over, take over me Would you take over us Jesus I'd like to see the fire I'd like to know there's something I can fire It'd be impossible, I think the wind is ready

Before we were gold and now we're burning fire Before we were gold I'd like to see the fire I'd like to know there's something I can fire It'd be impossible, I think the wind is ready Before we were gold and now we're getting fired up In the Holy Ghost about to say revival I'd like to know there's something I can Bible It'd be impossible I think the wind is ready Before we were gold and now we're getting fired up In the Holy Ghost and now we're getting fired up In the Holy Ghost and now we're getting fired up In the Holy Ghost and now we're getting fired up In the Holy Ghost and now we're getting fired up Holy Spirit I surrender forever Take over me, I don't wanna be Your fire, take over me I surrender forever Take over me God, I want to be I surrender forever God, I want to be Take over me I'm about to see revival I'm about to see revival Like we never know There's something out the Bible The impossible, I think the room is ready For a miracle And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost

I'm about to see revival Like we never know There's something out the Bible The impossible, I think the room is ready For a miracle And now I'm getting vital And now I'm getting vital And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost We're getting vital In the Holy Ghost And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost This is the moment We wait Come on in All hearts are burning For flesh This is the moment We wait Fire Come on in

All hearts are burning For flesh Revival Never again We're about to see revival We're about to see revival Like you never know It's something out of the Bible The impossible Left in the room We're about to see revival And now I'm getting vital In the Holy Ghost We're about to see revival Like we never know It's something out of the Bible The impossible Left in the room We're about to see revival Like you never know It's something out of the Bible The impossible Left in the room We're about to see revival Like you never know It's something out of the Bible The impossible Left in the room We're about to see revival Like you never know

It's something out of the Bible The impossible Left in the room We're about to see revival Like we never know It's something out of the Bible The impossible Left in the room Maybe we've made this complicated More than it was ever meant to be Hasn't it always been about the same things? Lord, bring us back to simple things You be the center of it all My heart belongs to You My Savior all in all You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of Your name My soul live to say Jesus, I love You Teach us to discern When to serve And when to sit here at Your feet Teach us to wait to listen for Just like men chose a better thing Oh, You be the center of it all My heart belongs to You My Savior all in all You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of Your name My soul live to say

Jesus, I love You Oh, for You are the center of it all My heart belongs to You My Savior You're all I want, You're the one and I won't want to For the beauty of Your name, my soul meant to stay Jesus, I love You, oh how I love You Oh how I love You, Jesus I love You Oh how I love You Why don't we turn our attention to the screen as someone goes public with their faith. My name is Ruben. Before giving my life to Jesus, I spent 15 years struggling and trying to make decisions based on what I wanted. This led to hardships, struggles, and many downfalls throughout my years. My life was a constant torment, and I couldn't see a light at the end of a tunnel. I would often cry out to God when things felt bad, but I pushed Him away once everything was better. I never truly led Him into my life. I lost my marriage, became unemployed and homeless. During that season, my brother reached out to me. I realized that I could no longer try to control everything myself. I needed Jesus. In that moment, I surrendered my life to Jesus and said, I'm surrendering everything to You. You take control. Since giving my life to Jesus, I'm not just experiencing happiness, I'm living with joy. I moved to Yuma about seven years ago, and I met Lina and Ryan Gallis. They made me feel at home, welcomed me, and supported. I know that life is worth living, and generally I want to live for Christ. I've learned how to be happy and how to see life from a different perspective. I wake up every morning thanking God for life and asking Him to take control. Today, I am going public with my faith. Reuben, Jesus and every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith, today I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and according to Scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only.

Everything for the honor of Your name. Come on, declare this this morning. My whole life. For Your glory, for Your glory. To be praised for the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only. Everything for the honor of Your name. My whole life. For Your glory, my whole world. For You only, everything for the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only. Everything for the honor of Your name. Oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You. Jesus, I love You. Oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You. My whole life. My whole life. For Your glory, my whole world. For You only, everything for the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only. Everything for the honor of Your name. My whole life. For Your glory, my whole world. For You owe me everything, for the honor of Your Name. And if my today's just a story, let it be. Love You owe me everything, for the honor of Your Name. Oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You.

Jesus, I love You. Oh, how I love You. We love You, we love You, Lord. Oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You. Oh, we adore Your praise. Oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You. We adore Your praise. We adore Your praise. Oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You. Jesus. Church, can we give the Lord a shout of praise this morning for what He's doing in this room? Amen. Amen. Well, hey, church, who's excited and grateful to be in the house this morning? Amen. The Lord is going to move. Amen. Well, hey, church, we're going to go into what we call a minute to mingle. Go into each neighbor and tell them that you're happy they're in the house today. All right, good morning. Are you blessed to be in church this morning? All right, can you do daddy a favor?

Can you get this piece of trash? It's going to make me crazy. Can you grab that? Thank you. What a servant of the house. Love you. Thank you, mama. All right. It's an honor to be here before you. There's so many things that you could have chosen to do today, but in response to the drawing of the Holy Spirit, you made a choice to be in the house of God. So thank you for making that choice in response to his drawing. A few exciting things going on. This coming Wednesday, we have what we call our First Wednesday. It's our First Wednesday service. We have them monthly. It is a great gathering. Truthfully, it's the gathering, I like to say, where we get a little more loose. We don't have the restriction of time. We have powerful preaching, powerful worship, and really intentional times of response for prayer and response for healing and response for people to truly, even if we have to what we call wait on the Lord. And it's a great opportunity. The preacher coming is no stranger to us, a pastor by the name of Jeff Eklund. So if you can be here Wednesday at 6 p.m. First Wednesday, it would be a great gathering.

You don't want to miss it. And also, too, it's one of the few gatherings that everybody comes together at the same time. So get here on time if you want a seat, unless you want to be like the middle school girls and sit on the floor down there during the message. So get here early, please. Also, we would like to welcome back our South Africa team. Are any of them in here right now? I know they were in first and second. We're welcoming them back. They truly did represent so well. You can see the products of your investment. They were able to pass out Bibles, pass out school uniforms and necessities for the village. One cool story is they took a drum set with the idea of they can piece it together and eventually use it. They put that thing together. and used it at the conference, like the day they got there. It was just a cool opportunity for them to be able to, the things that we believe to be minor investments just go such a long way over there. So thank you for being a giving church, a generous church. Remember, you always have the opportunity to give. You can tap the disc in front of you. You can go onto the website. You can go onto the app. You can even give at the offering boxes on the way out. Our pastor and Lady V are traveling today. He's preaching three services as well this morning.

They are in Fresno, California. And is Fresno here? Shout out. Only second service didn't have Fresno. Man, look at God, Fresno. And so we're praying for them. The thing that we always hope for is that when they go and minister that they will also be refreshed themselves. And so praying for that. And here's the other thing I do want to acknowledge. Anytime I get the opportunity to come up here and share the word, I know for a fact that we have one of the best pastors and preachers in the entire planet. I know that. And I get to stand on the shoulders of a giant every time I come up here. So I'm thankful. I wanna honor him and honor the opportunities that I have. And so we're gonna be praying for him. We're gonna be praying for the service as we move forward. So if you don't mind, we're not gonna stand yet. We're not gonna open up our Bibles. We're gonna pray. And then we'll kind of take a bit of a trip here. Lord, thank you. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to worship. Thank you, Lord, for teams.

Thank you for every guest that's made a decision to be in here. Lord, we're thankful for the worship team, the hard work that they put in to gather and to lift up the songs of Zion. We ask that you continue to be with each and every one of our teams as we go through the service, with our kids' department, with our graders, with our ushers. Lord, we're thankful that we get to safely gather in this space. We lift up our pastor, Lady V, as they minister. We lift up Billy and Phillip. We're so thankful for the celebration and for all of the testimonies that they've been able to experience. We ask God that as we move forward in this service, as we move forward as a body, that you continue to use us, as you continue to download into us what you want us to know, what you want us to understand. We love you. We trust you. We submit ourselves to you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so if you were here last week, we are in a series in the book of Acts. Now, oftentimes, if we're doing a series in a specific book of the Bible,

we will go through what's called expository, which means we will preach verse by verse. I wanna say the last time we did that was the book of Romans. So if you were here when we went verse by verse through the book of Romans, you got to see me grow up from middle school through college, it seems like, by the time we got through Romans. But it was great. It was a very good sermon series. This time, we're gonna actually be going through the book of Acts, but we're gonna be going through topically. So we won't always cover verse by verse, but we're gonna just pull some topics from different spaces in the book of Acts. Last week, our pastor brilliantly preached through Acts chapter one through four in one message. How, I don't know, but it was incredible. And he pulled the principles from those. And what did we find? Some of the specifics. Acts chapter one is when Jesus is still on earth and he's saying, I'm going to ascend, but you don't leave Jerusalem, talking to the believers, don't leave Jerusalem until you receive power from on high, correct? Chapter two is when we see that,

we see the Spirit of God descend on the earth. Fire, like fire on each one of them. They begin to speak in tongues. They begin to declare the goodness of God. And we call that the birth of the New Testament church. Chapter three, we begin to see miracles and wonders. Specifically, we can think of when they went to the temple and the man said, if you have money for me, and silver and gold, I have none, but in the name of Jesus, stand. And then chapter four, we see some attacks from the outside. This is the first time that they get called to before the chiefs and the council and they have to defend and the council's like, hey, we don't want you preaching this name anymore. And they respond by saying, we cannot stop preaching about what we've seen and heard, what we're experiencing through the power of the Spirit as we preach this name of Jesus. And that lands us in Acts chapter five. And so I'm really gonna preach through the narrative at the beginning of the chapter. So I want to walk us through the rest of the story. What show was that? That just popped in my mind right now. And here's the rest of the story. I can't remember what that was. Did you hear the age of those voices? Okay.

Like not a single person in this front row said a thing. But I heard Paul Harvey, right? There we go. Seasoned. And I'm with him, because I obviously recognize that. And so the rest of the story of Acts chapter five, we start in verse 12. Verse 12 through 16 is when we see more signs and wonders and miracles. To the degree that some are saying, if I can just get in reach of the shadow of Peter, I will be healed. or his lives are being restored and people are being set free through the preaching of the gospel and through the power of the Holy Spirit. But also we're starting to see a shifting and we'll explain more about that shifting. And then in verse 17, we read about an arrest. The apostles are arrested for preaching the gospel. And so when they're put in jail, as we read in scripture, it says that an angel goes and sets them free from the jail. But instead of retreating back to their home, when the angel sets them free from the jail, they actually go directly back to the temple and begin preaching again. And as they're preaching again in the temple, they get arrested again. And now they're being brought before the council.

And when they're before the council, they're saying, we have instructed you guys over and over not to go and preach and spread the message that you've been spreading. And they're making it clear. Listen, we want to honor the law, but we can't honor the law when it causes us to be disobedient to our God. I think that's a very good thought and understanding for us to have. Our responsibility as citizens is to honor the law unless it causes us to be disobedient to our God. I think that's important for us to understand and we can learn that from scripture. And so they sentenced them to death. But one of the men on the council, like we've seen movements come and go. We don't know for sure if this is gonna turn into a movement that's gonna even carry that much weight. Yeah, we're seeing thousands are coming, but we've seen these type of charismatic leaders before and it really fizzles out and comes to an end. So we don't need to kill them, but they do make a decision to flog them, which means they got beaten brutally. And in response to being beaten brutally, it says that the apostles rejoice. Why? Because they rejoice because they are in a position where they consider themselves to be blessed

to suffer for the gospel that they're spreading. They leave rejoicing. And that lands us the beginning of chapter five. I'm preaching verse one through 11. So if you don't mind standing with me, open your Bibles to Acts chapter five, we're gonna read verse one through 11. Reading out of the ESV, it'll be on the screen if you don't have it. It says this, but a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property. And with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. He dropped dead. And great fear came upon all of whom heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

And Peter said to her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much, asking her, is this the price that you sold the land? And she said, yes, that's how much. Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out. Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in, they found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. Before I pray, it's probably good to get your wallet out. No, I'm just kidding. No. Lord, we're thankful for your word. We're thankful, God, that your word is true, that your word shapes us, forms us, and makes us more like you. So we ask that you do exactly that this morning in Jesus' name, amen. Go ahead and have your seats. So for those who have met me, my name is Tyrone. If you haven't met me, I grew up in church. Our family started this church when I was seven years old. And before that, we went to a small Pentecostal church that was started by my grandparents, my great-grandparents, matter of fact. And so to say the least, I've always been a church kid.

And when you're in a small Pentecostal church, you go to church like four days a week. And then once we started a church, the church came to our house like four days a week. We didn't have a building yet. And so my parents would host everything at our house, and it would be life group meeting at the house, worship practice at the house, elders meeting at the house, training greeters at the house. And they would just bring their kids with them, and they would stick us all in the back room, and we would just. have to occupy our time. So we would play things like marbles, which was common back then. We'd play video games. But what I remember the most is church kids play church. Okay? Playing church looks like this. These six and seven year olds all gather and someone decides to be the preacher. And someone decides to sing the worship. And the truth is some of these kids, they're really using this as an audition, I promise you. They're the worship person. Another person collects the money and the other person's doing this. But can I tell you, at that age, coming out of a Pentecostal church and still really a part of a church

that had a lot of that expression, you didn't really play church unless somebody caught the Holy Ghost. Right? So it would get to the point where somebody would start having like a Baptist fit and we would all link arms and let them work their fit out. And that's just the way it looked when we would play church. Truthfully, I thought that that was only a thing back in when I grew up, I'm not gonna say which decade, when I grew up. Until this summer. This summer, we had what we have annually and it's our version of Kids Camp and it's called Kids Summer Jam. And Kids Summer Jam, you're here for four nights. And my kids, on the final night, do what they normally do on the final night of Kids Summer Jam and they just go through the lobby and they're tapping shoulders of their friends. Wanna spend the night? Wanna spend the night? Wanna spend the night? Wanna spend the night? No permission, mind you. But anyway. So all of these red shirt tweens are in my truck, headed home, it was already a late night because it was the final night of Summer Jam. And so they decide at like 11 p.m.

that they wanna go swimming. And so, desperately attempting to be a cool dad, I let them go out and swim. They had given all their time serving at Summer Jam. And so they're jumping in the pool and we're getting to the point where it's 11, it's midnight and I'm hanging. And finally, I'm thinking to myself, they're probably gonna try to force me to be a shark in there. Or eventually, there's gonna be some, like Marco Polo and I have to be it. And instead, I'm listening and I hear, some of them are right here. I hear these kids. Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And these little red shirts are going down under the water of baptism at midnight in my backyard. And I'm thinking, first of all, the part that makes it crazy is they were saying the statement perfectly word for word, from memory. And I'm thinking, if this is some of your guys' first time, this counts. And so, it was nice to see that kids still play church. I think sometimes we mimic before we find our own lane. Even with preachers or with communicators, they say you're an echo before you find your own voice. And I don't think that's a bad thing. What I do think is bad, though,

is the way I played church when I was 18. Or the way I played church in my early 20s. The way I played church in my mid-20s. And it wasn't baptizing my friends in the backyard. It was coming into this exact building, lifting my hands, jumping up and down, playing those drums, going on missions trips, knowing that I was doing all of the things that got the applause, the affirmation, and the attention, and my heart was never fully submitted. I'm not talking about someone making mistakes. I'm talking about someone making a choice that I am going to live a double life. Thank you, Theo and Thea, for rescuing me. But that was truly playing church. Looking the part really well, knowing how to do all the things, doing all the posts, doing all the crafting of even the friend groups that, the church kids is who I brought to the house, but that's not who I hung out with at school. That's not who I hung out with at all these different places. I was playing church, and this is really what we see here in Acts chapter five. The reason why this was such a problem is because they were playing church. Now, in order to get a better picture and a better understanding of this deep dive in Acts chapter five, we have to see what happened

at the end of chapter four, because at the end of chapter four, the verses are saying that all of the believers are gathering together, and they're sharing all of their things. It says that no one in the gathering had any needs, because if a person had a need, and I possessed that, I made sure that they were well taken care of. You guys understand what I'm saying? No one had needs because there was this mutual exchange, like, I cut Alex's grass, he cleans my windows, right? We're doing all of the things to make sure that we're well taken care of, and no one has to hurt for it. I may be a millionaire, this person has no job, but our needs are being met. You guys with me? But then there were what they would see as some extravagant gifts. And one person who did that was a man by the name of Joseph, who later we would know as Barnabas, who was Paul's best friend who would travel with him. And Barnabas made a decision that he's gonna sell a field that he owned. He sold the field, and before he sold the field, he made a declaration, whatever I make from the field, I'm gonna give to the gathering. And it says that he sold the field and took every bit of the money and put it down at the apostles' feet. Now, he didn't put it down at the apostles' feet

in this form of worship. This is a form of submission at the time, okay? And so he does that. So Ananias and Sapphira, the following next verse, it says, well, they did the same thing, or at least they had the same thought. Why? That passage also says that Barnabas was known as the son of encouragement. It also, we can imply that this gift was celebrated. We can imply that this action gave Barnabas some notoriety. And so Ananias and Sapphira made a decision, we're gonna sell our field too. This is what was different about what they did and what Barnabas did. Something either was wrong initially with their idea, or they had a change of heart when that money got in their hands. It says that they sold the field after declaring that they're gonna sell their field and give all of the money to the gathering. They sold the field and gave some of the money to the gathering. Some of the money to the gathering. And this is where we land. Now, remember, we have to be clear about something. This is a gathering of believers. These are believers. Ananias and Sapphira are not from the outside. These are believers who've been filled

with the spirit of God. These are believers who have been seeing the signs and wonders of the apostles. These are believers that are actually a part of the people that God is moving in. These are not outsiders trying to pose, at least initially. These are believers. And so how Peter addresses them in verse three and four, is he says, he asks a simple question, and this is to Ananias at first. He says, how have you allowed Satan to fill your heart? How have you allowed Satan to fill your heart? I think the first thing that we need to recognize when we're looking at this passage is Peter is asking a question to a believer about Satan doing something through them, which means we need to understand that as believers, we have an active enemy. We have an active enemy and it's not your in-laws. It's not the bathroom scale. Devil, you have no place in this. It's not your bank account. It's definitely not the church down the street. We have an active enemy and it's Satan. We have an active enemy and as scripture says, we were in a spiritual battle. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We have, and this is not us making this up. Jesus made this clear.

Jesus made this clear in Matthew chapter... Actually, I'm not gonna go to Matthew chapter 15 yet. I wanna talk about what Paul said because Paul is telling my story in Romans chapter seven. He says this, I discovered this principle of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me. You know what we call that power? He's not possessed by a demon. You know what we call that power? Flesh. The fact that I have a flesh still. The fact that my mind, the fact that my mind, will and emotions can still lead me in the wrong place. And it's at war with my mind. That power makes me a slave to sin that is still within me. Paul is making clear in this moment, listen, I'm saved. I'm filled with the spirit of God, but there's a battle. There's a battle. First Peter 5.8 says, stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. I love what it says in James 4.7.

Because James 4.7 actually gives us some practical response to this. James 4.7 says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee. One of the writers that I was studying with all of this, he made a great observation. He said, there's a lot of people out there resisting and they're failing and they're resisting because they're resisting but not being submitted. The scripture first says, submit therefore to God and then resist the devil and he will flee. The devil is not fleeing you, the devil is fleeing the person you're submitted to. It's a practical thing. I'll pick on my daughter since she's here again. My daughter, Aria, yesterday. We're trying to find a place to go to lunch. And she gave me a great sermon illustration. Because we're driving and I'm like, hey, what sounds good? I don't want this, I don't want that, I don't want this, I don't want that. And I'm like, hey, at a certain point, you need to tell me what you do want. Like, what sounds good? That's us. We can't continue to talk about what I don't want to do anymore,

and I don't want to fall into that pattern, and I don't want to repeat that habit, and I don't want my mind to, oh, I'm afraid, I don't want to be prideful again, and I don't want to fall into that sin again. Hey, I think we can think less about what we want to fall into, and less about the resisting, if we put more and more of our heart and mind into the submission to God. More about the submission. And as we submit and resist, he will flee. But that's not the only part of that question. He said, why have you allowed Satan to fill your heart? Why would you allow Satan to fill your heart? And it leads us to this point of understanding that every believer will battle a heart condition, not the one that needs meds and a blood pressure pump, cuff, whatever it's called. A heart condition. Why? We see in Jeremiah, what does it say? The heart, the human heart is wicked and deceitful. What does Proverbs 4.23 says? Guard your heart, because all the things of life flow from it. Now we can go to Matthew 15, what Jesus is saying, because there's this understanding, especially in this time when Jesus was on earth,

where they're like, if you can make everything on the outside look good, you're gonna be fine. Make sure you be careful how you wash your hands. Make sure you be careful what you eat. And Jesus is like, do you not see whatever goes into your mouth passes through the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of your mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what defile a person. What to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. Jesus is saying, you can do all the right things on the outside. You can go through the motions. You can play church all you want. You can play Christian all you want, but what's going on in your heart is what eventually is gonna come out of your mouth, and it's what your lifestyle is gonna be. I'm preaching to me. I know this all too well, and I'm not saying, this is not where I came from, this is where I'm at every single day of my life. We have come to an understanding

that we will never, as long as we're on this side of heaven, we will never be completely immune. Guarded, absolutely. Protected, absolutely. Victorious, absolutely. But the attacks will come on our heart. The attacks will come on our mind. There's an active enemy, and I love what our pastor says. He says, you don't have a bullseye on your back until you make an impact for the kingdom. So some people, when life starts getting tough for them as they submit their life to the Lord, they're like, we must've took a wrong turn. We might need to go back to the club on Saturday night because things were a little better. Poor me, another one too. Get to the point where it's like, because there's resistance, something must be wrong. Sometimes because there's resistance, the enemy's like, uh-oh. I see kingdom impact. I see people understanding destiny. I see people understanding purpose. I see people understanding the gifts that are on their life. I see people that are making decisions that they may have to carve out some of their friendships, and they may have to attend less of this and be around it.

There are people who are coming to understand what holiness and righteousness looks like, and that makes me nervous. That's what the enemy's saying. And he puts things in your way. But how many understand the enemy can't create, he can only contort. The enemy can't create, he can only confuse. We serve the God of all creation. We serve the God that's victorious. We serve the God that's all-powerful. But we do have to deal with this heart condition. And you know the reason why I know we can be susceptible? Because the greatest leader, one of the greatest kings that we ever read about, King David, he had to deal with it himself. He was a man known after God's own heart, and found himself dealing with murder, dealing with stepping out on his wife. And when this all happens, when he finally comes to a place of accountability, when he finally comes to a place of understanding that that's not who he's called to be and not what he's called to do, he didn't go to the Lord and say, Lord, can you help restore my kingdom? He didn't go to the Lord and say, Lord, can you help me be a better leader again? Lord, can you help me be a better husband again? Lord, can you help me write more music?

Lord, can you make me a great worshiper once again? Lord, can you give me more songs so I can make this all go away? He said, no. In Psalm 51, he said, create in me a clean heart. You know what David's making clear? David's making it very clear. Songs are gonna come and go. Fanfare is gonna come and go. My own. palace is gonna come and go, but I need the Lord to, in me, continue to work and mold and shape my heart. He said, cast me not away from your presence. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Here's the great part, here's, wow, a great and mighty king killed so many people in the right ways of battle, and he didn't say, take me back when I was that great and mighty battle warrior. Take me back to when that oil first poured on my head. He didn't say any of that. He said, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Restore unto me the understanding that I serve a God that's greater than me and greater than any enemy I'll ever face. That's how he was once again restored in his heart. And we need it regularly, day after day. So then Peter goes and says, and then you lied to the Holy Spirit. Here's the interesting part. No one told Peter what happened with this field.

The same Holy Spirit that Ananias and Sapphira lied to is who revealed it to Peter. That's how he's able to say, you guys lied to the Holy Spirit because I know what you committed in your heart and you lied to us and you lied to him. Can I tell you something? This is not a money message. You can put your wallets away. You can log out of your phone. This is not a money message. This is a message about sin because they made a choice as believers who knew better. They made a choice to lie and they introduced something called hypocrisy. None of us have known ever a hypocrite in the church. No, not me. All my friends are saved. They sit over here. What we're seeing is Peter not addressing someone who made a mistake, but someone who purposely, because they wanted the celebration of someone doing something great and spiritual, because they wanted affirmation. Here's the worst part. What they were living for or attempting to live for is the glory of God at the same time as self-gratification. What they were living for and what they were attempting to do was build up their own name

as they built up the name of Jesus. Can I tell you that's getting more and more hard for me? That's more and more dangerous in the church world. Why? Because we have social media, we can share ourselves singing, we can share ourself preaching, and I don't care what kind of little caption you put on it, sometimes we have to really recognize for ourselves, is this to build up my name and to glorify myself or is that my really hoping that God gets the glory out of this? When we, and here's the thing, I love sharing the things that the church posts. I love the opportunity to be able to share a message that God has given me or to share a great song, but I think it should be a steady and constant conversation. I think even in person, there should be some moments where we have a steady and conversation with ourself to say, am I jumping up and down and lifting my hands in worship so people can see me or is that really what I'm experiencing right now? Because if anything that we are doing is for our own glory, we have to answer for that. And it's just like Peter said, you're not lying to me, you're lying to the Holy Spirit. And it's a challenge for me, it's a challenge for so many of us,

but it's truly a reality. It's a battle that's real, it's a battle that we face and he lied to the Holy Spirit and you're trying to gratify yourselves and you're trying to receive the same applause as someone who was actually fully submitted and you're not. Now, here's one thing that is interesting. Peter did this publicly. He did this publicly, he called them out publicly. I know I'm not gonna sit here and say that confrontation, confrontation in church should always be public if it's a public fall or whatever else. I mean, sometimes you see that in the news, unfortunately, if you have a large ministry and you have a public fall, a lot of times it's a public address. But I do believe that times with secret sin can be handled secretly. But here's one thing that we have to be clear about. John MacArthur said this and it's very true. He said, secret sin on earth is public scandal in heaven. There's no such thing as secret sin in heaven. And I'm not gonna go back and forth about why or how Peter confronted this person publicly, but this is what I do know. This was a picture of the fact that we do need healthy shaping and confrontation in the church. And this is what I mean by this. I know for a fact, there are people even in this room,

people listening online who have dealt with spiritual abuse and church hurt. That's not what I'm addressing. What I'm addressing is the fact that I need someone in my life who's gonna encourage me, but also let me know when I'm off. That's gonna encourage me and also redirect me. That's gonna encourage me and also ask me hard questions. That's going to encourage me and love me enough that they want to see me living. out the purpose that God has placed on my life. That doesn't happen with just comfortable conversations. That doesn't happen with just encouragement. I think what we have to recognize when we're looking at what Peter's doing in this moment, yes, it's public, but he's also passing a message to the rest of the gathering. This is new, this is fresh. He's passing a message to the rest of the gathering. And we see in Matthew 18 how to approach some of these things. But I love in 1 Peter 4, 17, who says that these things are most important in the church. This is what it says. For time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God's household. And if judgment begins with us, us shaping and molding each other, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's good news?

How tough is it for the people on the outside that aren't even getting molded, aren't even getting shaped? But it has to start with us. I had a bunch of friends in high school who were getting these tattoos. Only God can judge me. I mean, he eventually will. I need someone in my life that's speaking into the places that are actually keeping me held back. I need someone speaking into my life so I can go lay down next to my wife and actually celebrate what God's doing. And we can smile and we can say we really aren't where we were, and we were in a place where. I want someone speaking into my parenting, speaking into my preaching, speaking into my leadership. We all want that. Why? Because we all want to live the purpose and destiny that God called for us. A person who doesn't want to be shaped and discipled is a person who says I want the limitations of life and not the abundance of God. We're from a kingdom that says abundance. We're from a kingdom that says purpose and destiny that goes beyond our own abilities. But it's gonna take the understanding of being shaped.

Now here's the deal. Why was this so important and crucial at this specific moment? Now you get to be some Bible scholars, okay? Sin was introduced to the earth in Genesis chapter three when Adam and Eve agreed to eat the fruit. That's when sin was introduced to the earth. Right here in this moment in Acts chapter five is when sin's introduced to the church. Everything else had been challenges from the outside. This is the first time that it's friendly fire from the inside. Every other issue that the church had to deal with in Acts chapter one, two, three, and four, the challenges were from non-believers. This is the first time that believers stepped in and caused mixture. And so it was important for Peter to make a statement to say this house, this gathering stands for something so special, so important with eternity on the line. We have to guard it and protect it. It's interesting how people from the inside can sometimes bring the problems that you're dealing with on the outside. I did physical therapy for years before I was in ministry. I loved it. I went to this little medical trade school in the Phoenix area. And I remember they had this rule

where you're not allowed to smoke cigarettes on campus. I didn't, like at all. But there was multiple disciplines there. There were nurses, there were physical therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists. There was a number of people that were being trained on this site. Lane, you guys can go ahead and come. You guys can come. But they made this little tiny smoking section way on the edge of the school property. And we thought it was so funny. I mean, this is wrong, forgive me for this. This is why I need this whole message. Because me and my buddies from class would go outside during our breaks and we would look over at the people that were taking their smoke break and it would blow our mind. Because the majority of the people taking their smoke break were the respiratory therapist students. I'm not making that up. The respiratory students were the one. That's causing trouble from the inside. That's being a part of the problem as you're claiming to wanna be a part of the solution. Doesn't mean we're gonna ever have a perfect church. What does our pastor say? Church is perfect until you walked in. Right?

It also means that it's not our job to go around with a notebook and take notes on how everybody else is living in comparison to ourself. Right? If you respond to this message by at 2.30 a.m. driving downtown to see, like, do I see any We Love Our City shirts or whatever else, you're missing it. This is not to keep score versus anyone. But it's simply to understand this. One, to take a look at ourselves, take a look in the mirror, and also to understand this. Sin should be taken seriously. Sin should be taken. seriously, and we have an opportunity to be a church that takes sin seriously. Not that we're here to hurt people, not that we're here like Saul to throw a spear, but we love people too much to let them stay where they are in their brokenness. Can I tell you, there's no such thing, but there will never be such a such thing as a sinless church, because a sinless church means that we're no longer human, and a sinless church means that we're not reaching the lost anymore. But I wrote down this thought, I don't know if I created it or not, but it sounded good. It said this, it said a sinless church does not exist, but a church that does not address sin should not exist. A sinless church does not exist, but a church that doesn't address sin, every time I'm here and I'm hearing the gospel preached, every time I'm here and I'm in worship, I want to have two experiences. I want to experience a bit of the well done, well done in my heart, the embrace of a good father, the embrace of the Lord, and I also want to feel, yeah, that's something that needs to be. I want to check in my spirit that says, man, that part of that message is for me. I want to be challenged, and I want to be encouraged every time I open my scripture. I want to be challenged and encouraged every time I pray. I want to be challenged and encouraged every time I hang out with my friends. I'm thankful to have

a circle of friends that happens that way. We can, me, Nate, and Weto, and all these guys, we can go from talking about the Lakers to talking about like, man, guys, we can be better as husbands. We can be, we need to dive in the word more. Like, it's, that's what I want. That's what I need because I come to understand that if Peter is saying the Lord takes sin seriously, I've got to take it seriously because I believe that the Lord is serious about me, and I want to be serious about him, and so I'm thankful for those things, but I think I better make it clear why we as a house address sin. I'm going to give just four very quick things. One, we address sin because it honors God's word. If we're not, we can't honor the word of God if we leave a bunch out. We highlight, we don't cross out. We address sin because, so we can experience true freedom. Jesus doesn't save you to stay where you are. We address sin so that we can be more like Jesus, so we can be more like Jesus because the more we are like Jesus, the more we can have the impact that he's called us to make, the more we can be representative of him, the more we can model his fruit, the more that we can model his spirit, his power. We address sin so that we can live out our God-given purpose. Like we've said, my dad, he sent me a little note to add to the message. It's cool that we can look at this and hear a phrase that you hear here quite often. We address sin so that you can know God, find freedom, discover your purpose, and make a difference. Ananias dropped dead. Ananias dropped dead after this. And it's not the first time that we see someone dropping dead as a result of disobedience. We see it with Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus chapter 10. These are Levitical priests who sent up the wrong sacrifice and then they were put to death. We see Uzzah when they're moving the Ark of the Covenant and the instruction was don't touch it no matter what. The oxen starts to stumble. Uzzah reaches his hand out, touches the Ark, drops dead. What we notice every time someone's put to death in a setting like this, especially a believer, especially over something that seems to be so trivial, it's because the Lord wants to make a statement of how serious he takes this, but also he's starting something fresh. Check this out in Acts chapter 5. Bible scholars, now you know. Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 5. Sin. Sin enters the world. Sin enters. I'm going to give you one more. Verse 11 in Acts chapter 5 is the first time we see the use of the word church in the New Testament. Why was sin being taken so serious?

Because the Lord was establishing them from being a gathering of believers to being his church. And if Jesus is serious about two things, it's about the salvation of his children and how we treat his bride. The house of God is the bride of Christ. He wanted to make a statement regarding his bride, and he put these to death. I haven't seen that happen here at CTC yet, but thank the Lord. Thank the Lord. But then Sapphira walks in. I don't know how far their kids' church was, but it says Sapphira walked in three hours later. Never mind. She walks in, and it almost plays out like a movie scene, because she walks in and the scripture says that she doesn't know what happened to Ananias. She knows that she and Ananias, they made this plan together about lying about selling the field and how much money and all those different things, but she doesn't know that Ananias dropped dead. So she walks in, and remember, earlier in the chapter, when they talked to Ananias, they asked a bunch of questions and then he dropped dead, they didn't give him a chance to speak. Sapphira had the opportunity to answer. They asked, they asked her a simple question. Did you give the whole amount, was that it? Guys, my goodness. Can you imagine being an apostle or one of those little interns that had to carry the body out earlier? Can you imagine when they posed that question to her? If you're, because the apostles once again gather around. If I was, I would be like. Tell the truth. You know, I. Confess. Do you smell that? That's your husband.

Like, this, this, this is. They're standing around and she has an opportunity to answer. And she says, yes, that was the whole amount. And she drops dead right there in front of them. Because Jesus is serious about sin and he wanted to pass a message about his bride. If this is the first time that sin is being introduced inside of the church, and it's also the first time that this gathering is becoming the church, we needed to know that this is something serious and we need to protect it. A few things we can ask ourself when it comes to lifestyle. A few things we can ask ourself when it comes to our everyday living, our everyday language, our everyday consumption. One is this. Does this reflect the culture of the church? And I mean the capital C Church. Does my language, does my lifestyle reflect the culture of the kingdom of God? Another question we can ask. Does this protect the unity of the church? Does the way I live my life make the church appear more broken than the world? How I talk about other churches, how I talk about other people, how I talk about other races, how I talk about other political views,

how does this affect the unity of the church? What about, does this promote the witness of the church? Does this promote the witness of a church? One of the greatest compliments I've ever gotten is it wasn't long ago and a lady said, I just told her I come to this church and prayed for her about something, and she goes, you're a good representation of your church. That there blessed me more than she even understands. Because in that moment, doing my best to protect the witness of the church, I promise you, I've had some moments where I didn't. But I'm thankful that we have an opportunity because of the grace of God to protect the witness of the church by the way that we live. There are some people in this church, I mean, sorry, there are some people in this community, in this city who will never step foot in this church, but they'll interact with you every single day. And the question is, their interactions, are they seeing the purity of the church, the witness of the church? Are they hearing from you and experiencing with you the culture of the church? Are you a great serve team member and a bad employee? The question is, are we protecting, are we guarding? But here's the best news of it all. Here's the truth, believe me, I'm preaching Acts chapter five,

I accepted the assignment, I'm thankful for the assignment, but the last thing I wanna do is come up here for 40 minutes, sin, you know? But that's what this passage is about. That's what this passage is, and I wanna stay true to the text. But here's the best part of this. Because what we saw here with all of these deaths, those are actually the sentences that we were supposed to live out ourself, why? Because from what I understand in Romans chapter six, it says the wages of sin is. So if you're here and you've ever sinned before, then the cost of that sin is death. But how many are grateful that that's not the end of that verse? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Yes, we are a people who have an enemy. Yes, we are a people who have to guard our hearts. Yes, we are a people who at times struggle with sin and battle sin. But here's the best part about it. Greater is he living in me than he that's in the world. And it's that one that's living in me, it's that Jesus that first said yes to you, he is the one who carries the weight of sin, why? Because he is the only one who could defeat sin, death, hell, and the grave.

You defeating sin is not up to you. You defeating the brokenness of your past is not up to you. to you. You defeating bad habits is not up to you. You having better language, having better, better goals, better vision is not up to you. There's a God who loves you enough that made the pathway possible and he made it possible through his son Jesus. Jesus is serious about sin, he's serious about his bride, and he's serious about you. And for one reason or another, out of all of the billions of people on this earth, he has placed you in a good church, in a good house that you can have not only purpose and destiny, but you are needed. This house is not this house without you. Protect the purity, protect the unity, protect the witness. Why? Because we had a God who did all that for us. Go ahead and stand to your feet as we come to a close. I just want to pray for you. There's altar workers that have come forward that want to pray with you, pray for you, partner with you. I hope and pray we all have things in our life that we're thinking about and that we want to position ourselves to confess. You may confess that at the altar today, you may confess that to your spouse, you may confess something to a life group leader, you may confess something to a friend that loves you and loves Jesus, but I don't know about you, but I want to truly experience the freedom that can be found in Jesus. If someone gets to live an abundant life, I want to be on that list. If someone gets to live exceedingly and abundantly, I want that, and if that's promised to me, I don't want sin or attack from the enemy to be holding me back from that. So if you'll just close your eyes and bow your heads. We're thankful that there's a God that loved us enough to make the sacrifice needed so that we can walk and live in freedom, that made possible eternal life for each and every one of us, that made possible victory for each and every one of us. So Lord, I pray right now that each and every one of us in this room, each and everyone else watching online, that we will search our hearts, we will search our minds. Lord, we will ask, we ask that you even begin to cut through us like a scalpel, Lord, cutting the things that are unhealthy, cutting the things that are not of you, cutting the... Lord, I pray for a healthy accountability. Let us be under strong leadership. Let us as leaders be led well so we can love well. Lord, let us be a people that look to you for our guidance, that look to you for direction. And more than anything else, Lord, let our lives not be for our own satisfaction and gratification, but for your glory, for your glory, for your glory. God, you put us on this earth to be worshipers. You put us on this earth to glorify you. You put

us on this earth to be representations of you. So we ask, God, that you position us to do exactly that. Lord, we confess, we repent, and we thank you that you are a God of grace. So we lift up our hands in this moment as we prepare to sing. We lift up our hands, and once again, we say, all of our life for your glory, everything to honor your name. Lord, we're thankful, we're thankful, we're thankful. Church, let's lift our hands and sing this together. Let's sing this together. Come on, my whole life, my whole life. My whole life for your glory, my whole world for you only, everything for the honor of your name. And in my days, tell a story, let it be of yours, everything for the honor of your name. In my whole life for your glory, my whole world for you only, everything for the honor of your name. And in my days, tell a story, let it be of yours, everything for the honor of your name. In my whole life for your glory, my whole world for you only, everything for the honor of your name. I love you. Oh, how I love you, Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you, Jesus. We love you, church, and we'll see you. And first Wednesday.