Get Back In the Game — Acts 1-5

0:00 Let's pray and then we'll we'll get into our our bible study here for the day. Our heavenly father, we want to just be before you right now. We are thankful for the prayers that have gone... That have preceded us to this point. And Father, give thanks for the book of Acts, for how it's relevant us in today's life, today's world, today's experience for us as believers.

0:32 Father, we pray for wisdom and understanding as we look at the word this morning. And we pray for the truth just to kind of stand out or be highlighted on our pages as we consider the things that you would have for us as a body and the things that you have for us individually. We just sang that song, open our eyes. We do ask that you would open the eyes of our spiritual understanding. And we ask that now in Jesus Christ's name.

1:01 Amen. Raise your hand if you've ever played capture the flag. Alright. Raise your hand if you're play this afternoon. Alright.

1:14 So you're familiar with the game Capture the Flag and it is a popular camp game. In fact, it's probably a camp favorite to play Capture the Flag. And there's a camp out in Des Moines, Iowa called Willowbrook Bible Camp. And I've been privileged to work with a fella. His name is Tony Myers.

1:33 Some of you know him. He directs one of the camp weeks. Well, Tony loves to direct a good old fashioned game of capture the flag. I mean, camp wide. Camp wide, everybody involved, capture the flag and it's it's big points big points are on the line for the team competitions for that for that week.

1:52 Well, Tony asked me to be the jailer for for that. You know? So, like, if you you you... And capture the flag. If you captured, you got...

2:03 If you if you get captured by the opposing team, you have to go to the jail. And the jail is is neutral. It's like the both sides go to the same jail. Well, Tony, early on in our working together, he came to me and said, hey, Andy. I want you to be the jailer.

2:18 But look, I want these kids out quick. I mean, there's a... In the in the game, it's called a jailbreak, but I want these kids back out quick because it makes for a much more lively game of capture the flag. And so essentially he was saying, I want these kids back in the game. And that's the title that I've given our portion, the portion of verses that we're going to be covering this morning is Get Back in the Game.

2:46 Get back in the game. I hope it'll become apparent to you as we look at these scriptures. Now you've turned in your Bibles to Acts and if you're in Acts chapter five, that's fine. I want to give a little bit of a recap here of what's been going on. Remember last week Chris spoke and he covered a topic of how to listen to a sermon.

3:10 So he wasn't particularly in the book of Acts. We go back two more studies. You had Don speaking and you had JC speaking. Now in chapter three, we've got this nice little chart over here. Don't know if you've taken a little time to look at that over there.

3:27 Banu could be like The Price is Right Lady and you know, give us a chart SWAT. But right there in the colored sections, you probably can't see it. I should have put it up on the board or put it up on the screen. But in chapter three, it says, The gate beautiful. And that's where we've...

3:46 That's where we met this guy who was lame from birth, laying at the gate beautiful. And Peter and John come and they heal him. They they... He's he's a beggar, but they say, look, we don't... I don't have money.

3:59 I don't have silver or gold, but what I have, I'll give to you. Be healed. Rise up and walk. And it was a tremendous thing. It it it created or gained a lot of attention.

4:11 And Peter uses that platform to to preach the gospel, to tell how this not by my own power, but by the power that raised Jesus from the dead. And he gives a clear gospel message. Well, not only does this stir up the curiosity and the awe and the wonder, but it stirs up the jealousy in in the religious leaders of the day that hated Jesus and they were thought they were potentially done with him. And then all of a sudden there's these followers of Jesus that are doing miracles in his name and giving him the glory for it. And so they they come on in that next little slot there says for chapter four, in the ward.

4:51 We read in chapter four, it starts off that the Sadducees were were were upset with what was going on and they threw them, my Bible says, threw them in the hold, threw them in the ward, threw them into prison. And there's a trial that's going on. And so we've got that wonderful verse in chapter four. We can't probably repeat it repeat it enough. I think it's four twelve that says, Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

5:26 And this is the testimony that's being gone out. So even though they're in prison or they're stopped, so to speak, they got back in the game. You see, they didn't let that slow them down. They're like, they're getting right back out to it. And so then there comes this...

5:51 Well, JC came and he spoke and he handled this trial or, you know, this debate that's going back and forth with the current happenings there. And He gave us four steps that the disciples or the apostles, the disciples, the Christ followers did. They spent time with Jesus. That was the first thing. And then they were obedient to God's word.

6:19 Remember that's one place where the rulers come and say say, stop preaching in the name of Jesus. And they say, well, should we obey you or God? An obvious an obvious answer like we're going to obey God, the supreme ruler of the universe, sir, over you. And so they followed, they were with Jesus, they were obedient, and then they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. We see back to Acts chapter one and verse eight, You shall receive power when the Holy Ghost has come.

6:54 And we see this power being played out in multiple ways. And we see that in the life of the disciple, the life of the Christ follower. And the fourth point that he had was that there was there was meaningful community. He he he called it the horizontal relationships were were good. And so these four points of the disciple, which are great, you know, the spend time with Jesus, be obedient to Jesus' words or teaching, be empowered by the Holy Spirit and enjoy the community that God has given you and put you in.

7:48 Well, her name meant beautiful, so I imagine she was, you know, a beautiful young lady here. Ananias is probably a nice guy. And I mean, they were all... You remember, they were all together at Solomon's porch with one accord. They were...

8:06 And the scripture says, and we go back through chapter four, it says, and they were all full of the Holy Spirit. They were with one heart and one one soul. So And they were collected together. These people were experiencing this together. And so Ananias and Sapphira, they think, I'm gonna...

8:24 We're gonna make an offering that was going on. Like people were selling things that they had and giving it to the church. They were laying at the Apostles' feet. And so Ananias and Sapphira get this idea, they're going to do that same thing. They lay...

8:37 They go... They sell a piece of land that they have and they go and lay the offering at the Apostles' feet. The only issue was when Ananias came, we know after the fact now that they must have conspired together to say, we're gonna sell it for, let's just say they... Let's use a number, $10,000. We're gonna sell...

9:00 We sold this land at $10,000. Let's let's give 7,000 to the church, but let's let's let's lay $7,000 at the apostles' feet. But we'll tell them, look, we sold our parcel of land and we're laying this at your... We're gonna lay this at your feet. The price of the land.

9:19 So they misrepresented what was going on. Well, Peter interestingly when Ananias comes in, and I'm not sure why they came in separate times, but they did. I mean, they were gathered at that Solomon's Porch, the temple, and that's where Peter was. And he comes in or that's where actually all the apostles were there. The 12 were there.

9:46 And so it's just Peter... I always think they came to Peter, but like they actually came to all the apostles. But Peter's just a spokes guy. Right? And so here he comes.

9:59 Peter asked him four questions. Listen to these four questions. I'll just hit them for us. Has Satan... Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land?

10:14 Then he says, second question, why while the land... Ananias, while the land remained, was it not your own? Ananias, after you sold the land was it not in your own power to do with what you wanted? And then the fourth question he asked, why have you conceived these things in your heart? And so those are the four questions that he asked him and then he makes this one statement.

10:44 You have not lied to men but have lied to God. Three hours elapsed according to the scripture. Three hours elapses and here comes Sapphira. Again, kind of use a little bit of maybe a little bit of sanctified imagination to fill in. Maybe she she had something to do that detained her for three hours to come in there.

11:11 We don't know if people are like like saying, here comes, here comes, here comes Sapphira. Like, oh here she comes. Like and they're probably thinking like, she probably doesn't know what she didn't know. And she's probably looking at these glances or whatever and thinking like, oh Ananias has already been here. They're probably like like waiting to like give me a pat on the back and like, Well, we've done this great thing.

11:35 And so she goes right into the apostles and here Peter speaks up again. He asked her two questions and makes one statement. Tell me Sapphira whether you sold the land for so much. That was that was the first question. She answers yes for for that much for for the 7,000 or for the 10,000, you know, like or 7,000, the misrepresented amount.

12:03 And the second question he says, how is it that you have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? And then his statement comes, behold, the feet of them which have buried your husband are at the door and they shall carry you out. So you follow a little bit of the context of what's going on and I want to want to turn your attention now to the whiteboard because I want to I want to connect some of these things that what's happening. Now, Don guessed that these were references from the book of Acts. So go to the head of the class, right?

12:52 And so we've got some... I've got some references up here. I hope those in the back can see that. But I want to say this. We're going to note these things as These...

13:51 As we've just... I've kind of given this little recap of of how from chapter three up until the middle of chapter five so far. And when we... I'm starting this graft here. I'm starting right here in chapter four, at the beginning of chapter four, when they're in the ward, when they're in that trial.

14:12 They're in a literal trial, like a courtroom trial. But we're saying that's a trial that's happening right there. There's opposition that's coming up. They're meeting opposition and they're spreading the gospel and their desire to make Christ known. And so that's happening.

14:30 From there we go to... Look at your Bible there in chapter four verse 32. Listen to this. Now this is after they had prayed for boldness and God had answered their prayer... Well, just back up to verse 31.

14:50 And when they had when they had prayed, the place was shaken together. Where they were assembled together, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. Verse 32, and the multitude of them that believe were of one heart and of one soul. Neither neither said any of them that all of the things which he possessed was his own, but they all laid but they all had things in common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all.

15:24 Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought them the prices of things that were sold. And they laid them at the apostles' feet and distribution was made unto every man according to what they had need. And and Josie, who was an apostle or who was by the apostle's surname Barnabas, which being interpreted means son of consolation or son of encouragement, was a Levite and of the country of Cyprus and having land he sold it and he brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. And so what I'd like to suggest to you is that they were here in this trial and from the trial in the record we see that they they go from trial to a good time, a time of blessing, a time where there's unity. We read in chapter two, it said they were glad.

16:21 They did these things with gladness. They were happy. There's a good spirit there. There's a great sense of community. And so needs are being met.

16:29 Needs are being fulfilled. This was definitely an up time. Now, they're there at the up time and then somebody's in chapter five verse one. What's the first word? Putt.

16:42 Yeah. So all of a sudden, we go from this this good time and we drop we drop down from trial to a down. And so we we hear this word, but sin entered in. Sin happened. A temptation was put out there.

17:04 And the people, Ananias and Sapphira, they were had this thought in their mind. They dwelt on it. They considered it. They rationalized it and they said, yeah, let's do this. And sin was thought about, sin was conceived, and sin brought forth death.

17:27 So that happens and we're like, Oh man, this is a hard thing. If you look at chapter five and verse 11, look at what happened. Even go to verse 10. Then she fell down, Sapphira fell down straightway at his feet, this is Peter's feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead and carrying forth buried her by her husband.

17:55 This is a sad somber occasion. And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard those things. This was a down... I mean this was a sad time. This is a down.

18:28 No man joined himself to them but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord. Multitudes both of men and women. One might have thought like, okay, wow, two people just got killed in the church. They got judged.

18:43 Let's just say that they got judged and they got the sentence of death. They fell and were buried in the same day. And people would think like, I'm not going back there. I'm not having anything to do with that. But see, it was like it was a purging.

18:57 It was a purging. It was a judgment that came. And people that evaluated the judgment would say like, oh, that's tough, that's hard, that's sad, but I see I see the difference between evil and I see the difference between good. I still see what God is holy and what God desires of me as an individual, as a human, and I'm gonna go toward the Lord. And so that's what they do.

19:25 Many were added to the Lord. Many men and women insomuch as... And I think that's interesting to note that a man and a woman was killed, men and women are being added. And so we read on and it says, Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, the apostles laid the hands, they laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some. There came also a multitude out of cities round about Jerusalem bringing the sick folk and those that were vexed with unclean spirits or demons and they were all healed, every one.

20:10 So we see that we go from this time of judgment and now we're coming back up and we're going to a time of blessing. We're going back to an up, if you will. So we read and I've taken you through 16. Now look at 17. Then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is a sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation.

20:40 What's gonna happen? They're going back to trial here. They're going back to trial. They're going back to being opposed. The Jews are mad.

20:49 The Jews are envious. The Jews are jealous. And they laid hands on the apostles and they put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord... This is where my analogy comes back in.

21:03 Tony's the angel of the Lord. Which the angel of the Lord opened up the prison and said, get out there boys, get back in the game. He brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the people. Speak all the words of this life and when they heard that they entered into the temple early in the morning and they taught. And so now, did everybody followed what we just did?

21:34 Like you see that we were tracking through this and we could say that there was ups and there were downs. We could say that there were times of blessing. There were times of hardship. There were times of judgment. There were times of trial.

21:56 There was time of... In that time of trial there was some reproving. There was some strengthening. There was some growing. So I'd like to suggest to you that this is very typical of the Christian life.

22:13 Would you agree with that? We all experience ups and downs. We all experience trial. And so we've just done this with like... We took from chapter four and maybe through the middle of chapter five.

22:29 We could probably do this with the whole... With like you could go back and maybe something if you would like a little exercise, go back to the beginning of Acts and draw this... Draw these two lines and and make these three categories and find out, oh, Jesus Jesus is dead. Down. Jesus arose.

22:48 Jesus... And and there's trial. And we don't... You we can track through this. This is something that we track through particularly in the book of Acts.

22:58 But you and I experience these things. We could say this that like the church body, we as a church group, a church body, we're gonna experience ups and downs together. We're gonna experience trials together. You as an individual, follower of Christ, as a disciple, a follower of Christ are gonna have ups and downs, times of trial. Now, okay.

23:54 We start off in trial. What what do I as a Christ follower... Maybe use examples that were given in the in the text. Or you know, now I'm not being like real strict about that. But what are some things that we would do in trial that we see these Christians doing in the book of Acts?

24:12 Suggestion? Pray. Pray? Who said that? Yeah.

24:16 Yeah. Sophia. Good. Wayne? I'm gonna say the same thing.

24:20 You're both gonna say pray. That's a good... What what we can't do? What we can do or what we shouldn't. No.

24:27 What they did. Like I said, what what they did. They prayed. That's right. So they're they're in prison, let's call a prayer meeting.

24:32 Let's pray about this. Let's get it. Now they rejoiced in trial. You're right. They counted it worthy like happy that we were counted worthy to be beaten on the half.

24:46 Well that's yeah, that's another step up there. They worshiped. Yeah. In trial, what else? What's something else that they did as we were tracking through these chapters?

25:00 In the midst of trial. They spent time with the Lord. They spent time together with what they could, you know, like as they could. Yeah. I mean, when they were in jail, they couldn't be with the body.

25:14 But yeah. So there there it is praying. And what did they pray for? One of the trials in chapter four, what did they pray for? Boldness.

25:22 Boldness. They didn't pray like take the trial away. They said pray for boldness to get to bear up, to keep on. And so this was something that we see them doing in the sense of trial. Well how about what's something we see them them doing in in the good times?

25:41 Don, yours works for both trial and... Yeah, worship. They were worshiping. How about something else you see them doing? Wayne?

25:51 Giving. Giving. Right. Phil, was that a hand raised? Oh no.

25:56 Okay, gotcha. I saw it. How about it? Something else? They're doing all the same things pretty much.

26:02 Right? Well, but like so we look at we look at, for for our example up here, yeah, doing some same things. They are praying but like they were of one heart and of one soul. They shared their things together with great power. There's an evidence of the Holy Spirit again.

26:23 They gave the apostles witness of the resurrection, so they're witnessing. Great grace was upon them all. They're experiencing this. They're giving. They're being spirit led.

26:37 This is what's happening in the the ups, in the good times. Alright. How about... Now this is a little bit harder here. How about in the downtimes?

26:51 What what what do we see happening in the... In these downtimes here? Ray? I'm gonna ask a question. Yeah.

27:00 Clarify. Sure. They they told a lie. Yep. Putting something Yeah.

27:17 That's a great question. And we're gonna cover that next. If you'll hold that question right there, we're gonna cover that next. But can you... Can anybody think of something that...

27:25 What what should I as a Christian do when sin has entered in? When sin has entered into my life, what am I... What should I do? What steps should I take? Pray.

27:38 What are gonna say, Devin? Fell upon them, they were submitted to god's authority. Yeah. Yeah. What are you gonna say, Janelle?

27:55 I would say that there's a lot of questioning going on towards the park. Yes. Great point. Peter's four questions and... Yeah.

28:06 You're right. Very good. Yeah. Examining the heart. Now look, Ananias and Sapphira didn't get a chance to confess.

28:16 They were caught on the spot. But we know... And when we detect sin in our life, confess. Go to God. Confess it.

28:27 Yeah. So can you see this little exercise just to say like, okay, yes, I agree that when I accept Jesus Christ, my life's not all rosy. There are going to be ups. There's gonna be downs. There's gonna be trials in between.

28:44 I'm gonna learn from the trial. The trials that God takes me through, he's gonna he's gonna purify me. He's gonna strengthen me. He's gonna grow me. The ups, I want to I want to experience them fully and give God thanks for them.

29:00 The downs, I wanna be so sensitive that I've I've grieved or I've quenched the spirit that I'm gonna I'm gonna be driven to confess and get back in the game. Okay? And it's almost like we could say this, in the ups, get back in the game. In the trials, get back in the game. In the downs, get back in the game.

29:56 But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife sold a possession and they kept back part of the price, his wife being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? There's that first question that he asked. Now before we... As we...

30:24 We've got this on our mind and so I want to ask you another question and you can respond. What comes to your mind if I were to ask you this question? First thing that comes to your mind. What similarities do you see between Ananias and Sapphira in the situation that we just kind of explained and Adam and Eve in the garden. What are some similarities that you see?

30:54 I mean besides that both Ananias name starts with A and Adam's name starts with A. What are some other similarities that you see? Andy? Between the two as a husband and wife couple. Yeah.

31:06 Yeah. They both were tempted. There's a couple dynamics. Right. Good.

31:09 That's a great observation. Yep. Well, something else. Spencer? Say again?

31:16 Yeah. They were hiding. You know, Adam and Eve, like, are hiding behind the bushes when God comes. Like, Adam, wherefore art thou? That's right.

31:25 They they were hiding something from God. What else? Another similarity. Anybody else got something that just came? Yes.

31:47 Yep. Exactly. Yep. Good point. Good point.

31:59 So I mean I draw this comparison that we see a husband and wife who are tempted by Satan in the very beginning, in the garden. And Satan kind of, he like reveals his hand if you will. Know, if he was a... He like reveals his most powerful most powerful weapons against humanity. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

32:29 He did that in the garden. We can see that clearly. Guess what? He just did that to Ananias and Sapphira. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?

32:43 Lust of the flesh. Oh, money. I can keep this for... Let's sell the land. Let's keep in our little analogy that our little numbers that we put to it.

33:01 We could keep $3 for ourselves. It's holiday time. You know, we need a little extra cash and we'll still get the praise of the believers. We'll be just like Barnabas. I mean, did you see the people, like how they were praising Barnabas and they even gave him a nickname?

33:17 What's our nickname gonna be? Maybe my nickname will be... And they're like, all itself, you know, pride or or the the lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes. Oh yeah.

33:32 I saw what happened with Barnabas. I want that too. Pride of life. Uh-oh. They're gonna think we're so good.

33:40 They're gonna think like we are. Hey, just a couple of months ago, we weren't even believers. And look at what we're doing now. Like the pride of life is bolstering up. And like we're going to be impostors.

33:56 We're going to act like we're something that we're not. That's the pride of life. And we're going to get away with it. It's going to be all great. You see, we would say like, you think like, okay, what is it?

34:38 And I'll say this is that like, I think it's bigger than lying. Okay? It's... And I hesitate to use this word because we don't... I don't know how much we connect with this word.

34:50 Hypocrisy. I don't know, like in our society today we just kind of like we call people hypocrites and we say we don't want to be a hypocrite. And we say like the church has got this bad representation, reputation of having hypocrites in it. And I think we kind of miss... Like the word hypocrite just means to make somebody think that you're doing something different than you're really doing or that you are somebody that you're really not.

35:20 It's that impostor, deceitfulness, you know, that type of thing. And you know, do you remember what Jesus thought about hypocrites? Don't turn there, but I wanna read this. You can stay right there in Acts. But Jesus said this, listen to His words that he says when he's here among among some of the Pharisees.

35:53 He goes, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees. That word woe is is like a very strong... It's one of the strongest words that could be used for like, Watch out. Beware. News flash.

36:08 Get your... Listen to this. Attention, attention, attention. Woe unto you. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees.

36:15 You hypocrites! Exclamation point is put in the is put in the... Here. For for you, you're like whitewashed sepulchers. You indeed, you appear beautiful on the outward, but within you're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanliness.

36:34 You see the description? Hypocrite, on the outside you look good, on the inside you're dirty, you're filthy. And that's that's that's the crux of what's happening here. We sold a land valued at $10,000. We're laying the value of that land at the apostles' feet.

36:54 Outward, we're coming in as white a whitewashed looking good. Inward, we're full of deceit, deception, and lying. We're impostors. And so listen to Jesus' words. You you so evenly outwardly appear outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

37:16 Woe unto you scribes and you Pharisees, you hypocrites because you built... He goes on and he keeps explaining. So we get the sense. And so Jesus speaks... This is some of these are some of the firmest words.

37:31 Some of the firmest exhortation that he gets he gets him really riled up and that was being a hypocrite. Job would write these... That was in Matthew 23 by the way. You can read that later. Check that out.

37:47 But Job makes these statements. The hypocrite... Or excuse me, the hope of the hypocrite shall perish. Chapter eight verse 13. A hypocrite cannot stand before God.

38:00 Thirteen sixteen. The company of the hypocrite shall be barren. Fifteen thirteen, Job. The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. Job 20 verse five.

38:15 What's God's mind on hypocrisy? He definitely doesn't like it. And so like we say, God's holiness, my hypocrisy. God judged it. God judged it that day and how much did they get to enjoy the $3,000?

38:43 How about how about Judas? How much did he get to enjoy his 30 pieces of silver? Would you say Judas was a hypocrite? Traveled with the Lord and his disciples for three years. Betrayed the Lord with a kiss.

39:03 Now, we hadn't talked about this yet, but there's another situation that we... Remember Achan? Did Achan get to enjoy any of his Babylonian spoils? The silver, the wedge of gold, the Babylonian garments? They were buried in his tent.

39:23 And so Ray to answer your question, you know like God passed judgment on Adam and Eve. At the beginning of creation sin entered and God passed judgment. Today you will surely die. The Israelites are going into the land. They're going into the land of promise and that's when Achan happened.

39:44 That's when Achan saw the garments when they were claiming the land and God judged him. He died and his family. We don't know if his wife was in it or not, but his whole family got judged and died. This is the beginning of the church. It's a new beginning.

40:02 I see that I see that tracking through there like, okay, I don't understand what all that means, but like at the beginning of creation, there's judgment. At the beginning of the land, the promised land, stern judgment. And at the beginning of the church, there's swift judgment for being a hypocrite, for lying to the Holy Spirit. And the church is purged. There's a purging that takes place.

40:25 There's a judgment that comes. There's a lesson to be learned. God hates hypocrisy. God will judge hypocrisy. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life leads us to death.

40:50 Satan exposes his tactics so we're not ignorant of his devices and we can build, we can stand up against them. No. No. No. I'm tempted.

41:05 God help me. I don't want to get out of the game. God, put me back in the game. I don't want to become disqualified. Put me back in the game.

41:44 It was a selfish sin. Let's keep this back for ourselves. Right in the face of people being sharing and being generous and meeting other needs, let's keep this for ourselves selfish. You know, when things are in the secret, when they're in the dark, we understand that principle in scripture that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They want to stay in the secret.

42:14 They want to say they think it's private. But God knows the heart. Janelle made a great observation about the heart. I can't see your heart. The secret place is a secret place, a seat of affections.

42:29 Selfish. I mean, there's things in our life, different experiences that we hit upon. Marriage probably being one that's helped me see my selfishness. Like you just kind of sit there and you're analyzing or getting counseling or whatever and then you're like, oh, am I that selfish? Do I want that much?

42:54 Their sin was secret. It was selfish and it was satanic. What do you mean it was satanic? Why has Satan filled your heart? Barnabas was led of the Spirit.

43:12 Ananias and Sapphira being led of Satan. Stark contrast there. The same trap is being set out for us for Satan to fill our heart, to fill our mind, to lead us astray. The fourth thing will say that their sin was serious. Secret, selfish, satanic, and serious.

43:44 You know, there's there's four things that the Bible tells us to do. At least four, maybe you could think of more. There's four things that the Bible tells us to do in secret. And I would like to suggest to you that they're an antidote to the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. The Bible tells us to pray in secret.

44:05 Pray in secret. The Bible tells us to to give in secret. You know, if Ananias and Sapphira would just like have gone to Solomon's porch and left it... Left an envelope there and said, hey, here's a gift that we'd like to make. And didn't make any other pretense, didn't say anything about selling land, didn't do it, just left a gift, that would have been fine.

44:35 No problem. Give in secret. Fast. We're told to fast in secret and we're told to serve in secret. And you got your cell phone in your lap.

44:50 What time is it? I'm not trusting that clock up there. It's 12:16. Oh, it's time. Time's out.

44:58 I had some examples to give you with those things, but let's let's leave it at that. That if we we want to have an antidote toward their... To the sin, try these things. Pray in secret, give in secret, fast in secret, and serve in secret. And this is all directed back toward the body of Christ.

45:48 Keep your keep your game face on. If there's if their sin enters in, confess it and get back in the game. Heavenly Father, we give thanks for for this portion of Scripture and these things that we can see in the lives of these individuals that you have recorded for us in the New Testament. We pray again for understanding of these matters and pray it in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.