A Deadly Game Series

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

 We must be people of integrity. And integrity begins when you examine your motives.

2. You have a responsibility to God.

Statement:

-Hypocrisy focuses on what people think, rather than what God knows.

Ananias and Sapphira wanted to look good in front of the apostles and the rest of the church. Barnabas had just given the total amount of a sale of some property. Everyone thought highly of Barnabas. Ananias and Sapphira wanted everyone to think highly of them. But, sadly, they didn’t stop to consider what the living God knew about them.

The minute you start trying to look good to others, without being concerned about what God KNOWS, you are headed into hypocrisy.

Peter also fell into this sin The church in Antioch had both Jews and Gentiles together in one fellowship. When Peter first visited there, he ate together with the Gentiles, contrary to Jewish customs. But when the Jewish circumcision party showed up, Peter withdrew and only ate with the Jews, out of fear for what they would think. Paul confronted him publicly, and to his credit, Peter accepted the rebuke (Gal. 2:11-14). If such a godly man as Peter could be carried away by this sin, then certainly we all need to be on guard!

-Hypocrisy focuses on this life, not on eternity.

If Ananias and Sapphira had been thinking about the shortness of life and the certainty of judgment and eternity, they would not have done what they did. But whether we get struck down instantly for our sin or have to stand before God at the judgment, in a few short years we all will face God. Scripture reminds us, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”

- It’s been said that secret sin on earth is open scandal in heaven.

Illustration: farmer once cut down a huge tree that was on his land. It looked good from the outside, but he discovered that the heart of the tree was rotten. He looked closely at it and found a huge old nail. Apparently years ago someone had driven it in the tree and it had caused the heart of the tree to rot. This is how it is with the life of the hypocritical person. Your life becomes a hollow shell as your spiritual life withers and dies.

Scripture: Psalm 32:2-3

“Blessed is the man

whose sin the LORD does not count against him

and in whose spirit is no deceit.

3 When I kept silent,

my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

 We are responsible to God for our actions, and though we try, it’s impossible to hide them from Him.

3. You have a responsibility to other Christians.

Illustration: What a sharp contrast with a scene that occurred on a New York street nearly two decades before. Kitty Genovese was slowly and brutally stabbed to death. At least thirty-eight of her neighbors witnessed the attack and heard her screams. In the course of the 90-minute episode, her attacker was actually frightened away, then he returned to finish her off. Yet not once during that period did any neighbor assist her, or even telephone the police. The implications of this tragic event shocked America, and it stimulated two young psychologists, Darly and Latane, to study the conditions under which people are or are not willing to help others in an emergency. In essence, they concluded that responsibility is diffused. The more people present in an emergency situation, the less likely it is that any one of them will offer help. This is popularly called the "bystander effect." (In the actual experiment, when one bystander was present, 85 percent offered help. When two were present, 62 percent offered help. When five were present, then it decreased to 31 percent.)