Knocking At Your Door

Read Acts 4:36,37; 5:1-10

A. This is a strange story, yes?

B. Why did the two of them die?

1. They tried to deceive men

2. Peter pointed out that they really didn’t lie

to men, but to God

3. Psalm 101:7 (NIV) No one who practices

deceit will dwell in my house; no one who

speaks falsely will stand in my presence.

C. Does this kind of thing happen anymore? (Tell the

story Shawn Bowman told me: drunk man in bar

said, “If I’m lying, then may God strike me dead.”

God struck him dead.)

D. God also did this to king Herod: Acts 12:23 (NIV)

Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to

God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he

was eaten by worms and died.

There are a few things I want to pull out of this passage

I. Ananias and Sapphira probably thought they had a

good marriage.

A. They were obviously able to agree on the

important issues. (In this case, their finances)

B. Husbands and wives, just because we’re in

agreement on something, doesn’t mean that we

have the mind of God

1. Don’t mistake the peace you can arrive at

when you can agree with each other for the

peace of God.

a. We can make the mistake of

agreeing not to go to church

anymore

b. We can agree to eat a gallon of ice

cream every night - that doesn’t

make it the right thing to do

2. Eccl 4:12 (NIV) Though one may be

overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly

broken.

a. In a Christian marriage, there are 3

personalities: man, wife, and Jesus.

b. Press in until all three have peace,

not just the man and wife

II. I can’t help but touch on giving

A. There is much debate on whether a NT believer is

required to tithe

B. I ran across an Internet sight that offered a reward

for anyone that could show him a NT scripture that

demanded a tithe and/or a person in the NT that

payed a tithe

1. Didn’t bother with the little quiz, because I

know that there is no examples of that

2. Acts shows us that they gave all!

a. We sit and figure out whether to pay

tithe on our net income or our gross

income, while the NT believers gave

all that they had

b. So appreciate our pastor, who not

only encourages us to give

generously, but does so himself

3. Besides, why would the NT have to repeat

the OT - if it did, it would by the OT!

III. The verse I want to focus on is V.9, “Look! The feet of

the men who buried your husband are at the door, and

they will carry you out also.”

A. Picture that . . . the men standing at the door . . .

let the feet represent sin . . .

1. Translate metaphorically:

2. The sins that have buried other people you

know are at your door, and those same

sins will carry you out, too.

3. God is no respecter of persons; neither is

sin

B. Ever wonder why things continue to work time and

time again?

1. Why does a fish work still work?

2. Why does a mouse trap with a glob of

peanut butter still work

3. Why doesn’t the mouse or the fish figure it

out: peanut butter and hooks are no-no’s!

C. Fish and mice aren’t much worse than us (Think

about the vice of . . .)

1. Gambling still hooks many,

a. “Did you know that Americans

gamble more money each year than

they spend on groceries? Or that

more than $600 billion is wagered

legally in the United States

annually” James Dobson, January

1999.

b. This is more than the recording,

video game, movie, cruise ship,

spectator sport, and theme park

business revenues combined.

Revolution, Dr. Mike Brown, p. 138

2. Pornography still hooks, “Americans spend

more than $9 billion every year on

pornography. The number of hard-core

pornagraphy video rentals increased from

75 milion in 1985, to 490 million in 1992, to

686 million in 1998" Revolution, p.137

3. Drugs/alcohol still seem to hook people,

kids are killed in alcohol related accidents

every year

4. Jealousy, anger, unforgiveness still hook

and trap people

5. Materialism, idolatry, fleshly indulgence

(america consumes 90% of the worlds

resources, yet doesn’t even make up 10%

of the world’s population)

D. There are traps set for the man and the woman of

God that we must beware of!

1. Paul said, “. . . I have forgiven in the

sight of Christ for your sake, in order

that Satan might not outwit us. For we

are not unaware of his schemes” (II Cor.