Video Clip: The ripple effect...the expanding series of effects or consequences that are the result of a single event or action. We’ve all done it. You’ve taken a stone and you’ve thrown it into a pond, and you see the concentric circles that are rippling outward from the center where you threw the stone. That’s not the only effect that throw might have had. It’s very possible that the sound of it going in may have scared a duck that was on the pond or the weight of it going down through the water, disturbed fish that were swimming there.
You are tied to all of that. You’re tied to the stone. You’re tied to the water. You’re tied to the ducks, and you’re tied to the fish by the ripples. You have caused change through a single and simple act. That can be change for good, or that can be change for bad. Sometimes our actions create unintended consequences through the ripples, the rogue ripples that go out from the center.
In today’s story from Acts, chapter 5, the brand new church is like the pond in that it’s refreshed and energized by the Holy Spirit. It contains the delicately balanced spiritual ecosystem with all the nutrients to give life to a dying world. But in Acts, chapter 5, in the very first verse, the rogue wave is introduced. A man named Ananias throws a stone into the pond and the ripples that go out from it threaten the delicate balance of that very fist church, and in some ways threatened us clear centuries later. So what do you do to stop the ripple effect? The truth is you can’t unless you’re God and you created the pond.
Greg begins:
Hey, have you ever read a story from the Bible and after you read it you thought, Boy, that’s extreme? Maybe it was the way that God judged it or dealt with it, and you said, "What’s up with that?" Have you ever read one of those? Said, "Man, that’s incredible." Maybe an entire city is wiped out, or in the case of today, Ananias and Sapphira, if you’ve read ahead...it’s kind of an extreme judgment. Well, let me give you a tip on understanding some of those things. I think that if you keep the ripple effect in mind, it will help you to some degree to understand how God deals with some things.
For instance, the ripple effect...I was reading an article this week in a newspaper or maybe it was on the Internet, and the headline said this, "Wifeless Future for China’s Men." It went on and it told the story, and it said that by the year 2020 as many as 30 million men of marriageable age in China will not find a spouse. They said there are kindergarten classes that are way overbalanced male to female. In fact, they gave the example of one that had 38 boys and just 8 girls. What’s up with that? Why is it that way?
Well if you trace it back, it goes back to a decision that China made in the 1970s to limit population growth. It felt like the population was growing way too fast. So they said to every family, "You can only have one child, and it will limit the growth of the population." It has, to some degree, but there have been ripple effects, in fact, unintended consequences they probably didn’t plan on or didn’t know.
One of those was that in their culture often the welfare system is the family. If you have kids, the kids take care of the parents...what have you. If families were pregnant with a girl, they knew she was far less likely to take care of them or have the earning capacity, at least in that culture, to take care of them, so the abortion rate went way up. They were aborting baby girls and keeping baby boys. Now the delicate system of biology has been tampered with which leaves an unintended consequence. It’s a ripple effect.
In the Bible, you see ripple effects. Well, in our lives every decision we make has a ripple effect. Often times in the Bible you see people making decisions to follow God, not follow God, to do various things. At times, God lets it go. At other times, when it threatens the delicate balance of the story of God, and the story of the people of God throughout the Bible, you’ll see an ending to a ripple effect quickly, which you won’t understand and I don’t understand often times because I don’t understand all of the consequences even as China probably didn’t when they made the decision. But God does, so kind of keep that in mind.
All right, here’s what I want to do. I’m loving the study of Acts, and I hope you do. I do these because I like them, and I’m hoping you’re coming along for the trip. We’re studying Acts and we’re studying the Spirit-filled church. It’s been kind of exciting. Jesus promised the church, in Acts, chapter 1, that if He went away, and that He was going away, that He would send the Comforter, the promised Holy Spirit, the Gift.
They were baptized in the Holy Spirit in Acts, chapter 2. At the end of Acts, chapter 2, you see the results of it. Their witness is just empowered. People who maybe normally would deny Christ or maybe would be shy about it would stand up and share the Good News. They began to love one another and love the church as never before. They saw an increase in their ministry ability. They were able to do things they never even dreamed they could do and in any other context. Their generosity...it was like wow! You read the stories and they’re sharing all their stuff and there is not any poor among them. An incredible, incredible church.
Then in Acts, chapter 4 they kind of run into their first road bump. Geoff talked about that last week when the government basically said, "You can’t share in Jesus’ name." So they came together for a prayer meeting. They didn’t pray, "God, bring the government down. Lord, kill the president." You know...whatever. They didn’t do anything like that. They said, "God help us to be bold. Fill us with boldness so that we’ll be able to do what we need to do."
Then in Acts, chapter 4, and I’m going to pick up the end of chapter 4 because it kind of ties together with chapter 5. In Acts, chapter 4, verse 31, it says, "After the prayer, the building where they were meeting shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They preached God’s message with boldness." So God answers their prayer by filling them with the Holy Spirit.
Just a point of reference here that we need to understand, and some of you who are sharp will say, "Well, this same group of people who were filled with the Holy Spirit...they were baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts, chapter 2 and now they’re filled with the Holy Spirit again, what’s up with that? I thought they were already full." Well they leak. How many of you leak every once in a while? Okay? So the whole concept of being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a onetime experience. Hey, I did that in 1987. I got the deal. No, no, no. It is a continually constantly being full and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, it’s a Spirit-filled church. What does a Spirit-filled church look like?
I remember when I was just a kid, maybe 10 or 11 years old, my parents went on a mission’s trip, and so I spent most of the summer in a small church in Oklahoma that my grandfather pastored. It was a rural community...really, really small. The church he pastored had a sign on the front, and I don’t remember exactly what the name of the church was, but on the sign it said, "We are a Full Gospel, Spirit-Filled Church." Full Gospel, Spirit-Filled Church.
Well, I would think that a Full Gospel, Spirit-Filled church would believe the Bible and being Spirit-filled they would be full of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, long-suffering...you know, the fruits of the Spirit because that’s what it means to be Spirit-filled. You are full of God’s Holy Spirit where that the evidence of that...there is a lot of evidence. A big part of it is that there is just a whole lot of love and joy and peace and patience and goodness. You look at somebody like that and you say, "Boy, they are full of the Holy Spirit."
You’d have thought that was what that church would be like. Not so much. In fact, it was a little church. And you guys have maybe gone into churches like this that you go into the back door and the back door is right in the middle, you know, right here. There are two rows of pews on either side with maybe 10 pews going up, and then you have the front and the altar area and the pulpit.
Well, in this church, the people who sat on this side didn’t like the people who sat on this side. Honestly, I’m not exaggerating this one bit. You had a church split, but everybody stayed in the church because it’s a small town. They’re not going to build another building, and so they just don’t talk to one another. They had business meetings once a year at the church where you’d talk about money and vote on whatever it is that little churches vote on, and they would bring in the sheriff...I’m honest...they would bring in the sheriff to stand to make sure that no fights broke out in this "Spirit-filled, Full Gospel" church." Something is wrong with this picture.
Well, Acts 4 describes a Spirit-filled Full Gospel church. In verse 32 it says, "All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own. They shared everything." Here are two characteristics of a Spirit-filled church...unity. They were all of one heart and mind. Generosity...they felt like nothing they owned was their own. Here is their attitude, We’re just stewards. You know, God has trusted... Isn’t it incredible that God has trusted me with what He has trusted me with? Do you need some of it? I’d be happy to share it. That’s a Spirit-filled church.
What an incredible powerful, powerful place! In fact, if you go on and read it, it says, "And the apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and God’s great favor was upon them all and there was no poverty among them because people who owned lands or houses sold them and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need."
Then it gives an example of one of those. It says, "For instance there was Joses, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas with means Son of Encouragement..." I’d like to have that nickname. I’m not sure I like Barnabas, but Son of Encouragement. They said, "This guy is constantly encouraging people. Let’s just call him that, you know." He was from the tribe of Levi, which comes from the island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and he brought the money to the apostles for those in need. That kind of closes the chapter.
So here we have it...a powerful Spirit-filled church where they’re loving each other and sharing in a powerful testimony to the reality of Christ. Nothing can stop that kind of church. It’s the kind of church that Jesus had in mind that is loving one another. It’s attractive to the outside because people on the outside can say, "Well, I don’t know if I believe the Jesus deal, but can you see how they’re treating one another? Can you see how they’re...? Boy, we’re glad they’re in our community." So this is the church that Jesus dreamed of...powerful. What can stop them? Nothing, right.
Well, actually they can be stopped, but not from the outside. The threat is going to come from the inside. Acts, chapter 5, verse 1, "But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. And his wife agreed to this deception."
So let’s just kind of break it down a little bit. Ananias and Sapphira kind of get caught up in the moment. Everybody is loving one another and giving and here Barnabas sells some land and they just kind of got caught up in the moment, maybe. So they sell some land, and they decide, "Listen, let’s give part of the money to the church." There is nothing wrong with that. There is no rule here that says... It’s not like a communist society or whatever.
You know, people have said, "Well, the New Testament is communist." Well communism or socialism or whatever comes from the top down, the outside in...this is bubbling up from the inside out. It’s just kind of a work of the Holy Spirit that says, "Okay, I care now. I care and so I have a responsibility for my fellow man to give." They could control that. If they wanted to sell, if the Holy Spirit prompted them to sell, it’s great. If they want to give part of the money...not a problem, not a problem at all.
But they claimed, "It’s the whole amount." And that’s where the problem lies. Why did they do that? We don’t know. We don’t know. I think that part of it had to do with maybe Ananias wanting to look or trying to look better than he really was. He saw that Barnabas did this, and people thought it was great and they applauded him and all of this. Maybe he said, "I’d like to look like that, but I’m not really going to give it all." He says that he did and he tries to look better than he really was.
Let me ask you a question. Have you ever done that? I mean, not sold a piece of land and lied about how much you gave. How many of you honestly have ever tried to look better than you really are? Don’t raise your hand or anything because I don’t see any hands going up. But I do see some embarrassed looks on faces kind of like, "Give me an example." Okay, I will.
Maybe at work you padded the numbers a little bit to make you look better than you really are. Or maybe you enhanced the story. Do you ever tell a story and it just gets better every time you tell it? That’s why I like to say, "I never was as good as I used to be." Do you know what I’m saying? Maybe it’s in your small group. Maybe people are talking about how good God... Let me give you an example from me just because I don’t want to embarrass you.
I was at a gathering of some pastors one time, and I think it was pastors and leaders of churches. They had us break up into small groups and there were three of us in this group. So we were just supposed to talk about some stuff. One of the guys says, "Man, I had just an incredible quiet time this morning." He said, "I just..." And he went through the whole thing. It was from Isaiah did this and... It was just powerful. It was like he was preaching to us.
Then he turned to the guy next to me, two of the three, and he said, "How was your quiet time today?" I could tell this guy did not have a quiet time, but he was not going to say that to anybody. So he began to make some stuff up. I could just tell he was making stuff up. I’m thinking, The first guy is trying to look good because he did it. I think his attitude is wrong, and the second guy is making it up. What am I going to do because I just hauled my sorry self out of bed? I slept through whatever. I haven’t even thought about God or anybody yet. I just would like to have some coffee. I just would like to have some coffee.
So I began to scramble for what God was teaching me at that hour of the moment. Sure enough the time came and I decided not to, and I said, "You know brother, I’ve learned a lot from your quiet time this morning. I tell you that was powerful! That really was!"
We try to make ourselves look better than we really are. Why do we do that? Why do we do that? A lot of reasons...insecurity. We’re trying to impress. Somebody said one time, "We’re trying to impress people we don’t even like with stuff we don’t have." We do. We try to impress. Part of that is because we don’t understand the Gospel. I don’t have to impress God anymore. God is not impressed with me, and God doesn’t expect me to impress Him. He knows who I am. He knows everything I’ve done. He knows my inclinations, and yet according to wisdom and knowledge, one of the verses says, He chose to adopt me as a son, not because of me, but because of Jesus Christ.
Because of that, when I really get that in here, and it keeps getting in here and getting out... Do you have those kinds of things? Settle in here so I understand it. I don’t have to impress God, so I don’t have to impress other people. We do it. We lie. We try to make ourselves seem better than we are because we try to impress. Sometimes it’s competition. Sometimes we’re trying to "one up" one another.
Maybe that’s what it was with Ananias. Maybe it was a political thing for him. Maybe he’s seeing...here is the growth of the church. Barnabas has done this. They’re starting to look to certain people for leadership. I have to look good if I’m going to be selected for whatever it happens to be...leadership or whatever. I don’t know. But sometimes it’s that way. It’s competition. Sometimes it’s just trying to get noticed. It’s a power play, but the root of it is pride. Here is the truth, gang. It’s serious. Look at how serious it is.
"Then Peter said to Ananias, ’Why has Satan filled your heart?’" Just a little note here...God wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You are going to be filled with something. Okay? You’re going to be filled with something...either it’s going to be the Holy Spirit or it’s going to be sin, it’s going to be self. In this case he was filled with Satan, it says. Which I’m sure came as a surprise to him. He had no idea those were the stakes, maybe.
He says, "You lied to the Holy Spirit and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not to sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!" He takes it to a whole other level. Now how did Peter know this? Had somebody told him? I don’t think so.
This is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He’s full of the Holy Spirit now and there is a whole list of gifts in 1 Corinthians, and one of them is a word of knowledge. A word of knowledge is where you get information that you couldn’t otherwise have had. The Holy Spirit drops it on you for a specific purpose and this is what, evidentially is happening here.
Verse 5, "As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died." Wow! "Everyone who heard about it was terrified." So let me ask you again, do you ever try to make yourself better than you are? Better answer that one right. Don’t want anybody dying this morning. You’re not lying to me. You’re lying to God! You got it?
Look at the next part of 5, "Everyone who heard about it was terrified." Do you think you would be? That happens when somebody dies during the offering, okay? It’s not a bad thing. It makes you alert...alert. Verse 6, "Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, ’Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?’" Be careful! There is no submission clause that requires a wife to lie for her husband. In this particular time it cost her her life.
"’Yes,’ she replied, ’that was the price.’ And Peter said, ’How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.’ Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened." I’m sure it did.
Capital Campaign slogan for building a new building...When You Lie, You Die. That’s just... Great fear. Think about the young guys who carried them out. First they come in...here’s Ananias. He’s dead and Peter says, "Carry him out and bury him somewhere." These young men are carrying him out. What’s the conversation between one another? "You know I told you...you know how I told you I didn’t eat your Pop-Tart three days ago? Dude, I ate three of them, man. I just want you to know that."
Then they carry out Sapphira. He says, "Man, not only did I steal your Pop-tarts, but I took your Michael Jackson CD too. I just want you to know that. Don’t know if you’ve missed it yet." There is a higher degree of accountability going on. Do you know what’s happening here? God is stopping the ripple because the ripple could have destroyed the Church. Let me tell you why. Let me just give you a couple of things to think about. Why is this such a big deal? Why is sin such a big deal? The ripple effect.
First of all, the ripple effect of sin short-circuits the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That’s why it’s a big deal. It short-circuits the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I wonder...what were God’s plans, or what could have been God’s plans to use Ananias and Sapphira? What could He have done through them? I don’t know, but I know sin short-circuited it, whatever it was. Here’s what I do know. I do know God has plans to use you. Jeremiah 29:11 is not just for Israel, I believe it’s for you.
God says, "I know the plans that I have for you. They’re good plans. They’re plans to prosper you and not harm you, to give you a hope and a future." That’s God’s plans for you. Every week here at the church we read from the New Testament...Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 20. It says that God is able to do abundantly more than you could ask or imagine.
God has great plans for you. I believe He does. He has plans that are abundantly more than you could ask or imagine. What are they? I don’t know, but I know that He does. But I also know that sin will short circuit the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
I had a friend in ministry many, many years ago. His name was Jim. Jim was what I like to call the total package. Do you know anybody who is the total package? You don’t like them, do you? Yeah...especially when they’re your friend. I loved Jim. I really did love Jim. We spent a lot of time together...shared a lot together. Jim’s personality was one of these that everybody just liked him...everybody did. He was good looking. He was talented. He was an exceptional communicator. He was a minister. He was just a total package. The guy people looked at, listened to, and said, "Wow, that guys is going a long way."
I think he could have, but he had sin in his life that he harbored. Sin in his life that he never confessed. He tried to look better than he was. He did that all the time. I kind of sensed there was something wrong. My regret these days is that I didn’t press in harder on him, but he always looked good...always looked good. Then the sin inside of him cratered his inner man. It happened kind of all at once although it took time. Behind the scenes it was taking time, but to those of us who knew him, it happened all at once. At first, he lost his honor. Then he lost his place in ministry and then he lost his family and then he lost everything.
I remember meeting with him about eight years ago in a small town in Kentucky. He had moved there. I knew he was there, and I had somebody else figure out how to get a hold of him. I got a hold of him and I said, "Hey Jim, this is Greg. I’d love to talk to you." He really didn’t want to. Finally I convinced him and he came out to a little McDonald’s, I think, and came in. He was a shell of the man that he was...still trying to look better than he really was. But he had lost it all.
As I drove away, I thought, I wonder what could have been. Because here is what happened. Sin short-circuited the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. Sin short-circuited what God wanted to do through him, and it always does that. The pattern or the process is really pretty predictable. First we’re drawn away by our sin. Something entices us. You know, subtle habits start to creep in...something we enjoy. Maybe it’s a lust for sex. Maybe it’s a lust for food, or maybe it is pride, or maybe it is anger. We justify it. Maybe it’s the love of power or recognition, jealousy, whatever it is, but it starts to draw us away...becomes secret.
Then we start excusing our sin. We start backing away from Scripture. We don’t want to hear it. We develop a secret suspicion that, "Do you know what? Maybe that’s old time. Maybe that’s old school. Maybe God has it wrong on that.
The third thing we do is we begin to be distant. They’re not around anymore, or maybe they’re there and there is not a transparency that is the characteristic of a Spirit-filled relationship. We don’t want correction. Some leave the church at that point. Some stay, but they have areas of their life where they live how they want to live. They develop an ability not to hear things even when I preach or whoever is teaching. I’ll teach something and they just develop an ability not to hear it...just to slide it by. Then the fourth thing that happens is that our heart becomes hardened. Paul in Ephesus calls it a calloused heart. We’re convinced of our rightness and suddenly God is distant.
I have friends that I grew up with that claim not to believe anymore. With some of them it started in college. I mean we were kind of in this spiritual hot house in the church we grew up in. We were kind of in a protected environment in our families. Then we went away to college, and there was exposure to a whole different lifestyle without limits. Some of my friends are sincere in that they don’t believe. Their unbelief...many of them started with sin and the sin drew them away. Some were embarrassed by it and it became a secret. They felt trapped and so they changed their beliefs and even get bitter at God. Do you have friends like that? Do you know anybody like that? Maybe you’re like that today.
See you can tell when someone is slowly starting to turn away from God because they start making excuses for their sins. I’ve seen this in marriage situations especially when adultery comes in. You talk to the person who perhaps is cheating on their husband or their wife and they’ll say, "Do you know what? God doesn’t want me unhappy."
Anybody who has been married for any period of time will struggle with unhappiness in your marriage. It just happens. Then, "I deserve someone who really loves me for who I am." Maybe they’ve met that someone else. "If I’d just met that person before I married the one I’m married to now...I can’t help myself." Then, "God will forgive me." Making excuses. They’re lying to themselves. More importantly, like Ananias, they’re lying to the Holy Spirit. Gang...that is a big deal! It’s called hardening of the heart.
Isaiah 59, verse 1, says, "Listen! The Lord is not too weak to save you and He is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call." But there is a problem. "Your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your sin, He has turned away and He will not listen anymore." That’s why sin is so big. It short-circuits the work of the Holy Spirit in our life and we can pray and God doesn’t listen.
You can’t go into it like a dating relationship that you know God doesn’t want you in and pray that He’ll bless it anyway. God is not listening to you. The Holy Spirit is not going to work through you and reward your disobedience. Sin is a big deal because it short-circuits what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. But that’s not even the biggest deal in this story.
The bigger deal in this story, and the reason God judges it so harshly is because the ripple effect of sin short-circuits the work of the Holy Spirit in your community, in the church. It’s a brand-new church. It’s the model church. It’s full of the Holy Spirit. It’s characterized by unity and generosity. God has big plans for that church. God has big plans for every church. But this is at the foundation of the church. This is brand new.
Somebody told me one time the seeds of the destruction are there in the very beginnings of any organization. So you have to be careful what kind of foundation you build on. So this is a crucial time for the church and Ananias and Sapphira because they are not full of the Holy Spirit, their heart is filled with Satan, they sin and they introduce competition and selfishness into the mix, it’s a ripple effect. They throw a stone in here. Here is a church characterized by generosity, and unity and now we have competition and selfishness thrown in. Where will the ripples go and what will it do?
Competition and disunity and selfishness are toxic to any community. That’s why Ephesians 4, verse 3, says, "Do your best to maintain the unity of the Spirit by the means of the bonds of peace." God deals with it swiftly and severely. Is that really fair? Is that really fair? I think it is. It’s sacrificing the one for the many. The church is the hope of the world. The world is dying. Jesus comes and He dies. He says, "I’m going to establish a group of people who are filled with the Holy Spirit who will restore what is wrong in the world. They will bring back what is right...not just in the church, but in every area of society I want them to impact."
It’s called being missional. It’s called living incarnationally. It’s being the Word made flesh in the society. It’s restoring dignity to women who are battered. It’s feeding the poor. It’s caring about education. It’s restoring God’s love and what God cares about to all areas of society. The church is the vehicle, and it’s about to get sidetracked. Satan throws a rock into the pond and the ripple effect will destroy the church...will seed selfishness and disunity before it ever gets off the ground. God makes them an example so we can see the devastating effects of sin on the community.
If you’ve ever been a substitute teacher you know the importance of enforcing the rules in the first 15 minutes, right? This is the first 15 minutes of the church. God says, "Let me show you how seriously I take this. If you allow disunity and selfishness or any other sin to blatantly remain, it will destroy community and short-circuit the work of the Holy Spirit among you."
Here is the truth. Sin is a big deal for God because it short-circuits the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and also in the community. It needs to be a big deal for us. So what do you do? How do we respond to sin in our community?
Let me give you three things really quickly and we’ll close her out.
1. Take it seriously. I know this is not a really fun message. How do you make somebody dying during the offering really fun? I don’t know. But I think it’s a sobering thing we need to look at and we need to take it seriously.
Romans 6:23 says this, "For the wages of sin is death." Do you know what? That’s always true. The pay off for sin...for Ananias and Sapphira it was immediate. Boom! ...they’re dead. For you and me it’s a slow death, but it’s just as terminal. Sin kills. It destroys relationships. It destroys small groups. It destroys work places. It destroys teams. It destroys churches. It destroys people. The wages of sin is death.
But here is the good news, "But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." We’re hope dispensers. We’re life dispensers. That’s why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember, if you’re not filled with the Holy Spirit, you’re going to be filled with something. So we need to pray constantly. I want Seacoast to be a Spirit-filled church, even more so and more so and more so. I don’t want to be filled with anything else.
The second thing you do is...
2. Lovingly confront when you see sin. What if I knew, or what if you knew you could save someone’s life and you didn’t do it? Would that be wrong? Let’s say you’re a good swimmer and you see somebody drowning and you could jump in and you could save their life, but you say, "Ah, it’s not really my place. I don’t want to get involved." Would that be wrong? It’s not a trick question.
Okay, let’s take it a little easier. What if you’re in the restaurant today after church and somebody is choking on some food and you know the Heimlich...you know that whole deal. Somebody said, "You know the Heimlich. They’re choking." You say, "I don’t know if that’s my place. I really don’t want to get involved." Would that be wrong? Yes, it would be wrong! You’re getting it.
So somebody is trapped in destructive behavior. Maybe they’re drinking too much or there are drugs or sexual immorality. Maybe you have a college roommate who is a Christ follower and she’s staying overnight with her boyfriend. Or maybe it’s a friend you work with that seems to be forming an emotional attachment with someone other than their spouse. I don’t want to get involved in that. They’re dying! Wouldn’t it be wrong not to get involved? You bet it would.
Or maybe you have a friend who is stretching the truth to make themselves look better, or maybe they’re saying bad things about other people, or maybe they’re nursing a hurt to the point of bitterness. What should you do? I don’t want to get involved in that. They’re dying! Sin is going to destroy them. It’s going to short-circuit the work of the Holy Spirit in their life, and guess what? If you’re in relationship with them, whatever community you’re a part of it is going to short-circuit the work of the Holy Spirit in that community. Why wouldn’t you get involved?
Galatians 6:1 says, "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path." Listen, godly doesn’t refer to some elite spiritual class. Godly refers to you. You’re just a page ahead. You’re not doing what they’re doing, okay. You’re a page ahead. You ought to restore them humbly and gently, willing to help a brother out because their life depends on it. The community depends on it.
The third thing we ought to do is...
3. Quickly forgive. Quickly forgive. Ephesians 4:32 says, "Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you." What did God do to you? When you repented of it He forgot. So when we restore a brother or sister that’s in sin, and they repent, we don’t bring it up anymore. It’s over. It’s done. We walk on and move on.
Here is my hope. Here is my dream. Here is the message. What if we all did that? What if we all did that? What if we took the unity of our community seriously? What if we were vigilant about helping each other out when we were trapped in sin? What if forgiveness became the defining characteristic of our community? What if we looked at ourselves and said, "I don’t want the work of the Holy Spirit to be short-circuited in me. Life is not worth it. Whatever it is that has drawn me away is not worth it. I’m going to repent and repent regularly." What if we did that? I think God would begin doing even greater things among us. In fact, I think He’d do more than we could ask or even imagine. I want that. I hope you do too.
Let’s pray: Lord, thank You today. Hard message, God. Sin always is. But good conclusion. You love us. You cared enough about the church that You stopped the ripple...the rogue ripple...early on and gave us an example to walk by. God, I just pray today that we would take a look at our own lives and our own hearts and we would be better off for having walked out of this place studying Your Word. God, this morning I ask that during our reflection time and our response time that there would be an honesty that would grip us as we reflect on our own lives and our own community. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
