Getting Real with God
Acts 5
Tonight I want us to look at an area that is uncomfortable for many of us. I’ve never met anyone who likes to be wrong, or feels good about feeling bad.
Since no one likes to feel bad, no one likes to be wrong, we create a mindset that tries to rationalize our actions.
I’m going to tell them off, they deserve it anyhow.
I’m not going to talk to that individual because they did me wrong.
I’ve had a bad day so watch out!
I received too much back in change from the store, well praise the Lord, I’m blessed.
Does any of this sound like anyone you know? All of these things are rationalities to cover weakness in our own life. When I’m thinking like this, then I don’t have to worry about doing what’s right because doing what’s wrong is made to sound not so bad.
Let me share something with you tonight. The bottom line is are your actions or reactions what the Word says they should be.
This kind of thinking carries over into our spiritual life, and what it begins to breed is our inability to be honest with God.
At no time does the Heavenly Father take sin lightly. It’s because of our sin nature that our Heavenly Father had to give His only begotten son as a sin sacrifice.
Jesus, who knew no sin, took on Himself our sins and became cursed for us, that the sins in our life would no longer be held against us. This is serious to God, but yet we act like it’s no big deal.
We’ve lost the awe and wonder of God. We’re no longer afraid that God would send us to hell. We’ve so diluted God down to a bundle of love, that we forget that God is a God of judgment, and a God that demands Holiness.
How can you say that preacher?
I can say that because I look at people’s lives and I see the lack of care and concern for spiritual things.
If we’re going to be the Church that God wants us to be, we’ve got to get real with God. We’ve got to quit looking at things through our eyes, and start seeing everything with an eternal prospective.
He does not accept our excuses for the lack of prayer, for the lack of the Word in our life, for our slackness in coming together to Worship Him.
A church that can be used of God is a church that’s willing to say God, we’ve messed up, we’ve not done those things that we should, and we confess them before you. Forgive us our sins, and renew a right spirit within us.
The Church that God can use is a church that is repentant, awe struck, and listening to the voice of God and willing to walk in obedience to Him.
Anything less is we’re just going through the motions, playing church, not impacting anyone’s life.
I want us to look at Acts 5 tonight because I believe that God wants to speak to us through this chapter. There are some important principals we need to understand. The first thing about getting real with God, what we say and what we do needs to match up.
Ananias and Sapphira simply planned to lie and deceive. They were looking for the praise of the disciples, they wanted to look good to man, and not thinking about what they were doing was committing a fraud in the eyes of God.
They had gotten together and made sure that each other new what their story was going to be. They were so good at it, they both died by the story.
God notices everything we say and do.
Phil 3:20 “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:”
Nothing is hid from Him. There are no such things as secret sins, they are all open and exposed to God.
When you make a promise to God, make sure you follow through with it.
Psalms 76:11 “Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.”
Ecclesiastes 5:5 “Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.”
Ananias and Sapphira didn’t do anything that was too bad in most people’s eyes. What harm did they do? It was only a little miss statement of what happened.
We look at this and we say what was so bad that God struck them down?
There are two things I see. First God takes His business very seriously and second God takes what we say very seriously.
It’s time for the church to wake up and realize God’s not playing games. It’s not about how big we can build our own ministries. Not about our ability to brag on our Sunday Morning attendance.
Everything we do boils down to this most basic element – we are to be reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
God takes it seriously when we call our selves His church, and we have nothing in common with what God’s church is all about.
It’s a wonder why we don’t have whole congregations falling over dead because they say one thing and do another.
Ananias and Sapphira were killed because they lied to the Holy Spirit. They tried to pretend to do something they didn’t do; they tried to make themselves look so spiritual by selling all that they had and giving it to the church.
No one said that they had to do that. It wasn’t a law or a written commandment. It was a response from the church to the great grace that was on them.
I believe that God began to lead the church to sell what they had and bring it together for the common good and Ananias and Sapphira did what they did so they would look good.
How many times have we sat in a service when an alter call was given, and you know you should be going down to the altar, you know you need to repent, but because you want to save face, and not let anyone know that you’re not perfect, you sit there trying to make those around you think everything’s okay, I don’t need to pray.
How many times have we lied to the Holy Spirit? When He’s convicted you of areas of your life and you’ve told Him that you would give them up, but yet there’s been no change.
God killed Ananias and Sapphira to make a point; He’s not playing games when it comes to matters of the church. How many of us would be alive at the end of the service if God wanted to make a point again?
It disturbs me when I give altar calls where everyone should be coming to the altar, but yet so many just sit there. Ananias and Sapphira received judgment up front. All of us are going to be judged one day, and we better get serious about our relationship with Christ.
The second thing that we need to understand about getting real with God, we’ve got to get to the place where we trust Him.
I believe that there was more going on with Ananias and Sapphira than just trying to make themselves look good. I believe there was a faith issue here.
As the New Testament church was forming, there were needs of the church. It cost money to evangelize. It would take finances to support the ministry that was taking place.
I believe those who were selling their houses and lands were willing to give it all in order for the Gospel to be preached. They knew that if they would commit everything to Christ, Christ would take care of them.
This is the second area where Ananias and Sapphira faltered.
I believe that God was speaking to them to commit everything to Him, but when it came down to turning it all over to Him, they had a moment of unbelief.
That’s possibly why they held back some of the money. It wasn’t so much a greed question it was a trust question.
They were asking themselves, could we really trust Jesus Christ to take care of us.
One of the problems in the church today is our lack of fully trusting and committing everything to Him.
Heb 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Heb 10:38 “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
That’s some pretty heavy stuff. Our lack of trusting God causes us to not please God and it also causes God to not have pleasure in us.
What we say, how we act, and how much we trust God has a serious impact on our lives.
Getting real with God means we must live right, act right, and trust Him.
Once we understand that we need to be serious about our relationship with God and that God is serious about our relationship with Him it brings us to the place where He can use us.
When we understand how serious it is to God, then we begin to develop a healthy fear. In this 5th Chapter of Acts, we see that the fear of the Lord came over all of them.
Acts 5:11 “And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.”
There’s nothing that can get our attention any faster than God giving us a reality check. What God wants us to do is give our selves a reality check every day. We need to search our hearts and make sure that everything is all right in our lives.
We need to ask ourselves at the end of the day, did I do everything God’s way? Was my life pleasing to Him? If not, then we need to make sure we repent and ask forgiveness for those areas that were not right.
Something powerful happened through all of this. Many signs and wonders were worked among the people. When they realized that God was real, that He wasn’t just some kind of religious fictional person. Something great happened in their lives.
When we get to the place where we can fully trust God, and we live like we believe in Him, God will be able to do great things through you and in you.
Conclusion
What it all boils down to, the lack of trust, the deceitfulness, our faithlessness all needs to die. You can sum it up like this, self needs to die, and God can’t use those who are wrapped up in self, because they will try to get the glory. But if we die to the flesh, God can do many marvelous things through us and in us.
