Together With His Wife

INTRO.- Together with his wife. This is the way it should be. A man and his wife should be together on things, such as going places, going to church, shopping, and buying lottery tickets!

ILL.- Fri Jun 29, 2007. Don Harvey and his wife, Joyce, just became millionaires and then some. OKLAHOMA CITY - Don Harvey’s long-haul truck had almost 2 million miles on it when its engine died this week. Now, he’s planning to ride the road in style, after winning a $105.8 million Powerball ticket with his wife.

Harvey and his wife, Joyce, said they will pay off bills, help family members and think about buying a new home with their winnings. They chose to receive a $33.3 million lump sum after taxes instead of the full amount paid out over 29 years.

The ticket was purchased at a Shell service station in Roland, about five miles east of Muldrow where they live in eastern Oklahoma, almost on the Arkansas border. It was a quirky thing that she won, she said, because she always had bought lottery tickets using the same numbers.

She said she recently bought a ticket, but the numbers "came out wrong." She said she decided to use those same numbers when she bought the ticket in Roland and bingo, it was a winner.

Joyce Harvey said she was in "absolute disbelief and shock" when she checked the numbers on her computer Thursday night and found she had the winner.

"Basically, I just broke down and cried," she said. The couple said they were "pretty satisfied with our life" and would have to think long and hard about what do with the money after first paying off bills. But they don’t expect things to change too much. (Ha!)

A truck driver all his adult life, the 64-year-old Don Harvey said he did not plan to stop working. "I’ve got to have something to do," he said. "I can’t go fishing all the time and I don’t play golf."

He said he would buy a fancier truck than the one that finally quit running after he rolled into Muldrow from a trip delivering air conditioners to Madison, Wis. But it won’t be a new one, he said, saying there is no reason to waste money, even if you’ve got it to waste, on a vehicle that greatly depreciates in its first two years.

Don Harvey and his wife, Joyce, now have $33.3 million after taxes. They said THEY WOULD HELP FAMILY MEMBERS.

Do you think they will? And if they don’t, what do you think God would think of this?

What do you think God thinks about how we deal with the money that He has given us?

Psalm 50:9-11 “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.”

God owns everything but He is also the giver of every good and perfect gift. James 1:17. He gives us every thing that is good. He gives us life, breath, money and material possessions, etc.

But I wonder what He thinks of how we use these things?

In our text, we have the account of a Mr. and Mrs. Ananias. And it’s not a very good account. In fact, it’s downright frightening.

PROP.- Let’s think about what they did and what happened to them and how this could apply to us today. In this text, I see:

1- Conspiring in evil

2- Lying to God

3- Dying in suddenness

I. CONSPIRING IN EVIL

Acts 5:1-2 “Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.”

Ananias conspired with his wife Sapphira. They worked together. They plotted together. They planned together. Sounds like a Bonnie and Clyde thing to me.

ILL.- Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were notorious outlaws in the Central United States during the Great Depression. Their exploits were known nationwide. They captivated the attention of the American press and its readership during what is sometimes referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1935. Although this couple and their gang were notorious for their bank robberies, Clyde Barrow preferred to rob small stores or gas stations.

Were Bonnie and Clyde married? No, they weren’t. How thick were they? Thick enough to get into lots of trouble and die early in life: Bonnie at 23 and Clyde at 25. Most historians believe Bonnie joined Clyde because she was in love. From that moment on she would remain a loyal companion to him as they carried out their crime spree and awaited the violent deaths they viewed as inevitable.