Men, part of the chapter I want to focus on this morning is the story of Ananias and
Sapphira.
That's the title of the sermon, Ananias and Sapphira.
Let's back up just a little bit into chapter 4 to get the context of the story.
The Bible says in verse 34, Neither was there any among them that lacked, for
as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price
of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet.
And distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need.
And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the
son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it,
and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
So here we see a man who's sincere, he loves the Lord, he wants to help out the
brethren that are in need.
There were some people that had needs, and so he sells property, and he brings the money,
and he lays it at the apostles' feet, so that distribution can be made according to
the need of these people that were there in the church.
So this is a good example at the end of chapter 4.
But then in chapter 5, we have a bad example of someone who is trying to emulate him,
trying to mimic him, or be like him, and they probably saw what he did, and said,
well, hey, we want to get some of that glory, or those accolades, because when
you read the story in chapter 5, you'll see that what they did was they sold the
property, and they kept back part of the price, but they wanted to look like that
guy who gave everything.
So they gave a partial gift to the Lord, but they want to look like the guy who
gave everything.
They're trying to emulate him, imitate him, and it's very deceptive, and it shows
that their giving is for the wrong reason.
You know, when it comes to giving, the Bible talked about the Pharisees who cast
in their money out of their abundance, out of their riches, and they did it to be seen
of men, right?
They sounded the trumpet, and they threw in the money.
Then there was the poor little widow woman who cast in the two mites.
She cast in all she had, and Jesus said that she gave more than they did.
So when it comes to giving, it's about the heart, it's about the motive, it's
about the intention, it's not about the quantity of money.
And this guy, Ananias, he gets no credit for the money that he gave in the eyes
of the Lord because he was doing it for the wrong reason, and he was lying about it.
And in fact, he ends up dying.
Look at verse 1.
But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back
part of the price.
His wife also being privy to it.
The fact that she was privy to it, that just means that she was aware of it.
She knew that he had sold the land for a certain amount and that he was keeping
back part of the price, and he was trying to make it appear that he was giving everything
so that he could receive praise of men.
So his wife knew about it.
And brought a certain part, verse 2 at the end there, and laid it at the apostles feet.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost
and to keep back part of the price of the land?
And here's a key verse here in verse 4.
Was it not thine own?
And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?
What's he saying?
Look, you didn't have to give any money.
You could have just kept that land and enjoyed that land.
Or you could have just sold the land and kept the money for yourself.
I mean, that was your land.
It was your money before you sold it, after you sold it.
So why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Why did you come up with this stupid idea?
Why did you do this bizarre action of selling this land, giving part of it, and trying
to get credit for giving the whole thing so that you could be seen as another
Joseph Barzabas, the good guy from the chapter before?
He said at the end of verse 4, Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost.
And great fear came on all them that heard these things.
And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him.
And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was
done, came in.
So she doesn't know that her husband just fell over dead when he's confronted by Peter.
And Peter answered unto her, verse 8, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.
And she said, Yea, for so much.
Then Peter said unto her, How is it that you've agreed together to tempt the Spirit
of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry
thee out.
Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost.
And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her
by her husband.
You know, this way people realize this wasn't just a coincidence.
It wasn't just that Peter got in his face and, you know, and the guy had a heart
attack and fell over or something like that.
You know, when it happens two times in a row to two different people, they knew, okay,
God has smitten these people down dead.
Now there are a lot of great lessons that we can take from this story.
And I'm going to try to get through as many of those lessons as I can this morning
because this is a very deep story and there's a lot to learn here.
The first thing that I want to point out, though, is that God deals with people on an individual
basis.
Okay?
He deals with them on an individual basis.
What do I mean by that?
When Ananias was judged and killed for his crime, his wife still had the chance to
do the right thing.
And she made the wrong choice and that's why she died, too.
Now there are people out there who teach that the wife must always obey her husband
even when he's telling her to sin.
That's a false doctrine, okay?
Now I'm all for wives obeying their husbands.
The Bible's really clear that wives should be obedient to their own husbands and everything,
you know, that the husband is the head of his wife and that the wife is to obey her
husband.
I also believe that children should obey their parents.
The Bible says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
And the Bible tells us to honor our father and mother and fear our father and mother,
obey our father and mother.
But wait a minute, God's law is supreme and trumps man's law, okay?
And it's no coincidence that in this exact chapter, what does it say later in this very
chapter?
We ought to obey God rather than men.
Now we should seek to obey God and men whenever possible.
We should try to obey God and our parents when we're children.
Wives should try to obey God and their husband.
Employees should try their very hardest to obey God and their boss at work and the
vast majority of the time you can do both.
You can find a way to do both where you're obeying God and man and the authorities.
But wait a minute, there comes a point where we have to be subject unto the higher power
which is God.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 13, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers
for there's no power but of God, the powers that be ordained of God, whosoever therefore
resists at the power, resists at the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive
to themselves damnation for rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same.
So the Bible's telling us that authority on this earth is put there in place by
God.
The powers that be are ordained of God.
But he starts out by saying be subject unto the higher powers.
There's a chain of command in this world, okay?
And I think the best illustration for this is in the military.
In the military, there's a chain of command.
And I've never been in the military so I can't speak from experience.
But from what I understand, you know, you're going to have your sergeant that's above
you.
But then at the very top, there's going to be a general and then at the top of that
is even the President of the United States who is the Commander in Chief of the Armed
Forces.
Now here's the thing.
If you get a command from your immediate commanding, I'll ask Brother Segura since he was in the
Marine Corps.
If you got a command from your immediate commanding officer and then the guy above
him contradicts that command or they're telling you two different things, who are you going
to listen to?
You're going to listen to who's the higher ranking guy, is that right?
So there you go.
I mean, it's a chain of command.
Yes, obviously your immediate officer, you're supposed to obey him.
You know, the guy who's right above you, of course you're supposed to obey him.
Of course you're supposed to do what he tells you to do unless he starts telling you to do
stuff that's contrary to the higher power, okay?
And all of these guys, whether they're in the military or in the police or in the government,
they swear an oath to faithfully uphold the Constitution of the United States against
all enemies foreign and domestic.
So that oath means something, okay?
The authority of the Constitution means something.
So that's a higher power.
The general is a higher power than the lieutenant.
The Constitution is a higher power than, say, a local law.
That's why the Supreme Court has ruled that any law that is repugnant to the U.S. Constitution
is null and void.
So if a law goes against a higher law, it's null and void.
So we need to be subject to the higher power in our life.
Well, here's how it works.
Wives, your husband is in authority over you, but he's not the highest authority
in your life.
The highest authority in your life is God.
The reason that you obey your husband is because God told you to obey your husband.
The reason that children obey their parents is because God told children to obey their parents.
But wait a minute.
If your authority figure, whether it be your parent, your husband, or your boss at work
tells you to lie or tells you to steal or tells you to commit murder or tells you
to commit adultery, you do not have to obey.
And in fact, if you do, you're going to be judged by God because God does not tell
you to sin when you're told to sin.
If somebody tells you to sin, I don't care who it is, you don't do it.
Now a lot of people, they don't want to obey the authorities in their life, so they
kind of dream up these conflicts between God and their authority that aren't really
there.
Okay?
For example, a wife will say, well, you know, my husband forbids me to go to church,
but I'm going to go anyway because we ought to obey God rather than men, but it turns
out that he actually might have just forbidden her to go to a certain church.
Well, if he forbids her a certain church but she can still go to another good Bible
believing church, then she should bring both into conformity, obey God by going to
church, and obey her husband by going to a church that he's not offended by.
Now if he's demanding that she attend a wicked church or something that's of the
devil, then she shouldn't obey that, but she should try to find a way to make things
right and line things up between God and her husband.
And children should try to find a way to obey their parents and God at the same
time and try to work something out and try, if at all possible, to live at peace
with all men, but folks, there comes a point in time where you have to draw the line
if your husband is telling you to sin, you can't do it.
I mean, there are women out there that have been told to have an abortion by their husband
and they just say, well, you know, the Bible says to obey my husband, so I guess this is on him.
No, that's on you.
That's on you if you go and commit that murderous act or whatever.
So we need to understand that obedience to the authorities in our life, it has a limit.
And here, Sapphira could have at this point done the right thing, but instead she chose
to lie with her husband, right, to lie for him, and he's telling her to lie, he concocted
this plan, and she goes along with it, and you know what, she gets her own individual
judgment from God.
This story could have ended differently if Sapphira would have walked in and Peter
confronts her, yea, did you sell the lamb for so much?
I mean, at that point, she just should have known something was up, and at that point
she could have said, no, I'm sorry, it's a lie, here's the actual amount that we
sold it for, and you know what, she wouldn't have died, but because she was given the
chance to do her own right thing, then she did it wrong and she died.
Now you say, well, is God going to kill every single person who, who deceives and
lies and steals from the Lord?
No, and in fact, you see people get away with things all the time, you know, the longer
you're alive, you'll see wicked people get away with things, and this is one of
the big subjects in the book of Job.
In the book of Job, they keep asking the question over and over again, you know,
why did the wicked prosper?
That's what Job keeps bringing up, and he talks about how everything goes good for
them and often they live to be old and prosperous and nothing bad happens, and of
course the answer is given eventually that, you know, they will get what's coming to
them in the end, and it might happen after death, you know, it might not be until they
get to hell, but you know what, everybody eventually is going to get what's coming
to them, but we're not always going to see that, so you say, well, why did God
kill these people, but then other people, he allows to get away with it, or why did
God wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah, but he doesn't, it's not like he wipes out everybody
who participates in that sin, or every town, or every village that's been given
over to that sin, I'll tell you why, because God does these dramatic judgments
as an example unto those that after should live ungodly, so God will do
something like this one time as an example just to show how bad he thinks
that sin is, and just as a warning to let you know.
Now, here's the thing, if every time someone committed a huge sin or an act of
hypocrisy, or stealing from church, or something like that, if God would just
strike that person dead every time, you know, there'd really be no faith required
in the Bible, would there?
If every time people did good, they were instantly rewarded, and every time
people did bad, they're just falling over dead left and right, then there
wouldn't be any faith required.
We'd be walking by sight at that point, and so God, he does this in certain
situations as an example, the Bible says, unto those that after should live ungodly.
He told us in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that he killed 23,000 people in one day as a
result of fornication.
He tells them, don't fornicate, flee fornication.
Here's what God did.
Now, does that mean that you're going to fall over dead if you commit fornication?
Maybe or maybe not, but you know that that's how God feels about it, and that's
the type of judgment that God would bring in a situation like that.
So if you want to go test it out, you're foolish, because you don't want to be that
bad example, because somebody's going to be that example.
Somebody's going to be that Ananias.
Somebody's going to be that Sapphira.
Some city's going to be that Sodom or Pompeii that gets wiped out and burned with
fire and brimstone because of their wickedness, and you don't know if it's going to be
you or not, but it still shows you that God hates these certain sins and that
he's really going to punish them severely.
Now why was God so mad about this?
Why was this something so serious that he just had these people fall over dead right
there in the middle of the church, and there aren't really a whole lot of examples
of this in the New Testament, are there?
I mean, are there a ton of examples in the New Testament where people are just falling
over dead for their sins in the early church?
So God chose this particular incident to cloud up and rain on people, because he could
have made other people fall over dead, because I'm sure there were a whole bunch
of sins in the early church.
There were sins in other churches throughout the world in that first century AD.
There were a lot of weird things going on in Corinth.
There were a lot of weird things going on elsewhere.
Why did God choose this to be the big example to make?
I think it's a great choice, and here's why.
Because one of the biggest roots of wickedness in the church is when people are seeking
glory for themselves and being hypocrites, putting on this outward show of righteousness
in order to receive praise of men.
This is such a root issue.
This is such an intrinsic problem that God wanted to address this, give it a big chunk
of scripture here in Acts, and just early in the book of Acts, just show, I don't want
this to exist in the church.
This needs to be eradicated.
This needs to be gone.
You know, the people that Jesus ripped on the hardest were the Pharisees.
Why?
The word that comes up over and over again in Proverbs 23, I'm sorry, Matthew 23, flip
over if you would to Matthew 23, the word that comes up over and over again is hypocrites.
Now what does it mean to be a hypocrite?
Well the Bible defines it right here in Matthew chapter 23, verse number 3.
He says, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do
not ye after their works.
And look at the end of Matthew 23 verse 3.
For they say and do not.
And isn't that exactly what Anne and I, since we're doing?
Hey, they say, we're giving everything.
Look at all this money we're giving.
Look how we sold the land and gave everything.
We're just like Joseph.
But is that what they did?
No.
They said and they did not.
Look at verse 5.
But all their works they do for to be seen of men.
And boy, have I seen a lot of people like this in my life.
All their works they do for to be seen of men.
Every time they do something, they got to make a big show about it.
Hey everybody, look at me.
I'm going soul winning.
Hey everybody, look at me.
I'm putting money in the Alfred plate.
Hey everybody, this is me making a big donation.
Hey everybody, this is me giving to the poor.
And look, the celebrities of this world, this is all they do.
Whenever they give to charity, they make a big deal.
They're not giving anonymously to charity.
They make a big conspicuous show of their philanthropy.
This is a wicked attribute.
You say, what is the problem with pastors who are wicked?
What's the problem with pastors who are false prophets?
What is the problem with pastors who are ungodly?
It's because they're in the ministry for the wrong reason.
That's the root problem.
They're not in the ministry because they want to help people.
They're not in the ministry because they want to get people saved.
They're not in the ministry because they care about serving Christ and getting the gospel
to a lost and dying world.
They're not saying, man, somebody needs to do this job.
Here am I, send me, let me stand in that gap.
Let me fill that void.
No, they're in it for their own personal aggrandizement.
Or they're in it to steal money.
Because they can get in there
and have access to money and steal money.
Or they can get in there and receive a lot of praise
of men and accolades of men.
And if that exists in you at all,
do us all a favor and do not go into the ministry.
Do not go into full-time Christian service.
Do not become a deacon.
Do not become a pastor.
Do not become a missionary.
If you look inside yourself and you have a desire
for vainglory or you have a desire for wealth
and riches or accolades and praise of men,
you know what?
You have the wrong motivation.
The right motivation is I want to do a job
so that it'll get done because I want it to get done.
I want these doors to be knocked.
I want people to hear the gospel.
I want people to hear the truth.
I want this hard preaching to go forth.
Someone has got to do it.
And look, if somebody else would do it instead of you,
if somebody else could get it done, great.
I mean, that's the way I look at it.
Like if somebody else could get up and do this job, great.
I'd love to sit in the backseat
and let somebody else drive this thing, okay?
Because of the fact that it's just about
whether the work gets done, it's not about who does it.
And remember in the book of Judges, the foolishness
where they, you know, what's the guy's name?
Jephthah, you know, he defeats the enemies
and oh, you didn't invite us.
Or, you know, Gideon defeats the enemies.
Oh, why didn't you invite us?
Why didn't you use us?
Who cares?
All that matters is that the job got done.
Okay, righteous people want the work
of the Lord to get done.
They're not really obsessed or picky
about who it is that's getting it done,
as long as it's getting done rightly.
That's all that matters.
That's all that matters to someone
who's in it for the right reason, okay?
And so this wicked hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira,
this wicked hypocrisy of the Pharisees
was an attitude that says, I wanna get personal glory.
And God said, I'm gonna nip that in the bud.
And so that's what we see in Matthew 23,
that's what we see in Acts 5.
And look, as we keep going here, it says,
all their works they do for to be seen of men, verse 5,
they make broad their phylacteries
and enlarge the borders of their garment.
Now you say, well, why does it matter what people wear?
Well, apparently it does matter what people wear
because Jesus is ripping on these people
for enlarging the border of their garment.
You say, well, what did he mean by that?
Well, if we compare scripture with scripture,
in the book of Mark and in the book of Luke,
he tells us, woe unto the scribes
that love to go in the long clothing.
And then he says, in the other gospel,
that they love to go in long robes, okay?
That's the enlarging of the borders of their garment.
It's the long clothing and the long robes.
And how many times have you seen religious men,
clergy, pastors, priests, imams
with the long flowing garment, don't they?
They go to the airport in the long clothing
and I see them, that's the only time
I ever see Catholic priests, you know what I mean?
Because when else would I see them, right?
I don't go to the Catholic church.
So whenever I think of Catholic priests,
I think of the airport.
Just because when I'm at the airport,
I see them walking through looking so pious
and they've got a big cross around their neck
and they've got that long flowing garment,
you know, why are they dressed that way?
You know why they're dressed that way?
Hey everybody, look at me.
Look at me, I'm a religious leader, I'm a holy man.
Everybody look at me.
Instead of just looking like a normal person.
Look, if people walked in to church this morning
and they didn't already know who I was
and we were all just standing around
talking and fellowshipping,
no one would know that I'm the pastor
because there are 30 or 40 other guys here.
Obviously, there are a lot of guys here
in casual clothing, but they're actually,
they're probably more like 50, 60, 70 guys here
that are dressed in a full-blown suit and tie.
Look, they could think that they're the pastor
just as much as they could be like,
are you the pastor, are you the pastor,
are you the pastor, are you the pastor?
I mean, there are a whole bunch of guys here
that could be the pastor
just as well as I could be the pastor, why?
Because I'm dressed like a normal person, okay?
And when I walk around dressed like this
or dressed in casual clothes, dressed clothes, whatever,
when I go around, nobody realizes I'm a pastor
just by looking at me and that's okay with me
because I don't need to be acknowledged as a holy man
and a pastor everywhere I go, okay?
I don't need to enlarge the border of my garment
and have some garb that makes me look holy
or something like that.
That's not biblical.
And let me tell you something.
Any pastor who wears that long flowing garment
just mark it down, he doesn't care what the Bible says.
Well, maybe he just doesn't know it says that.
Well, since it says it multiple times
in the four gospels which are the heart and soul
of our Christian faith, wouldn't you expect them
to have at least read the four gospels a few times
and noticed, I'm not supposed to be in a long robe.
I'm not supposed to be in long clothing.
Hypocrites enlarge the border of their garment.
It's not rocket science, folks.
And what else do they love?
Verse six, they love, oh man, they just love people.
Is that what it says?
They love the lost.
They love their brothers and sisters in Christ.
They love the Lord.
No, it says they love the uppermost rooms at feasts.
They love the chief seats in the synagogues.
They love to ride shotgun every single time.
And greetings in the markets and to be called of men.
Rabbi, rabbi.
Boy, they just love that title of rabbi.
That's an unbiblical title.
Why not?
But be not ye called rabbi, for one is your master,
even Christ, and all ye are brethren.
And call no man your father upon the earth,
for one is your father which is in heaven.
Neither be ye called master,
for one is your master, even Christ.
And think about it, those three titles,
rabbi, father, and master,
these are used by religious people all the time.
Now, rabbi and master are two ways
of saying the same thing.
It's just two different languages, Greek and Aramaic.
But either way,
you'll see all three of these in the English language.
Master, so and so is something
that Eastern religious people will do.
Buddhists, they call them these Zen masters,
or they have their ascended master,
Master Yoda, or whatever.
They got all their masters.
And then you got Bible colleges
giving out a master's degree.
Shame on them, they should have read the Bible.
You got the Catholic priest calling himself father, right?
I'm assuming that the Orthodox priest
probably calls himself father as well.
And then you've got, of course,
the Jew, the Christ-rejecting Judaism practitioner
who calls his religious leader what?
Rabbi.
So we see rabbi, master, father.
Hey, these are off limits.
Now, some people have said,
well, don't call them pastor or deacon.
Is that what this says?
Does this say don't be called pastor?
Don't be called deacon, don't be called bishop?
No, those are the terms that God actually gave
because those are the terms that make sense.
You know what?
A pastor, pastor simply means shepherd.
So I am not a father or a rabbi or master,
but I am a shepherd.
I am an overseer.
I am an elder.
I am a brother.
Call me Brother Anderson.
Don't call me Father Anderson.
Call me Brother Anderson.
Why?
Don't call him Father
because he said you're all brethren.
And when I talk to my fellow pastors,
I call them, hey, Brother Berzins,
Brother Shelley, Brother whoever.
Why?
Because they're my brothers.
Because I'm your brother.
I call you brother.
You call me brother.
But we don't call them Father Anderson,
Rabbi Jimenez.
That's wrong.
He said in verse 11,
but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
That's why pastors are called ministers.
They're called ministers.
What's a minister?
A servant.
It's called going into the ministry, okay?
It means you're going into helping people,
serving people, and doing service to other people,
not letting other people do service unto you
or perform service unto you.
Look at verse 12.
Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased,
and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
And you know what Ananias and Sapphira were doing?
They were exalting themselves, weren't they?
Hey, everybody, look at me.
I'm giving all this money to the church.
Make a plaque in my honor.
Put it in the lobby.
Go to Acts chapter five, back where we were.
So I think a few things we can learn
from the Ananias and Sapphira story
is that, number one,
God deals with people on an individual basis.
Now, look, sometimes we get lumped in with people,
don't we?
Obviously, we're very close to our spouse,
and it's normal for us to be lumped in with our spouse,
and people think of you and your spouse as one unit.
That's normal.
That makes sense, right?
Because you're married,
and that's pretty much the closest relationship
on this earth is between a husband and wife.
But even the husband and wife are dealt with by God
on an individual basis,
where just because Ananias fell over dead,
Sapphira still has the chance to do the right thing, okay?
Then, not only that,
but we might get lumped in with our siblings.
Especially if you have an identical twin, right?
You know, you're just kinda seen as one entity there.
So,
but those are two individuals there.
Those are two separate people,
separate souls, separate people,
brothers and sisters, families,
husband and wife.
You know, God deals with us on an individual basis.
You can't ride on the coattails of the spirituality
of your brother or your sister
or your mother or your father.
You gotta have your own walk with God.
And if your brother, sister, mother, father
goes down a dark path,
you don't have to go down that same dark path.
You can make your own decision and walk with God.
And the Bible has a lot of verses
about houses being divided
because of the fact that some people love the Lord
and some don't.
And unfortunately, that's the world that we live in.
So we see that God deals with people
on an individual basis here between Ananias and Sapphira.
Secondly, we saw that the reason why God made this
example of wiping out Ananias and Sapphira
is because he hates hypocrisy
and he hates this glory-seeking attitude
in the church of trying to exalt oneself
and show off and be serving God
for all the wrong reasons.
You know, God would rather that you just kept your money
and you go spend it on what you want to spend it on
than that you give money and make a big show about it.
It'd be better if you just don't even give it all.
Because if Ananias and Sapphira
would have just kept their land and gave nothing,
they would have been fine.
You know, you'd be better off just not being a pastor
than to become a pastor for the wrong reasons.
You'd be better off just not even showing up
for soul winning than if you're gonna show up
for soul winning just to show how righteous you are,
just to show off and because that's wicked
and that spirit will contaminate the people around you.
And you know what?
That's why God eradicated it from the early church
because he didn't want everybody else to be contaminated
by Ananias and Sapphira.
He didn't want that leaven of hypocrisy
to leaven the whole lump of that early church.
We need to be aware of this.
Beware of the flattering tongue.
Beware of hypocrisy.
Beware of Mr. Goody Two Shoes.
What do I mean by that?
The hyper spiritual, the overly spiritual Goody Two Shoes
is often referred to as the holier than thou.
Look, the biggest red flag for phonies,
flattery and holier than thou.
You know, the people that get around you
and every other word out of their mouth
is praise the Lord, hallelujah, amen,
even when it's not called for,
even when it's not in context.
And what do they do?
They just wanna lay it on so thick to you
how righteous and godly and holy they are
and just make you feel like
they're just on some whole other level.
You know what?
That's a sign you're dealing with a wicked person.
If something looks a little too perfect,
that's because it's fake.
You know, you ever notice
when you look at people's fake plants
that you can spot that they're fake
because they're so perfect.
Things in nature have imperfection, don't they?
I don't care how beautiful you are this morning.
I don't care how handsome you are this morning.
If we look at you closely,
if we look at your face with a magnifying glass,
we're gonna find problems.
Okay?
Seriously.
You know, if we were to put you into a computer,
we'll find that you're not quite as symmetrical
as you thought, right?
Our faces are not perfect.
They're not symmetrical.
We all have flaws and imperfections.
But you know what's interesting is that there was,
I forget the exact story,
but there was some company in the early days
of this kind of technology,
they wanted to take the best attributes
from every beautiful woman's face
and basically create a synthetic,
most beautiful possible woman of all time.
Like a woman that doesn't exist,
but they're gonna take the best of everything,
every best attribute,
and just make this perfect image.
And you know what?
It didn't look good.
People didn't like it.
Because something in their brain rebelled against it,
like it's too perfect.
You know, if you look at things in nature,
lines are not straight lines in nature, right?
In nature, things zigzag and they go all over the place
and everything like that.
You know, if you look at a real tree,
it's not gonna have perfect symmetry.
You know, you look at a fake tree
and it'll often be perfectly symmetrical,
everything about it, perfect.
Well, you know what you'll notice sometimes
about these fake fraud Christians, these hypocrites,
is that they're a little too perfect.
Little bit too perfect and they're really quick
to let you know how perfect they are
and make sure and put on a show
about how perfect and sinless they are.
Now, I'm not saying that you should just walk around
and just expose all your sins bare to the world
and just go around just openly,
hey, nobody's gonna think I'm a phony.
What you see is what you get, you know.
That's not what I'm saying, folks.
I'm just saying be real.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm just saying be real, be yourself,
love God, serve God, be in it for the right reason.
You know, we're all growing, hopefully,
and we're all getting closer to the Lord,
getting sins out of our life
and serving God to the best of our ability.
Just don't be fake, okay?
I'm not saying to go the opposite direction.
I'm saying just be normal.
You know, is that too much for a pastor to ask?
Just be normal for crying out loud.
This is every pastor's prayer every night
before he goes to bed.
Lord, make my people normal.
No, I'm just kidding.
And you know what?
This is the normalest church I've ever been to in my life.
Even our enemies have come here and visited
and said, those are some normal people.
Those people are legit.
You know, there was a guy who came in here,
he was an enemy of our church,
and he came in here and he said, you know,
I expected a bunch of weirdos,
and man, everybody seemed cool, everybody was normal.
It just seemed like a bunch of normal people.
And you know, they also commented
on the diversity of our congregation,
how we have people of all nationalities.
We've got red, yellow, black, white.
We've got people of all different financial classes,
except we don't have any rich people that I know of,
but we got everything else, you know?
And we've got all different types of people,
just nice, normal people.
Look, just be real, be yourself.
Don't put on some big show
pretending to be something that you're not.
And when you see people just landed on real thick,
holier than thou,
the facade is because they're hiding something
instead of being real.
So that's what we see with Ananias and Sapphira,
they were fake, and so God wanted
to just nip that right in the bud.
Let's keep going, there's a lot more
that we can learn from this story.
It says in verse number 10,
then she fell down straightway at his feet
and yielded up the ghost, and the young men came in
and found her dead, and carrying her forth,
buried her by her husband.
And great fear came upon all the church,
and upon as many as heard these things.
And by the hands of the apostles were many
signs and wonders wrought among the people,
and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch,
and of the rest durst no man.
Now, durst is the past tense of dared, right?
So we would say they dared not,
but in the King James English, it's they durst not.
It means that they didn't have the guts to do it,
is what that means.
So when it says of the rest,
durst no man join himself to them,
he's basically saying that there were people
that wanted to join the church,
but they were afraid to join the church.
They dared not to join the church.
Why?
Because great fear, verse 11, came upon all the church,
and upon as many as heard these things.
It says in verse 13, of the rest durst no man
join himself to them, but the people magnified them.
And believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both of men and women.
So what we see here is that when you purge out the leaven,
when you get rid of the hypocrisy,
when you get rid of the phonies,
it causes the church to be more fruitful.
You know, when these phonies were purged,
Ananias and Sapphira,
you have all kinds of people being added to the Lord.
It also produces a result that some people are afraid.
They fear because they might think they're next, okay?
Well, be very afraid.
If you're an Ananias or a Sapphira, you ought to be scared.
Maybe you will be next, right?
I mean, that's a logical fear to have.
If you're going out and committing fornication
and then you read in the Bible
that God killed 23,000 in one day
because of fornication, you ought to be afraid.
And you know, I mean, why wouldn't you be the next?
Could happen, amen.
So we see here that believers
were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both of men and women.
Now, when these kind of negative things happen,
because this is a negative thing.
I mean, when you go to church
and people are getting called out
in front of the whole church
and then they're falling over dead,
some people are not gonna be able to handle that.
Some people are just gonna be like,
oh man, this is too weird.
This is too crazy, I'm outta here.
But guess what?
It doesn't matter.
Bye.
Okay, bye.
See you later.
That's it, I'm unsubscribing.
Bye.
I'm quitting the church.
See you later.
So what?
Last time I checked,
nobody's begging anybody to be in church.
Last time I checked, it's a voluntary service
when you come and worship the Lord in God's house
and come to church.
And so there are gonna be some people
when the corruption gets exposed,
when the evil is dealt with,
when the sin is dealt with,
some people are gonna say,
well, this is why people don't come to church.
Have you ever heard that one before?
This is why people don't go to church.
Well, you know,
Ananias is a fire up, falling over dead.
I mean, what was the big deal?
What, is Peter doing some kind of voodoo
where he kills people?
People disagree with him and he just kills them?
You know, what's going on over there?
This is why people don't go to church.
Yeah, you're right, it's why people don't go to church.
So what?
Last time I checked, it wasn't a contest
to see who can build the biggest church.
Last time I checked, God is the one who builds the church.
God is the one who will build it
with the materials that he wants to build it with.
And you know what?
If he wants to purge the church of the wrong people, good.
Then we can bring forth more fruit.
If God comes in with his great shears
and prunes off some unfruitful branches,
so much the better.
And if people on the sidelines look at that
and they see the corruption being exposed,
they see the sin being dealt with,
you say, well, don't do it publicly.
If you do it publicly,
people are not gonna wanna come to church.
So what?
We don't need our church to be filled with cowards.
Oh, well, a lot of people don't even dare
to go to that church.
Good, so what?
Why does that matter, friend?
Why do we spend so much time
sitting around caring what people think about us?
At the end of the day, does it really matter
what people think about us at the end of the day?
Are we gonna get to heaven and God's gonna say,
well, you did all these great works for me.
I mean, yeah, you did the right thing here, there,
and everywhere, but did you notice
how you kinda turned off your community?
I mean, you kinda made people uncomfortable.
Or a lot of people were afraid to go to your church.
No rewards for you.
You think that's what God's gonna say?
Because you know what, God does these kinda things,
and God doesn't worry about what people think about him.
And we shouldn't worry about what people think about him.
And you know what, if you spend your life
worrying what people think, number one,
you're gonna end up making a lot of bad decisions,
because you're gonna make decisions to please people
instead of pleasing God, and number two,
you're gonna just go through life with too much stress.
Because if you just sit and worry
about what people think about you,
boy, that's gonna become a full-time job for you,
just trying to figure out what everybody thinks about you.
Sometimes people aren't even thinking about you at all.
And you're worried what they're thinking about you.
They're thinking about something else.
And so what if people don't like you, okay?
And here's what I've learned in life.
There are gonna be people that like you
and people who don't like you.
Here's what I do.
I'm friends with the people who like me.
And when people don't like me,
I just find a different friend.
And by the way, this needs an entire sermon unto itself
that shall be preached at another time.
If people don't wanna be your friend,
then just walk away.
That needs a whole sermon.
Because there are people out there
that can't take no for an answer.
You tell them, I don't wanna be your friend.
Now hopefully you do it more tactfully
and nicely than that.
But you know, you just let people know
maybe through the flower that hey,
I'm not looking for a new friend right now,
and they won't take no for an answer.
Those people often turn out to be psychopaths.
You know what I'm saying?
Like when you let people know, look,
we're just not compatible,
and they just become obsessed and zealous
to make you their friend, it's sick.
Okay, look, when people don't wanna be your friend,
find a different friend.
Here's what I wanna know.
Why would anyone wanna be friends with somebody
who doesn't wanna be friends with them?
I can't figure that out.
So and so doesn't like you, Pastor Anderson.
Well, doggone it, I'm gonna make sure that
they're my friend whether they like it or not.
I mean, what in the, it's crazy.
Look, it's literally crazy.
It's literal insanity when you want to demand,
I've had people come to me as the pastor and say,
so and so the person will not be my friend,
and you need to tell them
that they need to be my friend,
and I'm like, I will never tell them that
because I said the policy in our church
is that nobody's required to be friends with anyone.
Or so and so said that my kid is not allowed around
their kid, and I'm like, okay, so what's the problem?
Isn't that their decision?
If they don't want their kid to be friends with your kid
isn't that up to them?
Well, hey, guess what?
There's 400 people in our church
just find different friends.
You know, if you can't find friends in a church
with 400 people, maybe you're the problem.
If you're just burning them one at a time
when you start running out of people,
even if you did that,
there's new people coming in all the time
for you to destroy a relationship with.
So, you know, look, there's 400 people,
and then there's constantly new people coming in.
You know what, let's say you burned your bridges
with sister so and so, and sister so and so,
and sister so and so, and you know what?
Then guess what?
Just move on to, you know, number seven.
A just man falls seven times and rises up again, you know?
Keep trying.
But if people don't wanna be your friend, that's okay.
And let me tell you something,
there are people that I look at,
and I say to those people or think to myself,
I don't say it to them, I'm saying I think in my heart,
that is a godly person, he's a good guy,
he loves the Lord, he's a righteous person,
but he's just not for me.
You know, it's just not the type of person
that I get along with or I'm friends with.
Guess what, that's okay.
I can respect someone without being their buddy,
because maybe we just have a personality conflict.
Maybe I love the Lord and he loves the Lord,
but we're just having a personality conflict, right?
That doesn't make either of us a bad person.
You're not gonna be friends with everybody, okay?
You gotta learn these things, right?
So here's the thing, there are people who love Christ,
they love the Lord, they don't wanna come
to Faithful Word Baptist Church,
because they don't like Pastor Steven Anderson.
And let me tell you something,
that does not make them a bad person.
They don't like my personality, that's okay.
But I, you know, there are other,
and some of them will even say something
along the lines of, well I don't like
Pastor Anderson at all, but I really like Roger Jimenez.
And I always just say, great, you know, great,
because Pastor Roger Jimenez is a great guy,
he's a great pastor.
He believes virtually every single thing that I believe,
but he has a different personality.
So if you click better with him, great.
And guess what, that's why God
didn't make us all the same.
And you know what, even churches that are,
and you say, well you know,
you and Pastor Roger Jimenez are like, almost the same.
Okay, but you know what, there are other churches
that are a lot different than Faithful Word
that I still respect and recommend.
You know, for example, look, there's a church
across town in East Mesa, called Valley Baptist Church,
Pastor Kevin Cowling, and you know what,
that church is different than our church
on a lot of things.
It's a very different place, but you know what,
I respect him, I love him,
and I think that's a great church.
And if people are ever looking for a church in that area,
I tell them, hey, it's 20 minutes from here,
or 25 minutes from here, or whatever,
I tell them, hey, that's the church I recommend,
if I didn't pastor, that's where I'd go.
Now look, I don't have to agree
with somebody on everything.
Look, he and I are not buddies,
we don't get together and hang out, okay?
We're very different from one another,
but you know what, I love him, I respect him,
I believe he's a man of God,
and I would recommend that church in a heartbeat.
Okay, so there's a difference,
between loving and respecting somebody,
and necessarily being their buddy, okay?
The point is, not everybody's gonna be your friend,
not everybody's gonna be your buddy,
don't try to force that on people.
Now can somebody explain to me
how in the world I got off on that,
and what in the world it has to do
with Ananias and Sapphira?
Right, thank you.
Yeah, because this all goes back to the idea of,
it doesn't matter what people think about you,
if people don't like you,
you just choose a different friend, amen?
They don't like you,
you say so and so, church doesn't like me,
hey, you know what you're like?
You're like Haman,
where Haman had everything going for him,
one guy doesn't like him, right?
Isn't that what the book of Esther is about?
I mean, everything's great, all the glory,
everybody's bowin' down to him,
Mordecai the Jew won't bow down,
one guy, but you know what he said?
He said all of it avails me nothing.
The fact that I'm the second most powerful man
in the world avails me nothing.
The fact that I have riches and glory,
the fact that I have a wife and 10 children,
the fact that I am being exalted by everyone else,
it all avails me nothing when I see that Mordecai the Jew.
You're gonna be my friend, Mordecai,
you're gonna like me.
He's nuts, it's crazy, right?
Look, who cares what people think?
And look, I don't sit around and worry
about what people think about our church,
I'm not gonna sit around worried
about what people think of me,
I just wanna know what the Lord thinks about me.
And you know what, I've got friends that like me,
that's enough for me.
You know what, my mom and dad like me.
My brothers and sisters like me, okay?
Okay?
My children like me, my wife likes me,
I've got friends that like me,
and I've got a whole lot of people who don't like me,
and it doesn't matter.
Because I'm just gonna spend time
with the people who like me,
and I'm just gonna do my best to serve the Lord
and obey the Lord, and I'm not gonna sit there
and see, well, you know, how does the media portray me?
That's a depressing thought.
But guess what, I'm not depressed,
because I don't care!
Folks, you know what, when we were teenagers,
we cared what people thought about us, didn't we?
I know I did, I mean, when I was a teenager,
man, I spent time in front of the mirror,
trying to make sure I looked just right,
I cared how I was perceived,
I wanted to be seen as cool,
you don't wanna say something dumb or embarrass yourself,
and it ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy,
because teenagers end up embarrassing themselves
more than anybody else,
even though they care the most about what people think,
why, because when you're worried about what people think,
when you care so much about what people think,
you end up goofing up even more,
and it's so liberating to become an adult
and just stop caring, just to become an adult,
put some clothes on, splash some cold water in your face
and just go for it, and go a week
without even looking at a mirror, it's liberating.
Amen?
You know, but man, teenagers,
they really care, and you know what they end up doing,
they're so afraid of what people think often,
teenagers, they don't say anything.
You put them in a social environment
and they're just kind of like,
just kind of trying to look cool, you know, just kind of,
what's up?
You know, they end up, they don't say anything,
because it's just all about what people think,
instead, just kind of just cutting loose
and having a good time, you know?
They miss out, you know, youth is wasted on the young, amen?
They miss out on years of their life
worried about what everybody thinks,
and then they don't serve God,
because they're worried about
what people are going to think,
or they're too embarrassed
to give the gospel to their friends,
because, you know, I remember just how mortified I was
to give the gospel to my friends as a teenager,
my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest
because I'm so worried about
what people are going to think of me,
I don't want to be made fun of or whatever as a teenager,
but you know what, when you grow up,
you get past that, don't you?
Well, you know what,
when you become a mature spiritual Christian,
you stop worrying so much what everybody else thinks,
and you know what, over the past few weeks,
you know, I've had to make hard decisions,
I've had to execute judgment,
I've had to do different things along the way,
some that were popular, some that were unpopular,
but you know what, at the end of the day,
at the end of the day,
I know that what I did was right,
and that's all that matters,
and you know what, the biggest criticism I've received
over the past few weeks has been,
the number one criticism has been,
oh, this should be dealt with privately
because otherwise, it makes Christianity look bad,
it makes us look bad,
it makes Baptist look bad, or whatever.
No, you know what, it's the right thing
to handle it the way that we handled it,
and so, I don't care what it makes Christianity look like
at the end of the day.
That's, I'm gonna leave that up to the Lord.
I'm not in the Lord's PR department.
I'm not in the Lord of the universes,
you know, image consulting group.
Like, I'm supposed to sit here and polish the apple,
right, and try to make it look real good.
You know what, the bottom line is, Christianity is good.
The Lord is good.
Being a Baptist is good, and you know what,
it's not my job to try to put some kind of a facade on it
or polish that apple, and hey, look how good it is,
everybody, oh, don't, don't, you know,
never mind what's behind the curtain over here.
No, no, that's not my problem, folks.
I'm just gonna do right, execute judgment.
People are gonna fall over dead in the service
and get carried out, and you know what,
if that scares people and they don't wanna come
to the church, then they're just not gonna come
to the church, but you know what,
the church goes on.
You know, correct me if I'm wrong,
but when I read Acts chapter five,
I don't think that this hurt their attendance.
Boy, the church multiplied greatly.
It didn't hurt their soul winning.
They got multitude saved.
The church grew, the church multitude,
the church thrived, and they say,
well, but what about those people
that durst not join themselves
because it was getting too scary?
Nuts to them.
Nuts to them, you know, I've said it often,
I'll get on my knees and beg someone to get saved,
but I'll never get on my knees
and beg someone to come to church.
You know, at the end of the day,
if people don't wanna come to church,
then I don't want them here.
If somebody says, I don't wanna go to your church,
I just think, well, great, I don't want you here either,
so it sounds like we're in agreement.
Look, I want everybody to get saved.
I'll get on my knees and beg someone to get saved.
I've pleaded and begged people to get saved
and in tears begged someone to get saved,
but I've never tearfully begged someone,
oh, please don't leave the church, please.
Don't leave me, please stay and pay for it.
You know, people come to me
and tell me they're leaving the church,
I say, hey, God bless you,
you need any help finding another church?
All right, hey, I hope you have a great life,
thanks for everything, it was good to know you.
Look, and don't ever be afraid to tell me
that you're leaving, because if you tell me
that you're leaving, I'll bless you
and pray for you and send you out on good terms.
That's what I tried to do with that bozo
on Wednesday night, he told me I'm leaving,
I said, hey, man, God bless you,
I totally understand, have a good one.
And then he just starts telling me
how you've got blood on your hands,
and I'm like, yeah, the blood of false prophets.
Amen, my garment's bathed in blood.
But the point is, folks, that if people
can walk away from you, let them go.
That's really the point.
So, hey, people dare not join themselves unto you,
you know what that means?
That just means they're not cut out
for Faith Forward Baptist Church,
or they're not cut out for the church in Acts Five,
and that's okay.
And you know what, maybe they can happily serve God
in another church, and they can have a good life,
and God can use them greatly, maybe, you know,
this church just isn't for them.
But I'm not gonna sit around worrying about it,
I'm not gonna worry about the attendance
as it fluctuates or goes up or goes down,
that's not why I get up in the morning,
I get up in the morning just trying to do
what God has for me to do.
Quit caring what people think,
quit caring what the Gatheists and Phagnostics think,
quit caring what the media thinks,
quit caring what other churches think,
quit caring, look, just do right.
And a lot of times doing right is gonna make
a lot of people mad, and a lot of people get upset,
and a lot of times if you did wrong,
everybody would be happy.
So what are you gonna do?
I'm gonna do right, and let the chips fall
where they may.
Let's pray, let's have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for this great story,
Lord, of Ananias and Sapphira,
let it be a warning unto those that after
would live ungodly of the seriousness of
stealing, lying, hypocrisy,
this holier than thou fake facade emulations.
Lord, I pray that you would just help us as a church
to do right and not care what people think
if people are afraid or what they like
or don't like about it, Lord.
Help us to just always ask what's the right thing
to do first and foremost.
And Lord, if we're ever in a situation
where we're being asked to lie
or being asked to steal or commit murder, Lord,
help us to realize that you deal with us
on an individual basis.
We can't hide behind our brother or sister
or wife or husband or our pastor or our boss at work,
Lord, help us to realize that we are accountable
for our own actions just like Sapphira was.
Lord God, I pray that every aspect of this story
would sink down into our ears
and would be a powerful warning in our lives.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.