SPEAKER_01 1:05

Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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It seems like Ananias and Sapphira were people that were looking for the accolades of men. And if that's what you're after, you got it. And that's your reward. Jesus is saying, there's so much more I have to give to you, though. Look to please me and not man. And you don't please me with your giving. You please me because you believe me. You please me because you have faith in me.

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Many people chase the approval of man. I know I've been there. Every day when I look in the mirror, I make sure my hair looks decent. Inspect for any blackheads, shave, brush my teeth. It's not necessarily for my satisfaction, but rather so I don't offend others with my grisly appearance. In today's message, Pastor Carl teaches that you could easily chase after man's approval, and you might get it. But that's all you'll get. However, if you chase after God's, then you get an eternity with Jesus. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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If you give 10% as a tithe, it's an acknowledgement that it's all God's. It's to help our flesh to recognize if I give 10%, that means it's really all the Lord's. It's all the Lord's. And then they recognized this all of a sudden. And then it wasn't about their livelihood. It wasn't about their comfort anymore. Now it was about glorifying God and being a good manager and taking care of my new brothers and sisters in Christ. You've got to realize that this again was Pentecost and people had come from hundreds of miles around to be a part of the festival. And it was about time to go home, but now something happened. They became a Christian. 5,000 of them became Christians. And they didn't want to go home. They wanted to grow in this new knowledge of who the Lord is now and my new relationship and this church thing. And this is all new and exciting. And I can't go. I'm not equipped yet to go. But I used up all my budget for this trip already, and I don't know what I'm going to do. So others that were, a lot of them local, who had land to sell, they would sell their land so these people would have a place to stay, have food to eat. Well, they all grew in the Lord together. I believe that's what the context is of what's happening here. And that begs the question for us. How do we look at the things that we have? Do they belong to me? Or do we have them with hope in hands and saying, Lord, this is all yours? And when the Lord says, I want you to take that, I want you to sell that, and I want you to give a certain amount to these people for this purpose, because I'm sending them to go over there to do something. When we see that, we recognize that the Lord is at work and we willingly do that. It's a supernatural thing. It goes against our flesh. Our flesh is all about taking care of myself, building my own kingdom. When we become followers of Jesus Christ, we recognize that I'm a servant of God. I am a bonser. I'm a slave to God. I don't own anything. I'm just a manager of my master's things. May the Lord give us that attitude as we go forward. Now, one of the guys that sold some property was the name by the name of Joseph, who was also named Barnabas, which was translated the son of encouragement. And we'll see a lot of him throughout the book of Acts. Now, something interesting about him, he was a Levite of the country of Cyprus. Now, Levites, if we go back again into the Old Testament and look at some of the things that were laid out about the Levites, they were not to own any land. They didn't have any part of the inheritance. Their inheritance was to be spread out among the other tribes of Israel. And now we have a Levite here that apparently owns some land, that found some loopholes and some ways to set up some stuff for him on the side and take care of his family. And something happened with him when he came to the Lord, when he realized who Jesus was, when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. When we come to faith in Jesus, and as we grow in Jesus, there are things that he'll come and he'll remind us of. He'll convict us of. And we will repent again and say, Lord, what do you want to do about this situation? It seems like something like that happened to Joseph, who was later called Barnabas. And he willingly came, having land, and sold it and brought it, the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. He said, I'm done with trying to live life my own way. I want God to use this for his glory. I'm all in. Are you all in? Are you serving God with your whole heart? Are you going your own way? Now, before we wrap up today, I'm going to take a few more verses in chapter 5 and look at another couple who had a little bit of a different attitude toward giving land. Chapter 5, verse 1, but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of it, part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. In essence, they sold this land, they kept some back, and they brought the proceeds and they gave it to Peter as if it was the whole thing. You understand? So they said, We sold all our land and this is everything. Except this little piece that we came back, but you don't need to know about that. Alright? So that's the attitude behind there. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? When it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Peter's basically saying, if you only wanted to give part of it, if that's what the Lord told you to do, that's fine. Just don't pretend like you gave the whole thing. Why in the world would you say that you gave the whole thing and then keep some back? What are you trying to do? Are you trying to oppress us on how spiritual you are when you really aren't? Our attitude and how we give and the things that we do and why we do the things that we do are very important, aren't they? It's not just the things that we do, it's why and how, and what is our heart doing. And in 2 Corinthians, Paul addresses this in chapter 9, starting at verse 6, he said, This I say to you, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart. Not as much as somebody might say you have to give. But are you responding to the Lord in thanksgiving and giving based on what you and the Lord have purposed in your heart to give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. I don't want to give all this. Well, don't give it then. I don't want it, the Lord says. If you're coming cheerfully with hearts of thanksgiving, the Lord accepts that. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that having all sufficiency and all things may have an abundance for every good work. Why is it that we want to give liberally? Why do we want to give with a whole heart? Because we can't outgive God and his grace towards us. If you experience God's grace, you realize how good he is and how undeserving I am of it. And the more that we give back to him, the more he can give us of his grace. This is not you give and you get a whole lot more money. I mean, the Lord will provide. Definitely. And sometimes with a lot more money. But that's not the main point. The main point is having the sufficiency in all things to have an abundance for every good work. He wants to fill you with grace so that you can be a vessel that he ministers to other people through, mainly with the truth of the gospel. Anyway, so it's an attitude thing. They were holding back, they were not giving with their whole hearts, and so they were not giving with everything because their things were more important to them than God. And it seems like their attitudes, their their um what they're known by by others, it was more important to them than their relationship with the Lord. And verse 5 said, then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. Laura's pretty serious, wasn't he? The Lord's not here to play games. Do you love me? Have you been changed by me? Do you want to grow in me or not? Don't play any games. Don't pretend like you want to grow in me and you don't even know me. Come to me, I'm good, he says. But let's be honest about it. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. And the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him out back. That would uh freak you out, wouldn't it? That's the fear of the Lord that comes upon them. Now, how many of these uh left the faith because of what happened there? As we read on, we we we find that more and more people came to the faith. You see, there's a great fear in the holiness of God, but at the same time, there's this great joy and freedom in the grace of God, in his forgiveness. But if you're not walking in that grace of God, pretending you are, you're in a very dangerous place. Now, in verse 7, it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter answered her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much. She said, Yes, for so much. Then Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. Now, these people might have been really nice people, and they may have been very successful in their business ventures, and they may have had a lot of charitable contributions that they made to build the new park and to support the new wing at the hospital and so forth. Very good people, doing very good things. And they wanted to be, they wanted to look good in the church too, because he may have been a deacon in the church. Who knows, you know? They may have been in influential positions. And they liked that. They like to be important, they like to be good, they like to be thought of as, you know, those are really great people. And yet, they really didn't know the Lord. They lied against the Lord. Again, may we heed that warning. The Lord is good, he knows us, he knows our every heartbeat, our every thought. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Why do we think we can fool him and uh do some secret sin in the meantime and expect blessings from him? Give it all to him. Give it all to him. And so great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. Next week we'll pick up in verse 12, but before we wrap up, I want to touch on some themes here before we wrap up. First, Wednesday night we were uh going through Matthew chapter 6, and this verse came up, and I thought it was very apropos to what we're talking about here. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory for man. Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward. It seems like Ananias and Sapphira were people that were looking for the accolades of man. And if that's what you're after, you got it, and that's your reward. Jesus is saying, There's so much more I have to give to you, though. Look to please me and not man. And you don't please me with your giving. You please me because you believe me. You please me because you have faith in me. You please me because you've surrendered your life to me and allowed me to do some work on you and to change you. And as a result, you have a heart that wants to give even more. That's the heart of God that he has towards us. Now, there is a church that Jesus writes to in the book of Revelation. There are seven churches, but this one in specific he's writing to, which kind of talk about the condition of the heart of Ananias and Sapphira, and maybe a lot of us in the church today. Revelation chapter 3, starting in verse 14, and to the angel of the church of Laodicea, right? These things say the Amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. The Amen, let it be. The one who's faithful, the true witness, the one who tells us something about us, it's accurate. This is the one to listen to. This is not only the God that's the judge, but this is the God who's the Savior, who wants to save you, redeem you, conform you to his image. He's the beginning of the creation of God. He is the creator. And he says, I know your works. That you're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot, so then because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. That's pretty graphic, isn't it? But he says, I want you to be honest. Are you surrendered to me or are you not? Don't don't play with this middle ground stuff. Because it doesn't do any good for anybody. If you're against me, then at least we know where you stand and we can show you some truth. If you're for me and you're and you're humbled, and and and you're you're you're totally surrendered and you're dependent on me, I can use you. I can make you into something glorious. But if you're in between, it's no use. Ananias and Sapphira were in between, they were lukewarm. And look what God did. Now, I I don't want to, there's a lot of debate whether they were saved or not. They may have been because they were part of the the group, they came to faith in Jesus, which tells us as Christians, we can we can have come to faith in the Lord, but we could have lost our fire for him and and drifted off and start doing some things in the world again. And the Lord in his grace may just take us out before we go too far. But that's another story for another time. The point is here, the Lord wants us to be either hot or cold. Don't be lukewarm. Don't pretend like you're one thing when you're not. He goes on in Revelation. Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing. I'm a self-made man. God, I'm good. I could do these things, I can give money, I could keep some back. It's good because I'm I built this and it's good. It's a false pride, it's it's it's a false understanding of how they got there. He goes on to say, you do not know who you are. Wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Do we realize that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked? Without the Lord, yes. With the Lord, you're glorious, you're precious, you're rich. You can see and you're clothed in God's righteousness. But you've got to be in Christ to do those things. If you're not, we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And if we drift away from the Lord, we're not drifting into something better. We're drifting back into the old ways, into the misery. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you might be rich, and white garments, that you might be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eye slave, so that you might see. The gospel offers all of that. How do we buy the gospel? Well, it's it's a free gift to us, but we have to change some of our perspectives. We need to put some things aside so that we can focus on what's important. What's important to you? Our relationship with the Lord or your position and your stuff? These are serious questions the Lord is asking us to consider. It goes on in verse 19 of Revelation 3. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. I love you. This is why I'm saying these things. And I'm not lying to you to say you're poor and wretched. I'm not mean. I'm just telling you the truth. You need help. You need me. Therefore, be zealous and repent. There's so many things we're zealous for in this world, right? But are we zealous to humble ourselves? I'm all about the Lord. So I I mean, nothing. God, everything. Lord, I'm sorry. Please change me. I'm passionately coming to you, realizing that I can't do anything on my own. I need you. Be zealous and repent. If we're full of pride, we won't even get close to that. There's nothing wrong with me. I've done plenty of good. I'm good. And then he says, a verse that many of us are very familiar with. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and he with me. Do you hear the passion of the Lord desiring an intimate relationship with us? I don't want you just to admit that you're a bad person. I want you to acknowledge that so that you can come in and be a part of me. So that we could sit down together, that we could talk, and that we could laugh, and that we can plan and that we can learn and just share our hearts together. And you notice he's writing it to a church. A church which is comprised of believers in Jesus Christ. We often use that this as an evangelistic tool to the unsaved, which which applies. The Lord's ready, you know. Come and knock. I'm knocking at your door, open the door, let me in. I'm I'm ready. But he's talking to you and me. I'm ready to fellowship with you. We had a good time of fellowship when we first came to faith. When you first came to faith in me, and and you I redeemed you and called you my own. But but you've kind of drifted away. Would you come back? I I I want to I want to share with you. I want to hear from you. I want to do life with you. Then he says, To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne. You want to do what? I want you to sit on my throne with me, the Lord says. Because I love you, because I've redeemed you, because I'm I'm making you a new creation. Would you come and participate in it? I've got great plans. It just blows me away when I think about it. What does he mean by that? As I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. May the Lord give you ears to hear this morning. Is there something that the Lord wants to get through to you that you haven't been able to hear for years? May we have ears to hear. May we have eyes to see. May we have hearts that are humbled and willing to allow the Lord to do his work in our hearts, in our lives, to conform us to his image. So that we can truly be filled with the Holy Spirit and used by him to declare the wonders and the works of God through the Word of God so that people can hear the gospel and be changed, and they can be added to that number as well. Not because of anything I've done, but because of the goodness of God, for his glory and his honor and our good forever and ever. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

That's Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're currently in the book of Acts, which was written by Luke, who came to know and follow Jesus through the Apostle Paul. Luke was a physician, a Gentile, and had never even met Jesus. Jesus' followers came from all walks of life: rich, poor, educated, illiterate, men, women, old, young. Jesus is for everyone. Why else would his original twelve disciples be a hodgepodge group of fishermen, a tax collector, a religious zealot, brothers who were known to rage, and Thomas, who we only know for his moment of doubt. That means Jesus is for you too. He came to earth to save whosoever would believe in the gospel. Christ died for sinners, was buried, and rose again. Do you believe? Learn more about God's amazing grace by clicking on How to Know God when you visit themountaincross.com. If you're local to Western North Carolina, we'd love to meet you in person and continue this discussion about the good news of Jesus Christ. We meet Sundays, 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville. Quickly, we'd also like to invite you to Faith Film Night, featuring faith-based films on the first Monday of the month. Learn more on our Facebook page, Faith Film Night. If you enjoy Come On Up, would you consider making a gift to help us continue? Simply visit themountaincross.com slash donate. Thank you. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by The Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.