Acts 4:31-5:11

So grateful to see all of you. So thankful for this powerful time of worship the Lord has given to us already this afternoon. We pray that God will continue to speak to our hearts through His word and even the Spirit of God that has been moving in this place will continue to move even in the minutes ahead as we turn to the immutable, unchanging word of God. 

So good to have so many of you, especially our pastor and mama, and others who have been traveling to different parts of the world and gone for way too long. We are glad that you’re back in church this afternoon, able to worship with us. And we pray, continue to pray, for those who will be traveling in the weeks ahead as well, for God’s continued grace upon their life.

We’re continuing with our series on ‘Church On The Rise’ and turn our Bibles this afternoon to the Book of Acts Chapter 4. For the lack of time, I’ll just read a few verses, but I’ll be covering Acts 4:32 all the way to Acts 5:11.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.

We ended last week by looking at the response of the believers to the mandate, the commandment, the order that was given by the Sanhedrin not to preach in Jesus’ name, at least not preach on the temple grounds. It was made very clear to them, but they responded to it by asking for boldness. They asked for the Lord not to take away the opposition of the Sanhedrin, but to give them boldness to preach the gospel even more clearly. The Bible tells us that after they prayed this powerful prayer, acknowledging that what happened to Jesus was ordained by the Father and that everything happening in their life right now was also under the control of the Father, the place they were sitting in was shaken to the core. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and as a result of that filling, the Bible tells us they spoke the word of God boldly.

So, by the time you came to the end of the section we covered last week, they already received the answer to the prayer they were praying. “God, give us boldness.” The Spirit of God comes upon them with power, even shaking the material place they were sitting in, and genuinely giving them the boldness they were asking for. And God had done something so miraculous.

Then, what Luke tells us starting from 4:32 is what would happen to them as a result of the filling of the Spirit of God. See, as you often hear me preach, time and time again, the filling of the Spirit of God gives us boldness. But look what happens. It fills us with an unselfish heart and a willingness to share what we have with others. That is not natural at all. Sometimes, some of the most stingy people we find are within the walls of the church. And that is really, really sad. We claim to love each other but don’t share in the burdens of each other. When you see your fellow brother or sister in need, just saying to them, “We’ll be praying for you,” sometimes is not enough. It needs to go beyond that. And what we have in the New Testament Church is not an endorsement of socialism.

Socialism says, “Take everybody’s money, put it into one pot, and divide it up equally.” That’s not what the Bible is teaching. These are people who are moved by the Spirit of God, who not out of force but out of compulsion that have been given by the Spirit of God, are finding needs among them and meeting those needs because they are willing to share in the plenty that God had given to them.

Look at 4:32. All the believers, the Bible says, were one in heart and mind. Again, we talked about that last week as well. Where does that unity come from? The unity comes from the Spirit of God that is now indwelling in their heart and filling them to the brim. So, what we need more than ever is unity in the spirit. Remember, we talked about that: unity in the Spirit of God. Because of that, no one claimed that any of their possessions were their own. It’s not that they did not own land or their own houses or property. They did not claim them as their own. They looked at whatever they had in their life as a gift from the Lord. And now, as a gift from the Lord, they looked at it as an avenue, an opportunity to share with others. But they shared everything that they had.

You know, it is often said that money makes a great servant but not a great master. If money masters you, then you’re in trouble. But if money is used to achieve the things that God wants us to do, a good servant in your hands, then it becomes something to be a blessing of the Lord. You know, I know of a lot of poor people who never give, and I know a lot of rich people who give a lot. But the other side is also true: a lot of poor people that give a lot and a lot of rich people that also do not give a lot. Richness is not the problem; the problem is what you do with the riches that God has given to you. What kind of a steward are you? Make it to be a servant. They had done the very thing; they shared everything that they had.

Look at 4:34-35. There were no needy persons among them, the Bible says. From time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the feet of the apostles. And it was distributed to anyone who had need. It’s not that everyone was equally rich. No, it was not that everyone was equally poor. Any time there was a great need in the church, they met the need by selling what they had and sharing with those who could not afford the things they were looking for. A beautiful picture of what God wants His church to be, even in the 21st century as well.

A sharing Church. A caring Church. A church that is willing to look at the needs of others and willing to sacrificially give to meet that need. And I thank God that we are a church just like that. And I pray that in the days to come, our sacrificial giving and our willingness to share what God has given to us will only increase and never decrease. And I pray that the spirit that is always present in Restoration Church will be one of sacrificial giving, where we share in the burdens of each other and we give what God has given to us. And we are good stewards of what God has given to us.

The church did that for many centuries. It is estimated that by the time the fourth Century came about, the church in Rome, a lot of times for selfish reasons, was feeding almost 20,000 people in a given day. The Church of the early days was a giving church. It was a sharing Church, a church that went out in the communities and did things for people. And that’s exactly what God wants us to do, even in the days as well.

A story is told in 1945 of a news reporter by the name of Clarence Hall, who followed American troops as they went through Japan. And he and his Jeep driver famously came upon a small town that stood out as a beautiful example of a Christian community. They were going from village to village, and this reporter was writing down everything that he was seeing. And he came to one Christian village, a Christian community in the middle of Japan, and immediately, he himself, not being a believer, noticed that this village and community was so different than all the other villages he had driven through.

He wrote, “We had seen other Okinawan villages, down at the hills and in despair, mainly because of the war. By contrast, this one shone like a diamond in a dung heap.” He says, “Everywhere we were greeted by smiles and dignified bows. Proudly, the old man showed us their spotless homes, their terrace fields, their storehouse and granaries, their prized sugar mill.” And he almost says, “I thought I was in a different country because here we are driving through villages, suddenly we come to a village where Christians are there, and suddenly even the homes, the way the homes look, where their factories look, where the communities look, the attitude of the people are so different.”

He said he saw no jail in that community, no drunkenness in that community, divorce was unknown. He learned how they came to be Christians. It was an American missionary who had come there 30 years earlier. While he was in the village, he had led two people to Christ and left them with a Japanese Bible. These new believers read the scriptures and started leading their fellow villagers to Jesus.

Hall’s Jeep driver said he was amazed at the difference between this village and the others around. He remarked, “This is what comes out of only a Bible and a couple of old guys who wanted to live like Jesus.”

See, the gospel changes communities. The gospel changes people. The tragedy of the 21st century is not that the world does not want to know who Jesus is. The problem is the ones who are supposed to look like Jesus do not look like Jesus. And so, the world has absolutely no interest in the gospel that we are preaching because they don’t see any difference between us and the world that is out there.

But if we could be, by the grace of God, like a diamond in a heap of dung, be that light that shines in the darkness, a community of believers that are truly caught by the love of God, and we show such love to each other, so that even those passerby would say, “What a church that is marked by the love of Jesus and by the sacrificial way in which He loved us,” and oh, they would want to be just like us. And that’s where the gospel is able to take root.

See, the oft-heard and so true saying is, “The world at its worst needs the church at its best.” Let me repeat that again: The world at its worst needs the church at its best. And you know where we are standing today? The world at its worst. And you know what the church needs to be? The church needs to be at its best because that is how you spread the light and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ into a dying and a perishing world.

So, they’re sharing everything. And in the context of this, the Word of God will introduce us to a man who has sacrificially given: Joseph, verse 36 and 37, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas. Oh, what a great nickname to be given! Joseph was his given name, his dad and mom gave the name Joseph, but because of the way he lived his life, and we’ll talk about Barnabas later on, so I don’t want to spend any time talking about Barnabas today. The apostles had given him a nickname. You know what that is? Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.

It’s kind of surprising to me that we don’t have a lot of Barnabases in our communities. We have a lot of biblical names, but maybe because it doesn’t sound all that great. But Barnabas’ meaning is beautiful: “Son of Encouragement.” He sold a field. Wait a minute. So he sold a field he owned. That’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? Because who is Joseph? He’s a Levite. He is not supposed to own a field to begin with. The Levites are not supposed to own anything at all. They’re supposed to live off what comes from the temple grounds. They’re not supposed to own property. So what do we see here? Already the Old Testament laws are being loosened in the New Testament Church. Or Joseph was not a strong Levi to begin with. Whatever the case might be, he owned his own property. But you know what he did? Even though he was not supposed to own property according to Old Testament law, once he got the property that he maybe was not supposed to get, he did the right thing with it. He sold the property, and the word there is that he sold a plot of land. So he didn’t sell everything that he had. He sold a piece of the property that he had. And he brought the money and he put it at the apostles’ feet.

And this is one instance in which, you know, the divisions in God’s word is not inspired. It is just arranged for us to be able for ease of reading. There are no verses or chapter break in any of these books of the Bible. These are all added by people later on, and I don’t believe it to be inspired. This is an instance in which the chapter division is an unfortunate one. Because when you’re about to talk about Ananias and Sapphira, this detail is very important. If we just start reading chapter five, you will miss the context of what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach to us.

Barnabas sold the plot of land that he had, brought it, and gave it at the apostles’ feet. What we understand is that probably everyone turned to him and said, “Oh, look at Barnabas, a Levite who was not supposed to have land to begin with. Finally, for the first time in his own household, he has land, but he does not hold on to it. He sells it and he gives it to the apostles to be shared with others who do not have enough.” Seeing the accolades and the praises and all the recognition that Barnabas gets by giving, look what happens to a couple at their home. They’re thinking, “Man, that Barnabas, everybody is talking about him. Everybody is praising him. Everybody is saying about how much he gave to the church. Did you see the list? He gave more than others, and everybody is talking about what a generous guy he is. We also should be giving.” Wrong idea. Wrong motive for giving. There’s a reason why we don’t publish the list at our church. We don’t want anyone to be tempted by the same spirit that was in the mind of Ananias and Sapphira as well. We want to be a group of people who are giving because we love the Lord and we don’t love men. We are a group of people who want to give because we want the praise of the Father who sees it in secret and He gives reward to everyone, not only on this Earth but more importantly in the world to come, and not the praises of men.

But Ananias and Sapphira had a problem. Just like Barnabas, they had beautiful names. You know what the name Ananias means? Jehovah is gracious. His parents had very good intentions when they named him and by all accounts, he was a believer as well. There’s no reason to doubt that Ananias was a believer because they were all filled with the spirit of God. And when Peter is talking to him, he’s telling him, “Why are you disobeying the spirit of God, grieving the spirit of God?” So the understanding here is that he has the spirit of God, he is a believer. Sapphira, a beautiful name from which we get the name sapphire, which means beautiful. So, you have a man who says Jehovah is gracious and you have a woman who is supposedly beautiful, maybe not in appearance but at least by character, supposed to be. We don’t know.

And such beautiful names, but seeing what happened to Barnabas, they also decided something. Next, in 5:1-2, now in the context of Barnabas giving, a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. See, it is only the Bible who never hides the ugliness within the human heart. All that I’ve been reading from Acts chapter 1 all the way to the end of chapter four are wonderful things: power, grace, preaching, miracles. Suddenly the Holy Spirit says, “Tell the church about what happened to Ananias and Sapphira.” See, the Bible does not hide the weaknesses of men. Because you know why? The Bible is not the account of men who are trying to tell you that everything is rosy and wonderful within the walls of the church. The Bible also tells you what is wrong with the church. You know why? Because there are always things that are wrong with the church as well, and we need to know how to respond to it. The Bible does not hide the weaknesses of the people or even the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. A book in the world, every other mythological book only tells you the great things about their gods. But the Bible, I don’t have time, if you look at the Old Testament, for every good thing that each one of them did, the Bible will tell you the ways in which they also fell flat on their face.

Elijah would stand on Mount Carmel, challenge the prophets of Baal, yet just moments later, he would run away from a woman who was threatening to kill him. David would be a man after God’s Own Heart, yet he would commit one of the most horrendous crimes ever could be imaginable where he committed murder and adultery in one stretch of his life. Yes, we see that throughout God’s word. See, the world wants to hide its faults, but what the Bible is telling you is this: you don’t need to hide your faults when you come to the presence of God. You don’t need to put on a mask when you come to the presence of God. Your God knows who you are. Your God knows what you are. What you need to be is honest in the presence of God. Hypocrisy is hated by the Lord. 

Last night, we had Josh who was wearing the mask of a devil. He’s not the devil, he was wearing the mask of a devil. The word “hypocrisy” that is used by Jesus in the gospels come from a Greek play where “hypocrisy” is a word that comes from someone putting on a mask to show something that they’re not. And Jesus railed against it. And here again, in Acts chapter 5, the Bible does it because the Bible, the word of God, is something that is so true and it does not want to hide the weaknesses of the church itself.

Many of you know, if you study British history, a man by the name of Oliver Cromwell. He was all about Cromwell. He was a British statesman, he was a politician, he was a soldier who lived in the latter part of the 16th and the beginning part of the 17th century. He was regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the British Isles. But if you read English History, you know that he had a problem. He was not a very handsome man. He had all these warts on his face and he was very ugly; you could hardly look at him. One time, a painter was commissioned to paint Oliver Cromwell. The painter came, looked at the man, and he painted him. He brought back the painting after a while and, out of feeling sympathy for the way he looked, he removed all the warts in his painting. So he presented a very handsome man before Oliver Cromwell. Now, all of us would have probably put that picture up on the wall and probably made it our Facebook profile picture, but Oliver Cromwell was not at all impressed with the painting that he received. He told him, “Take it away and paint in the warts. I want an accurate depiction of what I look like. I don’t want you to take away the warts.”

See, the Bible doesn’t do that either. You know why? Because the Bible is truth. You want me to say that? I’ll say, the Bible is no cap. The Bible is true. It says truth as it is, and it is truth exactly the way it should be. And that’s what God’s word does. It paints us a picture. For those of you who don’t understand this joke, ask the kids. And the Bible tells because He does not want to tell us that everything was okay and well in the New Testament Church. They sold the property, and look, the Bible says, “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,” hoping to get the same accolades as what Barnabas did.

In the portion that we read in God’s word today from Gospel of Matthew 6:6, look what the Lord says. This is a great principle for all of us. When we give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. If you do that, they’ve received their reward in full. What a tragedy. When you go on Facebook and tell people about all the poor people that you helped, the Bible says, “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Don’t do that. These social media platforms are not there for us to tell the whole world about how great we are. We do it for the glory of God. With the right intention, it’s okay, but it should never be used as platforms to highlight how great and wonderful you are for the Lord because the Bible says that’s what hypocrites do.

We are supposed to do it, look at verses 3 and 4. When we give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so your giving may be in secret. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. The question that each one of us has to ask our heart is this: Do I want to be rewarded by man for just a moment or do I want eternal rewards that will never run out? You make the choice. Tragedy, we do sometimes, to people by lifting them up more than they should be. Even within the walls of the church. Sometimes we don’t praise you not because we don’t appreciate what you’re doing. I just don’t want to take your rewards away from the Lord. Nobody should sit in the peace of the church and say, “Pastor didn’t mention my name. I did a lot for the anniversary yesterday. He forgot my name.” That is not right and getting all sad-faced about it. You should go home rejoicing because “My pastor did not mention my name. Great is my reward in heaven because my Heavenly Father saw what I did.” So pastors that don’t praise you in public, pastors that don’t lift you up, are doing you a favor. One day in heaven, you will thank them, “Oh, this reward that I got because Pastor PB forgot my name on that Sunday morning.” See, that kind of attitude we should have. Remember what God’s word says, when it’s done in secret and no one knows about it, your father in Heaven knows about it. If at all possible, when you fast for 21 days, let it be known by you if at all possible. But if you want to encourage somebody else by telling them, “I fasted”, that’s fine. Let the right motive be behind what we’re doing.

Ananias and Sapphira missed it completely. Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you lie to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?” Here’s a man of God, filled with the Spirit of God, understanding fully what Ananias and Sapphira are doing. He confronts them, “How is it that Satan has so filled your heart?” Up until this time, what we read in God’s word was the filling of the Spirit of God. Now in place of the filling of the Spirit of God, Satan has filled his heart to do what they have done and he is about to destroy their life. How is it that we have made them lie in the presence of God?

A story is told of a 12-year-old boy who was really scared about going to the orthodontist. He went to the orthodontist and one of the questions on his patient questionnaire was, “What are your hobbies?” He wrote down swimming and flossing. That’s how people are, putting on a mask, telling things exaggeratedly, making things out to be more than they are. But God calls it lying to the Spirit of God. Especially when done in the presence of God, it’s not exaggeration, it’s not a white lie. It is deceiving the Spirit of God. He asked him a pointed question in verse 4, “Why are you doing this? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? You didn’t have to do this. You didn’t have to give. In fact, the Holy Spirit would not have been upset with you at all if you didn’t give anything to the church. Before you had it, it was yours. After it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

By the way, if you need any evidence to the fact that the Holy Spirit is also God, it’s Acts 5:3-4. In verse 3, Luke tells us Peter said, “You lie to the Holy Spirit.” In verse 4, the same Peter says, “You lie to God.” The Holy Spirit is God as well. This is for those of you when you get challenged by someone asking, “Is the Holy Spirit a force? Is the Holy Spirit God?” These are some of the passages you can point to. He lied not only to the Holy Spirit, he lied to the Holy Spirit who is God as well.

Verse 5: When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died, and great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Immediately, he fell and died.

Years ago, when we were singing a hymn at a church that I was part of, one person came to me and said, “Pastor, that song we sang in church today, I did not sing.” And I asked, “Why?” They replied, “Because it said, ‘I had laid down everything at Calvary’s feet,’ and I have not done that. I didn’t want to be standing in church and singing a lie.” I thought about that. That’s powerful conviction.

Donald Bonhaus, a famous Presbyterian preacher and theologian, would prohibit his congregation from singing the third stanza of the song “At Calvary.” The lines of that song say that I lay it all down at Calvary and I give everything away that I have. He commented, “Wait a minute, that is not true of anybody sitting here, don’t sing that.” I’m not saying you shouldn’t sing certain songs that talk about surrendering everything, but ask ourselves, how true are we to the words of the songs we’re singing? When we are being untrue, what are we doing? We are lying to the Spirit of God.

Donald Bonhaus once remarked, “If God had judged people today like he did on that day with Ananias and Sapphira, our churches would be morgues and the greatest job of the pastor would be that of an undertaker.”

“I surrender all,” “My heart completely,” “You are my greatest love,” “The world behind me, the cross before me,” ask yourself. “Take up the cross after Him.” Speaking to myself this afternoon, many times my life does not measure up to my sermons on a Sunday afternoon. I’m not struck down dead, only because of the grace and the mercy of God. How many times did I stretch my hands towards the table of the Lord in an unworthy manner without properly judging the body? We all need to be aware.

It’s easy for us to look at what happened with Ananias and Sapphira and label them as bad people. But, if we are honest with ourselves, we often find that we don’t measure up to the prayers, the songs, and the sermons we repeat week after week. Preparing this sermon was challenging for me this week because the Holy Spirit kept convicting my heart of things I need to address in my own life. I started asking myself if I was just putting on a facade on Sundays, making people think I’m someone I’m not. This is the danger of hypocrisy.

None of us are willingly doing it, but sometimes, in the ebb and flow of life, we find ourselves so far away from what we know to be true. Hypocrisy is dangerous not only because it brings about the judgment of God but because it destroys character. That’s the greatest problem with hypocrisy. Before you know it, you have become something that you are not. Before you know it, your profession of faith does not equal the way you live your life.

One man commented, “Hypocrisy is being something different on Sundays than on any other day of the week.” Let me repeat that: Hypocrisy is being different on Sundays than on any other day of the week. That’s hypocrisy. We, as a church, need to ask ourselves: Am I honest? Do I have integrity? Do I really live by the things that I preach to others and teach to others?

It’s so difficult to notice the speck in someone else’s eye and ignore the log in our own eye. They buried him immediately, as was customary at that time. Typically, they would keep a body for about three hours.

Verses 7-8: About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. It’s kind of interesting that no one grabbed her on the way and said, “Hold on, let me tell you what happened over there,” or that they didn’t even call her for the funeral. That’s the way they did it. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? What is God doing here? Grace, an opportunity to come clean. How many times God has done this in our life? Is it really all that you sold the property for?” That’s the grace of God shown to Sapphira, asking that question again. She’s not struck dead immediately. Peter asked her the question, but she replied the wrong way. “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

Look at verse 11, “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.” Hebrews 12:28-29 tells us this: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” This is the New Testament age; this is not the old Covenant. This happened in the age of Grace, and this can happen even today as well. Maybe many are sick, many are weak, even within the walls of many of our churches because they have stretched their hands towards the table in an unworthy manner, time and time again. How many have fallen ill, how many have met an untimely death because they did not follow God the way they should follow Him? We will never know, maybe on the side of Eternity.

Let me leave you with three things I want you to take away from the sermon today. First, in this passage itself, what we saw is great power coming upon them. They preached the resurrection of Jesus. The Bible says with great power, and great grace was given to them. But also, twice, the Bible says great fear came upon them. And what we need at Restoration Church, are these three things: great power, great grace, and great fear of the holy God. Great power, we need that. Great grace, we need that every hour. But we also need great fear in our lives. Our God is a consuming fire. He is a holy God. He is not to be played with. He is not to be messed around with. We need to have a holy reverence towards our God, an awe in the presence of our God. He is a consuming fire. He still is a consuming fire. Great fear needs to be in your life. That will drive you to great humility and great obedience to the word of God. What is so lacking in this age of hyper grace is great fear in the minds of believers. But God is still the same God. He is still a God of grace, but he’s a God of judgment as well. The church needs to be reminded of that time and time again.

Secondly, testing the mercy of God is a dangerous game with serious consequences. Time and time again, as you lie, deceive, and get away with it, you think you’re smart. You’re not. It’s only the mercy of God that has kept you alive on the face of the Earth. But testing the mercy of God over and over again is a dangerous game with serious consequences. Many have become spiritually dead, spiritually ineffective, maybe not physically dead, because of a life of hypocrisy. Don’t do this. Do not test the mercy of God.

Finally, the corruption from within is more destructive to the body of Christ than any opposition it faces from the outside. In chapter four, we see the Sanhedrin coming to shut them down. In chapter five, the devil enters the hearts and minds of a couple, bringing corruption, deception, and sin within the walls of the church. More than ever, Satan attacks from the inside, bringing sin into the church. That’s why discipline is so crucial within the walls of the church. That’s why proper accountability is so vital. When he cannot destroy us from the outside, he will try to destroy us from the inside. A little leaven does a great deal of harm, and a small sin does significant damage. Do not tolerate that within the walls of the church because that is the deceptive work of the devil.

I’ll end with this. A police officer once pulled over a driver and asked for the license and registration. “What’s wrong, officer?” the driver asks. “I did not go through any red lights and certainly was not speeding.” “No, you weren’t,” said the officer, “but I saw you waving your fist as you swerved around the lady driving in the left lane, and I further observed your flushed and angry face as you shouted at the other driver who cut you off. And how you pounded your steering wheel when traffic came to a stop near the bridge.” “Is that a crime, officer?” “No, but when I saw that ‘Jesus loves you, and so do I’ bumper sticker on the car, I figured this car had to be stolen.”

A lot of bumper stickers, “Jesus loves you, and so do I.” When you drive down the highway, do people know that you love Jesus and others as well? I pray we will be people who are honest, with integrity, and hold the highest standards of ethics in our life. That’s what God has called us to be: a people who are a light in this dark world.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the warnings in God’s word. We thank you that your word does not hide any of the sin in the New Testament Church, reminding us how seriously you take that, how unwilling you are to tolerate such blemishes in your church. Lord, you’re calling us to greater fear in our lives, greater power, and greater grace from the Lord above. I pray we will not test your mercy but, recognizing you have withheld judgment because you’re a merciful God, we will hold onto the horns of the altar and cry out, asking for the forgiveness of our sins. Make us a church that is honest, repentant, willing to be vulnerable, and laid bare before you, asking you to cleanse us and wash us. Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayer. It’s in the name of the Lord Jesus that we pray, amen.