Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Welcome everyone. Praise the Lord.
Man, you guys look beautiful today. You know that? You're radiant.
It's a gloomy day outside, but it's sunny in here, amen?
There's all kinds of suns, suns of light in this place.
Praise God. Yeah, so if you could turn to Acts chapter 5.
Yeah, I'm so used to all these other announcements I have to add in, man.
You guys did such an amazing job. We're just good.
But I'm really looking forward to the men's breakfast.
Our dear brother Isaiah, he's going to be bringing it this coming Saturday.
So you guys make sure you come out for that.
And I don't know if Arnold's still in the house, but here he is.
Arnold, you can't be here this Saturday, but next month, right?
All right. So we're going to be looking at Acts chapter 5 verses 1 to 11.
So let's pray. Father God, we thank you for being here.
We thank you, Lord, that your spirit is alive, Lord.
We thank you that just the jubilation that we experience in our worship today,
celebrating, Lord God, that you are at large and in charge in our lives.
And you're going to do so many things here this morning, even,
as we celebrate you and we ask you to just speak to us through your word.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So today's message is titled cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
And, you know, we really want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, don't we?
We don't want to challenge the Holy Spirit.
We don't want to question the Holy Spirit.
We want to cooperate because, you know, whatever operation
the Holy Spirit's engaged in, we want to be part of it, right?
We want to partner with the Holy Spirit.
And we've been studying, of course, in the book of Acts to early church
how many amazing things God was doing through the church.
Yeah, you picture Jesus Christ, ascend it to heaven,
and he said greater things will you do than these, right?
And then the Holy Spirit just came upon the early believers and filled them.
And now the Lord is choosing to do his work through ordinary folks like us
that are born again.
And so we read about how people were getting saved, signs, wonders, miracles.
And last week we looked at how the generosity of the early church,
how they were just giving everything because they sensed,
what good is it down here?
I'm looking for an eternal treasure in heaven, right?
And so people were just so benevolent and generous
because great grace was upon them.
They just experienced God's benevolence,
his giftedness, how just plentiful he always just endues us
with all the good things from heaven.
And so we looked at how everyone was just giving and giving
because the Holy Spirit was inspiring them to do so.
And last week we looked at, if you could have this first slide up,
we looked at how they were bringing, they're selling their possessions,
their land, their property, and they're bringing it.
And we learned about laying their offerings to the feet of the apostles.
What did that mean to lay their offerings at the feet of the apostles?
And we talked about how that demonstrated submission to God's authority,
people that the Lord put in charge of the early church.
Trust that I trust they're going to use this properly
and be good stewards of what I'm surrendering.
The next thing, of course, is surrendering these things saying,
they no longer belong to me.
They now belong to the apostle, to the church,
really to Jesus Christ to disperse how he wants to disperse them.
And then finally was the unity.
It demonstrated unity because they're all giving at the same time.
And we compared that, if you can recall,
to when Israel was taking a collection of gold and silver
and all the very expensive fabrics and so forth,
that they were actually given in Egypt.
Imagine that the Egyptians were paying them to leave
just as God said that they would, because they were just plundering.
They used to be slaves.
Now they're plundering the very land that enslaved them.
And so they were getting paid to leave.
And so they had all these treasures out in the wilderness
and now they learned why,
in order to surrender them to the Lord to build the tabernacle.
And so we talked about how the unity everyone brought with a willing heart, by the way.
In fact, the Lord said, only collect those
who are coming with an eager and willing heart to give towards the Lord.
And so the Lord was building his tabernacle
with those very treasures that they exploited or took
from the Egyptians on their way out.
And then we also talked about the temple
and how hundreds of years later, finally,
when King Solomon was going to build the temple,
David took a collection of all the things from Israel
that would be needed to build the temple of God.
And there, again, there was so much coming in
that they told them to stop.
We don't even know where to put it all.
Like, stop, stop, stop.
Because there's so much generosity that was just pouring out
because they felt they just experienced God's grace upon their kingdom.
They finally had a land.
They finally had victory in all of their battles.
They finally had possessions.
You know, things were good in Israel at that time,
so they just wanted to pour out to God and give.
You know, it just reminded me right now of,
remember when North Carolina had the hurricanes and so forth
and we were trying to get involved,
and some of us actually did, took a trip down there.
Jordan and Jen Good and some others went down there
and delivered products and supplies and resources.
But I'll never forget that the interesting thing
is that when I was speaking to a church down there
and I was talking to one of the pastors,
I'm like, so what do you need down there?
It was like, you know what, actually,
all the things that are coming down, we have too much of.
We don't even know where to put it all.
Imagine that.
Now, they needed new things, okay,
some things that perhaps were more difficult to get.
But you love hearing the generosity, right, just pouring out.
Like, you know, people didn't even realize
what they were bringing down.
They had too much of.
They didn't even know where to put it.
So that's the idea.
And so we see this picture of people giving, giving, giving.
But now we're going to hit a bump in the road, okay?
As you know, the story, those of you who have read ahead,
because everything's good.
There's so much flow of the Holy Spirit.
There's so much love,
salvations, discipleship, signs, wonders, miracles, healings, right?
So many great things are happening.
People are generous to one another.
And then suddenly this happens, okay?
And we can see, really, it was the first time that Satan,
the devil, was actually intruding.
He was actually creeping in to the early church.
And as a result, we're going to see a striking, severe,
and harsh rapid wrath of God in this passage.
I mean, he's just going to bam.
I am going to deal with this now, you know?
Sometimes the Lord brings his wrath
because he wants to set a precedent.
Like, we're going to, no, no, no, no, no.
We're not doing this, okay?
And he just brings that wrath immediately
so that there will be fear that falls upon the church.
It says, whoa, like, you know,
we need to be reverent of God.
You know, as great as this seems,
and it must have been, let's face it,
the early church was like the wild, wild west, you know?
It was like all kinds of things are happening.
And suddenly, you know, you can get carried away
and not realize, no, this is God doing it.
We don't do whatever we want.
We cooperate with what God is doing.
And so as we read this, we're going to realize
this is a really important moment,
and we're going to be hearing about other ones
during the history with God and his people
that are striking, and we can learn a lot from it.
But don't worry, we're not going to be walking out of here
saying, oh, no, like, am I doing something wrong?
Or, you know, like, because, you know, thank God,
you know, his wrath is not upon us.
It's not like he won't sometimes give some discipline
when we're out of line,
but we don't have to fear his wrath,
but we really need to always revere his power
and the intentions, his intentions.
You know, otherwise, we start coming into things
in our own agenda.
Now, we want to do this now.
This is fun, right?
No, we want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
So, let's dive in.
We're going to read right through these 11 verses.
Father God, again, thank you for this word, Lord,
and how, I guess, numbing in a sense
and frightful it can seem, Lord,
but we know that, you know, we are your beloved
and we can trust you, in Jesus' name, amen.
Verse 1, but a certain man named Ananias,
with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession.
Verse 4, while 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.
And then Ananias, hearing these words,
fell down and breathed his last.
And 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.
And now 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?
And she said, yes, for so much.
And 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.
And 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.
And so great fear came upon all the church
and upon all who heard these things.
Wow, like you got to admit, that's like,
wow God, really? Like that was necessary?
You know, one thing I guess in my own carnal mind
as I was thinking through this, I was thinking,
where's Sapphira's friends?
I mean, it's three hours later,
she's walking towards the building
that they were meeting at.
Her husband was dead and no one told her that yet.
Okay.
And then no one said, come here, come here,
before you go in there,
I just want to tell you something.
Whatever you sold the property for, tell the truth.
You know, just a little heads up, you know?
But no one said anything.
Now we don't know who was there,
we don't know whether they just didn't see,
she didn't see anyone on the way
and we don't know these things,
so I don't want to put too much conjecture on this.
But still, there was no warning, right?
Perhaps those who were there were so afraid, right?
Like, I don't want to get in the way of this.
Like, you know, maybe God doesn't want her to know.
You know, I'm just keeping my mouth shut.
But no one told her, three hours later,
and here she said the same lie and dropped dead.
You know, it's just, where were the warnings, you know?
To lighten it up a little bit,
I want to compare it to like an analogy.
You know, if you're driving down the road,
a rural road, right,
and it's nighttime,
and someone flashes their high beams at you
while you're driving down the road, okay?
So what are you thinking?
All right, that's what I was thinking.
All at the same time, deer or a cop?
Right, let's face it, right?
It's either or, right?
And so last, maybe two weeks ago,
we were driving home on a Wednesday night, Jill and I,
and we're driving, and someone flashes their lights at me,
and I'm like, oh, wow, there must be,
either a herd of deer up here
or a Ford Explorer pulled over behind some trees
with their parking lights on,
and I just got to keep my eye out for you.
But I wasn't speeding, by the way, anyway,
so it doesn't matter, nothing to worry about here, right?
But still, you're like, look at you,
you're like, I'm driving, you know, where is it?
You know?
And then another one, flashing a little,
oh, it's even further up, okay, so, oh, man.
And then the third one's flashing their lights,
and I'm like, where are these deer, or where is this cop?
What's the matter?
What's these people's problems?
Suddenly, Jill says, your high beams are on.
Oh, okay, I get it.
I was the problem, okay?
But the idea is that, like, you know, flashers,
you know, watch out.
No, I don't want to take a vote.
Well, maybe I do.
It'll be funny.
So who warns people there's a cop ahead,
and I'll put my hand down.
A couple of you.
I probably have done both, okay, in the past at times,
but I don't know.
Part of me a little bit kind of thinks, like, well, like,
I don't want to, like, you know,
they have a sting operation set up here, a little speech.
But, like, you know, I don't know.
I don't want to intervene and interrupt
what the cops are doing, and, you know, so anyway.
But, like, it's the idea of, like,
they must have been feeling a little bit like that, right?
Well, I don't know.
I mean, you know, maybe I shouldn't warn, whatever.
Well, thank God the Lord does call all of us
to warn people who are going in the wrong direction, okay?
I mean, He does.
He tells us again and again.
You see someone, you know, that is love.
Love covers a multitude of sins.
You know, Jude says, drag them out of there.
No, no, no.
Don't go in.
You know, just pull them out.
Stop them, you know.
So we don't have to learn from this to say,
well, then just keep your mouth shut.
You know, more like maybe we can speak out
and encourage one another to live right, to do right, you know?
Because they might not be struck dead immediately,
but we know bad things are going to happen in their life, right?
I mean, it's so evident.
I mean, how many believers have you seen
that are just going in the wrong trajectory, like, why?
Like, you know where this is going to lead, you know?
So He calls us, really, to warn one another.
But, you know, we look at this,
and we think, like, why did He have to do this?
Like, demonstrate this rapid wrath.
That word just keeps popping into my head.
Rapid wrath.
And this is the first time we're going to see it.
We're going to see it other times in the book of Acts
when King Herod Agrippa, you know, receives praise
like he's God, and he ends up dying with a horrible disease
being eaten by worms, or this sorcerer named Elemis.
Paul is preaching.
People are starting to listen.
And suddenly, Elemis, the sorcerer,
just starts to try to confuse and refute
and actually denounce what Paul's saying.
And Paul just rebuked him right there,
and he became blind immediately on the spot, right?
And so there's going to be more of these.
And even Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said,
you know, you guys, when you come and eat the Lord's supper,
you're getting drunk.
Some of you are taking like three plates, okay,
you know, and pulling away.
I mean, hopefully you didn't see when I run out there
and grab three pretzels and take them away.
No, I'm kidding.
Actually, those pretzels are going pretty well these days, you know.
It's hard to find one by around 1 p.m.
But anyway, but like, you know, kind of, you know,
like people are just coming in and loaves of bread
and chugging the wine and everything.
And then the last poor sucker comes in at the end and says,
where is everything, you know?
And he's saying, because of this reason,
some of you are actually getting sick
and some have fallen asleep, you know, with saints,
what that means?
It doesn't mean sleepy time.
It means bye-bye time, right?
And so, but like, there is going to be more times
that we see this in the New Testament,
but this is the first monumental time.
And why did it need to happen?
Again, because the Lord wanted to set a precedent
and really make an example.
And I've had an bias in so far.
I don't want to be made an example of, okay?
I mean, you know, I don't want that to be the example,
you know, like, all right, you did this.
Well, now I'm going to scare everybody else,
by the way, I treat you, you know?
So we don't want that.
And so the Lord really needed to do this
according to his own will
to really shock people into line.
Because let's face it, before this time,
believers in Jesus Christ followed him
and they did exactly what he told them to do.
It was a lot easier now.
They're going to have to rely on the Holy Spirit
being their compass.
And so do we.
We have to rely on the Spirit within us
guiding our thoughts, guiding our actions,
our movements, and discernment.
Like, what's really happening here right now?
Because I want to do the right thing
in accordance with what the Holy Spirit wants me to do.
You know, so he needed to make an example.
You know, Satan was entering, you know,
what was the big deal with this?
I mean, think about it.
Like, they sold their land.
They had all this money.
It's like, I don't want to give it all.
You know, let me just, you know, hold on to a little bit.
Well, then just tell them, Peter, I held on to a little bit.
Okay, fine, whatever, okay?
But like, to lie, it was really more about them, wasn't it?
Because they really wanted to make this about themselves,
to be, you know, hear the accolades of people.
Wow, you sold that land.
You know, wow, that was,
and just to give it to the church,
they wanted to hear the praise,
but really there was something even more sinister
about all this, and Peter calls it out.
Satan had entered them.
Let's look at that slide.
These are a composition of three verses.
Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit,
and you have not lied to men but to God,
and you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord.
See, all of this is demonic.
Now, do you think Ananias and Safare realized
that they were allowing the devil
to have his way in their lives?
Like, I really doubt it.
You have to say, you know, hey, Safare,
do you really want to do something crazy and evil?
You know, no.
The enemy sneaks in,
and he captures our motivations and our intentions,
and he hijacks them, in a sense, right?
And before you know it, you're doing things
according to his will and not the Lord's will.
In fact, Jesus said in Matthew
about blaspheming the Holy Spirit,
which would include lying or speaking evil,
and if you have that verse in Matthew 12, 32,
anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man,
it will be forgiven him,
but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit,
it will not be forgiven him,
either in this age or in the age to come.
Now, if you are a born-again believer, okay,
you know, we would not speak against the Lord Jesus Christ,
because he is our life.
Like, we don't even have a life without him.
But if you're not a born-again believer,
you don't have the Holy Spirit.
Someone who speaks out against Jesus,
they don't know any better.
They don't have the Spirit of God in them to say,
no, no, no, no, Jesus should be your life.
He is our life.
Think about that.
Like, do you even have a life apart from Jesus Christ?
Like, I hope you can just say,
like, that's a stupid question.
Like, of course not, because I don't.
I just tell you, I don't.
If I didn't have him, I might as well just drop dead,
because without him, there's nothing.
He is everything to us, right?
And so we would not speak against Jesus Christ
if we have the Holy Spirit,
but you certainly would if you don't have the Holy Spirit.
So in the end, it's about the Holy Spirit, right?
And so that's what's so evil about what just happened here,
is that the Holy Spirit was the one who was revealing
what Ananias and Sapphira was up to.
You know, this idea of Ananias and Sapphira
wanting to kind of make a show of themselves in a sense,
like say, look at us, you know, we're being very generous,
like just like Barnabas, just like these others,
we're just as good.
Now, we don't know if they had any part in the early church.
They might have been nobodies and wanting to be somebody,
or they were somebodies and they wanted to be
even more of somebodies, right?
Whatever it was.
But it was wicked.
And why?
Why is there a connection here between wanting this whole
exposition to be about themselves and Satan?
What's the connection?
Do you know that connection?
That's exactly what Satan did,
right from the very beginning, right?
In fact, we read this in Isaiah 14,
and this is a compilation of a few verses.
It says,
You see what the problem was there?
Like here is Lucifer, you know, being,
they say he was a worship leader of angels and, you know,
whatever he did up there, it was an important role, right?
And so people are worshiping, and he's like,
yeah, like, you know, they're worshiping who's behind him.
And he's like, you know, look at me,
because this is what the other nations are doing.
But here it was actually demonic forces occupying idols.
You see, they love to just occupy the worship of mankind.
It's such a high these demonic forces get,
because they're receiving what deserves,
what belongs to God, they're capturing it for themselves.
And he still does it now.
He still occupies the praises of the unbelievers, you know?
Of course, the Lord occupies the praises of the saints,
but the enemy occupies the praises of unbelievers.
They have to worship something.
Remember, even Bob Dylan said that.
You got to worship something.
Guess who you're really worshiping.
You're not worshiping those objects.
You're worshiping the enemy when you're not worshiping God.
You can have all this stuff
as long as the Lord anoints you with it,
but you're worshiping God.
If you're worshiping things, you're actually worshiping the enemy.
You know, anything that is not of God is of the enemy, right?
And so another couple of verses, Ezekiel brings this up,
and he says, you were in Eden, the garden of God.
So you know who he's talking about, right?
And you were the anointed cherub who covers.
I established you.
You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created
till iniquity was found in you out of the mountain of God,
and I destroyed you, oh, covering cherub.
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty.
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
So you see, when someone is trying to hijack
what belongs to God or the glory that belongs to God,
they're actually being led by demonic forces.
It's evil.
It's satanic.
So anodizing the fire could have felt like,
this is no big deal.
It's a very big deal.
You know, it's a huge situation that was happening.
So as I was thinking through evidence in the Bible
where we see the Lord respond to people who are serving
and where honor and glory should have been given to God,
they were kind of stealing it or like hijacking
what belonged to God.
I figured it would be beneficial
just to go over a few of these characters in the Bible,
but I don't want to inundate you with too much,
and it's not a lot of scripture,
but just because some of you probably read about these stories,
so I'm just going to mention a couple blips about it.
But first of all, we're going to talk about people
who served themselves instead of God.
They were in a position to serve God,
but they actually served themselves.
If you have that next slide.
And they were in a position to, like,
an honored, a privileged position,
and yet they took it for themselves.
First of all, Aaron's two elder sons, do you remember them?
And Nadab and Abihu, they were actually serving God
in the tabernacle,
and what they did was they put a concoction
of probably divination or something,
another incense that God did not ordain,
put it in their sensors,
and they were, like, cooking this incense
that God was disgusted by.
And so he struck them both dead.
He set them on fire immediately, right?
And so they actually had to drag them out of the tabernacle,
and we learned just a few verses later
that they were probably drunk.
So here they are intoxicated and lighting.
Whatever they were lighting,
the Bible doesn't get into it in depth,
but it was strange fire, strange incense.
They were doing what they wanted to do,
and maybe witchcraft.
Maybe they learned some things from the people on the way.
Another was Eli's sons.
I mean, they were disgraceful, okay?
I mean, they were sexually abusing women
that were also working in the tabernacle,
at the gate of the tabernacle.
They were also stealing offerings
that were being offered to God.
They would come along and say,
I like that piece of meat.
They would literally plunge a huge fork into the pot
and just take it away.
And so after a while,
people were afraid to even bring in their offerings to God
because of these two thugs that were just stealing
whatever they wanted to take.
They were wicked and evil.
So, of course, the Lord took them
in the next battle He could, and they died.
Gehazi's greed, you remember that?
It was Elisha.
He told Naaman, the Syrian commander who had leprosy.
He said, go watch seven times in the Jordan River.
He did.
He was healed.
The Naaman came back to Elisha and said,
what can I give you?
I have things for you.
Let me get...
He was giving me nothing.
Giving me nothing.
And so with that,
Naaman actually, I believe, became a believer.
He says, well, I know there is a God in Israel.
Can I take some of this dirt with me
so I can worship Him when I get back to my homeland?
And so as he was leaving,
Gehazi the servant was like,
I can't believe Elisha took nothing from that vagabond.
That, you know, he's our enemy
and he didn't take anything from him.
I'm going to go get some stuff for me.
You know, I'm not putting up with this.
So he ran after him.
He got some things and he brought it back.
Am I getting too deep here?
You're good.
You follow me?
All right.
And he brought it back and he snuck it into his own little house.
And then as he walked up, he stood in front of Elisha and said,
hey, Elijah, so what's up?
He goes, where were you?
Hey, I wasn't anywhere.
Wasn't my spirit with you
when you just received those things from Naaman?
Now the leprosy that was on Naaman is now on you
and your descendants.
Severe, you know?
It's shocking, right?
He says, is this the time that you should be,
like, getting rich for yourself?
You know, these are tough times in Israel.
It's not about you, Gehazi, right?
And then how about the next slide?
There's a few others that are where people disregarded God's instructions.
Immediate wrath, okay?
Remember Lot's wife.
You all know that story, you know.
So when you leave, don't look back.
And obviously looking back meant to say,
I wish I was back into that sick land doing sick things
and being part of that society that was evil and wicked, you know?
And you say, no, I'm saving you from that, okay?
Just keep going.
Don't look back.
And of course, you know, she's, you know, looking back,
I wonder what's going on there, and boom, pillar of salt.
All these things are a picture for us.
It's not just little, some cute stories.
Well, that's not too cute.
But it's not stories.
They're meant to shock us into saying,
you know, God means what he says and says what he means.
He's a loving God, but he's also serious when things are meant to be serious.
You can't mock God.
You ever check that YouTube out?
Like, there's this entourage of people who mocked God and paid for it, okay?
Literally, like, they're mocking God on the stage,
and they drop down flat on the ground, like, smack their head on the, you know,
because they're mocking God.
He doesn't always react that way.
In fact, he says, I am long suffering.
I'm not slack, but I'm long suffering.
But someday, some way, things will be reconciled, you know?
Remember Uzzah, he's, you know, he has the Ark of the Covenant on a wagon, okay?
Now, it's supposed to be carried by the priest.
It was very specifically prescribed how to carry the Ark of the Covenant,
and they have it on this cart pulled by oxen.
And so God's like, you know better.
You shouldn't be doing this.
Stop doing this.
And all of a sudden, they hit a pothole, right?
And Uzzah reaches out to stop it, and he drops dead, right?
He dies, okay?
Because they were doing things not the way the Lord told them to do it.
They were doing it their own way, right?
And then King Uzziah, you might not be as familiar with him,
but he was a tremendous guy.
He did so many amazing things for God.
I mean, the amazing victories, the amazing ingenuity,
and strategies, and construction, he just did so many phenomenal things.
But as time went on, he started to get filled with himself.
He's like, yeah, I am pretty great, aren't I, right?
Yeah, you know, it's true what they say about me, you know?
And so at some point, he's like saying, why can't I also be a priest?
I kind of like what they do too, you know?
And so he went into the temple, and he started preparing the offering,
and the priests are like saying, he's where?
He's where?
We got to go get him.
We got to go get him before something bad happens.
They run in, and he's like doing the offering.
They said, you can't do this.
Get out.
You're a king.
You're not a priest.
And Uzziah was so filled with himself,
he started yelling and cursing at the priests.
And with that, suddenly they're watching him,
and leprosy is just spreading out on his forehead.
And it's like, ah, you know, and they ran,
and they just pulled him out of there.
He was a leper for the rest of his life, you know?
And you read these things, you're like, well, yeah,
that's kind of scary, but it doesn't happen these days.
Well, you don't know what happens these days,
but we don't have to be fearful of God's wrath.
I don't want his discipline either.
I just don't.
I know he's loving, and he's kind, and he's merciful.
I like staying there.
I don't want to go beyond that, you know?
I mean, why is the fear of the Lord
the beginning of understanding?
It starts with fear, a healthy fear,
a healthy reverence for God, because he's not to be mocked.
You know, he's not to be mocked.
People, you know, churches and people doing things
their own way, the way they want to do it,
is not what, you know, is going to have a price to pay.
You know, even this church, you know,
you know, we love them, but,
and we served with them, okay,
to the degree that they would have things
and we would give the gospel and pray with people,
and they would just hand things out, right?
And so one time we were going to do a Christmas meal with them,
and we said, yeah, so, so,
and we did one several times before that,
and they went great, and they would help us serve food,
but we would, we would sing the Christmas songs,
and we would give the gospel to everyone that came through,
and it was actually right in there.
This wasn't our church back then.
It was theirs, okay?
It was the Episcopal Church.
And so we had a program,
and you remember, Ben, you prepared most of the food, right?
And so we would have the program.
We would give the gospel.
So the one year they said, yeah, yeah,
so are you going to help us this year?
I'm like, like, are we going to help you?
Like, actually, we would let you tag along.
We, like, carried the weight of the gospel
presenting Jesus Christ.
It's Christmas.
It's a Christmas meal.
You're not going to, and they said, yeah,
this year we're not going to do the program.
We're just going to give the food out.
You know, the program.
You mean, like, singing Christmas songs
about the gift that Jesus Christ is to humanity?
You mean give the gospel to those who are there
receiving the food?
You're not going to, like, do the main thing,
the most important thing you're not doing that?
No, no, we want no part of that.
And we didn't.
And the Lord closed their doors.
Not too long after that, you know?
Because, no, He's not to be mocked.
He's not to be played with.
He's not to be, you know, I'm going to do it my way, okay?
I don't want to be offensive.
I don't want to actually tell people that Jesus Christ
is the only way.
It sounds so narrow and close-minded.
Yeah, that's what most people think it is.
And they're going through the wide gate,
the gateway that leads to destruction.
You know, the Lord is not to be mocked.
I have one more.
And that's just people who misrepresented God, you know?
And that's Moses, you know?
And let me tell you something.
As a leader, I think about his story all the time, okay?
Because, you know, Moses did so many amazing things, right?
I mean, he was the most humblest man, they say, right?
Really?
And he always just gave and gave and gave and gave.
And then as they were approaching the Promised Land,
his sister just dies.
I'm sure he's sad about that, right?
Miriam's dead.
And there they go again.
The Israelites are complaining.
Oh, do we have to die out here?
You know, I mean, they're 39 years in to the wilderness.
They're approaching the Promised Land,
and they're still complaining the same complaint.
Most of the previous generation has died at this point,
and they're complaining.
And you can imagine Moses, like, are you kidding me?
Like, we're at the threshold of the Promised Land,
and you're still wishing you were back in Egypt?
Like, you know, so he was probably just fed up.
I can relate with Moses, but God won't excuse it, right?
And so the Lord, they had no water at Maribah,
and they said, you know, we got no water.
You know, the Lord's led us out here to kill us
and dehydrate and all this.
And then Moses, you know, finally, you know,
talks to the Lord, he and Aaron,
and then the Lord says, no, go and speak to the rock,
and I will bring forth water.
And what does he do?
He goes there, and he just says, no,
let me deal with this, God.
Let me deal with this my way,
because I'm sick of these people, you know?
In fact, he should have killed all of you generations ago.
Like, he just, I'm totally paraphrasing.
You got to read it for yourself,
and you'll know I'm paraphrasing.
But his attitude must be like, I am sick of these people.
He and Aaron were like, can you believe this, right?
And so the Lord spoke to Moses, and by the way,
so then he strikes a rock twice.
There you go, you rebels, okay?
You know, you'll never satisfy, and the water comes forth,
and the people are like, yeah, whatever, Moses,
get out of the way, get out of the way.
Let me just fill up my jugs, okay?
And the water's pouring forth, right?
And the Lord says this, he says to Moses and Aaron,
because you did not believe me to halo me.
That means like, lift me up.
I got to read this one.
In the eyes of the children of Israel,
so therefore you shall not bring this assembly
into the land I have given them.
I mean, I always read that.
I feel sorry for Moses.
I do, do you?
But does God know the best?
I mean, you know, it's up to God, right?
And there was other reasons, I believe,
and he did show him.
He was met with Jesus himself, right,
on the Mount of Transfiguration in another form.
But he saw it.
You know, we don't have to feel too sorry for him.
He was way better off after all this.
And there was a reason that the baton
was going to be a pass from Moses to Joshua.
But the Lord means what he says.
And it's so important for us just to remember that
and humble ourselves before him
and be sensitive to his Holy Spirit.
So I just want to finish with a few questions.
And as the worship team, if you guys can come up.
Yeah, the first question, I want to just say,
if you could put that next slide up.
And I'm going to ask myself,
am I cooperating with the Holy Spirit?
Like, am I cooperating or am I competing?
You know, and I'm going to make a confession.
You won't tell anyone, will you?
All right.
It's a secret between us, okay.
And there might be a few people watching online too.
Don't tell anyone, any of you all, all right.
But, you know, there's been times
that I kind of wish God would do more.
Like, come on, God.
Let's see some more.
Let's see some more, like miracles.
Let's see some more healings.
Let's see, you know, and that's not wrong.
But I can become sometimes a little dissatisfied
with what God is doing.
Can any of you relate to that?
Especially us Charismatics.
I hope you all are, right?
Us Charismatics, don't we want to just see,
I literally want to see a flame above my head.
I don't know about you.
I'm like, is there one by the way?
I just went, no, nothing.
I want to walk on water.
Why not?
Hey, it'll be fun.
Like, sometimes you just dream.
You're like, God, bring it all.
I want to do it all.
Okay.
And Paul says, earnestly desire the gift.
So he's not, we can desire great things from God.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
But as a result, am I dissatisfied with what he is doing?
Yeah, because sometimes he doesn't come
with the shaking of the ground.
And he doesn't come with the fire.
And he doesn't come with the tearing apart of the rocks
and the wind.
Sometimes he just, it's just subtle.
Just subtle whisper like, Lord, like,
like all I have to do is like love this person.
And, you know, I remember several times,
you know, I saw someone injured and so forth.
And, you know, I saw them, I said, hey, you know,
can I pray for you?
You know, and I wanted to see them get up and dance.
You know, I just really, come on, God, let's do this here.
You know, I'm excited.
You know, I pray for them.
How's it feeling?
Well, it feels the same now.
Yeah, you'll mind if I pray a little more?
You know, pray a little more.
Still the same.
He says, you know what, no one ever did that for me before.
Like, no one ever prayed, laid hands on this person
and prayed for them.
And they were so appreciative.
You know, I mean, sometimes it's the small little things
that are the spiritual mountains that you can bring in.
Those are the great things you could do for someone
is just to love them in that moment
the way the Holy Spirit wants to love them.
So are we cooperating with him
or are we saying, what's in it for me, Lord?
I want a fire show.
I want some sizzle.
I want some, come on, let's see it, God.
Come on, let's, you know, I've been there,
but I'm starting to learn the great things
sometimes are in the subtle things.
Someone giving up the drugs and being clean.
Someone restoring a relationship.
You know, someone actually receiving back their child
has been a prodigal for years.
Someone forgiving.
That's a miracle, isn't it?
Those small things are actually what transform our lives.
It's the small things.
You know, someone can have all kinds of amazing things happening,
but there's still a mess, right?
I want to have transformation within.
Like that's real, formative change.
That's heavenly stuff.
When someone changes from the inside out.
I have another question.
And that is, am I holding out on the Holy Spirit?
You know, we read Ananias as a fire.
They held back some of the proceeds.
It really wasn't about that.
We just read that.
They could have had all of it, you know.
It wasn't about that.
But am I holding back?
Like, am I making myself fully available?
Because God wants to use you in a mighty way.
Every single one of us.
Do you know there's no tools in the shed that God says,
yeah, I don't really need that too much.
In fact, I don't need that at all.
I got something better.
No, He needs every single one of us.
You know, we are all His equipment, His vessels, His tools.
I hate to think of, you know, I know you might not like to think of yourself.
I like to think of myself as a tool.
God, just use me.
Like, just whatever you can do.
Pry out that nail.
Just open that, glory God.
Or whatever you want me to do, glory God, I am your equipment.
You know, I'm your vessel, Lord.
Just use me.
Are we making ourselves available, fully available, going all in, you know?
And you know what?
You could still have a full-time job and do that.
In fact, that's the best place to do it.
I don't know about you, but I do more ministry and work all day, all week long than other places.
Like, the ministry, the harvest is ripe.
I mean, it's everywhere.
And that's where you find people that really don't know the Lord at all, you know?
And then one more question.
I don't remember what it was.
There it is.
Am I disregarding the Holy Spirit?
You know, some of us, you know, I haven't done this in a while, but you can.
It's like, oh, yeah, Him, you know?
Oh, yeah, like, God might have something to say in this situation.
Oh, yeah, I guess we should pray.
I mean, Jill's actually, you know, between the two of us, she's always the one that's saying,
like, I'm just going to do it.
Sometimes I just, I pray, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I already know what I'm going to do.
Do you do that ever?
Like, I already know the best solution.
I'll pray to make it official, but I'm still going to be over here and I'm going to do
what I was already planning to do.
And Jill's like saying, like, should we be praying more about this before we do this?
You know, it's like, right, see?
The better half.
But really, am I disregarding the Holy Spirit?
Now, I'm just telling you, I want to give this an invitation for the Lord.
You know, right now, if you're here and you've never said yes to God, never surrender yourself.
Like, you know, we're talking about things in our time and all this.
Have you ever surrendered yourself?
Like, really, just like said, Lord, here I am.
Because no apostle can receive that on behalf of Christ.
It has to be Jesus Christ.
Did you ever give your life to Jesus Christ?
Because you're still on the outside and he wants you on the inside.
He wants you all in.
And I just want to say, if that's you, if you want to just say, Lord, I want to give you all of myself.
It's so easy.
And you know what you're about to do will unravel over years and you'll realize, well,
that was a monumental moment.
But all you have to do is say, Lord, I want to give you my life right now.
I want to just surrender my life to you.
I want to become yours.
I want to become yours, your property, Lord, your beloved.
Today, I give you my life and let me have your life in me.
I surrender myself to you and I ask you to fill me and give me your Holy Spirit.
Make me born again a new creation in Jesus' name.
The word says, if you did that, you will be saved.
Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
He doesn't turn anyone away if you just call upon him. Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word.
Don't forget to join us for Worship Live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!