Trust and Obey | Earth, Wind, & Fire

Talk about a beautiful picture of trusting and

obeying. I may have a pit in my stomach about

inviting someone to our candlelight soup supper

and service this December and think about what

they're doing. Talk about trust and obey, which

is where we're going to go after the sermon.

We're going to sing that song, but... The song

nonetheless has this line in it as we continue

our sermon series in the book of Acts. For there

is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust

and obey. I'm going to ask right off the bat.

When you think of the words trust and obey, how

many people equate the word happy with that?

It's about what I thought. Maybe three of you.

Why? Because trusting is very, very difficult.

How do I know? A bunch of you have told me over

the last seven years that trusting people is

not something that comes easy or natural to you.

And usually the reason why, well, let me ask.

Why is it that sometimes trusting people, for

a majority of us, I'd say, and I don't even have

to make that statistic up, for the majority of

us, why is it hard to trust people? We got in

the back. When your trust has been taken advantage

of, or another way of saying it, Nikki, is we

got burned. Okay? Right? There's a little bit

of difference in language there. But when we've

been taken advantage of or burned by trust, I

could probably ask how many of us have ever been

burned or taken advantage of in our trust, and

my guess is all of us would raise our hand. And

if I said how many of that were the people closest

to us, a lot of our hands would stay up. This

understanding of trust, I think our Father in

Heaven knows that, which is why there are over

hundreds of verses that talk about trust. One

is the life verse that I have. It was the verse

that I really kind of got attracted to when I

made Profession of Faith, Proverbs 3, 5, and

6. Trust in the Lord with... all your heart,

lean not on your own understanding, in all your

ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your

paths, make your paths straight, whatever translation.

And I'd love to say, that's so easy to do, right?

But we all know that's not the case. And for

some of us, we look at the weather and we go,

man, it's just hard to trust anybody. See how

fickle that is? Because it's junky weather out,

we just don't want to be around people. We don't

want to trust people. The only thing we want

to trust is being bedside Baptists and going

back to bed. Now what about obeying? We got trust.

We got obey. That wasn't a shot at Baptist. That's

just the verbiage. Restless reformed. I don't

know. I don't care what it is. Obeying. How many

of us love to obey? Come on, oldest borns. That's

deep inherited in you if you're the oldest born,

right? Oldest born, we only learn it once. I'm

not the oldest born, but I've talked for my sister.

She only had to break the rules a couple times

and she kind of fell in line, right? And then

you got the middle ones who kind of see that

and see the way to kind of... tip -throw through

the tulips, if you will, right? But then you

usually come to fall in line, and then you're

the youngest born. How many youngest borns or

third -borns do we have? You don't think the

rules apply to you, okay? And so you just don't

obey anybody. But obedience, isn't it hilarious?

We have to take our, how many of you have ever

taken a pet, a dog, because if you've taken a

cat to obedience training, never mind. How many

people have ever taken a dog to obedience training?

Right? Those are good dog owners, right? A lot

of you knew us when we first came. We had a dog

named Pierce. Smarter than most humans, right?

I would have a bumper sticker that said, my dog

is smarter than your honor student if I could

have found it, right? That it was he, I mean,

just by a look, he knew what to do. And we call

that a really good dog, right? It's a great dog

when you can just look and they sit. Pierce had

a manipulative side none of you knew about. I

would tell Pierce no about something, he'd go

and literally ask it, not verbally, don't make

it weird, you know, but he would go to Carrie.

Though in front of other people, he put on a

show, behind the scenes, he ran that house. And

how many of you have ever met Annie and Archie,

our dogs now? Absolute idiots, right? Like they

don't do either. They don't trust, they don't

obey. They just... Who knows, right? And our

boys just follow their lead in a lot of ways.

They think rules don't apply to them. Annie,

come here. She runs the other way. But trusting

and obeying, we look for it in our animals. If

you're a parent, you kind of look for it in your

kids, but at the same time, you also kind of

remember what you were like as a kid, and you

have that friction. Yet that was the very first

thing God asked of his, no, not asked, called

of his people. Be holy as I am holy. Knowing

that is an impossible task, but striving for

that and holy, not holier than thou, holy the

way Jesus tells us to be holy, i .e. loving one

another. They will know that you are my disciples

by your love one for another. That is the obedience

of the Lord, the obedience of Christ, to trust

and obey. Sounds simple. Carries a lot of deep

truth. When I have a couple come in for either

premarital or marriage counseling, Because I

offer that. When I do premarital for a couple,

I always offer about a year and a half or so

of marriage counseling. Not because I know everything.

That's not the case. You all know that. But understanding

that there are times your first year of marriage,

that honeymoon phase, things can go awry. You

need an objective third party, someone cheering

you on. Because you may wake up one day and the

wife goes to the husband, I think we should get

a dog. And the husband goes, I hate your mom.

And you're like, whoa, that took a turn. We probably

need to sit down and talk to somebody. Counseling

in that is a good thing. You want to see what

the root of most conflicts in marriage are? A

lack of trust. And a lack of obedience one to

another. A lack of submission, if you will, one

to another. And lack of communication. That would

be the third. It's not easy to do. But in Acts

Acts 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5, the church learns this lesson in a

sobering way, as many times the Israelites did

in the Old Testament, as the disciples did in

the Gospels, as the church will do in the New

Testament. They learn it in a very sobering way.

The Spirit of God is moving powerfully. People

are being healed. We saw that last week. The

gospel is being spread. And the gospel is not

your gospel or their gospel or my gospel. The

gospel is clear. Christ was alive. Christ died.

Christ was buried in a tomb. And he rose again.

He is the Messiah. He is the son of the living

God. So we need to follow his words, as he says

in the Great Commission. But then deceit enters

the story. And this shouldn't be a surprise to

us because it took all of about three chapters

in the beginning of the Bible for deceit to come

upon the people. We've done this before, guys.

We've entered the Garden of Eden. We've had that

conversation. Surely you won't die, Satan says,

Lucifer says to Eve with Adam who was with her.

I always want to point that out. A lot of people

like to blame Eve, but if Adam was doing his

job, I don't think it would have happened. The

seat enters the story. Ananias and Sapphira,

they lie. I'd love to ask how many of you lied

this week, but I'm not going to because I don't

want you to lie in church and not raise your

hand, proving my point. They didn't lie just

to the people, but they lied to God himself.

Their story is shocking, but it's also revealing.

The presence of God demands purity for his people.

God wants the church to be pure. Okay, then why

did you fill it with us? That's a question I

have. Why did you make me the pastor? Because

that's not going to work. But if the goal is

to strive after Christ's holiness, We need to

recognize when they're in the wrong. We need

to offer forgiveness one to another. And we need

to continue to keep walking. Yet the church stifles

that because we don't get our way, because we

don't like what's happened, because this person

said this, or this person thought that, or I

thought this person thought and then said this,

even though it never happened. Yet I will talk

to the elder or the pastor about it without verifying.

And so then we get this huge hornet. That's never

happened here. You see, we make a mess of it

because at the end of the day, we should trust.

It says trust and obey here, but we're going

to set the scene in a minute. We should trust

one another. We should obey Christ and walk together

in obedience. I could stand up here and say,

I'm the pastor. You should trust and obey everything

that I say. But if I did that, none of you would

be a part of this church because that's not a

good way to lead. We need to all be obedient

to the same thing. Because guess what? I'm no

better than you. You're no better than me. Surprise!

But we all fall on our knees at the foot of the

cross and walk it out together. Let's set the

scene. We're going to be in Acts chapter 5. Sorry,

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 4. Yeah, sorry. Thank you, Nikki.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Yeah, we're going to be in 4 and going into 5.

That's where I got confused. So Acts chapter

Acts 4 · chapter mention

4, we're going to start with verse 36 and go

to chapter 5, verse 2. Okay? Thus Joseph, who

was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which

means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native

of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him

and brought the money and laid it at the apostles'

feet. But a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira

sold a piece of property, and his wife's knowledge

he kept back for himself some of the proceeds

and brought only a part of it and laid it at

the apostles' feet. So we see the movement of

the church is still very simple. Speak the gospel,

because a lot of these people saw Jesus go through

all the things. They're going to speak that.

They're going to talk, teaching them everything

I have commanded you. Love God with all of your

heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor

as yourself. They're going to go to the Beatitudes.

They're going to go to the Sermon on the Mount.

They're going to do the thing, speak those, not

their own words, but Jesus's. But what else were

they doing? They were selling their possessions.

Now the easy thing is, okay, as we go to a potential

building campaign, if we vote, no, I'm not going

to do that. That's too easy and somewhat manipulative.

We're going to talk through what actually happened.

They sold things like property, their possessions.

They were giving it to the movement of the way.

Again, this wasn't Christianity yet. This was

the way of Jesus. And Luke, as he normally does,

sets up a contrast for us. Luke sets up a story

with Barnabas, who gave honestly, and Ananias

and Sapphira, who gave deceitfully. faith. Let's

pause there. Giving out of faith. That's a struggle.

I sat with that for a minute. That when I give,

when we all give to things like missions, we

have faith that the organization, the individuals

are going to use it in the way that they've told

us to and what they've said to the missions committee.

that they're going to use it to further the cause

of the mission of Christ. And when we have organizations

that it's kind of muddy and we don't really know

what the stewardship's like there, guess what?

We pull back and we ask more questions. It's

what the committee does. It's what the elders

do. It's what the deacons do. What the council

does. They work in tandem with missions to make

sure that we are being good financial stewards,

time, talent, treasures of those missions. Well,

Pastor, why do we do this? Acts 5 is why. Acts

4 and 5 is why. Because I think it's right and

good. This deliberate, what I'm going to call

juxtaposition, Luke's writers are going to put

this at odds, shows that sin is the most dangerous

when it hides under the appearance of godliness.

Let me say that again. That sin is most dangerous

when it hides under the appearance of godliness.

What other good kind of visual? Wolf in sheep's

clothing. Okay? That has to do more with the

leader of it. But first we're going to dive into

the deception, verses 1 and 2. There's a deception

here. Verses 1 and 2. But a man named Ananias

and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property,

and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for

himself. some of the proceeds, and brought only

a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.

If we don't know what Barnabas does, is this

a problem? I'm going to throw it to you. Let's

say we don't find out that Luke's writer doesn't

give us what Barnabas does, and all we get is

this. Let's say we started with this. Is it a

problem? What say you? See? Oh, I didn't tell

him to say that, but that's exactly what I was

looking for. Seems like a tithe. Right? A tenth?

Sure, we could probably say that. I mean, we

don't know that for a fact. He kept back for

himself some of the proceeds and brought only

a part of it and laid it at the apostles. feet.

They sell part of the property, or they sell

the property and bring part of the money, but

here's the thing, while pretending to give it

all. That's the key difference here. That's what

makes this not tithing, even though I would have

said the exact same thing I did when I was working

through it. Like, is this really a bad thing?

I mean, the church is still getting some. Like,

giddy up. Is that the right heart that Jesus

talks about as far as giving? No. The issue is

not withholding. Peter later says the property

was theirs to control, but pretending full surrender

while holding back. The hypocrisy here reveals

the desire for spiritual recognition without

spiritual submission. Let me say that again because

there's kind of some theological terms here.

Spiritual recognition, look at me, without spiritual

submission. Here's my everything. Remember, the

sermon is called Trust and Obey, but we'll get

there. So let's go to verse 3, what I call Satan's

influence. But Peter said to Ananias, Why has

Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit

and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds

of land? Let's put this in our terms right now.

Let's say we find out that, like, I don't know,

that you, in a more grand sense, you win the

lottery. Say, I don't know, $10 million, just

for our purposes today, right? After taxes, let's

just call it five, okay? That what's 10 % of

$5 million? I don't know that math. $500 ,000,

right? And let's say that a check comes in, right?

The deacons see it, and it's 50 bucks. We all,

50 bucks. Let's say it's $5 ,000. Person just

won 5 mil. I already see it. There's tension

going on. A lot of you, right, are trying to

tense up different parts of your body because

like, oh, pastor, you're treading on money. You're

treading on stuff. Well, the Bible talks about

giving. Now, we'll never ask for your W -2s.

We're never going to be that kind of church.

But understand that it's the trust and the obedience

of the giver in how they worship the creator.

Peter asked, why has Satan filled your heart

to lie to the Holy Spirit? Oof, that hurts. But

think about where we just were two and a half

chapters ago. Wait for the Holy Spirit to be

at work. The Holy Spirit comes in in a very,

very visible way and Pentecost drives the whole

thing. They haven't lost that inertia. They haven't

lost that momentum. The Holy Spirit's the one

doing it. The word filled recalls back to Acts

Acts 2:4

2 verse 4 where the disciples were filled with

the Spirit. Now instead of being filled with

God's presence, Ananias is filled with deceit.

Sin even within the church. is a form of spiritual

warfare. There are some of us that are going

to struggle with this text. And that's okay.

Dive into it this week. I'm going to give you

a point of view. Dive into it for yourself. Sin,

even within the church, is spiritual warfare.

So he says, the lie to God, right? Satan, yeah,

he loves it when we lie to each other. Sure.

But what Satan's ultimate goal is, the lie to

God. He tries to discredit God in Genesis chapter

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

3. Same thing going on here. The lie to God is

verse 4. While it remained unsold, did it not

remain your own? And after it was sold, was it

not at your disposal? Why is it that you have

contrived this deed in your heart? You have not

lied to man, but to God. Some of you. are going,

this is uncomfortably hardcore by Peter. I don't

like it. I think that's fair. I think that there's

a rub. There's a friction here, right? You have

not lied to men, but to God. What is he saying?

At the end of the day, if the Barnabas thing

didn't happen, I don't know if the people would

have known. Outside of the people that made that

deal, The real estate agent, or however they

did it in the first century, what the proceeds

were, they wouldn't have known. God does. You

have not lied to men but to God. This is one

of the clearest affirmations of the Holy Spirit's

divinity in the entire scriptures. You have not

lied to men but to God. Remember when we joke

that you try to play hide and seek with someone

that's omnipotent and omnipresent? We can't do

it. Friend, there is nothing that you can hold

and hide that God doesn't know or see. That's

why God says, confess it to me. Confess it one

to another. That's why we do the prayer of confession

and affirmation. To lie to the Spirit is to lie

to God himself. How do we know? Our confessions

help us. Belgian Confession, Article 11, affirms

this truth. The Holy Spirit is true and eternal

God, proceeding from the Father and the Son.

Guess what? The Holy Spirit is still working

in the church. The Holy Spirit has never said,

peace out, I'm gone. No. That will happen when

who comes back? Jesus. Right? And everything

comes to fulfillment, comes to culmination. The

Holy Spirit is still at work. How do I know?

He's gifted all of you. He's gifted the church.

This church has been here for 155 years and no

one is that old here. So you guys have gone through

the generations of spirit -filled lineage to

keep this church open. This church is still moving.

None of you, not your family line, not your family

money, not what you bring to the table, keeps

churches open. Revelation tells us it's the Spirit

of God that keep churches open. How do we know?

Because it's the Spirit of God that blows out

the lampstand when they're done. And if that

doesn't terrify you, it does as your pastor,

so join me, will you, that we want to be faithful.

And there's an immediate judgment. Don't worry,

we'll get to some of the lighter stuff in a second.

There's an immediate judgment starting in verse

5. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down

and breathed his last. We're not going to read

this if we do a vote for the building. Don't

worry about that. And breathed his last. And

great fear came upon all who heard of it. The

young men rose and wrapped him up and carried

him out and buried him. This is such a weird

story. Immediately she fell down at her feet.

breathed her last. When the young men came in,

they found her dead, and they carried her out

and buried her beside her husband. How are we

feeling right now? Go ahead. It's a weird couple

verses here. I can see why we don't read this

before a congregational meeting. But how are

we feeling? A couple people. What? Scary. Yep.

Anyone else? Inadequate. Boom. Gone. Two people.

One's calling right now saying, don't do it.

Don't do it. Be honest. Trust and obey. Oh, oh.

Well, go ahead, Mike. Go ahead, pastor's kid.

Where's the grace? What? I was tracking with

you before that. Lisa's like, I'm used to it.

But understand, there's an immediate judgment.

Ananias falls dead, and later Sapphira meets

the same end. God's judgment here is what? Long

-suffering? That's exact. Who said that? And

I didn't even tell you I was going to say that.

God's judgment here is swift. But here's the

thing. I had to wrestle with this. Not because

he's but because he is holy. I offer that for

a minute. God's not doing this because he's cruel,

but because he is holy. Their sin threatens the

integrity of the newborn church. If hypocrisy

grows unchecked, the witness of the gospel collapses.

There's a direct tie to hypocrisy, and as one

of the number ones, something I have to keep

in check, as we all do, because what is hypocrisy?

Talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Simple

definition, right? Pharisees, Sadducees, they

were hypocrites. At times, us, we can be hypocrites.

If hypocrisy grows unchecked, the witness of

the gospel collapses. God's plan is never in

jeopardy because God is sovereign and we're not

on his level. But as we see throughout the scriptures,

there can be a fear that grows. And the fear

here is among the church. Verse 11. And great

fear came upon the whole church and upon all

who heard these things. Think about the testimony

of the people in this meeting. Peter and the

rest. These people deceived and they were dead.

And notice, no one shot them. Partly because

they didn't have guns. But no one killed them.

They fell and breathed their last. What does

that tell me? That not a hair can fall from my

head without the will of my Father in heaven,

Lord's day one. That he is my comfort in life

and in death. Well, Jim, I'm not feeling a whole

lot of comfort in this verse. I get that. I'm

with you. Great fear came upon the whole church.

This is the first time Luke uses the word ecclesia

to describe the church. Holiness and community

belong together. Church is not a social club.

It is the dwelling place of God. Belgian Confession,

Article 27. This holy church is not confined,

bound, or limited to a certain place or persons,

but is spread and dispersed over the whole world,

yet joined and united in one and the same spirit.

It doesn't end. This story doesn't end. It continues

because there's things that kind of continue

to go on. You talk about signs and wonders. We

always think that they're happy. We always think

they're good. We always think that they're edifying

to the body. I submit so was this. Ooh, we're

going to struggle with that because two people

are dead. How is death edifying to the body?

Thank God God is sovereign and we're not. Verse

12. Now many signs and wonders were regularly

done among the people by the hands of the apostles,

and they were all together in Solomon's portico.

None of the rest dared join them, but the people

held them in high esteem. And more than ever,

believers were added to the Lord, multiples of

both men and women. So that they even carried

out the sick into the streets and laid them on

cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least

his shadow might fall on some of them. So people

also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem,

bringing the sick, those afflicted with unclean

spirits, and all were healed. Man, this puts

in perspective the issues we got going on here.

Or at least it should. I'm not going to list

them all. But friends, we get in each other's

way. Some of us don't like things that are going

on. Some of us with other things we're going

on. Some of us still are wondering why we don't

have the candy monsters to drop candy in. Well,

you haven't been listening. We're not doing the

trunk or treat this year. We're going to do something

else at Christmas. But see where the spirit was

kind of discontent, disagreement, discouragement.

See how that can be the enemy of the church if

gone unchecked? That's why all of those discord,

disagreements, discouragement, all of that can

be resolved by following God's word. So we should

probably trust God's word and obey God's word.

See, it's not some creative title. If we do this,

the church can continue. The story doesn't end

with judgment. It ends with revival. I don't

know about you, but that's revival. It's a beautiful

thing. God's purifying work leads to power. Miracles

continue. The sick are healed. The number of

believers increased. The fear of the Lord does

not crush the church. The fear of the Lord strengthens

it. We should already be there, Munster Church.

We went through Revelation. Seven churches. Not

all of them stay. Some get judged and are wiped

out because they lost their first love, because

they reviled in hypocrisy. They loved it. They

loved saying one thing and doing another, or

doing one thing and saying another. Churches

can make their identity out of those. The Munster

Church, what should we be about? Trusting and

obeying, even when we don't like it. There's

a reason why God is a God of order and not a

God of chaos. He took chaos and created. It's

not our job to do. Our job is to be good stewards

of it. Even the shadow of Peter, one of the weirdest

things in all of Scripture to me, becomes a mean

of healing. Remember Peter? Right? Foot and mouth

Peter? The one that denies his rabbi gets restored.

Now people are like, oh man, only if his shadow

would pass by. I don't like that. That might

be something I talked to somebody about in heaven.

I'm sure it would be a long line to talk to Jesus.

I'll talk to Elijah. That's fine. It's one of

the things I love about what our sign guys did.

Do you guys see the sign? That I don't walk on

water. At first I thought it was a shot for my

swimming ability. It's not. If you can't read

it, our pastor doesn't walk on water, but he

knows someone who does. Guess what? It's none

of you. It's not me. It's Christ. A symbol of

God's mercy flowing through obedience and holiness.

So what do we do with that? Let's land the plane

with these. What does God value in the church?

God values integrity more than image. And this

is coming from a pastor of a growing church.

Friends, I could take credit for all of this.

It would be the dumbest thing I would do. Because

guess what? It would be gone like that. This

isn't... My work? I'm not that good. Neither

are you. This is the work of the Spirit. The

church's witness depends on truth -telling hearts.

God cannot bless hypocrisy. If you've wronged

somebody, seek forgiveness. If they've wronged

you, seek forgiveness. Grace is free, but never

cheap. The cross shows both the severity of sin

and the depth of Christ's love. When grace is

treated lightly, it loses its power. We've talked

about that many times. I've already made this

point. I'm going to bring it up. The Spirit,

guess what, is personal and present. How do I

know? There are so many of you going through

crazy things in your life, and you're keeping

the faith, though it's hard. You're keeping the

faith. Whether a surprise pregnancy or all of

a sudden an illness or something else going on

in your family, you are... clinging to Christ

as your only hope. That is the work of the Spirit,

because you and of yourself would never do it.

Me and of myself, I would never do it. I would

take it on what Jim could do, not what Christ

can do through me. I say this all the time, right?

A holy fear of God leads to a lasting joy. I

don't know about you, but the last seven years

of this church have been a lot of fun. And what

do I say? Let's stay humble. Let's stay excited

and slightly terrified. Where do you think I

get it from? The beginning of the church. Fear

here is reverent awe. The realization that God

who judges sin is the same God who heals the

broken and forgives the sinner. Finally, as we

get ready to sing that last song, obedience invites

power. After the church is purified, the spirit

moves freely. God works through vessels that

trust and obey. For there is no other way than

to be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey. Stand

and let's all pray together. Let's pray our closing

prayer together. Holy God. You are righteous

and full of grace. Forgive us for pretending,

for holding back part of our hearts. Teach us

to trust you completely and obey you fully. Fill

us with reverent awe and deep joy in your spirit.

Make us a people of truth, so your power and

presence may dwell among us. In Jesus' name we

pray, amen. And may the Lord, the giver of life,

the Savior,