Real

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church Henley and thanks so much for tuning

into our podcast.

Our prayer is that through this podcast you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life.

And now get ready for an inspiring message from our preaching team.

At the year 2020 Ash and I found ourselves in Mawson Lakes in the north of Adelaide trying

to launch a church plant, a house church plant in houses during COVID when you couldn't go

to other people's houses.

We had a dream, a vision, a calling and in the years before we had built a small team,

I'd quit my job, we'd moved far away from friends and family by Adelaide standards,

which is about half an hour, to follow this call.

But we didn't get far.

And I've told this story before in the life of our church plant, of this walk that I had

during that season.

It was one of the times in my life where I've heard God's voice clear.

I was pouring my heart out to God on this walk, asking him why this church plant was

kind of failing.

I knew there were things that were in my control.

I also knew there were a lot of things that were outside of my control like a global pandemic.

And I was just pouring my heart out to God.

You know, there's 14,000 people who live in Mawson Lakes.

How many of them know Jesus?

Why wasn't God using us to reach those people?

And as I was walking, God just rebuked me.

He said to me, Tim, I don't need you.

And in my mind, I could see all these people having encounters with the Holy Spirit in the

presence of God in their everyday life, driving the car, going to bed, all these places that

were not a church or not a house church even, just in their everyday life.

But God said to me, but I want to work with you.

I want to work with you.

And I've told this story before in this plant, a different plant.

This is a different plant.

But here's the part that I didn't share.

The Lord crushed me in that moment in a helpful way because what God did was name and crush

my pride in my heart of hearts.

My motivation to plant that church wasn't just to be.

It was to be obedient to the Lord's call, but it wasn't just to be obedient to the Lord's

call.

My motivation was to fix the broken model of church that I had come to see and be perceived

as great.

My motivation was to solve the church so that people would think that I was impressive.

Don't get me wrong.

I cared about the mission.

I cared about God.

I wanted and desired the Kingdom of God.

But planting that church was about me.

It was about me.

For me anyway.

It was about me.

More than it was about those 14,000 people who didn't know Jesus.

And I'm glad it failed because my head wouldn't have fit through the door to get into this

room.

And I wouldn't be in this room either anyway, more than likely, here with you if it hadn't

failed.

And in that moment, God named to me what I had not yet named to Him that in my heart

of hearts, I thought that God needed me.

I thought I was indispensable to God.

I was praying, but I was praying kind of dishonored, distorted prayers.

I was praying, God, all for your glory, but in my heart of hearts, it was all for mine.

I was projecting to God a version of myself that I wanted to be like, that I wanted to

be like, or at least I thought I needed to be like.

And all that did was create this facade between me and God, this kind of distorted barrier

because I was dealing with reality as I thought it should be, or I thought I should be.

And God was dealing with reality as it actually was.

And God's rebuke crushed the facade that I had put between God and myself.

I wasn't getting real with God about my own motivations.

And so God got real with me.

And reality as it actually is crushed my pride.

I actually couldn't fix the church and I still can't.

This is an imperfect church.

It's a beautiful church, but an imperfect church.

God didn't actually need me.

I was not and will not ever be great and that is okay.

Reality reminded me that I was just him and just him was and is flawed.

And just him is also and was also deeply loved by God.

I didn't need to be this super pastor, Tim.

I just needed to be Tim as a pastor.

I just needed to step into God's invitation to participate in what he's doing.

The step in is I actually was and actually am not what I think I should be.

And now that God had got real with me, we were both on the same page.

And because we were on the same page, God could actually teach me and I could grow.

Welcome to Encounter Church and also the inner workings of my heart.

It's a great day for it.

We're in the last week of our core values series.

And today we're looking at our last core value.

We have looked at Jesus.

We have looked at people.

We've looked at generous.

See, they're on the wall, so we can't forget them and this week we're looking at real.

As a church, we want to develop an authentic, healthy generation of Godly pioneers.

That's why real is one of our core values.

But before we can do that and actually so that we can do that and become those kind

of people, authentic, healthy, Godly pioneers.

We've got to get real with God.

We've got to get real with God, which is not what Ananias and Saphirah did.

In our teaching text today, we're in the book of Acts and Pentecost has calmed the spirit,

the fire of the Holy Spirit has been given to the church and the church has been born

and the church is working out what it means to be the church.

And because they have become one family in Christ Jesus and they feel this mandate to

care for the poor, they begin to hold all things in common.

And those who are wealthy would sell off property and give money to the church to look after

the less well off.

The passage just before the one that I read, it's about Barnabas.

And Barnabas will become a big player in the early church.

Barnabas does this.

He sells a field and he gives money to the apostles to support the poor.

And then we hear about Ananias and Saphirah.

And like Barnabas, they sell a field, so they're wealthy and they bring the money to the apostles,

but there's a problem.

They've brought the money claiming to give the full proceeds of the sale to the church,

but in reality, they've pocketed part of it for themselves.

Why would someone claim to have given all like Barnabas does when in reality they haven't?

Why not just give a part and name it for what it is?

The part, that part, that little part, that big part, whatever part it is, is still going

to be game changing for the poor and the widows and those who are less fortunate in their

community.

The only real logical reason to mislead the apostles is that they wanted the honor of

having given all without the sacrifice of having given all.

Really the donation they made was more about them than it was about the people who are

really in need.

It was more about how they were perceived and honored within their community.

They wanted the honor the Barnabas got without the sacrifice that Barnabas made.

Now people will mislead people all the time and the church is certainly not immune to

this, but Peter, the leader of the church, he is not misled.

And whether he has a prophetic insight from the Lord or not, it's just really good at

picking when people are lying.

Peter sees through and he says, and a nice, why have you let Satan feel your heart?

You lied to the Holy Spirit and he kept some of the money for yourself.

The property was yours to sell or not sell as you wished.

And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away.

How could you do a thing like this?

You were lying not to us, but to God.

He says, not only did you not need to lie, you haven't lied to us.

You actually lied to God.

And lying to God is like when my daughter tells me to her face that she did not in fact

hit her brother.

Even though she knows, I literally just watched her do it.

It's like, seriously, why bother with this?

We both know that I know that you smacked him.

My dear child, would you like to change or reconsider this approach that you're taking?

Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't.

In Jeremiah 1710, the Lord declares, but I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret

motives.

I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve.

We can't hide even our hearts from God.

Our deepest secret motivations, the secret place, the thoughts and the feelings from which

our life flows out from.

God examines them.

God just doesn't know them.

He sees them.

God knows when gifts of gold to the poor is more about us than it is about them.

God knows when church plants or ministries are more about us than they are about them.

God knows even when we're fasting for weight loss and not for him.

God knows when we pray for things that are really about benefiting us and not the kingdom

of God.

God knows our hearts.

God knows our hearts.

And lying to him is straight up unnecessary and actually impossible.

We cannot actually mislead God, but Ananias tries and he dies.

Why does Ananias die?

I'm going to be real with you because it's one of our core values.

I don't know.

I just don't know.

Some scholars think he dropped dead of a heart attack after being publicly called out.

I know sometimes it feels preferable to me to just drop dead rather than be publicly

called out.

Well, that seems like a better outcome sometimes than being publicly called out, but that doesn't

make sense of what happens to Saphira afterwards.

She doesn't know that Ananias has cucked it and comes in later with a very leading question

from Peter and it's a leading question with an invitation to repent, to fess up, to acknowledge

that they've made a mistake, that they have tried to deceive the church and God.

Peter says, was this the price that your husband received for your land?

But she doesn't take the opportunity to repent.

She claims it's the full amount.

And Peter says, how could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of

the Lord like this?

The young men who buried you are just outside the door and they will carry you out too.

And so Saphira drops dead.

Why do they die for lying?

I don't know.

The most convincing theory is this, that this situation serves to illustrate the power and

presence and holiness of God that was swirling around the early church, just like it was swirling

around the tabernacle in the Old Testament when people would just drop dead from touching

the wrong thing.

Let's all just be glad that nobody has dropped dead for saying that they tire 10%, but in

reality they're actually tithing 9.5%.

I'm not good at maths, alright?

And right now, publicly, in this service, I would like to know why my wife who's almost

finished a pure maths degree still makes me do the budget.

Different maths.

Different.

Ananias and Saphira, they deliberately try to mislead God for their own societal honour.

Lying is projecting a false or distorted image of reality.

When Olive says, I didn't hit Judah, even though she obviously did, she's projecting

a version of reality where she didn't hit Judah and therefore will not receive the correction

or boundaries that hitting Judah produces.

When Ananias and Saphira say, this is the full amount, even though it's not, they're

projecting a false reality where they did give the full amount and reap the honour in

the community for the sacrifice that someone like Barnabas who actually gave the full amount

received.

Because if they didn't lie and came and said, I sold a field, here's part of the money,

they would receive thanks, but not the kind of honour that someone who gave a full amount

received.

No matter how wealthy you are, if you sell a property and give part of that to a church

or a charity of some kind, that would be a really nice thing to do.

You might get a nice email, maybe a couple of phone calls asking you to give more regularly

and not in one-off sums.

It would be a charitable donation.

Go you.

Great.

But if you sold a property in this economy and you gave the full amount, you would be

insane.

And everyone would be asking you why you did that.

And you would receive far greater honour than if you gave in part because your sacrifice

was total, was the total amount, was the whole amount.

And Ananias and Saphira, they want that honour and so they project a false version of reality,

a reality where they gave the full amount.

And for them, the consequences are total.

People lie and mislead others all the time, even in church.

You only have to add scandal to the word church on Google and you just get pages and pages

of atrocious dealings in attempting to project false or distorted versions of reality.

But reality always wins.

The truth always comes out in the end.

Jesus says in Luke 12, the time is coming when everything that is covered up will be

revealed and all that is secret will be made known to all.

What Jesus said in the dark will be heard in the light and what you have whispered behind

closed doors will be shouted from the house tops for all to hear.

See false or distorted realities, versions of reality, they may hold for a while but

eventually they will come crashing down.

Reality is undefeated.

The God who sees all and knows all sees and knows and God will put everything right in

the end.

But here's the thing.

Lying to God, projecting false realities to him, generally speaking, and we're going

to put Saphira and Ananias aside over here, there are not drastic consequences for doing

this, for misleading God.

Except for this one.

And I think it's actually kind of drastic.

You just won't grow spiritually.

You just won't grow.

Lying to God, you just won't grow.

If you try and mislead God and try to pretend to God that this is fine and that you're doing

this thing for the right reasons, but, and that this thing is actually about, not about

you, but about these people, really needy people over there.

If you project a false or distorted reality to God, you can't and won't grow spiritually.

As God sees the truth, he sees reality as it actually is.

Tim is planning this church because he thinks that he's solved it and I need him.

And because he hopes it'll make him, really make him somebody.

That's my projection of a false version of reality to God.

Oh, that's, that's the reality.

But my false version of reality is, you know, I'm doing everything I can here, God.

You called me here.

I'm just being humbly obedient.

Why is everything falling apart?

Why are you coming through for me and God?

You see, God and I are just not on the same page.

We're working from different realities.

How can, how can God help me see that I need to grow?

How can God help me to learn genuine humility and genuine selflessness when I think that

I'm being humble and selfless?

We're not borrowing from the same blockbuster.

We're on different planets, different pages, different starting places.

How can I grow?

A doctor can't treat a patient who won't accept a diagnosis.

They must be dealing with the same reality.

And sometimes it's difficult to accept reality.

It's difficult to accept a diagnosis and what it means.

It's difficult to accept that you actually are, in my case, neither humble nor selfless.

Yet.

The acceptance that this is where you are for now, that this right here is reality.

That acceptance is the first step of growth in anything.

Think about the 12 step program for AA that treats alcohol addiction.

The first step is this.

We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.

First step of soberness is to accept that you are powerless to be sober.

The false or distorted versions of reality that say, you know, this isn't a big deal

and I can stop when I want to.

They're washed away by the acceptance of reality as it actually is.

I have a problem that I cannot solve by myself.

David Benner wrote an amazing book called The Gift of Being Yourself and in that he

says this reality must be embraced before it can be changed.

You simply must get real with God if we want to grow spiritually.

We must come to God as we actually are.

Not how we think God will accept us.

We must lay down our false or distorted versions of reality at the foot of the cross and embrace

our reality.

And I have found no better description of our reality than this from Tim Keller.

We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe.

You know, at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we

ever dared hope.

This is the gospel that our heart of hearts, in our heart of hearts, we're not that great.

Take advantage of others to soothe our own gain.

We make things about ourselves.

We pretend to be people that we are not.

We are more sinful and flawed than we dared believe, admit or are willing sometimes to

face.

But we are more loved and accepted in Jesus than we could ever hope or imagine.

Getting real with God is scary because getting real with God can leave us feeling exposed

and vulnerable.

Just to get real with God we must come before Him as we actually are.

We must unwind those things, those experiences, those stories we tell ourselves, those things

that have been spoken over us by others.

That we've wound around ourselves like bandages to protect ourselves from the world and also

from God.

To make us feel safe and tangible and perceptible.

Getting real with God is scary because I tell myself I'm humble and other people tell

me I'm humble and I really want to be humble.

I can tell you stories of times when I've acted with humility.

But those are things that I have wound around myself to make myself feel better about what's

behind the curtain of my heart, what's inside my heart of hearts.

Because underneath those things behind the curtain of my heart is just a cesspool of

pride.

And it is frightening to let anyone ever see that let alone preach about it.

Because if anyone sees that let alone God, if God sees behind the curtain and realizes

that I'm actually not humble like I know I should be, is it all over for me?

Will God reject me?

Will my greatest fear be realized?

Will I be found unwanted and unlovable?

But my friends, God does see even right now, even when we're trying so hard to hide from

Him, He does see behind the curtains of our hearts.

He does see through those false versions of reality we project.

And He loves us and He accepts us still.

And it's better than that.

Through faith in Jesus we are in Christ.

We are united to Him, united to the one who went to the cross, united to the one who sacrificed

wasn't in part but was total.

Jesus gave up his life for you and for me.

And through faith we have died with Christ and we will be raised with Him.

We're going to celebrate baptism next week and that is a demonstration of that reality.

And because we've been hidden in Christ, because we are one with Him who is the Son of God,

we have actually been adopted into God's family.

So God just doesn't love us, it's better.

God calls us His beloved Son or beloved daughter and we get to call Him Father.

We are not condemned for what's in our hearts.

We are saved and loved and held and treasured.

When we are in Jesus we are in the safest place in the universe.

When we are in Jesus we can get real with God without fear.

We can embrace reality.

We can unwind those things that we use to protect ourselves.

We can pull back the curtain of our hearts and just pour out the ugliness inside to God

in prayer.

We can let Him into those rooms in our life that we keep locked and under key.

We can be honest about our motivations.

We don't have to project to God a version of ourselves that we think He wants or wish

we were because He sees us and He knows us and He loves us still.

At Encounter we want to help you grow like a sunflower that grows towards the sun.

We want to help you grow towards Jesus.

We want to help you grow into the image of Jesus which if you are a follower of Jesus

that is your calling in life is to become like Jesus and to do the things that He did.

But you can't grow unless you get real with God.

I can't become truly humble in my heart until I let God into the cesspool of pride in my

heart of hearts because He is the only one who can actually help me deal with that.

Jesus is the only one who can make me humble because Jesus is the only one who was truly

humble.

Get real with God and grow.

Trust me it's far more comfortable to get real with God than to let God get to the point

where He's like I have to get real with you.

It's that, it's much harder.

God had to get real with me and we got on the same page.

You are filled with pride Tim.

Yes, yes I am.

And since that moment God has done His work and the cesspool is more like a cesspuddle.

It's shrinking.

And I can honestly say that where before I would have looked at this church and in counterhandling

and how well we are going as a new church before in my heart of hearts I would have

never been in my heart, never allowed.

Look what I did.

But now I look at this church.

It's beautiful, imperfect, family of God between the city and the beach.

And in my heart of hearts I'm just filled with gratitude.

Filled with gratitude.

In my heart of hearts I say look what God is doing.

Look what God did.

In my heart is filled with gratitude.

Because I know that God doesn't need me.

But what a privilege it is to get to play a part in what He is doing.

If we would do this, if we would become a community that gets real with God, this is

what I think we will find.

When we are real with God, we find that we are and always have been loved in reality

by God.

And this allows us to be real with ourselves.

We can admit things about ourselves that we might find deeply shameful like trying to

plant a church purely out of pride.

I can admit that about myself because I know that I am loved.

And because we know that we are deeply beloved by God, we are able to love ourselves in reality.

Those and sins and all.

And because we are, we can love ourselves in reality, we can be real with others.

We can live out this value of real.

We can be real with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we can actually love them in reality.

Because if we are accepted and loved, and we can love and accept ourselves, we are not

trying to protect ourselves from how others perceive us.

We're not trying to project certain false realities.

We're not trying to keep distance.

We're not trying to build facades between each other.

We're not trying to protect ourselves from each other.

We are ourselves, flaws and all, deeply, deeply beloved by God and growing towards Jesus.

And friends, we actually need each other on this journey of life towards and with Jesus.

We actually need each other, not in reality.

We don't need each other's false projected versions of ourselves.

We need each other in reality.

Galatians 6 says this, dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin,

you who are godly should go gently and humbly to help that person back on the right path.

And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.

Share each other's burdens and in this way obey the law of Christ.

If you think you're too important to help someone, you're only falling yourself.

You're just not that important.

If you never share with anyone else the sin in your own heart, how can anyone help you

with it?

If you never share your burden, how can anyone help you carry it?

And if you never share your burden, how does anyone feel like they can share their burden?

There's power in speaking it out to another believer.

James 5 says this, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you

might be healed.

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

What a promise.

Friends, if we won't get real with God, we can't get real with ourselves and we certainly

won't get real with each other.

And so we'll be like 40 solitary little kayaks on a lake in a storm just left to fend for

ourselves when we could come together in those little pods to weather the storm together.

And we actually have little kayak pods at Encounter.

We call them cords.

Those are just a group of three people who catch up regularly and the gist is this, one

person alone is not ideal.

Two is better.

But have you heard of three?

Three is pretty good.

You're not going to get want to get real with everyone here and you certainly shouldn't

get real on Instagram or Facebook.

You need to find people you can trust where it's safe, unsanitized, honest, where it's

okay to not be okay, where you can push and prod and stir each other up in the face, not

get comfortable and to keep growing towards Jesus.

Thanks so much for tuning into this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, would love to hear from you on Instagram at EncounterHenry.

Or if you're interested in how you can support this ministry, please go to our website EncounterAdelaide.com.au.

Thanks again for listening.

God bless you.