Acts 5: How To Become A More Authentic Person

good afternoon welcome to sandals church man I'm so glad you guys are here I hope you're pumped and ready to have a good time today in church because God didn't mean Church to be boring and so I hope that you can just relax have a good time today as we hear about God's Word I'm just gonna warn you the message is a little convicting it's a little rough last couple service deservers like oh we're all gonna die so I'm hopefully I'm gonna try to bring you through this in a way that someone's encouraging and just know God does love you but if you don't repent he will judge you so that is coming too so just know there's good news and there's rough news so welcome to church and if you're not a Christian man today's message is going to be challenging both for those of us who follow Jesus and for those of us who don't know Jesus and so I'm gonna try to explain why this is that God's wrath and God's judgment feels so harsh at times but today I'm gonna talk to you about how to become a more authentic person I think all of us if we were honest we would say that we need to be more authentic in some area or our life every single one of us I mean to be a human being is to hide things to be ashamed of things not to be honest with things from a very early age we learned that it's safer to pretend than it is to be real the problem is when we come to church we're exceptionally fake right we dress up we pretend everything's great we wear our Sunday best and the problem is oftentimes we're at our very worst and we wonder why the church Jesus being safe doesn't change anything and let me just tell you this let me set the record straight for you from the gospel if you are not ready to get real God will not be ready to heal that is the bottom line that is the gospel from the beginning to the end if you're not ready to be real God is not ready to heal and we see this throughout the scriptures so I'm gonna pray with you guys today and pray over us that God would use my words to speak his truth and bless us today so out of respect and honor for God would you join me in bowing your head and closing your eyes so we can just pray to God and ask him to speak to us Heavenly Father we pray right now in the name of Jesus we invite your Holy Spirit to be a present in this time to be a healing place god help us to look at ourselves help us to look at our heart god help us to look at where we are and what's happening in our life God take our attention off everyone else and and every place else and let this be a time of healing let this be a time God where we can be real Lord bless my words Lord bless our ears so that we can hear your truth we come to you God and we need to hear from you now more than ever we pray this in Christ's name Amen let's take a look you can open your Bibles to Acts 4 we're gonna be I'm gonna actually be teaching from Acts 5 this week but we need to we need to talk a little bit about acts 4 before we can jump into acts 5 I'm in a series right now called 252 where we're studying 2 books of the Bible the Book of Luke and the book of Acts there are two books in the Bible written by the same author Luke and there's 52 chapters in these two books and so there's 52 weeks in the year you do the math we're gonna do one chapter each week so if you're new to sandals Church we have this great thing called the debrief it's a podcast you can download for free on your phones and it's a weekly podcast where I go deeper into what God's Word says so if you're serious and you know like yeah I really like the sermon but I have some questions and you want to send in a question I'll answer your questions on the debrief or you want to go a little bit deeper about what the text says historically I'll do that for you but it's a great opportunity for you to have Bible study during the week without having to come to church one more time and so that's why we're trying to do that and I know that you would love to come to church every day but you know okay let's be real all right how to become a more authentic person acts 4:32 it says all the believers were united in heart and mind they felt that what they owned was not their owned and so they shared everything they had and everybody says I want to go to church like this I want to go to a church that's totally United where everybody's together it doesn't matter what color your skin is doesn't matter what sex you are it doesn't matter how old you are I want everybody to be together I want everybody to be unified that will never happen okay it happened at one moment in time this is summer camp and it doesn't stay there okay what's the name of our country USA what does the you stand for does anybody know is that true are we United on anything right now our two top candidates Secretary Clinton and Donald Trump combined both of them barely have 80 percent approval rating but barely they're polling right at 40 percent each you know that the rates for the White House in the United States of America is a race listen to this to 51 percent did you know that 51 percent means you win at all we're never United okay being United is tough Amen married people amen okay you're United until you talk about something what that's why I married couples don't talk you ever seen a married couple at dinner right the date is great until you share how you feel and it blows up being United is difficult it's hard in our country it's hard in our marriages and it's hard in our church so everybody looks at ax4 they all I want to go to an axe for church well sandals ain't yet okay we got problems everywhere because the church is full of people now every Church absent flows what I'm talking about here is a dynamic moment in the history of the church this really happened but it lasted for a moment okay just like relationship single people listen up when you're dating like oh my gosh this is so great he's the most amazing guy ever he likes pizza and movies and beaches and vacations this is my soul mate okay show me the person that doesn't like you know movies and pizza and vacations and you know right oh my gosh this is my soulmate right there's a moment in relationships where it's dynamic when is it the most dynamic when it first starts it's okay it's so amazing we will never fight ever and that's because you've been married like eight days that's that's it sooner or later you're going to find out that every relationship has a dynamic phase it goes through dry spells it may face dysfunctional spells but the blessing is working through all of those phases so that God can bless you every church is just like a relationship there's a dynamic phase you come to sales nobody goes Mel brown so Valerius tell my wife that tell my wife that she needs to know how funny I am I keep telling her I'm hilarious and she does not believe me okay she tells me that we go out to party she's all don't be mr. funny guy tonight she actually told you that don't be yourself I love her love her I really do love her you know you come to church like oh my gosh it's like stand-up comedy I can't believe you know I thought church had to be awful I thought you had to suffer for Jesus you know like this is amazing let me tell you something I won't be amazing forever it just can't happen I mean some sermons you're not gonna get anything out of it something I don't feel like the pass for studying the Bible this week we need to pray for our pastor why because there are dynamic phases in a church life there are dry phases in a church's life and you know what there's dysfunctional phases in a church's life because the church is full of people and there's dysfunction and if you can't find a dysfunctional person around you it's you see you like everybody looks normal wonder who the weirdo is see you all right okay so all the believers were united in heart and mind they felt that what they owned was not their own okay you know this has to be God I mean if you ever woken up one day I just feel like I need to share everything with everyone you know cuz if you ever felt that way you wouldnt have a house you wouldn't have a car you would have a bank out you won't have anything you'd be homeless I've shared everything okay now I need you to share with me that's what he be saying so they felt that what they owned was not their own and so they shared everything that they had so they're all together listen to this they're all together that the sermons are powerful the Apostles testified that's preaching they preached powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus so listen to this this is the church everybody's together the sermons are dynamic and look at this next verse and God's great blessing was upon them all anybody want God's great blessing on your life anybody like half of you now pastor I'm to a blast if there's any more blasting on my bank account I'm gonna have to open another account send the blessings that way what is wrong with you how many of you guys want God's blessing on your life okay yes you're listening you're tracking I need a good curse an old-fashioned curse come on people we want God's blessing so how do we experience God's blessing when we come together that's why we're having a real about race tonight a real conversation you're gonna be black pastors up here there's gonna be the white guy up here and we're gonna have a real conversation about race we're gonna do that we need to do that because to be of one mind we got to talk about the fact that we're not always together on things and we see the world from a different perspective and we experience the world in different ways and that's real and we need to have a real conversation about that so I hope that you'll come this evening and be a part of what God's doing so they were all together the Apostles testified powerfully to the message and God's great blessing was upon them look verse 34 there were no needy people among them everybody took care of everybody everybody blessed everybody I want you to know something here there's no ministry there's no church program there's no feed the homeless thing you want to know why because every single Christian was giving you said well we should do something about homeless people go you therefore do something about it right every single one of you represents Jesus every single one of you represents Jesus every single one of you is an example of who Jesus is and you are completely empowered to represent the Lord Jesus Christ do it take care of it we don't need programs we need people who represent Jesus that's what we need okay so there were no needy people among them because those who own land or houses would sell them now think about this we're talking about major generosity like it's one thing when you see somebody on the street corner and they say you know we'll work for food or what their signs are all creative now so I don't know exactly what they say but their signs have changed and you know whatever they say and you pull up you've give them five bucks okay there's a big jump between giving 75 bucks and selling your house and giving all the money to the church that those are different levels of generosity so there's major examples of generosity so they would sell their houses and property and bring the money to the Apostles and give to those in need now I want you to see here two key components especially if you're not a Christian the number one reason I hear people don't want to go to church is they say well they just want my money or the church is all about money let me tell you something some churches very very small percentage are all about money but let me tell you what I found usually the person who accuses the church of being all about money is the person who's all about money and the reason they don't want to hear about giving money is they don't want to give it and it's because they love God more they love money so yes are there pastors who abuse certainly so let's take a look at what's happening here people gave money to the Apostles and what did the Apostles do they gave it to those who are need there's two things that I think you need to see here of how to determine whether the Spirit of God is working number one those who gave get no credit they're just getting they're just giving it to the Apostles they're given to the church and they're telling the church you give it away so they're not getting credit and they're allowing God to get the credit God is getting the credit God is getting glory I want you to notice here that the Apostles didn't keep the money for themselves okay being a pastor is should not be a get-rich-quick scheme unfortunately there are people that have perverted the gospel and they use the gospel to make themselves wealthy that is not the purpose of sandals Church the purpose of sandals Church is to bring glory to Jesus Christ and to bless those who are need anybody come to our church on Christmas Eve service raise your hands okay these are all my witnesses remember when you came to church on Christmas Eve what did we do we asked if there's anybody here on Christmas Eve that's in need it doesn't matter what your need is you come forward we're gonna see if we can bless it and we gave away forty five thousand dollars on Christmas Eve in cash okay not in promissory notes you know we didn't we didn't pray thank you for the golf clap if you're new to sandals church we are the most spiritual golf clapping church in the history of the world in heaven when you die that you'll find us on the Golf Course good putt Jesus good putt good putter okay it's okay to be enthusiastic right it's okay thank you thank you oh my gosh thank you you should have been here 8:30 service we has a black family on the front row they're going nuts everybody's like I don't know what's happening here that is enthusiasm it's like thank God man thank God right alright okay back from the golf course all right where am i I'm lost okay so they would bring money give the apostles to those who give and eat and so you give the money to God to the church and it's our responsibility to make sure that it blesses those who are in need and so let me just say this some of you here today at the end of the service you know there's an offering and there's nothing that you can give and the reality is you need to be blessed come sit down and talk with it I'm not saying that we can meet every need I'm not saying that but I'm saying at least come to us and let us see if we can help you because we love God and He loves you and he wants to minister to you and bless you and so that's one of the things that we do here at a church is we try to bless those who are in need we've been able to do extraordinary things you know about two years ago we got to build a single mom's whole house from the ground up again and we did that you guys remember that we did that well where where did that money come from it came from you guys okay and we do those things and that's what we do to try to bless people here's the key in the name of Jesus we don't want the credit we want him to get the credit because he is the ultimate giver so then they give this positive example for instance right so all these people were doing it but they call one guy out by name why is that write this down because this guy's important Barnabas is one of the most important take my shoes off my feet are sweaty Barnabas that was too real I'm preaching on authenticity Barnabas is one of the most important characters in the Bible he becomes an I don't mean character like fictitious I mean like persons in the story of the gospel of spreading he becomes the partner of the Apostle Paul he is one of the great encouragers in the history of the church plants churches disciples people he's an amazing amazing guy and the Bible says that his name was Joseph so one of the confusing things about the Bible is everybody has like 57 names praise God we don't do that anymore can you imagine like just give me one name it's hard enough to remember one name much less if you know you got like six names but his name was Joseph but the apostles nicknamed him Barnabas which means son of encouragement he was from the tribe of Levi and he came from the island of Cyprus okay he's like Hawaiian dude bro and so he shows up and he sold a field that he owned and he brought the money to the Apostles feet so here's this guy he's saying man you know what I love Jesus so much I love God so much I'm gonna sell all that I have and I'm gonna give the money to the church and I'm gonna serve the church for the rest of my life and Barnabas does that to the very end so we have Barnabas who is an example of generosity and authenticity but we're have two knuckleheads named ananias and sapphira and they are not examples so let's check out their story in acts 5-1 so here's Barnabas the church is great kumbaya everybody's awesome everybody loves it and like people say well that should be the church forever well it can't be because it's er just full of people and if you find a perfect church you'll ruin it when you join it that's what happens okay check this out there was a certain man named Ananias I want you to notice the difference Barnabas right Barnabas is a Levi he's of the tribe of Levi Barnabas is from the island of Cyprus Barnabas has a nickname which means son of encouragement Ananias is just some dude because right away you're discovering that the gospel wants you to remember one guy in his example and he wants you to remember these other guys are not an example but there was a certain man man named Ananias ladies if you're married underline these words a certain man named Ananias who with his wife okay when your husband does something stupid do not attach yourself to that train do not do that well he's my spiritual leader well if he jumps off a cliff don't follow him be like he's an idiot I get married again right seriously you know you don't you don't have to follow him in stupidity he said well he's my spiritual leader and I'm called to submit yeah unless it's sin so she is not dragged into this I want you to see this ladies she is a willing participant in this lie so Ananias and his wife sapphire they both decided together to lie to the church sold some property he brought part of the money to the Apostles that's not the problem he brought part of the money but what did he do underline the words he claimed it was the full amount what's he saying I'm doing what Barnabas did I'm just like Barnabas and this is what we do in the church is we all pretend we're more spiritual than we are we all pretend we're more generous than we are we all act like we're something that we're not and this is a problem and God is going to speak to the church and he's gonna say you cannot fake it till you make it so Ananias and Sapphira sold some property he brought part of the money of the Apostles claiming it was the full amount ladies under these words with his wife's consent she's a partner in this crime he kept the rest then Peter said Ananias why have you let Satan fill your heart every single one of you today is full of something you're full of God you're full of yourself or you're fully you know what okay you're full of something do you understand that your body was created to be a spiritual container you were made to be filled that's why so many of you feel empty you ever had a friend say that life is empty my life is meaningless you know why that is because it is your life is empty because you are meant to be filled and you are to be full of something the question is what will you be full of in the book of Acts we see the Apostles are full of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Luke Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit John the Baptist full of the Holy Spirit when Peter preaches he's full of the Holy Spirit when he heals a crippled man Peter and John are full of the Holy Spirit when the Apostles are whipped by the Jewish leadership they are filled with the Spirit of God what will you be full of the Bible says that the Jewish leadership that rejected Jesus and persecuted the church listen to this it says they were full of jealousy full of envy here's the thing about Satan you need to know he cannot possess you unless you give him permission Ananias listen to these words why have you let Satan fill your heart some of you are bitter today you're angry and you're full of sin because you have given the devil permission in your life and you need to say no to him and the way you say no to him is by saying yes to Jesus Jesus come in to me Jesus bless me Jesus changed my life every single one of you today has to make a choice of what you're full of rock Paul writes a letter to the Ephesians he says do not be drunk with wine listen to these words but be filled with the Holy Spirit what happens when you fill yourself with alcohol you do things that you would not normally do usually in a negative way you know you don't meet many drunk people I've such a better person when I'm hammered I am so spiritual okay I don't know why my drunk guy has a lisp but he does okay okay so when you're drunk with alcohol you do things usually in a sinful way that you wouldn't normally do the Bible says don't be drunk with wine but it says be filled with the Holy Spirit why in the same way that wine causes you to do things that are negative the Holy Spirit will cause you to do things that are positive and God wants you to be full of that so we give the enemy permission the Bible also says do not let the Sun go down on your anger less listening to words less you give the devil a foothold in your life you see anger is like milk it's something that's good for a moment but if you leave it out it goes bad you can't leave it out a lot of people don't realize this but anger is not always a sin Jesus got angry for a moment God gets angry for a moment anger is not a bad thing anger is a good thing for example a couple years ago Tami and I we go camping together we were in Africa I had this great idea guys some things look great on Travel Zoo and they're not great when you get there I was like we're gonna camp with the Lions in a tent like that's great on TV and then we get to Africa and we're in a tent and we're camping and the only thing separating us from the king of the jungle is canvas and a zipper not such a great idea my wife says you're sleeping near the zipper she's literally she pushed my cot all the way against the zipper she says you're the leader of this house you will be eaten first okay so what happens let's say a lion tries to get in a house what do you do that's when anger comes in you know what anger allows you to do be stupid momentarily and forget how small you are right anger allows you to go bring it on right I know that's not nearly as intimidating as it feels but yeah right you go nuts somebody comes in your house to rob your family with a gun anger says mmm right it's go time where we gonna go Old Testament that's what we're gonna go Oh Testament okay so so anger is a good thing anybody ever got a shot of rotten milk before raise your hands yeah we come on confess confess man you ever got the chunk in the back of your throat because your sister you're so thirsty you like you can't help it you don't you don't sniff it first you know my wife's a cautious milk trainer my wife's like okay okay not me man I'm just like aah and you're like you know it's like cottage cheese in the back of your throat and then you're like you know think you can't puke that up fast enough okay you know what happened is somebody let the milk sit that's what happened somebody let it sit that's what anger does when you let it sit you know what happens you let it sit you're like you know what we'll deal with this in the morning let's sleep on this that's rotten milk in your relationship and it's gonna fester and it's gonna destroy so anger is a gift from God that is used to use temporarily momentarily to protect you in situations where you need to be fierce the problem is when you store it it turns into bitterness and that sin and that's an invitation for the devil in your marriage in your life and you got to deal with that so a nice let Satan fill his heart how did he do that by lying he says you lied to the Holy Spirit and you kept some of the money for yourself you see God is the God of truth John 14:6 Jesus said I am the way listen to this the truth and the life you know what Jesus kind of language he uses when describing Satan he says Satan is a liar listen to this he is the father of lies so when you lie you are inviting and giving the devil permission into your life this is why we need to speak the truth because God speaks the truth people ask me is there anything that God can't do you know the Bible says there actually is one book if Hebrews says this it is impossible for God to lie in that amazing God cannot lie every word he speaks right when he says let there be light and there wasn't guess what happened there was it happened you're like God it's dark outside he said let there be light there was light and if you notice in Genesis chapter 1 anybody noticed that light is created before the Sun the moon and the stars well that's impossible welcome to God welcome to God he's like hey there's no light bulb in here he can just you know clap on and there it is alright you have lied to the Holy Spirit and you kept some of the money for yourself the prot listen is the property was yours listen to me out you don't have to give to sandals Church no one's making you give no one's gonna stare at you you know when the blue bucket goes by you know no one's gonna do that I mean no one from the church staff some weirdo might do that man the property was yours to sell or not sell as you wished after selling it the money was also yours to give away you didn't have to sell it and when you sold it you don't have to give it you could have said you know what the donkeys need new shoes new horseshoes they weren't donkey shoes or horse shoes I don't know donkey shoes they need new donkey's shoes you know what the kids you know look at their teeth see knee braces okay you could say that you you could say you know what we sold this house we meant to give all the money but we've decided we need to hold back a portion for ourselves and so we're gonna give listeners a percentage to the church he says you didn't have to sell it and when you sold it you didn't have to give it listen to what he says underline his words how could you do a thing like this what thing he says you have not lied to us but to whom God verse 5 as soon as Ananias heard these words as soon as he heard these words as soon as he heard these words you have lied to God he fell on the floor and died everyone who heard about it was terrified that's my message uh sure please prepare for the offering let's just just see what God does hey man amen no I'm kidding kidding kidding Vince some young men got up wrapped him in a sheet took him out and buried him I want you to notice verse 7 they didn't even contact the family three hours later right that's long church service three hours later his wife came in had anybody seen out on is he's always getting lost where's Ananias right three hours later his wife came in not knowing what happened Peter asked her hey was this the price you and your husband received for the land that's an interesting how are you doing welcome to sandals Church right Peter Jesus hey was this the price that you and your husband received for the land what is Peter doing he's giving her a chance to get real he's giving her a chance to tell the truth and let me just say this I've been a pastor for 20 years I've pastored people have been caught in adultery caught lying cotton cheating they've current committed criminal acts you know what I tell people all the time now is the opportunity to get real and you know what amazes me even when people are caught they still lie guy gets caught in the act of adultery he's caught boom he says it was just one time I was at the mall I slipped I fell we were having sex I don't know what happened I don't know what happened it was terrible right and then you find out a month later that he's been seeing that gal and another gal for like a year it's like dude bro help me out help me out get real be real it is amazing to me how people lie in the midst of confession hey I'm gonna confess some sins but not all of the sin it's amazing she has an opportunity check this out was this the price to pay for the land yes she replied what did she just do she just lied listen is she planned the lie she committed the lie and now she's reinforced the line pretty serious here Peter said how could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this the young men who buried your husband are just outside the door and they will carry you out - oh god just opened up a can mm-hmm right then the young men came in and saw that she was dead they carried her out and buried her beside her husband the Bible says great fear gripped the entire church gripped the entire church and by the way look at this and people who weren't even Christians oh you know what's wrong with so many of your lives you know why so many of you fall into sin why someone even make excuses for sin it's not that you forget God's love it's that you forget to fear God that's what happens to churches a couple of years ago there was a a woman leader in our church and she had fallen in love with another guy who wasn't her husband her husband was battling a terminal illness literally was the last year of his life and she said she felt like God was calling her to marry this other man and leave her terminally ill husband to die I said I am warning you do not do this or you will fall under the judgment of God you know what she told me she says I know that God has to forgive me when I repent did you know that there's a verse in Hebrews that says do not insult the spirit of grace do not insult the spirit of grace now that woman no longer goes to our church and her husband did die and one day she will stand before the Almighty God and be held accountable for her choice do not insult the spirit of grace you cannot manipulate God according to his own character you cannot do it okay my wife and I have been married over 20 years you want to I've been faithful to my wife two reasons number one she's scary okay you ever find me dead somewhere in a field you know what happened you know what happened okay no no no I'll be dead in my home that's what I'm saying but my wife and I my wife and I've talked about this because you know we live in a culture that does not honor marriage we live in a culture where women don't care that you're married some for some women that's more attractive Oh committed guy right he has a job he's nice and he's married okay you know right that's the culture that we live in and I told my wife I said you need to understand this it is not my fear of you that keeps me faithful but it will be my fear of God because I know I might be able to fool you which would be hard she's a sniffer of the truth my wife has a nose smells like a lies but listen to me you want to know why pastors fail morally it's because they forgot to fear God they forgot they forgot who they're dealing with you won't know waianae since the fire bro lied to the Holy Spirit because they forgot who God was they forgot fear gripped the entire church so what is this pastor tell us number one write this down God takes sin seriously you don't but he does you don't what he does so here let me let me just enlighten you Christians say this all the time Christians say stupid things that are not biblically accurate all the time one of the things that I hear Christians say all the time that is not the truth is this all sin is the same this is not this is not what the Bible says anybody ever heard a first-degree murder second-degree murder manslaughter does anybody know where that comes from that is a biblical concept straight out of the Bible okay did you get mad at a guy and kill him did you wait behind a bush all day long and then kill him those are different things different things now all murder is bad it's all wrong but how did you do it it makes a difference and so let me say this so here's here's why Christians say that because they want people to take all sin seriously so think of sin like cancer how much cancer is too much in you if you don't know you don't want any of it you don't want any of it not all cancers are as deadly but all cancer will eventually kill you it's the same as truest sense some cancers kill you more quickly some sins will kill you more quickly but it is all going to kill you in the end it's why we need Jesus now here's the thing I'm gonna blow your mind right well it's gonna happen it's gonna happen okay this is not JV theology here this is varsity I need you to step up write this down the seriousness of sin is determined not just by the act itself you see here's the problem it's we talk about sin simply in categories we don't talk about sin in relationship the seriousness of sin is determined not just by the act itself but to whom the act is committed against let me give you an example to prove my point let's say you're following me home from church today on the 91 freeway you let go let's let's take a picture of meas a bad driver and you're falling behind me and all of a sudden I get into a fender bender with somebody and we have to pull over on the side the road it's not a bad accident nobody's hurt but both parties are frustrated and you pull over to help but then you don't know oh I don't wanna be a stalker so you just sit back there and you wait I don't know what I should do and you're just waiting and you see me and the person who got in the phenomena you can see that emotions are high tensions are thick and there's a conversation that's ensuing that's probably not Jesus loves you right and you know my gosh pastor Matt's really upset and we're going back and forth and you can see that it's just building in the frustration building then there's yelling there's finger-pointing and it gets ugly and then all of a sudden I totally blow your mind and I just go bam smack the person in the face and because I'm so buff they just drop to the ground dude you're like Oh pastor Matt just smacked somebody on the side of the freeway what do I do what do you do some of you would pray dear Lord pester man has anger issues bless him from afar I'm not going to talk to him right now some of you be like I'm going harvest right I don't blame you I don't blame you you know you're like my pastor is an idiot okay so what do you do you see my sin you see my act and you respond accordingly now let's say the person that I knocked unconscious stands back up and as they do you realize she's a woman is anybody feeling me the sin is now greater same act committed against a different person it's a different thing for a man to smack a man for a man to smack a woman is a different thing both are sin you should not do either but in the first instance what do you do you pray you think about going to another church in the second instance you call 9-1-1 and i need to go to jail you don't slap me you're not slapping a woman some of you are slapping God every single day and it is a miracle of God's grace that you are even breathing right now it is a miracle of God you probably have an angel in heaven right now going you want me to kill him I'll do it I'll do it do it your guardian angel got crazy feet he's like oh oh gods like no no no no no and your angels like I'm not a couple boom right seriously you understand that God gave you life and he can take your life and it ain't murder it was just your time right you ever seen that somebody just drops dead and preside what happened I don't know no you don't know I mean there's weird stuff man weird stuff man people die in crazy ways crazy ways do you know in Riverside downtown at the Mission Inn nobody tells you this do you know that a deaconess from the First United Church the First Congregational Church was killed in the Mission Inn in 1931 by an elephant yeah sat on her in the Mission Inn it was her time I don't know what she did that is bizarre is anybody worried about being killed by an elephant today in the Mission Inn they don't tell you that in the story there's the seat they tell you where President Taft sat but they won't tell you were the elephant sat right how'd your auntie die she was killed by an elephant at a circus no at a restaurant on safari at the Mission Inn what did your auntie do don't know that's crazy right God can get you elephant get him all right read the story that it's sort of a real thing you just learned something God takes sin seriously listen where he says how could you do a thing like this you weren't lying to us but to God you know what so many of our problems is we're not afraid of God you want to know why you should be afraid to God Oh God look what he did to his son for you you know what that tells you God takes sin seriously seriously God says I will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves you don't know what sin is if you're not a Christian write this down on sin is selfishness that's what it is sin at it's very core is selfishness people say well why is there world hunger you know why there's real hunger not because there's not enough food but because there's too much selfishness too much selfishness couple years ago at sandals we raised some money to buy a well for an African tribe because the women had to go every single day uphill to get water nobody took showers because water was precious there's a lot of work ladies they carried on their heads okay don't have a wrestle with those women their neck they like Kenya with their neck their necks are so strong and so we said you know what as a church we're gonna raise money so these people could have a well so they'd have to spend so much of their time every day going to get water so we bought all the equipment to build the well we asked the men in the village to build the well for us you know what they said what's in it for us yeah I said water you know what they said well we don't do that the women do yeah do you know that the property the equipment sat there for two years two years because they wanted us to pay them so they could have water crazy selfishness selfishness in every culture in every race in every country all over the world sell fish this that's what's happening next man you guys are listening slow we got hustle all right authenticity matters to God so number one God takes ten seriously number two often to City matters to God so here's the question right and I since the fire were not real God struck him dead we need to grow an authenticity to the question is how do I become more authentic number one you got to learn to become real with yourself the Bible says you delight in the truth in the inward being you teach me wisdom in the secret heart listen the vision of sandals churches to be real to yourself people say well why isn't God first here's the answer he's not the problem listen to the words of Jesus Luke 9:23 he says whoever wants to come and follow me listeners let him first pick up his own cross and deny him or her self to follow Jesus to say yes to Jesus is to say no to you here's the problem though we are far more critical of others than we are ourselves we judge others by their worst actions but we judge ourselves by our best intentions right mom's you're in target you see another mom Walker kick that mom needs anger management counseling you whack your kids and target your kids need counseling because you know your heart we judge others by their actions we judge us by our intentions next we need to develop relationships with other Christians that are real then a real stop telling lies the Bible says let us tell our neighbors the truth for we are all parts of the same body we're a family and we need to be real as a family together you see living an authentic life means that I must learn to share what's happening in me not just around me here's the problem with so many churches churches just like Facebook Instagram snapchat you're not talking about what's happening in you you're sharing what's happening around you you're sharing news you're not sharing yourself so let me give you an example ladies your husband's having an affair you're in small group you say I need to pray for my husband because he's unfaithful that's the news here's what's happening in your heart my husband is unfaithful I don't understand how I could do this I'm struggling with bitterness I'm angry at him I'm angry at God how could God allow this to happen to me you share in small you have cancer you have prostate cancer guys that's the news but in your group you say I don't understand this I've eaten well I've taken care of my body I'm physically fit how on earth could God allow me to get this disease this doesn't seem right single people you're Tyler you're struggling you're paying your school loans you're working two jobs you lose your job and you're at either that's the news what's happening inside you I don't understand God said he would bless me when I blessed him financially this doesn't seem right I'm questioning my faith in God that's what's happening in you not just around you you want your life to change you want to build a closer relationship with God begin to tell people what's happening on the inside not just the outside because people that truly love you people that truly love God will love what's in your heart and what's happening inside you right if you matter to people what's happening will matter to those people and you need to learn to share it last point we need to develop a real relationship with God the Bible says look at the last verse Colossians 3:3 for you died to this life and your real life your real life is hidden with Christ in God you're real who you really are is not in you who you really are is in God so if you wanted to discover the real you you need to discover the real God here's this big fascination with DNA testing anybody seen this on the news on the commercials right you know 23 com ancestry.com you spit in this tube and they tell you who you are why why do we all want to know that you wanna know why cuz grandma lied that's why grandma lied like all of us oh yeah I'm Choctaw Indian like everybody's Indian cuz that's like cool you know it's not it's never it's never cool to just like be plain like I'm without a little spice in my ancestry so then you go out you tell your friends yeah I'm an Indian and I got this headdress and it's pretty awesome and the test comes back and nope you're all white well what'd I do with the feathers right you know why there's this big desire to discover our ancestry because we feel like it will help us understand ourselves listen to me you don't need to discover your genetic and us ancestry you need to discover your spiritual ancestry because when you learn about God you will learn yourself when you find him you will find your self you want to become more authentic you have to know God at a deeper level listen I know this message has been harsh and some of you you're like yep I'm going to hell okay listen listen yes you are if you don't repent of your sins and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ but here's the good news God did not send Jesus into the world to judge your sin but to save you from your sin if you repent of your sins and you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ you too can be saved after last service I was in the lobby and a young gal in college named Sarah came up to me and she said pastor I'm ready to be a follower of Jesus and right there in the lobby Sarah and I prayed together and she repented of her sins she told God she was sorry she tried and trusted Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior and right there in the lobby she was saved okay she was safe the same thing can happen for you today at the end of service we're gonna have ministers who are up here to pray for you some of you have financial needs some of you have spiritual needs some of you need to repent of sin some of you need to get right with God and I want you to do that today because one day without faith in Christ you will stand before the same God who struck Ananias and Sapphira dead and you know now today he don't play so you better be ready let's pray together Heavenly Father God thank you for today thank you for this amazing church and thank you for this amazing gospel god I pray that we would be faithful in every way god help us to be more authentic for some of us God that starts today with repentance of sin and faith in Christ for others of us God it's a renewed commitment to authenticity in the vision of our church living out our faith and trust in Jesus Christ in a more authentic way so father whatever the decision is that we need to make today I pray that we make it in Christ's name Amen

Channel: Sandals Church

Views: 9,747

Rating: 4.7862597 out of 5

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Id: iAVyDJ9k8pg

Length: 46min 38sec (2798 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 17 2016