Holy

Manuscript Template

Title:  Holy

Focus Statement:  

Function Statement:  

Tweetable Phrase:  

Main Text:  Acts 5:1-11

Supporting Text:  Acts 4:32-37 / Romans 6:23 / Romans 12:2 / James 2:10 / Romans 2:23 / Ecclesiastes 12:13

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  John 15:1-6

Benediction:  Romans 6:19-22

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

Happy Mother’s Day

Good morning, and Happy Mother’s Day.

Today is one of those Sundays that carries a unique kind of emotion. For many, it is joyful—a day filled with gratitude for mothers, grandmothers, spiritual mothers, and the women who shaped our lives through love, sacrifice, prayers, meals, rides to practice, late-night conversations, and countless unseen acts of care.

For others, today is harder.

Some are grieving mothers they deeply miss.

Some carry the ache of strained relationships.

Some long to be mothers.

Some are walking through loss quietly.

So before we say anything else this morning, we simply acknowledge this:

However you feel on this Mother’s Day, it’s okay.

God meets us all, exactly where we are.

ME/INTRO - Tension

Now, if I’m being honest, Acts 5:1–11 is probably not the passage most people would correlate with Mother’s Day.

A married couple lie to the Holy Spirit… and both fall down dead.

Not exactly “roses and brunch” material, or in our case “chocolate covered strawberries” after service for the ladies.

But perhaps that’s part of why we need this text.

Because underneath the shock of this story is a truth our culture — and sometimes even the church — desperately needs to hear:

God cares deeply about holiness.

Not image

Not appearances

Not pretending

BUT...Holiness

And maybe mothers understand this better than most people.

Because mothers often spend their lives teaching us what matters beneath the surface.

They teach us:

character over charm

integrity over image

truth over excuses

who you are when nobody is looking

And we need these lessons, because we live in a world that has all but given up trying to live holy lives.

WE - Tension

Honestly, how often do you think about our holiness, living sin free lives, defining sin by missing the mark that God has set for your life?

How many of us could list all 10 commandments? How many do we break regularly?

No other gods / no idols / do not take the LORD’s name in vein / remember the sabbath / honor your father and mother / do not murder / do not commit adultery / do not steal / do not lie / do not covet

How many of the 7 deadly sins (or habits) do you break regularly?

Pride / Greed / Lust / Envy / Gluttony / Wrath / Sloth (laziness)

We don’t think about sin often in today’s culture because culture has normalized most sins

Yet, Romans 6:23 reminds us that all sin carries significant consequences.

Romans 6:23 NIV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Even if you think about and try to avoid sin, which sins do you try to avoid?

Do you fall into the trap of ranking sins?

Culture Does

Political Conservatives focus on sexual immorality and abortion as the top sins to be avoided

While Liberals focus on injustice, greed, and intolerance as the top sins to be avoided

To be fair, even God categorized sins in the Old Testament, grouping them by the consequence they required.

Sins that require Death

Murder / idolatry / adultery / homosexuality / incest / bestiality / rape

Sins that require Banishment

Violating purity laws / Illegal worship / unlawful sexual relationships

Sins that require Restitution

Theft / Property damage / lying

But the inner drive to rank and avoid only what we deem “serious” sins, can lead us to justify engaging in the sins we have deemed to be “minor”?

Culture has normalized all kinds of behavior that the bible defines as sinful - premarital sex / pornography / homosexuality / divorce / lying / greed / substance abuse / materialism / and many more

Even the Catholic Faith has formalized this idea that not all sins deserve equal attention

Moral Sin (severe / deliberate / require confession and penance) - murder / abortion / adultery / blasphemy / missing Sunday mass

Venial Sin (less serious / everyday offenses / not requiring confession or penance) - Cursing / lies / theft / gossip / anger / selfishness / etc

But as we read in Romans 6:23, all sin has consequences and all sin separates us from God.

So today, we honor mothers—the women in our lives who taught us integrity, honesty, repentance, and faithfulness...

...we continue our series in Acts, by letting Acts 5 ask us a deeper question:

Are we pursuing only the appearance of faith…

or the HOLY life that God calls us to live?

Today we’re going to look at how God dealt with the first recorded sins in the church and what we can learn about the level of holiness that we are called to live in our personal lives and as a church today.

If you missed the previous messages, please feel free go to our website, TheLightKC.org, to catch up.

As we begin, please turn with me to [Acts 5:1: Sanctuary Bible Page # 886]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND... if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Let's dive in.

GOD - Text - HEAD

Starting in Acts 5:1, we read.

Acts 5:1–2 “1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.”

I think we need to look at what Ananias and Sapphira actually did here.

They sold a piece of property and gave part of the proceeds to the church to distribute to those in need.

That’s not a sin.

Nobody was forcing them to sell the property.

There were no rules about how much you had to give to the church.

This was an act of generosity, that they chose to do.

But, there is more to the story. Let’s continue in Acts 5:3:

Acts 5:3–4 “3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.””

The sin was not that they kept part of the money back, it was that they lied about it.

To get some context as to why they did this, let’s look at the section just before this one at the end of chapter 4

Acts 4:32–37 “32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. 36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.”

We don’t know what Ananias and Sapphira’s true intentions were in making the gift, but the way that Luke structured the story makes us believe that (at least part of them) wanted the recognition that Barnabas got without the full sacrifice.

They were double minded.

They wanted to do a good thing

But, they also wanted other people to acknowledge what they did

I think this is a huge warning for all of us.

In what areas of our life as we double minded?

When do you good things, are our intentions...

To help?

To obey the Holy Spirit’s prompting to serve?

or to be seen and get recognition from people?

Jesus warns us of acting with selfish motives in Matthew 6:2:

Matthew 6:2 “2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

Just like Ananias and Sapphira

The impulse to do good comes from God

But, the devil is constantly tempting us to twist that good impulse into a sinful act of self-service

We cannot serve God and ourselves at the same time

We have to make a choice.

And choices have consequences.

Galatians 6:7-8 warns us

Galatians 6:7–8 “7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Sin always has a cost.

We find the cost Ananias and Sapphira paid in Acts 5:5, which reads

Acts 5:5–10 “5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” 9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.”

God took their lives because of a lie.

If you remember the penalty for lying in the Old Testament was RESTITUTION.

Yet, because of this lie, and because of the example that it set for the church, God choose to enact a greater consequence

The truth is that All sin is against God

And no matter how careful we are to hide our sins from each other, No sin can be hidden from God.

God had to let the church know how important it was seek purity, to seek holiness individually and within the church.

Because the truth about sin is that Sin is contagious.

Sin committed by one person that goes unpunished, gives the onlooker permission to do the same.

We know this with our kids. Seeing a sibling get away with something, gives them permission to confidently do what they know to be wrong.

And with in groups, The consequences of sin can affect the whole community.

And the church got the message. In Acts 5:11 we read

Acts 5:11 “11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

Scholars write that there are three ways that we are to fear God:

Reverential Fear of God’s Holiness

Disciplinary Fear of God’s Judgement

Arresting Fear the fear that gets the attention of the unbelievers who witnessed or heard about the incident

YOU - Takeaway - HEART

But if we’re honest, do we FEAR GOD?

Do we think about the CONSEQUENCES OF SIN that we willfully commit?

Do we SUBMIT to the Holy Spirit’s leading as He works to SANCTIFY US?

Or...are we living DOUBLE MINDED lives like Ananias and Sapphira?

The Zondervan illustrated bible backgrounds commentary states

p. 253 - It is easy to treat sinful behavior lightly. Christians sometimes find ways to ignore it, overlook it, justify it, reexplain it, and not deal with it appropriately. Let us not forget that we are accountable to a perfectly holy God who took sin so seriously that he allows His only son to die an excruciating death for us.

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action - HANDS

So, what do we do with the sin in our lives?

And...what do we do when the devil tries to tempt us to twist our good intentions into self-serving sins?

Jesus teaches this through a parable in John 15:1-6:

John 15:1–6 “1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

The image Jesus is painting is of a gardener growing grapes.

Back in the 1st Century grape vines grew on the ground, they weren’t raised up on wires like today.

[Image: 1st Century Grape Vine]

For comparison, here’s an image of a modern grape vine

[Image: Modern Vineyard]

Sitting on the ground, the vines could get infected from the moisture in the dirt, Just like we can get infected by the temptations we face to sin.

Instead of cutting off the vine, the gardener would take a Y-shaped stick and lift it up and allow the sunshine to bake off the infection; Pruning it (or cleansing it or purifying it).

[Image: Vine lifted up]

The image we’re given by Jesus is that Sin is an infection that needs to be treated.

And the sin in our lives can only be treated by bringing our sin, our mess, and our failures out into the light of the Son (S-O-N).

As 1 John 1:9 states, we need to confess our sins to God for forgiveness

And as James 5:16 states, we need to confess our sins to each other for healing

I want to end with a modern day analogy on Sin.

Sin is like taking the wrong turn while following a GPS route.

God is the one that determines which route is the best for us travel to get to the place we need to go.

When we sin, go our own way, intentionally or by mistake, deviating from the route God planned for us.

When we sin, God recalculates our route...through the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives, God lovingly guides us back to the best route He originally planned for us.

[Image: Recalculating]

But sometimes we go so far down the wrong route that to get back to the route God planned for us, the new route is longer, may go through rougher terrain, and may require that we sit through some construction.

Only by faithfully following the teaching in the Bible and obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives, do we live life on "best route” that God created us to live

God’s act of re-calculating our route when we get off track is GRACE.

It is the undeserved gift of forgiveness that God gives us when we REPENT or turn from the route we chose and get back on the route God originally chose for us.

God does not require absolute perfection from anyone.

If He did, we would all be in trouble.

When we admit our weaknesses, when we depend on God’s goodness rather than our own power or worthiness, then God continually offers His grace.

But this does not give us permission to abuse God’s grace.

We are called to do everything we can to avoid all willful sin.

And we believe that it is not only possible to avoid all willful sin, but that doing do leads to the best way to live.

So what pattern of sin, have you been trapped in that you need to

confess to God for forgiveness

confess to an accountability partner as you seek freedom and healing?

The question for all of us this week is, are we actually going to do it, dealing with our sin, following the path that God created for us to walk, and becoming the people that our mother’s raised us to be?

Or are we going to follow the path that Ananias and Sapphira’s took, living double minded lives, trying to do what is right, while succumbing to the temptation to serve our own interests?

As the church we are called to follow the example of the early church and Barnabas in Acts 4:32-37

Practice spiritual unity

Embody boundless generosity

Share the undaunted witness to Christ

Reflect the measureless grace of God to a hurting and unbelieving world.

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

Romans 6:19–22 “19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

This week...

Let’s stop worrying about what others think about us.

Let’s stop being double minded; trying to do good, but trying to get ahead at the same time.

Let’s instead

take an honest inventory of the sin in our lives

seek forgiveness for all the ways we’ve fallen short by confessing our sins to God

seek healing and freedom from the sins in our lives by confessing them to trusted people in our lives

repent, turning back from all the detours we’ve taken from the path God intends us to travel

humbly follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as He leads us on the best route through life

Quick reminder...

Digging Deeper Bible Study - Wednesday at 6:30 PM - Programming for all ages

Chocolate Covered Strawberries for the ladies in the cafe - Happy Mother’s Day

Yearly Church Conference - next Sunday at 5 PM - please come - if you want to become a member so you can vote, please see me.

If you’re new, please fill out the card in the seat back and stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

If you’d like to get more information about taking your next step of faith, fill out the card in the seat back and give it to me or turn it in to the info desk.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

What does holiness mean to you personally, and how do you strive for it in your daily life?

In what ways can we better acknowledge and confront the sin present in our lives, as highlighted in Acts 5?

How can we ensure that our motives for doing good align with God's purposes rather than our desire for recognition?

What steps can we take as a community to foster an environment of accountability regarding our spiritual lives?

How can we cultivate a deeper reverence for God that influences our actions and decisions?

Why do you think it’s important to understand the consequences of our actions, based on the example of Ananias and Sapphira?

In what situations do you feel tempted to act in a way that may not reflect your true beliefs or values?

How can we support each other in avoiding behaviors or habits that separate us from God?

What does it mean to you to 'confess your sins' and how can you practice this in a safe environment?

How can you apply the lesson of honesty from the story of Ananias and Sapphira in your friendships and school?