Untitled Sermon (23)

Intro

Back in 2016, I went on a missions trips to Costa Rica. And leading up to this trip, I was like really bitter about having to go on it. I was taking five classes at the time, and the night before we left, I stayed up all night, finished an essay, an exam, and another assignment, and by the time I finished it was 4:30 am. Our flight was at like 7:30, so I drove a group of students to a train station, they got on the train and rode to the airport, and the rest of us loaded up in the van and drove to the Seattle airport. We get there, go through security, get to the waiting area, and board the plane around 7:00 am. So at this point, I’ve been up for like 20 hours, and I’m exhausted. I’m on the plane, trying to take a nap but I can’t nap because I’m uncomfortable, and so for like the six or seven hours we’re traveling to Costa Rica, I’m just awake, and my mind is rotting from the lack of sleep. We land in Costa Rica, I have no idea what time it is at this point, and then we get into another van, drive for like 30 min. to a random church, and we stay the night. So at this point, I’ve been up for like 35 hours or something crazy, and I crash. I’m out, they wake us up at like 7 AM, we get into another van, and we drive 3 hours to what seemed like hell. We arrive to this small little town in Costa Rica called Cariari. And while we’re here, we stay at this lady’s house. The girls got to sleep in the garage, and the guys had to sleep outside in the yard. I spent the first two nights sleeping in a tent, and then the rest of the time I was feeling adventurous, so I slept outside in my hammock. And every single morning at like 5:30, the sun would come up, and there would be this crop duster (do y’all know what that is?) and it would fly in a circle around the property for like 2 hours. But for 1.5 weeks, we work all day in 95 degree weather painting a church. The whole time I’m thinking, this is the most useless thing I’ve ever done. We paid thousands of dollars, and we’re literally painting. In 95 degree weather. On top of all of this, people started getting sick. A few people legit got the flu, and were literally sick, but I, your pastor, saw this and was like, wait a second… If I’m strategic, I can make it seem like I’m also sick. And I was thinking, hmmm, my throat does feel a little scratchy, lemme just sit out for a couple of days. And so I did. I put like half effort into this portion of the trip. After we finished working in the area, we moved to another location. I can’t remember the name of it, but it took us six hours to drive there and it was literally on the other side of the country. And at this point in the trip, I’m like, I’m done with this. I’m done with mission work, I’m just done. I’m going to give the bare minimum from here on out. And we get to this last place, and it’s like in the desert/jungle of Costa Rica. Every night and every morning, Howler Monkeys would literally just scream. Like would scream, for hours. And I’m counting down the days until I’m back home away from this place. But, one night, I go to use the restroom, and the restroom in this place was in a building, but the building didn’t have any doors. So I walk in, it’s hot cause we’re in the desert, but it’s not too hot since it’s getting dark, I do my business, and I walk out back to my room. As I get to my door, I hear a bunch of noise, so I turn around, and coming out of the bathroom that I just used is another guy who was part of our team, but he’s not alone. In his hand, he has the tail of a six foot python, and he’s dragging it out of the bathroom. And I’m just standing there. Like I want to run, I want tho throw up, and I panic and I run into my room and start emptying out my suitcase thinking “what if theres one in here???” I don’t know what I would have done if I found it, but knew one thing: I’m done with Costa Rica. I’m done with this trip. And for the rest of the trip, I gave little to no effort at all.

And I’ve reflected on this trip a lot over the last few years. And I’ve reflected on like my life and my walk with God and where I was spiritually during that season, and I was holding on to so much of myself and what I wanted, and I didn’t fully give everything in my life over to God. Here I was in a different country, and I was supposed to be loving God and loving the people of that country, but I was so concerned with myself, and my discomfort, that I gave very little to God. But, at the same time, I did enough things at the right time, so that it would look like I was actually participating. Like, when I was pretending to be sick, I did a little bit of work so that people would be like ‘Wow, John’s sick, but he’s still serving. He must really love Jesus!” Wrong, I mean, I love Jesus, but then, I loved myself more.

And so, thinking about the new year, the new decade, what does God want this youth group to be in 2020? Here’s what I think the vision is. God wants us to be all in for his glory in 2020.

God wants our all as a church in 2020.

Acts 5:1–11 NIV

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

Exposition

When we’re all in, we don’t focus on what others are doing

For a long time, this was one of my favorite stories in the bible. If we back up a few verse, at the end of chapter 4 we read:

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. So, the book of Acts is all about the beginning of the Church. And in the beginning of the church, everyone came together, sold their land, and they pulled all of their money together and lived as one giant family. This dude Joseph, who probably was extremely wealthy, sold a large plot of land, and he gave all of the money to the church. People were probably like “WOW, look at Joseph. He’s given so much money. This gift is going to help with so much.” Well, Ananias probably heard all of this, and he saw all of the praise that Joseph was getting, and so he decides to sell some of his land. But, he does it to promote himself. He does it for his own glory and his own praise. He saw what Joseph did and was like, “I want that too!” But here’s the thing: When we’re truly all in, we aren’t concerned with what others are doing.

The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

This is hard. We live in a time where it’s so easy to compare ourselves to others. It’s so easy to want to be and strive to be like someone else when we see the reaction they’re getting. When I was in high school, I’m really embarrassed to share this, but my hero was John Cena. Like I would spend hours and hours at the gym trying to look like him. I did John Cena workouts, ate like John Cena, watched videos of John Cena working out, entered into a contest hoping I’d win a chance to work out with John Cena. I compared myself, physically, to John Cena. I, shockingly, never became like John Cena. But this is what we do. Not with John Cena… but with others. We see what other people are doing, we see their success, their progress, their growth, and we become so concerned with matching them or surpassing them that we do wild things to get where they are or to get what they have. Ananias was so wrapped up in the reaction that Joseph got from the people, and he wanted that same reaction, and so he sold his land. He did what Joseph did hoping he would receive the same things Joseph received. He wanted praise from people. And this is what we often want. We do so much just so people will like us. If we’re not all in for God’s glory, then we’re all in for our own glory, and when we’re all in for our own glory we’ll always always always be needing more to satisfy us. Ananias’ problem was that he wasn’t all in. He and his wife might have had a relationship with Jesus, they might have surrendered to him partially, and part of his idea to sell the land might have been because he knew that it was something good he could do for the kingdom, but his concern with receiving praise from people overtook that. When we’re not grounded, when we’re not finding out identity in Jesus Christ, when we’re not fully surrendered to him, when we’re not all in, we get caught in this trap of seeking satisfaction from people. But when we’re all in, none of that concerns us.

What we can infer from the story is that Ananias told the Apostles that he was going to sell land and he would give all the money to the church, just like Joseph. And so Ananias sells the land, makes a ton of money, and says to his wife “Yo. This is a lot of money. Do we really want to give All of it to the church? Let’s give most of it, but let’s keep back a portion for ourselves. When we’re truly all in, we give God everything.

They keep for themselves part of the money they received, and Ananias goes to Peter, lays down the offering at his feet, and Peter says “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.” If I’m Ananias, I’m thinking “How does Peter Know,” and I’m thinking, “Oh shooooot.” What’s interesting to me about all of this is that Ananias and Sapphira gave a lot of money. Yet, they were still punished for holding back a portion of it. Here’s what I think is going on. God wants everything. God doesn’t want a people that are half surrendered to him. He doesn’t want a people who are kind of in when they feel like being in. But, at the same time, I know that God is loving and just and merciful and full of grace. Why such a harsh reaction to this sin? What I think is, Ananias and Sapphira wanted to pass it off like they were fully in when they really only wanted to be partially in. Following God is a life-long process. It’s one that we commit to for the rest of our lives. And none of us is there yet. But God works with that. He works with us when we slowly surrender our lives over to him. Our desires, our pride, our selves, they take a long time to give over to God. And he comes in and he works with that. Where Ananias and Sapphira messed up was they pretended to surrender, but then they pulled back, and then they lied about it. And they stuck to that lie. They conspired together and used surrender as a way to gain favor and praise from others. Their commitment to God was fake. They weren’t all in, or even partly in. They were out.

What God wants from us is everything. He wants our whole lives. And when we surrender to him we’re saying “Lord, here I am, take all of me.” And for the rest of our lives, we let God come in and take all of us. We let him take everything. So, in 2020, let’s surrender to God, and let’s be a church that’s all in for his glory.

If you know Jesus, what are some areas in your life that you’re still holding on to or holding back from him? What are some things you haven’t fully given over to God? Maybe it’s your time. Do you spend time with God outside of this place? Maybe it’s your future. Maybe it’s your relationships. God wants everything.

And to ease everyone’s minds: God isn’t going to strike you down. This is a very rare story in the new testament. God responding this way to a sin only happens in the NT in this story and it shocked everyone. But, God is not pleased with fake or half-hearted surrender. He won’t kill you for it, but he desires more from us. So, let’s surrender and let’s give God our all. Let’s glorify him through worship, let’s glorify him through loving each, let’s glorify him in fellowship, let’s glorify him through service, lets glorify him by giving our whole lives over to him.