Honest to God!!

Eph 4:30 And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, He has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

INTRODUCTION

Good morning!! We are living in a time of imitation and not genuine.

In purses, we find so many imitation, in shoes, clothing, and watches.

But the fact of the matter is because there are imitations you can be certain that there is a genuine because that is why they are imitating it.

In our walk with God, now this is a sure thing, whenever, there is the real thing you can be certain the devil will come along with his imitation version.

And Satan has effectively flooded the market with cheap substitutes.

Jesus tells a parable about the wheat and the tares and it is a picture of the real and the unreal growing up next to each other.

In this parable, there is a man who planted a field of wheat and then the man’s enemy came in at night and planted tares which look exactly like the wheat and they grew side by side.

Unless you were in the farming business then you couldn’t tell them apart, until the tares begin to uproot the wheat.

The Bible tells us that in the last days there are going to be genuine Christians and there are going to be fake Christians.

Now understand this, it is not our job to identify who the fake Christians are. We just need to make sure that we are not one.

But in the book of Acts we find a couple who are fake Christians. Ananias and Sapphira.

Now we know them as hypocrites. Many people will say that they don’t want to go to Church because the Church is filled with hypocrites.

The sad thing is when a person who is a Christian falls short then many people will label them as a hypocrite.

It like if you do or say anything that doesn’t measure up to your faith as follower of Jesus Christ you are immediately branded a hypocrite.

Just because you believe something and don’t always live up to it doesn’t mean you are a hypocrite, it actually means you are a human.

Because none of us measure up all of the time to the high standards of God.

Rom 3:23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.

We are imperfect people serving a perfect God.

Apostle Paul admitted that he struggle:

Rom 7:15 I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

But that wasn’t Paul’s every day experience, but it was his admission.

But this should not make us think I can justify my failure and my disobedience to God and I don’t need to even try.

Because Apostle Paul wrote this:

Php 3:12 I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

Php 3:13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,

You see, the further we go in the Christian life the further we realize we need to go.

The more you grow spiritually the more you realize you need to grow spiritually.

If you are one of those that think you just don’t need to grow very much, than you don’t realize how far you have to go.

The person that recognizes the need in their life is a genuine growing Christian.

So to believe something and to fall short of it is not hypocrisy. That is humanity.

But what is hypocrisy? A hypocrite is an actor, it is a person performing, pretending to be be something that they are not.

It is a person that goes out of their way to convince others that they are something other than what they really are.

So let’s look at two hypocrites: Ananias and Sapphira and how that they fell short and how they messed up and how God dealt with them.

In the book of Acts, we seen the Holy Spirit moving mightily. we have seen Him pouring out in great power and thousands of people are believing. Miracles are happening.

And Satan is not happy. The devil always fights the church when the church is moving.

C.H. Spurgeon said, “Satan never kicks a dead horse.”

If you find yourself being attacked, if you find yourself being tempted, it you find yourself facing opposition as a follower of Jesus.

Then that would be a great indication that you are on the right track.

But if you are never attacked, never being temped, never being harassed. Maybe it is because you are a dead horse.

You are no threat to Satan’s kingdom.

So the church in the book of Acts was definitely a threat. This church was turning the world upside down. So Satan attacked them.

Satan’s single ambition is to turn you and me away from God and all that is good.

John 10:10 The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Remember in Acts 2 chapter, 3000 people come to know God. So we will see in Acts 4 Satan comes and the Apostles are threatened.

Act 4:1 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees.

Act 4:2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead.

Act 4:3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.

Act 4:4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.

Look the church had grown from 3000 to 5000 plus. Satan was not liken this.

So we see an outward attack. There’s two primary ways that the devil will attack us, outwardly and inwardly.

The first attack is outwardly, threat on your life, someone harassing you, mocking you, giving you a hard time. It is persecution.

1 Peter 5:8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

He will come but Peter say stay alert, watch out, but he is just a roaring lion, not the lion of the tribe of Judah.

Rev 5:5 But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, "Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals."

So if that strategy doesn’t work, he will go to the inward attack.

The first attack he comes in like a lion. But we see in Acts 5 his attack is inward. He comes sliding in like a snake.

A snake is hard to read. They are not like a lion. You know what a lion may be up to by just looking at him.

But a snake show no expression on their face, it never changes.

They might be happy, angry, or bored. It is the same expression. They have no eyebrows, their tongue just comes out. Goes back in.

But what snakes do for sure, they have a way of getting in and out of tight spaces.

Here in Acts 5 we see the devil coming in a very slick way. If he can’t win by persecuting the church on the outside then he will try to pollution on the inside.

Act 5:1 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property.

Act 5:2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife's consent, he kept the rest.

Act 5:3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself.

Act 5:4 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 weren't lying to us but to God!"

This cause both of them their lives. Because they were pretending!!

The sin of lying to the Spirit was that they pretending to be something they were not.

At this time the church was living together. Because they were under persecution. many people had lose their jobs. So they were bring all their resources together. They would share food, clothing, they were taken care of each other.

And this was all done voluntarily, no one was forced to do anything. But here comes Ananias and Sapphira making a big show of all that they are doing for God when they weren’t doing it at all. They had sold land and acting like they were giving all to help but it was a lie.

They were doing it all to impress people.

It is so important to see why God deals with them so hard.

In Acts 5:3--- “you lied to the Holy Spirit” and in Acts 5:4 it said “you weren’t lying to us but to God.”

So this tells us that the Holy Spirit is part of the trinity and that this is God the Holy Spirit.

And because of that lie, it grieve the Holy Spirit, or brought sorrow to the Holy Spirit.

Eph 4:30 And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, He has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

To grieve the Holy Spirit means to make Him sad or sorrowful. It like breaking His heart. It like saying I don’t care.

There are things that we do and don’t do that will break His heart.

Eph 4:21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him,

Eph 4:22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Eph 4:23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Eph 4:24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Eph 4:25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.

Eph 4:26 And "don't sin by letting anger control you." Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry,

Eph 4:27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Eph 4:28 If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need.

Eph 4:29 Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

A list of stuff here:

get rid of the old man, put on the new man, let you thoughts and attitudes but renew, live righteous and holy, stop telling lies, tell the truth. don’t let anger control you, quit stealing, go to work, give generously. Don’t use bad language, be a encourager.

But then in Verse 31:

Eph 4:31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.

It almost like the Holy Spirit summary it all here: get rid of, all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander and to put the end to it all all types of evil behavior.

But He does not stop with just get rid of then He tells us what to put on.

Eph 4:32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Be kind to each other

Tenderhearted (compassion)

Forgiving one another