Guard Your Heart: Lessons from Ananias and Sapphira

Meaning, God God is not out there in the sky, right, or in some distant galaxy. I mean, he's not some old man with a white beard, right, playing the banjo, right, in some distant galaxy or dimension, but God is what? He is spirit. And so that means God is present everywhere, including where? Your heart. And remember that Holy Spirit is not some kind of weird energy or some kind of spiritual gas. Right? But he is the third person of the triune godhead. Right? He, not it. He is living in your life to guide you and help you and encourage you, but he cannot do that well if you are not honest and true with God. [00:06:48] (50 seconds)  #GodIsInYourHeart

Because if I'm real with God, then more than likely, I will be end up I will end up being real and honest with others or doing what I say I will do or following through with my words. You know? So my yes is being yes and my no is being no. Right? I mean, the word for that is called what? Integrity. Everything flows from your walk with God. [00:06:02] (39 seconds)  #LiveWithIntegrity

And so if I'm just going through the motions or, you know, if I'm just checking off the, you know, the the religious to do list, then that's a good time to pause and ask myself, what's the condition of my heart? Is my faith and walk with God real? And if not, then, I mean, I I got I gotta address this. Right? I mean, I I gotta think about this because there is nothing more valuable and more significant to your life than a real and genuine faith in Jesus. [00:08:21] (43 seconds)  #FaithNotFormality

King David was a man after God's own heart, but he ended up committing adultery and then covering it up with murder. Sin works that way. I mean, we we cannot imagine our own series of bad decisions growing from a small sapling to what? A giant tree and then doing things we never imagined doing. So guard your heart. [00:20:14] (35 seconds)  #GuardYourHeart

Now if you go fishing, you need the right lure. I mean, you can liver you you can lure me with liver. I'm not gonna bite. Right? But you throw a medium rare filet mignon, and I'll be salivating. In other words, what's your bait? What lures you when you're feeling, say, a need? It can be an emotional need. It can be a physical need, a relational need, where you're struggling with some worry or some unknowns. [00:15:24] (53 seconds)  #KnowYourBait

But I remember going to church every week and no longer seeing people as precious souls. Now I saw them as potential sales and dreaming about the big the big money I was going to make. But every time I I went to church, I I couldn't worship. I I was just thinking about how I can get mister and missus so and so to buy a new set of kitchen knives. Right? And after a few weeks, I just quit because of what it was doing to my heart and instead decided to trust god to lead me in a different and better way. [00:17:16] (42 seconds)  #WorshipOverProfit

Last question I wanna talk about to check for deception. Am I letting perceived loss become more important than fearing God in my heart? How many of you lost something very valuable? Maybe maybe you lost your wedding ring, losing maybe your phone, and you can recall the panic, the dread. Oh, no. Where where's my wallet? Honey, where's Jimmy? Like, he was right here a second ago. Well, I mean, we don't like the fear that comes with loss, which is why Ananias and Sapphira ended up deceiving others and themselves because of what? Because of perceived loss. [00:20:49] (44 seconds)  #FearOfLossCheck

You know, interestingly, the the, you know, the word test here that James uses is the same Greek word James uses in that same passage for the word tempt, which means this, that your needs or or the pressures you face can be tests to stretch your faith, or it could become a temptation to shrivel your faith so that the trial or the problem or the worry can be like a knife. You can use a knife to prepare a meal, or you can use it to, what, take a knife. What that knife ends up doing all depends on how you, what, handle it. Right? [00:18:33] (56 seconds)  #TrialsOrTemptations