Liar, Liar Ananias Is On Fire

Liar, liar, Ananias is on fire. Okay? Liar, liar, Ananias is on fire. What does that mean? Well, we all know liar, liar, pants on fire.

Ananias is somebody who lied to the Holy Spirit and God struck him dead. Ooh, very serious. So let's open where the Bible opens.

Again, we're encouraging people to bring your Bible. On Wednesdays, I'm going through the Psalms verse by verse, and now we're in Acts, Acts chapter four. It's good to get that Bible out and just that leather and the pages and some highlighters.

Acts four, and as God is speaking something to you, you want to note something, I would encourage you to write it in there. Acts 4.32. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. And that is so important as a church body, making sure we're of one heart and one soul.

Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own. In other words, when they became Christians, everything they owned. They said, you know what? We're just stewards of what God wants to do.

But they had all things in common. In other words, there wasn't a lot of disunity. There wasn't a lot of fighting and complaining and bickering and with great power.

And I believe because of the unity, they had great power. The apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. First important point, grace falls on an obedient heart.

The grace of God falls upon obedient heart and the Bible talks about God resisting the proud Christian. Isn't that interesting? God will actually resist a proud Christian, but He gives grace to those who are humble. And great spiritual power also equates great boldness.

In other words, when the grace of God is upon you and the spiritual aspects of the Holy Spirit are working in your life and you're just broke and humble, that's a wonderful song we sang. Break me and humble me and God, keep my heart tender. From that, which is a very interesting dynamic, because when a person's not a believer, the more humble they become, actually the less bold they become.

You think of just humility, gentle, they're not gonna stir the pot, they're not gonna be upset. But in God's kingdom, the more filled you are with the Spirit, the more humble you become, out of that reservoir of being filled with the Spirit comes boldness. There's just no way around it.

Now your boldness is gonna be different than my boldness, right? I'm not gonna rehash what I just spoke about a few weeks ago. But many people mistakenly believe because they would tell me, Shane, I wanna be bold, but I just, not like you are. Like I wanna be, I'm like, no, that's good.

Dude, you're not supposed to be like me. And I don't wanna be like you. I can't be timid and this all the time, but that timidity can be a really good thing.

Because you realize, right, Jesus was meek. Not weak, what's meek? Oh, meek, oh, just tender. And meekness does not mean you have no strength.

It means your strength is under control. So it's a powerful thing to have the boldness of the Spirit. And I wanna highlight two early Christians.

They were actually killed for their faith. Think of ISIS, think of Hamas. Boy, don't get me started on that.

Golly, Polycarp said you're fire. And he's actually rebuking his accuser, the people that put him to death. He said, your fire burns for an hour.

In other words, he's gonna go under the flames. He's gonna be murdered at the stake. Your fire burns for an hour and goes out, but the fire of the coming judgment is eternal.

Justin Martyr, you can kill us, but cannot do us any real harm. And I often think, okay, that's what they said, but what would most Christians be saying? Crying, they're built, oh, no, no, please, please, please, please, please, I'll recant, I'll recant, I'll recant, I'll recant. Caesar's Lord, Caesar's Lord.

Just don't, don't, don't. What's the difference? Filled with the Spirit. Man, it makes all the difference.

It doesn't mean, I don't think it means fear will not be able to come into your heart at all. I'm sure you'll be tempted with it. But temptation, remember the door of temptation swings both ways, you can enter or exit.

As you begin to just be filled with the Spirit of God, that boldness comes out. Spiritual power is so important. Look at Isaiah 61.

Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Now think about this.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, they were writing about 750 years before Jesus this time. They were writing to a culture, Jerusalem. I'm sorry, the Jews, but they were centered in Jerusalem.

They had just endured 50 years of prosperity and God's blessings, but now they've moved into idolatry. And for some reason, Isaiah 61 quotes, Isaiah says this. He just says this out of the blue.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to those who are bound.

Now this is, again, I'd love to preach a whole sermon on it. I might someday. But this is also the verse, how many of you remember when Jesus began His ministry, He walked into the temple and the reading for that day was Isaiah.

I mean, one of the things I'd want to see in the Bible. Parting of the Red Sea, yeah, of course, right? But this, when Jesus, here He is fresh from the fasting, going into ministry, He walks up, He opens the scroll to Isaiah. And He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

And He reads the rest. And then just, I mean, talk about mic drop. Today, the Scripture is heard.

I mean, today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Basically, I'm here. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Now, why do I bring it up? Because, and I want to be careful in how I word this, because I've never, like some of these people, the way they word things, it makes them think they're equal to Jesus, which we know is not even, I mean, I don't even want to say it. But I do want to say this, that the same Spirit that was in Christ, the same Holy Spirit, is in a believer. So, technically, when a person is full of the Spirit, full of that boldness, God will use you to preach good tidings to the poor.

He will send you to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to those who are bound. That's what preaching does. That's what God's Word does.

So my point is, the Holy Spirit is in you for you, but He's upon you for others. Let me unpack that for a minute. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is in believers, correct? Actually, the Holy Spirit, the Bible uses three prepositions.

I've talked about this before. P-A-R-A, para, means alongside, and then E-N is in you, and then E-P-I, upon you. So the Holy Spirit is in me, in you.

He saves you. You're saved, right? You've got the Holy Spirit. But then there's something dynamic takes place where He comes upon you for others, for ministry.

The Holy Spirit doesn't come upon me while I'm just sitting at home around the pool. Maybe if I'm praying, maybe there's dynamic moments like that. That's an exception, though not the rule.

He comes upon me to preach the Word and to change hearts. He'll come upon you to minister to your neighbor. Have you ever been there and you're like, you don't want to even talk about the Gospel or something, and you're in line at the store and somebody says something that, whew, what did you do? Did you just take my Lord's name in vain? Or what do you mean by that statement? Or this and just, whew, man, you're driving home like, Lord, where did that come from? Because you submitted, you were humble, you were wanting to be used by God.

The Holy Spirit comes upon. It's actually not a weird thing. It's actually weird not to have that happen.

Throughout church history, it's very common for the Holy Spirit to come upon believers after they're already saved. It's a subsequent filling of the Holy Spirit. First, we know that the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles in the early church in the book of Acts in the upper room, correct? Now, were they already believers? Well, Jesus said, he breathed on them.

He said, receive the Holy Spirit. And then later on, the Holy Spirit came upon them. And then Peter, later on, the Holy Spirit, he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Later on, Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. We can read church history. And you read about how people were, I mean, if you look at Augustine's work, I've got his book, it's called Retractions.

It's things he retracted later on in his faith as he grew. But you can just read some of these journals and David Brainerd and the Native American Indians, John Wesley, Joe Whitfield, and John Bunyan. It's like there's a time in their life where it may be stagnant.

Oswald Chambers, he was a professor at a university. So the Bible was drying and dead and dull as a professor. And it says, when he finally surrendered all, and the Holy Spirit came upon him, the word lit up.

So there is often, there can be, it doesn't always happen, but sometimes people are quenching and grieving the Spirit that they don't feel that upon aspect. And when they finally do, then that boldness follows. So I would encourage you, pray, God, I want the Holy Spirit to come upon me.

I know He's in me, I'm saved, but Lord, I don't witness to people. I mean, the Bible is kind of boring. Worship night, I'd rather watch Joe Rogan, right? There's no spiritual hunger.

Quenching and grieving and be encouraged. I can slip into that camp really quick, can't we? Oh boy, I'll get off of that one. Let's continue Acts 4. Tim told you it'd be a different message, right? You can already, every time people say for two, it's like, what just happened here? We stayed for two services, got two messages.

Nor was there anyone among them who lacked. So here we go, they're all coming together. Nobody lacked anything.

Why did they not lack? Because they all were possessors of all those who have land and houses. They sold them and they brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and they laid them at the apostles' feet and they distributed to each one who had a need. So see the bottom portion here? Let's get this point across here.

Hello? Hello? Christians have used this versus. Hey, it teaches communism. No, socialism and communism are when you're forced, your stuff is forced from you and given to someone else.

The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver because their heart was right and they wanted to bless people. I've known people, they've sold their second home. They've sold their third car.

They've sold these things. You know what, I can't take any of this with me. God's changed my heart.

Wherever you guys need this, if there's families in need and that's how it works, God has to put that on your heart. They understood who the true owner of their stuff is. Man, if I could get this across, especially to young adults.

Teenagers! Any teenagers here or listening later? Don't try to get the bling bling. Don't pursue. Don't pursue.

Oh, if I could just have, man, if I could just be a millionaire, if I could just do this. Trust me, new levels, new devils. You know how many millionaires that are miserable? Absolutely miserable.

Because money never satisfies. When is enough enough? Never. I mean, people have talked about it.

As soon as I got one million subscribers on YouTube, I was so happy I made money and then within six months I wanted to have three million so I could beat this guy. And then now this happened, and now I got a divorce, and I've got my wife, and their life's falling apart because money becomes their idol. Money's an incredible servant, but it's a terrible master.

That's the difference. And so they understood. Hey God, everything I have is God's.

Isn't that true? By the way, just a side note. This is, you know, take it for what it is. Of course, I think it's good to leave you know, kids something, of course, and you want to, you know, bless them and things like that, but just be careful because it's a proven fact that kids who get things without working become spoiled brats.

And they end up losing it. And that's why when we did our trust, they said, I wouldn't give your kids anything until at least they're 30, 35 years old. What? Right, let them work, let them.

And so you can ruin somebody by giving them something too soon. And by the way, this is just extra as well. There's a lot less stress when you recognize everything is God's.

Correct? Everything, for example, how many of you, well, if you're older, you know, the stock market. I know people who lost so much money they had to go back to work in 2009, 2010. In construction, different place.

I mean, they were on the verge of suicide. And I'm not for that, but I'm just saying, hey Lord, you're in control. I'm not trusting in these things, I'm trusting in You.

It'd be nice if I had a little nest egg, but I'm trusting in You. And then when things go up, things go, oh, gold price, silver price, this, oh my goodness, what's going on? Social security, oh my goodness, what's going on? What's going on? You're trusting God. I'm just so thankful all the garbage is getting exposed.

We were cheated. We were cheated big time, big time. Man, unbelievable.

And that's why, remember, God will use ungodly people to uncover godly things. Acts 4.32, continuing. I'm just gonna call him Barnabas, because his name's interesting here.

Hosus? Does anybody know how to pronounce that? Is it Hosus? It's not Jose, I know that. Josus? Josus, okay. See, you don't know either.

Don't laugh at me. So this is Barnabas. So, you know, Barnabas, son of encouragement.

He was actually, how many of you knew this? He was actually a Levite priest. That's like a Pharisee coming to know the Lord. And so he had land and he sold it and he gave it to the apostles and he was baptized into the church, which meant he probably had, he lost all of his finances.

Because remember, how was the Levitical priesthood supported? By the temple tax. And so now he becomes a Christian. Talk about trusting God.

I know, and I don't know where they're at spiritually, so I probably won't even say his name, but he was a well-known guy probably 15 years ago, had a compassion type ministry where it reached a lot of orphans in India. And when I followed it, it seemed really, really incredible. And I remember a radio interview he was on, and he said the Lord just put on his heart years ago, him and his wife, they have no retirement, they have no insurance, they have nothing.

They just, it's all the Lord's. And he said so much freedom from that. Now, am I advocating that? Not really, because the Bible also teaches to store up and to use wisdom like an ant.

Watch the ant, you little sluggard, lazy person. He stores up. But if God's doing something and somebody's hard, who are we to criticize? And like, God's gonna go, oh, why'd you do that? You're trusting me? Oh, God.

Man, that is so stupid. You're gonna just trust me for everything? Don't you know I have the universe to run? So be very careful, because I've seen some people do some amazing things, and God's brought them through. So on this topic, though, it's important to talk about tithing.

Tithing is actually not about money. When God, the New Testament, just so you know, what we teach here at this church is the New Testament model is God loves a cheerful giver. There's tithing is 10%.

Many churches require 10%, 10%, 10%. I will tell you this now, after talking to thousands of people and doing this for 15 years, people that have a problem with 10% also usually don't give much. It's a hard issue.

It's pretty obvious. So they don't like mentioning, we don't tithe anymore. God loves a cheerful giver.

Well, why are you not cheerful? You're not very cheerful. You're pretty upset. Right, because money will show you where your heart's really at.

Well, will it not? And so, and I guess I need to confess again. I confess at the first service that one of the things I have to work on that's kind of, you know, cracking the armor, something that people have told me they've lovingly challenged me on this area. It's where I've dropped the ball as a pastor.

You guys ready for this? Get your phones out. You gotta record it. We might not use this sermon for YouTube, so you're never gonna hear this again.

It's gonna vanish and disappear. I actually, and it's a weak area, so pray for me, but it's, I don't talk about giving enough. And you can ask Randy, our treasurer.

He says, shame, man, you gotta talk about more. It's freeing for people. It's helpful to people.

The elders are like, I know, but I just, ah, because, you know, there might be a new person here or the church over the years. Have you ever been to a church that's like, we're not gonna make the budget this week. We're passing the plate again.

We're not gonna, it's not always about money. Golly. And because of that, I run to the polar opposite.

These people are right because giving is very important. And I let the opinions of others and my own experience shape like, oh, I don't wanna do that. So I gotta bring it back more often.

Because it's, I will tell you this, it's probably one of the most freeing things is when this doesn't control you anymore and you are a cheerful giver and you base your life based on living below your means with tithing as an actual build. It's the priority. It's freeing.

And I know what it's done for us. I know what it's done for others, but I don't wanna share that with people because they're gonna view me as one of those televangelists like send in $1,000 today. Hey, I know there's 10 of you in this room.

Stand up right now if you have $1,000 today and that seed harvest, seed time and harvest, it's coming. Don't division, Terry, wait for it. For in the end it shall speak and not lie.

Oh, lay down that seed harvest this morning. Yes. Praise God.

Man. And then they cry. We've got an orphanage.

Our orphanage in India, we're gonna have to shut it down. I need 50 givers. I need 50 givers to come and stand united with us.

So that's why I don't talk about it. But it's a very important principle. Somebody by the name of Jesus spoke a lot about giving.

He actually spoke about stewardship more than any other topic. So I'm gonna work on it. Pray for me.

But it's not about money, it's about our heart. And when you're really stingy, it affects your heart. It affects church attendance.

It affects how you handle things because you can't really trust God. I've gotta handle this. And I remember when me and my wife made the decision we were getting our first house.

She'll remember this. And it was a struggle, probably for me more than her. And we got the realtor.

I eventually became a realtor later so I know how this works. Cause they don't, well some of you might, but most of them just spend as much as you want. More commission.

So they're in the bank and she said, you know what, you guys can actually weaken up your value. You can go look for a more expensive home. You qualify for more.

Really? Yeah. Well, how? Because, oh, the bank doesn't count tithing and things like that. Those aren't bills.

They just count like credit card and this and your car payment. Like, oh yeah, so you can go look for a house a lot more expensive. And I thought about, hmm, yeah, maybe tithing isn't tight.

Maybe I don't have, we don't have to give. God wants us in a better place. They don't look at it as a bill, but you better.

And God will open incredible doors. A lot of you are new, I've shared it before, but our first house actually. If there's something you need to know about me if you're a salesperson, do not push me.

Because I'll go the other option. The more you push, the more I'm running. So we went and we looked at houses actually over by the prison, 2005.

And we walk in, she's like, oh yeah, we got this lot, right? They're getting ready to trench it here shortly. You gotta put it down because they're going quick. And they were going quick.

Remember 2005? I mean, it was going quick, quick, quick. And I go, oh no, we're gonna buy a house today. And we're gonna think about it and pray about it.

She's like, oh, kind of mocked a little bit. Like, well, it's not gonna be here. Oh, well, I don't want to tell you, I'm not gonna buy a house today.

It's ridiculous. So all week, okay, right. Well, feel good about it, let's do it.

We're on board. I walk in there and she's got a little smirk on her face. I told you, it's sold like the next day.

I told you. Okay, well, wait on the Lord. He knows what's best.

And then I never forget, she just kind of changed. She goes, but are you ready to move in now? Like, yeah, I'm living with my mom. I'm ready like today, give me the keys.

Give me the keys. And she goes, because we have a bigger house at the old price from the older phase that just fell out of escrow. So we walked into our first home with 50,000 in equity on day one.

Because when you wait on God. And I can give you, this happened, our second house as well. We bought a house and it was a short sale, remember those? And the bank said, okay, just, I was a real estate agent.

The bank said, just give it to them. We don't wanna deal with it anymore. And they give it to us for a certain price.

But it was back in 2012, 13, when it was like, like every, I was doing BPOs, Brokers Price Opinions too. And I was doing appraisals. And it just, I mean, like every month the houses are going up.

But the bank used an appraisal for almost like a year old. So we walked into that house as well with instant equity. Just waiting on God and not rushing and saying, Lord, we're gonna put you first and whatever we have to get.

Then we're, and my point is, do we do that perfectly all the time? No, we're a work in progress. But when you put God first, and when you make giving to the Lord a priority, God sees your heart. And I've had to do this over the years.

Like I stopped giving to homeless people for a while because I had the excuse, oh, they're just gonna buy alcohol, right? So now I go and buy them food. And I still think you need to be wise, of course. But when you give, let's just say a ministry, you didn't know what the, you're giving and your heart's right, even though they might not spend it correctly.

And I would use, well, I don't know where it's going. I don't know this. And it would prevent giving.

And sometimes again, you wanna use wisdom. I would not give a homeless person cash, for sure. But just be careful, your heart's right in that.

So lying to the Holy Spirit, Acts 5. Lying to the Holy Spirit, Acts 5. Maybe I won't get much further. But a certain man named Ananias. A certain man named Ananias.

So why does it say but? Because we just left off with Barnabas just gave all this money. And Ananias and his wife Sapphira, and Ananias is like, oh man, that's so cool. Look at what he did.

I wanna do that too. So his wife and him, they sold the possession. They sold some land.

But what they did is they kept back part of the proceeds. His wife also being aware of it. And they brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet.

But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And you kept back part of the price of the land for yourself. So what happened? It'd be like me coming to church and saying, hey everybody. Well, we don't do that here, but other churches, you know how they lay their gift down here, I guess.

Hey, we just sold our house in Courtsill for 600,000. And we are so spiritual, we're putting it all down right here. Man.

Hey everybody, did you see what we did? Balcony, can you see up there? The cash, you see this? You have it all, God is all, God's got all of our heart. Man, we're spiritual. However, they sold it for 800.

And they still got 200,000 burning in their pocket. Why did they lie? That's a million dollar question. Attention to look super spiritual? We don't know.

But that was a pretty big deal, obviously. When God kills you, it's a pretty big deal. My question is, why doesn't he do that anymore? I'd be preaching to an empty church.

And I wouldn't be up here. Because we all can bend the truth over our lifetime, correct? Your wife says, do I look good in this dress? You've heard the jokes. Maybe that one, that was not a good one, I'm sorry.

Remember I talked about how your opinions can come in and flesh can come in, so let's strike that one from the record, back on track. So basically, Peter said, why has Satan filled your heart? So Peter actually gave a word of knowledge based on 1 Corinthians 12, eight. And again, if you go back and watch the first service, I talked a lot more about this topic of the gifts of the Spirit and things like that.

So make sure you watch that so you know where our church stands. But a word of knowledge, what is it? 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some of the gifts are supernatural.

Some have been given the word of wisdom, some the word of knowledge, some of tongues and healing and things like this. And for the life of us, though we try, we can't see where the Bible talks about them no longer being available today. Now you can say they were just for the early church and the apostles because they did signs and wonders that need to authenticate the gospel.

And it's because this, all this weirdness that goes on today it's clearly not of God. Okay, I understand that, but where's chapter and verse? That Paul says, here's the gifts of the Holy Spirit, here's how to use them, here's how they operate in the church, but it's not gonna apply to the church in the future, just to the new church, the early church. You just don't have that.

So what is a word of knowledge? According to Wayne Grudem in his book, Systematic Theology, I'm gonna paraphrase, remembering, it's when God supernaturally, spontaneously, supernaturally brings something to mind that was not otherwise known by the person. And some of you, I know you've experienced this before. And it could even be prayer.

Like, I was just thinking about you today. I've done that a lot of times, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that. How did you know? And I haven't thought of this person in months.

And God will put something on your heart. And so people are genuinely operating this gift, and I don't believe it's a gift they turn on, they turn off. I believe that God, in His timing, supernaturally will give somebody something for the moment.

And that's what He did here. Peter recognized, how did Peter know he didn't, it doesn't say he talked to the buyer, and he found out exactly what the price was. It doesn't say that.

It's just, he laid it at their feet, and then Peter, right then, it's like, man, Peter just called it out. Why, and maybe he knew, I don't know, but it appears to be a word of knowledge. Why has Satan filled your heart? Important topic, though.

Satan entered Judas Iscariot's heart, but remember when he denied Jesus? The Bible says that Satan filled his heart. But in this case, I'm sorry, Judas entered his heart, but in this case, the Satan filled Ananias' heart. What's the difference? And again, this is the idleman commentary.

I'm just looking at Scripture, kind of thinking this is pretty interesting, but I believe Judas was not a believer. I think we can agree on that. Hello, hopefully, you know.

So, not only that, the Holy Spirit had not been given yet. Jesus didn't breathe on the disciples and say receive the Holy Spirit. None of that happened yet.

They were just followers of Jesus, Jewish people practicing their faith and believing it's the Messiah. It would get to some point where the Holy Spirit would come. That's why Jesus said, I must go so the Holy Spirit can come.

So Judas, you could use the word possessed, but the darkness came in and entered his heart. But with Ananias, one would think that he was a believer. He was filled with the Spirit.

He was a believer, he had the Holy Spirit. Well, how did he lie? Well, how do you lie? How do you sin? All right, we're doing good, we're doing good. And here comes a fiery dart.

Here comes, the police pull you over. Didn't you see that red light? There was a red light there? With the sun's right there, I didn't even see that. You just left church and heard this message.

You get pulled over where the Gowdy Hill comes down and police pull you over. You didn't come to a full stop. You did California stop.

Oh no, it's full stop. I thought I did, didn't I? You know you haven't full stopped there in a year because I haven't either. I can see everybody coming, north, south, east and west.

Like, why am I gonna stop when I can see up the hill, down the side, everything? So that's how it happens. A believer struggles with the sin nature. So, how did Satan fill his heart? Well, how does Satan fill our heart? It's a barrage of fiery darts.

We have to reject them and you take your thoughts captive. Or do you fuel those fiery darts and keep allowing Satan to fill your heart with more? Because we can go from praising the Lord, loving Jesus. Have you ever been there? Don't leave me hanging on this one.

And everything's going good and then by Tuesday, what just happened to you? You're mean, you got an attitude. You're just telling people off. You're like, what happened? Fiery darts were fueled.

Well, there's a lot of people laughing. See, at 9 a.m. nobody's laughing. But isn't that how it works, those fiery darts? And so Satan, I believe, obviously, why don't you do this? Why don't you get the last word in? Why don't you text him back this? I bet they don't like you.

I bet they don't appreciate you. I bet they don't respect you. And these fiery darts.

So he's seeing Barnabas, was it Barnabas? What was his name? Was that right? Yeah, so he saw him getting maybe accolades and oh man, look at how spiritual that looks. And so here comes these fiery darts. Man, I wanna look spiritual.

I want them to think better of me and maybe my path. And here comes those fiery darts. That's how Satan gains access to your heart.

He doesn't enter a Christian. I don't believe a Christian can be what they call possessed. Can they have a stronghold? Yeah, you keep feeding those fiery darts.

You go back to a past addiction that almost took you down. You just gave him a lot more strength in your life. That's why it's called a stronghold.

The Bible calls an addiction a stronghold. Something has a stronghold on you. And God gives us an opportunity to repent though.

Isn't that beautiful? God gives us an opportunity to repent. Even then, I believe, and we're gonna see when I get into the section again, Peter asked his wife, she didn't know he was dead yet. And he said, did you sell for such and such? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did.

Even there an opportunity, even Peter an opportunity. And that's something you need to know about God. God gives us an opportunity to repent.

He calls us back to Him. And it's interesting too, also how Ananias was first and his wife followed. Men, you lead for better or for worse.

Often, I won't get into statistics, but I mean, I wanna be careful even on saying it, but boy, I don't know, eight, nine times out of 10, often the husband leads the spiritual direction of the family. Where he leads the family ultimately goes. I mean, I've seen great men of God and their wife left and cheated on.

I know there's exceptions to the rule. But more often than not, the man sets the spiritual tempo for the home. The man leads in spiritual things.

And that's why it's hard for you to do that. The enemy doesn't want you to do that. Also, when you see a marriage, I mean, this number's really high.

And we've seen it a lot over the years. We've seen a lot fall apart and we've seen a lot come together. And often, when they're at the altar or they're here together now at the marriage, often the man had to take the initiative, often.

Because when the wife's humbling themselves and praying if the man is still arrogant and prideful, often nothing happens. But if the man takes that initiative and he humbles himself and he repents, somehow God uses that to mend and build the relationship. Because by design, women want to follow a man who sold out for Christ.

I hope so. Because let me tell you, if they're not following Christ, they're following the world. And honey, you ain't first place or second place.

You're like down number 10 on the list of priorities. Work and status and recognition of my addictions and my habits. I can look at porn if I want to.

You're down here. But you get a man following hard after God, that's someone that she wants to follow. That's why many people don't understand the verse.

Wives, submit to your husbands. Oh, I'm not gonna submit. I'm gonna have some man telling me what to do.

Read in context. Husbands, what are we supposed to do before that? Oh, you guys need to go home and read this. Love her as Christ.

Oh, game changer. Game changer. If you are a woman, and you don't want to follow a man who follows hard after Christ, I'll be in the prayer room.

Tell me what the reasoning is on that one. Because you love Him, Jesus, and as a result, you love your family better. And so like I said earlier, watch that marriage retreat together and grow together.

Man, set the tone in your family. And again, I'm gonna cover the rest of this. I've got so much stuff on lying and different things.

But I'm gonna just put up this final verse. I think we have it from Revelation. And you guys can see it up there.

Because there's so much I want to cover. But this is important. Lying can also lead to dying, dying spiritually speaking.

We can't overlook this important principle of lying. But for the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Did you know you die twice? How many people did not know? Well, maybe don't raise your hand, but just think about this.

You actually die twice according to the Bible. You die physically, and then you either live eternally with Christ. That's not death, trust me.

That's life. You die physically and you die spiritually, the second death. And that's the one that's so important.

But why are liars there? That doesn't make sense. Well, you have to remember, what we've talked about before, and I'll bring this to a close, is when Paul talks about all the different sins, he lists all kinds of sins. He said this person, this person, this person, this person, this person will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

So see, it's not necessarily, here's how this works. Again, I want to be careful. It's not the sin that puts you in hell, necessarily.

What it is, let me finish before you get up and leave. It's your heart is in rebellion against God, and you hate God. You're an unbeliever.

And because of that, you're a sinner. And you have no relationship with God. So you go to hell.

So the person who's in rebellion to God might be inclined to be a liar. They might be inclined to indulge in sexual sin. Or the Bible talks about drunkenness.

And I've had people and I've counseled people that just because someone struggles doesn't mean that verse applies to them. Because we'd all be in trouble because somebody struggles with something. Again, if you're perfect, love to meet you as well.

Afterwards, I'll be right there in the prayer room. So it's not the struggle that puts you in hell. It's the lifestyle, rejecting God, and it might manifest itself in lying.

Have you ever met those people? It's like, it's sad because they are just lying. Man, they lie about everything. They build themselves up, they lie about their career, they lie about their job, they lie they're a Navy SEAL.

You know, they're just always lying. I mean, they're kind of good, but they're just lying about everything. Or other people.

Maybe they're good, and I'm a good, outstanding citizen. I'm a good person. As we know, good is never good enough.

You can never rely on your good works. And they're pretty good, as far as we look at them. But they are a gossip and a slander, or they're cowardly.

And that's why the Bible lists all these different sins. Because Paul, I believe, wants to make it clear. This person, this, this, this, this, this, this, this.

All these people will be in hell because it's not that they're sinning doing that, that's because they're in rebellion against God. And because of that, they sin. So pick your sin.

Either the only way to deal with that sin is to repent and believe, and believe in Jesus, believe in the cross. And that saves you and sets you free. And then that takes away the sin.

Now you can go before God. Again, this is all Bible. You can go before God because of righteousness.

It's actually called imputed righteousness. That you take on the righteousness of Christ when you stand before God. So even that person can struggle with lying, but the difference is they repent, I hope.

I've met Christians and I know they're liars. I mean, it's like, man, how many times? Like, I've caught, it's like, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. It's like, Morgan knows what I'm talking about.

And they don't repent though. You bring it up, no, no, I try to get out of it. It's like, well, dude, you better really check your heart.

Like, do you really know God? Because a person who really knows God, they might argue at first, right? You get defensive. You ever been called out, you get defensive. But eventually, you know, it sinks in.

The Holy Spirit convicts you. You can't sleep at night. You have to fix this issue that's wrong in your heart.

So I believe when it talks about lying, that's what he's talking about. And remember, the devil is called the great deceiver, the great liar. So if you have not surrendered to God, you are being led astray by the deceiver, by darkness.

Those who do not know God are actually living a lie. They're following the deceiver. He's lying to them.

How does he lie to them? You're a good person. Never once does the Bible say a good person goes to heaven. Are you aware of that? I don't know where this concept comes from.

It comes from the great deceiver. Because you don't stand before God. Okay, let me see, Shane Idleman, let's see.

I've got all these bad things, but you know what, I've got all these good things. I think it comes from other religions actually. If you break down Islam, you break down Mormonism, you break down other things, it's they're good, hopefully he's gonna outweigh their bad someday.

But in the Bible, none are good, no, not one. You have to embrace Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. That's how you're good.

But he deceives. Oh Jesus, he was a good teacher. Yes, yes, he was a good, but not God.

All paths lead to God. I mean, you're Buddhist, you're seeking. You're Hindu, you're seeking.

I mean, as long as you're seeking, as long as you're sincere, lie, hello. Here's something I hope you never forget. I learned this years ago.

All religions can be wrong, but they cannot all be right. There's only one true. I am the truth, I am the life.

Nobody comes to the Father except through me. Jesus said that. So you can't just say he was a good teacher.

He was more than just a good teacher. I've said it before, C.S. Lewis said, God, Jesus is either a liar, he's a lunatic, or he's the Lord Jesus Christ. You really, and you know what, he's right.

There's no other options. Well, he's a good teacher. Actually, he's not a good teacher because if you take my body and eat of my flesh, you will live an eternal life, and three days I'll rise from the dead.

That's not a good teacher, that's a lunatic. Unless, unless it's all true, which it is, of course. Think about this.

All these people, Polycarp, Justin Martyr. What about, do we ever wanna open Fox's book of martyrs? That how history records that how Peter died? How John died? How 11 of the 12 disciples died? It's not fun. How are you going to be, let them cut off your head if you're lying about Jesus? Have you ever thought about that? Think about that.

I know it's been out there and many of you follow different podcasts. You've heard this, but a lot of people haven't. It's recorded history that Jesus lived.

He's not a fairytale. They know He lived. His followers died horrendous, gruesome deaths.

Obviously, they experienced the resurrection. As soon as they catch Peter, hey, we're gonna cut off your head tomorrow. No, no, no, no, no, we all lied.

Here's what we did. Here's how we tricked them. They all said, please, and like Paul, for me to die is Christ's gain because they knew God.

They knew God. If you don't know Him this morning, you need to make that decision.