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Amen, Acts chapter 5. So tonight we're going to be looking at the beginning of Acts chapter 5, and we're going to look at the story of a man named Ananias and his wife, and what happened there. And I'm going to give you three lessons from this story this evening. Of course, last week we talked about just this idea of what was happening in the church. We talked about giving money to the church. We talked about tithing last week. And there was kind of a different situation, what's happening here, than just tithing. They were just giving everything that they had to the church, but it was a voluntary giving. Everyone's heart was in the right place, and it was with the church, and they were just giving everything to the church, and they were selling out for the Lord. Look down at verse number 1, and we'll look at this story. Now something specific happens here where you have all these people, they're selling everything, and they're giving it all to the church, and then something different happens with this man and his wife. So let's look at the story, and then I'll give you three lessons that we can learn from this this evening. Verse number 1, the Bible says, but a certain man named Ananias and Sapphira his wife sold a possession. So this is what everybody was doing. Everybody was going out and selling their possessions, and they kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. So a different thing happens here. He sells a piece of land, we find out in the next verse. He sells a piece of land, and we find out a couple things in verse number 2, that he didn't give all the money to the church. And he didn't have to, and we'll get to that in a minute, and I kind of explained that last week, but another point that we need to look at in verse number 2 is that his wife was also privy to it. So that's going to be key to one of the lessons that we're going to learn this evening towards the end of the sermon, but just remember that right there, his wife was being privy to it. That means she was in on it. She knew what was going on. She knew the plan. She was in on the deceit. Okay, look at verse number 3. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? So now we see, between verse 2 and 3, we see what happened. He came and he actually told Peter, he's like, I sold my land, and he's like, I'm giving all the money to the church, just like everybody else had. So he misrepresented what he did. Peter explains this in verse number 4. You know, the Holy Ghost gives Peter this knowledge, and he explains in verse number 4, he says, Whilst it remained was it not thine own? He's like, you didn't have to sell it. He's like, the land was yours. He says, after it was sold was it not thine own power? So he's saying, you didn't have to give it. You didn't have to give all the money. Peter's basically saying, this was your property, even when it was land, even when it was money. Okay? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart, that now is not lied unto men, but unto God? So the problem here, the problem here is that it's not that he didn't give all the money. It's not that, you know, he didn't, you know, the problem is he lied about that he gave all the money. Okay? He lied about what he did. He came and he sold the land, you know, he sold the land for $100,000 or whatever it was, and he gave $50,000 to the church saying, this is, I've sold all my possessions too. The problem is not that he gave the money, not that it wasn't his money to do with what he wanted, or that it wasn't his land to do with what he wanted. The problem is that he was not honest, that he lied. Okay? And for that, look at verse number 5. In Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. That means he died. And great fear came upon all them that heard these things. So that's an important part right there, that great fear came upon all them that heard these things. We see that in a few more verses as well. And the young men arose, wound him up, carried him out and buried him. So the young men were to, you know, they're obviously doing the heavy lifting literally of the church. Verse 7, it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. So she didn't know that they were busted, right? The lie was, the lie was out. And Peter answered her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, yay for so much. So she lies too. Okay? So there was a plan here. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. So him and his wife kind of were in on this plan. Okay? And here's what should have happened. And we'll talk about this in more detail at the end of the sermon. But let me just give you a little bit of a clue on what should have happened. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse number 1. The Bible says, likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. So we'll talk about this idea more later. But in 1 Peter chapter 3, the Bible says, wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that even if they don't obey the word, they may without the word be won by the conversation of the wife. So here you have a husband who's not obeying the word, but the wife is supposed to have this chaste conversation that's supposed to help out the husband. Okay? We're going to explore that concept at the end of the sermon. But the idea is that the spouse is supposed to, she's supposed to pick up her husband and she's supposed to help him in that case. She's not supposed to like go down the same road as him. Okay? So keep that in mind. Go back at Acts chapter 5 and verse number 9. So she goes in and she's unaware that her husband's dead and it's three hours later and she tells the same lie as her husband did. In verse number 9, the Bible says, then Peter said unto her, how is it that you've agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out. So he says, he now knows that they're both, that she was privy to the secret, privy to the lie, privy to the plan. And he says, you've agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord. He's like, why are you, what that means is like, why are you pushing God? He's like, why are you, you know, pushing God's buttons basically is what he was saying. Then she fell down straight way at his feet and yielded up the ghost. She died too. And the young man came in and found her dead and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And again, we see in verse number 11, so we see these things repeated, this concept repeated. So what did this cause in the church? We saw this already a couple of verses before, a few verses before, but again, verse 11, and great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. So here's the thing, turn to Proverbs chapter six. The first thing, I mean, the first lesson is pretty simple. Okay. The first lesson is pretty simple in the Bible. I mean, the Bible, there's too many verses about this in the Bible to go over them all this evening. But basically, you know, the first lesson is don't lie. I mean, that's the first simple lesson in this story. Look at Proverbs chapter six and verse number 16. Look what the Bible says here. These six things doth the Lord hate. Yea, seven are abomination unto him. Equating, you know, abomination to what the Lord hates by the way. So whenever you see abomination in the Bible, that means the Lord hates that. So what a proud look, a lying tongue. So there's, here's one that has to do with lying and hands that shed innocent blood and heart that devise wicked imaginations, feet that be swift and running to mischief, a false witness that speak of lies. So there's another one of the seven that has to do with lying and he that soweth discord among the brethren, which many times has to do with lying. So three of these seven things that the Lord hates that are abominations have to do with lying. Okay. Turn to John chapter eight. I'm going to just convince you from Bible verses that lying is bad. I know I don't have to convince this crowd that lying is bad, but I mean, look, it's all over the Bible. The Lord hates lying. I mean, it's pretty clear from this story that the Lord hates lying. Look at verse number 44 of John chapter eight, John chapter eight verse 44. The Bible says ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. They're talking about Satan here. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own because he is up for he is a liar and the father of it. So three, four times there. He abides not in the truth. The truth is not in him. He speaks a lie. He speaks of his own for he's a liar. He's not only a liar. Satan is the father of lies. Okay. So when we're lying in our lives that we're, we're like serving Satan. Think about that. You know, and we kind of like, we use lying, right? Because everybody lies, right? But we use lying all the time when we're out soul winning as a, as like a sin that like everybody's done. Like revelation talks about it, like all these horrible sins and like all liars, right? But everybody can identify with that because everybody's a liar, right? But here's the thing. Everybody's a liar, but we shouldn't be liars. I mean, if that makes sense because when we're lying, we're literally serving Satan is what the Bible is telling us in chapter eight or chapter 44 or channel eight of John chapter 44. I don't know. I'm losing my mind. Turn to Proverbs chapter 19. We shouldn't lie. Okay. We shouldn't lie. So I mean, but you say like, all right, actually you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 19. I'll just read for you Proverbs 19 five, a false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speak of the lies shall not escape. But you say, okay, God killed him though. Is that kind of extreme here? I mean, is, is, you know, is, is the death penalty put on lying in the Bible? Well, not really in this case, but let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 19. It's possible. It's possible that somebody that lies or presents a false witness could be, you know, guilty of the death penalty. Look at verse number 16 of Deuteronomy 19. The Bible says this is how, this is how the law about false witnessing, you know, basically like trying to get somebody convicted of a crime that they didn't commit. This is how it works. Okay. And it's, it's super fair in the Bible. Look at what it says. If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him, that which is wrong, then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days. So here's a man that is accusing another guy of something and they go to the judge, right? And both of those men, so he's saying he stole my cow and he's saying, no, I didn't. So they both go before the judge. Okay. Verse number 18 and the judges shall make diligent inquisition. They'll investigate and behold if witness be false witness and yet testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do unto him as he thought to have done unto his brother so that thou shall put the evil away from among you. And those which remain shall hear and fear again, fear. I mean, that's the point of punishment by the way. So people fear. That's why you like, you can steal anything in California because there's just no punishment. So why wouldn't people just steal things? Because there's no punishment for it. So people just do it. Look at verse 20 and those are Verse 21 and thine eyes shall not pity, but life shall go for life. Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. So basically if I was accusing a brother George of stealing my cow and he didn't steal my cow, then whatever was going to happen to him, I would, would happen to me. So I'd have to like give him two cows, right? So, I mean, now if it was something like being accused of murder, then that would be the death penalty. So if I was falsely accusing someone of murder and it was found out that I was falsely accusing, because look, I'm threatening somebody's life in that case, right? I'm possibly getting somebody killed in that case. So did it deserve the death penalty, what they were doing according to the Levitical law? Well, you know, not according to what we just read here, but the point is, is God decided to judge them in this way. God decided to judge them in this way. So turn to Matthew chapter 15. Why is that? Why is that? Turn to Matthew chapter 15. This is going to lead to the second point, the second lesson that we need to learn tonight from this story. So the first one is all over the Bible. Don't lie. We'll look at that in more detail in just a few minutes, but look at why did God decide to kill Ananias and Sapphira? Look at Matthew chapter 15 and verse number 18. Matthew chapter 15 and verse number 18. But those things would proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Turn to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. So out of, you know, the heart is when all these things come up. The things that proceed out of the mouth, once you've said something out of the mouth, it's saying here in Matthew chapter 15 that when I speak something, so if I speak a lie, like if I speak, like pretend I was this guy and I was coming to the pastor of the church or I was coming to Peter and I was just lying straight to Peter and you know, the Bible is saying that like my heart was twisted first before I said anything is what Matthew chapter 15 is saying. Because the heart gets bad first and then it comes out of your mouth. Okay, so Ananias and Sapphira had some major heart problems. Look at Revelation chapter 2 and verse 23. So we're looking at one of the churches here in Revelation that has a fornication problem in Revelation chapter 2 and look what the Bible says in verse 23. It's talking about this woman that is bringing fornication into the church and you know, God is upset at this. God is upset that his church is being defiled and look what he says in verse 23. He says, and I will kill her children with death and so he's saying like I'm going to kill this woman's children with death and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reigns and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. So God is saying in Revelation 2 and verse 23 is saying like I'm not going to allow this in the church. You better fix it. I'm coming and I'm going to wipe this lady out is what he's saying. And he's also saying that as we look at Matthew chapter 15 that when we start lying out of our mouth our heart is already a problem. God is saying I see the heart is what God is seeing. So the second point is that God sees the heart number one. He sees all of our hearts. Okay, he sees everything that's going on in our heart and God is serious about protecting his church. That's the second thing that we need to learn from this story. It was the state of Ananias and his wife Sapphira's heart towards the church. That was the issue. That was the issue. That's where the lie came out of it came out of their heart and their problem with the church. See God, God saw the unity in this church. He saw I mean, how many times in the last four chapters have we seen, I mean there's a reason I kept repeating it again and again and again, how they were all of one heart. They were all in unity. They were all together. They were all of what? One accord. The Bible just keeps saying again and again and again. And here you have somebody coming in and like with a twisted heart into that situation. And God's not going to allow it. That's why he kills this guy. He didn't want hypocrisy and deceit coming in to this church. It's just another reminder that if there's any issue that we have with the church or anyone in the church, you just need to handle those things right away. You need to handle those things right away because look, God takes this church seriously. God takes the church seriously. It's not yours. It's not mine. You know, Christ is the head of the church. Christ is the head of this church. He's the savior of the body. The Bible says Ephesians chapter five. Okay, so look, number one, we shouldn't lie. Easy lesson, right? Number two, God takes his church seriously. Now I mean lying in general, why is everyone liars? Think about that. Why does everybody lie? I mean, why is it such a problem? I mean, people that I've seen that have like major, major problems in their life with lying, like people that just lie all the time, they're excuse makers. Look, making excuses is lying in a way. Okay, turn to Genesis chapter three. Excuse making, just serial excuse making, it's a form of lying, is all it is. Okay, you did something, you don't want to take responsibility for it, so you blame somebody else. You say somebody else did it or somebody else made you do it. Let's look at the biggest excuse in the Bible. Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three. Look, here's the thing. I don't understand it. I don't understand why people make excuses. It's a disease. It's a chronic disease for some people. And it can be fatal to so many things in your life. And you know, I almost want to beg people that are constantly making excuses for things to just take responsibility. You can see it with the smallest things. The smallest things, you know, people just can't say, I messed that up, I'm sorry. That was my fault. I'm sorry. You know, I mean, it's just, it doesn't ever work. I mean, if it worked, at least there'd be some logic to it, but it doesn't ever work. Look at Genesis 3.12. Look what Adam says. So, God sees them, they're ashamed that they're naked, they've already eaten from the tree, and you know, they're ashamed, they're hiding. And God says, you know, why are you hiding from me? And the man said, verse 12, you know, they're talking about, actually go back, go back a couple of verses. Let's get some context here, because this is a good one. But this is like the ultimate excuse in the Bible. Look at Genesis chapter 3, and look at verse number 9. And the Lord God called Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I hear thy voice in the garden, I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree? Whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? He's like, Did you do what I told you not to do? And they both did it. They both did it. But he asked the man, he said, Did you do it? And look what Adam says. And the man said, The woman that thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Now, here's the thing, he didn't even blame his wife here. You know, he blamed? He literally blamed God. He literally blamed the Lord. Look, if you're gonna make excuses, blame your coworker or something. Don't blame the Lord. Okay, he blamed God. I mean, he didn't blame the woman. He's like, this woman that you gave me. He's like, this, this thing over here that you it was your idea to give her to me. She, you know, he's basically blaming the Lord. Like, ah, look at verse 17. Did it work? And unto Adam, he said, This is God, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and is eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. This is why we need roundup. And thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art and unto dust, shalt thou return God, he doesn't get away with it. God's not like, yeah, she's flawed. Sorry. No, he doesn't get away with it. He made he made the huge excuse. So I mean, I mean, you'll find people that are just serial exaggerators, or not serial. Yeah, even exaggerating. I mean, just to use that. I mean, the only time exaggerating is okay is like hunting and fishing. That's fine. Because I mean, here's the thing like hunting and fishing, like you actually remember the thing to be bigger. Like you think that the deer was much bigger than it actually was. I'm just joking. But like serial exaggerators are liars too, when it comes down to that. But serial excuse makers, serial exaggerators, exaggerators are people, I mean, people that just like, they can't just listen to something and accept something somebody says they're kind of the this the one upper, right? Somebody's got, oh, I've done it better. And I've done it faster than anybody out there. They're just all they are is they're just liars. You get people that are like that, and they just, they're just liars. So I mean, we just have to tell the truth in our life. You're like, well, the truth is ugly. I'm just not that great. Well, here's the thing, fix that. You know, be become great, you know, become better become less whatever you're lying about. All right. So I mean, the thing is, nobody believes the lies anyway, nobody believes the excuses anyway. It's totally stupid to be a liar. So what Christian should be honest people turn to Proverbs chapter 11. And verse number three, Proverbs chapter 11. In verse number three, it's just becoming I mean, it's it's out in the world. It's really, it's really common. I mean, it's it's very rare, actually. It's very rare, actually, to see somebody that just like makes a mistake. And I mean, outside of church life, it's rare to see somebody that makes a mistake. And it's just like, man, I messed that up. Sorry, I'll do better next time. You know, that's that's kind of a rare thing to see these days. Look at Proverbs chapter 11. And verse number three, the Bible says, the integrity of the upright, shall guide them integrity means integrity means like, you know, honest living, you know, moral living being an honest person, somebody's not going to think you're a person of integrity, if you're just lying, exaggerating, making excuses all the time, the integrity of the upright shall guide them. But here's the opposite, right? So you have this guy who's super upright, he's got a lot of integrity, but the perverseness of transgressors shall what shall destroy them. Okay, so I mean, you're, you're, I mean, this is kind of like, how do Christians deal with perverseness in the world? I mean, it's just a side note, right? How do the how does the Christian does deal with perverseness? Well, through integrity. Just, you know, let's just just flood the world with our decency. How's that? Just be a decent, moral, you know, honest person, because look, the perverseness of the transgressors. So we don't want to be, you know, people that are liars, because that's going to destroy us. But if we're like, Oh, all these people are so perverse, it's just like, that's going to destroy them. So whatever, just, you know, let's just be people of integrity, people of honesty, people of decency. That's the answer. Look at Matthew chapter five. Actually, you turn to Proverbs 16, since you're already there. Proverbs 16, verse number 13, Matthew five says, let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay, for whatever is more than these kind of evil. The Bible here is saying, just do what you say you're going to do. Do what you say you're going to do. So I mean, here's another form of lying. Here's another form of lying. If I go and I just like, like, because look, I want to be a really nice guy. And I want to help you out all the time. You ever met this guy? This is like, I'll help you with whatever you need. I'll help you with whatever you need. And then we actually need help. They're like, Oh, yeah, you know, I'm busy. They just, you know, they're just like, they're telling you, they want to be this great person, because look, they probably want to be that person. But when it comes down to actually doing it, they just, they don't want to do it. That's what the Bible saying in Matthew 537 says, just do what you're going to say you're going to do. So all you have to do is just make a decision in your life. And guess what, here's what you'll do. If you just say, you know what, whatever I say, I'm going to do, I'm going to do. And you just live by that, with integrity, you'll probably promise fewer things, is what you'll end up doing. Because you're gonna, you know, you won't just go in a group of people and be like, hey, whatever you guys need all this, you know, I can do anything all the time. Because then when people ask you to do things, you'll just start promising less things. But you should become the person that says, you know, when I say yes, that means I'll do it. When I say I'll be there, I'll be there. When I say there, I'll be there at, you know, this is, you know, maybe I'm going to push a little too far here, but you know, being late drives me nuts. People can't be somewhere on time. But I mean, look, you're making a commitment. If you go to work, you have a job, and you're supposed to start at seven, you made a commitment to be there at seven. You made a commitment. If you show up at 730, that's not honest. That's not honest. So let your yay be yay and your nay be nay. Look at Proverbs 16, verse 13, righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him that speaketh right. Hebrews 13, 18. I'll just read for you. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly. Just being honest is it has so much power in your life. And I mean, it creates that you'll have a good name as well. Right? So make a commitment to be truthful people, honest people, as Christians, we should make that commitment. And it's all these little details. It's all these details of not making excuses, just owning what you do. Look, we all mess stuff up. We all messed up almost own things that you do. Don't exaggerate things. And if you say you're going to do something, do it. Show up early to things, be that person. And look, here's the thing, no matter how good you are at lying, and here's really the thing we talked about last Sunday night about how we're here for one another, right? And how the Bible talks about church being for one another, you know, Hebrews 10 24, 10 25 says one another, one another. Look, we should remember that no matter how good you think you are lying, or how small you think the lies are, they end up hurting people. Lies end up hurting. I mean, just think about this. Think about how it feels when someone lies to you. Or you think about that. I mean, think about, let's just give an example. Say that like, you wanted to go and like have lunch with me. Say one of the guys in the church wanted to have lunch with me. And look, anytime you call me, I will do my best to go and have lunch with you anytime, all the time. You say, aren't you busy? I will make time for anybody in the church. So you want to go have lunch? Let's go have lunch. Say you called me and you said, hey, you know, Pastor, can you have lunch today? And I was like, well, I'm really busy, which I mean, that could be true. Right? I'm really busy. I can't go today. And then you're like, you're like, okay, well, how about tomorrow? Does tomorrow work? At like 11 or 12 or one o'clock I can do anytime you want. And I'm just like, oh, man, the roof collapsed on my house. And then you call and then you're like, okay, how about Thursday? Can you go Thursday? And I'm like, I could, but my cat has a dentist appointment on Thursday. You're just like, man, this guy like your feelings are hurt. Right? Because you're like, this guy doesn't want to go to lunch with me. Right? And, like, it would be better to just say, hey, brother, you know, I don't want to go to lunch with you. Because you offended me. And, you know, Matthew 18. Right? I mean, it'd be better for me to do that, than to just be like, you know, give all these excuses that you know, I don't want to hang out with you or whatever, you know, Matt, then just just move on. And then we can go to lunch, right? Matthew 18 tricks again. So the point is, being lied to is hurtful, both to the reputation of the liar and to the person being lied to. So this story shows us that God knows every lie we tell. Okay, that's the first thing that we need to understand. And he takes it extremely seriously, especially when he has to protect his church. All right, so look, it's something that should be confessed. And we should try to make a commitment to not lie in our lives. You know, we always say we're all liars, but we shouldn't just flippantly throw that out there. Okay, so here's the third point I want to make, and I'll spend a little time on this one. But lying is easy, right? I mean, we all know that lying is wrong. And I could read you lying verses from the Bible. And we all know that God is serious about his church. But here's the thing about these two that I really want to point out on this evening, Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter four. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter four. Here's a lesson that we need to learn. And look, really think about this one. Okay, really think about this one, because we're all guilty of this to one degree. All right, I'm guilty of this, you're guilty of this, and I'm talking to married people. So I'm talking to married people right now. And here's the point. Don't be this is like the Bonnie and Clyde story in the Bible right here. Hey, don't be a Bonnie and Clyde marriage. All right, you know that, you know, Bonnie and Clyde like this, this, they weren't married. Okay, I know, it's not a great analogy. They were like this murderous couple in the 30s. They were going around, just like, just robbing and killing people. Okay, it was just like they made each other worse. You know, they were just horrible together, these two, right? They were both bad. And neither one was trying to get the other one to not be bad. All right, and it's a it's not a great analogy. But the point is, look at Ecclesiastes chapter four, spouses don't have a Bonnie and Clyde marriage. Spouses should not dull one another, but they should sharpen one another. Okay, they should make one another better. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter four, and look at verse number nine. Look at verse number nine, the Bible says, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. Okay, that makes sense. But let's keep reading. For if they fall, so it's telling you, two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. And then it's going to give you an explanation why that is in the next couple of verses. Okay, look at verse 10. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he has not another to help him up. So this is such a great, great advice for a marriage right here. For you know, people that are going to get married too, young people, listen up. Look, the point it's trying to say here is like two are better than one, but only if one's helping the other one up. If one falls down and the other one's like, you know, pushing them down farther, I mean, that's not what the Bible's talking about here, right? That's exactly what happened in this story. You know, but you say, okay, but Sapphira's husband was in charge, right? I mean, he's supposed to follow him. Well, no, not in a case like that. Look at Ephesians chapter five in verse 22, or I'll just read it to you. It says, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, but look what it always says here, as unto the Lord. There is a huge concept in the Bible here that you need to understand that there is a certain hierarchy of power in your life as a Christian, in your life as a woman, your life as a child. Ephesians chapter six, talking about children is the same way. It says, children, you know, obey your parents, but then there's that caveat. Let me just flip over. It says, you know, but it says, as unto the Lord, again. I mean, it tells you like, so your parents, you know, can't tell a child to go sin, just like a husband can't tell his wife to go sin, because Romans 13 says, obey the higher powers. What that means is that, you know, God is always in charge, just like verse 29 of Acts five, where it says that Peter said to the other apostles, it says, we ought to obey God rather than men. So we always have to remember that, yes, my wife is in submission to me. But if I tell my wife that, hey, we're going to go rob a bank, and we're going to shoot these people, you know, she is not obligated to follow that command. So when I say I've got a criminal, you know, I've got this plan, we're going to rob this jewelry store, and we're going to steal all this jewelry, I got to keep my wife out of it, because she's not going to follow me. She's not going to go along with that, because she will obey the higher powers in that case. So that's what Sapphira should have done here. Sapphira, you know, she should have helped her husband, she should have, you know, won him with her conversation, you know, to don't have a Bonnie and Clyde marriage, don't just be these married couples that just make each other worse. Okay, where, you know, I mean, just think about it, not a criminal, you know, turn to First Corinthians chapter seven, you don't even have to think about a criminal thing, just think about something just in your life that commonly happens everywhere. Maybe you're really negative, or you're really down on something, or you're really, you know, just upset over something. You know, you can, especially husbands, by the way, you can really lead your family, look, and I'm not saying I succeed at this every single time, but husbands, you really if you should really try to handle as much negative emotions that you have on your own, you should really try to not dump your negative emotional garbage on top of your wife. This is I'm specifically talking to husbands here. Why? Because they're they're not as strong as you. You should bear that burden yourself and not dump them on them. Look, if if I am not doing something that is right, my wife should be encouraging me to do what is right. She should not be like, well, he's doing it. Let's go twice as fast together. Okay, that's what happened in this story. Look at First Corinthians chapter seven, in verse number 14. So here we're talking about, we're talking about this idea of an unbelieving husband who's married to an unbelieving wife, or an unbelieving wife that's married to an unbelieving husband. Okay, so that I mean, that's not an ideal situation. Okay, it's not an ideal situation. I hope that every young person in this church and every person in this church would marry a saved person that is the same, you know, has the same spiritual goals in their life as them. That's the ideal situation to be equally yoked together. But this is telling us how to handle a non ideal situation. It says the unbelieving husband is what is sanctified by the wife. So it's saying like she shouldn't just leave him. Okay, he should be sanctified by her. How? What does that mean to be sanctified? It means he should be made holy by her. He should be made better by her, made more spiritual by her. Same thing with the wife. And the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. So in the case where the husband, and I can't tell you how many times I've seen this. Okay, where you have an unbelieving wife or an unbelieving husband, and they do what they're supposed to do. And, and either the husband or the wife gets saved. And then they both get up to that equal level. And they're just running for the Lord now. I've seen that so many times. This works. But the point is, you have to ask yourself, and I know that we're not dealing with the unbelieving part here. But you have to ask yourself in your marriage, as a wife, as a husband, are we sanctifying each other is a question that you should be asking each other, asking yourselves in every situation. Okay, things blow up in your life. Things, you know, you get negative about things. You just, maybe one person sins. Maybe the husband sins or the wife sins. In that case, one should be sanctifying the other. You know, two are better than one. Okay, so don't be a Bonnie and Clyde, you know, marriage. I mean, you could either look, you could either, you could either, I mean, even just like being upset over things. I mean, look, you come home from work, and your wife is upset, and my wife's never upset. But I mean, you come home from work, and somebody's upset over something, instead of being like, just like adding gas to the fire. Just, you know, lift up that situation. I'm thankful that, you know, my wife is very good at this with me. If I'm ever, you know, upset, or maybe I'm being, you know, I'm just, maybe I'm just worked up over something, or whatever, my wife is very good about just like pointing out positive things and just like saying, well, you know, this, and you know, looking at the situation in a very light, in a very, you know, just lightening the darkness for me. You know, that's very good, because look, when people are, look, when people are in negative situations, when you're like angry, or you're just in a bad place, it'd be very easy for people to dump gasoline on that. It'd be very easy to make that worse. And that's why, like, that's one thing I've learned as a husband, I wasn't very good at this when I was first married, maybe for several years, you know, let me just confess some sins to you. But I mean, you know, I would come home, and I mean, look, I don't talk to my wife about my work life hardly at all. She has no idea what I do. No idea. I don't talk to her much about any problems that are happening outside. I mean, because I don't need to, she's got her own burdens. She's got she's got things and if I can handle this myself, you know, I can, there's no need to burden her with that. There's no need to add that on top of her. I'm not saying we don't talk and you know, all these things, but there's certain things that just, if especially if I know that like, it would upset her more, that she would be upset that maybe somebody upset me or something. I mean, a lot of times I just, we need to burden that ourselves men, you know, as leaders in our family. And guess what, we could also, we could also like, especially as leaders, think about this. Don't be this guy that's just negative all the time. You can like make your kids negative. You know, this person that's just ultra cynical about everything and just ultra just negative about everything. Look, you will pass that on to your household. You will pass that on. So we need to sanctify our households, men, but even, even women, I mean, you have so much power to be a help meet to your husband, you know, to be able to sanctify your husband. And you know, I mean, you're, you're kind of, you're holding up the hands of Moses in that case. You know, I mean, sometimes your husband's just bearing burdens and he's stressed about things. Maybe he's stressed about financial things or whatever. And just, just, I mean, I mean, that would be the worst thing in the world. Your husband's stressed about financial things and you know that he's stressed about financial things and you don't know, I mean, they say like financial issues are, are like the number two reason for divorce. And imagine a wife who's a husband, he's stressed about the finances. Maybe she doesn't know the details and she's just like, well, you know, why can't you do better and all this? And you know, she just dumps on top of him, you know, on, she makes his burden heavier. She should be like, let's, let's read the Bible. Let's pray together. She should be sanctifying him with her chaste conversation is what the Bible says. And that is such a powerful thing that, that wives have to give to the family. They can really hold up and strengthen a family. So have a, have a encouraging each other in the Lord marriage is the key here. And that's the opposite of what we saw with Ananias and Sapphira. So we see the importance of the truth here. I mean, that's an easy one. We see the seriousness of God protecting his church. I mean, this is Christ's church. Okay. I mean, we shouldn't mess around in this church. We just, I mean, the church is real easy. The church is real easy. We just have to follow God's rules. That's all we have to do. Okay. And then we see the importance of a sanctifying marriage. And look, quite frankly, it's, it's a huge blessing. It's a huge blessing to have a sanctifying marriage. Cause guess what, you know what that does? You know what that does when you're a husband that's going through a hard time and, and your wife is just there like, like, like maybe, you know, you know, maybe I don't know who used to say this, but some, some like author or something used to say like, you should pretend like your husband is out slaying dragons all day long. I don't remember who used to say that, but it was somebody. And I don't know, it's, it's, it's not in the Bible. Okay. But the point is that, that a husband who feels like lifted up by his wife when he's going through a hard time, he will always remember that and that would just draw your marriage closer. He would just become so much stronger together. And likewise, you know, the, the husband that protects his wife will have a happy wife and, you know, it's just, it's just a great thing to sanctify each other. And, you know, our marriage, I truly believe that our marriages are, you know, you know, if not the greatest blessing that God gives, I mean, obviously our salvation, but just like one of the blessings God gives us to have joy on this earth is our marriage. You know, so I'm, I'm so, you know, we're, we're blessed to be married and these are just things that we should make sure we're doing for our, for our spouses. All right. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.