When Keeping Up Appearances Keeps Us Down.

Glad to be here this morning and glad the sun is out and the rain went away. I'm grateful for all this rain though I think I've watered my garden like three times because of it.

I want to start by acknowledging what happened with President Trump and the shooting. Whenever these things happen, there are a lot of emotions that come up, a lot of fears we can feel. Whether it's anger, anxiety, or what that is, I wanted to give us a moment to lay that down before the Lord and recognize that when these things happen, it is simply a moment where we are made aware of the darkness that exists in this world and the need even more for the light of Jesus to shine through.

Recognizing that we as the church right now have a continued invitation to continue to live set apart and fully devoted to ushering in the kingdom and the rule and reign of Jesus. And when we have moments like this and we are reminded of the darkness that still exists in people's hearts and in this world and reminded of that light and our need for the church, the need for us as the church to continue to lay down our lives for the people around us, the need for us to continue to pledge our allegiance to Jesus up first and foremost above anything else, and to be a church that prays not only for our nation, but the nations around the world, for peace around the world that we know someday will come. So we prophetically pray in to that.

I want us to take a moment to just pray the Lord's prayer together with this in mind. To recognize that sometimes even for me, I woke up this morning and it's like this heaviness and this, I don't really have words to say. I don't really have words to pray. I don't even know how to process this myself of what's happening. But thankfully, we have the Bible. We have the Word of God. We have the book of Psalms, which is tons of prayers and honest, raw conversations with God. And we have Jesus who taught his people to pray, and we can still pray that today.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Matthew 6:9-13

God, this is our prayer today. We continue to just come before you and acknowledge that you are the king and we trust you. So would you continue to help us to be people that lean more into your word, more into your presence, and more into praying and interceding for the peace of the people around us. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

I'm going to read from Acts chapter 5, starting in verse 1. It's a very lighthearted story of Ananias and Sapphira today.

Now a man named Ananias together with his wife Sapphira also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land. Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men, but God. When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who had heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later, his wife came in knowing that this had happened. Peter asked her, tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land? Yes, she said, that is the price. Peter said to her, how could you agree to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also. At that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came and finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seizes the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Acts 5:1-11

God, we thank you for your word that is alive and active, your word that still speaks to our hearts today. As we read these words, we open up our hearts to receive whatever it is that you have for us. Come Holy Spirit, come.

Really lighthearted passage, right? As I'm thinking about preparing this, I'm like, what do you even title this? Like, you lie, you die. Like, what do you do with that? That's a little intense. And I can be a little intense. So I was almost going to go there. But I was like, reel it in, reel it in. That might be a little too intense to just tell everybody, like, you lie and you die. So we softened it up a bit.

If you get one thing out of this message, get this: God is looking for honest people who are willing to confess their need for him to change. God is looking for honest people who are willing to confess their need for him to change. We need Jesus to change. He wants us to be honest with him so that we can change, which is not what they did here.

And then what do we do with this? We're going to talk about how practicing daily examine and being aware that the lies that we're living will help us from getting to that point where we are lying and not honest with God in the way that Ananias and Sapphira were.

Has anyone else ever had a moment where you know you're lying? Or do you have a memory of the first lie you ever told? I think I've shared this here before, but I will never forget the first time I consciously lied about something.

It was growing up. We lived in Oak Lawn, Illinois, a south side suburb of Chicago. For blocks and blocks, it was like only boys. And I was the only girl in the neighborhood. Now I have three brothers. So I'm kind of used to this idea of being the only girl around, but I was still kind of like, man, I wish I had some girls to play with. But I didn't.

So I played with my Barbies. Those were like my best friends. I loved my Barbies. So I played with my Barbies all the time, but I also needed real friends. So I played with the boys a little bit too. They would teach me how to throw a football. They taught me how to skateboard. I would be used as like, they would jump me. They would like the ramp and then they'd jump over me on their skateboard and all those fun things. And that was kind of like the rite of passage. Like if you're going to be tough enough to hang out with the neighborhood boys, okay, roll your body five times. We'll see if our skateboard can jump over you. And if you're alive at the end, you can be our friend. That's what we did growing up.

So I remember this one time, they're all skateboarding in the back in this little alley, and they're like, Abbie, Abbie, come play, come play. I was like, okay. So I come out there, and I had just come from playing Barbies. And they asked me, they're like, what were you doing? I was like, oh, I was just in the house, whatever. And I don't know if it was like the Holy Spirit or what, like testing me. They're like, hey, you don't play with Barbies, do you? And you better believe I lied. I thought really well. I was like, no, never. I would never play with Barbies.

Meanwhile, I was ready to go play with Barbies again after I played with them. But I'll never forget that moment because I was just like, all I want is for you to accept me and I'm afraid that if I tell you I play with Barbies, you're not going to want to be my friend. So this idea of, like, I've got to keep up my reputation is like being able to hang out with the tough boys in the neighborhood, so I'm going to lie about playing Barbies.

That's like a childish story, right? But we all have those moments where we are caught in this idea of trying to protect our reputation so much so that we don't even realize the lies that we're living in. And I look at this story with Ananias and Sapphira. And I see what's taking place here. It's almost as if they were more focused on their reputation, on protecting their image, than they were actually being fully transparent, honest and present with God.

God cares more about your heart than what's in your hands

I want you to know: last week we talked about Acts chapter 4 and one of the last verses in Acts 4 says Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus whom the apostles called Barnabas, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. So right before this story takes place, another person in the early church was known for selling everything that they had and taking it to the feet of the apostles and being so honest and giving above and beyond, giving everything.

And the next thing you see is Ananias and Sapphira are pretending to do the same thing. You see, something tells me here that it wasn't so much to do with what they were giving, but it was the lack of honesty that took place here. And could it be that they were so concerned with this front of coming across as generous people, they were so concerned with protecting their reputation, that they then were not honest with what was really going on? God is looking for honest people that are willing to confess their need for him. God already knows that we need him, right? So we don't have to pretend like we don't, but we can come humbly before the Lord with full honesty and transparency.

The first thing I want to talk about today is this idea that God cares more about your heart than he does what's in your hands. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about this story is sometimes we think that it had to do with the money. And I think that money is often used in these stories because money is something that has a lot of control and rule over our life. And God knows that. So there's all these different stories in scripture about money. But it wasn't so much about what they gave, but it was the fact that they were not honest about it.

And we see also in this passage all this theme of God desiring for us to be generous people. The other thing that's mentioned that we talked about last week in Acts 4 is it said that they were all doing this. All the early church. They were giving everything that they had so that there were no needy among them. They lived in a type of way that they were taking care of one another, and this required them to be generous people that let everything flow freely through their hands.

And so when you initially read this story and you're like, that's really harsh. And it is. Like, that's intense what just happened. Like, they lied, they were dishonest, and that was it for them. But when you look closely at what is God trying to communicate to us through this? It's this continued idea that he needs us and wants us and desires us to be generous people so that his gospel, his good news, can flow freely through our hands.

And if we want to live in a place where there is no needy among us, we are going to need to be radically generous people, that we are willing to give everything that's in our hands. And so I want to talk about this for just a moment here, because I think it, although the main thing of this story is not the fact that like they didn't give as much as everyone, there is something to be said from what happens when we withhold from God. And when we start to hold tight rather than release everything that we have to him.

So we see all throughout scripture that this idea of generosity is a part of God's story. I want to read a couple verses from Psalms and Proverbs:

Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.

Psalm 112:5

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.

Proverbs 19:17

Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered.

Proverbs 21:13

The generous will themselves be blessed for they share their food with the poor.

Proverbs 22:9

You see, God cares about generosity because he cares about the poor. He cares about the needy. He cares about all people, those that maybe can't even advocate for themselves. So in order for us to be people that continue to provide for the needs around us, we have to be generous people.

God cannot use what we hold on to

So Barnabas is praised for generosity, and then the next thing that they do is they go sell their homes, not thinking that anyone's going to catch them, but they didn't give it all. And I can't help but wonder what would have happened if they did. And it makes me continue to wonder, what does the church look like if we truly follow what he's laying out in Acts 4, and we are living in that generous type of way? Because the reality is, is that God cannot use the things we hold on to.

And that's the next thing I want to talk about today. God cannot use the things that we hold on to. God is looking for a church, a body of believers, of people to rise up that will be all in, that will hold nothing back from him, that will see everything that gets to even touch our hands as a gift that we get to steward, not something that we need to hold on to.

And in order to do this, we have to move beyond even just when we say we practice the tithe of giving our first fruits and our ten percent, because that's something that continues to train our flesh like this is not mine. And that's even why we talk about giving it first. The first time you get your paycheck, give that ten percent, because it's that continued practice and reminder to our flesh: everything I am is the Lord's. But that should be this base point. That should be the starting point for the generous lives that we live.

And it should go beyond our money, but it should go in our relationships. It should go with our homes. It should go in the shared time we have with one another.

I love all the different stories in the gospel, but especially the one with the rich young ruler when he comes to Jesus and Jesus says, sell everything you have and give it to the poor. Now, he had probably had a lot of money. We don't know how much money he had, but it was probably a lot. But Jesus said everything because he recognized like, I can only use what you're willing to give me. God cannot use the things that we do not hold on to.

I want to talk about the movie. I don't know, and I know I didn't write down the name. Sound of Hope. A group of us went to see it this weekend. And it's been out for a couple weeks, so I'm going to spoil it a bit. If you haven't seen it, I'm sorry. You had weeks, so I'm going to talk about it.

But it's based on a true story of this church that came together, and I think it was like 70-something foster kids that they took in, so that for 100 miles, there were no foster kids that needed homes around them. And if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Go see it.

But this is something that happened in our lifetime. Like, these people are alive. And I think that it's easy for us to read stories in Acts 4 and to say there were no needy among them and think, well, that was back then in the early church. But God still desires us to live that way, to care about people in such a way that we are saying we will give everything, everything so that it can be said that there's no needy among us.

And what I love about this story too is that it was more than just money that these families gave, right? To welcome a child into your home goes beyond just the finances. It's other siblings now sharing their parents, right? It's sharing their tables. It's sharing their food. It's their church growing and their kids ministry quadrupling all the things in order to say that there would be no needy among us. This is what the church should look like still today. And we have an invitation. And this is why I'm so excited for some of the things that we're starting. And we've been announcing for weeks.

We've been partnering with the Neighborhood House for years. And one of the amazing things that we've seen God do is for months and months and months, I had been talking with them about saying, okay, you do so much for the community, and we want to be a part of that. What does this look like? And sometimes they get requests for like basic things and it's like just even organizing it. So I might get a call of like, Abbie, can you help this people, this person and family pay their rent for the month and things like that.

And we're one church and we're a small congregation. So like, we can only do so much. And it's always been like, what does this look like? Well, back in 2020, I had heard about Care Portal and I signed up for it, but it didn't exist here yet in Madison. And a few months ago, they finally have someone here that is starting this. And when I sat down and I heard about what's happening and how this is something that's going to help us be able to provide the basic needs of families in our community, I immediately called Neighborhood House and the girls there, and I was like, you're not going to believe it. This is amazing. And they're like, how do we sign up?

And now we're about to launch it, and it's starting, and it's not just our church, but it's all these other churches around Madison and seeing the way that God desires us to come together, to say we might not be able to do everything, but we can surrender what's in our hands to do something. But I also see that as an answer to prayers that have been prayed, to conversations that have been happening, not just here, but all over this city for so long, that God is saying we want to see a place where there's no needy among us.

But that is going to take us living these radically generous lives of saying, God, we want you to use everything, so we're going to let it all flow freely through our hands. Which is one of the reasons when I look at this story and you think, wow, that's really intense, that he's like, so like they all of a sudden, like they lie about what they gave and they die. Like that is intense, yes.

But I think it's continuing to point us to this reality that this is not our home, that we were created for eternity, but while we're here on this earth, that God wants to use us as his church to be his hands and feet, to share the good news of the gospel, that Jesus came, yes, to save us from our sins, but to save us into relationship with him, to provide for us, to care for us, which is why we do things and we give in the way that we do and we serve in the way that we do and we're going to partner with people like Care Portal and the Neighborhood House to continue to love our neighbors the way that we do.

That is why. But it all starts with our hearts. And that's what this is pointing to.

God cannot heal what we're not honest about

I'm going to read verse 7 again. It says about three hours later, his wife entered, but she didn't know what had happened to her husband. And Peter asked her, tell me, did you and your husband receive this price for the field? She responded, yes, that's the amount. He replied, how could you scheme with each other to challenge the Lord's spirit? Look, the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door. They will carry you out too. At that very moment, she dropped dead at his feet.

The next thing I want to talk about is this idea that not only can God not use what we hold on to, but he can't heal the things that we're not honest about. And I see that when you read this story, I think there's a lot of assumptions that we can make, but as you go a little bit deeper, you start to see that, I mean, there was some deep healing that needed to take place in the lives of Ananias and Sapphira. There were some things that were holding them back from being freely used for God to use them to share his gospel.

Why was she not honest? You know, I think back, and again, I know it's silly, but it's like when I was not honest about playing with Barbies, it was because it's like, I want to fit in. Like, I want to be accepted. And there was this idea of like shame that we've probably all felt in different situations. And you look at this and it's like, could it be she's not honest because there was some shame of I didn't give everything. And maybe there was even some shame about the amount of like, well, it wasn't as much as Barnabas or this or that. We don't know.

But could it have been shame? Could it have been fear of rejection? Could it have been fear of the consequences of what she was going to face if she had confessed if she had been honest about what was happening? But I just wonder how often that our fear of being found out keeps us from being found in Jesus. And that's one of the biggest ways I think the devil continues to get to us is like, well, if you come clean and you come to Jesus, like, well, then you're going to be condemned and all of these things.

But I want to talk about what actually happens when we come to Jesus. We're going to look at two stories in the New Testament, in the Gospels. One is when Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood. In Luke 8, starting in verse 43, it says:

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from bleeding for 12 years, and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could heal her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Then Jesus asked, who touched me? Everyone else was denying it, but Peter says, Master, the crowd surrounds you and presses on you. But Jesus said, someone touched me, for I noticed the power had gone out from me. When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him. And now she had been immediately healed. And so he said to her, daughter, go, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.

Luke 8:43-48

This woman came to Jesus, full honesty, full transparency. And this was not like an issue of sin. It was an issue of shame, right? Like there could have been so much shame that covered her, so much shame that kept her for coming to the feet of Jesus. But rather than living in that shame and believing that lie and living that out of what happens if everybody finds out about this issue of blood I have, she was willing to be found out so that she could find Jesus. And what did she find? Healing, peace in Jesus.

There's then the story that's a little bit different of the woman in John 8 that's caught in adultery. And it says this. Teacher, they come saying to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her, what do you say? Jesus stoops down and he writes in the dust with his finger and they keep looking at him and he stood up again and he says, okay, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. So he's saying to them, sure, like if it says to stone them, well, okay, if you guys have not sinned, then maybe we should, you know, stone you too.

Then the accusers heard this. They slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, where are your accusers now? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she says. And Jesus said, neither do I go and sin no more.

See, this woman, she didn't really want to be found out. Other people were accusing her. Other people were pushing her to be found out. And even when she was found out, did she find condemnation? No, she found freedom and she found new life in Jesus.

What is it in our hearts that we're so afraid of being found out that is actually keeping us from being found in the presence and the healing and the restoration and the freedom that Jesus wants to give us? Because when we find Jesus, then we can start to live no longer in those lies, but freely letting the gospel flow through us. Jesus welcomed both of these women, their honesty, their bravery. When we are honest, we allow ourselves to be found and healed in Jesus.

The next thing is that God cannot change what we do not confess. He cannot change what we do not confess. The devil is real, right? The devil is constantly telling us all of these lies. John also tells us the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but I've come that you can have life and have it to the full.

And I think that sometimes one of the biggest lies that the enemy can tell us or get us to believe or I guess trick us into is not confessing the right things. Not confessing the right things. And this is what I mean by that. Is that when reading the story, we could easily, one, you could read it and think, well, this has to do with money. And then there's a whole other like guilt and shame, right? Because we're probably all thinking about our bank accounts. Like, I don't know what else to give. Can I give? Or you're maybe making regrets about your spending from the week before. And you're like, ah, this is all about money. And then you're like, I don't want to think about it.

Like we can think it's about money. And then we can look and we're like, okay, well, they lied. So we got that. And it's pretty clear, like it's about their lack of honesty and transparency and all of these things. But I want to go just a little bit deeper here to say, what do we really need to confess? What do we really need to confess.

Going back again to the scriptures, Peter says to Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart with lie, that you have lied to the Holy Spirit? How is it? So he's asking this question of like, how did you get here? Like what happened? And we don't know completely here in the scripture, like where they were at in their faith journey. So it's a little unsure of was Ananias, were Ananias and Sapphira, were they serving the Lord and really faithful to the church? Were they even believers? Like all of that is kind of like a little wonky, but there's this question of him being like, how did you get here to this point where you're not willing to just be honest about what's happening and you're lying to the Holy Spirit?

The next thing I want to point out here is this line where he says in verse 4, you have not lied just to human beings, but to God. You have not lied just to human beings, but to God. And then there was another thing I want to point out in verse 6. It says some of the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried out the body and buried him. And it also says later that the young men came and that they buried Sapphira.

Now, this is why I'm pointing this out. I promise I'm going somewhere with this. Could it be that the real confession was caring more about protecting their reputation than it was being fully honest and present and letting God work through them? Could it be that they had gotten so caught up in how they wanted to be seen and how they wanted to be accepted, that they were willing to lie to try and cover everything up and not be found out, and in doing so, did not find the healing that they were truly longing for.

But what we see in this story and the intensity is like, God cares about his reputation too. God cares about the reputation of the church. God wants people to know that his church is going to be one that gives freely, that lets the good news, the hope of the gospel that he came to heal, restore, and continue to provide for all of our needs. He wants that to move forward, that he's the hope of the world. And he needs us to be a part of that. And so when this stuff is happening, he's like, I will have none of that. Like, I will have none of the lies, none of the deceit, none of the distractions, none of the pride that is infiltrating right here we see in the early church of saying, well, I'm just going to come across like I'm this good Christian person because I heard that we're supposed to give, so there's no needy among us. And now I'm going to pretend that I gave everything and I'm going to hold some of it back.

And God is saying, I want none of that. I want none of that. But what Jesus shows us when he was here is he says, what I really long for is you to just come brave, honest with all of your hurt, with all of your pain. And will you just be honest with me? Will you confess it to me so I can change you? So that I can say, go and sin no more. So that I can say, daughter, your faith has healed you. Be well, go in peace.

But if we don't confess the real things that are deep deep inside of our hearts, the pride, the protecting our reputation, the fear of being rejected, the fear of condemnation, if we don't confess those things to Jesus, he can't change it. He can only use what he holds on to. He can only heal what we are honest about. He can only change the things that we choose to confess.

What gets planted takes root

So if you haven't noticed, there's this theme here coming, right? This big moment that led to the ultimate death of Ananias and Sapphira, it started so small. It started with little seeds of pride, of little seeds of greed, of protecting their image. There was a lack of generosity, yes. There's a lack of transparency, yes. A lack of intimacy with Jesus that that can come from? Yes, absolutely. But first, something was planted there and something took root.

I have shared very transparently with all of you the journey of my gardening as a new homeowner over the past year. And when I was in Greece for the month that I was there, I left my garden for a few weeks. And when I came back, I noticed there was something that I didn't plant. Now, I had a pot last year that had mint growing. And if you've ever grown mint, it's kind of like a wild weed. And so I've been told, don't even put it in the ground or it's going to take over your whole yard. So I didn't. I was like, I'm not putting it in the yard. I put it in a pot. I didn't plant any of that again this year. It all died. I don't know if it was supposed to, but it did. So it's all dead.

And I come back and all of a sudden I'm looking at my flowers and there's mint growing up. And I was like, how'd that get there? Where'd that come from? Something was planted at some point, whether it was intentional or not, something was planted there. Now I can't at this point like I can't go back and not have this this this planted or this come because it's coming. It's coming. It's strong. But now what I do have to do is I have to take the time and I have to go in and I can't just like rip it off the top like I can't just take it for what's on the surface there because this has deep roots and it's going to keep popping up and it's going to keep popping up. I got to do the heavy lifting. I got to go, and I still have to do this so you can ask me about it next week. I got to dig it out, right? I got to take time to go deep, to get the roots, to dig it out and completely remove it so that the things I do want to grow can continue to grow and to flourish around me.

There's this quote that I want to read from John Mark Comer's book, Live No Lies. And he says this: every time we sow to the flesh or put another way, every time we give into our flesh desire to sin, we plant something in the soil of our hearts, which then begins to take root, grow, and eventually yield the harvest of a deformed nature. Thankfully, the same is true of the spirit. Every time you sow to the spirit and invest the resources of your mind and body into nurturing your inner man or woman's connection to the spirit of God, you plant something deep in the hummus of your central fulcrum which over time takes root and bears the fruit of Christ character.

Everything around us starts somewhere. The things that are planted, the things that have taken root. Peter's asking him, he's like, how did you get here? Well, something was planted. And if we do not slow down long enough to take time to sit with Jesus and say, what has been planted? What is deep there? What do I need to uproot? We too are going to find ourselves in moments with Ananias and Sapphira where you're telling lies and you're living these lies and you're like, I don't know how I got here. Where you're doing things and you're feeding into the darkness in ways that you're like, wait, this isn't me. Where did this come from?

The devil is a liar. He's a deceiver. More than anything, I think he distracts us. He distracts us. He keeps us so busy and so going and we get caught up in the wrong things. And again, Ananias and Sapphira, they're so distracted by this idea that they need to come across as being generous like Barnabas that they forget that what God really is longing for is just them to come with their everything including their honesty. That's what he's longing for.

What would it look like for us if we did not wait until things sprung up to have to do the heavy lifting of removing it? But what would it look like if we were people that we continued to lean in to practice daily repentance, to guard our hearts from the lies of the enemy? So the second that a seed is planted, we're like, absolutely not. Get out of here. That we continue to spend time in the word of God so we know his ways so much. At the second that something comes into our lives, we're like, this doesn't taste or sound like Jesus. We know because we know his word. We know who he is.

God is looking for honest people who are willing to confess their need for him to change.

The younger men came: a reminder of our witness

There's one more thing I want to touch on. And that line where it said the younger men came. This morning as I was reading through this one more time, I was so struck by that. Because I do see that there was so much of a root here of, yes, there's a root cause of greed, but also this idea of their reputation and their idea of like, well, we want to come across as these generous people, these generous people. And the fact that it says these young men came to get the body, I think it's a reminder to me that, yes, we do have a reputation to keep. Yes, there are people following and coming after us, which is why we talk about we are here to create the culture, not of me, not of you, but of Christ, to continue to say there are people and generations coming behind us, looking to us today as the church, how we're going to live, how we're going to respond, how we are going to follow the patterns, the customs, the beliefs of Jesus and walk in that way and are following after us. And so what does it look like for us to lean into that?

Practice the examen

I want to talk about practicing the examen today. So this is a part of our daily rule, our daily rhythms, practices that we do here as a church. So if you're unfamiliar with this, we have a shared rule of life, which is a set of practices that we are committed to as a church and there's daily rhythms that we're saying, hey, we know we're not going to get this perfect, so this is not like we're striving for perfection, but it's rather let's practice this together. And so we've looked at the life of Jesus and said, what did Jesus do? Well, Jesus prayed. Jesus spent time with the Father. Jesus, his culture, his Jewish culture was a little different. He would have memorized the Torah, a big chunk of the Bible, word for word. So we encourage that you memorize scripture, but we're more like, let's read our Bible. Let's spend time in the Word.

But one of the things that we practice and encourage you to practice here at the church is what's called the prayer of examine. And we're going to practice this together today as knowing that this is a place where we can come together we worship we practice so that we can continue to move throughout our weeks and create the culture of Christ. But I think it's so important that we do this because through this it's a practice of going back and reflecting on our days reflecting on where we've seen God. It's a moment for us to repent, to ask the Holy Spirit to show us that there's anything deep in our hearts that we need to repent and turn from God. And it's a time to end in gratitude and just rejoicing in who God is to continue to center our lives around him.

And I think it's so important, especially when we read these stories like Ananias and Sapphira, to remember that we're all not that far from getting to this point where we're so caught up and distracted that we're living these lies of the enemies and we're protecting things and we're fighting for things and we're letting things grow and in doing so, causing more harm than we are good. And so for us to live like Jesus, we need to keep people that are constantly going in and saying, God, cleanse my heart. Make me new. Make me more like you.

And so I want to invite you guys to stand today as we enter into this time of prayer. And some of the things I would invite you to even practice this week is to continue to ask the Lord to show you what lies have been planted in your life. What lies have you even maybe started to live? What do you need to be honest about? God desires. He's looking for an honest people who are willing to confess their need for him to change.

And so what does it look like for us to be aware of those lies? One of the ways we can do that is by practicing the examen. And so I'm going to walk us through this where we're going to replay. And I'm going to make it a little broader of just like our weeks to say, where did we see God? See God, reflect on the things that we're feeling. A moment for us to repent, which is essentially saying, God, show me. Is there any way I haven't been living for you and I need to turn towards you, confess that. And then to rejoice.

And so if you would just take a moment and close your eyes. And would you just pray in your own way as we enter into this time of prayer to just say, come Holy Spirit. Would you welcome the Holy Spirit to just be present with you to speak? And so we do, we just say come Holy Spirit.

And so I want to invite you now to go ahead and to start with that first step, which is just replaying just your week. Think about your week. Think about the things that you did, the people you spent time with. And as you think about those things, I want to move you into just a time of reflection. And during this time, I want you to think about not just where was I, what was I doing, who was I with, but I want you to go a little bit deeper and just invite you to say, Holy Spirit, would you remind me, what did I feel?

Where in your body was there tension this week? Was there anything that made you angry? The things that stressed you out? Anxious? Fearful? Were there things that brought you joy and excitement? Things where you felt like, yes, I'm living now. The places and moments where you delighted. Take a moment and say, come Holy Spirit, would you remind me of the things that I felt? Would you reflect on that with the Lord for just a moment today?

And God, we also pray that as we do this, that your Holy Spirit would just show us where you were at in the midst of that. If there was a moment of pain, would you show us where you were at? If there was a moment of celebration, would you show us how you were celebrating with us?

And now we're going to move into our time of repentance, our time to turn back towards God. And so would you just have a moment to have an honest conversation with God, to remember that the things that you might be so afraid to be found out about when you say it out loud might be the thing that you now find that hope and that freedom in Jesus. So would you just take a moment and would you say, Holy Spirit, would you show me any way that I was not living for you, that I was not honoring you this week? In your loving kindness, we just welcome you, Holy Spirit, to come and to convict our hearts. Would you come? God, would you show us any seeds that have been planted? And as those things come up, I just invite you to say, God, would you forgive me, and to turn back to the Lord in that full surrender, and to just end this time in rejoicing, to just begin to think of all the beautiful ways that you've seen God, what you're thankful for and what you're grateful for, and so God, we just do that today.

We end this time together just rejoicing for your faithfulness, rejoicing for the ways that you provided for the early church where we see those stories of how you provided for that town in Texas that took in all those children, that you want to provide for the people here in this city and in our families to meet these needs. And so God, I thank you that we can come before you in full transparency, full honesty, knowing that when we come and we confess things, that you change us, that you restore us, that you heal us, that you make us new. God, I thank you that there's nothing that you don't already know. There's nothing that you're not scared of. And I thank you that we can continue to practice this and we continue to come before you and we can continue to just be welcomed in your presence.

So thank you for welcoming us today, God. Thank you for being near to us today. And so God, I just pray now that as we move from this place, that you would continue to help us to not just pray and to talk to you and have these honest moments here in this room, but every single day so that it can truly be said that there's no needy among us and that we would know that it is an honor that we get to be a part of that and seeing your kingdom come. And so we love you, Lord, and we ask all this in your name. Amen.