What material goods can compare to this list? To be healed when brokenhearted. To be comforted when mourning. To see again after being blind. When this world tries to put on a cloak of heaviness over your life God will give you a garment of praise! When your life lies in ashes, God can restore it to beauty! You may be saying to yourself that these aren't things you face but you forget where God found you! He found you brokenhearted, despaired, shackled and blind. He renewed the ruined city of your life. He restored the places long since devastated in your life. He even broke the generational devastations in your life! Don't ever fall for the worldly notion that you haven't been blessed enough. My dear God, our blessings overflow simply from our salvation! Instead of bless me bless me bless me, it should be thank you thank you thank you.
But as soon as a work of God begins you know that the enemy will come against it. We start to see in the Book of Acts some of the common schemes the enemy uses to poison us against each other and against the church. In the very next chapter we see the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They represent for us today the spirit of fraud in the church. The false nature of the church. The hypocrisy that keeps so many away from the foot of the cross. This couple was part of the church. They were the couple next to you in the pew. They were in your small group. In the Book of Acts we read that they sold a piece of property and presented a sum of money to the Apostles as people were doing then sharing everything together. But they secretly held back a portion of the proceeds for themselves. They did not have to of course because the property was theirs and so was the money. The problem was they lied and said they were giving all of the proceeds. You see, they wanted to look better than they really were. They wanted to appear more spiritual than they really were. They acted one way at church but another when alone. Sound familiar? Here was the response from Peter:
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 to God." Acts 5: 3-4 (NIV)
This spirit is alive and well in the modern church and lends itself to the bless me mentality. Where we walk around with our best church mask on every Sunday. We raise our hands in worship but lead a life that is a lie to God. Sure we tithe and maybe serve in a ministry or two but all we are doing is playing church. We have the best singers but no move of the Holy Spirit. We have the best musicians but no power over the spirit of heaviness in our lives. We bring our shiny Sunday-best Bible to church and then discard it on the shelf for another week. For that brief glimmer of time on Sunday maybe we can feel the power of God move, but not in our day-to-day lives.
Ananias and Sapphira were both struck dead by the Lord. A sign to the new church that hypocrisy is a great offense to Him. A lesson we sadly have lost over the centuries. The next chapter in Acts reveals another scheme the enemy uses against the church. The selfish and disgruntled spirit:
But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, "We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word." - Acts 6: 2-4 (NLT)
Rumblings of discontent. Sound familiar? "Why do they only sing hymns?" "Why do they let him speak, he's boring." "They take too many offerings." "If they don't expand their nursery service times, I will have to find another church." I am sure we can all fill in the blanks here. In the early church it was an issue about the equal distribution of food to widows. We see here in this story the literal creation of ministry. People are chosen to serve so that the leaders can focus on prayer and teaching the Word of God.
Unfortunately today we see too many churches where the discontent defines the church. A spirit of discord runs from leadership down through the congregation. The spirit is one of selfishness, where the church exists to glorify the congregant. Instead the church should have a spirit of true devotion and worship where the congregants exist to glorify God! Selfishness makes the church about your needs when it is supposed to be about His sacrifice. Here is the Bible teaching on selfishness:
For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. James 3: 15-16 (NLT)
