What’s mine is mine and you can’t have it.

Steve Brown:
What’s mine is mine and you can’t have it. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening, and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God, because of his radical grace, free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re looking at the fifth chapter of the book of Acts in our multi-month study in the book of Acts. And we’re up to the story of Ananias and Sapphira. And if you haven’t been with us this week, I’m not gonna read it again. It’s a fairly long text, but Ananias and Sapphira were cheaters and liars and they were in the early church and the church had needs and they had their stuff and they were not going to give it to the church. So they gave her a little bit and lied about the rest and they died. And you hit this text and all of a sudden you go, whoa, that’s not the God I thought existed. It’s not the God you’ve been teaching. Yeah, it is. But you got to unpack it and you got to see what’s going on here. And if you were listening yesterday, I ended cause I ran out of time, before I ran out of words. And I ended by saying that God wasn’t trying to fix and Ananias and Sapphira, he was trying to fix the church, because he cared about them. But we’ll get to that, as we go along. A number of years ago, I was serving on some kind of board and one of the members was an African-American Bishop that I loved a lot, and he gave devotions one time and the devotion was on the good Samaritan and the thieves that attacked him. And then the good Samaritan came along, bound up his wounds, put him in a hotel, paid his bills and said that he would settle if there was any more. And the religious people avoided, you remember, the man who had been robbed. And, this African-American bishop’s devotion was so good that I never forgot what he said. I don’t remember his name. And, I don’t think he would mind that as long as I remembered what he taught us, and this is what he said.

The thieves said, what’s yours is mine, and if I want it, I’ll take it. And they did. The religious leaders came along and they avoided the man who had been robbed, and they said, what’s mine is mine, and if you need it, you can’t have it.

And then this beloved African American Bishop said.

Then the good Samaritan came along, and they said, what’s mine is mine and if you need it, you can have it.

Well, as you look at this story of Ananias and Sapphira, you find that Ananias and Sapphira said, what is mine is mine, and you can’t have it. Now, they probably could have gotten along okay, with that kind of greed, they really could have. I mean, the church is really forgiving, most people are. Now, we got 10% of the worst Pharisees, the biggest legalists, the condemning guilt producing people on the face of the earth. But frankly, and I’ve been doing this a long time, 90% of the people of God are forgiving and kind and gentle and understanding. And if Ananias and Sapphira had said to them, we’re not going to do like Barnabas and give all this money, because we’re old and we’ve got our retirement to think about, we’ve got grandchildren and we’ve got, so we’re going to, we’re going to sell this land and we’re gonna give you a portion of it. The people of God would have said, that’s not a good thing to do, because you’re not trusting God, but they didn’t do that. They would have been forgiven. But they lied and you just shouldn’t do that. And you specially shouldn’t do it in a transitional time, which is where the church was at this time. Now you’ve got to remember, or you won’t understand this text, that this is the beginning. This is the church in Jerusalem. This is where it all started. They don’t have church structure or seminaries. They haven’t written hymns. There’s no liturgy. And they’re flying by the seat of their pants. Well, they’re really not. Jesus had promised God’s Spirit and you see God’s Spirit everywhere as the church begins to come together. Now right now, they are planning, meeting together. And they haven’t gone hardly anywhere with the gospel, the way Jesus taught them to. In acts 1:8, Jesus said, you go and tell the world. And they, Acts 1:8 didn’t happen until Acts 8:1 happened. And you said, what’s that? Well, Acts 8:1 is the place where the church was persecuted, where they, I mean, really persecuted and they had the flee Jerusalem. And so God said, you ain’t going, so I’m going to force you to go. And so, and this is God’s way, they were spread out into all the world, cause they were running and that’s the way God sometimes acts. And so, when you’re reading this particular text, in Acts 5, where Ananias and Sapphira were killed off, you’re looking at something that’s, that’s pretty serious, because at the beginning, it really is serious. The way you end something, listen up, the way you end something, depends on how you begin it. The way you end something, depends on how you begin something. And the church was just beginning and it was very important that they get it right in the beginning. And Ananias and Sapphira were forms in the body of Christ. They would have destroyed so much, so God was a man with a plan. We’ll talk about it. Meanwhile, you think about it. Amen.
It’s Wednesday, and sometimes on Wednesdays, I take some time to answer one or two questions. And then Pete of course will be in on Friday and we’ll spend the whole broadcast answering questions. And we love to get your questions, we really do. You make us thing, you make us search, you make us ask our own questions. And you can ask a question anytime you want to, you can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE and record your question. And sometimes we use those on the air. And by the way, don’t preach, we’re the preachers, that’s for questions. 1-800-KEY-LIFE, anytime, anyplace, record your question and probably we’ll put it on the air. Or you can write

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Or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And those are places where if the Spirit should move and tell you that I help us financially, you can do that. You can also do that on your phone. You can text Key Life at 28950 and follow instructions. At any rate, I promise when you help us financially, that we’ll be faithful with your gift and squeeze every dime for the glory of God. And we also recognize that a lot of you can’t or don’t feel led to do that. And that’s okay. But if you think of it, say a prayer for this ministry and we’ll appreciate that too. Alright, let’s turn to maybe one, maybe two of the questions. This is an e-mail, are God’s grace and unconditional love only for Christians. Well, yes and no. Who was the man, the psychiatrist said to his client, you have trouble making decisions? And he said, well, yes and no. Well, yes, you know, there’s a danger here and I face it all the time. I am not a Universalist. I believe that there are people who are lost, who will never avail themselves of God’s grace. I see God’s sovereignty in that mix and that’s a very, very serious subject. But if I say, as I’ve heard many Christian leaders say, God does not listen to the prayers of unbelievers, except one prayer Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. I get that. I really do. And I understand why somebody would say that, but you say more by saying that then you meant to say, for God, so loved the world. So, I believe that there are people who are lost and it’s not his will that any should perish. I really believe that. And I believe that when people perish that there are tears in the eyes of God. And so when we talk about God, we’ve got to be careful that we don’t say more than we mean. If you’re familiar with Key Life, you’re aware that our mantra is God is not mad at you. And we explain that in our statement of faith, but the danger of saying God’s not mad at you is for everybody to think he’s not mad at you, that the wrath of God is poured out on unbelief, and it is. But don’t forget his love. Don’t forget that God is at his heart, not just a loving person, but his attribute is love. He is love.

For God so loved the word that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And so, yes and no, there is the wrath of God poured down on unbelief. God always listens to the prayer, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. But to say that he does not listen to any other prayer, except that one, is trying to dictate to God what he will do and what he won’t do. And the last time I checked, we didn’t get a vote on that. God does as he pleases and he does it right well. And then Jesus, and I’ll say this, and then I got to go, pointed this out that he poured out his sunshine and his rain on the good and the evil. So God is loving, just because he is, and he’s gracious, just because he is. And in spades, to his people. Got to go, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.