Unstoppable, Part 5-Acts 5:1-11--Pastor Tullian #liberate2015 #unstoppable

Unstoppable: Tracing God's flawless work through flawed people

Acts is the story of God choosing the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

These are not the happiest verses in the Bible.  To understand, we need to go back to Chapter 4:32-37.

This seems harsh and forgiving. The cold heartedness of this story reveals danger of self-salvation. Ananias & Sapphira are you and me.

This was deeper than financial greed. 

We inside the church are masters of disguise.  

Fruit of justification of works is hiding who we are from ourselves & others.

After we become Christians, we tend to leave the gospel behind. We understand Christ's work is relevant in our past & future, but it's our work relevant in the present.

The root cause of our exhaustion is not something outside of us, but something instead inside of us.

It is amazing to me that Christians celebrate when brothers or sisters in Christ experience failure.

We all have secrets.

Lying is part of our self-salvation projects.

Ananias & Sapphira heard about Joseph (Ch. 4) & wanted to receive the praise and glory he received for themselves so they lied.

God knows everything about us and He loves you. 

The temptation is to walk away from a sermon like this saying lying is bad & instead go & tell the truth. That is moralism. I can't save myself by lying so I will save myself by truth telling.

Answer is Jesus who is the truth for you!

Robert Capon quote

Our hope is not avoiding lying or telling the truth but instead in Jesus.

We are perpetually looking in for salvation. 
Salvation is instead looking out & up.
Being bad & being good are equally dangerous.
It takes a lot of work to put your best foot forward.
Manufacturing lies about yourself makes life hard.

All of the approval & love you desire you already have in Jesus and when we get this, we will actually will lie less.

We are not celebrating failure. Acknowledging failure is a virtue.
How? Approval thru Jesus instead of thousands of smaller things

Jesus says to us, "Come to me, all who are weary & I will give you rest." I have come to take the burden off your shoulders.

Because we are forever approved and loved by God, we have nothing we have to protect

"Rather be naked in truth than clothed in fantasy"--Brennan Manning

Dan Price explanation of baptism of Jesus by John--All the people came dirty and come out clean. Jesus comes in clean & comes out dirty and carries it to the cross.

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