Last week, we talked the story of Ananias and Sapphira. While this is a tough passage, we discovered that their sin was not mere greed, but rather hypocrisy. We talked about this passage again during our small group on Monday evening and had a great discussion. I would challenge you to grapple with this difficult passage with a group of friends, small group, or Sunday school class. We asked a few questions together that I thought I would post in the blog.

1. Were Ananias and Sapphira Christians?

I was reading through Psalm 5 this morning and David’s words challenged my concept of prayer. David says,

Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing. (2) Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. (3) In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. --Psalms 5:1-3 NIV

By now, I’m sure you’re all tired of reading about church growth. I know I’m tired of writing about it . . . ☺ This will be the last blog (I hope). In the first three blogs, “Concerning Practical Evangelism,” I raised the question, “What is the secret to successful church growth?” Then I said that I don’t believe there is just one secret, but rather several pieces that all must be in place and fit together for successful growth to be achieved.

We’re on the third blog entry about this topic of evangelism. In the first two, I identified two important pieces in the puzzle of church growth, (1) each of us must passionately live our faith, and (2) we have to build relationships with the unsaved people around us. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20), Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples.

In my previous blog entry, I started a conversation about how to grow our church. I suggested that there is no single key to growing our church. Rather, there are many pieces which must all be in place for successful growth to occur. The first piece is for each of us, as Christians, to passionately live our faith (notice, I did not say, “perfectly live our faith”). Once we reach the point where we are living our faith, what’s next?

How can our church grow? What’s the key? What do we need to do to grow our church? Well, first let’s define what we mean by church growth. Actually, what we don’t mean. Church growth is not recruiting Christians from other churches. If we take 25 people from Cherry Hills, our church has not grown. We’ve gained nothing for the Kingdom. Church growth is reaching the lost. As Jesus said, “making disciples” out of those who are not.

We’re singing a hymn this Sunday. What?!? Why is a contemporary service singing anything older than 3 years? Don’t get me started . . .

David said in Psalm 14,

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

For the past few weeks, we have been studying the story of Pentecost in Acts 2. This study includes the coming of the Holy Spirit. His presence manifest itself in the wind, fire, and sound of various languages being spoken in understanding. As this miraculous situation occurs, some determine that they are drunk with wine. Peter stands up to address the crowd.

When a guy and girl fall in love, get married, and go on their honeymoon, they are riding on cloud nine. Their hearts are exploding with feelings of love and they think, “This will never end; I’ll feel this way forever!” I know because I felt that when I got married. But at some point, the honeymoon does end. (Corinne, sweetheart, if you’re reading this, we haven’t reached that point, yet . . .) There comes a point in time when being “in love” must be supplanted by love.