Then they Dropped Dead with Pastor Ryan Braley

A dramatic Bible story where two people fall dead might sound like a scare tactic, but the real punch lands somewhere deeper: what kind of community forms when the Spirit fills ordinary people? We walk through Acts 5 and the unsettling account of Ananias and Sapphira to uncover a hopeful, tangible vision of the kingdom of God—one where grace becomes groceries, rent, rides, and real presence.

We start with Jesus’ core theme: the kingdom of God as a new way of ordering life. Then we watch the early church become a living temple, a people in whom God dwells. Luke’s detail that “there were no needy among them” isn’t poetry; it is a blueprint for shared provision, honest speech, and practical love. Against that backdrop, hypocrisy isn’t a small sin—it’s a community-killer. Peter’s intensity makes sense when we remember his own failure and restoration. The warning is clear: stop performing righteousness, start practicing it.

From there we connect the text to today’s loneliness crisis—especially among the young—and show how real community answers what algorithms can’t. We talk about life groups that actually do life, men’s and women’s circles that show up, and a Human Needs Fund that turns compassion into electric bills paid and laptops placed into hands. Some days you bring 80 and I bring 20; other days we both limp at 20 and still refuse to let needs go unmet. That’s the quiet miracle of a kingdom-shaped church: honesty over image, burden-sharing over bravado, generosity over applause.

If you’re craving belonging or ready to serve, this conversation will nudge you toward one brave step—tell the truth about where you are, ask for help if you need it, and share what you can if you have more than enough. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with one way you plan to practice generosity or honesty this week.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening Prayer And Welcome
• 1:33 Framing The Kingdom Of God
• 3:20 Early Church As New Temple
• 4:15 Generosity Before The Fall
• 5:10 Ananias Lies And Drops Dead
• 6:35 Sapphira’s Choice And Death
• 8:10 What The Text Says And Doesn’t
• 9:40 Grace Produces Tangible Care
• 12:20 Loneliness And The Need For Community
• 14:15 Why Pretending Destroys Trust
• 16:00 Carrying Burdens And Real Belonging
• 18:10 Reading The Story Responsibly
• 19:30 Calls To Join And Share
• 21:00 Human Needs Fund And Next Steps
• 22:30 Closing Blessing And Charge

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Amen. Thank you, Janet. Let's pray this morning. God, we give you thanks for your presence here with us this morning. We ask that you would come and uh lead us and guide us this morning. Would you give us wisdom and discernment and insight into uh yeah, how we can be the people of God in this world and in Elk River and Minnesota, and that we can be good news to all those whom we encounter and and salt and light and uh these things that Jesus taught us to be. Help us to be the church, uh the church that cares for each other's needs and looks out for uh each other and and um is a blessing to the neighborhoods that we live in and and so on, and may we be good news. And uh yeah, would you bless us as we discuss this passage this morning, especially in Jesus' name? Amen. I may be seated. Morning, everyone. Man, I didn't know who'd show up. The roads were a little bit, I mean, a little bit, a little snow, but we're Minnesotan, so good for you guys for showing up. Uh, glad you're here. My name is Ryan. I'm the pastor here. If you if we haven't met yet, I'd love to do so. I always hang around up front after the second gathering just because it can be a little bit chaotic chaotic out there. And so I love to talk about anything from the morning. If you want to talk about the prayers or the songs or my sermon or the broncos, whatever. It's fine. We can come talk about that. Just come up front and uh we can chat about anything. But I always kind of hang out for as long as you will hang out. I don't mind, and sometimes there's a line, sometimes not. But if there is, I'll hang out as long as you do, so I'm not in any rush. Um, especially because there's no football today. So uh but uh great to be with you, uh be with you guys and to meet you or to see you, and um glad you're here. We're doing our series called Reading in the Dark, and we're examining and exploring some troubling texts in the Bible. And this is one of them. This is Ananias and Sapphira. I'm gonna go over the story in just a minute, but uh, you gotta know this. The number one thing that Jesus talked about, if you're like count up what he talked about the most, the thing he talked about the most that was always on like his lips and always in his conversations, and it wasn't love, it wasn't forgiveness, it wasn't even salvation. The thing he talked about most, the sort of hinge that everything was sort of anchored to, it was kind of the center of his mission, of his time. It was this it was the kingdom of God. And Jesus announces the inauguration or the launching or the starting of this kingdom when he shows up. Kingdom is kind of old language, maybe you kind of still get an idea what that means. But what it means is like Jesus came to bring a certain way of ordering life. And he's gonna put it on display. He shows us what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God, to have his proper ordering of life. It's a way of being in the world, a way of treating people, a way of living and moving and sort of uh how things are ordered. So he announces the kingdom of God. Then when he's crucified on Easter, or excuse me, Good Friday, uh, which is anachronistic, but you get the idea. When he's crucified, he's actually crowned, it's a coronation ceremony. He's crowned as the king of the world, not just king of the Jews, but he's crowned the king. It's sort of this upside-down way of being crowned king, but the kingdom is here and it's launched in Jesus. Then he he's resurrected, goes to be with the Father, and when he does, a bunch of his followers begin to gather. And when they gather, they gather in his name to worship him and to put on display this kingdom of God that he showed them and taught about and talked about. And so they sort of gather and they worship and they call themselves, or they're called later on, the Ecclesia or the Church. And this is what the book of Acts is about. So Acts was written by a guy called Luke. Luke wrote also one of the Gospels, the Gospel of Luke. Luke, uh the gospel is part one, part two is Acts. So it's like Luke part one and Luke part two. And so this story comes from the book of Acts. So it's early in the days of the church. This fledgling community of people who are gathering together in the name of Jesus to worship Jesus, to sort of inaugurate, or to sort of uh put into practice the kingdom of God. This story about Ananias and Sapphira who drop dead dramatically, it could be about God punishing them for lying. The story also could be, though, about, if you zoom out a little bit, it could be about what does this community of God look like? What is a kingdom-oriented community of people who gather together to worship Jesus? What does it look like? What do they do and how do they behave? It could be a story about that. Are you with me so far? All right, here's the story. So it's early in the life of the church, and just prior to the story, we read this about this gathering of people called the church. We read, oh by the way, this is the sermon is called uh Then They Drop Dead. I love this title. It's pretty good. I thought it was funny. Uh, here's what we read. So all the believers, all those who are gathering in the name of Jesus, they uh they were in one heart and mind. Remember, the heart is like the center of your being: mind, spirit, body, will, all those things, behaviors. It's kind of the center of your whole being. They were aligned in how they were living, how they thought, how maybe not every little minute detail, but like they were going in the same direction. And nobody claimed that any of their possessions was their own. These got a little hippie vibe to these guys in the early days, you know. Uh, they shared everything they had in common. They shared whatever they had. Then Luke goes on to tell us from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, uh, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles' feet. The apostles were kind of the ones leading the church at the time. Peter is one of them. And uh and it was distributed among anyone who needs to be. So on occasion, there were folks that had land, they would sell it. Like, we don't have to do this money, so they brought it to the apostles. The apostles then shared it to anyone who had need. He's not prescribing that we all need to go sell our land and give it to the apostles, but that's just this is what they were doing in the early part of the church. Then it says this a guy named Joseph, he's a Levite from Cyprus. Uh, he sold his field that he owned, and he brings the money and puts it at the apostles' feet. It became a thing that they began to do. Enter Ananias and Sapphira. They come walking in, they're members of this early church, this early life of the church. They're trying to figure out life, and they have some land. They sell it, but they keep some for themselves, and they bring in the rest and act as though they're bringing in everything, like this guy Joseph. Here's what the text tells us in Acts 5. It says, with his wife's knowledge, uh Ananias, by the way, Sapphira's not there. He comes in, he uh he bring he keeps back some of the proceeds and brought only part of the money that he made and lays it at the disciples' feet. And he says, This is everything, but he's holding some back. His friends were next to him, they knew what he was doing. Like, yo, uh, are you sure? Check the math on that. Do you mean net or gross? Like, I'm always confused what the difference is. Was this net or what do you because he keeps some back for himself and he tells everyone, no, I brought it all. It's all right here, it's all right here. And he pretends he's bringing it all. And then Peter, who's there, somehow has a sense and he lays into Ananias. Here's what he says to Ananias. He says, Um, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? By the way, the church in this time in Acts 2, the Spirit of God floods into their midst. Earlier in the Jewish story, the presence of God, remember where the presence of God dwell? In the temple. So there's many things happening here. But one of the things that Luke is saying is, hey, the new temple where the spirit of God dwells is among the people. This people is the new temple of God. Their being, their dwelling, how they live. So they're they're an embodiment of the temple now, which is a radical idea. And the spirit is with them. And so, why has Satan filled your heart to the light of the Spirit? By the way, this idea of filling your heart that Satan comes and fills your heart, he's quoting, or he's sort of like using the same phrase that's used in the gospels. When Judas is filled with Satan, or the Satan fills Judas' heart, and then Judas goes ahead and betrays Jesus. Satan literally means adversary. So the satanic, I always argue, is anything that blocks us from the self-sacrificial, life-giving love of the cross. The reason we have the cross in the front and center of our building here is like this is what we're trying to do, this is the aim. A life that looks like that, self-sacrifice on behalf of others, taking care of the community, trying to, you know, bring, bring light and salt to the world the way that Jesus did. And anything that opposes that, uh, like Judas does, is satanic, is the Satan. So he says, Hey, why has the Satan come and filled your heart in this way? And then Peter asks him a few more questions, and then things get crazy. And here's what happens next, the very next verse. He says, You didn't lie to us, you led to God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You didn't lie to us, you led to God. And then the text says, and then they fell over, he fell, he falls over and he dies. Just like that. He hears these words, he falls over and he dies just like that. Now imagine being there. You can guess what the next verse says. Probably it says this a great fear seized everybody who heard it. Uh, yeah. No doubt there were lots of folks watching, they're like, Oh my gosh. And they began to immediately empty their pockets. Like, give them, give them your money, give them some money, give them money. We can't let this happen again. They start confessing all their sins. Oh my gosh, I'm sorry I lied to you. One little boy had curly hair. He's like, and then when I was seven, I pushed my sister down the stairs and I bited it on the dog. It's fine though, because he grew up older and he found some pirate treasure. He was just fine. And um uh any Goonie fans over there? Okay, so then all right, there you go. So uh then you know, the all the all the young men like they call their mother-in-laws, they're like, I'm so sorry what I said about your hot dish. I love your hot dish. Like everyone's like just on like on razor's edge. A great fear seized all of them. And then they bring in these young lads to bury her body or bury his body. So there's Analyze, a dead body Analias, they bring these young dudes, like, hey get the young fellas in here, and these young fellows come with like giant saucers for eyes. Like, oh my gosh, that dude just dropped. And they drag Ananias out, and the whole way out, they're talking. These are teenage boys. You can imagine. Yo, I can't believe this has happened. Do you lie to your parents? I mean, yeah, no more lying. Hey, no, hey, I'll bet you 20 bucks. His wife lies also. Okay, I'll take that bet. You know, like they're teenagers, of course, they're like doing that kind of stuff. And they bury Ananias. Three hours later, Sapphira comes in and doesn't know what's going on. She's the wife of Ananias. And Sapphira comes in, having no idea what's going on, and uh her friends are like trying to give her a warning, like, don't don't don't don't what, you know, and she can't hear them. And so then Peter asks her, hey, uh, is it true this is the price of what you got for the land? And I imagine Peter's a bit hot. He's like like a like a like a parent who uses the full name. You know, he's like, Ananias, or I'm sorry, Sapphira, Anna Johnson, get in here right now, like uses her middle name. Although this is like ancient Hebrew, so he probably was like, Sapphira Sarah Bethany of Jerusalem, get in here right now. Thank you. I didn't get much laughter at the first gathering from that joke. I thought it was funny. Sapphira Johnson accounting error the third, get in here right now. You know, is this the price you got for your land? Now, listen, you guys, this is the moment, you know? This is the moment when your junk catches up to you and you have this opportunity, it's this vulnerable moment, like a little like a little baby of a moment here, you can confess and like own up to your junk, and you can like just rip out the weeds by the root and be done with it and confess it, repent, turn, and be healed and have freedom and be liberated and go this way, or you can double down and go this way, and you can lie and keep lying and allow your heart to become harder and your ears a bit deafer and your eyes a bit more blind. And the further you go down this road, the harder it is oftentimes to come back. And that healing that you and I so desperately need is just like it just stays at arm's length. But it's up to you. Maybe you've been there, like confronted by your own stuff, and you confess up, and it's horrible. You know, you gotta lick your wounds, and you gotta, it's humiliating. But I'm just telling you, it's freedom. It's freedom, real freedom, or you can double down and lie and suffer the consequences of a lifetime of lying and covering up and not being healed. Are you with me? The consequences are dire, I'm just telling you. And or Sapphira, she doubles down. Yeah, this is it, this is the price, she says to Peter. Everybody just watched her husband die. Like, oh no. And they'll start stepping away from her. No, that's the price. Yeah, what what of it? What's the what's the problem? Well, here's the problem. Peter says back to her, how could you conspire to to test the spirit of the Lord? The spirit is in our midst. We're at the new temple. Listen, the feet of the men who just buried your husband, they're at the door. They're gonna come and carry you out next. Yo, in other words, the spirit ain't playing. You know what I'm saying? And then at that moment, she hears these words and she falls down and dies. I was doing slides with Olivia. Is Olivia in here this morning? Olivia was with my slides and I was telling her the story, and she's like, oh my gosh. At this part she goes, Oh my gosh, drama. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And she dies, and they bring those young lads back in and they gotta bury her too. And the one was like, yo, I told you, shoot, you owe me 20 bucks, man. 20 bucks. How would that have shaped those young dudes? They watched her die, they watched him die. There's all kinds of stuff happening here. It's wild. Then it says, a great fear seized the whole church and all those who heard the events, and that is the story. What is this about? Is this about God just punishing them because they didn't give him more money? What's happening in this story? Well, here's what I'll say: the order of the story is very important. So Luke is laying out all of these stories of the early church in a very specific way. It's not random. He's doing it very uh in a very particular way to try to tell us something. Often in the ancient world, they would move story events around, it was just how you did it, and they would tell it in a certain order to convey a bigger story. And so, what's the story he's trying to convey? He's trying to tell us something very important. Well, here's the end of chapter four. You got a hint of it, but here's what Luke tells us about these people at the end of four, right before Analas and Savior died. He says, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them, in them all, that there were no needy persons among them. See, one of the direct results of the grace of God moving in our midst as the people of God as people is that people's needs are met. I'll say that again. One of the direct results of God's grace moving in our lives is that people's needs are met. Real needs are really met by real people. So, real tangible needs like food and clothing and water and shelter and healthcare and Wi-Fi with at least three bars so I can get my computer to work, you know. These kinds of needs, they're met by real people. See, grace, grace, according to Luke, is not some abstract theological concept. It's a reality that leads people to take action on behalf of each other. Grace leads us somewhere, it has implications for our lives. It's not some ethereal idea, oh, grace. No, it like pushes you to do something in the community that you're a part of. My wife and I were a part of a community called YWAM a long time ago, uh, Youth of the Mission. And we would uh we joined when we were like 20, 21, 22 years old. And when we first started out, we were domestic missionaries. We had to raise our own support. And let me tell you, those early days, it was slim pickings. We had a 600 square foot apartment. It was 600 bucks a month, so it was a dollar a square foot. And you could see from one corner to the other, just at the front door, you could see everything. You're like, oh, this is the apartment. Nice apartment. And uh, we had raised just enough, we had we had hardly any stuff. We just had an apartment, we had to pay for gas, we had to pay um maybe clothes. I don't even know. That's kind of it. And we had raised enough support to cover all of our bills. That was it, not a dollar more. But the trick was we had also agreed as a couple, and then we were younger, like, we want to give money away every every time we can, every month. So we were like, well, let's just do 10%. It's a good number. It's kind of the number in the Bible, the tie the 10%, which is if you don't know where to start, just start doing that and give it away. And so we'd give it away to different people. And that month, that was our first month, I think, we had just enough money to pay for all of all of our bills, but not give away 10%. So we're like, well, what should we do? Should we give it away anyway? Because we that's what we wanted to do, or should we just keep it and pay our rent? And we're like, you know what? We were young and kind of dumb, just dumb enough. Well, I was dumb. She was smart, but I I was like, you know what? Let's just give it away. Because when you're young, like just roll the dice, let's see what happens. Okay, God, we're gonna trust in you. And we gave it away. So that day, like the rent was due that next day, and we were$100 short, which back then would have might as well have been$10,000. We didn't have$100, you know what I mean? And so we go to work that day and we're like kind of like kind of half terrified, half excited, like, okay, God, what are you gonna do? And we rolled in there and uh talked to my friend Dale. This guy Dale comes rolling in and he's like, Hey Ryan, how are you? I'm good, I'm good, it's a little stressed out. And I was not fishing. He goes, What are you stressed out about? I go, listen, to be honest, man, I'm a hundred bucks short of my rep money, but it'll come fine, it's cool. He goes, Oh, a hundred bucks, pulls out his checkbook. We had checkbooks back then, and you know, back in the day, you write on paper, and writes me a check for a hundred dollars. I was like, What? Here you go, and walked out of the room. And I learned a valuable lesson that day. Oh, this is how the kingdom of God works. Like, let come, let go, give and receive, share and share alike. And I can tell you 50 other stories just like that one at YWAM and the Petersons can too, many others can too. It's kind of how we worked and lived. It's like it was just like the early church, it was crazy. Because grace, when the grace of God is at work in our implications. It creates connections, it creates community, it creates, you know, people who take care of each other's needs in real and tangible ways. Luke is telling us, hey, in the early church, they had each other's backs. They took care of each other. They didn't just gather for an hour and then leave. Like, no, they had each other's. Whenever anyone had needs, they did not go unmet. Like, hey, we'll take care of you. We're gonna do this together. We're kind of in this whole thing together, and nobody's needs will go unmet. It was like real full-blooded community. By the way, I think that perhaps our world today could really benefit from something like this. You know that one-fourth of the whole world, this is a stat, it's maybe a couple years old, but not that old. But one-fourth of all people back then it was just about over a billion, now it'd be about two billion, one-fourth of the whole world's population say that they're lonely or very lonely. Over well over a billion people, you guys. There's more than four folks in this room, so one in four of us are lonely or very lonely. And you know who's affected the most by loneliness? Young people. According to the APA. This poll, young people. A hundred deaths per hour globally are because of loneliness. A hundred people die every hour globally because of their because of loneliness. Yeah. And young folks are affected the most, and it's because of a number of things. One is this incredible intense stress uh from finances. So financial stress is a huge stressor for young that causes them to feel lonely. Another one is reduced social connection. A lot of young folks, and all of us, a lot of us folks too, uh, are not really hanging out in social settings any longer. The third place is kind of going away. Coffee shops, movie theaters. And there's also this most of our connections, if we have any, are all digital. It's no wonder like there's this rise of chatbot girlfriends and boyfriends. These are chatbots, they're not real, but people find some kind of relational intimacy with them. But it's not real, it's not real flesh and blood and bones, but always will lack what it needs, the robust connection that people long for and are craving. You know what might help our world today? Church. Real, authentic community in some way, gathering together. I don't mean for an hour on a Sunday morning, that's fine too, and keep coming. This is great. But like real flesh and bones and blood connections, doing things together, taking care of each other's needs and being there for each other. And whenever there's any needs, they don't go unmet. Yeah, that's what this world could probably use some of, if you ask me. Now, Peter, back to Peter in the story. Peter responds in this incredibly harsh way. Why is he so harsh with them? I mean, he is not having it, Peter. Well, remember Peter, who he was. Uh, just a while before, not a long while, but a short while before, he's hanging out with Jesus. And he he betrays Jesus in this incredibly profound way. He knows what it's like to live in the pain of betraying somebody you love. It almost destroyed Peter. So you can see why pretending to be something you're not is an issue for Peter, or why being authentic is important to Peter. See, it was not about the money. I don't know if they care about the money so much. Like, who cares about the money? It was that these folks came in and pretended to be somebody they weren't, to be more righteous than they really were. But you don't get a sense that the apostles weren't asking for more money and being greedy and buying yachts and Rolexes and jets and those kind of things, which does happen, by the way. Okay. No, no, it wasn't about that. It was about pretending. See, for Peter, pretending is what gets him fired up. Ananias and Sapphira pretending to be somebody that they're not. I mean, if you sell the land and if you keep the money, fine. It's your land. It was your land before. It's your land. Do whatever you want with the money. I don't care. And if you sell it and bring it to us and we share it with those in need, great. We'll do that. Great. No problem. It was your land before, it's your land. No problem. But don't come in here and try to impress all of us by pretending to be more righteous than you are, because you're that's not what's happening. You're lying to all of us. It was the lying that got Peter so fired up. Hey, don't come in here and pretend. Because I'm telling you, few things in life will kill the life of a community faster than pretending. Are you with me? Go to any AA meeting. Those men and women have figured it out. Those that's a robust, oftentimes, life-giving community for the most part. I know there's exceptions, but why? Because they have lost the capacity to pretend any longer. They open their meetings. Hi, I'm Ryan, and I'm an alcoholic. Right from the jump. No more pretending. Just stop. Because it gets you nowhere. Or go to any church that has suffered from a leader who has publicly behaved in some incredibly improper manner. It destroys the life of the community. Yeah. For Peter, it wasn't about the money. It was about participation. This new thing being birthed out of the resurrection of Jesus. This new way of life, this kingdom-oriented kind of way of being in the world, about connection and sharing, and each person doing their part as much as they could when they could to give and to share and make sure no one went without. To contribute to the common good. And look, sometimes you may not have anything to share. You might be here like I have nothing, I have no money, I've got no resources, I have no hope. I'm discouraged. Fair enough. It's in those moments you need to know that you're not alone. Look around. There are folks who have your back, who will take care of you. We're in this together. That was Luke's message in the early church. We will take care of each other. Don't worry about it. If you're here and you can't, don't look, we got you. My good friend Kim, who's here this morning right now, she told me I could share the story, was a part of her house church for a long time. Oh, did Kim leave? No. Oh, she wants to. Oh, there she is. So Kim has suffered for a long time with lots of health, like pretty severe health problems. And one day she's telling me, and she'd come to house reach every week, and you know, there's always something going on with her and her medications. And one day she said, Ron, I'm so sorry. I'm such a burden. I'm such a I'm so sorry. I'm such a burden for you guys. I said, Kim, look at me. You are a burden. You're a huge one. You're a huge burden. You're a big burden, Kim. I hope you know that. But that's why we're here. We're gonna help you. I hope I can burden you. I know I'm a burden. I when you don't have enough, let me help you. Let me carry you. When you're discouraged, let me have hope for you. Because some days you can't just drag yourself out of that hole. You gotta out of let me help you. Some days you're here, I don't have any faith today, Ryan. No problem. Let me help you. Let the person next to you carry your burden for you. That's what we're doing here. Let's help each other out. That's community. The kind of kingdom-centered uh community that Jesus came to build and to plant and to leave with the world. My wife and I have this saying, I think we got it from like Brene Brown, where she, you know, we often hear this phrase like that marriage is 50-50. You guys heard of this phrase? It's not really true. Marriage is not really always 50-50. Sometimes it can be. But there are some days where we'll come home and I'll be like, hey, um, Katie, I've I don't have 50 to give. I've got maybe 20. I've had a stressful day at work, I'm tired. Sonia yelled at me again, like always. My self-esteem is shot. I'm a terrible pastor. And then Katie will say, that's okay. I can I can bring 80 tonight, no problem. So tonight we're 80-20. Or on days where she's like, hey, I've had a tough time too. Sonia yelled at me as well. Just kidding, just kidding. Uh we both have 20. It's like, okay, well, let's cancel our plans and just binge watch Netflix Twitter, something like that, you know? Yeah, that's what we're doing here. We're burdening each other. That's what community is. When the grace of God is active, it's people taking care of each other's needs. That's what it is. Now, back to the folks who died. Uh, just notice one that this is the New Testament, and folks die in the New Testament as well. The Old Testament gets a bad rap, like, oh, God is so angry, and there's all kinds of death. Well, there's death in the New Testament as well. So it's be equal opportunities here, you know? Um, so there's that. But then also notice what the text says and what the text doesn't say. It never blames God. God isn't blamed for the death. And also, by the way, neither is Peter. The details are important, they matter. We actually, we don't, we don't know who died. Or we don't know how they died. We know who we know who died. We don't know how they died or why they died. Now, look, the author is definitely seemingly connecting the dots here. Like it, it has something to do with them lying. That's why it's sort of laid out this way. But maybe it was God punishing them, maybe not for lying, pretending money. I don't know, maybe. But but also, I don't know, maybe not. Sometimes in the ancient world, writers would link a thing that happened with other things that were happening at the same time. So maybe these folks died around the same time as when they lied about this. And then the author, like, oh, and everyone there was watching, like, linked it in their minds, just because that's how you would it would work in the ancient world. For example, if today if you were at the bank and you saw some guy run in there with a gun and hold up the bank and rob them and was just mean and abusive of the person at the you know, the teller, and then grabbed the money and ran out the front door and then bam gets hit by a truck, what would you be saying in your mind? Yeah, serves and right. Justice is served. Karma. Reap what you sow, buddy. Hey, you can't you can't park there, pal. Why? Because in our minds, you're you're linking the two events. This happened all the time in the ancient world. It could be that they they died of a massive coronary failure. And the writers linked it, oh, it must have been because they lied. Maybe it was like that the Spirit of God, when the presence of God is there in the midst of the people, it's not to be trifled with. This is no joke. Yeah, maybe it's that. Maybe the psychosocial pressure of everybody there and they got caught lying was just so much, they just kind of died. I don't know. Maybe they died of food poisoning an hour later and they just linked it together. I don't know. Who knows what happened really? Or what, but but here's the thing. We don't want to miss the power of the story. Could be just like, hey, what does this story tell us about the way the ancient people saw the world and the kind of community that Jesus inaugurates and how they're to treat each other? One commentary says like this. I love this. This is how the this is where the story can really transform us and influence us today. Luke wants us to know that the resurrection led to the formation of a community of generous and honest people who gave themselves to the well-being of one another. Of course they would. That's the life of the cross. That's what it looks like. He goes on to say, doing whatever was needed to make sure everyone had their needs met. They were highly aware of the divine presence in their midst. Yes, the Spirit of God, leading them, convicting them, and giving them hope that a better world, a better way of ordering life, a kingdom way of life is possible right here and right now when you and I all do our part. This is way better than like, oh, they lied and God punished them by killing them. You know, it's like that's fun, okay. This is way better. This is what the grace of God looks like. So I don't know what to say about this text other than all this stuff I just said, but maybe these things here too. Uh, number one is like, hey, the presence of God is powerful. Now, I I don't think you like extrapolate from this story uh that whenever anybody dies, it's because God is punishing them. That's not what the story is saying. That's the wrong way to read the story. But I think you can say, hey, like the Spirit of God is powerful, and and it's not to be trifled with. Not that you're gonna be afraid of dropping dead. I'm just like that, this is a powerful thing. Also, maybe there's this. Hey, take care of other people's deeds. Help each other, and don't pretend to be more righteous than you actually are. Central, what would it look like for us to be this kind of community? We are the ecclesia, the church, not this building, although it's I get it, you know, but like we are we are the ones that house the Spirit of God. We're the temple. Uh not the institution, but like us as the people. What would it look like for us to take care of each other's needs? To be this kind of a life-giving community that takes care of our needs of our area, and even maybe our state, maybe, I don't know, and the world maybe too? Or what about this one? What would it look like for you to finally stop pretending to be somebody you're not? What if we opened every church gathering? I often say this, but like, what if we said, hey, we're gonna just start out by having everyone stand up and say, hey, my name is Ryan, and I'm a habitual sinner. And then Ben will go next, and then we'll go down the line. So just stop pretending. Like, let's just say, well, whatever. Like we all have some junk. Let's stop pretending. I mean, what would that look like for us to do that? Maybe you're here, like, hey, I would love to be a part of a life-giving community. I I want that so I'm so lonely. Help me, Ryan. Here's a couple of steps you can take. One, uh, you can join a life group. Peter, would you stand up? This is my friend Peter Dusterman. Everyone say hi, Peter. He is in charge of our life groups. He's he's been building this whole year, year and a half, even two years, like a number of life groups, small, medium-sized groups of community. They get together and they do all kinds of stuff. We're like, there's no formula over there, hey, pray, read the Bible, go bowling, go putt-putt golfing, uh, do pottery, whatever, around the Jesus story and each other and go. And he's built a number of them. If you're and this is how you do it. I want to be a part of the community. Talk to Peter, and I'm just I'm do it, you won't regret it. Over one billion people in the world are lonely. What does the kingdom of God look like? Well, join a life group. Do it, talk to Peter. Email Peter, talk to me, Ben, Sonia, somebody. Number two. Uh, Sonia, can you stand up? And Pete, do Pete Knapp isn't here. Is it? Oh, Pete Nugget, Pete Knapp's right there. Everyone say hi, Pete. That's Pete. This is Peter. And this is Sonia. Everyone say hi, Sonia. So Sonia and Pete, uh, Pete Knapp. She oversees our she ministry and Pete Knapp oversees our guy ministry. If you're a guy and like, hey, I'd love to meet more dudes, maybe do some dude things, you know. Uh, talk to Pete. So we're going pickleballing on do you go pickleballing? We're playing pickleball on Friday night. Uh, Pete does a weekly email just to connect with guys over reflection, he just does like a little story. It's awesome. And like, hey, just encourage you guys. They do a men's breakfast every, I think every Saturday. There's a number of guys' groups that meet together. Talk to Pete and get involved if you're a dude. If you're a lady, a gal, Galantines, talk to Sonia. They have a Galantine's Day thing coming up. I have no idea what it is, but it sounds awesome. Uh, they got 83 women signed up for that, so be a part of that. Or there's also some ladies' small groups. Be a part of that as well. Two more things and I'll go. If you're here today, like Ryan, I've got a ton of needs. I can't pay rent. My car payment's overdue. I don't have a car. I gotta walk to work in the snow and the cold. I have nothing. I can't, I can't afford my kids' lunch. Come and talk to me. Talk to Sonia or to Ben. Is Kirsten here? Is Kirsten out there? Can someone help? Is she out in the Connect Center? Can someone grab her and just tell her to come in here? Tell her to run. Hurry. Kirsten has a we have we call it a human needs fund where we have people that donate to this fund. And then Kirsten, this is Kirsten. Everyone say, Hi, Kirsten. Let us know. We want to help. Like genuinely. I need a computer so I can do my score. I have nothing, Ryan. We want to help. You can email Kirsten, her email address is online. She'll be in the Connect Center after church. Is that right? Talk to her. Talk to me, Ben, or Sonia. And we want to help you. If you need, you know, when I was younger, we we my parents got divorced. We had to have help with rent money. We had to have help. We didn't have a car. We were given a car. We got given Christmas gifts at Christmas because we had no money. So we want to help you. Secondly, if you're here like I got more than enough, I want to share. There's Kirsten. Everyone say hi, Kirsten again. Tell her that. You can you can give the Human Needs Fund and give money. Or you can just say, hey, Kirsten, let me know what you need after tomorrow. Maybe someone needs, I got a computer. Just say, hey, I've got a lot of things. Let me know, and I'll and I'll let you know, and we can connect and you can give that to you know whomever. But if you have enough more than enough, then let's share it with somebody. Fair enough. Central Lutheran Church, may the grace of God fill this place. As it already has. And maybe that may have implications for us to share and take care of each other. In a day and age when we need it so desperately, may we be community. I know it's kind of hard and sticky and fuzzy, and I get it. And it's awkward and weird, but just do it. You'll love it. I mean, you'll appreciate it. And may you be empowered by the Spirit to do so. And if you're in need, ask somebody, ask Kirsten, ask us for help. And if you have more, then I would encourage you to share it. And may the Spirit of God keep filling this place. Amen.