One Sunday our pastor preached a sermon on Acts 5:1-11:
Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
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 just to human beings but to God.”
When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
He titled the sermon, "Our Secret Sins." I don't remember all of his points, but one story he told that related to these verse really stood out to me.
He said one day he parked on the street and bumped into a car. He needed to find the owner, so went door-to-door at the apartment building by the street to try and find the owner. After a while, he finally found the car owner, and was invited into his apartment to discuss the car situation.
When our pastor walked in the apartment he was immediately overtaken by a strong, pungent smell, and by what he saw. Trash was literally piled up a foot high all over the apartment and the smell was awful. He had to fight back tears from the smell and had to carefully choose where he walked. He exchanged information for the car and left the apartment.
His point of the apartment story was that the trash in the apartment didn't just happen overnight, it happened slowly over a long period of time. The people living there had gotten so used to the trash and the smell that they were oblivious to it and not bothered by it. The trash didn't just accumulate quickly overnight, but rather slowly, and over a long period of time. He related this to a callousness to sin that can build up over time. When you sin at first and don't get caught or are not convicted of it, it's easy to continue sinning and have it become your normal way of life...like Ananias and Sapphira. They lied about the money like it was no big deal.
All of us have secret sins like this that don't seem to be a problem to us or affect anyone else, but if left unnoticed or dealt with, can add up over time and cause problems. It is important to take a self-inventory of your heart and life to make sure you aren't holding onto any secret sins so your heart doesn't become full of unnecessary trash.
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