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When I was a boy growing up in the 90s, I don't know if you've heard of the 90s, it's a long time ago, I loved spy movies, spy movies, spy shows, spy video games, books, novels, there's something so interesting to me of the intrigue of it all. I grew up on movies

like the Bond movies with Pierce Brosnan, Golden Eye, and Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise,

who is still doing Mission Impossible 30-some-odd years later. But these movies had these

suave, cool heroes that were fighting evil, and they had these

terrible, sinister villains that just looked like villains doing nefarious things to destroy the world.

And I loved that, but I was shocked the first time that I went to the spy museum.

I went to the spy museum as kind of a kid,

and I got to see all of these real-life spies, and they were infinitely less interesting, infinitely less extraordinary and nefarious and thrilling. was just normal everyday people they went to church

like everyone else they worked nine to fives like everyone else but secretly quietly they would do things

like take money from other governments and give them plans give them documents It didn't look like the wonderful display of a spy movie.

It was boring every day decisions to go against their country.

Why do I bring this up?

Because we've already seen one story of how outside of the church religious authorities

have tried to clamp down on the early church and acts but we're going to see today the first

internal threat and it doesn't look like a supervillain it doesn't look like someone with this big

diabolical plan it looks like everyday ordinary people who've given their hearts

over to selfishness that are playing with sin and threatening to destroy the community.

Before we get to that, let's close out chapter four because I think it sets the stage. As we look at this threat to the church, I want us to that. Let's close out chapter four because I think it sets the stage. As we look at this

threat to the church, I want us to learn to avoid the same mistake. But first we have to

understand where they're at. We're in an inflection point in the life of the church. I don't know

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