Review:
Repent: 4 Sins that Will Keep You From Christ
- Thinking too much of Yourself. (Acts 8:9-11)
- Thinking too much of Religion. (Acts 8:12-13)
- Thinking too much of Money. (Acts 8:14-19)
- Thinking only of Consequences. (Acts 8:20-25)
See Matt 5:3
See Rom 8:9 | Isa 55:1
Listen to I Love to Give!
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:04
Open your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts, in chapter 8.
00:05-00:07
We took a break last week.
00:09-00:12
We took a break last week from our series in Acts.
00:16-00:20
We're looking at how Jesus would have responded to the Orlando nightclub shooting.
00:21-00:22
We're going to be in Acts chapter 8.
00:22-00:40
We're going to be picking up in verse 9 and just to give you a little bit of a review, We met a young minister in the book of Acts named Stephen who was violently murdered by the religious council, by the Jewish council.
00:41-00:52
They murdered him because he pointed out their constant rebellion against the Lord and their constant rejection of the people that God sends to them.
00:54-00:58
And after the murder of Stephen, persecution broke out against the Christians in Jerusalem.
01:00-01:09
And because of the persecution, the Bible says that the believers scattered, and as they scattered, they were preaching the good news of Jesus Christ where they went.
01:09-01:15
And we saw how God used that persecution to spread His church.
01:17-01:28
One believer in particular was a man named Philip went to Samaria and preached Jesus to a receptive audience.
01:29-01:31
We get to verse 9.
01:32-01:35
The Bible here zeroes in on a man named Simon.
01:35-01:37
Now, this isn't Simon Peter.
01:37-01:40
This is a different Simon that we're going to be talking about today.
01:42-01:45
This Simon was a magician.
01:46-01:47
What does that mean?
01:49-01:53
Well, in this day, It would have meant a lot of things.
01:53-01:55
It would have meant occultic stuff.
01:55-01:57
It would have been sleight of hand.
01:57-01:59
It would have been demonic.
02:00-02:03
It would have been all of the above.
02:05-02:08
But I need to tell you this in a front end before we get to the text.
02:12-02:14
Simon wasn't truly saved.
02:17-02:20
Well, how do you know that Simon isn't saved in this passage?
02:20-02:23
We know this because the Holy Spirit tells us.
02:23-02:35
In verse 21, Peter says to Simon, "You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God." Peter, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he knows.
02:35-02:39
He says, "Your heart's not right before God." He's not saved.
02:40-02:47
And we're going to see a lot of clues in the text pointing to this truth that Simon isn't saved.
02:47-02:54
And the reason that I have to tell you this is because as we go through the text, he seems pretty legitimate at first.
02:55-03:03
He's like, "Yeah, this guy's getting it!" But we find out in the later verses that he never got it.
03:05-03:07
He's like a lot of church people.
03:09-03:16
Many people miss the power that we've been talking about - the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God's indwelling presence.
03:16-03:22
Many people miss the power because they didn't truly repent and come to Jesus Christ.
03:24-03:25
And these people become churchgoers.
03:26-03:27
They become church members.
03:27-03:29
They become pew sitters.
03:31-03:33
That's what I was for the first 20 years of my life.
03:33-03:41
I thought I was saved because I went to Sunday school, and then I went to church, and then sometimes I went to youth group.
03:42-03:45
I remember having this conversation with people as a teen.
03:45-03:46
They would ask me if I was saved.
03:47-03:48
Of course I'm saved.
03:48-03:50
I go to church every week.
03:52-03:54
I go to Sunday school every week.
03:55-04:00
And I was basing my salvation on association.
04:03-04:18
And if I can miss it, and this guy that we're looking at today, Simon, if he can miss it, especially him with who he knew and what he saw, you need to listen up because There might be some people here this morning that missed it.
04:20-04:22
You might be a member of the church.
04:22-04:26
You might be sitting in the church.
04:27-04:28
You're not truly saved.
04:33-04:36
Peter's message to Simon, he says your heart's not right.
04:36-04:36
You need to repent.
04:37-04:39
We talked about that last week.
04:40-04:44
Remember when Jesus was asked about the tragedy at the temple.
04:47-05:06
Jesus said, "Do you suppose those Galileans were worse sinners than anyone else in Jerusalem?" He says, "I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." So you see, the focal point of the message last week and the focal point of our passage again this week, it revolves around this word repentance.
05:09-05:11
It's all through the Old Testament.
05:11-05:12
every prophet in the Old Testament.
05:14-05:15
Preach, you need to repent.
05:16-05:18
John the Baptist shows up and he preaches repentance.
05:18-05:21
We saw last week Jesus preaching repentance.
05:21-05:22
We see in the epistles.
05:24-05:24
Repentance.
05:25-05:32
Even the book of Revelation as Jesus is addressing the churches, you see it over and over and over and over in Revelation 2 and 3.
05:33-05:34
Repent, repent, repent.
05:35-05:39
Why is it such a constant and consistent message in the Bible?
05:40-05:42
The truth is there is no salvation without repentance.
05:45-05:47
There's no salvation without repentance.
05:49-05:55
And I was thinking this week of how we can illustrate repentance.
05:56-05:57
What does repentance look like?
05:58-06:04
And Aaron reminded me of something from a few years ago, actually going back to 2010.
06:04-06:06
You remember the story broke?
06:06-06:14
This was one of, I know we've had a lot of big news stories since 2010, but this particular news story was one that probably hit me the hardest.
06:15-06:21
You remember when it came out that all of the stuff in Taco Bell's meat wasn't actually meat?
06:22-06:23
How many people remember that story?
06:26-06:33
Oh no, I just realized that I totally like ruined somebody's life today if you didn't know that.
06:34-06:45
But yeah, the story came out that all of the stuff in Taco Bell's meat isn't -- It's not all meat. Some of it is. What was the word they used? It was like silicone something.
06:46-06:59
They had this big long term, and I remember at the time they were like, "That's just a fancy way of saying sand." Okay, so the Taco Bell, it's got some meat and it's got sand. Now look, I'm, Michael's shrugging his shoulders.
06:59-07:02
He's like, "Hey, sand, it tastes good!" Right?
07:02-07:04
I like sand, you know, sandwich.
07:05-07:06
Who doesn't like that?
07:06-07:08
I see it.
07:09-07:10
[ Laughter ]
07:12-07:22
Well, this was such a heartbreaker for me because when I worked at Walmart, Taco Bell was right across the street from the store where I worked.
07:23-07:25
Every lunch break, it was just -- it was cheap.
07:25-07:29
You know, for three bucks, you could get a bunch of tacos and a Pepsi.
07:30-07:40
This was crushing to me to find out that the stuff inside that shell wasn't all meat.
07:43-07:50
And when I found out, that changed my mind and it changed my attitude towards Taco Bell and I stopped eating there.
07:52-07:58
I know you're going to find it hard to believe with this chiseled body that I have, but I used to eat at Taco Bell a lot.
07:59-08:00
You didn't have to laugh there.
08:02-08:04
Amen would have been appropriate, but you didn't need to laugh.
08:04-08:10
But I used to eat there a lot, and Aaron will tell you, it was one of my favorite places.
08:10-08:13
And then all of a sudden, I just -- how many times have we eaten at Taco Bell since we found out?
08:14-08:15
Like, not at all.
08:17-08:21
Because that totally changed the way that I thought about Taco Bell.
08:22-08:24
I'm not here to bash Taco Bell.
08:24-08:33
"Hey, if you and Muckle want to go get a sandy burrito after church, that's your business." I'm just making an illustration here.
08:36-08:38
But you see, this is what repentance is like.
08:39-08:45
My mind changed about the way I viewed Taco Bell, so my actions followed.
08:45-08:46
I stopped eating there.
08:47-08:50
And that's how it is with repentance from sin.
08:50-08:52
Repentance literally means you change your mind.
08:52-08:54
You start to think about your sin differently.
08:54-08:56
You think about God differently.
08:57-09:01
And when you do, your actions follow.
09:03-09:05
But it has to start with changing your mind.
09:05-09:08
And that's what we're going to be looking at through the text on your outline today.
09:12-09:12
Repent.
09:13-09:16
These are four sins that are going to keep you from Jesus Christ.
09:16-09:18
Four things that we see in the life of Simon.
09:18-09:21
Four things that will keep you from Jesus Christ.
09:22-09:24
Number one, jot this down, thinking too much of yourself.
09:25-09:27
Thinking too much of yourself.
09:27-09:29
Look at verse 9.
09:31-09:33
So we're with Philip in Samaria, right?
09:34-09:48
Verse 9 says, "But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.
09:51-10:08
They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called great." And they paid attention to him because for a long time, he had amazed them with his magic.
10:09-10:09
We'll stop there.
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Right off the bat, we see that And then He said that What we see in our text is Simon had a huge problem.
10:44-10:46
The problem is he thought he was great.
10:50-11:02
That's still a problem because when we talk about pride, this elevated view of yourself, pride is one of these socially acceptable sins.
11:05-11:10
Things like stealing and gossip and lying, those things aren't accepted.
11:10-11:13
Those things are sort of universally looked at as bad things.
11:13-11:16
The problem with pride is some people think pride is a virtue.
11:17-11:18
Thinking great about yourself.
11:19-11:21
That's a good thing, thinking that you're someone great.
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Pride is actually the root of every other sin.
11:30-11:39
In Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, Jesus was talking about what it looks like when somebody comes to faith.
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In the first step, Jesus said - you might know these as the Beatitudes - but the first thing - in the spiritual journey, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Jesus was teaching that spiritual life starts with being broken over your sin.
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That's where it has to start.
12:06-12:08
You have to be broken over your sin.
12:09-12:14
You have to get to that point where you realize I'm not someone great.
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I'm a sinner.
12:19-12:19
And I need saved.
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That's where the spiritual journey starts.
12:24-12:27
But listen, I want you to understand, we talk about pride, we talk about humility.
12:27-12:33
Some people think, "Well, you know, I don't have that problem, Pastor Jeff, is I don't think I'm great.
12:34-12:36
On the other hand, I think I'm a loser.
12:36-12:38
I think I'm terrible.
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I'm a horrible person.
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Nobody loves me.
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That's actually a form of pride, because you're still putting way too much emphasis on yourself.
12:48-12:50
You're still thinking too much about yourself.
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It's false humility.
12:53-12:58
When the emphasis, when the focus is all on me, me, me, it's pride.
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Humility is not thinking less of yourself.
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Humility is thinking of yourself less.
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You see, this was Simon's problem right off the bat.
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If you think you're a great person and you don't need salvation, you're not going to accept God's gift in Jesus Christ.
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It's a tragic thing when you see it actually played out in front of you.
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I had a lady ask me if I would visit her grandma who was in the hospital.
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Grandma was like late 90s and she said, look, the doctor says she doesn't have much time left.
13:39-13:41
And she doesn't know the Lord, can you go talk to her?
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So I went to the hospital and I sat down and I wanted to share the gospel with this lady.
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And I said, you know, the Bible says that we're all, you know, born with a sin nature.
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We're born alienated and enemies from God.
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And she interrupted me.
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She goes, I'm not.
13:58-14:07
I'm like, "You're not?" She goes, "I'm not a sinner." I said, "You're not a sinner." She goes, "I know. I'm not a sinner." I went through the Ten Commandments with her.
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I'm like, "Has God always been first in your life, all the time, every time, in everything?" She's like, "Yeah." I'm even getting to some of the ones that I'm like, I've had similar conversations.
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You get to some of the commandments, you know you've got people.
14:23-14:58
Like, you know the Fifth Commandment, "Honor your father and mother." Have you always honored your parents. He's like yeah yeah I've always honored my parents. Then I'm like okay this is the trump card right the ninth commandment do not bear false witness do not lie I'm like you like I got her then I got her now I'm like if you always told the truth you've never told a lie. I've never lied. I walked out of the hospital that day I'm thinking okay there have been two perfect people in the world apparently, Jesus Christ, and by her own admission, this woman.
14:58-15:04
But it was so hard, she couldn't get to that place where she's like, you know what, I've realized I've done some wrong things in my life.
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She was convinced she's a great person and doesn't need a Savior.
15:16-15:16
That's a problem.
15:18-15:52
You know, it would be like if you were like if you were eating a sandwich, and the sandwich had some of the Taco Bell sand in it, and also it had garlic and onion and curry, and you get done eating the sandwich, and you just have the nastiest breath in existence. And it's true, your breath is horrible, and you need a mint, and the world knows it, and your family knows it, and your dog knows it, And everybody knows you have this horrible breath.
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But it's not going to matter until you know.
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And even then, it doesn't matter unless you do something about it.
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You see, if you finally get to that place in your life, you're like, "My breath is pretty bad." You just walk around like, "By the way, my breath is horrible.
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Don't stand too close." You didn't really fix the problem.
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You know what it is with the sin nature.
16:20-16:23
You can get to that place in your life where you're like, you know what, Pastor Jeff, you're right.
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I am a sinner.
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I have messed up.
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You can't stop there.
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You can't stop there.
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You need to take that next step and say, ok, I'm a sinner, I can't do anything about it, but God has done something about it on my behalf.
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You don't need to receive His provision in Jesus Christ.
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You see, that's the picture of repentance.
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You need to know that you need it and you need to do something about it.
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You're pretty impressed with yourself and you need to repent.
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That was Simon's problem, first of all.
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Let's go on in the text.
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Number two, these are four sins that keep you from Christ.
17:12-17:13
Thinking too much of yourself.
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thinking too much of religion.
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Look at v. 12.
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It says, "But when they believed..." These are the people in Samaria.
17:25-17:39
"But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women." We're just going to pause here.
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I want you to note the content of Philip's sermon here.
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didn't roll into Samaria and give felt-needs sermons.
17:47-18:00
He didn't show up and say, "Hey, what's a sermon that would really tickle these people's ears?" It says the content of a sermon is two things.
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Number one, he says the kingdom.
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The kingdom.
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What's the kingdom of God?
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The kingdom of God, that comes up over and over and over and over in the Bible.
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It refers to God's rule on the earth.
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God rules on the earth through people.
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And in the Old Testament, we have the patriarchs and the kings during Israel's time and such.
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But you see, in our day, God's rule on the earth through people is through the power of His Holy Spirit who indwells people.
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That's the kind of message that Philip would have been giving here.
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It also says that he was preaching what?
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The name of Jesus Christ.
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No ambiguity here.
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Look at verse 13.
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It says, "Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip.
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And seeing the signs and great miracles performed, He was amazed.
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So Simon here sees all these people coming to Philip, responding to the message to the point that Simon himself gets baptized.
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He wasn't saved, but he got baptized.
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It wasn't done as a result of faith.
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I think he was just caught up with the crowds.
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I think he was impressed with Philip.
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He wasn't accompanied with faith.
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He wasn't transformed.
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Your Bible says that Simon believed.
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Simon was baptized.
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Simon continued with Philip.
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If we just stop right here, we would be like, this guy's a Christian.
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I mean, he's showing all the signs.
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What about Simon doesn't look like a Christian?
19:55-20:01
We'll see here in a second that he thought he was a Christian simply by works or association.
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Meaning this, being in church doesn't make you a Christian any more than being in a garage makes you an automobile.
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Being in a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than being in a bakery makes you a donut.
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Being in a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than attending an MMA match makes you a fighter.
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That's the danger of religion.
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Religion is Satan's favorite word.
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Because if you can trust in your works, if you can trust in the things that you do to bring about your salvation, to appease God, if you can trust in your works, then you don't need to trust in Jesus.
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And ultimately, trusting your religion is just trusting yourself anyways, and we're back to the pride issue.
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And it can happen here at church.
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People being baptized and attending church and going to small group and involved with the children's ministry or the worship team.
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These are all great things and these are all great things that you should be involved in.
21:17-21:24
But if you're evaluating the genuineness of your faith because you're keeping a checklist, then you need to repent.
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Philip at this point really thought that he had something going.
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God's not impressed by your religion.
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God's after the relationship.
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The four sins that will keep you from Christ - first, thinking too much of yourself; Secondly, thinking too much of religion.
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Thirdly, thinking too much of money.
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Thinking too much of money.
21:52-21:53
Look at verse 14.
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It says, "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
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He had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
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We've got to stop here because maybe you're like me when you first read this passage.
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You're like, what in the world is going on here?
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If these people received the Word of God and wanted to truly believe, why didn't the Holy Spirit fall on them?
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Understand that this passage is descriptive, prescriptive.
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Romans 8 and 9 says that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.
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The truth is when anyone receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God's Holy Spirit comes and indwells you.
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You're like, great, that's what I thought.
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So what's going on in this passage?
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Understand that this was a transitional time in history.
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And this was huge.
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is you have the Jews in Jerusalem who have received Christ and received the Holy Spirit, but now you have some Samaritans who the Jews completely hated.
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They're wanting to come and receive Jesus Christ.
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And you can see the potential for - I'll tell you what, you can have your brand of Christianity, and we'll have our brand of Christianity.
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And we never have to interact.
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We're not going to the church picnic together.
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I'll do your thing, I'll do my thing.
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You see, you have a unity issue here and you have an authority issue here.
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And the purpose of sending the apostles from Jerusalem was to unify the Christians in Jerusalem and the Christians in Samaria.
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One church, one spirit, same team.
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Look at verse 18.
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This is where Simon is starting to show his true colors.
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Verse 18 says, "Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, 'Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.'" What's going on here?
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Well, it was very common in Simon's day for magicians like this to buy and sell secrets from each other.
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Does anybody here know a magic trick?
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Anyone?
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I'm not going to make you do it now.
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I just was curious.
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I know one magic trick.
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I can do one.
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I'm not going to do it today.
24:55-24:57
But I can do the whole make the card appear out of midair.
24:58-24:59
You know that trick?
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You don't know that?
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I'll have to show you sometime.
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But anyways, I know one magic trick, and if you're interested in learning how to do it, if you give me $25, I'll show you how to do it.
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See, that's the kind of thing that happened in Simon's day.
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They would buy and sell.
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Hey, I like that trick.
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I'll tell you what, if I give you some money, can I use that in my act?
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And that's what these magicians would do.
25:22-25:31
So the apostles come down, and they pray on these New Samaritan Christians, and they receive the Holy Spirit, and Simon's like, "That's what I'm talking about!
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I want to know how that trick is done.
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And he pulls out his wallet.
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He's like, hey, I want to buy that trick from you.
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I've been watching Philip.
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I've seen some big things happening.
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And now Peter and John come down.
25:48-25:50
And I've got to know this trick.
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I want to do the lay hands on someone and they receive the Holy Spirit trick.
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I want that to be part of my act.
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There's a problem, obviously, for Simon.
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And that is just simply this - nothing of God is for sale.
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Nothing of God can be earned, can be bartered for, reimbursed.
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Isaiah 55:1 "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat.
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Come, buy wine and milk without money at a low price.
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Wait a minute, God's saying come and buy it?
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He's saying yeah, you who don't have money, come and buy it.
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He's saying it's free!
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Everything that the Lord wants to do in your life, it's free.
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You can't pay for it or earn it.
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At this point, Simon reveals that he completely doesn't get it.
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That he wasn't interested in eternal life.
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He's interesting in adding this trick to his acts.
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TV preachers today portray the Gospel as some monetary transaction to buy the blessing.
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See, we can look at this account with Simon and be like, man, glad people don't do that today.
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Just watch some of these TV preachers.
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Send your money, and God will send the blessing.
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"Send me money and God will send you a blessing." And we're just like Simon now.
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I really need a blessing from God, so if I send him a check, he said - and those people just prey on innocent but immature people.
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I saw the one guy, he was making the appeal, "Send your $1,000." If you send $1,000, that $1,000 is a seed.
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And you send me that $1,000 seed, God's going to have this bountiful harvest in your life.
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And he says, "Let me tell you how this works." I can't remember what kind of car it was.
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It was some new BMW was out.
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A man came to me and he said, "Hey, I want to give you a car.
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Let me give you a car." And he said, "I have cars." "Do you have this new BMW model that was just out?" He goes, "No, I don't have that one." And the guy says, "You tell me what color "and I'll get it for you." And this TV preacher says, "So I told him I want a black one "with a black interior." He said, "That thing was in my driveway the next morning." They looked at the camera and he said, "And that's what God wants to do in your life.
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"You want these kind of blessings to happen in your life, "it's easy, plant that seed.
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"You send me $1,000 and plant that seed and God's going to be blessing you.
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I wanted to jump through the TV and tighten that guy's tie.
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Really tight.
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Because he's praying on innocent, immature people.
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It's just like Simon.
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Spend some money, get the blessing.
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Does God bless sincere, generous, joyful giving? Absolutely.
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We did a whole sermon series on that called "I Love to Give." Church, I have to tell you, if that's your motive - I'll give to God so that He gives me something amazing - then your motives are selfish and you need to repent.
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If that's your motive, you need to repent.
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You're making too much of money.
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Lastly, thinking only of consequences.
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Thinking only of consequences - Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money." Now your English translation sort of softens this passage a little bit, because in the original Greek it reads more like Peter said to him, "You know what?
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To hell with you and your money." That was the tone that Peter was giving.
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He says in verse 21, "You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.
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Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your hearts may be forgiven you.
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For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.
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Peter's like, "You're still in sin, man.
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You don't get it.
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Your heart's not right.
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You're still in sin.
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And you need to repent." Verse 24, "And Simon answered, 'Pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.' And when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
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Luke just kind of leaves you hanging with Simon there, doesn't he?
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It's like Peter's like, "Man, you need to repent!" And he's like, "Man, would you pray for me?" Luke's like, "Okay, next, what happened to this guy?" Well, here's the last sin that will keep you from Christ from our passage - Thinking only of consequences.
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Peter says to Simon, "You need to repent and you need to pray." But you notice Simon's response, he says, "Pray for me." Can you see that those are two different things?
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He was like, "You need to repent.
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Would you pray for me?" And I imagine Peter's thinking, "Yeah, I'll pray for you. I'm going to pray that you repent.
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That's what I'm going to pray for you." When I was in Thailand, our missionary Barnabas, actually he's going to be coming to the States.
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He's scheduled to be coming this October.
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We're going to have him here at church to speak, and I'm so excited about that.
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He was telling me this story that one of the people, he's got churches all over the mountain jungles in northern Thailand, One of his ministers got involved in sin.
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This flagrant.
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One of those "no questions about it, is this sinful, we better do a little Bible study on this." Like no question about it, he was caught in sin.
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So Barnabas goes to the guy and he says, "You shouldn't have this relationship.
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You need to repent and you need to break it off." And the man said to him, "I hear what you're saying.
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I'm going to pray about that." He says, "There is nothing to pray about here." He says, "You pray when you're sick, or you're hurting, or you have some spiritual struggle." He says, "When you're in sin, it's not 'I should pray about it.' When you're in sin, you repent." It sounds like he went to the Peter School of Preaching.
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Same kind of thing.
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Because you see, Simon the magician here He was not worried about his heart.
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Apparently he was only worried about consequences.
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You see this in prison ministry all the time.
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It's come to church in prison because you're experiencing remorse over the consequences, but you're not sorry that you sinned.
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You're not sorry that you offended God.
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You're not sorry that you hurt other people.
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You're only sorry that you got caught paying the price for it.
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So avoiding bad consequences, sure, that can be a motivator, but it can't be the motivator.
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In other words, if all that you're focused on are temporal consequences, then you missed the whole point of the gospel.
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And it still happens in churches.
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Some people go to church because my wife is threatening me.
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She says if I don't get religion, she's going to leave me.
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That's why some people go to church.
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They're not seeking the Lord, they're just trying to keep their marriage intact.
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Some people go to church because they really want a raise at work.
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If I go to church and God sees me trying to be a good boy, For some people, it's they find out they're sick.
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And, you know, I've lived my life apart from God.
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Maybe I should get serious about God.
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Maybe He'll take this cancer or this disease from me.
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Listen, all of these things can be ways that God is drawing you to Himself.
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The point is, are you being drawn to God?
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Or are you being drawn to, I just want to avoid bad consequences?
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There's a huge difference there.
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And you'll know when the circumstances change, if you're still seeking the Lord, if you're still walking with the Lord, or if circumstances change, and you just go back to your godless way of living.
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Huge danger like Simon, thinking only of consequences.
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So why repent?
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Because God passionately wants you to come to salvation in Christ.
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God passionately wants to transform you.
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God wants to change you.
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But you aren't going to truly come to Christ if you're thinking wrongly about yourself, if you're thinking wrongly about religion, if you're thinking wrongly about money, and if you're thinking wrongly about consequences.
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As far as we come forward, we're going to close our time together today by receiving the Lord's Supper.
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And I'm going to ask as the elements are passed out that you would hold on to them But you see, this is something we do on a regular basis.
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One because Jesus told us to, but also this brings us back to the very heart of the Gospel.
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This is our reminder of the truth of all of these points that we talked about today, that we see in this text.
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All of these areas in which we need to repent.
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Because receiving the Lord's Supper The Lord's Supper reminds us that by nature, by nature I am a sinner and I can't save myself.
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The Lord's Supper reminds us I can't earn my way.
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I can't do enough to make God happy or to erase all of the bad things I've done.
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Coming to the Lord's table reminds us I can't buy my way.
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as a reminder that God saved me so that I may know Him.
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So that I may come into a relationship with Him.
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I'm going to pray.
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Our ushers are going to pass out.
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Like I said, I'm going to ask that you hold on to the elements and we'll receive the Lord's Supper together.
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Father in Heaven, as we gather around Your table, we're reminded of the price of our salvation.
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So often we try to take some of that on ourselves.
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When the truth is Christ and Christ alone, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, our Mediator, our High Priest, Jesus Christ Himself is the only one who can give us eternal life.
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Father, as a church, as we gather around your table, I pray that we would take a sobering look at Christ that was paid, at the work that is accomplished, that we may come into that relationship with Him.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 8:9-25
Do you think Simon was saved in this passage? Why or why not? Do you think HE thought he was? Why or why not?
How did Peter know Simon’s heart wasn’t right (Acts 8:21-22)?
Is "fear of consequences" a right motivation to get saved? Why or why not?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.