I go, pointing swords through calvary to the crimson flow. Many arrows pierce my soul from without within, but my Lord Oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face. There to sing forever, I'm to say be brave. On the streets of glory, let me lift my voice. Cares I'll pass, hope at last, ever to rejoice. Let's get around and check each one's hand. Okay, and I'm going to try to remember. I know. I know. I know. I know that's wonderful. I know that's wonderful. And as we make our way back, we'll start that second. When in service for my Lord, dark may be the night, But I'll cling more close to Him, He will give me light. Safety stairs may fix my soul, turn my thoughts aside, Oh, I want to see Him look upon His face. There to see forever of His saving grace. On the streets of glory, let me lift my voice. Cares all pass, hope at last. Ever to rejoice, when in the least known I look inward mountain high, And behold my Savior there leading in the fight, With a tender hand I stretch through the valley low. Guiding me, I can see as I onward go Oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face Then to sing forever of His saving grace Though the streets have called me, let me lift my voice Cause I'll pass home at last, ever to rejoice When before the billows rise from the mighty deep When my Lord directs my boat, He does safely keep And He leads me gently on through this world below He's a real friend to me, oh, I love him so Oh, I want to see him, look upon his face There to sing forever of his saving grace On the streets of glory, let me lift my voice Chairs I'll pass, home at last, never to return Brother Robinson, would you ask to bless the altar of the offering? May it be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reading is Acts chapter 8 verses 1-8, Acts 8, 1-8. Stand when you find it for the reading of God's word. And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every home and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city. Thank you, and you may be seated, Pastor. Here before the service, we just take a moment to pray. Everybody individually, right where you are, we'll just take a little bit of time here to ask the Lord to remove any distractions and kind of get our mind and heart in gear. And everybody, everything kind of ready for the message here in just a moment. So let's go ahead and pray, and then I'll close this up here in just a moment. I'm sorry. Father, we just thank you for the time that we can assemble here, Lord, and sing your praises. Now, Lord, just be with our pastor. Just give him the word to speak. And Lord, just bind Satan and his demons and remove distractions so we can concentrate on the word that's going to come forth here today. Lord just be at each and every one just keep your hand upon us Lord and just be with us As we go on through these services and just keep us all in your care and for Christ's name we pray Amen Just saying one more time for the pastor comes and turn to page 185 page 185 Let's do all verses When a life's work is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side. His smile will be warm and welcome me. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, and redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him, I shall know Him by the print of the nails in His hand. Oh, the soul-thrilling laughter when I view His blessed face, and the luster of His kindly beaming eyes. Now my full heart will praise Him for the mercy, love, and grace that prepare for me a mansion in the sky. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, and redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know him by the print of the nails in his head. O that dear woods of glory, how they beckon me to come, and are burning at the river I recall. To the sweet bells of Eden they will sing me welcome home But I'll long to meet my Saviour first of all I shall know Him, I shall know Him And redeemed by His side I shall stand I shall know Him, I shall know Him by the print of the nails in His hand. Through the gates, through the city, in the robe of Father's heart, He will lead me where no tears will ever fall. In the glad and invaded, I shall be go with delight, But I long to be my Savior first of all. I shall know Him, I shall know Him, Then redeemed by His side I shall stand. I shall know Him, Thank you. You may be seated, Pastor. Somebody has once said the only man-made thing left in heaven will be the scars on the hands of the Lord Jesus. Quite a thought, really. I don't know. I keep looking forward more and more as life goes on to seeing Him. Just to see Him. I don't know if you go through your mind maybe what that might be like. I don't know at all what it might be like. But I know my thoughts of it are all good. And I know whatever thought I come up with about what that will be like one day, it will be better than whatever I can come up with in my own mind. And I'm looking forward to that. Acts chapter number 8. Brother Jim read our text for us this morning. We live in a day of selfie sticks and YouTube and this goal of many people in their life to become, get the most likes or the most shares or something that is most posted and it's a thing they call going viral, is that it? You go viral and that's what people hope to do, isn't that funny? And we used to draw attention to ourselves by putting bumper stickers on our car and getting the attention of say 100 people, maybe if you're lucky, If you live where the Cunninghams do, you'll get the attention of four people. And okay, where we live too, we're not that good either. But now you can get online and you can get yourself your phone and you get a stick on it. And like Brother Martin does when he walks around his house like this, filming himself all the time. And you can, if per chance one of these days you say something really profound or really stupid, it can just go through the entire world And before you know it, you're going, click and subscribe, click and subscribe, click and subscribe. Why? So you can make money. I mean, that's just the way we're, I mean, people are just longing, longing to be noticed and to be elevated and to be praised and to be worshiped. I mean, goodnight, we have shows today that are called American Idol. Isn't that amazing? And it's what we want to do. And people, people are just clamoring, clamoring to get noticed, get noticed. Unfortunately, it affects believers in churches as well though. It really does. And in our text this morning, I think one of the things that we're going to see of multiple things that we could apply here. One of the things I would like to hone in on this morning is to see God's desire for His children. And the question I guess for us really would be, Should God's children really be seeking to go viral? Should that really be the focus of our heart and the focus of our life, to be noticed and to be seen by everyone across the world? They have the accolades of the world, the desire of the world, as we are really somebody or something. If you'll notice here in our text, in Acts 8, Samaria has received the gospel. In v. 4-8, Brother Jim has read this for us. And the Bible says, Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. And now you know that in Jerusalem, persecution came in Jerusalem on the church there. And because of that persecution, they began to scatter out and get away from there. and as the people of the Church of Jerusalem began to scatter, you know what they did as they scattered? Well, they brought the gospel with them. And they began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ wherever they would. Isn't that funny because it kind of sounds like how it ought to go anyway, amen? As you leave these doors every Sunday and every Wednesday, we ought to be leaving this place equipped, whether it's in the workplace or whether it's in the store or whether it's on an airplane or wherever it might be that we are equipped every day with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's just what we're supposed to be about. Amen? I don't think that's... Are we good? Are we good with this? I'm losing... I know it's cold out and all that but I mean this is easy stuff. Wait till I get to the hard stuff. You won't want to say Amen. You don't know. You'll be like, I don't know about that. That's weird. Right? The people are getting saved. Because watch, just people in the church are going out and they're going to these different places and they're preaching the gospel. Here we're going to come into contact with Philip who's going to go out and he's going to preach the gospel. And notice what it says, then Philip in verse 5 went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. for unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and many that were lame were healed." And look at this, "...and there was great joy in the city." And we know this, I hope you know this in your life, you at least remember it the day you got saved, and I really hope you've found it every day since. But when Jesus shows up, you know what comes along with Him? Joy. Joy unspeakable and full of glory, something inside. When you hear the name of Jesus and the preaching of Jesus and the songs that we sing, there is something inside that just wells up of joy that the world does not understand and your family sometimes doesn't understand. I'm just telling you, it's just the joy of Jesus. It absolutely is. Listen, we are living in a generation of more stuff than any generation before us has ever had, and we are the most joyless generation, I think, that has ever existed on the planet. Yeah. You can go through the early church. You talk about persecution? We have never known the persecution of the early churches, yet they had joy. They had great joy. You know what the only thing that can steal your joy, if you've lost joy today? You know where you can find it? You'll find it when you get rid of the sin. That's what steals your joy, sin. You say, well, you don't understand the trial I've gone through. I'm not talking about sorrows and heartache and all of those things. You should and can still have joy in the midst of sorrows and heartache and pain. And it says here, they had great joy. They had great joy. But among those that had gotten saved, there's this guy by the name of Simon. And when I think about, I do this often, you've heard me say this often, when I think about all of the things that God could have written in His Word, that He could have recorded, that the Holy Spirit could have said, I want this in here, of all of the things that He could have written, this is all that He gave us. I mean, this is a skinny Bible, right? You might have a thicker Bible. Even if you have one of the old ones that's that thick, compared to the knowledge of an eternal God, it's not much. It's not a lot. What does it tell you? Well, whatever is in here is awful important, friend. And even, listen, this man Simon is a pretty important thing that's going on here that Jesus has recorded for us, and there's something definitely, I believe, that is here for us to learn in the life and through the life and the events here of this guy named Simon. Simon, in verse 9, we see, used to really be a somebody in the world. Look at verse 9, Acts chapter 8 and verse 9. And it says, But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one. He was a real somebody. Why? He had powers. He had these abilities. He had these abilities within sorceries and things like that, that people knew about him. I don't want to spend a lot of time in here but you can go back historically and see the place that these people had in that culture and they had charms and all of these things and they could sell them and they could make money off of them and they could get a great name off of them if they could do great wonderful miracles and things like that and people really thought they were somebody but it seems like in our text that Simon thought he was more of a somebody than maybe other people thought he was a somebody But he was convinced he was really somebody. But in verse 10 it says here that they gave heed to him. Look at this. Who they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. Wow. This was their representation, this was their manifestation in front of them in human form in their mind as the power of God. They all gave heed to Him. They all took regard to Him. They held Him in respect. They held Him in affection. He was somebody in the town. Everybody, listen, every town you live in, there's always that one person that everybody esteems, right? It might be the Cartwrights coming into Virginia City, right? I mean, everybody loved, okay, Bonanza, sorry to get so carnal. But I mean, everybody thought, I mean, they were just the most wonderful thing on the top side of the planet, right? They were just well esteemed and all of these things. But then watch this guy, Simon. This is where he made his money. This is where he got his attention. This is where he got his ego stroked. This is where he was puffed up and really put up on a pedestal. And listen, if Simon was living in this day and had all the ability that he had back then, man, this dude would have a Facebook page. He would have Telegram. I don't know what it is. He would have Instagram. I know the girls go there. He would have Okay, maybe God's the answer. I don't know. He would have X. Of course, if you're anybody or somebody, you've got to have X, formerly known as Twitter. He would have had, no doubt, his own YouTube channel. He would have been saying after every great thing he did, he'd have been going, all right, click and subscribe. Click and subscribe. Click and subscribe. Right here. Yeah. And you'd watch his followers rack up. He'd be making bank. You know, there's a, no never mind. You can get online and you can find out what they all make on those things. It's really cool. But listen, the life of Simon, I don't think this is too hard to grasp this. The life of Simon was about self. We're not getting too far off from where Sunday school was this morning. You're going to have to make a choice one of these days in your life whether you're going to live for self or you're going to live for God. You're just going to have to decide what you're going to do. Is it going to be your way or His way? I know exactly what you're saying. You can find a lot of good things to do, but when it all comes down to it, I'm not going to explain it any more better than Brother Crotts did, but I know exactly what you're saying. You can do some great things for God, but when is it going to come to the place in your life when you're going to say, no matter what I decide, I just want what you want for me? You know what? So much of great things are challenged by good things, are taken down and taken away by good things. So many times we can focus on good things, fine things, biblical things, yet still miss what God wants for you. Simon was about self. But this is a lot of controversy right here. But verse 13, Simon believed the gospel. Now some have said that he didn't really believe, he didn't believe until later, until Peter came. I'm not even going to deal with that this morning. But it says here in our text, verse 13, pretty simple, Then Simon himself believed also, and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and the signs which he had done. So we see here, he believed the gospel, He was baptized, watch, and he continued with Philip. He sat under the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. Some people say he was not saved right here, but later. I'm not going to get it. I don't know. I may be wrong. I may be wrong. Okay, I'm good with that. But it says he believed the gospel, he was baptized, and he stayed with Philip. But you know what happened with what I think is going on here with Simon, really, is here's what's the problem. He got saved, he got baptized, he's following Philip, but you know what came with him with all of this? A lot of baggage. Can I ask you this morning, can anybody raise their hand? Did anybody not bring baggage into their life with Christ with them? Anybody? Oh wait, let me put my hand down. Did anybody not bring baggage? We all do, don't we? I'm sure there's sometimes in our life, somebody might have looked at our life in Christ and said, oh no, he might have believed and was baptized, but I don't know if they're saved or not. Sometimes, listen, sometimes some baggage is pretty rough, friend. Sometimes some of the baggage we have is pretty powerful and pretty strong. Sometimes it doesn't get out. We looked at those, the inhabitants of the land when Israel came in, and some, listen, some they were able to drive out and some they weren't able to drive out, and some they didn't want to drive out, and sometimes we come to the realization in our life, even as a child of God, there are inhabitants in our own life, there are some things that we can't drive out, and sometimes, we've got to be honest, there are times when there's some things we just don't want to drive out. I had a cousin ask me just the other day about those things that linger in our life as a Christian. I said, well, sometimes some things don't come out until you finally hate them. But the problem is you're still in love with whatever you do. Listen, sometimes we are in Christ Jesus, but we're still in love with some of the baggage that we brought into our life. And we have to come to the place and God changes us to hate those things as he hates them. But what am I saying? Simon brought baggage into his Christian life. Do I think he got saved? Okay, I think he got saved. I think he did. But here we see the apostles when they come to Samaria. This is one of the first instances of where a non-Jewish nation received the gospel. There are Greeks living in Jerusalem. They've gotten saved, no doubt. But the Jerusalem church is primarily a Jewish church, right? All the apostles were Jews. The first 120 in the upper room, well, they were Jews. Jesus, whether you believe it or not, He was a Jew. And in their first responsibility, was to reach Israel, right, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And so here we have Philip, he is a deacon of the church, Acts chapter 6, you can see that, and he's there at the church at Jerusalem, he is sent out to preach the gospel, and he begins, we find him here in Samaria, preaching the gospel. And so what is happening? Well, when you preach the gospel, people get saved. I just told somebody the other day that the opportunity I've had to travel out of the country just a few times and to see different churches and different works and things like that, I come to the conclusion every time that the gospel works everywhere it's tried. You know, I mean, those are some good odds, right? They really are. I like that. And so, here it is, the gospel's been preached, people are getting saved, and eventually the church at Jerusalem hears about this. And so they have sent down now, Peter and John, down to Samaria to validate this new work. Now a lot could be said here about Peter and John coming to Samaria, but I just want to touch on a few points and then move along here real quickly. We know Philip was a deacon at the church at Jerusalem. He is mentioned in, I said, Acts chapter 6. There's no other mention of another Philip before we get to Acts chapter 8. So I think it's pretty conclusive this was the same Philip. His authority would have been from the church of Jerusalem. That was the church he was baptized into and a member of, of that body there. He's an appendage of that body. That's where his authority came from. And so watch, by Peter and John coming to Samaria, these two apostles coming to Samaria, they were saying that this Samaritan group is authentically connected to the church of Jerusalem. What did he do? He established a church. There's a church established there in Samaria. You know what would happen after Samaria? Well, you're gonna get Damascus, and you're gonna get Antioch, and from Antioch, they were gonna send out Barnabas and Paul, and from Barnabas and Paul, you're gonna get all the way over through Asia Minor and through parts of Greece and... all the way up into Rome. When Paul gets to Rome, there's already a church at Rome. Isn't that amazing? Right? The gospel has gotten out, right? And here's what we have here is the preaching of the gospel, people getting saved, two apostles coming down from Jerusalem, validating this work down here, and Peter and John put their hands upon these people. This is a transitional period in Acts, so don't get all concerned about this, but they laid their hands on them, they received the Holy Ghost, And here you have a group in a church here that is going on. But remember I told you about Simon's past? Look at verse 18. Verse 18. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, He offered them money, saying, Give Me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. Oops. What's going on here? Well, baggage. His old life is showing up. This is all He knows. This is all he knows. Do you know some people get saved and they come out from a assorted type of a lifestyle and it's just second nature for them to respond to things, to the things of God that most of us would go, oh, that's kind of weird, right? The church needs to raise money for something and the guy that was a gambler who owned a casino has all these great ideas that we go, no, let's not do that. That's okay. And he's like, what? I mean, we can raise a lot of money. We'll have casino night. No, we're not going to have casino night. No, listen, it happens. It happens. Simon says, wow, this guy made his money off doing miracles and all these great wonders that he got all of his accolades from. Here he is saved, he's been baptized, he's sitting under the teaching of Philip and these two apostles come down and the miracles and the laying on of hands and the receiving of the Holy Ghost and Simon goes, hey, I want to do that. Now, I don't want to delve into his heart here too much, right? But I do know this, Peter rebuked him pretty harshly. What was the old man, what was the old nature coming back in in Simon's life? Well, self. Pride. Recognition. Need to be seen. And here he is. He was good. Simon was notable in his community, but Simon recognized, I'm not as good as Peter. This guy's really got something, right? Look at verse 14. Is that what I say? Chapter 8, verse 14? That's where I'm at, I think. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, and who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, that they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, He may receive the Holy Ghost, but Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. What a rebuke. It was a necessary rebuke and it was necessary discipline going on here. He says, listen, God can't be purchased, Simon. The power of God and the work of God can't be purchased. Listen, you can't purchase the power of God with a degree. You can't purchase the power of God with education, though none of those are wrong in and of themselves. And most definitely all of it is necessary to be educated in the things of God. But listen, that's not where the power comes from. The power comes from a walk with God. He says it can't be purchased. He says you have no authority in this matter. Look at verse 21. Verse 21, that thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right with God. Verse 22, repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps thy thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. Notice what he says here in verse 23. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. That word gall is a sedative. It was an anesthesia. He said you're in the gall of bitterness. Look at this. In the bond of iniquity. That word bond meaning that which binds together. The ligaments of the body that tie together the entire human body. over in Proverbs 5.22, His own iniquity shall take hold of the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. Sin binds you up, doesn't it? Sin is like the ligaments of the body that tie up the entire body. And what Peter was saying here, he said, Simon, your heart is so numb and the wickedness of your heart has tied yourself up so much that you're not even thinking right. That's what sin does, right? It numbs us. It numbs us. What did the prodigal finally do? Well, he came to himself. Why? He was numbed. the maniac of Gadara when the demons were cast out of him. What does the Bible say? He was seated and clothed and what? In his right mind. His right mind. This is what sin does. You know what's interesting? I like this here in verse 24. Simon doesn't want this now. The thing that he wanted. Hey, I want this. I want to buy this. And I want to have the power. I want to do what Peter does. And after Peter gets done with him, he says in verse 24, then answered Simon and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. Boy, that's weird. Now he doesn't want it. Amen. Pretty fun times in Samaria, huh? The gospel is being preached. People are getting saved. The Second Baptist Church of America, or the world, has been established in Samaria. And I know that makes people mad when I say that. An ex-sorcerer wants the power of God? Pretty exciting. So what is something God may be trying to tell us here? Well, one thing I'd like to focus on anyway is number one is when we're saved, when we get saved, all of our past is gone. Aren't you glad for that? Well, that's an easy place to say amen. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Behold, all things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. That's a wonderful thing. Your sin is gone, gone, gone, gone. Right? Yes, my sin is gone. Buried in the depths of the sea. As far as the east is to the west. Right? Your sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more. It boggles my mind when I think of that. Because I don't believe, I don't believe the psalmist would have understood that when you go north to south, you eventually keep going back. It goes north, south, north, south. But east-west you keep going eternally. Right? He said east and west. Aren't you glad He didn't say as far as the north is from the south? Boy, I'd be meeting my sin again. I'm glad He didn't say that. I'm glad He had the revelation of God to know that east doesn't end and west doesn't end. And as far as those sins are cast, we will never, ever, ever meet them again. I like that. But just because our past is gone, just because our sins are gone, and our legal standing before heaven is right before God, listen, it doesn't mean that our past doesn't want to continue to control our life. Come on, I know you all have been saved long enough to know this. Our sins are gone. We're saved. We're born again. We're a child of God. We've been adopted. We've been brought into the family by Jesus. He took us by the hand and brought us to the Father, and He said, I brought this one in. He's trusted me. And the Father says, well, you're mine. You're mine. What a beautiful thought. But I think the biggest point in this today is that Simon was a somebody before he got saved and wanted to be a somebody after he got saved. He was famous before and he wanted to be famous after. He had power before and he wanted that power after he got saved. He had respect before he got saved and he wanted respect after he got saved. Listen, but our life in Christ isn't about us. Our life in Christ is about Jesus Christ. Amen? Listen, you can want right things for the wrong reason. Amen? You can want to do right things for the wrong reason. You can go from using the business world to get people to notice you, to using God and the things of God to get people to notice you. I see it all the time. Listen, there are those that had their circle, and I'm going to meddle now, but there are those that had their circle among, let's just say, fundamental independent Baptist churches, and as their popularity began to wane, and they didn't get as many meetings as they used to, and they began to go some other places, and they didn't get as many calls as they used to, you know what you find out? They're in another group now. and they've like denied everything that they've ever learned or said they believed or stood upon as truth, and they're over here, and they're with a charismatic crowd, and they're preaching heresy, and what happened? Well, I think they just found a new crowd. Because, listen, what they wanted before is what they still wanted after, and it becomes manifest eventually. Sadly, maybe this has been their heart the whole time. I don't know, God knows. I asked Dr. Kirtman one day about why certain pastors pastor for 40 years and then go off somewhere else after they get done pastoring. He said, brother, they didn't believe it in the first place. That was his answer. They didn't believe it in the first place. Okay. He's a lot older than I am. He's seen way more than I have. I think it sounds like a good response to me. In Numbers chapter 12, the Bible tells us that Moses was the meekest man on the earth. Right? Power under control, right? Meekness. Meekness. But have you ever considered the division of Moses' life? He started out in the palace of Pharaoh. Could he have been in line to the Pharaoh? I don't know. I wouldn't want to... I know some people talk about that. I have no idea. No way to know. But he left. He had to leave. And when he came back into Egypt, he came back a totally different man than when he left. Somebody has said it this way. He was a somebody who became a nobody so he could help everybody. Somebody noticed the three divisions of his life. The first 40 years, he was a somebody. The middle 40 years of his life, he learned to become a nobody. And the last 40 years of his life, he was finally able to help somebody. Hey, listen, the prodigal, what did he do? The prodigal, he left in pride and he returned in humility. The Saul of Tarsus went out with great pride and power, but he returned in great weakness and submission to the God of heaven that he was running from. He said, I am the least of the apostles. I am the chiefest of sinners. Wow, what a change in the apostle's life. John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must decrease. Jesus Christ himself left his place in heaven to be born into this wretched world. And why? So he could stand up and say, not my will, but thine be done. He says, I always do the will of my father. Have you ever thought that God submits to authority? I mean, is not Jesus the second person of the Godhead? Is He not the very God? And within that structure of the Godhead and that chain of command of the Godhead, the second person of the Godhead, who is very God, submits, submits to His Father. And yet we get the idea that we're too good to submit. God's humble. Think about that. God's humble. Philippians 2, 8, what's it say? And being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The humility of God, the submission of God. I think one of the biggest takeaways that we can see out of the life of Simon and what is going on here is that this life we have in Jesus is not about us, it's about Him. It's about His glory, it's about His will, it's about His program, it's about His authority in our life. See, I've noticed that God will move you to places in your life where you will become a nobody. And can I tell you, when you're at a place where you are uncomfortable, where you have left, where you've been brought away from where you had status, you've been brought away from where you had accolades and respect, you've been brought away from the place where you had power and authority. Can I tell you something this morning? If you find yourself in that place, stay right there because God's trying to do something in your life. Because God uses, He just wants to use you. And He doesn't use you, listen, He can't use you when you're all full of yourself. I remember when we first went to Berean Baptist Church in Springfield, we'd come from Aurora, I went to the Bible Institute there at Berean, and left our church at Aurora, which was pretty much all family. It's a family church, right? Everybody knew your parents and grandparents and all your inner workings of everybody and knew everything about your life and it's kind of shocking sometimes all they knew, right? But you could walk in a room and they just hung on every word you said. They just wanted to know everything you had to say. You'd say the dumbest stuff and they thought it was great, right? It's pretty comfortable, isn't it? We like that, don't we? We like to be somewhere where we feel comfortable and people actually want us to be there. And then God brings you to a place and you think, I don't think anybody has a care in the world what I have to say. Yeah. Yeah. There are people in that church that have been there over 40 years that struggled and fought and built and sweat and tears and somebody's been, comes along for three months in, thinks they should be heard. No, I'm not talking about being unkind. I'm just saying sometimes we're not getting, listen, God moves us into places, right, of humility where we lose that position we have. You know what you'll find out in yourself? You'll find out real quickly, wow, how much I really wanted to be number one. It begins to manifest to ourselves what's deep in our heart. And so much of what is really is in the depth of our soul itself. Listen, the gospel is not something that can be purchased to get what you want. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a tool to go viral, Kanye. Remember that dude come out? He was a Christian now, Kanye West. If you don't know him, praise the Lord. that some people took a lot, hey listen, some people took a lot of flack when they went, I don't know about this, something's wrong here, oh no, oh no, he is a Christian, well now he says he's God, now he's on a stage with the Baphomet, now he's, I mean, listen, his fruits have obviously revealed themselves. You know what you found out it was? It was a tool so he could go viral, so he could sell a lot of stuff. No, that is not what the gospel of Jesus Christ is for. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not God's business plan for getting rich. That's not what it is. Joel, and Benny, and Creflo, and Paula, and Joy. Oh, don't get me going on our new office of faith leader we have in the United States, Paula White. I tell you what, You're like, I don't know who these people are. Praise the Lord. Multi, multimillionaires off the gospel. Another gospel at that. No, the gospel is about Jesus Christ. Yeah. Hey, listen, if you are here this morning and you have been brought to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that you are saved. The question this morning to you this morning is, is your life defined by making yourself smaller and making Jesus bigger? Or is it defined by making yourself bigger and Jesus can tag along at the end and wherever he fits in? What's the definition of your life? Listen, Simon's definition of his life at this time, with that baggage that he brought into his life, was about self. And Peter had to rebuke him and let him see that, Simon, it's not about you, it's about Jesus Christ. And we find ourselves in the same place so often. We're confronted with our own hearts. We are confronted with our own will. We are confronted with our own aspirations and hopes. And we have to ask ourself over and again, is my life defined by making me smaller and making Jesus bigger or is my life defined by making me bigger and Jesus just an addition to what I want to do? Is your life defined by obedience? Or are we just out to get what's in it for us? I'm not saying you're not saved. I'm saying some of this carnality can come into our life and sometimes we don't even realize it until it's exposed and we realize, well a lot of what I'm doing is just about self. It's just about me. I'll go to church when it fits my schedule. Read my Bible when I need something. Pray when things get bad enough. When I'm in trouble. Nothing about like just a relationship with the one who loves you? I can get my money, I can get a ride off. No, these things, no listen, these holdovers come into the lives of believers at times. We need to be aware of them. Listen, if your life is marked by serving God for what benefits you, Your heart is not right with God. You are in a gall of bitterness. You are in a bond of iniquity and you need to repent. You need to repent. It's all about self. Can I tell you this culture makes it easy to get there, doesn't it? It's all around us. It's absolutely all around us. Can I tell you? If you just get under, right? If you just get under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know what comes back? Joy. Joy. The Christian life isn't a killjoy, it's the absolute opposite. Yeah, I know the world doesn't get it, right? We didn't get it either, it made no sense. You just can't do this and you can't do that, you can't go there and you can't do this thing and you guys just have no fun at all. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of fun in life. I enjoy my life in Christ and I can go to bed and put my head on a pillow and sleep just fine and not have regrets. Right? I think that's a pretty good thing. I wake up feeling pretty well. I don't wake up hungover. I don't wake up wondering what did I do the night before. I don't wake up with a load of bills because I just wrecked something. Hey listen, I don't know. I'm having a pretty nice life. I think it's a good thing. You know what I get on top of it? Joy. Unspeakable and full of glory. Joy. So who's running your life? Who's running your life? Who's number one? Who's number one? Is your prayer this? Lord, I may be doing a lot of good things, like what's said in Sunday school. I might be doing a lot of good things, and I just want to know what you want me to do, and I want to do that. It may not be a missionary, it may not be a pastor, it may not be a church planter, it may not be a deacon, it may not be a lot of things. But can I tell you the highest calling in your life is whatever God has called you to do. Whether it be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a farmer, or a truck driver, or whatever it might be. And that's where God will get glory out of your life. and you'll find that joy. You know what you'll find in each one of those, wherever God has called you to, you'll still fight the battle. You'll fight the battle over and over again of making sure it's all about Him and not about you. We all do. We all do. We have to be reminded of it all the time. It's not about me. It's all about Him. May God help us today not to fall into the trap of the culture around us, of our own flesh, of our own wicked heart that we would not fall into the trap of living a self-centered life. The older I get, the more I realize days are fleeting by. I told Brother Ryan the other day, I said, I'm not old. I mean, to a lot of people in this room, you're like, you're young, right? You'd love to be in your 50s again. And nobody really wants to go back to their teens, though. That's ugh. But anyway. But in your 50s, you know what I began to realize? I watched my changing. I watched my changing, my mind change. See, my mind's messed up, too. That's what it is. I've watched my thinking change. That's what it is. I've watched my thinking change. And every day, I begin to realize now what I'm doing is now taking away, it's filling up one less day I have to live. I don't know when that changed. It changed sometime. Like, well, if I go here, I mean, it's like this thing that's out here. It's like one less day. It's like if you ever go to the park and you're in the queue and you're gonna get on the ride and you watch people get on and you know what you're doing? You're just clicking up in the ride, you're getting closer and closer and closer. And we watch that in our life. Every day that goes by I'm just getting closer and closer and closer and closer. And it could be that we don't know that our closer may be tomorrow. Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what another day may bring forth. And I'm noticing that I have fewer and fewer and fewer days to submit to God Right? And find out what his will is and just do it. And just do it. Fewer days to live a life not focused on self. It's a battle. It absolutely is. It absolutely is. Father, would you help us today? I think I could be safe in saying every born-again adult in this room has the desire in the depths of their soul to live a life pleasing unto thee. I think they do. They're here today, they've come out on a day with weather like this, they've been faithful to the house of God, and they just, in a lot of ways, just want to do what you want them to do. But Lord, we also know we have the battles of the flesh and the battles of our culture. We have the battles of some of that baggage we bring into our Christian life that's holding us up. And it's easy to get into a place when we begin back focusing on self and getting our eyes off of you. No, we may want the religion. We may want all the excitement that comes with church and all of the good things that comes from the one who is from the blessings. But so often, so often our heart gets away from the blesser and gets it stuck on the blessing. And we find ourselves so self-centered again. Lord, would you fix that in us? Would you restore the joy that may have left in some? And Lord, whatever it is that you're doing in the hearts and lives of those here today, whatever decisions need to be made today, whatever changes need to be made today, Lord, that as they respond to you Lord, that you'd help, you'd help all of us to get out of this worldly concept in thinking, the self-centeredness, and that we'd turn our eyes back to the 100%. That you could get all of us, every last bit of us. Would you do that work in our heart and life, please? In Jesus' name, amen. Why don't you stand this morning and the piano's gonna play. I don't know how the Lord has spoken to you this morning, Maybe there's some things that the Lord has put upon your heart that you need to deal with today. And just say yes to Him. Maybe that's all that this invitation is about today. It's just an opportunity to say yes. Lord, yes. Yes, Lord. Maybe some can acknowledge. Maybe you've acknowledged that. I just watched self coming up to the surface over and over again and having to beat it back down again. You just need to get away with the Lord and put that self away again and focus on Him. Does He have all of you? Does He have your bitterness? Does He have your anger? Does He have all of those little hidden things that nobody really sees? Does He have all of it? so so Hey.