The Dangers of Waiting for Something Magical to Happen

The highest in the highest, there's a dance on the sea.

The creations reveal your majesty.

From the colors of all to the flavors of supreme.

Every creature unique in the song that it sings.

While exclaiming in the sky, you place the stars in the sky and you know it'll light.

You are amazing, you are powerful, until the possible, until the possible is to help you come and go.

You are amazing God, so heavenly like the wolf where it shone.

You are amazing God, so heavenly like the wolf where it shone.

Every move I make I'm making you, you make me move Jesus.

Every breath I take I breathe in you.

Every step I take I take in you, you are my way Jesus.

Every breath I take I take in you.

Waves of mercy, waves of grace.

Everywhere I look I see your face, your love has captured me.

Oh my God.

Can you cry, oh no, will I go free, though I could ride myself in that to walk.

For I've been blessed with empathy and by your strength alone I overcome.

but those trophies could not equal to the grave, my wish I said.

Can you cry, oh no, I'll make my choice and find that glory in the power of the Lord.

And every breath I take I breathe in you, you are my way Jesus.

It's time to go. In Christ alone I'll breathe,

the morning by his great diarity, and only him tenderly could reach me at my weakness too kindly.

Now I could seek no greater honor than just to know him more, and then count my heap of hearts in to the glory of the Lord.

In Christ alone I'll make my choice and find that glory in the power of the Lord.

In every breath I take I breathe, let it be so.

It's hard to stand, on a shifting bed, it's hard to shine,

in the shadows of the night you can't be free,

if you won't reach for help and you can't love, if you won't love yourself.

But there is hope when I'm there from the start,

cause I went back and down, and like the sun is shining where the rain is pouring down,

it's like the sun is sliding cold, the feet are on the ground,

so take this heart of mine and oh no, I went back and down.

I am strong, all because of you, I stand at all,

a better mountain that you know, oh I am changed,

yesterday is gone, oh yesterday from this moment on,

there's hope for you when the night comes round, cause I went back and down.

Some time back I was working security at East Little Baptist Church,

and back in the day we hadn't had any security risks,

we hadn't had anybody challenging any of our kids,

we hadn't had anybody sneaking into vacation Bible school,

nothing like that had really been happening,

but I had a job to do and I was faithful, I was there praise the Lord,

and God helped me cause I got kind of, I don't know if you've noticed this about me,

but I can be a little bit attention deficit disorder at times,

and so I was, what do I do while I'm sitting here watching the kids all day,

like I'm moving to this class, I gotta sit here and I gotta sit here,

and so I said well I'm gonna learn to juggle,

and I got the book and the book said,

if you wanna learn to juggle this is what you do, you start with this,

I thought there you go, I'm juggling, I only juggled in one, but I'm juggling,

that's pretty cool, and then I went to the next page of the book,

and I said if you wanna learn to juggle, you go next to this,

look I'm juggling, I'm juggling two, this is how I juggles, juggles two,

and I'm going like ah that's awesome,

and then I went to the next page of the book and it said,

throw one up and then when that starts coming up,

throw the next one up, when that starts coming up,

throw the next one up, and I thought that's harder,

but I spent a whole day practicing step one and a whole day practicing step two,

so if I spent a day practicing step three and I was a VBS day,

it's like three and a half hours, and then I should be able to do it,

so I just throw this one up, throw this one up,

and I throw that one up, just like that,

and suddenly I was juggling, and I'm like wow that's awesome,

and then I read the next page in the book,

and the next page in the book says,

what to do when somebody asks you to juggle more than three balls, potatoes, whatever,

and he said here's what you do,

when somebody asks you to juggle more than three,

you say can you juggle three, right, that's what you do,

you say they're asking you to juggle four,

you say well can you juggle three,

and I thought to myself, why is it that whenever we see somebody juggle three,

we immediately want to say, can you juggle four,

juggling three is pretty amazing, that's awesome, right,

and I was amazed that I could do it,

I want you to bear that in mind then,

as we look at the text today,

we're going to talk today about the dangers of waiting for something magical to happen,

now this applies in just about every area of our lives,

which means I cannot delve into every way that this applies,

but we're going to look at a particular text,

and we're going to see how it applied there,

and then we can extrapolate,

which means we can break off some important truths from that understanding,

to what we can do with it, or what we should do with it,

and I've already given you just a little bit of a subtext there,

and you can see it in your bulletin, it's on the screen,

it's in my notes, and it says, look away, or look deeply,

those are your options when something magical happens,

but the problem is, we've got a lot of people who are waiting for something magical to happen,

and I submit to you that there are grave dangers to waiting for something magical to happen,

so grab your Bibles with me if you would,

and we're going to go to, can I take a breath,

hold it, hold it, Acts chapter 8,

Acts 8 · chapter mention

not bad, it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, okay,

so praise God, this is Acts chapter 8,

Acts 8 · chapter mention

we're looking at Deacon Philip in Samaria,

Philip was not, and don't get this confused, he was not an apostle,

he was not one of the twelve,

yet when the persecutions began in Jerusalem,

he and others like him took the truth of Jesus Christ to the surrounding lands,

so you'll remember Jesus saying something like,

power will come upon you and you'll become my witnesses in Judah, Judea, Samaria,

and unto the uttermost parts of the earth,

so when they were chased out of Jerusalem into Judea,

the process had really begun,

they were chased out of Judea into Samaria,

the process had really begun,

and that just leaves unto the uttermost parts of the earth,

which is still going on today,

that's the greater church age, if you want to call it that,

Philip was one of those, he was chased out of Jerusalem,

he went to Samaria, now in Samaria lives a half-breed people,

do you know what I mean by that?

A half-breed people is a people of mixed, what we would call race,

now I believe in one race, the human race, I'm not saying that,

but the Jews considered them half-breeds because there was a time when Assyria conquered their country,

and Assyria's method of conquering countries was they took the people from that country,

and they scattered them all over their kingdom that they had conquered,

so it would be as if somebody conquered America,

and then took, say it was Russia,

and they conquered 30 other countries,

and then they conquered America,

and they took all Americans, all important Americans,

Americans with skill, Americans with money, Americans with history,

Americans with positions of power,

took all those important Americans,

and they scattered them over all those 30 other countries,

now the idea is you can't get back together again,

you can't form a cohesive defense,

that was the idea, and it kept the lands that they conquered,

it kept them conquered, it was a good strategy,

effective, not necessarily good,

and so what happened was the Jewish people from their homelands were put into Samaria,

many of them, and other peoples were put into Samaria,

and you know what happens with people when you put a lot of people from different countries together,

they hook up, they marry, they become a people, they become a new people,

a hundred years later, a thousand years later, and you've got all this intermarrying,

mostly I'm really talking about cultures,

when I say half-breed I'm talking about cultures coming from all different cultures,

so they were not a true Jewish people anymore,

they were mixed with other races,

and the Jews were so prejudiced and so biased about this,

that they would avoid this whole section of the world,

they would literally go days through the desert to not go through Samaria,

that's how bad it was,

but there are some great stories about how Jesus went there,

and clearly Jesus did not see them that way,

now we have Philip going there as part of the persecution he goes to Samaria,

and in a way it's kind of safer, because not a lot of Jews are going to go in there and hunt him there,

because they don't want to go in there,

so he goes in there, and it begins in verse 4,

therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word,

and Philip went down to the city of Samaria,

and began proclaiming Christ to them,

so let's just real quick for a second, what was his message?

Simply put, Christ, that's it,

so his message is Christ, he doesn't go much about the church,

he doesn't go much about the Holy Spirit,

he doesn't go much about the word of God,

the word about Christ, this is what happened,

Jesus lived, he was perfect, he died for your sins,

that's what happened, just proclaiming Christ,

and the multitudes with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip,

and they heard and saw the signs which he was performing,

notice there are signs,

Philip was doing things that were magical,

now there were miracles given by God for the glory of God,

but these people didn't necessarily understand that,

they just saw him doing things and going,

whoa, that's something, that's what a sign is,

something, something to pay attention to,

for in the case of many who had unclean spirits,

they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice,

and many who had been paralyzed, and lame, were healed,

now they could walk, now they were no longer paralyzed,

no longer got evil spirits and demons in them,

that's incredible, that's amazing, that's magical,

and there was much rejoicing in that city,

now there was a certain man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city,

and astonishing the people of Samaria claiming to be someone great,

stop there one second, Simon was this guy, he was doing magic,

we gotta talk about magic for a moment,

magic is when something happens that cannot easily be explained by what you understand,

magicians who are actually mostly illusionists perform magic,

they'll say, pick a card, and then they shuffle it all back in the deck,

and some crazy way it comes up and it shows up in your back pocket,

or they'll say, I'm gonna pull a rabbit out of my hat,

you look in the hat, there's nothing in there, and a rabbit pops out,

somehow they're tricking you, it's an illusion,

but the amazing thing is they can do it right in front of you,

and you can't figure it out, you're like, I don't get it, how is he doing that, that's incredible, right,

that's what we think of as magicians magic or illusionists magic,

I submit to you that was not what Simon was doing,

now he was doing that, that was not the only thing he was doing,

he was also delving into the dark arts or magic,

in the sense of using other power other than God's power to do something that seemed incredible,

he was toiling with demons, toiling with evil spirits, messing with human spirit,

he was doing things that no one could explain,

now if you follow a magician or illusionist and you look real closely,

sometimes you can pick out the trick,

there essentially is no trick in the dark arts,

there is real evil and there is real power to be done in that evil,

real things that can be done,

and we see many examples of it in scripture and they were seeing it in Simon,

and because they were seeing it in Simon they were astonished,

they were amazed, wow, this is incredible,

and he was claiming to be someone great,

and they all from smallest to greatest were giving attention to him,

notice he was getting all of the attention,

they were giving attention to him saying,

this man is what is called the great power of God,

and so that messing with evil spirits and demons and the dark arts that he was doing

was causing him to get the attention and you could say the glory,

if you want to go that far you could say he was getting the glory for himself,

rather than giving it to God,

and if you are getting your power from evil spirits and demons,

they certainly do not want the glory for that to go to God,

that is the only reason they give power is to take glory away from God,

verse 11, and they were giving him attention because he had for a long time,

astonished them with his magic arts,

so notice this guy has got a track record,

and people will follow and commit themselves and consent to the leadership or ownership or rulership or mastership,

of someone who has a track record of being able to produce that which amazes them,

you follow my logic,

anybody here familiar with a magician or maybe a performer,

a movie star that you like or an actor that you like,

and when you see them in the movies you think man they do such a good job,

it is a different character but I can really believe it,

and so you are looking for the next movie that comes out by them,

I am not saying you are following them like a god,

I am not saying it is idol worship or anything like that,

but the point is if you have somebody who continues to do for you in a way that kind of astonishes you,

kind of gives you energy, and I will talk about that in a minute,

then you are going to want to follow that person,

and this can affect relationships,

so he makes me feel good so now I want to follow him,

she makes me feel good so now I want to follow her,

lots of things like that happen, money does that,

I feel free to spend my money, and so money gives me what I want,

so now I want to follow the pursuit of money,

I do not want to digress here but the bottom line is in verse 11,

they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts,

which we know are dark arts,

verse 12, but when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God,

and the name of Jesus Christ they were being baptized men and women alike,

so now notice that he is preaching the good news and he is preaching about the kingdom of God,

so there is a slight expanding or you could say it is a breaking down of the truth about Jesus,

that it breaks down into these two points, the good news and the kingdom of God,

and they are believing and they are being baptized men and women alike,

so folks are for all practical appearances getting saved,

and when you get baptized you say I am no longer living for me, I am now living for Jesus,

so this all looks really good, but there is trouble in Denmark,

verse 13, and even Simon himself believed,

so the magician gets saved, the man who was messing around with dark arts,

well that sounded really good, he believed anyway,

and after being baptized he continued on with Philip,

so he starts following Philip around and becomes kind of like a servant, a watcher, whatever,

and as he observes signs and great miracles,

so he is seeing incredible magical events,

use that word kind of tongue in cheek because you understand there is a difference at this point already,

he sees incredible magical events taking place,

he is constantly amazed, now why did the people follow Simon,

because they were constantly ongoing amazed,

why does Simon follow Philip, because he is constantly ongoing amazed,

I submit to you that is a problem, that is a real problem,

verse 14 says, now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God,

they sent them Peter and John, now these are apostles,

when everybody was being kicked out of Jerusalem, persecuted out of Jerusalem,

the apostles were safe, they stayed there, continued to worship in the side colonnade of the temple,

they did not have to go, God would protect them, keep them together as a core of the church if you will,

and so the church there now sends Peter and John down,

they were like, okay, they are getting the word of God, something is happening there,

we have to go make sure this is, how can we help, what can we do, what do we need to do,

verse 15 says, who came down, that is Peter and John,

came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,

now before I go any further, there is a lot of people in the world who have tried,

I would say it is not a lot of evangelical Christians,

but there are a lot of people in the world who claim to believe in Christ,

who then will say, this is an example of people getting saved and then later receiving the Holy Spirit,

but the Bible very clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit arrives at your salvation,

very clearly here and in one other place only, and if you know where it is,

I will let you say it before I do in a moment, think about it for a second,

here and in one other place only in the New Testament do we see people who seem to be getting saved,

then getting prayed for and actually receiving the Holy Spirit,

does anybody know where it is, do you want to take a stab at it,

you have to be a pretty good Bible scholar to know this one,

it is in Ephesus, when Paul goes to Ephesus, the same similar thing happens,

they seem to be getting saved, but then after that,

now I said that wrong, it is not an Ephesus, it is Cornelius household, there we go, it is Cornelius household,

Cornelius was the soldier and he saw vision, Peter saw vision, Peter goes there,

and Cornelius and all the Gentiles in his house who had believed in Jesus already it says,

then received the Holy Spirit, that is the only other time, okay there we go, now I have that clear,

the point is this, only in those two instances it seemed like that,

and if you follow the text that means, wait for it, they were not saved,

if the Holy Spirit comes at salvation, which is the case in every other case in the New Testament,

there is only these two cases, that one and Cornelius, we are not going to go and read today,

they were not actually saved, they were attracted, they were even following Philip at least,

they were following what Philip was doing, they were following the teachings that Philip was giving,

they were saying that they believed, they were even believing,

but as we saw with Asa, you believe and you seek God and then what happens, God reveals himself to you,

so God had not yet done the work, the saving work completely in these people,

there may have been those amongst them who were saved, they just did not know what they were looking for,

or there were those amongst them who were not saved, we are only going to go just a little further,

they came down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,

for he, that is the Holy Spirit, had not yet fallen upon any of them,

they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,

so in other words, they just believed on the truth about Jesus and they have been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,

I think it is interesting there, they were not baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,

and that is why people kind of get wrapped up and say you have to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,

which is the model that Jesus gave us, baptized them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,

and Philip did not quite do it right, he just was baptizing them in the name of Jesus,

which is all good, but the point is they did not receive the Holy Spirit,

verse 18, now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through laying on the apostles hands, he offered them money,

wow, this is a new level of amazing, where I can not only do amazing,

first I can see amazing, which I am astonished by that, I am loving it, I am following you because of that,

but on top of that I can do amazing, because you are going to give me the ability to do this now,

and then the people that I touch will be able to do amazing, and I can see the value in this, this is going to be awesome,

I want this, what does it cost, just as he might purchase a magic trick from another magician,

or a dark art from another wicked magician, he offered them money,

verse 19 says, saying, give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit,

the irony of that is by the way that he could have got it for free,

if he had only just truly believed and received the Holy Spirit, right, because that is how that works,

but Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money,

and by the way you cannot obtain the gifts of God, any of them, with money, in fact if you can buy it,

hang on this is going to, this will hit hard, if you can buy it, it ain't from God, understand,

if you pay a reasonable price for it, it ain't from God, that's not the way it works,

okay, so here is the text, overall boiled down to points and then a conclusion that is kind of a whopper,

okay, so the title again was the danger of waiting for something magical to happen,

and the first danger of waiting for something magical to happen is kind of obvious, but it is that it just might,

you could be waiting for something magical to happen and something magical just might happen, it does happen,

was there anybody in the room who was a little bit surprised when I juggled,

if you've seen me do it before you weren't, but if you've never seen me do it before you thought,

well that is kind of cool, you know, I wonder if you can do four, right, or axes,

or flaming batons, wouldn't that be cool, is there anybody else in the room who can juggle, right,

I want to see juggling and so on, it just might happen, and the funny thing about that is miracles

and magic are hard to discern the difference of, God does do miraculous things,

if I were to stand up here and tell you a history of just the ones that I am personally knowledgeable of,

first of all I would fail miserably because I don't have all my notes and I wouldn't be organized and whatever,

but I could tell you miracles that God has done in our church, in our midst, in my midst personally,

when I was alone with my family, with my wife, with my kids, I could pick different names,

people that I've known that are in this room, miracles that I've seen happen,

and it would take us hours, I couldn't do it in a sermon time, it's not possible,

so why do we preach the word of God, why don't we just tell everybody about the miracles that God does,

surely they'll be won over, they'll want to come and follow,

the danger of waiting for something magical to happen is that something magical just might happen,

and the question is can you tell the difference, there are essentially three major differences between miracles

and miraculous events, the first one is that the power that powers, I'm sorry, between magical and miraculous events,

there we go, the power that powers a magical event is power not directly from God,

whereas the power that powers a miraculous event is God's power intervening in the world,

now the question I ask of you is this, can you tell when something amazing happens,

whether God miraculously did that or a demon, evil spirit, or a person manipulating the situation,

or somebody just showed up and paid the money, can you tell the difference,

it is dangerous to sit around or stand around waiting for something magical to happen because it just might,

and when it does you won't know whether it was from God or whether it was from man or from an evil spirit or a demon,

and then you might wind up following along with the person that did it or with the demon that did it,

and wind up somewhere where you definitely don't want to be,

being able to distinguish between miracles and things that appear magical is essential for the Christian,

you need to be able to do that, in order to be able to do that you have to be preparing to do that,

you can't just wait around for something magical to happen and go well I wonder if that was a miracle,

by the way if you say I wonder if that was a miracle, only one of two things is possible,

either A, it wasn't, or B, you're messed up in the head,

because the Bible says if you follow the Lord and commit your temple which is your body to the Lord,

then the will of the Lord can be known to you,

and if you can know the will of the Lord then you can look at that miraculous event and know whether or not it was a miracle,

this is one of the ways that you can know, did the power come directly from God,

to know whether or not the power came directly from God,

you're going to have to have a relationship with God and understand the kind of things that he does with his power and what his power is like,

the second way of discerning a miracle from a miraculous event,

and for a miracle from a magical event, there we go, is manipulation and opposition to the truth,

that's how magic is normally done, even dark arts magic, all magic is done that way,

manipulation or opposition to the truth versus in God's case revealing the truth,

if the thing that's being done looks astounding to you,

my blood pressure just went down, my heart rate went up just like I was surprised,

I'm feeling kind of positive, dopamine released in my brain,

that's all true, and you go like man that was awesome,

and you want more of it, and it's not revealing some of God's truth,

there's not something there for you to learn,

we talk about the inspirational moment, Tony T's talking about being inspired, inspiring others this morning,

we're talking about that, if you have a, you're going throughout your day in a seven days, Wednesday afternoon, 2pm,

you drive by somebody and God says hey pay attention to that right there,

I want to show you something miraculous happening, and you look at it and you go wow that was awesome, that was so cool,

and then you go boy I hope I can see more of that, what just happened?

It wasn't miraculous at all, it didn't reveal any truth to you,

it didn't say anything to you about God's great glory, about how powerful he is, about what you should be doing,

nothing came out of it except you felt astounded, therefore you can say,

even if the person who was paralyzed got up and walked,

if all that happens when a person is paralyzed gets up and walks,

is they get up and walk and you get a fuzzy feeling, a warm fuzzy,

then one of the two things is true, they did not get up and walk because of a miracle of God,

or you are messed up in the head, those are the only options,

and if you're just waiting around for the next magical thing to happen,

you can sufficiently say that you're messed up in the head,

something just might happen, and you'll have a hard time sorting the miracle from the magical event,

based on these two parameters at least,

notice that third and probably most important is that magic does not glorify God and miracles do,

there's a great on the record, you can read about it, magical event that took place in,

I want to say, I might mess this up, but I want to say temple,

let's just say temple, so I might get the religion wrong,

all over the US, it started like in Mexico, and it happened in the US, it happened in Canada,

and then it even happened in some places in Europe,

and they had this cow that they worship, I think it's Hinduism if I'm not mistaken,

and they were in the middle of a famine, and the cow began to cry,

this is not 2000 years ago, this is in 1990 or something like that,

and the cow began to cry, and the cow was crying milk,

so they put a bucket on it, they caught the milk, and then they took the milk,

and they drank it, and they used it for cooking and everything,

and then they put another bucket on it, and they put another bucket on it,

and it happened, not in one place, but in like 20 places,

and everybody's going, oh the God of the Hindus is mighty,

no the God of the Hindus is nothing, the God of the Hindus is a false God,

that was a magical event, now you explain how a magical event happens to attract people to a false God,

I'll tell you, it's very simple, power from a dark realm,

evil spirits, demons, etc, Satan himself can attract people to follow a false God

by doing something miraculous, or that appears miraculous,

brings no glory to God, draws power from another source,

and is not God's power intervening in the world,

and does not reveal the truth about Jesus Christ,

and so people became Hindu because they drank milk,

and if you became Christian because God did a miracle,

now let's set aside the miracle of salvation for a moment,

but if you saw another miracle and became Christian, you would not be Christian at all,

what is the chief danger of waiting for something magical to happen?

It is that it just might, something magical just might happen,

and then you will be left in a place where you cannot sort out,

did that happen for some magical reason, did it happen for some miraculous reason?

Boy I'll tell you what man, I now know the purpose of my life,

because my car started or didn't start on that cold wintery day, what?

Well I prayed, I said God, if my car starts then I'll be this for you for the rest of my life,

and my car started, sometimes car starts, and sometimes cars don't start on cold days,

sometimes they don't start the first five tries,

and they suddenly start because the battery woke up enough to start the car,

that should not change your entire life,

if you're looking for a magical event to direct you, you are wasting your human effort,

it is dangerous to wait for something magical to happen because it just might,

also it is dangerous to wait for something magical to happen because magic or miracles,

that are viewed as magic will simply leave you astounded,

you'll have surprise or wonder, you'll be excited,

it feels good temporarily, the Bible does this thing where it releases this chemical,

it's called noradrenaline, adrenaline is the chemical that happens when somebody pulls a knife on you,

or when you go down a dark alley and a six foot five guy with a baseball bat suddenly steps out and says,

give me your wallet, right, like that, that's adrenaline,

that's adrenaline, fight or flight instinct, noradrenaline is produced all the time,

it happens during sports, it happens during watching TV,

it happens during watching movies that you like, reading books that you like,

playing games, you can produce noradrenaline a lot of minor ways,

and if you find a way to produce noradrenaline, you will want it,

because your body likes it, runs better on it than it does normally,

and you'll go after it, this is one of the ways that people get addicted to drugs,

it's how people get addicted to sports or sports activities,

how people get addicted to hobbies, recreation, camping, the list just goes on and on,

dopamine and noradrenaline are substances that are created when we experience something that astounds us,

that makes us feel good, I didn't think I could do that,

the first time I ever juggled, I went up, noradrenaline, I'm juggling, that's amazing,

and I thought, well I wonder if I can do four, just like everybody else in the world,

and by the way, I can, it's 15 years later, 20 years later, I still can't do four,

but I've not put the effort in necessarily to learn to either,

but the point is this, when you experience an incredible event,

you feel noradrenaline or dopamine, and whether it's a magical event or a miraculous event,

either way, you're going to be left with an astounded feeling, a surprised feeling,

a wondered feeling, a positive feeling, this is how people get addicted to pornography,

I know everybody's like lust, lust, lust, pornography, but it's not,

that isn't even the main thing, lust is terrible, yes, and it's the lust of the eyes,

and the lust of the flesh, and we get addicted to it, people do that,

but you know what's in pornography that really people are attracted to,

the amazing creation of God, for a man to look at a beautiful woman naked, that's powerful,

for a woman to look at a man naked, that's powerful, it should never be done,

unless it's your spouse, but people will do it, and then they have an experience,

whoa, look at that, I wonder if I can see some more of that,

and that's exactly how it goes, we're astounded, surprised, it's a magical thing,

it's not a miraculous thing because it's not glorifying God, it's not God's power that is being enacted there,

and no truth is revealed unless it's about our sinful nature and need for a Savior,

but it never goes so far as to reveal the truth for a need for a Savior,

and so the bottom line is, when your brain reacts to a magical or miraculously viewed event,

it will simply leave you astounded and searching for another astonishment,

so waiting around for a magical event to happen, something will tell you what you need or what you want,

or you'll see something that you never saw before, waiting around for that is dangerous because number one,

it just might, and number two, the magical or miraculous event,

a miraculous event mistaken as magic or a magic event,

either one will simply leave you astounded, surprised, wondering, and desiring,

so the logical conclusion is then what? Well I need more of this thing,

I go to the store, I go oh gosh, I need a microwave, here's a microwave for $60, here's a microwave for $300,

I'm a push button, of course, wow, lots of people here, remote, set the bluetooth on my phone,

I gotta have a $300 microwave, buy a $300 microwave, take it home, and you go, I love that microwave I bought,

and now something about you is going, I need another something, that was good, now what's next?

What do I buy next? You don't continue to get satisfaction every time you use the microwave, maybe in just kind of tiny drips,

but if you think about something else, what's the next thing?

And I know a young man who told me, he said, I only buy name brand clothes, I know who I am in Christ,

I'm thinking to myself, yeah, I kinda got a feeling about who you are in Christ too, right?

You're looking for astonishment, you're looking for something, why name brand clothes? What's the difference?

If you can buy a good clothes that will work for you, that's sufficient, the logical conclusion becomes, I need more.

Does that sound like a tenet of Christianity? Does that sound like a way to follow God through Jesus Christ?

I need more? No, people don't get saved when they experience a miraculous event,

even if God did it, unless they realize that it is a miraculous event, that God did it, that he gets the glory, the truth is revealed and so on.

So the dangers of waiting for something magical to happen is number one, it just might, and number two, when it does,

you may mistake a miraculous event for a magical event, and either way, if you mistake a miraculous event for a magical event,

or if it actually is a magical event, you will be left astounded, surprised, wondering and desiring more.

I went to camp, a life change camp, and there was a young man there, his name is Josh,

and he's kind of a preacher teacher at his church, he's not a pastor, he's a pastor's son,

and he preached a couple of things that were a little bit stretched a little bit, if you ever listened to this, sorry Josh,

but I didn't agree with a couple things you said, and I'm telling that to his face, I don't have any problem telling him right now.

But the bottom line is, he also then got up and he was helping to lead worship and singing,

and he felt, he said, he felt led, Natalie's in the room, she can testify exactly what I'm talking about,

he felt led and he said to Ariana, I'll give you one illustration, Ariana, he said,

the spirit says to me about you that you really like art, but also you really like writing.

Now Ariana had not told anybody how much she likes writing, I kind of knew it subconsciously back when she started her own journals,

she's written some books and things on her own, but when he said that, that resonated her, and she was like, yes,

and then Bailey was there, she's in the God's Kids right now, and she got saved on Thursday,

and she had written down on her paper what she was dreaming of being when she grew up, that she wanted to be a dancer,

Natalie's shaking her head, because this is absolute truth, I'm telling you absolute truth, last week, right, this happened,

and he walked up to her, didn't know her from Adam, asked her her name, she says Bailey, and he said,

the spirit's telling me that you like to be a dancer when you grow up, just like that.

Now is that magical? It's kind of magical, isn't it? The dude's like reading minds,

like he can be a psychic on TV and make money with a 1-900 number, but no, he's serving Jesus,

and he was preaching the gospel and he's talking about Jesus, but you still gotta ask yourself,

and Natalie and a couple of the others, and I had this conversation afterwards,

how could we know that what he was doing was miraculous and not magical, right?

If it's just magical, it's just exciting, I don't wanna go there,

I'm not looking for somebody to come and tell me more things about myself that only I know, right,

or other magical things that he could do, I'm not really looking for that,

but I am looking for more of the presence of God, more of following God, more of God working on me,

more of God in me, how can I learn to exhibit my spiritual gifts, more truth revealed,

and I said this, and the spirit was speaking to me when I said it, Natalie can attest to it,

I said one of the ways that you could know for sure that it was miraculous and not magical,

whoever wrote this message, right, is that he used it to glorify God,

he claimed it was coming from God, but we couldn't verify that for sure, it's not verifiable, right?

He used it to glorify God and he used it to reveal more truth about God, and he gave God all the credit,

and so we had every reason to believe that that was a miraculous, and he did,

and he did, it was only not, I gave two examples, but there were many others, right, where he was able to tell people

things about them that he should not have been able to know,

but if you're waiting around for people to tell you something about yourself,

and then you go, whoa, that's cool, let's do that some more,

you're searching for a magical event that is not going to save your soul, in fact it's not going to help you at all,

all it's going to leave you for is astounded, waiting for more,

you're going to logically conclude, I need more of that, okay?

The third point is one miracle, one miraculous event is necessary,

and all miraculous events and all magical events, even when they're powered by evil spirits, Satan, the world system, whatever,

all of them point to just one miracle that absolutely is necessary,

and these people living in Samaria, listening to Philip and him telling them about Jesus, they didn't get it.

They didn't get the miracle.

I submit to you, that means it's highly probable that we will have people come in our church, come worship with us,

not our building, I mean our gathering, right, and we, the church will gather and they will hear the gospel plainly explained,

and they will not get it, and if that is so, if it is possible that there are people who will hear the gospel plainly explained,

and they aren't going to get it, it is entirely possible that you could be one of those people who hears the gospel plainly explained and not get it,

and that is why you should not be waiting around for magical things to happen.

I cannot tell you now the number of times I've lost count, it's at least a dozen,

of times where I shared a simple gospel with somebody, and they said to me something akin to,

well if God would just show me something miraculous that I can't deny,

if God would just come here right now, step in the room and tell me that I need to do this, or whatever,

then I would give my life to him in an instant.

You see what had happened is they had built, they built a lifestyle around waiting for something magical to happen.

Well something magical happens alright, Jesus Christ comes into a person's life,

He died on a cross to pay for sins, rose again on the third day, stands now at the right hand of the Father making intercession,

and through the Holy Spirit comes in and lives in you daily, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, year by year, decade by decade,

and you lay on your deathbed and go, oh I am so glad that when I was 12, 50, 70, I gave my life to Jesus Christ,

because I look back now and realize there is no other miracle of all the things that I've seen, of all the things that I've done,

of all the things that I've witnessed, there is nothing else that will suffice right now for an eternity with God,

and would suffice in all my darkest hours. You with me Elijah? Alright, he says he's with me.

One miracle is necessary, someone might use this text to argue for an actor's salvation filling of the Holy Spirit,

but always the teachings of the New Testament indicate a filling at salvation.

In the cases where it seems like they were not, there is a piece of the gospel missing, a truth about Jesus,

a salvation piece that's missing, and they were believing in what Philip was doing and believing in the testimony of the miraculous events,

but they weren't getting saved and receiving the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is received by a certain means.

Salvation is received by a certain means. It's kind of a formula, but it's not.

It's a method that God put in place, but it's not a method that anybody can replicate because what?

The one key step is God reveals himself, as we've been talking about through the story of Asa over the last couple of weeks.

This now brings us to our conclusion, which is kind of a doozy, before I give you that I want to go back over briefly.

The dangers of waiting for something magical to happen are, one, it just might.

While you're waiting for something magical, it just might.

And if you cannot determine the difference between a magical event and a miraculous event, when it happens,

you then will be in a situation where all events will be viewed as magical,

and that will simply leave you astounded, surprised, full of wonder, desiring more.

And just one miracle is necessary, just the miracle of salvation.

If you can't provide it for yourself, you may wind up more comfortable submitting to someone else.

Can you astound yourself daily? Can you surprise yourself daily?

You know, it's actually kind of hard to surprise yourself. It's not that easy.

I've done it. I bought Sherry a Christmas present. I put it away. I couldn't remember where it was at.

So at Christmas time, I had to buy her another Christmas present. I gave her the Christmas present.

About seven months later, I was in the towel cupboard, and I went,

Ho! There's the Christmas present! Oh, great! I can give it to her now.

And I was surprised. I thought I'd never see that thing again. I had hid that thing so well, I could never find it.

So it is possible, but it's kind of hard to surprise yourself.

The easiest way to do it might be to try to learn a new skill.

And as you master the skill, you'll go, wow, that's pretty surprising.

But can you do it daily? No. But can you search it out daily? Yes.

Can your soul yearn for more pornography, addiction, sex, drugs, activities, sports, art, crafts, conversations, encouragement, lies, tricks?

Can we yearn for all of that? Can we use one after another after another after another?

Yes. We have become that in the United States of America so much so that now the counterpoint of the evil kingdom of evil spirits is shock and awe.

So rated R movies have to be worse than ever now. So now we have to have people sawing off their own arms.

Just somebody just dying to a saw. That's not bad enough anymore.

But now we have to force people to saw their own arm off so that that shock and awe effect will still provide the astonishment that you need in order to feel good about your life living in the United States of America.

If you can't provide it for yourself and you cannot, you may wind up more comfortable submitting to another person who can.

After Peter says to Simon, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money, that was verse 20, Simon says back to Peter, I'm sorry, first Peter finishes, he says,

You have no part or portion in this matter for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the Lord that if possible the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.

Can we stop right there one second and go back to the verse where it says,

And even Simon himself believed and after being baptized he continued on with Philip. You hear that verse right? It's very clean.

And even Simon himself believed and afterwards he continued on, after being baptized he continued on with Philip.

And now here it says, You have no part or portion in this matter for your heart is not right before God.

Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the Lord that if possible the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.

For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bondage of iniquity.

And then in verse 24 Simon says back, he says,

Pray to the Lord for me yourselves so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

You see what he was going to do was he was going to go continue to chase that surprise, that astonishment, that stuff that he wanted to be involved in.

And he knew that and he also knew that this was a man of God with miraculous power that he now could not have because he was saying he was going to go away and not do what they were telling him to do.

So he asked them to pray for him that it wouldn't come about on him. You follow that?

If you can't provide it for yourself you may wind up more comfortable submitting to another.

You say pray for me because you know that when you pray no miracles actually happen.

Pray for me that my spiritual gifts will come out because you know you're not really planning on doing anything to bring out your spiritual gifts.

Pray for me that I'll be more faithful to read my Bible because you know you're not really planning on making any serious effort on yourself to read more Bible.

The Bible says the Antichrist himself, 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 13 will do magical things.

He'll stand up against God and do magical things and it says in Revelation 13 that he will attribute those magical things to God.

And so we see churches, quote unquote churches all over the place doing incredible things and they say it's for God by the power of God and so on and yet it is all a lie.

But they gather great followers who want to be astonished, amazed and surprised. I too would like to see God heal a paralyzed man.

That would be awesome. I've never seen that one. I have seen God heal people who are dying from cancer, people whose family had already been called in on their deathbed twice now in very recent history and once in a very very pronounced way.

Once I had a young lady who they called and they said they've already called the family and they think she's going to die.

She's got a really high fever, they rescued her with life flight, took her and the Lord laid it on the heart and I set my alarm clock up every 15 minutes all night long and prayed for her because I knew I couldn't stay awake because I was so tired.

But I wanted to pray so I got up every 15 minutes all night long and prayed for her in the morning and I got the message that she was fine.

And it's been like that. Those are just a few. So I've seen miraculous healings and I would love to see more but that's not what it's about.

I'm not waiting for God to do something miraculous. I'm not waiting for God to do something magical and if you are, you are in grave danger.

Grave danger. Because that is not what the Kingdom of God is about.

In Mark 8, 11-12 the Pharisees came out and began to argue with Jesus seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.

Sighing deeply in his spirit he said, that's Jesus, why does this generation seek for a sign?

Truly I say to you no sign will be given this generation.

And then Matthew records it possibly the same event or another. He records this way he says,

Some scribes and Pharisees said to him, Teacher we want to see a sign from you. But he answered and said to them,

An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign. And yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh, wait for this, this hurts. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it.

Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. What was Jonah's message by the way?

Forty days you're all destroyed. He doesn't even mention God.

In Jonah's message to the Ninevites he never even mentions God.

Doesn't say how God will destroy them and he doesn't tell them why God will destroy them.

All he did was say in forty days you'll be destroyed, God will destroy you all.

And the king and the whole town and even the cows they put in sackcloth to repent before God and God spares them.

And now we see that they will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn this generation because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And behold something greater than Jonah is here. Who was greater than Jonah? Who is he talking about?

He's talking about Jesus and the Kingdom of God and it's available to you.

Verse 42 in that same chapter says the queen of the south will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it.

She wasn't even saved as far as we know. But she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And behold something greater than Solomon is here. What is Jesus saying?

He's saying you don't need a miraculous event. You need the truth of God.

You need the truth of God in your life at work working in you delivered by Holy Spirit power so that you will search for God.

And then he and his infinite wisdom will reveal himself to you and you will be saved.

Paul wrote it this way Romans 1 he said for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also the Greek.

For the righteous of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.

But the righteous man shall live by faith.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

And I submit to you that seeking a sign is unrighteousness according to what Jesus said.

Of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

Because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them.

He made it obvious. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen.

Being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse.

Here it is. You get out of bed in the morning you walk out on your lawn you get a cup of coffee.

Quiet birds are out there picking at the worms in the grass still.

The sun is shining burning away the clouds a little mist.

Maybe that scent of rain on our walk the bus stop.

Smells like a camping.

All the glory of God is revealed before you.

The incredible creation of everything that God has done.

And all you're doing is looking for a sign.

Astonished surprised amazed and I want more.

I want to do more. More sports more recreation more entertainment.

More time with friends more conversation more pornography more drugs more addiction more money more freedom to buy more stuff.

You're looking for something magical.

The world is a magical miraculous creation of God testifying of him every day.

And you are required by the God of heaven to walk away from that and choose him instead.

And frankly it might even be harder in a first world country like the United States of America where so much is available to us.

To walk away from the fruits of prosperity and all the good things they can provide.

We're looking for something better all the time and God is saying I am the better.

Mark 8 31 to 33 it says then he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed.

And after three days rise again he was stating the matter plainly.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But turning around and seeing his disciples he rebuked Peter and said get behind me Satan.

For you are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's.

Do you understand that in that moment he was saying that Peter was a little better than Simon.

The question is is he saying that you or me are a little better than Simon.

That's the question.

When people demand signs in the New Testament Jesus seems clear that we should not ask for them.

Matthew 12 16 Luke 11.

So many signs have already been seen and given.

Jesus either says he will give none or he will only give the sign of Jonah.

That's it. That's what Jesus said.

Therefore he came again to Cana of Galilee.

This is John 4 where he had made the water wine and there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.

When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee he went to him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son.

For he was at the point of death.

So Jesus said to him unless you people see signs and wonders you simply will not believe.

The royal official said to him sir come down before my child dies.

That sounds like he believes.

Jesus said to him go your son lives.

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.

As he was now going down his slaves met him saying that his son was living.

So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better.

Then they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him your son lives.

If it stopped there that would be awesome.

But it goes on and it says this.

Wait for it.

And he himself believed and his whole household.

This is again the second sign that Jesus performed when he had come out of Judea into Galilee.

But there will come some.

There will be some.

How does Jesus say there will be none, no signs, no signs or just the sign of Jonah when in actuality he does signs and miracles after that point.

Did you catch that?

He said this generation will have no sign except the sign of Jonah.

First he says no sign then no sign except the sign of Jonah.

But then he goes on to do signs and wonders.

Because a sign or wonder in and of itself leads to astonishment not faith.

You follow the logic?

The greatest magician or illusionist uses sleight of hand.

He can do it before you right in front of your eyes and you don't see it.

Jesus and his chosen people can do it before you and even if you see it plain as day he walked he couldn't walk.

Now he walks. It's amazing.

He was dying now he's living.

She was on her deathbed. Everybody was called in.

She was alive.

I couldn't. Now I can.

Even if it's plain as day the sign or wonder as a manifestation of the truth is lost to that seeker of sign and wonders.

You get nothing except the thrill.

That's it.

Jesus was saying they will get only the sign of him and Jonah because all those other signs had no saving power.

They were all to testify about Jesus who had the saving power to God of the universe.

Interesting verse that says now no one after laying a lamp covers it over with a container or puts it under a bed.

But he puts it on a lamp stand so that those who come in may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not become evident nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

We take this verse and talk about Christians hiding their light.

You become the light of the world.

The light of the world is in you.

We talk about Christians not sharing the gospel with people.

But can you now not hear in it the Holy Spirit present automatically exhibits miraculous signs and wonders.

The Holy Spirit in you will automatically lead you to be able to see that when amazing things happen they testify about God.

You'll automatically be able to see the difference between a miracle and a magical event.

You don't have to wait around and go I hope I'll see something magical someday.

You're living in Jesus the Holy Spirit in you and if something miraculous happens that brings glory to God or reveals his truth.

He'll make you see it.

You just do what he's told you to. Read your Bible. Pray. Search him out. Follow him. Follow his commands. Love him. Share. Give.

Care about each other. Serve. Do these things and God will make them crop up and happen.

Mark 9. They brought the boy to him when he saw him immediately a spirit threw him into a compulsion and falling to the ground.

He began rolling around and foaming at the mouth and he asked his father.

How long has this been happening to him? Jesus asked and he said from childhood is often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.

The man says but if you can do anything take pity on us and help us and Jesus said if you can.

All things are possible to him who believes.

Immediately the boy's father cried out and said I do believe. Help me with my unbelief.

This sermon is warning you. Warning me about the dangers of waiting for something magical.

Now let me tell you how to avoid all of those dangers.

Number one. Believe first. This is about faith. Do you believe in God?

If you need a miracle to believe in God. Wait for it. You will never believe in God.

If you need a magical event to take place to make you feel like you believe in God. You will never believe in God.

If you have become friends of the world the Bible says and you're involving yourself in the world's events affairs activities.

Sometimes the exclusion of kingdom activities. Then you need to understand the Bible says that you've become an enemy of God.

Believe first. Believe first and trust the God of heaven with all his power and all his glory.

Miraculous events arise out of his doing something.

Magical events arise out of someone else doing something.

Usually they're trying to take glory for themselves. Even get followers for themselves.

Even manipulate people. And if somebody does something no matter how incredible it is and they're using it for that purpose then you can dismiss them and their event.

Completely. Believe first.

And believe not because of the signs and wonders. Be careful because even the crucifixion death, burial and resurrection is a sign.

You follow? But there were people who got saved before Jesus was born.

Even the crucifixion, the death, burial and resurrection is a sign. And if you only believe in Jesus because of the resurrection.

Now we do believe in the resurrection but if you only believe in Jesus because of the resurrection.

Then you may only be saved as long as you are astonished, surprised and still receiving additional miraculous events and testimonies.

God means to challenge you to believe because you have heard.

And because you find in you a need to have a right relationship with him.

We'll go back to Asa for a moment.

Asa sought after God and he received a lot of blessings.

And he said, this is it. We've done it. We've become the people of God. And the prophet said no it doesn't work that way.

So you seek after God. God reveals himself. Then you become the people of God. The action is on God's part.

You believe. Believe today. Believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God. Believe in Jesus as Lord.

Believe in God sent a savior in Jesus. You submit your life to God through Jesus.

And then if something happens that's magical or miraculous, you'll be able to know which it is.

But if you don't first believe and receive that first miraculous event of salvation, then there will be no other signs for you.

No signs that can bring you to salvation. No signs that can move you across the line to put your sin behind you and your salvation.

Become your way of walk. God means to challenge you to believe because you have heard and because you find a need in yourself to have a right relationship with him.

And he offers exactly that. To it. If you'll believe and receive the truth about Jesus Christ, then you'll be saved.

And the only miracle that ever needs to happen will have happened.

Did Jesus save the thief on the cross? He did. Today you will be with me in paradise.

What did he do to be saved? He looked at Jesus, kind of defended him a little bit and said, Lord? He said, Lord?

That's it. And Jesus said, you'll be with me in paradise today.

One miracle. While he was in the worst pain that anyone could ever experience.

A word that being crucified hurts so much that they had to create a word to describe the pain. Excruciation.

Or excruciating. That only means the pain of the cross. You say, you stub your toe. Oh, that's excruciating. That's not true.

That word was created for that pain. He was in that kind of pain. Jesus did not take his pain away.

Jesus did not take him down off the cross. He died on the cross. And after he died on the cross, he went to heaven.

You want him to heal your broken limb. You want him to heal your hurting heart. You want him to heal your brain.

He wants to take you to heaven. He wants to give you abundant life. You want him to heal your finances.

You want him to show up when you're alone, lonely, need help. You want him to always be there for you.

He wants to save your soul. You can ask him to heal you. And he might. He might.

If that's the way it works the best. But one thing is for certain. He wants to take you to heaven when you die.

And he wants to walk with you daily now. And that is the only miracle.

I did say to a young man once who was looking for a sign about being saved.

I said, well if you just turn your life over to Christ right now, the Holy Spirit will show up.

And you'll know. Then a miracle will have happened.

And if you have not felt the testimony of the Holy Spirit in you, the saying that you're saved, then there's a good chance you're not.

We're going to start at round one. Do I believe?

And believing, stop waiting for something magical to happen.

Stop trying to do the things in your life that will increase your noradrenaline, that will increase your dopamine.

So you're jumping up out of your seat. Yay! What a great play. Yay! What a great movie. Yay! What a great story. Yay! What a great song.

Yes, there are tons and tons and tons of things in creation that will create noradrenaline and dopamine.

But none of them will save you. By the way, noradrenaline are physical things. Not spiritual things at all.

So when your body is gone, noradrenaline is gone, dopamine is gone.

But if you will believe and follow the one true God, and you will say to Him, I don't know what's going to happen with my life,

and I'm okay with that because I know you do know, you be Lord.

And you will divorce yourself of the ways and the things of the world, systematically, sorting, slowly perhaps even.

But divorce yourself and not get wrapped up in the ways and the things of the world that make you feel okay.

And say, no, God is my friend. God is my Father. God alone is first. First I believe, and then I trust Him for any miraculous thing that He might want to do, beginning with salvation.

If you will do that, then you are a child of God. Then you are a friend of God, not an enemy of God.

Remember, friends with the world, enemy of God, but a friend of God.

What are the dangers? What are the dangers of...what's in here? Sorry.

What are the dangers of looking for a magical event?

Well, you've got to choose when something happens. You've got to look away, or you've got to look deep.

If it's a magical event, it has nothing to do with God. I had a positive experience, for example.

Something felt good in me when that happened. I suggest that Jesus is saying, look away.

If you find something in your life that really makes you feel good, and it's not God, I suggest that Jesus is saying, give it up.

But if you find something in your life that is of God, from God, reveals the truth about God, is done in God's power, and it makes you feel good,

or even convicts you of your sin, and after you repent you feel good, then embrace that. Look deeply. Never let it go.

I remember the event of my salvation as if it were yesterday, and it's been approaching three decades.

And I would encourage you to do the same. And if you cannot, you didn't look deeply enough, and you need to look into your salvation.

And that's trusting God first. I have the praise team to come forward and lead us into closing hymn at this time.

If you're here today and you realize that you've been finding some of your excitement, your joy, your sustenance, whatever, in things of the world,

if you're here today and you realize that you've been looking for something magical to happen, waiting for something miraculous to happen,

I'm going to ask you to repent today, and say, God, if you want a miracle to happen, cool, I'm with it.

That'll be fine, and I'll look deeply. When I'm ready to do it, I'll look deeply.

But for everything else, I'm going to learn to turn away. I'm going to learn to not be sustained, not be astonished, not be lifted up.

I say astonishment is that state in which your blood pressure drops and your heartbeat rises.

If you found something in your life that makes your blood pressure drop and your heartbeat rise, and you want more of that,

you have to decide whether that thing is from God. If you can't use it for God, you've got to repent and let it go.

What will a competent man do, giving the whole world what he loses to sold?

Well, he'll give you everything you need. In fact, worse than that,

because he'll drag all of his family and friends down into hell, put them in the stream, and ride along with them,

because they'll be tricky, the same things that you said before.