Preventing Ministry Failures

Amen.

Let's turn to Acts chapter 8 this morning.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

If you're a newcomer to Central Church, this is our habit week by week.

We come to the Word of God.

We let the Word of God speak.

And we just go verse by verse through books of the Bible.

We're in the book of Acts, and we're in Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

As you're turning there, there are entire websites that are devoted to something called ministry fails.

In fact, there's one called Worship Fails.

Some of you have probably seen these videos.

There's one that went viral not too long ago, and it was basically a worship band that was singing and playing, and you started noticing as they were going through the set, the cross right here, it started moving.

I don't know if it was just the shaking on the stage, but it started falling in slow motion, and eventually it took out the drummer.

You may notice that our drummer is out today.

He was hit by no, he wasn't.

He wasn't hit by a cross.

Our drummer is out, but it's uh he'll be back next week, I'm sure.

But uh this is a hilarious video if you've ever seen it, because all the people on stage just watched it in slow motion.

They just turned around and they just stared.

And no one moved to help him.

It was just like a disaster that was happening, and they couldn't believe that the drummer got taken out by the cross.

Oh, the mighty cross of Jesus Christ.

And uh I'll say this uh ministry fails are part of life.

In fact, I was talking to a young minister just the other day, and when he was ministering at another church, and it didn't happen at this church, he said, You know that spot in the service where people come forward for prayer?

He said, I was at one of those places, and he said, This couple came forward and they asked for prayer.

And so I prayed over the couple.

I prayed, I prayed, Lord, would you be with their marriage?

Would you strengthen them?

Lord, would you would you keep their marriage pure?

May the marriage bed be undefiled.

And he's waxing eloquently this blessing over this couple.

Amen.

Yes, amen to all those things?

Should we be praying that for each other?

Yes.

And then the couple says to him afterwards, We're not married.

This is my son.

Now, I don't know what that young minister did next, but I think I would have done something like, thanks for coming up.

We shall never speak again.

Goodbye.

You know, just walk away.

Like there are some moments where it is a ministry fail.

You realize it's a fail.

It just didn't turn out right.

Now, why do I bring that up?

Really, that's the topic we're talking about today: ministry fails.

And those are going to happen.

You're gonna have those moments where there is a failure in your church.

There is a failure that comes upon your ministry.

It happens, it happens to all of us.

It happens to all of us in all parts of life.

One of the first rules of manhood, one of the first rules of being a man is to reject passivity.

And so often our failures come because in some part of our life, some part of ministry, we're passive.

We can be passive in our relationships, can't we?

You know someone who's out of control.

You know someone who's making terrible decisions.

You know someone, and you know you need to say something.

You know they need to be called out, but you don't because it's risky.

You might lose the friendship, you're afraid, I might lose them, and then because you don't address it, that's a ministry failure.

We can be passive in the church, we can see disunity, this boiling bitterness but beneath the surface, and we can tend to ignore it.

We can just let it slide.

Oh, that's just them being them.

And we can lose the mission of God as the church is disrupted, the church is split, such of a great part of the story of the Memphis church.

We can be passive even in our own pain.

We can get demoralized by the failure we see in our life.

We can live so hurt that we don't know how to keep going forward.

True story, I've got a friend of mine, he's pastoring another church in another state, and he was thinking about leaving his church.

And uh I just shared with him, I said, you know, listen, don't lose the forest for the trees.

What's the problem?

Is it it's just with a couple of people?

Yeah, but you have so many other people that are responding.

Don't lose the forest for the trees.

Like, like you need to understand there are always people that are going to be uh unresponsive to your counsel, unresponsive to correction.

That's just part of life.

And I really challenge him to stay in his church, don't leave.

But that's the problem.

Many people, whenever you go through a troubling season, when you go through a painful season, there's that temptation to give up and to um to lose the trajectory that God has set you on, to lose the ministry he's given you.

We're back in a series I've entitled titled Open Season.

If you remember, this is really all about the church in verses 1 and verses 4 of chapter 8 being scattered.

They are scattered out into some hard seasons.

So far, the season has been a scattering season of persecution.

There have been unique troubles, unique trials on the church, and it's been very difficult.

Now we're moving from external pressure to internal pressure.

Now there are unique pressures within the church in this passage.

Look at in verses 9 through 25, this passage teaches us how to really prevent ministry failures.

It's to become proactive.

You and I have to learn how to be proactive in ministry so that things don't get bigger and things don't become a failure.

It is rejecting passivity.

Let's stand in honor of God's word.

We're in Acts chapter 8, verse 9, and we'll read to verse 25, a good chunk of Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8:9 Acts 8 · chapter mention

But there was a man named Simon.

Everyone say Simon.

That's who we're talking about.

There was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called great.

And they paid attention, there it is again, that that word, the attention.

They paid attention to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

But when they believed Philip, as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Even Simon himself believed.

And after being baptized, he continued with Philip.

And seeing the signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hand, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, so that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.

You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray that the Lord, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

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

And Simon answered, Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Today we're talking about ministry fails, ministry failures, and we're talking about how to prevent them.

And today I have a very simple thought for us that ministry failures are prevented by rejecting ministry passivity.

We've got to learn to reject the passivity that is so common in our world.

We bring it into our relationships, we bring it into our church, we bring it into every part of life.

We can't be passive.

And in this passage, there's four things that I want to challenge you not to be passive with.

First of all, we need to preach carefully.

We need to help people fully understand repentance.

That was Simon's issue.

In fact, we'll see that in verse 22.

Peter will actually give the rest, give the charge.

He'll say, Repent.

That is the issue.

We need to fully explain repentance.

We've got to be very careful in how we present the gospel.

Number two, we need to move quickly and prevent potential division.

Division can rise up in the church.

There might have been even some division between the Jerusalem church and the Samaritan church.

And notice it's those apostles who rise up and they say, Not on our watch.

We're not going to allow this.

And they go and they correct some theology.

They go and they make sure that they understand the gospel and the Holy Spirit comes.

It was this affirmation that they're the church too.

One church, not two.

One church.

Then, second, third, we see that we need to correct boldly.

Simon is confronted by Peter.

He's given the hard word.

And there are people that we need to give a hard word of repentance to.

We need to give a hard correction, but that's so unloving.

That's so unkind.

Actually, it's the most loving thing that you could possibly do is give correction.

This is important.

It's iron sharpening iron.

It's calling others to make sure that you've really believed the gospel.

And then lastly, what about when the fail is unavoidable?

You need to accept it humbly and keep going.

Don't give up the mission.

Keep moving forward.

Don't give up the mission.

Some people will respond, some people won't respond, some people will run away, but keep moving forward.

That's where we're going today.

And all of these are gonna help us avoid our ministry fails.

So may God bless the reading and the teaching of His Word.

May God bless all of you.

You may be seated.

Four points this morning.

I know I've shocked some of you.

It's not a three-point sermon.

Four points.

And we're gonna have to move quick, all right?

So study along with me, listen quickly.

Point number one, let's preach carefully, let's fully explain repentance.

We need to make sure we do that.

Now, our passage begins with a celebrity conversion story.

Doesn't it seem like these always seem to go bad?

It's like the celebrity one day proclaims Christ, and the next thing you know, they're back to their old ways, they're denying Christ.

I mean, there's so many stories like that.

I'm just gonna give you one.

Remember Kanye West?

You remember this?

One day he's putting out a gospel album, one day he's he's praising Jesus, and it's like soon after he's back to his own, his old ways.

Blaspheming God, talking about Hitler and Nazis and all sorts of weird stuff.

It gets like, why does it go so bad?

Why does it go from ultimate hope to ultimate disaster with celebrity conversion stories?

Why do those so often end poorly?

Here's what we get here we get a celebrity conversion story, and really I think it boils down to the fact that this person, Simon, has not fully understood what it means to repent.

In fact, again, verse 22.

That's the counsel that Peter gives him.

One word repent.

It's a misunderstanding of repentance.

He hasn't understood what it means to repent.

Look at verse 9 with me.

Notice let's get to know Simon just for a second.

This is a guy named Simon.

Uh, in church history, he's called Simon Magnus.

Or Magus, I should say.

Simon Magus.

He practiced magic.

Here's a guy that's practicing magic.

This is probably, probably not um uh divination or fortune telling or consorting with with spirits.

That's probably not what this is.

The text doesn't push us in that direction.

This is probably something more of like a con man.

This is probably something more like pen and teller in Vegas, right?

This is this is fool me.

This is a guy who has some amazing tricks, right?

It's it's obvious that that he's trying some tricks, but then Simon, that then uh Philip comes and Philip's got the real thing.

And he's amazed.

But notice, his whole goal in this is probably something of a con man.

He's he's wanting a good name for himself, he's wanting to amaze the people of Samaria.

In fact, look at his humility.

He he's saying, look, I am someone great.

It's that he himself, he's telling people, I am someone great.

Simon has this life of self-promotion and pride.

He goes from amazing others to, the text tells us that he himself was amazed.

He sees the real thing, and this is really odd.

My card tricks can't stack up against the miracles that the apostles are doing, blind people seeing, lame people walking.

He's probably not truly converted.

Now I say probably.

The text gives us some hints, but we don't know the final outcome of Simon's life.

This passage, Acts 8, that's all we see of Simon.

In verse 21, Peter gives his assessment, the Apostle Peter, he says, You have no part in this matter.

It seems that he's not fully understood what it means to repent and follow Jesus Christ.

And that's why a lot of times the celebrity conversion stories go so bad.

He's misunderstood true repentance.

And that's a call to us.

We have to very carefully present the gospel.

You and I have to be so careful to present the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus.

That Jesus doesn't call us to a life of adding Jesus to our life and living how we want, that God calls us to a life of lordship, that He is our new Lord, He is our new Master, we follow Him, we repent.

It's a lifestyle of repentance.

And it lasts the whole of our life.

In fact, just in this passage, we get an idea, it sets it up on some good things.

There are a few good things we see in Simon, but I think the passage itself gives us really several marks of what true repentance should look like.

Some of them Simon has, some of them Simon does not have.

And this is not an exhaustive list, but it is a list of some things that true repentance has.

And we have to preach that, and you have to discern for yourself.

Write these down.

Let me give you three of them, just straight out of the passage.

Three marks of true repentance.

The first one's humility.

True repentance bows before God.

And really that that's what needed to be addressed in Simon's life.

Simon is living for himself.

Look at verse 10.

They paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power that is called great, and for a long time he amazed them.

Simon loves the spotlight.

Simon lives for himself.

And when we present the gospel, when we tell people about Jesus Christ and what it means to follow Jesus Christ, we have to emphasize, we have to be so careful to emphasize that to repent means that we humble ourselves, that we say, Yes, I am a sinner.

Yes, I have defiled, I have defied the true and living God.

I've committed cosmic treason against my creator God.

And it means that you get off your high horse, it means you bow before the king.

And Simon needs to hear that message multiple times.

We have to give that message to people.

If we don't, it's going to set us up for a ministry fail.

We have to tell people that life is not about you.

Life, and this is a hard message to receive, but you need to hear it from me.

God is not here for you.

You were created for God.

You were created for God's glory, not the other way around.

And this is the hardest shift for people to get.

You read Psalm 23, and it's like, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want, right?

And there's all these, He shepherds me, He leads me beside still waters, He does all these amazing things.

I must be really something.

He loves me.

That's wonderful.

You know why?

Because I love me.

It's like I have this desire inside of me to love myself.

But true repentance sees the rest of Psalm 23, right?

Why does he do it?

Why does he lead me and shepherd me and protect me and guide me and bring me into his house?

Why does he do all these things?

For his name's sake.

God does everything that he does for his glory.

And we've got to humble ourselves to that reality.

We have to humble ourselves to see that all of life is about God.

2 Corinthians 5, 9, write it down.

What's the goal of life?

The goal of life is to live our life to please God.

Your goal of life is to please God.

It is to humble yourself, to submit to Him.

First mark of true repentance is this humble, broken, bowing low before God, seeing that all of life is about God, not me.

A second mark of true repentance, we have to explain this, that it's it's really a mark of seeing God as Lord, seeing Jesus as Master.

You might just write that word down, Lordship.

Submission.

In fact, we see some of that, and this is something that Simon gets right, at least initially, in verse 13.

Even Simon himself believed.

And look what it says.

He was baptized.

A lot of people were baptized.

They agree to follow the Lord's commands for their life.

See, this is true that when you become a Christian, you're no longer the Lord of your life.

You are no longer in charge of your life.

There is another master that you must submit to, you must follow.

If he wants me to be baptized, I'm gonna get baptized.

Friends, I have I have a great deal of concern for someone who says, I'm a Christ follower, I'm a Christian, but I refuse to get baptized.

You know why I'm concerned about that?

Because it's the first thing that God has commanded you to do, and you're unwilling to submit to his lordship.

It's a bad sign.

Some of you need to come forward today at the end of the service and say, you know what?

He's called me to be baptized?

Yes, sir.

Order's received, I will be baptized.

Some of you need to do that.

It's a mark of what it means to truly follow Jesus Christ.

It's Lordship.

John the Baptist would say something of that extent to the soldiers that asked him about repentance.

In fact, write this down.

Luke 3, verse 14.

Luke 3:14

The soldiers asked him, What do we need to do?

Remember, this is out of that section where John is confronting the people that are coming forward.

You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath of God?

And now he's addressing the soldiers, not just the Pharisees, but the soldiers, these guys who are in ultimate authority.

They are at the highest place where they can give commands, they can give orders, they're not used to receiving orders.

They're not used to having a law over them.

They want to extort someone, they want to do what they want to do, they are allowed to.

They have a lot of authority.

And what does he say to them?

Don't extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation.

And be content with your wages.

He says there's a new mastery over your life, there's a new Lord over your life, and you're to submit to that Lord.

It's a radical shift in the Lordship, in the commands that come.

And friends, we have to tell people this affects every part of your life.

God says be baptized, go get baptized.

If God says attend church, which he does, right?

Hebrews 10, 25, don't forsake the assembling of yourself.

You're all here.

Good job.

But what this is saying is God says he wants that as a pattern in my life.

I'm gonna make it happen.

I'm gonna submit to his lordship.

God calls me to live a pure life.

God calls me to be a one-woman man.

Yes, sir.

I will submit to that.

I will bow before your lordship.

God calls me to give.

I'll give.

Why?

Because he's commanded it.

I'll submit.

These are the marks of true repentance.

True repentance has a new Lord.

True repentance has humility.

Write this one down.

True repentance is marked by continuation.

And we see that at least for a while in Simon.

Look at verse 13.

He continued with Philip.

Wow, okay.

All right, Simon.

For a while.

And seeing the signs and the great miracles, he was amazed.

I mean, the initials, things that we see in Simon's life, the magician, these are a lot of them are good things.

Is it true repentance?

It is if it continues.

We have to tell people this.

We have to make it clear that if you ever stop following Jesus, you weren't truly born again.

In fact, write down Hebrews 3, verse 14, it says, For we have come to share in Christ.

Hebrews 3:14

How?

If indeed we hold to our original confidence, underline these last few words.

Firm to the end.

How do I know I'm saved?

I'm not like the seed that that got into the dirt and its roots went down, just a shallow area, and then the heat came and it withered.

The way I know I'm a true believer is that I maintain my confession for the rest of my life until I see Jesus.

That I don't stop following him.

This is this is, guys, this is journey theology, right?

Don't stop believing, right?

You don't know the band?

Journey?

Don't stop believing.

Like it's that you continue to believe all of your life, all of your existence, and you never give up your confession, you never give up the Lord's.

Of Christ, you follow Him all the days of your life.

We've got to be really clear on what the gospel is and what we tell people.

Without doing that, it's a ministry fail.

I have three daughters and a son.

The daughters are the ones that there's a day that I'm I'm dreading.

You know what day that is, right?

Yeah, that's right.

Some of you got it.

It's the wedding day.

I don't know why I don't feel that way with Caleb.

It's more like get out of here.

You know what I mean?

It's uh go go get out of that, you know, uh go start a family, all that, you know.

But uh with the daughters, there's there's something something a dad feels.

But I just imagine that service.

I imagine the vows being given, and it'll be hard to hold it together.

But what if the young man, as I'm up there at the altar or, you know, as the service is going on, what if the vows are given and will you will you take her in sickness and in health for all the days of your life?

Will you?

What if the young man says, I'll try?

I'm calling it off right there, right?

No, that's not a full commitment.

What God wants in our relationship is this all-in, full commitment all the days of your life, that you continue with Him and you never stop following.

My fear is that there are many people in our churches, just like Simon, they endure for a season, then the pains come, then the hard times come.

Listen, folks, you're gonna suffer.

You will suffer.

You will face failures, you will face hard seasons.

The question is, are you going to stay with Jesus or are you gonna fall away?

Are you gonna be like that seed that sprouts and then it withers and you're gonna only follow him for a while?

True repentance holds firm to your confession, holds firm to Jesus Christ all the days of your life.

True repentance doesn't say, I'll try.

True repentance says, I'm all in.

There is no other way.

We have to do that hard work of being really clear on explaining what true repentance is.

It's all in, it's humility, it's new master, it's faithfulness and continuing to the end.

The amazement or the emotion of Simon is not enough.

In fact, James chapter 2 tells us that even the demons, they believe and they shudder, right?

James 2 · chapter mention

They're amazed.

They're amazed at God.

That's not enough.

That's not true repentance.

Have you repented?

Have you truly said to the Lord, all my life, I'll follow you?

Or are you just living in a seasonal amazement?

That's a good question.

That's the gospel that we've got to get right, or it's going to lead to ministry failures like Simon.

Number two, we have to move quickly to prevent potential division.

This is probably the most theologically dense portion of our study today, and you'll have to forgive me.

I need to take a little extra time to do this.

But how do I get division from this section?

Well, verses 14 to verse 17 is all about uh what's known in theology as the late coming of the Holy Spirit.

This is one of really two passages where the Spirit does not, he does not behave normatively in how we see him operate in every other Holy Spirit passage in the Bible.

It's really an anomaly.

This passage and verse, or in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And we've got to do the work to ask why does the Holy Spirit come late?

Every other instance of the Holy Spirit, the moment of conversion, the moment of regeneration, the Spirit indwells us.

So we can't get this wrong.

We've got to understand this, or else we we run the risk of misunderstanding his work, building a false theology or an incomplete theology on the work of the Holy Spirit.

And this hits home to me.

I just want you to know this about uh who I am.

Uh, I grew up uh in Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana, and I went to a school that was a more Pentecostal uh school.

And I'll never forget this event, you guys.

I was in the eighth grade, and I'll never forget like being lined up in the gym, and a prophet was brought in, and each person was like, uh they were trying to slay each person in the spirit, and they were like touching people's head, and people were falling back, and they got to me.

I had no idea what was going on.

I was just like, what is happening?

I never had no context for that.

And they walked up to me, and like all these people had fallen back and they'd been caught, and I didn't know what to do, and the person came up to me and they pushed on my forehead, nothing happened.

And I'm like the lone guy in the room still standing, okay?

And I left that day saying, What's wrong with me?

You know, what happened?

What was I missing?

And really, I didn't what I didn't understand at the time was that's that's actually what's called second blessing theology, all right?

And you may have even gone to a church that believed this, and it really comes from the two passages that I'm trying to explain to you.

This passage, Acts 8 and Acts 19.

It's this idea that after conversion, there's a subsequent second blessing.

And that second blessing is given in the form of uh being slain in the spirit or tongues or something like that.

It's a second blessing theology, but but we have to ask the question: is that really what's going on here?

Is that really what's going on in Acts 19?

Because it's really bad to build a whole theology on two verses.

That's a bad plan.

We need to take the whole and examine the minority verses and try to understand what's really happening in those moments.

The normal function of the Holy Spirit, let me just put some verses up on the screen.

Romans 8, verse 9, it says that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

Romans 8:9

If you don't have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not like you get levels of the Holy Spirit, like pouring water into a cup.

The Holy Spirit is a person and he indwells you the moment that you become a Christian.

In fact, if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not a Christian.

You don't belong to God.

Write this verse down, 1 Corinthians 12, 13.

It tells us we're one body, one church.

Uh you come into the church.

How?

Because we were all made to drink of one spirit.

Write this one down, Titus 3, verses 5 to 6.

Titus 3:5–6

It tells us that he saved us.

How?

By his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit that renews us, washes us, indwells us, saves us.

1 John 4, 13, by this we know we abide.

How do we know we abide in Christ?

How do we know we're saved?

How do we have assurance of our salvation?

That's a good question.

Well, 1 John 4 tells us that He's given us His Holy Spirit.

If you have the Holy Spirit, you're saved.

If you don't, you're not saved.

Romans chapter 5, verse 5 says, God's love has been poured into our hearts.

Romans 5:5

How?

Through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Here's what you need to know: the normal operational function and action of the person of the Holy Spirit is that the moment you become a Christian, the moment you are born again, God gives you his Holy Spirit to indwell you.

Now, with that, what do we do with this passage?

What do we do with Acts chapter 8 and Acts chapter 19, which are the two passages?

Acts 8 · chapter mention Acts 19 · chapter mention

There's only two passages where the Holy Spirit is delayed, where his coming is not normative, and we've got to work hard to understand that, or else you're going to build a theology that is actually in error.

I think this is all about unity.

I think this is all about attestation.

I think this is a transitional moment in the church.

It's descriptive, it's not prescriptive.

You see, Acts is a transitional moment.

For the first time, we have Samaritans coming to faith.

For the first time, we have Samaritans with an incomplete theology, and Jerusalem is watching.

Fact, notice it says in the next verse Jerusalem, the Jerusalem church, they heard that Samaria had received the Word of God.

I mean, in a Jewish mind, you remember last week, Jews hated Samaritans.

They didn't believe Samaritans could be saved.

And so there's a very real animosity here.

And I believe that the purpose of the delay of the Holy Spirit is a couple of things.

I think it's talking, it's actually extinguishing division.

And it's also affirming, attesting that the church is going global.

That the church is going to Samaria, that the church is going to the Gentile nations.

That's the idea.

This is a transition moment.

We're not going to build a theology on a moment and a place of transition.

It is descriptive, not prescriptive.

It's attesting that Samaritans were in the church.

Samaritans are in.

It's to protect against division.

God's heart is to protect his church from being divided.

This is not a Jerusalem church and a Samaritan church.

It's one church.

It's one people of God.

Not two peoples, one people.

And this is such a huge issue for us.

We have to see God's concern that he does not want his church divided.

We have to hate division, just as God hates division.

Pastor Greg was out on the University of Memphis just the other day.

And he told me the story.

He said, He had to sign up.

Why'd you leave the church?

Why'd you leave Christianity?

And he said, these are real answers.

One person said, I left Christianity because I looked at my church.

I saw how divided it was.

I saw the bitterness, the gossip, the slander, the innuendo, I saw the division.

I saw that I was a part of a church split and I walked away.

God is intensely concerned that we are one people, that we are united together, that there's not a separation.

And we need to pick up that concern.

We need to share in the concern God has.

God delayed the Spirit to give attestation that when those apostles laid hands on them and the Holy Spirit came, this is attestation that there's one people of God, that Samaritans can be saved.

Notice how not only God is active to prevent division, notice how the leaders mobilized.

Look at verse 14.

The apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God.

They sent to them Peter and John, the big dogs.

We got Peter, the leader.

We got John, the pastor of the megachurch pastor, right?

And they come down and they knew the hate that Jews had for Samaritans.

They went to affirm and to really extinguish the division before it manifested.

In fact, there might even be, some have theorized that there might even be a hint of doctrinal division, and maybe that's even part of why the Holy Spirit was delayed.

They didn't have a complete knowledge of God.

In fact, that seems to be the issue in Acts 19.

Maybe in Acts 19, the Spirit is late.

They were baptized with John's baptism, but not Jesus, and they didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.

So there's an incomplete theology happening there.

Perhaps that's what's going on here.

They had been baptized in only, they had been baptized in the name of, they had been baptized in the name of Jesus.

And when they laid their hand on them, they received the Holy Spirit, very similar to Acts 19.

I think this is really important for us just to camp out on for just a second.

Division is something that you and I have to be guardians against.

And it takes all of us leaping to action when we see division.

We can't be passive.

We can't allow it to continue.

If you see something, a division, a bitter spirit, a preference concern, something over style, over things that are that are really non-issues, we have to be like these leaders.

We have to be like Jane, or we have to be like John, we have to be like Peter.

We have to leap to action and we have to go to address it.

When I first came to Memphis uh seven years ago, I was shocked.

I'll just be honest with you.

I drove this town, and here's what I noticed.

You'll have to forgive me, all right?

I I noticed that this town has some of the biggest church buildings I've ever seen.

How many of you agree with that?

It's crazy.

I drive this town, some of the biggest, most beautiful churches I've ever seen.

I've lived in several cities.

I've lived in Shreveport, I've lived in Tulsa, I've lived in Anaheim.

I've never been to a town with so many big churches.

Like big buildings.

And here's here's what I discovered.

Many of the buildings that were made to house thousands have about 150 people in them today.

What happened?

Like, what happened?

Was someone unloving?

Did leadership make bad decisions?

What what happened?

I think the answer is that much of it could have been prevented if the entire church, when they saw the first hint of division, the first hint of someone needing correction, if the entire church worked together to rise up and give the hard word, give the correction, some of it probably could have been prevented.

It's an amazing thing that we've all lived through, that all of us have seen.

God wants us to take division seriously.

And if we don't, it's a ministry fail.

You can't just blame it on American individualism.

Boy, this is a hard place to do ministry.

Everyone's so individualistic, they have so many preferences.

You can't do that.

It's also all of us rising up to guard the church like Peter and like John did.

We have to become guardians.

We have to leap to action and quickly deal with problems.

Number three.

We're going to have to go faster.

Number three.

Correct boldly and confront sinful hearts.

We have to have a boldness in our life to confront sinful hearts.

In verse 18, notice Simon's back.

Here we go.

This is kind of a sandwich here.

We got Simon, a little interlude, Simon back again.

In verse 18, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

Hear what he's saying there.

I want to amaze people again.

I want to get back to my life of living for me.

I want to get back to the fame.

I want to get back to the fortune.

I want to get back to how I was living.

This is Simon taking steps backwards into his old life.

And Peter rises up and gives the hard word of correction.

And it is.

It is a hard word in verse 20.

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

This is a stunning rebuke.

I mean, you might even think this is a little harsh.

R.

C.

Sproul, how many of you know that name?

R.C.

Sproul said, essentially what he is saying here is, you and your money can go to hell.

That's the weight of it.

And some of you are like, well, that seems kind of harsh.

Come on, Pete.

That's a little harsh.

I mean, this is a new convert, right?

Let's treat him with kid gloves.

You're embarrassing me in front of the wizards.

This is harsh.

It stings our overly developed sense of empathy in our modern day.

Is it unloving?

I don't think it's unloving.

You see, we we we've got to move from this overly sensitized era of empathy, and we've got to be able to give a rebuke and see it as love.

There's time, there's a place to get into someone's face.

There's a time, there's a place to give the hard correction.

When your daughter is dating somebody that is no good, there is a time to say, over my dead body and chase off that scoundrel.

All the dads say, Amen.

There's a time when your son comes home smelling like alcohol to get in his face and to give the hard rebuke.

But if you shrink from this calling and if you ignore the things you need to speak to, what's going to happen is it's going to result in a ministry fail for them, for your community, for your church, for the glory of God.

And Peter just enters into it.

He gives him next steps.

He gives him a diagnosis.

Maybe you're not saved.

You have neither part nor lot in this matter.

Your heart is not right before God.

In fact, he addresses the heart in verse 23.

I see you're in the gall of bitterness.

You're jealous.

You want what those guys have.

You want the showmanships.

You're in the bond of iniquity.

Verse 22, what do you do?

Repent.

He calls him out.

Repent.

That the intent of your heart, your wickedness, may be forgiven you.

Do you love people enough?

Do you love the peace of this place?

Do you love the unity of this place?

Do you love the glory of God enough that you're willing to call out sin when you see it?

Someone is slandering another brother in the church.

Someone is gossiping.

Do you have the strength, the boldness to call them out?

It's hard.

I get it.

It's every week of my life.

We have to deal with something like this.

I don't like doing it.

I don't like doing this.

I don't enjoy it.

But if you don't, it's going to be a ministry fail.

You've got to be willing to give the correction.

And notice it's the most mature who do that.

It's Peter.

The most mature people in the church see correction as love.

And they take the lead.

Final point.

I'm over time.

We're done.

Finally, we need to accept failure humbly and keep moving forward.

What happens out of this?

You know what's crazy about this passage is we don't get the, we don't get like the epilogue.

We don't get the rest of the story with Simon Magnus.

Does he respond?

Does he repent?

Does he?

You get sort of a half response in the text.

Notice verse 24.

Simon answered, Pray for me.

All right.

We'll pray for you.

Pray for me.

And he says, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

You get this mixture of fear and conviction, maybe half repentance.

And then he just sort of fades away.

This is the last we hear of Simon Magus.

That's it.

What's the rest of his story?

Was he just immature?

Was he a new convert?

Was he just confused?

Did he just need that correction?

And now he's in the church?

Here's the point.

We don't know.

And there will be many people in ministry you do not get the rest of the story on.

You're gonna get a lot of that.

What do you do?

Many stories in the church end poorly.

Many who get the correction run away.

That's ministry.

It's filled with failures.

And what do you do when that happens?

Verse 25, you just keep preaching and you keep going.

You don't miss the forest for the tree.

Now when they had testified, spoken the word of the Lord, they did their hardest to help Simon.

Not sure what his response was.

They returned to Jerusalem doing what?

Preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Some will respond, some don't respond.

Don't get angry, don't get demoralized, just keep preaching.

Don't become bitter.

Just keep telling people about Jesus Christ.

I um I've been married 21 years now, and I have my wedding album at home, and it's it's pretty dusty if I'm being honest.

I haven't opened it in a long time.

The reason I haven't opened it is it's very personal.

The pastor who uh married, who officiated the wedding for Ashley and I.

Someone I respected, someone I loved, went on mission trips together.

Always grew up with him as the hero.

I wanted to be like him.

He did our wedding.

He did our premarital counseling too, like six hours.

Big investment.

Years later, he fell.

Had an affair, left church, divorced his wife, hurt his family.

When I flipped through that album, and I haven't I haven't had the bravery to touch it because it just brings back painful memories.

And I'll be honest with you, I don't know what to do with it.

I don't know what to do with it.

How will his story end?

I don't know.

Will he repent?

I hope so.

I hope that he comes to this place and he responds to correction.

Right now he's still running.

How will his story end?

I don't know.

What do I do in the meantime?

I gotta keep going.

Even beyond the failure, even beyond the hurt.

I can't stop in the mission that God has given me.

I'm gonna live in purity.

I'm gonna live in love.

I'm gonna live in grace, humility.

I want to live out the gospel, and I want to tell people the complete gospel, the true gospel.

I want to tell them that the only way for their sins to be made right before a holy God is Jesus Christ dying on the cross in their place for their sins.

And I want to give that message to anyone who will listen.

Some will fall away, some will run away, some will respond.

And maybe there's even some in this room who need to respond to the gospel.

To say, you know what?

I haven't done that.

And I'm on a trajectory to fall away.

And if I'm not careful, that'll be me.

I'll be Simon Magnus.

I've got to repent.

I've got to come to Christ on his terms.

I've got to turn from my sin, turn to the Savior, and fully commit myself to him.

I don't know Simon Magnus' story.

I don't know my former pastor's story.

I don't know how it ends.

That's not my job.

My job is not to sort all that out.

God can sort that out.

My job is to keep being faithful and to keep going regardless of the response that comes.

Today we're going to respond.

Let's stand together.

I want to call our response team down to the front.

What we're doing at Central in these most recent days is we're calling everyone to be responsive to the Word of God.

And I really want all of you to know this.

When the Word of God's preached, we want to have responsive hearts.

We want to have hearts that respond to the Word of God as it goes out.

And each week we call people up to the front.

We have some response leaders all across the front.

It was awesome.

Second service last week was amazing.

We had uh like six, five or six couples along the front, and every single person had someone that they were praying with.

And it was just it was just great to see God's people responding and asking for prayer.

You you ought to be humble enough to say, I need to ask for prayer over something in my life.

One part of this sermon stuck out to me.

I want to pray over that.

And if you'd like to do that today, we already have some leaders already lined up.

Guys, if you could spread across here, I'm gonna call you guys to just keep walking.

We're gonna push you across the front just a little bit more.

Keep coming, keep coming.

And I want to encourage you that you can respond to any of these prayer leaders.

But with your heads bowed, with your eyes closed, let me try to sort of prime the pump.

All right?

Let me prime the pump.

Some things to think about.

I want you to answer the question: where is it that you've been passive in the life of your church?

Where is it where you have neglected to call someone to repentance?

Where is it in your life that you have seen a bitter heart, maybe in yourself?

Remember, that was the diagnosis of Simon.

You've got a bitter heart, man.

You've got some undealt with heart issues.

Where is it that you have seen a spirit in the church that needs to be addressed?

A lack of unity.

Maybe you just need to come forward and pray for boldness.

Or maybe you're like me.

You're here today, and someone has failed you.

Those moments come.

Someone you looked up to, someone you loved, has broken your heart.

And you just need to come up and pray.

And you need to say, Lord, I'm not living with them as the Lord of my life.

You are my master.

Man will fail me, but you never fail.

I'm gonna keep following, and I'm gonna keep preaching, and I'm going to keep teaching, and I'm going to keep giving the gospel away, regardless of how others can fail me.

And maybe this is even in this room right now, maybe this is that moment where you need to once and for all forgive and allow the bitterness to be cut out of your heart.

Maybe that's what you need to do.

Maybe some of you need to just come forward and ask for God's grace to keep going.

It's hard.

The Christian life is hard.

But here's the truth the mark of a true believer is they continue through the good seasons, through the hard seasons.

And you just need to come forward and ask for God's grace.

God, give me grace to keep going.

To continue, to not be like that seed that sprouts and rises and then fades away.

Help me to have the grace to keep going.

Some of you need to pray that.

I'm going to pray over you right now, but if you're here today and you're like Simon, maybe you're not truly born again.

Maybe you're here today realizing for the first time that you don't have repentance.

I want to just call you to humble your heart.

I want to call you forward.

You need to come and do business with God, to repent of your sins, to make your whole life about Jesus, not your own fame, not your mission, but his mission for life.

And if you call upon the name of the Lord and you do that with a sincere heart, God will save you.

It's to repent, turn away from your sin, turn towards Christ, enter into a relationship of faith, hope, and love.

It's to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength.

Father, I pray over these, my friends.

I don't know the responses that need to happen in this room, but there are many.

Some need to come forward and just pray over heart issues, bitterness, forgiveness, woundedness.

They hurt me.

Others need to come forward and pray over discernment for the things of salvation.

Others need to come forward and pray over boldness.

I need to be bold.

I need to be correcting.

I need to be, I need to be clarifying as it relates to the gospel.

Father, whatever work it is that you're doing in our life, help us prevent those ministry failures.

We can't prevent them all, we can't stop them all.

There's always going to be a failure.

But Lord, help us to have the humility to step forward into the grace and the correction that you've offered us this morning.

We love you.

And Lord, I pray that right now, during this worship song, you would move among your people.

And there would be many making next step decisions to follow Jesus.

We love you, and we pray this in his name.

And all God's people say it together.

Amen.