Acts 8:9-25

Very difficult week has gone by in the life of the world, not only for people around the world but also here at home in America. We were once again reminded of the ravaging effects of sin and its effects in the fallen world that we live in. We had our ladies meeting and our men’s meeting yesterday and something that Pastor PB mentioned towards the end of our discussion in the men’s section is 100% correct. Oftentimes we try to look at all the social issues and ills that are prevalent in our communities and we try to find solutions for them, but at the end of the day they’re ultimately moral issues. It is because of the fallen nature of man that we are enduring and seeing all these things happen. You all see the pictures and videos coming from the Middle East. You see a community in Maine torn apart, never to be the same again. Families, just in a matter of 15 minutes, lives change forever. Children left without parents, three of them who were deaf, who were taking care of very young children, gunned down in a matter of 15 minutes. And before the dead have even been accounted for, one side will call for more gun control, while the other side will say just arm everybody, that is a solution, and they keep on arguing while thousands of people die amidst us. It is all the sound of demonic powers that is ravaging through the souls of men. We label them sometimes as mental health because we don’t want to recognize sometimes that there’s a spiritual element and a warfare to what is going on in the world. More than ever, what we do here week after week becomes vitally important, not only in your lives but also in the lives that you live outside of the four walls of this church in a broken world. In a world that is looking for answers, you hold the answer, whether you like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, whether the world will acknowledge it or not. Ultimately, the only solution to the brokenness in this world is found in the coming of our Lord and the establishment of his kingdom in this world. There will never be utopia, never be peace, never be any kind of a calmness or anything in this world. This world will become progressively worse and worse. But as long as God gives us life on this Earth, our duty is to somehow shed a light into this dark world in any way that we can, by the grace of God.

So, I pray that God will enable us. Our times of worship are important. The times that we spent listening to God’s word is important because you know why? The world is constantly trying to indoctrinate your mind into thinking differently about the problems of the world. That’s where God’s word comes in, time and time again, to recalibrate your thinking into the thinking of God and to the truth of God’s word. That recalibration is needed, isn’t it? Because depending upon who you’re listening to throughout the week, your mind can be easily changed. There are so many voices that are clamoring for your attention, but in the midst of it, there’s only one truth, and that is the truth of God’s word, and that what comes from the God who made us and the one who is still in control of everything. Listening to his voice is very important. Every week when I prepare sermons, there is a tremendous amount of burden that comes upon my heart because this is not just an exercise, and this is not just a vocation. It is not like my pharmacy job that I do here every week and weekend, as pastors or as teachers of God’s word, what we do has eternal consequences. What we preach makes eternal differences. What we are able to impart in the lives of people are not just a medication for a day or for 20 or 30 years, it is something that will change people forever and ever. So what we do is very important, and I thank God for the privilege of being able to speak God’s word to you week after week. We don’t take that lightly. It is only the gift of God and the grace of God that gives us this platform. Praise God for that.

As we continue with our series “Church on Rise,” we turn again to Acts 8. I’m going to be covering verses 9-25 because of the fact of the lack of time. I’m just going to read for you verse 9 and then go through the scripture that we have in front of us. Now for some time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city, or magic in the city, and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great. As you go to verse 10, all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention as claimed, this man is a divine power known as a great power. I gave you a little bit of introduction to the people of Samaria last week, and why the Jews hated them so much. They’re a mixed breed, as we study even in God’s word and say in history as well, a group of people that came about as intermarriage between the people of Israel, the lost tribes of Israel, and many of the foreign nations. The king of Assyria did that on purpose to dilute the people of God, and he was successful in doing that. But there was also a great fascination with witchcraft and sorcery and magic, especially in Samaria but also in the ancient world as well. Historians tell us that in Samaria and in neighboring places, they thought of all this sorcery and magic as something that came from God himself. They saw that as channels by which God was interfering in the affairs of men. So this man, introduced to us as Simon, by the way, many theologians make the interesting point it’s so true that many of the false Messiahs that came about in the first century, second century, and even before our Lord, all had the name Simon. I don’t know what it is about that name, Simon, you find it throughout history. No offense to anybody who is here is Simon, but Simon is a name that is a favorite of all false Messiahs, and we see that even in this man’s name as well. And he was enjoying almost unrivaled popularity in the city of Samaria.

We ended last week by talking about how the persecution that broke out against the church after the death of Stephen caused the people of God to finally end up in Samaria, but that was the plan of God. And there we also saw how Phillip was greatly being used by God, an evangelist, to bring people to the knowledge of God. We ended last week by talking about how there was great joy in the city. So in the midst of all the joy, in the midst of all the repentance, in the midst of all the revival, there is one hard heart that is not very happy with what is happening. Because he is someone, the Bible says, that is practicing magic and sorcery, and because of his influence, evil, demonic, evil spirits that were controlling his life, he was able to do great things to a point where the people even had a name for him. He was known as a great one who was doing things by the great power of God. Even in the age that we’re living in, there is a greater tendency among the modern generation to not be associated with any kind of established religion. That is true in the world that we’re living in. But you know what? They have a fascination with spiritual things. Spiritualism is actually on the growth here in America.

Many of the young people who do not go to church still are fascinated with the spiritual world. So, if you talk to them and you ask them, “Do you believe in God?” they will suddenly reply by saying, “I believe in a higher power.” They will not use the word God. This fascination with spiritualism is very prevalent among the modern generation. I don’t have the latest figure, but in 2017, the psychic industry in America was worth $2 billion. One of the funniest things that I’ve ever read is actually a company who is listed in the stock market of Wall Street. It is a company, all their business is psychic, psychic establishment America, but on their front page of the investment relations bulletin, they’re talking about their own company and at the bottom, it says, “Even though we make all these claims on the potential success of our company, we want to remind you that no future results can be guaranteed by our company.” That’s kind of a funny statement made by a company that specializes in psychic mediums.

And even in our secular gatherings, I remember in our pharmacy conference, when we, after we have our dinner on our first night, when we come out for the last few years, I don’t know why, there’s a palm reader there, there is somebody with a tarot card there, and I see people who profess to be Christians, walking into this booth and showing their hands to these women and men that are sitting behind a tent, wanting to know the future, forgetting what God’s word says about them and the plans of God for them. By the way, these are not innocent things in any life of any person, especially in the life of a Christian. Palm reading is not from the Lord. Tarot card reading is not from the board. Ouija boards are not from the Lord. Any kind of witchcraft is not from the Lord. Anything, all of these things have a demonic background to it. Psychic hotlines are not for the believers. You are not to call 1-800-psychic to find out what is going to happen to you in the future. You are asked to stay in the presence of God and wait upon the Lord to lead you in the direction of your life.

By the way, a word of caution in regards to yoga as well. Yoga, in its foundational, is a Hindu practice. Be very careful. Any kind of practice that asks you to empty your mind is not from the Lord. God’s word tells us to fill your mind with the things of God. Do you know that there is not a single verse in the Bible that says, “Empty your mind,” but there are a lot of verses that say, “Fill your mind with the things of God.” People that are much more smarter than me say, “Emptying the mind is a dangerous thing.” When you empty your mind, you are making your mind available for other things to creep into it. We are supposed to be people who are filled with certain things, not emptied of the things of God, so that Satan and demonic powers can creep into it.

I pray that we will be people who will be more educated, more aware of what is going on in the world today, but that’s not my point this morning. And Simon was really succeeding in what he was doing, and he had a great deal of popularity in the city of Samaria. But in the midst of it, God’s word was being rapidly spread. Look at verse 12: “When they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God.” I want you to pay very close attention to God’s word. Verse 12 does not tell us that the people of Samaria believed in the message of Philip because of the miracles he was performing. The Bible says he believed the good news of the kingdom of God. It is the preaching of the Gospel that made them to believe.

See, if you’re trying to attract people by multiplying loaves and bread in your church, when you stop multiplying loaves and bread, guess what happens to the people? They will go back to somewhere else that will give them loaves and bread. If you’re trying to attract people by miracles, when the miracles stop, the people will stop coming to your church. But if you continue to preach God’s word to the people, God’s word produces transformation that is lasting. And that is why many of the revivals that started with miracle crusades were very short-termed and did not have lasting effects on the community, because miracles are not the primary way in which the gospel is advanced. You preach the gospel, leave the miracles up to the Lord. You don’t have to go searching after miracles. God will do miracles. God can heal the sick, he can make the lame to walk again, he can cause the blind to see, he can cause the demon to be set free. But our job is not running after miracles, not pursuing them. Our job is preaching the Good News of the kingdom of God and leaving the results up to the hands of God. If God needs to do a miracle, he will do a miracle. If he does not need a miracle, he will not do the miracle. Our God knows what he’s doing.

So, these people, they were beautifully transformed by the power of God’s word and not only that, look at the next verse: “And the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” I know Pastor PB would love for me to say this, the actual right translation is, “They were baptized into the name of Jesus.” He often says that. I think even when he does baptism, he says, “Baptized into the name of the Father, into the name of the Son, and into the name of the Holy Spirit.” What does it mean by baptized into the name of Jesus? When you say you’re baptized into someone’s name, it is a transfer of ownership from one person to the other. You’re basically saying, “I don’t belong to myself anymore, I belong to Jesus.” What does it mean by baptism? Baptism means completely immersing someone in something. Here, the agent is water. If you were to take a piece of clothing and you were to dip it into dye and try to change the color of that piece of clothing, that’s the term that is used for baptismo, baptism, complete immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so beautifully, and look at verse 13, a verse that we find hard to believe. Here is a magician, a sorcerer who was doing all these things by the work of evil spirits. Simon himself believed, and guess what? He went to church, and he was baptized. Can you imagine the joy in the mind of Philip when Simon came to church? I’m imagining Simon, Philip probably got up, probably didn’t have a church building like this, definitely not. But Philip probably got up and said, “For the praise of God, I want to show to you the main sorcerer, magician, the great one of our city, has accepted the Lord as the savior of his life, and we are going to baptize him.” They probably had a great gathering to celebrate the fact that Simon himself believed and was baptized. And look at what else he did, he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. Now here’s a problem. In verse 12, God’s word told us that people believed the gospel message and they were baptized. When you come to verse 13, he doesn’t tell us what Simon believed. The only thing it told us was that he believed and he was baptized. But we will see that he was believing more of the miracles than the one who is The Miracle Worker. He was more interested in the signs than the savior. He is more interested in what he can gain through this new faith that is here in Samaria than in actual transformation.

John Piper has a beautiful illustration on the kind of belief that was probably in the life of Simon. He says, “The simplest way I can think of to illustrate what went wrong with Simon is an experience every mother of toddlers has had. Suppose you have a one-year-old child sitting on your lap, and suddenly in the window there’s a beautiful bird. And you hold out your hand to point out the bird and say, ‘Look at that bird.’ What does the child look at? He looks at your hand and the sign that you’re making with your fingers. He might even try to imitate the sign by putting out his own index finger. He sees the sign, he’s excited because you are excited, he joins in imitating the sign as best as he can. But the problem is, what? He never sees the bird. The whole point of the sign is missed.” The child is just happy that Mom and Dad are holding out the index finger, but the child does not see why the finger is being stretched in that direction. See, Simon saw the signs that Philip was doing. They were better than his own magical signs. He got excited about them, he followed Philip around and wanted to imitate them, but he never saw the bird in the window. He never saw the ugliness of his own sin, the need for repentance, and the glory of Christ in the gospel who forgives and makes us new and clean.

You know what one of the tragedies of the modern era is, we have a lot of people in The Universal Church who have come to church because they saw a sign, and not the Savior. I wonder how many people will hear the dreadful words on that day, “Get away from me, I never knew you.” But Lord, we prophesied in your name. Never knew you. We cast out demons in your name. Never knew you. I cannot think of anything more unfortunate in the life of a person living on the face of the Earth than to sit in the pews of the church and not have a relationship with the Savior that is saving you. I think that is a tragedy, because many churches are selling a brand of gospel that is devoid of the one who came and died for us on the cross. It is all about personal exaltation, it is all about the temporal and not the eternal, it is not all about the material and not about the spiritual. That is not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our focus is always on eternity, our focus is always on the spiritual. “Even if He kills me, yet I will still follow,” is the mantra of the New Testament Christian.

I don’t follow Jesus because He heals me, I follow Jesus because He has already healed me. Do you see the difference? I follow Jesus because He has already given me the greatest healing He could ever give to me: the sin, unpardonable sin, the mortal wound to my soul, He has healed me. What more healing do you need to prove that your God is a God worth following? Oh, do not cheapen the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You think my God is so concerned about how much money you have in your bank account? He’s more worried about your treasures in Heaven. Temporal blessings, that’s what the world does. Eternal focus, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to change, and we need to call out these people who are propagating this kind of false gospel, and luring a lot of people into thinking they’re believers when they are not.

But look at what happens in Acts 8:14-17. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, that word is so beautiful there, they had welcomed the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. We don’t know how much time this took, they don’t have cell phones or emails to say Samaria is doing well, come and see what God is doing. Probably messengers had to travel back and forth to communicate this message. But when the church in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had welcomed, here they are forgetting about all the difference they had, sending two of the apostles, Peter and John, to Samaria.

I just want you to see in one words the difference the gospel makes. Look at Luke 9:54 when the same John was traveling to the same place just a few years ago, maybe a few months ago. Look what he said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” Oh, the change that is made by the gospel. When the Samaritans were unwilling to receive the Lord, disciples James and John thought about the story of Elijah in the Old Testament, and he is saying, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” That same John has now become the Apostle of Love, and now the gospel has changed him so much that he is taking the life-saving gospel to Samaria.

When they arrived, verse 15, they prayed for the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Very controversial and a verse that is argued by theologians quite a bit. There’s a lot of problem with this verse. There’s no doubt from the previous verses that these are believers, but here they are being asked to pray that they might receive the Holy Spirit. The idea here is that they don’t have the Holy Spirit, and you need to pray for that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Some will interpret this as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, others will interpret this as the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon them. But somehow, with a way in which it’s not very clear to us, they had become believers, but it was made very clear to them that they had not received the Holy Spirit. And so, look what they did, verse 16 and 17, “Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” That’s what God’s word says to us.

Now, why did God delay the coming of the Holy Spirit until the apostles came and prayed over them? I know that there’s a lot of theology that people have derived from these verses. I don’t want to go into any of those details because I’ll be here for hours preaching on that. That’s not really what I’m trying to do here, but I do want to give you the main reason why God delayed the coming of the Holy Spirit until the apostles came. Remember what I told you last week, there was a tremendous division between the Jews and Samaritans, and you cannot even imagine in your mind how much they hated each other. In fact, I told you some story last week. Different temple, different high priest, one class looking at others as being inferior. A Jew would pray every single day, “God, do not save a single Samaritan.” Think about that, he would pray every single day, “Do not save a single Samaritan.” And you know what the Samaritans did in 6 A.D.? They took the bones of a dead man, and they made a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. They took the bones of the dead man and they put it inside the temple to somehow desecrate the temple. They hated each other, they didn’t want to do anything with each other. Remember what I told you last week, any time a Jewish person would even go into the land of Samaria, before he would enter back into the Promised Land, he would wash his feet, because he considered even the soil they were living on to be defiled. That’s why when Jesus uses the word “Good Samaritan,” that was such a bad thing in the mind of the Jewish people. That’s why the disciples asked Jesus, “What are you doing talking to a Samaritan woman? You know you’re not supposed to be doing that.” Even the Samaritan woman was very surprised and said, “You being who you are, why would you speak to me? And more importantly, why would you ask me of water, knowing how much we hate each other?”

God delayed the coming of the Spirit of God upon the Samaritan for this reason. Remember, there was a division among them. God wanted to show to the apostles and to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ that the same Spirit that came upon the Jewish people on the day of Pentecost was now coming upon the Samaritans as well, as they laid their hands and prayed on them. God did not want any kind of racial divide within the New Testament Church. God did not want any kind of racial tension, two classes of people within the New Testament Church. God wanted Peter and John to see with their own eyes that the same power that came upon them on the day of Pentecost that caused them to do things they never thought would do, is now coming upon the Samaritans as well. That was the providence of God, that was the plan of God, to bring unity into the body of Christ. We see that later on in the book of Acts as well, when the Gentile believers believed. God delayed the coming of the Spirit of God upon them until the apostles came and laid their hands on them. That does not mean that you need some special person to come and lay hands on you to receive the Holy Spirit. This was something isolated, probably one time or twice in the book of Acts, that God did to prove a certain point and to bring unity into the body of Christ.

Look who is watching all this, Acts 8:18. Now interestingly, in verse 17, it never says that Simon received the Holy Spirit. Thank God, that would have made my preaching very difficult. Look at verse 18 and 19: “When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, ‘Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.’” He’s like looking and evidently, the Bible doesn’t tell us what happened to them as they received the Holy Spirit, but don’t make the mistake, look at verse 18. He saw, which means that there was something that happened externally that proved that there was the power of God that came upon them. It doesn’t say they spoke in tongues, maybe they did, it doesn’t say what happened, maybe the whole place shook like it did earlier in the book of Acts, but when the Holy Spirit came, something happened. Simon saw that, he thought, “Oh my goodness, this is a new trick, I want to have it.”

Years ago, there was a pastor who came visiting here in America, and after going back to India, I still remember this, he wrote a letter back to my dad. And in the letter, he said, “I was able to come to America and go to different churches. It was financially very beneficial for me.” And then he says something else I will never forget. The next sentence, “It would have been more beneficial if I had some kind of prophetic ministry along with it.” So he is looking at this as a way to expand his ministry. Simon has become so famous in the New Testament, do you know there’s a word that is now in our vocabulary in the Christian church because of Simon? You know what it is? Next slide, simony – purchasing of religious office or influence with money. You can Google it, simony, Wikipedia will tell you, and I think it’s a good source. At least in this, purchasing of religious office or influence with money. Has anybody committed simony that is sitting here? Has anybody been a part of simony that is sitting here? Bad things. This is something that is not in accordance with the will of God. You don’t buy ministry with money, you don’t give ministry with money. Remember what we heard yesterday morning from the servant of God? The gift of God. It is the gift of God. It is the gift of God, not of man. Hallelujah! Ordination is not something that man gives. It is not to be purchased by money. Prophetic ministry is not to be purchased by money. The laying of hands is not to be purchased by money. Churches are not to be purchased by money. Pastorship is not to be purchased by money. No kind of religious influence or positions are to be purchased by money. You don’t give money to preach. You don’t give money so somebody will make you the main speaker at a conference. If somebody offers you that or asks you for that, say no to it.

The Bible says, look at the next words, Peter answered, “May your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money.” You know what the literal translation of this verse is? “You and your money go to hell.” That’s exactly what it says. It’s not bad because that’s exactly what it says. I would never say that in a common word, but exactly, “Go to hell with you and your money.” In fact, the word that is used over there is that you will have complete ruin in your life because you tried to purchase the gift of God with money.

He went to the wrong people when he, in fact, if he had gone maybe to some of the leaders of today, he would have gotten it because he was offering a lot of money, wasn’t he? Reminds me of a story that happened in St. Louis. The police officers had one of the easiest arrests they could ever make. One time, on one evening, they were sitting there in their police station, and suddenly a man drove up to the window of the police station and he started ordering a burger and fries. He thought he was at Burger King. He was evidently very drunk. They said he was one of the easiest arrests for drunk driving they ever had to make because the drunk driver drove all the way to the police station, went to the window of the police station, and started ordering a burger and fries because he thought he was at Burger King. That’s kind of like Simon going to the anointed men of God, Peter and John, and asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Oh my goodness, Peter is like, “You thought you could buy the gift of God with money?”

Many times, I know we as Protestants like to look down upon the Catholic Church, and rightfully so because they had so many bad practices, so many bad teachings, even today. But there are some incidents that have happened in history that we should learn from. One such incident is this: See, simony had become so prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church, you know the story, Reformation, one of the main reasons for Martin Luther was because of the purchase of trying to sell influence in the church by selling indulgences, and even the cathedral in Rome was built on the backs of common men because they were promising them eternal life, they were collecting money from them. But you know what happened in 1046, December 20th? There was a 22-year-old German King, Henry III, he was so irate by simony within the walls of the church, so he called a meeting 25 miles from Rome to discuss the problem. Pope Gregory VI chaired the proceedings, but there was a problem. Gregory was among the worst Simonists because he bought the papacy with money. But when this King reminded the clergymen how simony was despised by the Lord, and he reminded them of the verses in Acts 8, you know what Pope Gregory did? He got up from his seat, he went to a knee, and he said, “I, Gregory, the bishop, servant of the servants of God, do hereby judge myself to be removed from the pontiff of the Holy Roman church because of the enormous error by which I have allowed impurity to creep in, and it has violated my election.” I read something like that and go, how many leaders of today will do that? If you were challenged on how you became the president of so and so, or the council member by giving money, here’s a pope that is willing to get down from his seat and lay aside his papacy because he was convicted in his spirit by what he heard from a king. But now another problem arose. None of the assembled bishops of that day were eligible to become a pope because they all had taken money or given money to become a bishop. Finally, they found one who brought great reform. But obviously, you know what happened, the reform didn’t last very long, and the church once again crept into these things.

We call ourselves Protestants, Pentecostals, Baptists, reformers, people who have come from that kind of a lineage, but when we look at many of the things that are happening within the walls of the Christian church today, our heart should be breaking. You cannot purchase the gift of God with money. Do not entertain those things, do not encourage those things, do not cause any kind of honor to come upon those people. We should stay away from them because our God does not like any of those things. He says, “You need to, you will go to ruin if you try to purchase the gift of God with money.”

Very quickly, verses 21 and 23, look what happens in the life of Simon. “You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you.” And I love that word that Peter uses, he says, “Repent and pray,” and he uses a word that says, “By chance God may forgive you.” That’s what exactly what he says. “By chance God may forgive you,” because what you did is so wrong for having such a thought in your heart. “For I see that you are full of bitterness or jealousy or envy and you’re a captive to sin.”

Look at Acts 8:24. Simon never repented. Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.” The only thing again that he’s concerned about is what? Me. There’s no repentance, there is no remorse, there’s no asking God for forgiveness. “Pray, they know that they have power in prayer. Pray that the Lord that nothing you have said may happen to me.” We don’t know what happened to Simon, but it’s very clear that he was not a genuine convert. But you know what, church history tells us that Simon is probably the founder of Gnosticism that crept into the New Testament Church. Simon became a heresy; he became the father of one of the greatest heresies that ever came into the New Testament Church. What if the apostles took the money and made this man to be the leader of the church in Samaria? What if, maybe the course of Christianity would have been totally different if they had done that? Who you have leading you, who you have lording over you by the authority God gives to them, how they come into positions of influence and power among you, all of this is very important in the life of the church. That’s what we see from the story of Simon.

Finally, Acts 8:25. After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. Look what they did, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. The disciples that used to take the route east of the Jordan and go around the town of Samaria back to Jerusalem, time and time again, now having been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of God, is going from village to village preaching the good news of the Lord. Why? Their journey back to Jerusalem is even fruitful in the sight of God, as they are not wasting any time but preaching in many Samaritan villages.

What gifts of God, what grace of God that he has now caused the gospel to come to Samaria. Let me end with this one thought: Simony is not just about using money. Simony is about using the church for any and all selfish reasons in your life. The church is not for us; the church is for Him. The church is not for my glory; the church is for His glory. He appoints, He removes, He brings people, He gives gifts to people, He takes, He is the one who ordains people, He is the one who says you should minister here and do this. It’s all a gift of God. May we never take that lightly, may we always seek to find out God’s will in what we do because remember, when we do God’s work in the way God wants us to do, there is tremendous blessing in it because it comes with the power and anointing and the blessing of the Spirit of God, and no one can stand against us when we do it God’s way.

Blessing to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that reminded us, O God, of the dangers of trying to buy the things that you lavishly give to your people with money or other influences. We thank you that you have graciously poured out your Spirit even among the people of Samaria to show that there is no more racial divide within the walls of the Christian church, that all have become one in the Lord as they received the gift of the Lord in their life. We thank you that You have saved us, we thank you that you’ve given us a spirit, not only the spirit that saves us but also the power of the Holy Spirit that empowers us to holy living. Help us to pursue that in our lives, O God. We thank you again for being with us as we continue to celebrate what you have done for us on the cross. We ask for your presence and power to be real and honest in the name of the Lord Jesus that we pray.