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"Here as in Heaven."
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You're listening to the GARDEN CHURCH Podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey through the book of Acts. This is the story of ordinary people filled with the spirit, carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission.
Darren Rouanzoin:Alright. Acts chapter eight. We we left a couple weeks ago. Chapter eight, there's a the stoning of Stephen. He's killed.
Darren Rouanzoin:The the church is scattered. Philip a k a lover of ponies, wanders into a Sumerian city. He preaches the gospel, heals the sick, casts out demons. The city is filled with joy and now Luke zeros in on what happens. You can see in times where God is doing stuff, there's also a counterfeit power at work.
Darren Rouanzoin:As the gospel moves forward there's a counterfeit gospel moving forward. As people are getting saved and baptized, they're still operating from their old ways. How many of you know change is hard? Like Sunday, on Easter I preached Jesus or the resurrection changed everything, history and time and religion and then by Wednesday on our way to Saint George, I'm still an angry grumpy old person in a hurry. He may he might have changed history but for whatever reason I'm still anxious and in a hurry and rude to my kids when I feel inconvenienced.
Darren Rouanzoin:Anyone else want to confess? I want to talk about how we change but I want to show you what Luke does through the book of Acts to give you some alternatives. So the question I have right now is what character are you in this story? Let's read some of it together. I'll read a few verses then we're gonna jump and I'm gonna teach through it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Acts eight verse nine. Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great. And all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, This man is rightly called the great power of God. They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay, a couple of verses I wanna teach through three points this morning to kind of process why things are so hard to change. Asking you the question, what character are you? We'll get there at the end, But, the first point I want to make is that every city is under a spell. Every city is under a spell. There are powers forming you that you cannot see.
Darren Rouanzoin:There there is no neutral spirit. It's either the Holy Spirit or unholy Spirit. Unholy Spirits. You are either being formed into the image of Christ or formed into a different image. The image of the world, the image of Satan, the image of self, the image of the the powers that influence the culture we live in.
Darren Rouanzoin:How many of you know that you can go to a new city and and you can begin to feel the powers that shape the city? You go to New York and you're like, all of a sudden, rude and and more in a hurry. You go to Portland and you come back just super weird and then, you go to LA and you're just talking about your dreams and your destiny and you're manifesting. You go to Orange County, no. You go to Newport Costa Mesa and there is a spiritual power forming you into its image.
Darren Rouanzoin:The same is true two thousand years ago, only they named it a city under the spell of Simon the Sorcerer. Simon was shaping a community through the means of magic. Now, the Greek word for the word magic is, the manipulation of spiritual forces for personal or commercial gain. Let me just say the essence of witchcraft today and back then, the essence of magic is all about manipulation. It's all about using a power to manipulate, influence or control people or outcomes.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's about directing other people's behavior. Would you agree with that assessment according to the Greek? I gave you the definition. Would you agree? Now, we want to make it super mystical but I want to I want to break it down to the kind of magic we're walking around all the time.
Darren Rouanzoin:Worship will say, your will be done. Magic will say, my will be done and here's how it needs to happen. Magic and witchcraft has to do with control and the influence of of others. This is found in the church by the way. A charismatic pastor can use guilt and shame and spiritual language to move people for his own purposes.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's practical magic from the pulpit. We can, in the church world, we can start declaring and we can start, we can start decreeing like heaven's gonna move with formula somebody gave us on their Instagram page. It's magic. You can't The Holy Spirit is not a force to wield, he's a person. We see this all over the place.
Darren Rouanzoin:Now, I'm not talking about the crystal ball two thousand years ago of a man behind a crystal ball, I'm talking about the sorcery we're surrounded by today. The word that Luke uses to talk about the power that influenced people, he uses multiple times and it's the word to amaze. In the Greek, it means to displace someone from their senses. It's used multiple times and if you're ever reading scripture, pay attention to when words are repeated. Right?
Darren Rouanzoin:So, in the beginning of Acts eight, it says in verse six that they paid close attention to Philip. We're gonna read that word attention comes back. It says that when Simon the sorcerer was doing his his magic, they played, they had, they paid close attention to him because of the signs and wonders. So, Philip shows up and now their attention goes there and it says multiple times that they're amazed or Simon, it will say, is astonished. This idea that you are are are displaced, your your senses are displaced by something else, to to be displaced and amazed by the things around you.
Darren Rouanzoin:You see, everybody gets amazed by something. Everybody worships something. The question is by whom or by what. Not whether you will be amazed, the question is what amazes you? And, I just would like to suggest today that the word Luke uses in Acts, we have a different name for it today, but it's the same power.
Darren Rouanzoin:The word he uses as sorcery, we would call addictive technology. We live in what's called the attention economy, where the smartest people in the world, the most powerful, wealthiest companies in the world are designing apps that keep your attention on a free app for the purpose of directing your behavior. Sorcery, just dressed up differently. Sorcery, just way more convenient. I mean, how many of us know that we've been under the influence that we've been our senses have been displaced by Netflix?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's 1AM. If I just started one, you you you it's it's 09:00, I just wanna watch one more and all of a sudden, senses are displaced, we're amazed and astonished by the new streaming Netflix show and it's 2AM. It's directed the behavior even though we wanna be sleeping well so we could wake up and be with Jesus and be kind to our family but now we're gonna wake up blatant groggy because I just needed to see the new season of Stranger Things the moment it came out. It displaces our senses. I mean, it's so deep, I just need you to see this, it's so deep and I I want you to understand that the the language that's here is probably something that we could stand apart from, but I actually think we're carrying it around in our pocket.
Darren Rouanzoin:That Simon uses magic to wow and captivate people. We're using technology in the same way. The whole city from the least to the greatest follows him and may they call him the great power of God. That's his new title. You see, what I would like to suggest is here in Orange County that there are, Orange County is not looking for a God, they already have gods.
Darren Rouanzoin:The great power of our city is self and success and productivity and wealth and more and sex and freedom from the least to the grace we great, we all worship the same gods. And, we're all wowed, and we're all moved, and we're all manipulated, and we're all being directed to behave a certain way by what we give our attention to. Because attention fuels desire and desire directs behavior. And why is change so hard? Because although I wanna eat clean and live healthy, I could be eating a hotdog while I'm reading a book about eating clean.
Darren Rouanzoin:And you know it's true. I could be on an AI assistant generating a plan for the week to work out and not use it at all, all week long. I desire it but my attention is in other things. And where it goes, it directs my desires and it affects my behaviors and I would just like to say welcome to sorcery. How we doing church?
Darren Rouanzoin:Verse 12, but, a city is held captive by a sorcerer, but, a city has been under the influence, under the directions of magical powers that are forming it into its image but when they believed lover of ponies, as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized and he followed Philip everywhere. Hold on, warning sign, astonished, amazed, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. I just have to say, this is so powerful, every city has a Simon, every city is influenced by a counterfeit power, a counterfeit God, but that's not the whole story. For all of you here, when you read Ephesians, you were dead in your transgressions and sins but Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:You deserve the wrath of God but the cross and what I have to say is we are not a church of consumers and that's what it's gonna talk about. It's gonna talk about those of us that are under the counterfeit power and those of us that sit comfortably in church just wanting to consume content, we are directed to be like Philip on mission because there are people in bondage. There are cities enslaved and they don't even know they're being directed by powers they can't see. We're not here to make you comfortable. We're not here to meet your needs as a church.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're here to fill up the tanks so you can go out on ministry. Where are you to call to every place proclaiming the message of Jesus? This city was held captive. This man was a celebrity who used powers for himself and used wealth. Well, see, becomes his idol and lover of ponies, a volunteer hospitality associate.
Darren Rouanzoin:Yeah. Shows up in a city ill equipped and what does he do? He proclaims not a self help, let me get rich gospel, not a follow my ways gospel. He does, he's he preaches the same message of Jesus, the same message of John, the same message of Peter, the same message of Paul, you get to the very last verse in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 28 verse 31 and you get to the very end of that verse and Paul is in house arrest, meaning he's under the watch of the guards of Caesar by the Roman guard and it says, he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about all of the Lord Jesus without hindrance and with all boldness. He was arrested on house arrest under the watch and the gospel is unhindered.
Darren Rouanzoin:Philip comes in and he announces the arrival of a king with a new kingdom and all the other operating systems have to go because there is a new king in town and that king begins to have effects on the people. They're not being amazed by magical powers, they're being amazed by heaven becoming established. In Samaria, even in Samaria, it's so wild theologically. Nobody in a million years saw this coming even though Jesus prophesied it, even though Isaiah prophesied it, even though Joel prophesied that the Israelites will become a light to the Gentiles and now, it's lover of ponies bringing that light. He breaks down a 700 year old barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles and the Samaritans, excuse me.
Darren Rouanzoin:And now, the gospel's moving forward and the Samaritans are getting baptized, that's crazy. And so, we see that the city was under a spell and it's Jesus who breaks them free. Now, notice what happens next. Simon himself believed and was baptized and he was follow he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. The first point I said was that every city's under a spell.
Darren Rouanzoin:The second point for you this morning is that you can be baptized and never get changed. And, the church doesn't talk about this enough. So, buckle up Costa Mesa. Soon to be 09:30 and 11:30, buckle up 09:30 and 11:30, I'm just practicing. At first glance, it looks like total victory.
Darren Rouanzoin:The great power of God bows his knees to Jesus. But then Luke drops this like quiet warning and it's the word astonished that that word is, excuse me, it's not amazed. The word astonished is a verb that's used in the book of Acts to describe the disciples' devotion to prayer and fellowship. It's used in Acts one, in Acts two, twice in Acts two, in Acts chapter six. So Simon mimics the posture of a disciple and then Luke says he was astonished by the signs and wonders.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's the same verb. The same verb that Luke uses to describe the crowd's captivity under Simon's magic is the same verb that's used to describe Simon's obsession and devotion and commitment to signs and wonders. So in other words, he's following the signs, not the king. He's chasing the spectacular. He's oriented still to power.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's moved from Simon's magic show to Philip's miracle ministry and he's doing the same thing in both rooms. You can believe the right things and still not be changed by them. He's not transformed, he's just consuming content. That hurts, yeah? I'm just gonna let that one sit.
Darren Rouanzoin:Hold on one second. You missed that in the back. Yeah, he said he's not he's not transformed, he's just consuming content. Can I go one more? Oh, I'm ready to just go.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's not participating in the mission of Jesus. Come on, Orange County. You know where this is. This is the definition of the American church. Entertain me, feed me.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is an indictment on all of you that wanna sit comfortably and not be sacrificially giving to the work of Jesus in front of you. I'm not talking about Garden Church. What? No. I'm talking about the kingdom of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're not gonna be known for eternity. Jesus is gonna be known. And you will be known for your part of consuming or participating. And Simon consumed, Philip participates. What character are you right now without change, without being honest with yourself, what character are you?
Darren Rouanzoin:Are you a city under the spell of a counterfeit power? Are you Simon using, consuming, sitting comfortably for yourself and week after week, we ask for volunteers in a church that's four month old four months old in Costa Mesa growing out the seams and you just watch week after week God do stuff and you just consume? What kind of church is that? That is a Simon the Sorcerer Church. We are Jesus of Nazareth, the one who came and died and raised from the dead.
Darren Rouanzoin:He ascended to the right hand of the father and he's coming back and in the meantime, he gives us the holy spirit to participate in his ministry. Not your ministry, not my ministry, his ministry. End of the story. You're looking for a church, I'm not done. You're looking for a church that validates your political perspective?
Darren Rouanzoin:Get out. I'm done. We are a politic of the kingdom of God. No man will take his place. We need to call the left and the right and be oriented.
Darren Rouanzoin:I know deep Orange County, now you wanna leave. Great. We need your chairs. You weren't gonna be here to serve anywhere. The the message of Jesus is a towel.
Darren Rouanzoin:You wanna be, you wanna follow the platform upward. You take off the clothes the moment you realize who you are. You take off the outer garment the moment you realize who you are, where you've come from, and where you're going and all power and authorities at your fingertips and you wash the feet of the person you least want to wash. That's the ministry of Jesus. Costa Mesa, that's why this is growing because that's the message of Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're not gonna build on any platform. We're gonna build on Jesus and if that offends you, good. Go find a church that doesn't offend you and we will see when the age to come comes out what was built on Jesus and what was built on gold and some precious metal that burns away. Don't follow pastors, follow Jesus. Pray for pastors.
Darren Rouanzoin:Pray for pastors families. The weight is unbearable. Our leadership team has back problems, has knee problems, have sick, has finance. It's unbelievable. If you were to look at the eldership and the attacks our eldership has had over the last year, it is unbelievable.
Darren Rouanzoin:Pray for pastors, support them, love them. I'm not I'm talking about our elders. It's unbelievable what God is doing and it's unbelievable what the enemy's doing but we see it and we're humbling ourselves before the Lord. Don't follow pastors, follow Jesus. Don't be wowed by the signs.
Darren Rouanzoin:People are gonna see signs and wonders in this church. Don't be Just expect him. Of course, it's his ministry. This is what he said would happen. Be grateful that your name is in the book of life.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm gonna keep preaching. All right. Jesus. Simon is a warning for the church. Some of you have been baptized but you've never surrendered to Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:You've been baptized in the name of Jesus but you never surrendered your heart to Jesus. You're like Charlemagne in the July, the Roman emperor that got baptized and kept his his arm with his sword outside of the waters of baptism saying, God you can have all of this but not this. Some of you, God you can have all this, just not my social media. God you can have all this, just not my desire for more. God, you can have all this, just not my lust.
Darren Rouanzoin:God, you can have all this, just not my desire and hope for a husband. God, you can have all this, just not my third house. God, you can have all this, not my career. Simon keeps the old operating system. What is the old operating system?
Darren Rouanzoin:His heart. How do we know the next part? Acts chapter eight, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria was going off. No, it says, had accepted the word of God. What translation do you have, Darren?
Darren Rouanzoin:They sent Peter and John. They sent John to Samaria. Oh my goodness, I hope you were paying attention to season one. When they arrive, they pray for the new believers that they that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Okay, hold on, Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them.
Darren Rouanzoin:They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the spirit was given at laying on of the apostles' hands, he did what he was trained to do by culture, he did what he was trained to do by his habits, he did what he was trained to do by his world view, he did what he was trained to do by Satan, he offered money for the gift. He didn't know any better and said, give me this ability so everyone on whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. You can be baptized and unchanged.
Darren Rouanzoin:The apostles in Jerusalem hear that Samaria is going off. So, Peter and John go to Samaria to see the ministry that Philip brought with Jesus coming in with him. They discovered that the Samaritans had believed and the Samaritans had been baptized. They had their own belief system, they had their own temple, they had their own baptism, they had their own circumcision. This is a this is a different religion.
Darren Rouanzoin:These are religious heretics. Syncretism had taken place. They mixed some other belief systems and and and Jewish belief systems together and it's been a seven hundred year old battle between the Jews and the Samaritans. You use the word in Israel as a put down. You call that person a Samaritan to put them down and in fact, in Luke chapter nine season one, John and James go to a Samaritan village, they go to Samaria to prepare for Jesus' arrival in Jesus' earthly ministry, only they don't get received very well and based on their instructions, they say to Jesus, let's, you know, let's judge them.
Darren Rouanzoin:Can we now call down fire on the Samaritans? Let's call down judgment on the people that are against us. Here we go. Let's call down judgment on the people who are godless, whose morality is far from God, whose lifestyle choices are so different than the biblical command. Judgment.
Darren Rouanzoin:Now, a few years later, John shows up and he has to call down a different kind of holy fire. He doesn't come with judgment. He comes to bear witness that God's gift is for the Samaritans and the Holy Spirit comes. Now, there's a lot of theology here I don't have time to get into. If you study Paul, there's a pneumatology which is the Greek word for the theology word for studying the Holy Spirit and his emphasis has to do with church life.
Darren Rouanzoin:When Luke writes about the work of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts specifically, it's not a different perspective, it's a different emphasis on the spirit of God being given to fulfill the mission of Jesus. It's focused on mission, it's about the expansion of the kingdom of God, it's about the inclusion of the outsider, it's about the empowering of Jesus' ministry to continue through ordinary people like you emphasis and in this place, he shows up, people have believed in Jesus, they got baptized in Jesus, but they are not effective in the gospel, they're not agents of the gospel. They receive the gospel for free, but they are yet to be activated by the power of the Holy Spirit and when the apostles come, lay hands and they're filled with the Holy Spirit which means there are visible signs for communities and people who are filled with the Holy Spirit That they should be operating in the expansion of the mission of God. That God will use people Hold on. What character are you?
Darren Rouanzoin:Maybe you're like John who just a few years ago, maybe just a few weeks ago, you were calling down judgment on God's enemies. Whatever that means. And now, God wants to fill you with his presence to get you to reach those people through humility and empowerment. Could you imagine? Rather than picketing the people that don't like God's ways, you become an agent of transformation?
Darren Rouanzoin:That sounds very sneaky to me. Wait. God wants to use people who are enemies of God for his glory and purposes as an instrument? Wait till next week or in two weeks. Acts chapter nine, the very person who, oversaw the stoning of Stephen because God becomes God's chosen instrument to reach the Gentiles.
Darren Rouanzoin:God seems to love Oh, get ready. Depends on what Jesus you wanna worship, the Jesus of the scriptures or the Jesus made in your own political image but God loves to use the people who have very strong opinions about the other side to reach the people on the other side. Let me tell you the way matters. You're not gonna reach them through anger and hostility. You'll reach them the same way Jesus does, Sacrificial loving.
Darren Rouanzoin:Loving people sacrificially in a way that reveals the resurrected Messiah. Am I this is all over the place. Yeah. Very true but that's why we're here. We're here because it's not my will, it's your will be done in my life.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because culture wants you to pick a side. Here's the thing. The enemy doesn't care what side you're on. He's gonna turn you into an enemy making machine. Only in the kingdom of God, you don't get an enemy anymore.
Darren Rouanzoin:You have an enemy working against you, Satan, but anyone that is a human is no longer an enemy according to Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah. Come on. Because you become a blessing machine for those who are enemies. People who persecute you, you pray for, all of a sudden, you're flipping the world script upside down.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can't help but bless people wherever you go. I gotta keep preaching. Something comes out of me in Costa Mesa. The gloves come off because I see the enemies, the formation of the spiritual powers in the world view that's here that we need to combat as followers of Jesus. The gloves come off because we need to recognize that we live in a formation machine and it's it is it is manipulating us into its image and Jesus is longing for us to be set free.
Darren Rouanzoin:Point number two was something, what did I say, you can get baptized and not change? There's a bunch of good stuff in there. Alright, I'm gonna go to point three, let's keep reading the text. Verse 19, Paul, sorry, Simon asked for the ability to do what the apostles did. And here comes one of the harshest critiques.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's very similar to what happens with Ananites and Sapphira and pay attention to the themes, okay? Ananites and Sapphira, if you don't know, they try to offer a gift to the church but they were holding back some of it and they were pretending that it was the full amount. And, Peter cuts to the chase and he's like, what happened in your heart that you would conspire to lie to God? You could have done whatever with the money, why are you lying about it? And then, they die.
Darren Rouanzoin:New Testament, done. And the ushers, like, we'll have the ushers come forward and we're gonna roll up the dead bodies. Police station's right there, super convenient. Hey, then we all witnessed they they offered a gift and they lied about the gift and so God judged him, let's get him out. We can't have hypocrisy in the church, that's the point.
Darren Rouanzoin:Oh. Oh, I liked it better when it was a story. I didn't like it when you actually made the point. This isn't about you giving or not, it's about saying something and doing another in the church. How can the spirit of truth live in a temple that's filled with liars?
Darren Rouanzoin:Grace of Jesus. Alright, verse 19, verse 20 it says, Peter says, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. He had been baptized, he had been saved, he had been following the leader of the movement at the time, he was close the apostles, he watched the spirit fall and Peter sees in Greek, his heart is crooked. Repent, turn away of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in hope that he may forgive you of having such a thought in your heart.
Darren Rouanzoin:For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. This is a quote from Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58 is part of the message that Jesus uses to talk about his ministry in Luke chapter four. He says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor And, he goes on to talk from Isaiah 61 about the suffering servant's ministry to the world, one of healing and wholeness and bringing sight to the blinds and setting captives free. That is Isaiah 58 that's put into that passage in Luke chapter four.
Darren Rouanzoin:What we see is that this man is one of those captives. He's held captive to sin. Even though he was baptized, he's still held captive. It goes on. Then Simon answered, okay listen to his prayer.
Darren Rouanzoin:Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me. You pray to your Lord so that I may be spared. After they had We don't know what happened. After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. Okay.
Darren Rouanzoin:So, you can, the point number three I want to make is you cannot earn your way to a new heart. Here's what I want to say. I want all of you to experience transformation. You can't earn your way to God. You can't earn salvation and you can't earn your transformation.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can partner with God in your transformation, that's the only way you're gonna experience transformation, but you can't leverage it. When Simon saw the spirit was given by the laying on of hands by the apostles, he offered money. He saw the spirit of God fall. He watched the wall of hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews fall down. He's in this holy moment and he sees all these people encountering God and he tried to gain access to it by on his own terms.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. He tried to get access to it by the way he was formed to gain access in the first place. He tried to use and manipulate God the way he used power and magic to manipulate people for himself. It's his his version was to use resource and cash to buy the gift that God gives freely. That might look different for you.
Darren Rouanzoin:It might not be, God, I want to pay for you to give me the Holy Spirit. I want to pay for your freedom. It might just be, God, I want to earn this free gift. God, I wanna perform. Here's my resume.
Darren Rouanzoin:Lord, I have sacrificed so much of my life, I deserve the second half to be filled with blessings and prosperities. He's not a genie giving out wishes. God cannot be manipulated, controlled, he's not a force to wield. What the scriptures teach is he is a gift to receive. And what I see happening in the church right now is you take your old operating system, the one that's been formed by algorithms, by streaming platforms, by trauma, by your culture, by your past, by Costa Mesa, by the habits you've formed for the last fifty years as a human, the last fifteen years as a human, the last seventy five years as a human and you've been shaped by all these things and you take the operating system and you just place it inside of a new kingdom, you change teams and you don't experience transformation because you haven't surrendered to him.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. You've surrendered to him here, you haven't surrendered to his way. Because some of you are working so hard and you're exhausted and you're not exhausted by sin, you're exhausted by trying to perform your way into the kingdom of God. Think, if I could just do, if I could just serve every single week, if I could just give more, that God's gonna like me more, he's gonna bless me more, it's like, what kind of God do you worship? And, Simon's judged for it.
Darren Rouanzoin:In Simon's prayer, let me just say this, Peter says, repent. Simon, because he's only been baptized with partial wholeness, partial heart. He says, you pray that God spares me. He doesn't realize. All he has to do is turn to the Father and say save me.
Darren Rouanzoin:God's not in the sparing business. He's in the saving business. How do you get saved? You know back during the revival days, the first Great Awakening and the second Great Awakening, they used to have empty seats in the front row. And it was called the anxious seat for people who didn't have total assurance of their salvation.
Darren Rouanzoin:We've made following Jesus so casual in Costa Mesa that we don't have anxiety about anything in the church, we have anxiety about everything outside of it. We need to bring back the anxious seat. Are you sure? Yeah, you've been baptized. Yeah, you've been saved.
Darren Rouanzoin:Cool, you prayed for that and you had a prophetic word. Jesus says in Matthew, I never knew you because you've been doing the same thing you did before you got saved into Jesus. May I suggest that Simon misses it because he doesn't humble himself and say, Lord Jesus, save me. So I want to end right now with an invitation, a reminder of what character are you this morning? Are you the city under spell, in love with counterfeit powers that finally need to be dethroned?
Darren Rouanzoin:If that's you, I really feel the gift for you today is coming forward and confessing your total allegiance to Jesus. I think some of you have come out of the new age world, the the the deconstructed Christian world where you brought crystals into your walk with faith and I just see crystals being given away. And you're like, oh, that's cool crystals. Some of you need to give up the iPhone. Some of you need to give up social media.
Darren Rouanzoin:Some of you need to give up the account access to certain online things. Some of you need to give up the counterfeit power that's been filling you and totally surrender to Jesus because whether you knew this or not, it's got your attention and it's held you captive. It's distorted your senses. Some of you are like Simon, baptized but not broken, religious but not regenerated, running on the old operating system inside the new kingdom and today you say, Father, save me. Save me from myself.
Darren Rouanzoin:I long for transformation. I wanna be all in. Forgive me for holding back. I'm yours. Some of you are like, John, I need to repent from calling down fire on the wrong people because God's now calling you to bring a holy fire that unifies people.
Darren Rouanzoin:Whoever you are, Jesus is coming for you. If there's anything I'm witnessing in this moment of our church is that he is sovereign and he is coming after you hard. And what do you do when Jesus is running after you? You turn around and you face him. And just like in the Samaritan town, like the apostles, we ask for more of his holy spirit.
Darren Rouanzoin:And let me just say to this church, we are a word spirit church. We will go verse by verse through the book of Acts and we will pray for the sick and invite you to receive the Holy Spirit. And I wanna say there's actually so many Christians in this room that have never received the ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit. You've never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. And, all of your fears, and all of your control mechanisms, and all of your need to have an answer, and all of your need to not to not go that far, whatever it is that you're feeling, if you need to humble yourself and say, Father, I want all of you.
Darren Rouanzoin:Can you all stand?
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