A New Heart for the New Year

Father, you know, Lord, that we know of ourselves that in us dwells no good thing. And Lord, we know that it's the marvel of your own wisdom, Lord, that you would choose men to speak. And, Lord, that you would entrust yout word to human being. Father. Lord, I just come recognizing that without the Holy Spirit, none of these words today will mean anything in anyone's life. But I do pray, Lord, that you'd send the Holy Spirit now and that through him you'd anoint even this vessel, Lord. And that you'd open even these hearts, Father. And that we would discover something new of the truth of the word of God and of the life changing power of the indwelling Spirit. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen. If you happened to be gone last week, I just want to say this. I prefaced today's teaching with last week's teaching. It's not a series, but it was a preface. And if you leave here and you feel like there may be a certain emotion that comes forth after this teaching, then stop at the tape table on the way out and get a copy of last week's and it might all fit together a little better for you. But I wanted to say that just in case you wondered where this all came from so quickly. All right. Because it's been in the making for a while as the Lord has been leading. I had said last week that what I was going to do today was to talk about the direction of the community and give some specifics in terms of what we were seeking to do in terms of our involvement in the coming year. And as the Lord would have it, it's not going to be quite that way today. I praise God for the liberty to not feel like I'm following a calendar when today is the day I do this. And as long as God gives us the freedom to listen to his voice, then we have the choice of obedience. Otherwise, we sacrifice that choice and just kind of do what's out there. And that can be really lifeless. And so, I praise God that today he changed my direction early in the week. And I know that today this is the direction we're to go. But I want to say next week, but maybe next week as the Lord leads. As I was thinking about where we would go as a community, what began to happen in my heart was the Lord sort of highlighted a truth to me that we had set ourselves roundabout in the early stages of our community, which, by the way, the first meeting of anybody with regards to Northway Christian community was one year and one day ago, it was January 2, 1981. And that was long before we met publicly here. But there was a group of men that met on that day. So, this is sort of an anniversary plus one day. And the Lord underscored the truth to me that he had told us back then, which was we would not be like all the other churches, that perhaps we'd fashioned ourselves in our minds after we weren't to be building empires and kingdoms for ourselves, but we were to be building people. And I started to think that, excuse me, that it may be for some of us quite a step to look down there and say, well, that's where the community's going. But in your heart, you're nowhere near ready to go there. You see, the decisions as to where Northway is going to go aren't made in an ivory tower. There aren't just a handful of us that have gotten ourselves away somewhere and said, well, this is what God's saying. That's where we're going. Period. Now, I'm all for vision, and I believe that men and women need to seek the Lord for vision, but I think also that it has to incorporate where your heart is. It's got to. Otherwise, a few people get off, and they begin to build something. And I'll tell you, there's men who have built very big things out of a lot of personal vision and zeal and know-how and all the rest, but the people are miles behind them. And it's a desire of my heart and I believe all the men in the servants council that we move together into the things that the Lord has for us. And so today it comes down to really an examination of what do you do with a growing church and yet how do you link that to the hearts of the people? Well, there's a chapter in the New Testament that typifies this story very beautifully. It's Acts 8. I want you to turn there. Acts 8. I want to set the scene for you. First of all, I'm going to have to read portions of this. You just follow along, if you would. In Acts 8, there's Bibles coming around. If you need one, you can slip your hand up and I'll begin. Beginning in verse 4 of Acts 8, if you don't have a Bible and you want to look at one, tap the person next to you and smile and say, I agape you and see if they'll share their Bible with you. Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word, verse four. And Philip went down to his city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. The multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip. When they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. I tell you, that always accompanies a move of the Lord. There's joy in the camp. But there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the nation of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying this man is that power of God which is called great. And they gave heed to him because for a long time he had amazed him with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. And even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with Philip and seeing signs and great miracles performed. He was amazed. Now, let's stop there for now and we'll come back to reading through it. So if you're one of these people that like to go ahead and find out what I left out, we'll come back to it. To finish. What we find here in Acts, chapter eight in the town of Samaria is, in a fashion, what's happened here among us. The Lord literally has set this thing by his grace into motion. Now, the people that Philip, that is in particular, who came to Samaria, had not designed by some strategy of reaching that part of the Middle east to go to Samaria. Although Paul later on did do things like that. Philip had, and he just went there because why? He'd been persecuted, sent out, and he had to go somewhere. So he went down, he began to preach. And the people were Samaritans, which, by the way, if you recall a number of months ago, I told you what Samaritans were. Remember, they were a mixture. They were kind of like a mixture of Jews and some of the Eastern religion and a lot of other different forms woven together. They were really very much of a proselytized kind of people, a cross pollination, if you will. And I'll tell you folks, that describes Northway Christian community. We've got all kinds here. So if you're visiting today, there's going to be one other one like you somewhere. We are really a mixture of folks. Philip went in and he was very comfortable with what God had called him to do in Other words, he had a very clear vision as to what was before him, and he began to preach the gospel. Now, two words are used. Look at verse four. Actually, let's pick verse five. Philip went down to his city and proclaimed that in the Greek is the word caruso, which means that he almost sounds like it. To herald, to preach forth, to declare. That's what he did. He went and he declared this word. And then later on, we get a little more description in verse 12 when it says he preached good news. And that's the word Eugelion, or Evangelion is sort of the transliteration of it, which means the good news. That's the word. That's what to evangelize means, to share the good news. So that's what he was doing. He was preaching and sharing the good news, and people were being affected. What was happening? Well, we know from earlier on in verse 6 and 7 that miracles were taking place. People were being touched and lives were being changed. Brothers and sisters, probably more than most of you know, many things of that category, that dimension, that dynamic are happening here. People are being touched and the testimonies come in, and we hear about it and we share many of them. But some of them are so personal. It's really between that person and the Lord, at least for a season. But God is at work, and we're seeing things happen, signs and wonders. And Philip was calling forth obedience. Look at verse 13. Well, make 12. As he preached the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized. You see, that's response. Philip was demanding a response to his message. And so he was orthodox. He was complete in what he was preaching to this point. He was being attended to with signs and miracles and things were happening. And there were. There was a great deal of emotion, a great deal of excitement in the city, but something was missing. Now let's pick it up again in verse 14. 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 may receive the Holy Spirit, for it 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 in them and they received the Holy Spirit. There was an incompleteness in what Philip was preaching. Notice this. Beloved, it's true today as much as it was 2,000 years ago. You can receive the Word of God and not yet receive the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 14. It just spells it right out. That word for word of God is the word Logos. You can receive all that God is in himself. That's what that word talks about, the nature of God. You can open up and you can talk about God, and you can even open yourself up to God and the Word of God, the written Word of God, you can receive that, but you may be laboring in your own power without the Holy Spirit. That's what these people were doing. And a deficiency in the Holy Spirit inevitably leads to an incompleteness of experience. And we're going to see a very special manifestation of that incompleteness. Now, I don't want to get into theological arguments about, well, what happened here. And I have to honestly say this. Having studied them, I know what they are. I know that some people think that this was the Samaritan Pentecost, and it was because these weren't the Jews. And there are others who say, well, the only reason they hadn't received it is because Philip really hadn't preached it completely. And so they put the blame on Philip. It may be that God just chose not to do it at that time, but I personally believe that the reason why isn't important. The truth that it happened that way is that there was an incompleteness in the experience of these people. And, beloved, there are many people who call themselves Christians whose experience of the Lord Jesus is incomplete. It's deficient. And you know what? It's a recognizable thing. Do you think Peter and John came down and said, well, I wonder what we're going to do now? You have the clear sense that they looked and they saw these people and they talked with them and they said, these people need to receive the Holy Spirit. And they corrected it. As we see reading through this, the they did exactly what was necessary. Now, this shouldn't surprise us and yet it does. We get defensive about. We think we're orthodox, we think that we have the right doctrine lined up. And yet I want to say this, and I praise God that we are a mixture here. Some of us come from very distinctly fundamental backgrounds. Some are far more wide open in some of our experiences. Some are charismatic. And people want to know, well, what are you? My prayer is beloved, that we would be complete in Jesus. And God willing we're going to shed a lot of those pigeonholes and not shed it so that we can just shrink back and be something that we're not and not be what God wants us to be. But find what it means to be complete and move into that. Alright. Incompleteness always reveals itself personally. Now let's look at the character of Simon. That's the setting. Here's the character, verse 18. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostle’s hands, he offered them money saying give me also this power that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, literally in the Greek, go to hell, you and your money with you. That's what it means. 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 to the Lord that 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 Simon the magician was quite a character. When we think of a magician today, basically we don't raise the car up on a pedestal, right? I mean Doug Henning and a couple people like that maybe who are super spectacular illusionists and have primetime specials, maybe. But you had to understand that the magicians and astrologers and so on of that day were like the sports figures and entertainers of our culture. They were people that. And especially Simon, the report that we get earlier on in this passage is that he was quite a man. He had a way of getting the people's attention. He had the power that they called great. He was influential, he had a lot of followers. It would be like some of these guys that, that we all venerate as athletes and as entertainers, those kind of people. How many of you know we have a cult of that kind of thing, as it were now where we raise up these people in the public spotlight when they come to the Lord, it's a dangerous thing. How many of them. How many of you have heard of when Eldridge Cleaver accepted Christ? And there was this big thing about all that he did, and now what's he doing? And I don't, honestly, I feel not as badly. I believe he's not responsible as much as the body of Christ is. But Simon the magician was a man with a following. He was a man who a lot of people looked up to, and he was touched. You know, Simon had an eye for what drew people in, didn't he? He knew how to get a crowd together and how to work the crowd. And when he saw Philip and these crowds coming after him, he saw the miracles and he saw people being affected. He was brought into it. I mean, he was hooked. And I believe that he heard the message, preached the good news. The Bible says that not only did he hear it, but he responded to it. Now, look at this. Even Simon, verse 13, himself believed. Now, in the Greek, the word believes is pisteo, which means literally to have the assurance of trust in, to rely on. It's the same word as John 3:16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. It's not just give assent to. There's other words in the Greek that mean give assent to. That's what it means when it says that the devils believe in James 2:19. Here, it's believing, faith, it's assurance. And beyond that, he was baptized. He took a step of obedience, right, which all of us need to confront in our own lives. If you haven't done that, we're going to have a baptism near the end of this month. Indoor. But Simon not only believed and was baptized, but look at this. He continued with Philip. And the word there is the same word that's translated was devoted in following, he was becoming a disciple. Now, it's very important that you see that, because a lot of commentators want to take Simon and say he never was converted. It's just a big fake he was putting on to try to get more people to follow him. The original language does not allow that. Simon believed, was baptized and was following Philip. He was being discipled. He was a man who had met Christ. If he'd been at Northway Christian Community, he'd be coming every Sunday and joining a home group. His life was getting turned around, but in it, something was missing. And I want to tell you something. It took a crisis for him to discover the reality of his own heart. And it will take for some of us, beloved, a crisis to confront what really is in our own heart. You see when Simon saw the miracles, that was one thing. But then when Peter and John came down and from their own hands they could lay hands. Now look at it again just so you can be refreshed. Verse 17. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon heard, saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of his apostles hands, how did he see it? Did something transfer out of there? Obviously something happened to the people, right? Somebody, something happened in that person's body that was visible. Think they had a big smile maybe. I have a feeling that there was a powerful manifestation. I believe those men of God, Peter and John, were so anointed with the Holy Spirit that there was literally in many lives a wrenching of the evil that was there. I believe in cases like this that the Holy Spirit fell upon those people. This to me you have to read into it. But I believe that something happened here that was akin to what we call being slain in the spirit. When people are just overwhelmed with the glory of God, they were affected. And Philip could, Simon that is, could see it happening. And when he saw that one on one it could happen. He said, that's what I need. And you see beloved, he really had not been freed from his old self. He really had not let go of what he'd grown up being so good at. Getting people to think that he was somebody great. And he needed that security and that attention and all that froth that he was used to having. And so he said, I'd like to have that. And I wonder for how many of us, is it just a fine line between the things of God being the things of God for his glory and the things of God being something that we use to kind of reinforce our lifestyles. And the crisis of this situation then revealed how desperate Simon's heart really was. And I believe he was a Christian beloved. Do you want to know why sometimes we don't get the miracles we pray for? You know why? Because just like Simon, when we would see that what God would do through us, poof. We'd need three sets of shoulders to put our head on. It's God's mercy, I believe many times that prevents us from seeing some of the answers to prayer that we, we pray for. And Simon's real heart was revealed in this thing and he goes for it. I'll tell you what, when he saw this happen, he went for it lock, stock and barrel. He Took the things of God and he wanted to then manipulate them. He wanted to control God rather than to let God control him. Now, I believe today that it's very easy for us to fall into this. It's easy for Northway Christian community and the things of God that are happening here to begin to serve our own ends, for us to kind of control what's going on here so that we can be somehow more secure in who we are as a result. For example, some people view fellowship hospitality, as it were, as an opportunity to reinforce their need to be socially involved. Not as an expression of the love of the Lord, but just to demonstrate that I still know how to put on a nice party and I still know how to do this and I can still do that. And there are some people who need to express their gifts so that they can get strokes and the compliments and all those kinds of things. Not because God would be glorified and they could give lovingly to someone else, because they need to be reminded that they're a person that used to be really good at giving gifts. And this is what Simon was doing. Do you understand what I'm saying? You see, there's a snare here. The things of God can trap you into serving your old life rather than letting the things of God lead you on into his heart. A word was developed for this thing. It was called simony. Who knows what simony is? Simony is the act of buying church office or position. And so back in the Dark Ages, many people would who wanted to be a bishop or a cardinal or whatever. You know what they do? They tinkle some gold in front of the next higher person up and say, if you'll stick me in here, I'll give you that. It's bribery of a form. Simony, that used to be the name given to him. But simony really at its heart is wanting spiritual power without paying the true price. That's what Simon wanted. And the price in this case, and beloved in every case, is surrender. It's our own hearts that the Lord wants. You can't buy the things of God with attendance. You can't buy the things of God with putting on the externals. It's got to be your heart. Simon wanted a spiritual high without bringing his heart in low before the Lord. He wanted radiance without repentance. He wanted the glory without the godliness. He wanted the life without the lifestyle. And I say this in love, but there are people here who have been coming for months who like the radiance. And you like the glory and you like the things of God. But you don't want to pay the price. And you want to protect your own heart. And you want to somehow let this sort of reinforce your securities and your position. And I say this with all the love that I have, but that's simony. God may put up with it for a while, beloved, but a crisis will come that will reveal your own heart to yourself, and you'll have to deal with it. And you will stay right where you are and the fellowship will continue to move. And you may fake out a whole lot of people. The Holy Spirit sees right inside of you. And I tell you what, men of God will see inside of it, too. Look at Peter and John. What do they say to him? They don't pat him on the head and say, well, Simon, when you get a little more mature, you'll understand that really you can't buy those kinds of things. Go to hell. Do you understand? They saw that it was a crisis for his own heart. They saw that he wasn't going to be able to continue this kind of thing for long without falling totally away from the Lord. And so they addressed. It requires a change. I want us to look what happens in the human heart. The scene is an exploding kind of church. The particular person involved is Simon, but it could be Northway Christian Community and it could be you or me. And the key thing is our heart. Look what he says in verse 21. Your heart is not right before the Lord. How could he say that? How can you tell me that my heart is not right before God? Because your fruit. Your fruit is telling me that your heart is not right before the Lord. And beloved. It's always that. It isn't the excitement. It's not the froth, it's not the listen. We all love to be here to praise the Lord together. We all love to have the banquets and the celebrations. We love the home groups. We love all the activity. But if it's not getting into your heart, it's not doing the job. And if you come to North Way for 20 years and your heart's not changed, then something's failed. There's things that paralyze the heart. Look at them. He says two things here. For I see. How did he see? Prophetically. He saw right into the man. I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Those are descriptive words. Gall is speaking of an inner part of a man. And the word for bitterness is the. Is also translated poison. There's an inner poison in you, Simon. It's inside of you. It's not in the externals. It's not in whether or not you raise your hands. It's inside of you and it's eating you up. It could have been that Simon was bitter toward Philip. Simon had a following. He had people who were chasing after him. And now Philip came along and now they're following Philip. And though he came to Christ and though he, I believe, was genuinely converted, Simon was bitter because of what he left behind. And bitterness is a poison, beloved. You need to make it right. You need to open the door on the inside. And I'll tell you something, it's not until you're willing to let that be known that that poison can get flushed out. You've got to be able to share it. And some of us are hesitant to share anything beyond a hallelujah here and there. We've got to share what's inside of us to get that poison flushed out of there. He said the bonds of iniquity. Do any of your Bibles have bands of iniquity? That's another way to translate that. The Greek word is to tie up. It's the word deo, which means to be tied up. He was tied up inside in sin. You see that? What kind of things tie us up? Rebellion, hard heartedness, habits tie us up, folks. We choose to not change our habits. Consequently, we're tied up inside. It becomes a bond of iniquity in us. Self servingness, quietness. Well, I don't like to talk as much as I believe that we need to be a people who develop the skill of listening. We also need to be a people who knows how to talk. I the things of God in us. Do you all agree with that? We need both. And you see, it's such a matter of integrity, brothers and sisters, really. It's not the purpose of the leadership of this community to go after you and say what's going on inside of your heart. You've got to do it. And I trust that this word today will cause you to examine your own heart and say, is it possible that I've been going along in the flow of all that's happening here, but really in my heart, I'm not desiring to change at all. Am I here because my wife thinks it's a good thing and it's all. Right. Or am I here because my husband is doing a lot better since he's been coming here and I guess I can go along with it? You see, it's got to Be inside. And it gets back down to this thing of you and the Lord Jesus. You see, if Simon had been able to see the Lord Jesus, if the Holy Spirit had been given to him as the energizing life flow, to focus on the Lord Jesus, to be baptized in love, I believe that he would have seen the iniquity of his own heart. But because he was laboring and many of us loved to labor, somehow it strokes our guilt. Try hard. But if he'd seen that, if he'd seen the Lord Jesus, if his first love had been cultivated, I believe that he would have been a changed man. I think he would have seen this in himself. Are you cultivating love for the Lord in 1982? Not just for Northway, not just for your family, not for your ministry, not for your job and the people that work with you. But are you cultivating love for the Lord himself? I'll tell you, it is tough, isn't it? Even when we have time, we don't have time. How many of you just came off a week's vacation or more? Alright, just think for a moment. Week's vacation. How much time did you sit down with the Lord? How much time did you give to him? Just to Him? Not to get a message or not to do this or not to pray for all your friends, but just so you could be with him? Oh, you know, I had relatives over and there were five bowl games on. On Friday. Besides that, God heard my prayer in the pit game. Really? I say this because I struggle with the same things, the same heartaches and the same I want the Lord himself, because the Lord himself will reveal what's inside your heart and he'll set your heart free. First love. That's what the Lord wants to give us. The unfolding of the direction of this community will simply be an expression of the unfolding of your heart, beloved. And I pray that you'll take it upon yourself to be clean before the Lord, to let Jesus get inside of you, to deal with the things that really matter. And our direction together will be a reflection of your direction towards Him. What happened to Simon? Anybody know? All we know that he says is, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Is that repentance? Is it fear of judgment? How many people fear judgment but don't repent? You know, I don't know. Martin Luther gave him the benefit of the doubt and said, it appears that he was turning around there. There's no other record of him in the New Testament. So we don't know. But I'll say this. It's possible to hear the word of the Lord. It's possible to be confronted by the Word. It's possible to see your own heart and still say, well, maybe later. The greatest lie of Satan, I believe, is maybe later. Later. I'll change later. As soon as I finish this next deal. Then I'll get a little closer to God. As soon as I get married, then I'll have more time for the Lord. As soon as my kids get off to school. As soon as I can finish this last exam. Maybe later. Maybe that was what was on Simon's lips. We don't know. But we can say this, that it appears that he remained incomplete. And I trust, beloved, that you sense my spirit in this. Was not to put anybody down. I purposely tried not to make personal illustrations today. But you know where you are. And as we conclude this, I want you to just look at yourself and say, jesus, in my heart. I want more than the activity and more than the emotion, more than the froth. I want my heart to change. I want to be right before youe. I want us to just close up our Bibles and. And we're going to be led in a song and I want us to sing it as an expression of our response to the Lord. It's a song that says, jesus, be the Lord of all the kingdoms of my heart. Why don't you just close your eyes and let Amy and Dave sing it so that you can receive it? And then after singing it through twice and let's join in with him. Let's just close our eyes and receive him. Jesus, be the Lord of all the kingdoms of all Jesus Jesus. Jesus christ. Jesus I surrender all. Jesus. Jesus I surrender all Jesus I surrender all Jesus My surrender the kingdom of my heart Jesus, be the Lord of all Jesus, be the Lord of all Jesus, be the Lord of all the kingdoms of my heart. Just have a request. I sense that week after week, as the Lord leads us together, we have an opportunity for people who have never established their relationship with the Lord to acknowledge their need for Him. And week after week we see people who do that. I wonder today if there would be some of us who have been here a while who would say, I have a need for the Lord to do a work in my heart. Let's bow our heads together. I wonder if you just want to say to the Lord, Lord, something was touched inside of me today that I know that my heart really hasn't been in this. Or maybe some of My heart has, Lord, but not all of it. Lord, hear us as we pray now. Hear each person as they individually, Lord, acknowledge before you their desire to surrender all. Not to this community, Lord, not to a ministry, not to a mission, Lord, but as they desire to surrender all to Jesus, the only one worthy of our all. Hallelujah. It. Lord, protect us from the Simon in each one of us. Reveal him to us that we might be pure in our hearts, Lord. Thank you. Hallelujah. If you've come here today and deep inside your inner person, you know that you've never really begun with the Lord Jesus, today is a good day to do that. The Bible says, behold, now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation. There's not a lot of complicatedness about what God said. All he said was, if you know you need the Lord, you simply need to tell him that and to acknowledge that before man and God begins to do the rest in you. You don't have to get yourself better before you come to him. You just come as you are. I ask you to pray with me right now if you know that today I want to get right with the Lord, not join this fellowship or not do anything that involves getting active. Simply that you and your relationship with God, you want to be right. I want you to pray this moment with me. And you tell the Lord that, would you, please? You just tell him. There aren't any magical words. You just tell the Lord. I need Jesus today. Father, come into my heart. And if you've just prayed to the Lord and that's been your prayer, I want you to do the second thing that I mentioned. That is, I want you to lift your eyes in a moment, let our eyes meet. And that's your way of saying, I made that decision. I want the Lord in my life. And I'll just agree with you. I won't embarrass you or single you out and the others. But I do want you to know that the Lord brings salvation to your life today. If you prayed that prayer, would you lift your head right now and let our eyes meet? Only those people that prayed that prayer. If I should miss you in the back, it's hard to see. Just slip your hand up quickly so our eyes can meet. Okay. Dear God, bless you. Anyone