Ministry vs. Magic [Part 2]

The grace of God is free. The Holy Spirit's presence in your life is free. And the whole power of the gospel is at stake if you introduce any degree of payment for what God has done in Jesus Christ. The reason that God came in the person of Jesus was because we couldn't pay the debt.

The reason that He went to the cross to take the penalty of death on your behalf is that you nor I could ever do such. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Unlimited, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallan.org. That's pastorallan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. The Spirit had not fallen upon them, and so they laid hands on them, and the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and they began, those early Samaritan Christians, began to experience the same sorts of empowering work of God and the gifts of the Spirit flowing in their midst, just like the other disciples had. Now, this is just so beautiful to me. It's so beautiful to me because you realize that the Jews hated the Samaritans, and here are Peter and John, these Jewish believers, who have experienced, not because of any of their own righteousness, Peter had denied Jesus three times, and here they are having experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, both the born-again conversion experience of the Spirit within and the Spirit of God upon them, and they, when they got to Samaria, these people that previously they hated, they now loved, and what they wanted for them was for those Samaritans to have the same power of God at work in their life that they did.

Do you see how beautiful that is? They had no desire. This did not exist in the early church where Christians were like, look at me, I've got all these prophetic abilities, and I've got all of this wonderful stuff, and I'd like to withhold this from you.

Instead, they just wanted to give it away, and I want you just to see this, beloved, really plainly. There was no sense in which Peter and John said, well, we need to wait and train these people in Jesus for a couple years before we introduce them to the Holy Spirit. When you become a Christian, you receive the Spirit of God, and He is the third person of the triune God. You don't get part of the Holy Spirit. You get Him in His entirety, and the Christian life is learning to yield and flow and work with the Holy Spirit to do wonders through your life. He loves you.

He's the most wonderful person in the world. It's not like I have a weather app on my phone, and for some reason now, every time that I bring up the weather app, an ad comes up and overtakes my screen wanting me to pay for the upgraded premium weather app. I don't want the upgraded premium weather app because my current app tells me what the weather's going to be. What else do you need from the weather app?

I just want to know what the weather's going to be. That's all I need. But it wants me to think that I don't have all that I need of the app, so I need to pay for it. And I think a lot of people think that that's what happens with the gospel is that salvation is free, but if you want to really be a powerful man or woman of God and do things in the Spirit, that you got to pay for that upgraded version. You're going to have to put in some sweat and tears, and you're going to have to put in some long hours, and some way or another, you're going to have to pay for all this. And I just want to say right up front, the story of the Samaritans proves you do not have to pay for an upgraded version. He's here right now. Which leads us into this question, does that mean we just sit around and do nothing?

No, absolutely not. They came and prayed that they would have the Holy Spirit poured out upon their lives. In 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1, Paul is teaching about the spiritual gifts, and he says, pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. So it's God's will that you and I earnestly desire to have spiritual gifts. That's what Paul says plainly. Jesus made it plain. He said in Luke 11 verse 9, I tell you, ask and it'll be given to you, seek and you'll find, knock and it'll be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be open. What father among you, and this is where he clarifies what he's talking about. He said, what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a serpent?

Or if he asks for an egg, will they give him a scorpion? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So the Holy Spirit's entirely free.

He's the gift of God to every believer. And yet Jesus wants us to continue to ask for outpourings of the Holy Spirit. Sam Storms, a friend and theologian and pastor said it wonderfully, even though we believe he can, we should never expect God to do for us apart from prayer, what he has promised in his word to do for us only through prayer. Oh, God can do anything. I wasn't even asking God to tell me about the direction of my life. And he came in my dormitory room with his holy presence and poured out his Holy Spirit in my life and called me in the ministry.

Oh, he can do that. But the ordinary way that we continue to grow and be filled with the Holy Spirit and he is ordained is earnestly desire the gifts of the Spirit and ask and believe that you'll receive, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be open. I think we won't go into it now, but I think it's very simply this. God has designed it such that it's the hungry that are filled and the thirsty that are satisfied.

And so it's a wonderful thing to thirst for the presence of the living God. So in the midst of all this story, here comes a strange character, Simon. And what's interesting about it is not just that there was this magician magic and all that was was a common practice.

People always trying to impress other people and get a following. But what was most interesting to me about it is that Peter, when Simon says, Can I give you some money so that I could have this skill to lay hands on people? Peter almost seems disproportionately mad about it. He says, uh, he says, you know, something so strong that J.B. Phillips translation translated translated translates it to hell with you and your money. It is Peter really upset.

Why? Well, what's going on here? Simon is a very powerful magician, and the Bible warns against magic. Now, I don't have any problem with, you know, the word magical or if you're using the word magic like, you know, you're going to Disney World and it's magical. But the actual word magic is a word that references a practice of actually trying to get powerful things to happen apart from the power of God. And that God disdains and warns against and warns against dabbling with anything like that. So why the Bible's real clear, like don't have anything to do with horoscopes or Ouija boards or seances or any of those kind of things where you're trying to tap into something supernatural that's not the Holy Spirit because you could maybe without even realizing it become connected with a dark realm that you don't want to be connected with. And so magic is forbidden, but it could be and I tend to think it's the case with Simon that he might not have actually been a sorcerer who was demonically empowered in any way, but he was just an illusionist. And the reason I say that is because the text said when Simon saw the real signs and wonders being worked by the Holy Spirit, he was fascinated and he became Christian, which tells me that he had no real power at all.

Maybe he was just an illusionist. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Would you love a better marriage? You don't need more good advice.

You need more good news. Marriages like people aren't changed by human effort or even by applying principles. Marriages are changed by the gospel of grace. In six video sessions, Pastor Alan and his wife Anne lead you and your spouse into a fresh encounter with the God of grace. You'll learn a simple grace-filled process that makes great communication easy. You'll discover the freedom of forgiveness and the power of celebration. You'll also learn how to pray for your spouse and how to bless one another with a faith-filled vision for the future.

To help you grow, when you order the video series, we'll also send you two copies of the accompanying study guide. Whether your marriage is going through some special challenges or your marriage is in a season of health, you'll find powerful, transformational truth in good news for your marriage. Make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today and fill your marriage with the grace of God. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. I'm sort of interested in illusionists. I think it's, you know, again, not magic, but illusionists. And there's one guy named Harris the third, he calls himself, who is a Christian illusionist and I've seen him live before. He's amazing the tricks he does. What's different about him is that he uses a platform to talk about Christian truth, how easily our minds can be duped and how we can be tricked and deceived. And he teaches young people and he's really good.

You can go on YouTube and you can see some Harris the third. And Harris the third has a really amazing trick that is, uh, it makes it appear that a table is floating and I've seen him do it live. He'll invite a usually young person to come up and hold each end of a cloth that's over a table. And, uh, and then the table starts moving and then the table looks like it's floating through the air and the person is just freaking out.

Like, how is this even happening now? Here's the third never tells you how he does the trick, but he just steps up. He said, now understand this is not magic.

There are no spirits involved. This is simply an illusion. And he said, I bought this table from a company in Kansas and I spent six months learning to do the trick. It didn't tell you how he does the trick.

I'm still curious. Well, he said he was years ago in Sri Lanka and I think he was doing some of his illusions and he was teaching about the gospel and a man came up to him afterwards, a Sri Lankan who said, there is a man in my village, a magician who has a table that moves around like this. And everybody is amazed and in awe because the man says the spirits are making the table move. And so here's the third actually went to the village, found the man, sat down with him and talked to him for hours. And he said, eventually the man admitted he'd bought his table from the same magic company in Kansas.

But it shipped over and spent six months learning to do the trick. And he had everybody in his village in Sri Lanka thinking that he was a sorcerer of something like that. I think maybe that's what was going on with Simon the magician.

I don't know for sure. I think maybe he was just an illusionist. And so what magic represents and the reason that God hates it so much is not just that you might get connected with some dark power, but God does not want for us to say, here's the glove and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. And I've tried inspiring it. I've tried giving it fellowship.

I've tried giving it one-on-one discipleship and it doesn't seem to be any signs and wonders. And there's no work that's coming out of the glove. What he doesn't want us to do is go, well, therefore it must be up to me to somehow make it into a trick. You know, just a little trick.

Like my wife who you never know what you're going to do as a pastor's wife. When I said, could you sew some thread onto a glove? And there it is, the glove, the glove it's alive. Look at it.

I told you it was going to get cheesy. The glove it's moving, the gloves it. No, it doesn't. It's got some strings attached to it and it's not real. Or maybe, uh, maybe what happens is, uh, sometimes we think, you know, I'll just get the glove and I'll stuff it. I'll stuff it with my own.

I put my own power in there. I'll put my own righteousness in there. I'll get this glove. I'll get it. I'll get something out of this glove.

And so you just fill it up with your own religious stuff. And till it looks like it's puffed up and it's ready. And then you got, Oh, the glove is moving. Now, you know what this is? I was talking to a lady, this wonderful, beautiful spirit filled lady. And, and, uh, she was talking about our ministry and she just said, I just love your ministry. She says, so real.

It's so it's just, it's powerful. It's not just the usual religious stuff. She said, it's not Christianity on a stick. And I finally understand that's Christianity on a stick right there. I think Peter was so mad because Simon wanted to work magic to do stuff that looked like it was Christian stuff and he wanted to pay for it.

Let me, let me give you a, let me give you a couple of reasons why Peter was making this big point with Simon. And the first is they just didn't want to have anything to do with magic, but the signs and wonders, the miracles of God are given because God loves us and he wants our lives to be healed and transformed. And God gives signs and wonders because he wants to thrill the heart, awaken faith and glorify God alone.

And that's what the signs about. We love O Chanel beach, North Carolina. It's our happy place. And so many of our cherished members at ocean, aisle beach, and many, many a time where a long way to vacation comes up. And we drive a different route now, but it used to be the route was down down through a nine Oh four and take you through Tabor city and fair bluff. You come up to where there's a turn. You could miss the turn if you're not paying attention and you take a left to stay on nine Oh four. And when you turn left, there's a sign. I believe that it says ocean, aisle beach, 11 miles. And every time I see that sign and I go around the ocean, I'll beach 11 miles. I realize we're only 11. We're as good as they, you know, we just keep going 11 mile, 10, 15 minutes.

We're at the beach. And so in that sense, I love that sign, but you know what? I never did. I never pulled my car over and hugged the sign. I never, I never got a motel room backed up and went to fair bluff and try to get a motel room so I could go and spend all day with the sign. I never built a tabernacle or a shrine to the sign. No, I liked the sign because the sign was pointing to the reality.

I didn't love the sign. I love the reality. And I've experienced many signs and wonders of the Lord, but it's not the sign or wonder that I love. It's the Lord that I love.

And that's what he wants. And Simon was falling in love with the signs. The manifestations of God are presence and are of his presence and they're wonderful and faith building. But I think a lot of the moves of God end up eventually fading because of an overemphasis on the sign rather than Jesus himself.

Peter wanted no part of that. And God, God, I think hates substitutes for real power because he wants us to have authentic power. In other words, the fact that Peter was so upset with Simon is a demonstration that Peter so wanted Simon to have the free power, the real authentic presence of Jesus in his life. Because if you think that you're going to settle for some paid substitute, some form of godliness that has no real power, then you'll become satisfied with a substitute rather than continue to hunger for the real.

But maybe the reason mostly that Peter was upset is that this much is for sure. Whatever else you take from this text, you can take this for sure. The Holy Spirit isn't for sale. The grace of God is free.

The Holy Spirit's presence in your life is free. And the whole power of the gospel is at stake if you introduce any degree of payment for what God has done in Jesus Christ. The reason that God came in the person of Jesus was because we couldn't pay the debt. The reason that he went to the cross to take the penalty of death on your behalf is that you nor I could ever do such. We didn't have enough to pay.

We didn't have capacity to be able to pay. You could never, ever add anything to the finished work of God and Jesus Christ that would make Jesus' work on the cross more valuable. To be a Christian is not Jesus plus your righteousness, not even by 1%. It's not that the gospel is 99% free and 1% your effort.

It is 100% free because it is the gift of God and Jesus Christ. And he came and died for the ungodly while we were still in our sin and we had no capacity as people who were dead unto God to make ourselves alive and instead God came and of his own free choice and his own infinite love, he gave himself on our behalf. And so the Holy Spirit comes into your life not by any payment but by simple faith in Jesus Christ. And there is no other way that you receive from God. And so Peter said, no, you cannot pay for the Holy Spirit.

He's free, which is so wonderful and such good news because you know what that means for love? That right now in the middle of a global pandemic, we can ask God and he loves for us to do so and ask him and believe that he will pour out his Holy Spirit in our lives individually as a church and in the church universal so that the world could see signs and wonders of his power, greatness and love in a way like maybe they'd never seen in their lifetime. So we should ask him what they expect because you are God's workmanship. The Bible says created for good works from the foundation of the world, but you don't do it alone. You do it by the power of God himself. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, today's teaching ministry versus magic.

Why the Holy Spirit isn't safe from our teaching in the greater series, unlimited. And Pastor Alan is back to unpack this a little bit more here in just a moment in the studio with today's parting good news thought. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastor Alan.org. Would you love a better marriage? You don't need more good advice.

You need more good news. Marriages like people aren't changed by human effort or even by applying principles. Marriages are changed by the gospel of grace. In six video sessions, Pastor Alan and his wife and lead you and your spouse into a fresh encounter with the God of grace. You'll learn a simple grace filled process that makes great communication easy. You'll discover the freedom of forgiveness and the power of celebration. You'll also learn how to pray for your spouse and how to bless one another with a faith filled vision for the future.

To help you grow, when you order the video series, we'll also send you two copies of the accompanying study guide. Whether your marriage is going through some special challenges or your marriage is in a season of health, you'll find powerful transformational truth in good news for your marriage. Make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today and fill your marriage with the grace of God. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.

Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back now with Pastor Alan here in our parting good news thought. I want to focus in on that subtitle, Why the Holy Spirit Isn't Safe.

Pastor, I'm listening today because I need safety. What we want to do is somehow domesticate God. We often would like to put Him into some sort of box that we can somehow control, make Him into a vending machine, make Him into a formula, make Him into something that we are the ones who get to say so about what He does. Well, that's what Simon Magus, that's what this Simon we think of as who wanted magic. He wanted to buy the ability to lay hands on people and give them the Holy Spirit. He wanted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. No, you don't get to control the Holy Spirit. He gets to control you. And that's what we want, and that's what we're aiming towards. And so if you want to be full of the Holy Spirit, you don't become more filled by getting God tame. You get more filled by going, You know what? He'll change everything in my life, but He's good, and therefore I surrender all to Him. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.