How Do We Stop Carrying the Weight of Comparison? | Acts 8:9-25 | Kevin Queen

Amen, good afternoon, church family. Welcome to CrossPoint Church, go ahead and stand with us. My name is Seth, this is Janae and the rest of the team. Thanks for spending the next few moments with us as we sing some songs together. Special thanks to those tuning in online and our friends at Guide Behind Bars, we love you guys. Scripture says that the joy of the Lord is our strength, and we believe that to be true here. So no matter what circumstance or situation you may find yourself in, we hold fast to the truth that we can find strength in the joy of the Lord today, amen. All right, let's sing together, come on. ♪ And this is where I believe ♪ ♪ That You are more than enough, more than enough for me ♪ ♪ Cause You are faithful to Your promise ♪ ♪ You are strong when I am weak ♪ ♪ When I'm standing in Your presence ♪ ♪ I have everything I need, sing the joy ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Sing, oh my soul, bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is, let it be said ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ It is my strength, oh Jesus, come on make ♪ ♪ Cause You are worthy of all, You're worthy of all my praise ♪ ♪ You are faithful to Your promise, You are strong when I am weak ♪ ♪ When I'm standing in Your presence, I have everything I need ♪ ♪ Oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪

♪ Oh, it's more than a feeling, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Sing, oh my soul, oh my soul, bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is, let it be said, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ So let it rise up like a river, it's overflowing with water ♪ ♪ It's overflowing, Holy Spirit, and let it pour out with no limit ♪ ♪ It's overflowing, Holy Spirit, so let it rise up, rise up ♪ ♪ Sing like a river, it's overflowing today ♪ ♪ Sing Holy Spirit, let it pour out, with no limit ♪ ♪ It's overflowing, Holy Spirit, yeah ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Sing the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ Come on. ♪ Oh, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh, it's more than a feeling ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Sing oh my soul, blessed be ♪ ♪ The Lord God is with me, come on sing it again ♪ ♪ Oh my soul bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is within me sing ♪ ♪ Oh my soul bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is within me sing ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, it's the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, it's the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ Amen.

♪ The joy of the Lord, it's the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ I could sing your name for all my life ♪ ♪ For all my life and still find more to love each time ♪ ♪ Jesus be the name ever on my lips ♪ ♪ It's sweeter every time that I call on it ♪ ♪ And there's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ That makes me cry holy ♪ ♪ There is no other name, there is no other name ♪ ♪ There is no other name, Jesus you're worthy ♪ ♪ You have been the friend who never left ♪ ♪ And I won't forget your faithfulness Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus be the name ever on my lips ♪ ♪ It's sweeter every time that I call on it ♪ ♪ And there's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ That makes me cry holy ♪ ♪ There is no other name, there is no other name ♪ ♪ There is no other name, there is no other name ♪ ♪ Jesus you're worthy ♪ ♪ Oh there's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ That makes me cry holy ♪ ♪ There is no other name, there is no other name ♪ ♪ There is no other name, Jesus you're worthy ♪ ♪ Oh, I cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Oh, I cry holy, holy, holy ♪

♪ Oh, we're crying holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Yes, the Lord God Almighty, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Jesus, you're worthy, it's like the morning light ♪ ♪ The one that darkness can't deny ♪ ♪ The resurrection and the life, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, your name can save, your name can heal ♪ ♪ Your name can make the storm be still ♪ ♪ You never fail, you never will, Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, the breath of life broken for us ♪ ♪ The wounded and the worthy one ♪ ♪ The first and last and still to come, Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, Jesus, the King who overwhelmed the grave ♪ ♪ The one who will forever reign ♪ ♪ The name of God, all other names, Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, Jesus, be the name, Jesus, be the name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus be the name that gets all the glory ♪ ♪ There's no other name, oh Jesus be the name ♪ ♪ Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name ♪ ♪ That gets all the glory, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh games ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ♪ There's no other name, no more mighty name, no more holy name, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh oohters ♪ So we cry Jesus ♪ Let Jesus be the name, the one and only name ♪ Oh Jesus be the name that gets all the glory ♪ Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name that gets all the glory ♪ Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name that gets all the glory ♪ Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name, Jesus be the name that gets all the glory ♪ And um you know as we as we began a uh a new school year I was thinking about this um this section of a book there's a author Paul David Tripp he's he's one of my favorite authors

and he talks about how when he was a principal helping found a Christian school he talked about how he because of budget constraints he had to do the most dangerous thing in his life and that was to pull double duty as a kindergarten teacher and so the principal and kindergarten teacher he said that the first day of class there was a mom that came to him and said hey my daughter's birthday is on Friday I'd like to have a birthday for Susie is that okay and he said sure and so on Friday when they walked in the classroom he said it was I mean it was just wall to wall it was a birthday kingdom there he said that there there were posters on the walls there were streamers that were hanging down there was a tablecloth there was a table and each of the table little seats were set there was a little cellophane bag of party you know party gifts that were on each chair there's a balloon hanging from each chair and on all of the all the places look the same except for one and at the head of the table there was this mountain of perfectly wrapped gifts for Susie he said now everybody sat at the table and he said at the other end of the table there was a little boy who crossed his arms and he looked at his party favors and he looked at her mountain of gifts and he went he looked at his party favors he looked at her mountain of gifts and he went and she said it progressed and it just got it got a little bit a little bit louder and a little bit louder and pretty soon Johnny was becoming the focus of the entire party and the party was focused on Johnny said one of the moms came over and knelt down next to little Johnny and looked at him right in the face and said Johnny It's not your party. You know, the party wasn't about Johnny. It wasn't his party. He was never meant to be the center of attention. It was Susie's party. He was never meant to get all the gifts. It was Susie's party. And as I thought about that story, I thought, well, that's not just a kindergarten story. That's the story of every human heart. That's a story of humanity. In fact, when you begin in Genesis,

if you look at Genesis three, you see that when sin entered the picture, the temptation to be selfish and to make it about us entered humanity. And so when you read through the Bible, what you find, and one of the things I love about the Bible is that it tells, it tells a unified story. It tells one story and the unified story of scripture that is written, and really it's 66 books that have been written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years on three different continents, three different languages. It tells one story and the story is all about Jesus. Everything points to him. And so sure, you've got history and you've got biography and you've got wisdom literature and you've got poetry and you've got letters and it all ends with revelation and it all points to Jesus. And when you get to revelation, it lets us know who the party's all about. Revelation chapter five, all of humanity has been working to this moment. It says, then John pulls back the veil and he shows us what's going on. He says, then I looked and heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000. And they encircled the throne and living creatures and the elders in a loud voice. They were saying, worthy is the lamb who was slain

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever. And so we get a picture of eternity and what's happening in eternity is that Jesus is at the center of the party. The party is all about him. Now, can you imagine in that moment when we are gathered in heaven, that we are celebrating and worshiping Jesus. Can you imagine somebody standing over the side and saying, hey, everybody, look at me. Can you imagine somebody saying, don't look at him, look at me. No, nobody would do that in heaven. All of heaven is about Jesus. But man, we can do that here on earth. There is this gravitational pull in our world toward selfishness that we can become about our own little lives and our own little names. We can become about our own greatness and about us being known. We can become about getting the attention from others and we can just, it's like this entire world is hardwired in such a way to get us, to pull us toward focus on ourselves

with marketing and with advertising and social media and comparison. Man, it's so easy to turn inward when we get wounded or when we get wronged or when we get offended to focus on ourselves. And sometimes we just need to be reminded, Johnny, it's not your party. So if you're hearing this message today and you're thinking, man, so-and-so needs to be here for this message, today I need for you to be so-and-so because we have an eternal amnesia. We have eternal amnesia where we forget what matters for eternity. And today my prayer is that God would wake us up to what is true. So I need you to wake up the person next to you and say, Johnny, it's not your party. You can really tell them that. You can say, Johnny, it's not your party. And so what we wanna do is we're gonna look today at a story in scripture that I believe that God is gonna right set what real greatness, true greatness looks like. We're gonna learn from a man named Simon who was from Samaria. Now I'll give you a little recap like they do on Netflix. Little recap of what happened last week. The gospel has progressed to Samaria. Remember in Jerusalem is where the church was

and Acts tells the story of three decades of the life of the early church. And so because they were in Jerusalem and Jesus said, and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Well, everybody's hanging in Jerusalem because it's good. But then persecution breaks out and God uses the persecution to advance the gospel. And so the people of God, the church moves to Judea. But Samaria, there was this ethnic boundary that people did not cross over. They hated one another, the Jews and the Samaritans for 700 years. And there's one guy named Philip who God. He calls to go to Samaria. He's like, he raises his hand, I'll go. And he crosses that ethnic boundary. And when he does and proclaims the gospel, the move of God takes place. There are signs, wonders, and miracles that take place. And people come to faith and there's this, there's revival that breaks out. And I love where we left off last week with verse eight. And it says, and there was joy in that city. Man, there was a party in that city. And the party was all about Jesus. And the party is all about Jesus.

But whenever there's a move of God, certain personalities emerge. And we're gonna see that a personality that emerges, somebody named Simon. We'll read together. And I'm gonna read from verse nine to 25. It says, 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. But then they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles that he saw. And when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. And when they arrived, they prayed for new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them. 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 in 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 may receive the Holy Spirit. Peter answered, 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. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. And Simon answered, pray to the Lord for me that nothing you have said may happen to me. And 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. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and thank you for the way your word works on us. God, I pray right now that you would help us see what we can't see. God, I pray that we would see the things in us that we just need to surrender, that we need healing, we need to be set free from.

God, I pray that if anywhere in life we've made it about our greatness rather than yours, God, I pray that our love for you and our faith and our trust in you, Jesus, would increase and that it would expel, God, anywhere that anything else is on the throne of our lives other than you. And we just declare our lives are about your greatness, so would you reveal where they're not? And then God, I pray if there's anywhere where there's bitterness and we're held captive to that, God, I just declare freedom over the church today in Jesus' name. In the name of Christ we pray, amen, amen. So before we walk through this passage together, I just wanna let you know, man, like there is grace for Simon, like this is not hate on Simon day. There is grace for Simon, there's grace for Simon, there's grace for you. Like Simon is a new believer, he's a baby Christian. Have you ever seen those videos of a baby giraffe trying to walk? Like that's what's going on, that's what's going on with Simon, he's trying to figure out how to use these legs, how to walk in the faith, he's a baby Christian, he's new to faith. And what's interesting about this is Luke doesn't tell us what happens with Simon, he just kind of leaves it unresolved because I don't think the point is what happens with Simon, I think the point is what happens with us.

What are we going to do with this word? Because what we're gonna see is that today through this passage, this passage serves as a warning, it serves as a mirror and it serves as a guide. Serves as a warning in that we see what happens when we pursue the world's definition of greatness, it's a mirage, it leaves us empty, it leaves us broken when we pursue the world's definition of greatness. It also serves as a mirror in that Simon's story, we catch a glimpse of ourselves, we can see our own struggles that what Simon struggled with, it's not foreign to us that we all struggle with in some way and then it's also a guide and what you're gonna see is that there's this beautiful contrast between Philip and Simon that helps lead us toward where true greatness comes from and then I'm gonna finish with my best worst story, finish with story and then we're gonna partake in communion at the end of our time together. But we begin with Simon, it's an interesting detail, it says, and Simon was a sorcerer. Now that word. Sorcerer, the Greek word where we get the form of magic. Now this is more than card tricks or sleight of hand. This is actually practices, ancient practices that were going on like curses and astrology and incantations and potions and rituals and channeling. They're spiritual realities at play. So there's a kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness. So this is the occult, that's what's taking place.

And sometimes we can read this and go, well, this was ancient, but this is going on today. In fact, Pew Research Center, they're kind of like the gold standard of research, they revealed that out of American adults, 30% of American adults said that they engaged in some of these practices over the past year. And over half of teenagers said that they engaged in practices. And so when we read this, this is modern, this is in our world. I think one of the things we see is that there are people who are searching spiritually. There are people who are searching for connection. There are people who are looking for meaning and lost people are going to act like lost people. And so sometimes Christians judge people who don't need a judge, they need a rescue. And so Simon needed a rescue. Simon was very caught up in this realm and operating in this space. And it says that people started to say, man, Simon is great. So they started talking about the greatness of Simon. And it says that Simon started talking about the greatness of Simon. And so he started putting out press releases. He started believing his own press releases. And he started listening, he went on Reddit and saw what other people were saying.

And so somebody said, well, Simon, he is the great power of God. And he's like, well, that sounds good. So he was like, I'm gonna buy that domain. And so he bought that domain. He built a whole brand around Simon being the great power of God and began to think that was who he was. And then what happens is Philip comes to town and he begins to preach. Verse 12, it says, but when they believe Philip and he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. So he's letting us know that people are being baptized. People are putting their faith in Jesus. Now, what's interesting about this, I want you to see this, that in the New Testament, when somebody becomes saved, when somebody trusts Jesus, the next step is baptism. There's not like this long space between they make a decision and then they're baptized. Baptism is not the reward for good behavior. It's not the badge that you earn. Baptism is a grace, it's a sacrament. It's what you step into as a follower of Jesus. So baptism follows salvation. Baptism follows faith. So if you've put your faith in Jesus and you've never been baptized, you know the best time to be baptized now.

So the next step is saying, is obedience, saying I'm gonna follow. And next week, it just so happens that next week is baptism. I love how this works out in the text with the opportunity that we have to follow him. So if you've never been baptized, next week is baptism Sunday. And so don't delay, don't balk on the very first thing, God, because your public faith is powerful. And some of us feel stuck in our faith because we've not done the next thing that God, and when you obey, it just opens things up in your life when you put your yes on the table and follow God in that way. So if you need to be baptized next week, you can text baptism to 615615. You can go to crosspoint.tv slash baptism. You can release carrier pigeons. I don't care how you let us know, but let us know that you wanna be baptized and we will be there with you for that. So they were being baptized, verse 13, it says, and then Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles that he saw. Now, you know, when the sorcerer got saved, everybody was talking about it. When the sorcerer came to faith, you know, I mean, the Instagram and TikTok,

everybody was telling that story. Word began to spread on the interwebs. I mean, everybody was letting everybody know about what happened in Simon's life. When somebody who is a public figure comes to faith, church, they need our prayer because they're working out their salvation in real time publicly. And so Simon's trying to figure, he's trying to figure things, trying to figure these things out. And at the same time, he's following Philip. And it says that he saw all of the things that were taking place and he was astonished. So he's like, man, he was blown away. He was amazed at what God was doing. Well, Peter and John hear about what's going on. The apostles back in Jerusalem, they hear that God's moving the Samaritans and they go to investigate. They go to see what's going on. Well, aren't you glad that we have a God of second chances? Let me show you something, kind of an Easter egg hidden in this passage. So Peter and John are apostles. They were with Jesus. And in Luke chapter nine, it tells a story of where Jesus took the disciples on a short-term mission trip to Samaria. And when they get to Samaria in one of the villages,

the people ran Jesus off. They didn't want anything to do with Jesus. And John, James and John are standing there. They look over at Jesus. They're like, hey, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them? And Jesus turned to him and he rebuked him. He's like, no, what are you talking about? Have we ever called down fire from heaven to destroy? But you see this anger that they have, this resentment toward the Samaritans. And what I love about this is Peter and John go to Samaria and they get a do-over. They get a mulligan, they get a second chance. And so they go there and now, instead of calling down fire from heaven to destroy them, they're praying down fire from heaven for the fire of the Holy Spirit. They're praying for these Samaritans and these Samaritans receive the Holy Spirit. Now, what's interesting about this is that this is not normative. Normally when someone receives Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit in that moment. But what happens here is they have to wait. The Samaritans wait for the Holy Spirit. So this should make us ask the question. Maybe you're wondering the question, why did they have to wait? That's a great question, I'm glad you asked.

The reason that they had to wait, and most commentators agree, is the reason they had to wait is this was intentional. This is intentional that God intentionally had them wait because it was just as much for Peter and John as it was for anybody else. See, let's run it back. For 700 years, they had worshiped separately. Samaritans and Jews had worshiped separately, believed separately, lived separate lives. And God was saying, that's not the way it's gonna be in my kingdom. Jews and Samaritans, we're not gonna have a Jewish church and a Samaritan church over here. But God's saying in my kingdom, there is one Spirit and one Lord and one baptism. And so he's saying, he's showing us through this that the Spirit is being poured out on the Samaritans in the same way that they experienced at Pentecost, they experienced here. And so whenever God begins to move, we step back and we ask the question, why did God do this in that way? God is protecting the unity in the church and he's showing us what matters to him. Well, Simon sees what's going on. He sees the move of the Holy Spirit. And he asked the question, he pulls some cash out of his wallet and he asked the question, show me, he says to Peter,

he says, show me how you did that. How much do you want? And Peter answered, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. Peter rebuked Simon, which is a pretty, I guess a pretty heavy rebuke. May you perish with your money. Why did he rebuke him in that way? Here's what you see. It's not about the money, it's about the worldview. See, whenever somebody comes to faith, there's things they need to learn, but there's also things they need to unlearn. And this is discipleship. Discipleship is learning to walk in the ways of Jesus. We're transformed by the renewing of our mind and Simon had a worldview that he used to believe, he was taught that if you want power, it's something you can buy. But the gospel is that power is grace. Power is a gift and Jesus already paid the price. See, Simon had a worldview. His worldview was that his significance came from his greatness. But the gospel is that our significance in life comes from the greatness of God. It comes from who God is and who he says we are in him. Simon, he had this worldview that said money is a tool to control and to manipulate other people in circumstances.

But through the gospel, we see that money is a tool that is used to serve others, is used to serve God, is used to advance the kingdom. And so what's happening in this story is Peter is rebuking him, which is leading him. It's this discipleship and you're like, why did he go so hard in the pain? Well, you haven't seen anything yet. But why was he so clear? Because Simon is a leader. He has influence. And it's not just him, he's influencing other people. And it's out of love, it's out of kindness that he's revealing this to him. And he says, your heart is not right before God. See, it wasn't about the money, it was about the heart. He said, your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. We can read this and go, man, why was Peter so aggressive? I believe it's because Simon was consumed with his greatness. And people didn't talk to Simon like that. But Simon needed a clear word, he needed a clear warning. So did a truck driver on I-40, driving over the Arkansas River. It was early one morning, a decade ago.

barge hit the bridge, knocked out a section. There was a fisherman named Anton Wilhite who was fishing and saw this happen. And he realized that traffic was headed toward where the bridge had been taken out. He reached into his tackle box and he had a flare gun. And he took the flare gun and he aimed the flare gun at a semi truck that was coming toward the section of bridge that was out. And he fired a flare gun. That semi truck, the driver just slammed on the brakes, jackknifed, and it blocked other cars from going off the ledge. Why would he be so aggressive? Because he knew what it was gonna cost. See, sometimes the worst thing we can do is to encourage somebody to keep going whose life is at risk. He wasn't doing this to shame Simon. He was doing this to save Simon. And so he sends up a flare, he sends up a warning, and really it comes down to his heart. With the sermon, he's able to see. He says, so for I see your heart is full of bitterness and captive to sin. What is bitterness? Bitterness is frozen anger. Bitterness is resentment. Bitterness is something that we carry when we believe that we have been wronged.

And we can have bitterness toward God and we can have bitterness toward other people, but there is a root of bitterness that grows. I believe that the brand of bitterness that Simon had is the envy of loss of significance. There's a form of bitterness. I want you to stay with me. There is a form of bitterness that is an envy of a loss of significance because his significance was found in greatness and what other people thought of him. I want you to see what happened. People were following Simon. Now they're following Jesus. People were talking about Simon. Now they're talking about Philip. People were talking about Simon. People were, man, they were yielding to his authority. Now it's the authority of Peter and John that people are following. I think because Simon's significance was tied to his greatness, I think there was an envy at the loss of that. And he couldn't celebrate what God was doing in the city because there was envy of other people's success. See, if I could pull little Johnny up, I just pull Johnny up and I say, hey, Johnny, it's not your birthday, but your birthday's coming.

But your joy today has everything to do with can you celebrate Susie's birthday today? Let me ask you a question. Can you celebrate somebody else's birthday? Can you celebrate somebody else's party? Can you celebrate somebody else's success? Can you celebrate somebody else's victory? Can you celebrate somebody else's blessing? Can you celebrate somebody else's engagement? Can you celebrate somebody else's marriage? Can you celebrate somebody else's promotion? Can you celebrate somebody else's ministry? One of the schemes of the evil one is to make us think that somebody else's victory is our loss. One of the schemes of the evil one is to make us think that somebody else's blessing means our defeat. And what we see is that if we let that take root, we'll miss the greater work that God is doing. And the word here is we are actually held captive to that sin. So what do you do when you realize, I might have bitterness? What do you do when you can't celebrate other people's greatness? Well, the first thing you do is thank God. Because I got good news and bad news. The good news is you see something you didn't see before. That's the good news.

The bad news is other people have already seen it. And so the first thing you do, what Peter said, repent. Repent just means turn the car around. If you're heading toward, you turn the car around. And then you begin to turn back to God and you repent. You said, God, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for making it about me. I'm sorry for being about my greatness. I'm sorry for not making about your greatness. Sorry for making my significance in life about what other people think of me. God, would you give me grace? Would you help me? And then you find a Phillip. Find a Phillip like Simon did and keep following Phillip. And not for their gifts, but for their heart. I want you to see the contrast between Phillip and Simon. Look with me, put it up on the screen. It's this beautiful contrast. But you see, Simon wanted to be someone great and Phillip elevated someone greater. Simon pointed to himself. Phillip pointed toward Christ. Simon focused on impressing. Phillip focused on serving. Simon wanted a crowd. Phillip made disciples. Simon wanted the stage. Philip stepped off the stage when Peter and John showed up. Find somebody with a heart like Philip,

because you know you're the average of your five closest friends. So if we hang around people who are bitter, we're gonna become more bitter. But if we hang around people who are like Philip, who know how to celebrate others, then we're going to have more joy in the party. Man, my prayer is that God would increase this among us, and my prayer is that He would do it in me. Because I don't come to you today with the words that was something that I don't struggle with. I realize that there is some of this in me. Man, I can look at other, I can look at other leaders, I can look at other people who are better leaders than me, who are better preachers than me. I can look at people who are more successful, and sometimes I can compare myself with them, and I can not celebrate other people, because I think that their victory is somehow my loss. And the reality is, it's not about my greatness, or your greatness, it's about His greatness. And this helps me with my eternal amnesia, when I go back and remember my best worst story. Now, I'm gonna tell you a story that I tell about once a year. And some of you are sitting here, you're like, I already know this story. Well, I got news for you, Johnny, it's not your party. I'm gonna tell this story, because I need to be reminded of this story.

But it goes back to when I was a high school pastor, in my early 20s, working at a church, and man, my mission statement in life was I wanna do great things for God. That's why I tell people, when I graduated high school, people are like, what do you wanna do when you grow up, man, I wanna be done, I wanna do great things for God. And so when I was a high school pastor, in my early 20s, I got a phone call, one guy asked me one time, he said, hey, I'd like for you to speak at our conference, called me out of the blue, I'd like for you to speak at our conference, and there are gonna be 7,500 students there. I thought, this is it, I'll do great things for God. I'm gonna be a big speaker, and I'm gonna begin traveling tour, and this is gonna be it. And so I just, I thought, I even got a domain, kevinqueen.com, still, don't use it, but if your name's Kevin Queen, and you need it, let me know, we'll take care of it. And so I just, I thought, this is it. And so this guy asked me, he said, I just need to let you know, though, you're not our first choice. He said, we actually asked a guy named Rob Bell, who was a big speaker at that time, and we asked Beth Moore, and she couldn't do it, but we'd like for you, he said, the first four sessions are Francis Chan,

who was like, somebody I looked up to, one of my favorite pastors, if pastors had jerseys, I would have had his, like he was, and so he was a hero, and they said, he's gonna be speaking, first four sessions, your session five, then after you is Brendan Manning, who's one of my favorite authors, wrote Ragamuffin Gospel, great author. I was like, this is it, I'll do great things for God. He said, now I want you to send us your bio, and send us a headshot. Guys, I didn't have a bio. I spent the better part of a day trying to make myself sound impressive. And he said, send a headshot. I didn't have any pictures worth sending, so I had somebody take a picture. We sent all that together. They put it up on the website. I thought, I'm about to do great things for God. I would go back occasionally, not every day, but I'd go look at that website, and I'd say, I mean, I worked on the talk, had the talk down, went to that conference, which was about six months later, got there, walked in, Francis Chan is preaching. I thought, this is it, I'm about to do great things for God. Get up to preach, and I don't know how to explain it other than if there was any anointing

or power of the Spirit on my life, it was removed during that talk. I stood up there. I could have been selling vacuum cleaner, you know, home appliances. And like, it would have been the same, and it was horrible. I sat down, and I thought, that was the biggest failure I've ever had. I drove home from Orlando, went to kind of in like a low-grade depression, and I went to the mailbox when I got home, and there was a book that was there. It was a book that I'd ordered on Amazon. This was before Amazon Prime. This was 2007. Like, you had to wait like weeks to get books, you know? And so I opened up this book, and it was a book that I'd ordered called Full Service by Dr. Sing Yung Tan. And on page three of the book, I'm gonna read to you what it said. It said, many young men say their life is about doing great things for God. But what they really mean is that they wanna be famous, successful, well-known, while taking God along for the ride. It said, a better aim is doing things for a great God. It's like God just gave a flare. Said, Kevin, why don't you just do things and let me be the great one?

So you know what the mission statement of my life became? I'm just gonna do things for a great God. I don't think that's just for me. I think that's for all of us. But I'm gonna tell you, if I was preaching a message, preaching a message like that, just doing things, leading a Bible study, just doing things. praying for somebody, just doing things with my family, just doing things as I just, I want to do things and let God be the great one. But I have to look in my heart all the time and say, God, if there's any bitterness, if there's any envy, if there's anywhere where I'm comparing myself with others, unable to celebrate the greatness of what you're doing through others, God, would you reveal it because I don't want to be held captive to that? And my assumption is neither do you. And it's one of the reasons that God gave us the gift of communion. So I'm gonna invite you to get the elements in your hands. Jesus looked at the disciples and their last meal together and he said, he said to him, he said, do this in remembrance of me. So for 2,000 years the church has done this in remembrance of Christ. What Jesus is saying, I know that you can get busy. I know that you can, you will have eternal amnesia, eternity amnesia. I want to help you remember. If I can just ask everybody, just hang, hang tight for a sec. This is probably the most important, probably the most important thing you'll do all day. And I realize we got places to go and I want to honor your time, but I want to honor Jesus in his time. But this is a moment where we honor him. So if you just hang tight. And I think that's why Jesus said do this in remembrance of me, because we can just get so busy and we can forget. So just in a moment I just want to invite you. If you're a follower of Jesus, this is for you. I want to invite you to open up the cup and get the bread in your hands. And as Jesus gathered with those disciples in that upper room, he said this bread represents my body that was broken for you. I want you to know this

is not something that you earn. It's grace to be received. And before you receive, if there's any bitterness, any unforgiveness, anywhere that you're holding on to something, that you would know that it's because of his forgiveness of your sin that you have grace. Give the grace to forgive others. So you just release that before we receive. When you eat of this, remember me. You partake. And we open the cup. He said this cup represents my blood that was shed for you. For those, I just want to speak to somebody who walked through the doors today and the enemy has heaped shame on you. Today leave that shame at the feet of Jesus. He says now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And you need to know as you receive this, the reminder of his love for you, that he loves the shame off of you. And you cannot out sin the cross. Even now as you confess and receive, he said do this in remembrance of me. Will you stand with me? If you need prayer, we'll have teams down front. I want to pray for you. You need to be baptized. Next week will be a great time. I want to pray a commissioning prayer over you this week. I believe God has divine moments for you. I'm going to pray for you. Father, I pray that as we focus on your greatness, I pray for a releasing of joy over your people. God, that we would find joy in other people's success, that we would find joy in other people's wins, that we would find joy. And Lord, would you just release anybody from anywhere that they've been held captive of bitterness. I'm just declaring that there is freedom. And God, I pray that you would give us moments and opportunities, Jesus, to give you glory by doing things for your greatness. And would we just be freed up this week to do things,

whatever things you call us to, whatever divine appointments you have for us to do things for your greatness and not our own, that Jesus, you would be made known, that you'd be famous among us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen, amen. You guys have a great week.