Some people come into church and yet remain as they are. The Holy Spirit, they have not allowed Him to come and fill them. Like Simon the sorcerer, their lives are still stuck and plagued. God, however, came to deliver and make new every heart that is willing. The stubborn old nature came be delivered. (Romans 9:30-33; Acts 8:9-21)
Change and Increase from Glory to Glory
Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller, Pastor Steven Scibelli
Sermon 11750
11:00 AM on 9/15/2019
#Mind
P. Scibelli –
We had a great convention in S. America called LAMCON. I used to think it had to do with the Lamb of God and
it really does! This ministry has 768 churches in 76 countries. You come here and it’s great but
from the United States, there were missionaries that started going out in the 70s and we
continue to go out and have a base of operations established in key areas…P. Stan Collins has
spearheaded a great thrust of a vision into South America and Karen his wife. He continues to
travel to different countries during convention. This one was phenomenal. It was all about
being renewed. A renewal. We have a vision. There are 14 countries in S. America give or take a
few. We are currently in 6 of them along with a work in central America in Costa Rica and
Mexico with P. Moon with a great vision for Nicaragua and different places. Think of a vision
and purpose as you view this video.
1 Sam 3:1-3 says the word of God was precious and there
was a time when it was rare and couldn’t be found and no vision. When there is no word, there
is no vision. When there is no what? No word, no vision. People run wild. It means they are
undisciplined. They do whatever their flesh desires to do but is its what God wants to happen.
Thank God we are part of a ministry with a vision. It was an incredible time of fellowship and
the Holy Spirit leading us and seeing what God has done, is doing, and will do. Amen.
P. Schaller –
I took this off when we were singing to make sure no one would hear me singing!
Because that’s on YouTube. One of my favorite songs is on YouTube. I got something that the
world can’t give. As many know, we have an international Bible school here. Some of you might
not have met Chris from Serbia, Felix, and Nathan from Brazil. These are two new guys. Chris is
Hungarian and his family lives in Serbia. Some years ago, he came into the church and has been
a blessing. Now he’s here for one year to study here with us. We had a sauna Friday night. Ten
guys in my garage in the sauna and we got sweaty and hot and talking and praying and having a
good time. I’m glad they are here.
I wanted to thank P. Jason Moore for the great work he does.
He is sitting here with his precious wife, Leah. Have you ever got a phone call from P. Jason
Moore? He has a lot of work to do! We have gotten phone calls and care and visits in the
hospital and nursing home and shut ins and disabled folks and precious people on the internet
watching by God’s grace and the Spirit of God cares about people. We are thankful for that.
Let’s pray for our message.
Acts 8, many of you had a rebellious teenager or disappointed
teenager. A teen that failed their math test and they go home upstairs and are depressed
upstairs. Any of you been that teenager? In a loving family, a teenager is angry with himself,
withdraws, goes upstairs, pouting, isolated himself for the rest of the family. Come downstairs,
please. No, they don’t want to come. You know the mood. It can be I’m disappointed with
myself. I’m disappointed with the family. I’m disappointed with life. I’m disappointed with God.
I’m hurting. I’m disappointed.
In a way, life is like this. God is like the father that says come on
down. We love you. Come and be with the family. We love you and care about you. The
teenager could reject that initiation and say I don’t want that. I’m angry and this is where I am. I
want you to think with me about all the Christians going to church today and they go to the
church and leave, and they are not changed. I believe that happens. I’m sorry to say it but I
believe it happens. We live our life and there’s not a lot of change. Change. I think it needs to be explained.
I don’t want to change. I’m happy the way it is. I’m happy the way I am. I don’t go
to church to change. I am who I am and happy with who I am. Stability and nothing changes is
my way of thinking. I don’t want any change.
2 Cor. 3, as we see the face of Jesus Christ in a
spiritual way, we change from glory to glory. That sounds like a religious phrase of some kind.
What do you mean change from glory to glory? The outer man changes by falling apart for the
older people. That’s when we get to be 70 or 60 or 50 and things start to malfunction. Not the
outer man but the inner man we could use this word, is renewed.
Rom 12:2 the mind is renewed. The teenager is upstairs depressed. Dad says come down and hang out with the
family. We love you. He comes down pouting and moping around and he sits with the family
and they love him. When God speaks to you and calls you to himself, the mind is renewed, and
we are changed. There is another word for it, increase. I like that word. There are seven of
them in our N.T. We increase in our joy, our faith, in wisdom, and also in knowledge. We are
increasing in Christ. We are being changed. We are growing. That’s another good word. Not
growing in our selfishness. By the way, that does happen.
Somebody very wealthy with a hundred million dollars buys a home for 4 million in Florida and then they get one in New York City for 10 million and then the one for 4 million isn’t what they want. So they get one for 6
million. Can you imagine those numbers? I can’t even imagine that is how people grow. They
grow in the wrong way. We can all grow in the wrong way. The teen upstairs can grow in the
wrong way and it gets worse. God is calling us. Come on down. And be with the family. Because
you need us in this family. What we are talking about is God’s family. We need God and we
grow and change and I’m sorry to say, as I said in the beginning, they are stubborn – let’s draw
a picture this way. This is me, pretty wide and I have a heart with a hole in it.
There is projection to my heart. This is called the old sin nature. The lightning bolts are projections from Satan. It’s
stubborn. What do you mean? I’m not going to forgive him. What he did to me, I’m not going to
forgive him. I’m important. Don’t you know? I go to the church but am I changed. Am I
changed? Is God changing me. It may be a believer is sitting in the church with his osn and says
these things and kind of stubbornly and rebelliously is living in his self-life and saying this is me.
This is what I want.
This is who I am. This is where I stay. I go away and there is no real change
that is happening. I want this to be encouraging for us. Our God is a very, very loving, gracious
God who has called us so we could grow and increase in him. There is a story about a sorcerer
in vs. 9 of Acts 8. This is Simon and he is kind of locked in. He’s a great one, a sorcerer. He’s of
the devil. Seances. Don’t go to them. Clairvoyance, channeling, astrology and the dark arts of
the occult. It’s demonic. It’s forbidden in our Bible, in our Old Testament and at any time. Palm
reading. It’s all connected with the demonic world. I don’t even need to go to any of that and
I’m still part of it because of my OSN. There’s demonic powers.
You say I’m a Christian. Yes,
that’s why we are explaining it to you. Vs. 9-23. “To whom they all gave heed.” So he’s
important. They respected him. Politicians, the mayor, everyone knew who this person was. He
was important and powerful. They were saying this man is the great power of God. He had
bewitched the city. The city was under the influence of this evil man. Is there some small town
in some spiritual darkness believing this shaman or witch or medicine man or this politician is
the great one from God? Vs. 10-12. A preacher came to town. Wait a minute. Philip came and he preached.
The people believed in Christ. The preaching in a dark city or town where demonic
powers bewitched the people. That could happen in Latin America or Montenegro where
Dennis Hulett is preaching. In Hungary, we went to small villages and towns. Sometimes they
were very sleepy. Nobody had a lot of interest. Going around in a cloud of depression and
discouragement. It seemed the devil was blinding their minds, 2 Cor. 4:4. I believe it happens in
our country.
There is a blindness and dullness that happens to people from the devil. P.
Graham’s dad in Charlotte, N.C. had a dairy farm. He was not satisfied. He called the farmers
and the ladies prayed in one part of the yard and the men early morning after they milked the
cows…they prayed for Charlotte, North Carolina and they said God, move in this dark town.
Send people and move by your Spirit. They got together and asked this evangelist Mordecai
Ham to come and preach and he came.
Billy Graham was 15 or 16 and the Spirit moved, and Billy gave his heart to Christ. It’s a beautiful story. Philippe preached in Samaria and people turned to Christ. This must happen. This must be done more. This must happen. P. Randy went to New York City with a group of 9 people. They went around preaching and with their joy and
faith and tracts and shared the message.
God sends the word and he heals someone and saves
them. God sends a missionary and his family and they start preaching and there is the power of
God with those people. I’m not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.
I came to liberate the captive and bring healing and salvation and forgiveness. Our Bible college
is the highest form of education. Why do we say it? It means it has the highest quality content.
The content is the highest quality.
God, truth, freedom, forgiveness, and love. A Bible college
about love and faith. A Bible college about God and forgiveness. About heaven and hell and
about the meaning of life. A Bible college that has eternal purpose. Wow. Amazing. Vs. 12. They
believed and were baptized. Vs. 13. That’s the guy up on the screen. What about him? He has
an osn and satanic relationship with demons and he’s a sorcerer and he has bewitched the city.
Vs. 13. He was fascinated. He was part of the group, but had he changed? He was in the gang.
He was water baptized and believed but was he changed. No, he wasn’t changed. He’s looking.
He’s wondering. He sees the miracles and signs. Vs. 14. He’s something precious.
When you believe in Christ, the Spirit comes in you. But it may not be a manifestation. God ordained for
these people to be connected with Peter and John. When they came, the people would realize
these people are important. When they came, they prayed for them and the manifestation of
the Spirit happened in such a way, they saw that power. Vs. 16. Fallen upon them. He had not
yet manifested himself. That’s what I would love to see happen throughout the church in
America. The Spirit would move, that people would say did you go to church today?
The Spirit of God moved in the church. The presence of God, the anointing was strong and powerful. Vs.
17-18. Money. The man’s mind. The man is thinking power and importance. He is thinking he
can buy the Holy Spirit. I want to make this more practical for you and me. I think there are
people who come here, and they have stuff they are holding onto.
Maybe there are bad habits that people have and hard to break them. I want to help you this morning. I believe Christ can break a bad habit. There are things may be stubborn. I just cannot forgive that person, what
they did to me. It’s been years or years. Maybe from their childhood. I don’t want to give it up. I
can’t give it up, but God wants to speak to you and help you so you can change, grow, increase.
This dear man who is in bondage to the devil. This is not only sin nature but a link with the sin
nature and demons. Just like the teen upstairs going through that period of time – I don’t want
to make it more than what I mean – people get in a state of mind and they want that hatred.
They want the depression and the fear, and they are in bondage to demonic influences and
they are linked with it and the devil won’t let them go.
They can go to the church, but they don’t change. They have attitudes about things. When everything is okay and goes their way, they don’t have more going on. They don’t have Christ happening in their heart. They don’t
have the Spirit of God giving them guidance and leading them in faith. They don’t have a
measure of faith to overcome problems by faith. They give up, quit, draw back. They get out of
life by escaping in their own way. They are not liberated and free.
I believe that’s what the church is for. For us to grow and increase in him. We would mature and become more like Jesus Christ. I love it. There is nobody on the earth that Jesus Christ could not only save them but
deliver them and set them free from their past, present and future. There is not a person in the
world who couldn’t change and become like Jesus Christ. Maybe they don’t want to. They
don’t realize God’s way is better than being upstairs pouting for the rest of my life. Feeling so
angry that life was not fair to me, not right what happened to me. They sound like demons
talking. It’s your fault. It’s not fair what happened. I can’t believe that. They just stew in a
demonic mind of destruction and selfishness.
God is saying I do everything I can for you. I gave my Son. I sent the Holy Spirit. I gave you the Bible and brothers and sisters who are mature and will give you counsel and say knock it off. I can help you. How we can get help? I’ll give you a short word on that in a minute. Vs. 19. The demonic man is saying this. I give you the money.
Give me this power so when I lay hands on them, they will have this power. What is the
problem here? Me. I’m the point here. It’s me. Give me the power. When I lay my hands on
them, they will get this power. It’s about me.
Simon, you’re in a lot of trouble right now. You don’t know how much trouble you are in. You don’t know what you are talking about. You have a deep problem. You can take your money. We don’t care about your money. You can take your money and go to hell. We read it in a minute. Your money perish with you. Our language is take
your money and go to…. That gets us off track from what I want to say. I don’t want the guy to
go to hell. I want him to be changed and so did Peter for sure. Simon, you will change if you can
say these words in your heart for six weeks, three months.
Say these words, God, it’s not about me. It’s about you. God, this is new for me. I’ve been at the center. I’ve had demonic power. Now, I want your Holy Spirit power. You’re saying it’s not about me. It’s about you. I want to
know you. I will surrender before you and give you my life. Not my way but your way. The
father calls me down for supper. Come down. Supper is ready. I go down and sit with the
family. I put on a good attitude. I say dad, thank you for loving me. Mom, thanks for making
supper. Are you ready, Eddie?
It’s okay. Its not about me. I’m not doing so well in school, but God is bigger. My girlfriend didn’t call me back. What is she doing? I’m finding Jesus Christ. I’m not a cry baby anymore. I don’t want to be a cry baby. I want to mature. I want to become like Jesus and grow in God. I want to learn who God is. I want to be Spirit-filled not to magnify my flesh but the reality of the God we serve. The God that is talking to us. The God that is real and will take
care of us. I don’t need to control the city, Samaria, with sorcery but Jesus Christ to control me so I can be a servant wherever I am.
I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than
dwell in tents of the wicked for a thousand days. That’s it. Let’s read the text. Vs. 20-21. Simon,
I don’t care how many times you’ve been baptized. You can be baptized till the fish know your
name and it doesn’t change your life. You can go to church for a decade and it doesn’t change
your life until you are willing to give it up and say let it be God’s will and God’s way.
I believe I’m a child of God. I believe I can grow in him. I’m a part of Christ and can do all things. I believe the
truth sets me free and demonic power are under my feet. I have been translated from darkness
to light. I believe God is my heavenly Father and hears my prayers, baptized me into the Body
and I’m in his family. I’ll grow in the Body.
When you have a physical body like a child, the child’s body grows proportionately. What if the hand stayed as a 3-year-old and was in a 16-year-old body. That would be an abnormality. God’s Body is an increase in the measure of every part. Just abide in the Body. Show up with the attitude of trusting God. I want to be taught from
our heavenly Father. When you go through a trial, don’t withdraw from the Body.
Abide in him and be a part of the Body and the Body increases and we increase too…. everything in his order
and way. I have to deal with some things in my heart like this man. I can say, God, my heart is
deceitful. Thank you for the new one. I abide in you and you give me your love. I can overcome
my bad habits. Just continue to abide in him.
Choose to believe what God has said to us. I believe Simon could have this. Vs. 21-22. I perceive you are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. I heard about a famous Christian pastor who committed suicide this past week. Was it California? I don’t know what people go through. There are things that might get ahold of me
and demons and my sin nature and a long period of disappointment and heartbreak. I also
believe God has not made us so we would come under the influence of demonic thinking. Our
mind would be renewed, and we would do very well in life.
Certain parts of it I can’t do this. It’s God that does it. It’s God that sets you free and fills you with love and joy and peace. If it doesn’t happen, I must stay before God. I am lonely and hurting. I am needy. What do you have
to say. Lead me and guide me. There is a way of thinking and the Spirit that would give me
counsel so I can increase with the increase of God. vs. 23-24.
Peter said Simon, you should pray to God that you would be forgiven. Simon said would you pray for me what you are saying wouldn’t happen to me? I’d like to answer for Peter if I could. My message is yes, Simon, I will
pray for you, but you have to make some decisions about this. Do you want to be more
important than God? Do you want to be at the center of everything? Simon, you have to make
some decisions. We are not talking about a weird, selfish, demonic mentality. We are talking
about some new thing you don’t know about. I am meek and lowly.
Learn of me. I am a nobody. I am meek and lowly. I don’t need anyone’s attention. I have my heavenly Father taking care of me. Watch my life. My Father will do everything. That’s who I am. There it is. I love it if you
come to this church and I pray churches like this one will be across our country. What is needed
is not a Christianity where we go in and out and nothing happens. Same self- importance and
deceitful heart. I’m choking on my own importance. The church is not any different. I’m trying
to say I believe what the Scripture says, and God is what he says he is. Our life in some measure
has increased. We are learning. I’m so thankful. Not being perfect people but thankful we are in
a fellowship with the living God that does really care about you. Get rid of the pornography. Burn it up.
C. Zola said they had $1,000 worth of alcohol. They heard Dr. Stevens and got
convicted and took the bottle down the toilet, bottle by bottle. What are we doing? This is
crazy. This stuff we love. We are pouring it down the toilet. That’s what they did. There are
some tough decisions we should make. There is some stuff we got to say in our attitude I am
serious, and God will do it. He will show me, and I will be a better person for it. We’ll have a
barn burner tonight. Don’t miss the services for any reason. Come and be with us.
Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.
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