Jeff Miller

May 14, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Unstoppable Fellowship.

Jeff Miller

May 14, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Intro / Review:

Because we are ALL a Work in Progress:

Accept others' convictions. (Acts 18:18-23)

Assist those who need to grow. (Acts 18:24-26)

Three Myths About Confrontation

I must confront everything
Confrontation is not loving
Confrontation equals judging

Three Tips for Confronting

Do it informed
Do it privately
Do it biblicly

Always be teachable. (Acts 18:27-28)

Are You Teachable? (Mark YES or NO for each statement below)

I am aware of my weaknesses
I am not afraid to seek help
I try to learn from criticism
I admit when I am wrong
I am aware I don't know everything
I am always looking to learn new things
I invite others to give me feedback

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

01:04-01:06
So let's turn to God's Word together today.
01:07-01:08
Acts chapter 18.
01:10-01:11
Acts chapter 18.
01:11-01:12
We're going through a series.
01:12-01:14
Unstoppable church.
01:15-01:17
The church of Jesus Christ.
01:18-01:24
The church that He promised to build is unstoppable.
01:24-01:26
Jesus said the gates of hell won't prevail against it.
01:26-01:26
Amen?
01:29-02:21
The church is unstoppable, but I'll be honest with you, that there's times that I don't I don't I don't feel that personally and I guess there's times I feel more like if you're from this area if you can think back a few years ago there was a there was a building in between Butler and Gibsonia right on route 8 it was on like the east side of route 8 there was a building that was obviously going to be used for commercial space and it was looking fantastic and it got halfway built and construction stopped and some of you guys know what I'm talking about but some smart aleck came along with their commentary on this halfway done building project and spray-painted a word on the side of this half building and the word that they spray-painted on the side was fail.
02:24-02:32
I don't know the whole story behind that, but I will tell you this, there's a lot of times in my life I feel like that building.
02:34-02:35
Don't you sometimes?
02:36-02:52
You feel like I had a good strong start, I've had some good days, but let's be honest, there's times that I blow it, and I'm like, "How could I have been so stupid?" There's times that I see an immature attitude welling up in my own heart.
02:52-02:55
And I think to myself, "Jeff, you're 41 years old now.
02:56-03:09
You should have been done with those stupid attitudes 20 years ago." Sometimes I feel like somebody should just come along with a can of spray paint and just spray it across my head.
03:09-03:10
Fail!
03:11-03:11
Fail!
03:14-03:17
There's a verse in God's Word that I remind myself of often.
03:19-03:47
Philippians 1.6, the apostle Paul, who we're going to be talking about today, he said, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Paul says, "God always finishes what He starts." Really?
03:48-04:05
He says, "And I am sure of this." So instead of spray painting the word "fail" for that building which since that time has been completed, and I think more accurately portrays the Christian life.
04:07-04:20
Instead of spray painting the word fail at the time, if we could go back, maybe on that building, maybe on your life right now, if you're feeling like a failure, maybe there's something different that should be spray painted on you.
04:20-04:21
And that's what we're gonna talk about today.
04:21-04:25
What should be spray painted on you is this, work in progress.
04:26-04:33
How many people here this morning would say, "Pastor Jeff, I think my life qualifies right now "as being a work in progress." Anybody else?
04:34-04:36
Fantastic, because that's me, all right?
04:36-04:42
And if you're like done, complete, then you're a bit delusional, okay?
04:43-04:48
But for the rest of us that have a more biblical reality of who we are, we're a work in progress.
04:50-04:55
And there's good news for us because God always finishes what He starts, right?
04:55-04:56
Remember creation week?
04:57-05:02
God didn't start creation week as like, separate water from waters and create dry land.
05:05-05:06
I'll get to it later.
05:08-05:09
He finished what he started.
05:09-05:12
We saw this through the Bible 101 series with Abraham.
05:12-05:20
God promised Abraham he was gonna be this mighty nation with countless descendants in this special land, a blessing for the whole world.
05:20-05:27
And God saw that through to completion, despite all of the human obstacles that didn't bother God.
05:27-05:29
He finished what he started.
05:31-05:33
We saw it with the mission of Jesus Christ, amen.
05:34-05:41
"Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising and shamed Jesus, went through with the mission." He finished what He started.
05:43-05:51
And the absolute certainty of God's Word for you and for me is God is not finished with you.
05:52-05:54
You are a work in progress.
05:55-05:57
I am a work in progress.
05:58-06:02
At Harvest Bible Chapel, we talk about discipleship.
06:03-06:04
What does it mean to be a disciple?
06:04-06:11
We believe a disciple is somebody who worships Jesus Christ, who walks with Jesus Christ, and who works for Jesus Christ.
06:12-06:17
And talking about walking with Christ, that concept is used so many times in the New Testament.
06:18-06:20
Your Christian life is a walk.
06:21-06:22
You know what walk means?
06:22-06:24
Well, first of all, walk means intentional, right?
06:25-06:26
It doesn't happen by accident.
06:28-06:34
If you're going to walk somewhere, you have to consciously make the decision, "I'm going to get up and get my legs moving.
06:36-06:38
But what I want you to see, especially for today, is walking.
06:40-06:45
The reason the Bible uses that word to describe the Christian life, walking denotes progress, right?
06:46-06:52
If you're going for a walk, you're able to say, "You know, I was there.
06:55-07:01
And over some time, now I'm here." It's progress.
07:03-07:08
Your walk with Jesus Christ was an event and it is a process.
07:08-07:09
What do you mean by that?
07:09-07:11
You are saved, that's done.
07:11-07:13
Christ accomplished that.
07:13-07:19
So you were saved and you are being sanctified.
07:20-07:24
In other words, you were born again and now you are growing in Christ.
07:26-07:29
So I can readily admit that I'm a work in progress.
07:30-07:34
And when I asked you if you're a work in progress, you were very eager to put your hands, I'm a work in progress, yeah, yeah, yeah, I am too, I am too.
07:35-07:36
Okay, but here's the hard thing, church.
07:37-07:37
Here's the hard thing.
07:38-07:42
Can you acknowledge that other people are a work in progress?
07:44-08:00
It is so much easier to acknowledge that I am, than it is for me to look at your failures and remember that you are also a work in progress.
08:02-08:07
If I refuse to acknowledge that I'm a work in progress, I'm going to stagnate my own growth.
08:08-08:12
But if I refuse to acknowledge that other people are a work in progress, I'm going to be judgmental.
08:13-08:18
So as we get to Acts 18, we're going to follow Paul on his missionary journey.
08:20-08:25
I just want you to see from the text today, Three attitudes that you must embrace.
08:28-08:33
Knowing all of Christ's people are a work in progress.
08:33-08:35
We're talking about Christ's people here.
08:35-08:42
If you're here today and you're not a born-again follower, born-again believer in Jesus Christ, this isn't going to apply to you.
08:44-08:46
You're still dead in your sin.
08:48-08:49
But today can be the day.
08:50-08:54
Today can be the day that you say, I'm done trying to do things my way.
08:54-08:55
I'm done trying to figure things out my own way.
08:55-08:57
My sin isn't getting me anywhere.
08:58-08:59
I want to turn from my sin.
08:59-09:01
I want to receive Jesus Christ by faith.
09:01-09:03
I want Him to be my Lord and my Savior.
09:03-09:04
You can do that right now.
09:07-09:13
And the glorious reality for you too will be God will finish what He starts in you.
09:15-09:18
So in your outline today, I want you to jot a couple things down.
09:19-09:23
because we are all a work in progress.
09:25-09:31
Number one, accept others' convictions.
09:32-09:34
Look at verses 18-23 with me.
09:36-09:54
It says, "After this," the events we talked about last week, sermon available online, "After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers "Set sail for Syria." And with him, Priscilla and Aquila.
09:54-09:55
We met them last week.
09:57-10:05
At Sancreia, he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.
10:06-10:09
And they came to Ephesus and he left them there.
10:11-10:14
But he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
10:16-10:18
and they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined.
10:19-10:27
But on taking leave of them, he said, "I will return to you if God wills." And he set sail from Ephesus.
10:29-10:35
When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.
10:36-10:50
After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
10:51-10:52
Stop there for a second.
10:52-10:57
Because we're a work in progress, number one, first of all, you have to accept other people's convictions.
10:59-11:05
Now verse 18, you saw it, it says that Paul was under a vow.
11:07-11:12
And he cut his hair because he was under a vow.
11:12-11:14
What in the world is the Bible talking about?
11:14-11:19
Well, this is probably a Nazirite vow from Numbers chapter six.
11:20-11:25
You know any famous Nazirite vow takers?
11:27-11:30
One that comes first to mind is Samson.
11:31-11:32
Remember Samson?
11:32-11:33
He took the Nazirite vow.
11:34-11:35
John the Baptist took a Nazirite vow.
11:35-11:39
Now those guys, they took the lifelong version, okay?
11:39-11:39
You could do it.
11:40-11:43
So I'm going to be a Nazirite for the rest of my entire life.
11:43-11:49
But did you know that you could also take the vow for a month?
11:49-11:50
It could be a 30-day vow.
11:53-11:54
That's probably what Paul did.
11:55-11:58
The Nazirite vow, you can read about this in Numbers chapter 6.
11:58-12:01
It was a vow of separation unto the Lord and there were some things that went with it.
12:01-12:04
You remember the top three things, especially from Samson's life.
12:04-12:06
You weren't allowed to cut your hair.
12:06-12:10
You weren't allowed to drink alcohol and you weren't allowed to touch dead things.
12:13-12:19
So Paul, again apparently taking a temporary vow, he would have cut his hair to finish the vow.
12:21-12:40
And according to what I studied this past week, it seems like an unusual custom to us, but in this case, when you were completing the vow by cutting your hair, you had to go to Jerusalem to present your hair at the temple within 30 days of cutting it.
12:41-12:45
And that explains why Paul was in such a hurry to get to Jerusalem.
12:45-12:55
Did you see in verse 22, it says when he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down.
12:55-12:58
Very specifically, it says he went up and down.
12:58-12:59
What does that mean?
12:59-13:00
Jerusalem.
13:02-13:07
Jerusalem was built on a high place called Mount Zion, right?
13:07-13:12
So the language is saying that he went up to Jerusalem and he went down from Jerusalem.
13:13-13:17
So apparently, kind of putting the pieces together in the text, he was trying to fulfill this vow.
13:18-13:20
Like, okay, so what is your point?
13:21-13:26
Well, while you do what you do all week, I do a lot of reading and studying.
13:27-13:30
And I get to this verse and I'm just like, what's going on here?
13:31-13:33
Okay, he takes a vow, cuts his hair, he's on the run.
13:38-13:47
Interestingly, commentators that I've read this past week are on two extreme sides of Paul taking this vow.
13:48-13:52
There are some guys that were like, how dedicated.
13:53-13:55
Look at Paul, so dedicated.
13:57-14:01
He just warms our hearts with his dedication to his mission.
14:02-14:03
Look how dedicated.
14:04-14:09
Then you had other people that were like, "He's sinning!
14:10-14:34
How dare he, who has divorced himself from the ritualistic and legalistic aspects of of Judaism, immersed himself again into Judaism by taking a Jewish vow. How dare he? This was sinful, this was wrong, and both sides of the spectrum.
14:37-14:50
But here's the problem with that. Does anybody have anything in your Bible that says one way or the other whether this was the right thing for him to do.
14:50-14:58
Does your Bible say that, does anybody have a Bible that says, you know, "And the Lord was greatly pleased at what Paul did"?
14:58-14:59
Does your Bible say that?
15:00-15:06
Or does your, does anybody have a Bible that says, "And the Lord's anger was kindled because of Paul taking this vow"?
15:06-15:07
Does your Bible say that?
15:10-15:11
Mine doesn't either.
15:13-15:19
So obviously, my only conclusion when I read this, is just simply this.
15:20-15:26
Paul obviously was under some kind of a conviction at this point in his ministry, and he was just living it out, right?
15:28-15:30
I mean, are we safe to say that?
15:31-15:34
That Paul was obviously living out some kind of a conviction that he had.
15:34-15:35
Are we safe to say that?
15:37-15:42
So, I mean, he wasn't denying Christ.
15:42-15:45
He wasn't sinning. The text doesn't say he was wrong.
15:45-15:48
And here's the truth I want you to see, work in progress people.
15:51-15:58
That some people, whether you agree with it or not, are still going to hold on to some convictions.
15:59-16:03
This guy was Jewish. He was Jewish for his entire life.
16:04-16:06
And he took a Jewish custom.
16:09-16:15
So why do we feel like we have this need to jump in and judge this?
16:17-16:18
When God's Word doesn't even do it.
16:18-16:20
God's Word just says this is what happened.
16:22-16:24
But commentators don't treat it like that.
16:25-16:29
They treat it like this is something awesome that we should all do today.
16:29-16:31
Alright, everybody, let's go to the barbershop.
16:31-16:32
Right after church, we're going to line up.
16:32-16:34
We're all going to cut our hairs and fulfill our vow.
16:34-16:39
And there were some people that were like this was a horrible low point in Paul's life and he committed a grievous sin.
16:40-16:41
I just don't see it from the text.
16:42-16:42
Either way.
16:44-16:52
Here's what I do see from the text, and even up to today, some people whether you agree with it or not still hold on to some convictions.
16:54-16:56
They might not be your convictions.
16:59-17:02
And you need to learn to say, that's okay.
17:04-17:07
Like for example, some people say, "You know, I'm a vegetarian.
17:07-17:08
and think we should eat meat.
17:09-17:10
That's not my conviction.
17:12-17:15
But if that's yours, that's okay.
17:17-17:28
Some people say, "I think drinking alcohol is a sin, and you should never, ever, ever, ever drink alcohol." And some people say, "I think it's okay.
17:30-17:36
As long as you don't get drunk, I think it's okay to have a drink once in a while." You have to seek the Lord and come up with your own convictions.
17:36-17:44
But why in the world should I stand on the sidelines and tell you that your personal convictions and your walk with the Lord is wrong when it's clearly not a sin issue?
17:46-17:49
We could go on for some people, homeschooling versus public school.
17:51-17:54
You gotta come up with your own convictions on what you're gonna do with your kids.
17:55-18:04
Some people, it's what kind of movies we're allowed to see, not allowed to see, politics, Democrat versus Republican.
18:05-18:10
You know, somebody very close to me, he has a conviction, he will not shoot guns on Sunday.
18:10-18:14
As an avid hunter, avid sportsman, he will not shoot guns on Sunday.
18:15-18:17
That is certainly not my conviction.
18:19-18:23
But who am I to step in and tell him that he should not hold this conviction?
18:26-18:30
Why do we feel like it's our civil duty to jump in with commentary on everything?
18:31-18:32
You know what I think it is?
18:32-18:33
You know what I really think it is?
18:35-18:36
I think it's social media.
18:37-18:43
Social media has given us a platform that we think our opinion matters about everything.
18:43-18:44
Now, your opinion does matter.
18:46-18:47
But about everything?
18:49-18:54
Anytime anything happens in the news, is we gotta get on here and get to the commentary section.
18:54-18:56
And really?
18:58-19:07
We somehow feel empowered by social media that I have this voice and people need to know exactly what I think about every single thing.
19:07-19:11
No, people don't really need to know what you think about everything.
19:13-19:16
Like, but Pastor Jeff, their convictions are so immature.
19:18-19:21
I hear what you're saying, but sometimes people hold very immature convictions.
19:22-19:22
You know why?
19:25-19:26
Because they're a work in progress.
19:28-19:28
Like me.
19:30-19:31
They're a work in progress.
19:32-19:37
And as they grow, the Lord's going to work out some of this stuff in their lives.
19:38-19:50
Meanwhile, God says, Romans 14, one, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions." And I'm not gonna read the whole passage.
19:50-19:52
You gotta go home and read Romans 14.
19:52-19:53
That's what Paul talks about the whole chapter.
19:53-19:55
Not to quarrel over opinions.
19:55-19:56
Sin issue? Yes.
19:57-19:58
Doctrine issue? Yes.
19:59-20:02
Matters of opinion? No. No.
20:04-20:05
You seek the Lord and do your thing.
20:06-20:07
I'll seek the Lord and do my thing.
20:08-20:08
All right?
20:09-20:14
Not to quarrel over opinions.
20:15-20:21
Like, okay, I hear what you're saying, but is there ever a time that we should confront somebody?
20:22-20:22
Actually, there is.
20:23-20:24
Let's look on in the text.
20:25-20:27
Number two, jot this down.
20:29-20:31
Because we are all a work in progress, you accept others' convictions.
20:33-20:35
Number two, assist those who need to grow.
20:37-20:38
Assist those who need to grow.
20:38-20:40
Meanwhile, in Ephesus, look at verse 24.
20:41-20:48
"Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
20:48-20:56
He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures." Okay, Alexandria, that was in Egypt.
20:56-20:59
And this is where Paulus was from, giving you a little bit of his background.
20:59-21:06
Look at verse 25, it says, "He had been instructed in the way of the Lord." What does that mean?
21:08-21:09
That was sort of an Old Testament term.
21:11-21:15
That means living a moral life as God prescribes.
21:17-21:22
You know, he really understood Old Testament theology.
21:24-21:55
and Old Testament morality, the law, and all of those things. Look on verse 25, "And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus." Okay, so he knew about Jesus, but look at this next phrase, "Though he knew only the baptism of John." What does that mean? What that means is he understood Jesus to a point, but he didn't understand the coming of the Holy Spirit.
21:55-21:56
That's what he's saying.
21:56-21:58
He knew about John's baptism.
21:58-22:01
Jesus said, "I'm going to baptize you with what?
22:02-22:06
The Holy Spirit, right?" So he knew about the whole, you get dunked in water, sign of repentance, right?
22:06-22:08
We still do that as a church.
22:08-22:11
He didn't know about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
22:11-22:12
Why?
22:13-22:17
This was the day before the internet and before CNN.
22:17-22:22
And it took some time during this first century for news to travel about what happened.
22:23-22:27
And apparently, Apollos was busy doing his thing and he didn't get the memo, right?
22:29-22:31
So he was teaching accurately, it just wasn't complete.
22:32-22:33
He didn't really know the rest of the story.
22:35-22:48
Look at verse 26, it says, "He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him," remember them, the tent makers that we met last week, became really good friends with Paul.
22:48-22:58
It says, "But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, "they took him and explained to him "the way of God more accurately.
22:59-23:06
"They took him aside and they taught him." That is Aquila and Priscilla didn't publicly rebuke him.
23:07-23:12
They didn't storm in pointing a finger in Apollos' face.
23:13-23:15
You are wrong, heretic!
23:15-23:20
"You need to repent of your blasphemies." They didn't do that.
23:22-23:25
They didn't do the passive aggressive thing that we do in our day.
23:25-23:27
I don't agree with that, so I'm going to write a little blog about that.
23:29-23:31
I'm going to tweet about that.
23:31-23:36
I have 140 characters or whatever to express my dismay at Apollos' teaching.
23:37-23:38
They didn't gossip about Apollos.
23:39-23:40
They didn't ostracize him.
23:40-23:41
What did they do?
23:41-23:43
They did the loving thing.
23:43-23:44
They pulled him aside.
23:44-23:55
They're like, "Hey, hey, you are such a good speaker, but did you know there's more to the story?" They pulled him aside and they taught him.
23:55-24:04
And in cases like this, the loving thing to do is to confront someone.
24:06-24:08
So let's talk about confronting someone.
24:09-24:14
Because when I say confronting, you're going to be in one of two camps.
24:15-24:18
Some of you are gonna go, "Ah, confronting, no, no, no, no.
24:18-24:19
I don't like to confront.
24:19-24:20
I hate confrontation.
24:20-24:21
I'm a middle child.
24:21-24:37
I don't confront, not my thing." Then there's going to be some of you that are like, "Yeah, yeah, tell us Pastor Jeff, how we can get people's faces." And both of those are wrong, okay?
24:38-24:40
I read a book many years ago.
24:41-24:43
This is going to sound a little cheesy, but the word always stuck with me.
24:43-24:48
But the author of the book says, instead of calling it confronting, we should call it care-fronting.
24:49-24:53
Let's change the word because it better reflects the attitude with which we're going after this.
24:54-24:55
We're doing this because we care.
24:57-24:57
We're care-fronting.
24:59-25:00
All right?
25:01-25:03
The loving thing to do is confront.
25:03-25:09
I'm going to give you a couple of myths about confrontation, and I'm going to give you a couple of tips straight from the text here.
25:10-25:12
First of all, the myths about confrontation.
25:12-25:14
Quickly, these are myths.
25:14-25:20
I feel like I'm going to share these things to give us a whole balanced meal here.
25:21-25:22
Myths about confrontation.
25:24-25:28
First myth about confrontation, I must confront everything I don't like.
25:29-25:30
That is a myth, all right?
25:30-25:31
That is a myth.
25:31-25:34
You do not have to confront everything you don't like.
25:34-25:43
Only when there are sin issues, like 1 Corinthians 5, or there's false or incomplete teaching in the church like we see here.
25:45-25:48
Be careful not to be the preference police.
25:51-26:01
Some people think it's their job, they've been duly deputized by the Lord, the police style of worship, dress, the font in the bulletin.
26:02-26:04
I'm going to set these people straight.
26:04-26:07
You don't need to confront everything that's not your preference, okay?
26:09-26:10
That's a myth.
26:11-26:13
Second myth is confrontation is not loving.
26:15-26:23
You know, I would say something to him, but I really like him, and I just feel like it's harsh to like, that's a myth.
26:25-26:27
The most loving thing you can do is watch somebody's back.
26:29-26:34
It's unloving to not confront when confronting is appropriate.
26:34-26:39
It's unloving to care more about the person walking in tune with you than that person walking in tune with God.
26:40-26:40
Okay?
26:43-26:46
Thirdly, here's a myth, confrontation equals judging.
26:47-26:49
You know that's coming, right?
26:49-26:51
If you confront somebody like, "Hey, look, you know what?
26:51-26:52
"I gotta talk to you about this.
26:52-26:59
"This is just something I see in your life "and I just wanna talk to you about it." People like to play a couple of cards here.
26:59-27:02
First of all is the Matthew 7 judgment card.
27:02-27:03
You're judging me.
27:03-27:04
You're judging me.
27:05-27:06
Bible says don't judge and you're judging.
27:06-27:07
You are sinning.
27:08-27:09
Somebody should confront you.
27:11-27:13
Or they pull out another card, the John 8 card.
27:14-27:17
He who is without sin, he who is without sin.
27:18-27:19
They cast the first stone.
27:21-27:25
And look, we talk about judging when the Bible talks about judging.
27:27-27:29
Jesus said not to judge hypocritically.
27:30-27:35
Now judging has to do with a person's character, not a person's conduct.
27:36-27:37
Two different things.
27:39-27:44
If I'm pointing out that something you are doing is sinful, that is not judging you.
27:44-27:47
That is saying the thing that you're doing is sinful.
27:49-27:54
Judging you is saying something like this, you're a horrible person because you think that way.
27:55-27:56
Now I'm judging you.
27:57-28:00
But if I say, hey, you shouldn't think that way, Those types of thoughts are sinful.
28:01-28:04
I'm not judging you, I'm saying your thoughts are sinful.
28:04-28:04
Do you see the difference?
28:05-28:07
Okay, so I don't wanna hear the whole you're judging me.
28:07-28:09
No, I'm not judging you.
28:09-28:14
Sin is sin, we point out sin, we point out conduct without condemning the person.
28:15-28:16
That's the difference.
28:17-28:20
But confrontation is not judging.
28:20-28:23
Some people play that card because that way nobody can say anything to them.
28:24-28:26
Don't say anything to him, he'll think you're judging him.
28:28-28:29
We watch each other's backs.
28:30-28:33
So tips for confronting, very quickly, right from the text here.
28:33-28:35
First of all, do it informed.
28:36-28:37
Write these down, tips for confronting.
28:37-28:39
First of all, do it informed, informed.
28:44-28:51
There's a rumor I think I might have heard that, you know, if you're gonna confront somebody, get your facts straight first, right?
28:52-28:53
Secondly, do it privately.
28:55-28:57
Jesus talked about that in Matthew 18.
28:57-28:58
we see it put in practice here.
28:59-29:01
Do it privately. They pulled him aside.
29:02-29:08
"Hey, we've got to talk to you about something." So do it informed, do it privately, thirdly, do it biblically.
29:09-29:12
Meaning, have the truth in hand.
29:13-29:23
I'm sure that's what Aquila and Priscilla did, to say, "Look, you're teaching some things about Jesus, but let me tell you the rest of the story." But they did it according to the truth of God's Word.
29:23-29:23
Do it biblically.
29:25-29:40
In these situations like Apollos, somebody that's from a sincere heart trying to seek the Lord, listen church, you can either destroy someone or you can empower someone by the way you come alongside that person.
29:42-29:47
Hypothetically, what do you think would happen to Apollos if Aquila and Priscilla pulled him aside and just like trashed him?
29:48-29:50
Or even publicly just trashed him?
29:50-29:51
You don't know what you're talking about.
29:51-29:53
You should shut your mouth until you learn the Bible.
29:54-29:57
Apollos might have been like, I don't know if I'm ever gonna be qualified.
29:57-30:04
Or he might, I don't know, it didn't happen hypothetically, but it happens in the church a lot.
30:05-30:07
Church is the only army that shoots their own wounded.
30:09-30:21
You can have somebody from a sincere heart trying to serve the Lord, needing some assistance in growth, and you can come along and just stamp them into the dirt by the way that you confront them.
30:22-30:27
Or, like in this case, you can empower someone.
30:28-30:29
You can empower someone.
30:31-30:36
One of the main ways that God works is through people, through you.
30:38-30:39
Be someone who helps people grow.
30:40-30:42
Like, well, how do we know it took?
30:43-30:44
How do we know it took for Apollos?
30:44-30:46
Well, look at verse 27.
30:48-30:49
Last point.
30:49-31:00
Verse 27 says, "And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.
31:02-31:17
When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus." So apparently it's stuck, right?
31:17-31:26
Because he was encouraged, They wrote a letter of recommendation for him, and he went, it says in your Bible, he went to Achaia.
31:26-31:29
The capital is a place you're more familiar with, it's Corinth.
31:30-31:32
He went to Corinth, okay?
31:34-31:36
Which was the capital of Achaia.
31:37-31:43
And when you get to 1 Corinthians in your Bible, you find that Apollos became a major church leader.
31:45-31:47
So here's the third point.
31:48-31:53
Because we're a work in progress, you're going to accept others' convictions, you're going to assist those who need to grow.
31:54-31:55
The third point is for you.
31:57-31:57
Always be teachable.
31:59-31:59
Always be teachable.
32:02-32:05
We saw previously that Apollos had a pretty big rep.
32:07-32:10
Remember it said Apollos was an eloquent man.
32:12-32:13
It's a very rare word.
32:13-32:16
I think this is the only time it's used in the New Testament actually.
32:16-32:24
and the best understanding of what the original meaning of this word is means that he was a man of words, or he was a man of ideas.
32:25-32:27
He was an eloquent man.
32:29-32:34
And here I think the translation is a little toned down, but it says he was competent in the Scriptures.
32:35-32:45
Actually, that word "competent" in the Greek is "adunimous," which is where we get the English word "dynamite." It means explosive and powerful.
32:46-32:48
He was powerful in the Scriptures.
32:50-32:53
So here's this eloquent man, this man of ideas.
32:53-32:56
Here's this man who was dynamite in Scriptures.
32:58-33:03
But here's the best thing that was said about Apollos, that could be said about Apollos.
33:03-33:04
He was teachable.
33:06-33:20
Because a couple of tent makers, a couple of tent makers pulled him aside "and said, 'Man, good, but let's do better.'" That's teachable.
33:21-33:21
That's teachable.
33:22-33:26
It would have been very easy for somebody like Apollos to say, "Who are you to tell me?
33:26-33:27
"Do you know who I am?
33:28-33:30
"I got a reputation here.
33:30-33:31
"People know me.
33:31-33:33
"I'm the greatest speaker in the area.
33:33-33:34
"And what do you two guys make?
33:35-33:36
"You two guys make tents, really?
33:37-33:38
"Like who camps, really?
33:38-33:43
"And you're making tents?" He was teachable.
33:44-33:53
And it doesn't matter how skilled you are or what you've accomplished, if you aren't teachable, if your heart isn't open to learn, you're going to hinder your own walk with Christ.
33:54-33:54
You're going to hinder it.
33:57-34:07
A huge danger sign for you is when you get to the point that you come to church to critique, not to learn.
34:08-34:14
And I'm not saying you shouldn't always evaluate things under the filter of the Word of God is what I'm saying true?
34:15-34:16
Does it line up with God's Word?
34:17-34:18
I'm not saying that at all.
34:19-34:36
But when you graduate yourself to the point that you haven't learned anything in church in the last six months, but let me tell you several things that I've noticed wrong about church, that's a huge danger sign because you're determining that you're unteachable.
34:37-34:38
I'm unteachable.
34:38-34:39
I've learned it all.
34:39-34:40
I know it all.
34:41-34:45
I don't come to church to learn, I come to church to set them straight.
34:46-34:46
That's a problem.
34:48-34:49
So are you teachable?
34:49-34:50
I'm going to give you a quick test here.
34:50-34:52
These are yes or no questions, one through seven.
34:52-34:53
Yes or no?
34:55-34:58
Jot down your answers, one through seven, yes or no.
34:58-34:59
Are you teachable?
35:01-35:05
Number one, I am aware of my weaknesses.
35:07-35:08
I am aware of my weaknesses.
35:08-35:37
true statement for you, yes or no? I'm aware of my weaknesses. Number two, I am not afraid to seek help. Number three, I try to learn from criticism. Somebody criticizes you, the first thing you should do is ask, is what they're saying true? That's the first thing you should ask. Instead of getting defensive, and who do you think you are? Why are you saying that to me? First thing you should say to See yourself, is that true?
35:37-35:38
Is there some truth in what he's saying?
35:40-35:45
Number four, I admit when I am wrong and I take responsibility when I fail.
35:47-35:48
Is that you, yes or no?
35:49-35:53
Number five, I am aware I don't know everything.
35:55-35:56
I am aware I don't know everything.
35:59-36:01
Number six, I am always looking to learn new things.
36:03-36:04
I'm always looking to learn new things.
36:07-36:10
Number seven, I invite others to give me feedback.
36:11-36:11
That's a big one.
36:11-36:14
I invite others to give me feedback.
36:15-36:16
Hey, what'd you think about that?
36:16-36:17
How could I have done that better?
36:19-36:20
Yes or no for those questions.
36:21-36:25
Now, if you have a lot of nos on the list, that's a very bad sign, honestly.
36:26-36:33
But if you have a lot of yeses on your list, and you are Apollo's like, all right?
36:34-36:35
That's a good thing.
36:37-36:39
As I close the worship team, they make their way up.
36:39-36:47
I just wanna ask us, imagine church as we talk about the fellowship in the body.
36:47-36:52
Imagine what kind of a church we would be, Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh North.
36:52-37:07
What kind of a church we would be If you have a heart to accept other people's convictions, even if it's not yours.
37:09-37:09
Let's say, you know what?
37:09-37:12
I don't agree with them on that, but that's okay.
37:12-37:12
Not a sin issue.
37:13-37:15
Not a sin issue, not a doctrine issue.
37:15-37:17
We're just gonna have to agree to disagree on that.
37:19-37:27
What kind of church would we be if we had a heart to accept other people's convictions and trust that the Lord was going to grow them as a work in progress as He's growing me.
37:28-37:36
What kind of church would we be, Harvest Bible Chapel, if we have a heart to help those who need to grow?
37:37-37:42
If we see people like Apollos in our midst and say, "Wow, that guy's got such a sincere heart.
37:42-38:00
Wow, that lady, she really has a heart to work and she can do better and I want to try to help her get to the next level." What kind of church would we be if we had a heart to help those who need to grow, what kind of church would we be?
38:01-38:06
Harvest Bible Chapel, if we have a heart to learn from others.
38:07-38:10
Everybody in here has something to teach me.
38:11-38:15
What would this church be if we came in here saying, I have a heart open to learn?
38:17-38:19
I'll tell you what kind of church we would be.
38:20-38:22
We'd be an unstoppable fellowship.
38:23-38:23
Let's pray.
38:24-38:31
Father in heaven, I thank You for the truth of Your Word.
38:31-38:42
And I pray, Father, as this passage really talks about some of the relational things that happen in the church, the horizontal relationships that happen here, Father, I pray for this church.
38:44-38:49
And Father, I see many of the things that we've been talking about today, I see them being lived out.
38:51-38:57
But of course, Father, every single one of us and as a church collectively, we have room to grow because we are a work in progress.
38:58-39:03
So I pray, Father, that our hearts are open to the kind of work that you wanna do in our lives.
39:06-39:21
Father, we are as a church want to today embrace the glorious truth that you began a good work in us in Jesus Christ and you have promised that you're going to finish it.
39:23-39:31
Let that be a grace that we embrace for ourselves, and let that be a grace that we embrace for others.
39:33-39:37
We pray these things in the mighty and strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
39:39-39:39
Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 18:18-28

Was Paul right or wrong to take a vow (Acts 18:18), in your opinion? Do you think it's appropriate for Christians to take vows today?
What is the right approach to handling someone teaching error (Acts 18:26)?
Do you think Apollos was saved before his encounter with Priscilla and Aquila? Support your answer.
What does this passage teach about when it is appropriate to confront someone?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

May 7, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Unstoppable Over Burnout.

Jeff Miller

May 7, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Review / Intro:

What is burnout?

What causes the stress?

What are the signs?

Why does it happen to some people and not others?

How can I keep it from happening to me?

1 Corinthians 2:3 - And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling...

  
  Am I Preventing Burnout in My Own Life?

Am I nurturing the Relationships God has brought into my life? (Acts 18:1-6)

Am I recognizing how God is Working in my life? (Acts 18:7-8)

Am I personally Seeking God? (Acts 18:9-11)

Am I Trusting God with what I can't control? (Acts 18:12-17)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:51-00:55
Open your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts, and chapter 18.
00:57-01:01
And this church sits on four pillars.
01:02-01:06
The first one is proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
01:07-01:10
The second one is lifting high the name of Jesus in worship.
01:11-01:13
The third one is believing firmly in the power of prayer.
01:14-01:18
The fourth one is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
01:19-01:22
And let's get into God's Word together.
01:23-01:29
And if you're visiting with us, we've been going through the book of Acts over the past year and a half or so.
01:29-01:46
And our theme this year is "The Unstoppable Church." And the title of today's message is "Unstoppable Over Burnouts." So this morning, we're going to talk about burnout.
01:47-01:54
And I know there's somebody here right now that's like, this is a subject I can really get into.
01:54-01:56
One time we barred my cousin's Camaro.
01:59-02:02
We were doing burnouts all over Zillianopole.
02:03-02:05
We're not talking about that kind of burnout.
02:07-02:12
We're talking about physical burnouts.
02:14-02:21
How many people here would say, by show of hands, and this is a place where we can be honest and transparent, right?
02:22-02:22
Right?
02:23-02:24
Right?
02:24-02:25
OK.
02:25-02:26
Just checking.
02:26-02:38
How many people here would say, at some point in my life-- maybe it's now-- at some point in my life, I have felt either burnout or close to being burnout?
02:38-02:39
How many people here?
02:39-02:40
Raise your hands.
02:41-02:43
That's almost everybody.
02:45-02:54
It's in the introduction of the sermon that the pastor is supposed to sell you on why you need to listen to what I'm about to say, but I don't think I need to sell you.
02:55-03:02
Because you've either experienced it, or maybe you're experiencing it right now.
03:04-03:12
Somehow, with all the technology that we have to make life easier, We're busier and we are more stressed than ever.
03:14-03:18
The truth about burnout is we are all susceptible.
03:18-03:28
It can sneak up on you before you know it, before you realize it, and it can wreck your life.
03:29-03:37
So what is burnout for the person here that's like, "Wait, wait, wait, you lost me when you said "it's not borrowing your cousin's Camaro." What is burnout?
03:39-04:06
this down for definition. Very simple. Burnout is physical and/or mental collapse caused by excessive and prolonged stress resulting in exhaustion and detachment. I'm going to Say that again.
04:08-04:08
What is burnout?
04:09-04:23
Burnout is physical and or mental collapse caused by excessive and prolonged stress resulting in exhaustion and detachment.
04:26-04:31
Okay, so burnout is, it's a physical thing and it's a mental thing.
04:33-04:38
And it comes about when the stress is heavy and prolonged.
04:39-04:41
You've had a lot of stress for a long time.
04:42-04:44
And the result is you are exhausted.
04:45-04:47
And I also included the word detachment.
04:48-04:49
You're just, you're done.
04:50-04:52
Like, look, look, man, I've crashed.
04:52-04:54
I am fried.
04:54-04:56
I am completely fried.
04:56-04:58
And my tank is empty.
05:00-05:01
My tank is empty.
05:01-05:03
Well, what causes the stress?
05:05-05:06
What causes the stress?
05:06-05:14
Well, a lot of times it's the pressure of having too much to do and not enough time to do it.
05:15-05:20
The stress can be caused by the weight of expectations that are put on you by others.
05:21-05:25
What I found more often is the weight of the expectations that you put on yourself.
05:27-05:31
You reach a point where you can't do anymore.
05:33-05:38
More specifically, and here's the thing with burnout, you reach the point where you don't want to do anymore, right?
05:40-05:43
Not only do you feel physically worn out, you're mentally worn out.
05:43-05:44
Whether you're like, you know, I'm done.
05:44-05:45
I'm done.
05:45-05:46
I can't do anymore.
05:46-05:47
I'm done.
05:47-05:48
I've had enough.
05:49-06:03
You know, I've been pushing, and I've been pushing, and I've been working, and I'm Alright, I'm done, and I don't care who it bothers, I don't care who's upset about it, I'm done!
06:05-06:09
Not my problem anymore, I'm done, I can't do anymore!
06:10-06:11
So what are the signs?
06:11-06:12
What are the signs of burnout?
06:13-06:17
Well, here's where it gets a little tricky, because it's not just one thing.
06:18-06:28
You realize, church, that we are body, mind, and spirit, And each one of those things affects the other two.
06:28-06:29
True or false?
06:30-06:30
True.
06:31-06:33
You are body minus spirit.
06:33-06:36
When your body is worn out, does that affect your mind and your spirit?
06:37-06:37
All the time.
06:38-06:43
Or when you're spiritually in a bad place, does that affect your mind and your body?
06:44-06:45
Absolutely.
06:47-06:52
So these things are all interconnected, and you see signs of burnouts in all three.
06:52-06:54
for example, physical, your body.
06:55-06:58
You know you're burning out when you experience a lot of fatigue.
07:00-07:02
Or insomnia.
07:05-07:15
Or an increased appetite or a decreased appetite, or to just put it under a couple of headings.
07:15-07:21
When you find that your sleep and your eating are off, That can be a sign.
07:23-07:23
Mental.
07:24-07:27
Mental signs of burnout. Impaired concentration.
07:28-07:29
You're angry. You're irritable.
07:30-07:35
You don't seem to be enjoying anything in life.
07:37-07:39
You feel alone and you feel sort of detached.
07:41-07:43
Those are mental signs. There are spiritual signs too.
07:45-07:47
Spiritual signs. Anxiety.
07:48-07:55
Depression. No passion for church. Disinterest in personal time with God.
07:57-08:12
The funny thing about burnout is it's not a sudden thing. It's not like you're going along one day and everything's great in the neighborhood and boom the balloon pops. You're like, "Oh I'm done!" See it happens over time.
08:13-08:46
It's like the slow leak in the balloon, not the pop of the balloon. And that is slowly sucking the life out of you, sucking the life out of you, to the point that the balloon's flat, and you're just like, "I'm done. How did I get here?" "I was so optimistic when I started this job." "I was so happy when I started this marriage." "I was so overjoyed when I joined this church." "Now I'm not really into any of it anymore." The air has come out of the balloon.
08:48-08:51
It results in exhaustion and cynicism.
08:52-08:53
Again, detachments.
08:56-08:59
Being burnt out, you feel helpless and hopeless.
09:01-09:01
I'm done.
09:02-09:03
I can't do anymore.
09:03-09:04
I can't go anymore.
09:05-09:06
And I don't care.
09:07-09:08
It's destructive.
09:10-09:13
People get burnt out on their marriage and just walk out.
09:14-09:15
I just walk out.
09:15-09:17
I know I made a commitment to the Lord.
09:17-09:18
I don't care.
09:19-09:21
I don't care!
09:22-09:23
I am super not with you!
09:25-09:25
I'm done.
09:27-09:28
People walk out on their job.
09:29-09:30
What are you going to do for a paycheck?
09:31-09:31
I don't care.
09:32-09:33
But I'll tell you one thing I'm not doing.
09:34-09:36
That job, I'm done.
09:38-09:44
And sadly, I've seen this a lot over the 20 plus years I've been in ministry, People walk out on their ministry.
09:45-09:54
People that have been serving the Lord, serving the Lord, serving the Lord, making disciples, teaching the Word, loving people, serving people, all of a sudden they're like, "I'm done.
09:55-09:58
I don't want anything to do with church, period.
09:59-10:13
Not just this church, any church. I'm done." Another question I had walking through this stuff this week, thinking through, Why does burnout happen to some people and not to others?
10:15-10:16
That's food for thought.
10:17-10:19
But here's the question that we're going to answer this morning.
10:20-10:22
How can I keep it from happening to me?
10:23-10:24
Look at Acts chapter 18.
10:25-10:30
In Acts chapter 18, Paul is continuing his missionary journey that we've been studying.
10:32-10:48
In Acts 18 it says, "After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth." And at this point, I can tell you confidently that Paul is approaching burnout at this point in his ministry.
10:48-10:53
You're like, "Well, how in the world did you come up with that?" Well, there's a couple clues.
10:54-10:57
I'm going to sort of give you this backdrop, and you're going to see it as we go through the text.
10:58-10:59
Here's the first clue.
10:59-11:02
Corinthians 2, verse 3 says this.
11:03-11:14
Paul said, "And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling." He's telling the Corinthians, this is the state that I was in when I first met you.
11:14-11:16
You can go back and read the whole context.
11:16-11:18
But notice how he describes himself.
11:19-11:21
I think we think of Paul as a super preacher, right?
11:21-11:27
He just took on all these naysayers in Athens and we think he just walks through town with his chest out.
11:28-12:12
I'm here to tell you about Jesus and you're gonna listen and we just we think well, that's Paul That's that's just a day in the life of Paul. He said I was with you said a weakness and In fear and much trembling. Can you see that you see this broken-down man walking into town just Burn out burn out. Here's another clue We're going to see in this passage here in just a few minutes in a verse 9 Acts chapter 18 verse 9 Look at what God says to Paul. This is the Lord speaking to Paul Verse 9 the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision Do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent. Now, why would God say that?
12:13-12:17
There's only one reason God would say that is because Paul was considering what?
12:19-13:00
He's considering quitting Right if Paul was going strong and the Lord shows up again Paul I want you to keep preaching and I was like yeah, I kind of am Paul don't be silent Not no intention Obviously, that's not the case. God wouldn't have said that unless Comparing notes with first Corinthians 2 3 and x 89 I think it's pretty obvious Paul was Afraid I'm done. I am so done with this.
13:02-13:04
How did he get there?
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Well, when you look at what we've been studying this year in Acts, just this year, we saw in Thessalonica the jealous Jews who incited a mob to a riot and pawn company go to Berea.
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But the troublemakers from Thessalonica chased them down, right?
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and they chased Paul out. Paul's escorted alone all the way to Athens.
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As we said, that's where he preached to the pagans.
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A passionate servant, one of my favorites in the Bible, and they were mostly like, "Eh, interesting." Some believed, praise the Lord, but a lot of them were like, "Eh, maybe we'll hear you again on this." Paul was going full speed for too long, and in this chapter in Acts, it was by himself.
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It's obvious he's a prime candidate for burnout.
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Good news.
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Good news today.
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That's why we're here.
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Good news.
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Burnout can be prevented.
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We're going to see in this passage what prevented Paul from crashing and what's going to prevent you from crashing.
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So in your outline, I want you to jot some things down.
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Am I preventing burnout in my own life?
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Okay. This is one of those you have to give yourself a test, right?
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2 Corinthians 13.5 says examine yourself.
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Okay? I don't examine you, you examine you, I examine me, right?
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So self-test, self-test.
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Am I preventing burnout in my own life?
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I'm going to give you a hint on this test.
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We're not supposed to do this, but I'm going to give you a hint on the front end.
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If you answer negatively to these questions, then you're heading for burnout.
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Okay? I'm telling you that right now.
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Honest look at yourself, but if you're saying no to these questions, you're heading for a burnout in your own life.
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First question, number one, am I nurturing the relationships God has brought into my life?
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Am I nurturing the relationships God has brought into my life?
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Pick up again, after this, Paul left Athens, Acts 18, and went to Corinth.
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And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla.
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Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome, and he went to see them.
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Because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade.
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And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath in trying to persuade Jews and Greeks." So it says that Paul ended up in Corinth.
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A lot can be said about Corinth, but I just want to give you an overview.
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was an extremely sinful city, known for its huge temple to the pagan goddess Aphrodite, whose priestesses were prostitutes.
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In fact, in this day, Corinth was such a sinful city, it was actually an insult to call somebody by that name.
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Like, you're nothing but a Corinthian.
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That was, as we said in Isaiah, them's fighting words. Right?
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That tells you what kind of a place this was that Paul was walking into.
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It was a cesspool of sin.
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And in this place he meets Aquila and Priscilla, a husband and wife who become very close friends of Paul's.
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Look at verse 5.
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It says, "When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the Word." to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
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When they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, "What's going on here?" He shakes out his garments.
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Maybe you're familiar with the passage in the Bible where Jesus talks about shaking the dust off your shoes.
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This is the same thing.
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It was just this idea of, "You know what? I'm leaving, I don't want any of your germs or cooties on me because you have rejected Jesus Christ." That's the problem here.
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He says, "I've showed you from the Bible that the Christ, the promised Messiah, is Jesus of Nazareth.
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You want nothing to do?
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You want to mock? You want to insult?
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I'm shaking?
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Whatever particles of you are on me as I walk out of here." Look at what he says.
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"Your blood be on your own heads.
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I'm innocent.
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From now on, I will go to the Gentiles." Paul's like, "You know what?
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I've been preaching to you Jews every time I roll into town.
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I'm going to the Gentiles.
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I'm going to find somebody that wants to hear this message." But notice in this passage, not only did he meet Aquila and Priscilla, but finally, Silas and Timothy catch up.
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I think we're seeing here in God's Word this is exactly what Paul needed, He's been on a long stretch of being alone.
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And the Lord surrounded him with friends.
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Some new ones and some old ones.
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But the Lord surrounded him with people.
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In churches, this is absolutely true, people that are heading to burnouts.
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They isolate themselves.
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They're alone.
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I can do it myself.
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I don't need anyone's help.
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You know people like that?
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Are you like that?
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I don't need help.
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You don't work these done, and I can't count on anybody.
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I'm going to take care of it.
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Just put it all on my back, man.
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I'm going to take it." You're going to burn yourself out because you were never meant to do it alone.
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Remember the passage that Mark just read up here talking about how in the church, we all have different gifts?
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Why is that?
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We're to use them to serve one another.
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We are here to take care of each other.
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The idea of, "Well, I love Jesus, but not the church, and I don't need to be part of a church body," that is completely foreign to the New Testament.
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We are called to be a part of a body.
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Part of that is so we can bear one another's burdens and share the load together.
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The idea of being detached from other people, we sort of wear it as a badge of pride, don't we?
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"I don't need anybody.
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I can do it all myself." That's why over and over at Harvest Bible Chapel, we stress small group involvement.
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It's not a fad. It's not a gimmick.
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In fact, it could be a lifesaver.
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In small groups, you encounter mutual encouragement.
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In small groups, you have mutual prayer.
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In small groups, you have mutual accountability.
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In small groups, you have a focus on the Lord.
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on other people. In small groups you share the load. You realize that none of those things that I just mentioned can be done by yourself. You can't do any of those things by yourself.
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That's why we encourage you, if you're not part of a small group, get to be part of one.
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How do I do that? Smallgroups@harvestpittsburgnorth.org. Send that Ryan up here that was giving the announcements, he coordinates our small group ministry, say, "Hey, I want to be part of I love our small group.
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And the more I talk to people that are involved in small groups in this church, the more I see how the Lord is using people.
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The question you have to ask yourself, "Am I nurturing the relationships God has brought into my life?" Imagine if Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla, "I don't need anybody.
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It's just me and the Lord." And Silas and Timothy show up, "I don't need you guys now.
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I've been doing fine without you.
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We're going to see in just a few verses that he wouldn't have made it.
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He would not have made it.
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And you're no apostle, Paul, and neither am I.
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We're not going to make it without people.
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So I'm not asking you, do you have relationships in your life?
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I'm asking you, are you nurturing them?
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Are you intentionally spending time with fellow believers?
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If you're not, you're heading for a bad place.
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Second question, am I recognizing how God is working in my life?
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Am I recognizing how God is working in my life?
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Quickly, look at verses 7 and 8.
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It says, "And he left there and went to the house of a man named Tidius Justice." Can we just pause for a second and acknowledge what an awesome name that is?
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Can we?
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"How did I not read this before naming my children?" He went to the house of a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God.
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His house was next door to the synagogue.
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Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized.
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Boom.
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The question here, am I recognizing God is working in my life.
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See, this question, church, this is a matter of focus.
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All could have lamented all that's happened before.
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Every time I preach to the Jews, every time I'm rebutted, I'm insulted, I'm harassed, I've been stoned, I've been beaten, I've been imprisoned.
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Every time I roll into town, I want to tell somebody about Jesus and they chase me out.
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It's so easy to focus on the negative, and Paul had much negative in his life from our perspective.
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But you see how the focus in this passage turns to the good things that God was doing.
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Not focusing on the hardships that he was experiencing.
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That's going to be a key to keep you from burning out.
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Because let's be honest, it's easy to do.
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It's easy to do.
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I want you to think of your workplace home right now, okay? Like, I don't do that on Sunday. Come on, do it. Think of your workplace in your home, if you work in the home, okay? Or if you work outside the home, I want you to think of your workplace. I want you to think about your workplace, and let's say in a week's time, you've received a hundred compliments for the job that you've done.
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Great work. I appreciate you. You're doing a great job. Thank you. But also, during the over the course of that week, you get one complaint.
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I don't think you know what you're doing here.
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Let me ask you.
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Which sticks with you?
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The 100 compliments?
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Or the one complaint?
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Which one? Go ahead, shout it out.
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The complaint. So it's not just me.
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It's not just me.
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Over the course of ministry, I get people - Pastor Jeff, the Lord really used that sermon.
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Pastor Jeff, thank you so much for being at the hospital.
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whatever it is, and I appreciate that, that's encouraging, but I'll tell you what, that person that sends the insult, like, I don't know, I don't even know if you have a relationship with God or some like obvious insulting thing, and Aaron can be like, "Well, you know that that person doesn't know you, and that person has no idea what you're doing, and that's the thing that'll bother me. I don't even know this guy and he's... But we have a tendency to focus on the negative and I just want to encourage you and in turn encourage myself that is going to burn us out when we work so hard and so long and feeling so ineffective because we're only focusing on the negative. I encourage you look around what is happening in your life right now that are obvious signs that God is at work.
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Just keep a little list.
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What's happening in your life right now that you're saying, "I see where God's at work.
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I see where God's at work in my kids.
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I see where God's at work.
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I've been witnessing to this guy at work, and I see how God's sort of opening the door for that.
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And I can see, you know, this illness I've been praying for, whether myself or somebody else, I see how God's been bringing healing in a way He's been revealing Himself through this." Focus on the things you see that God is doing.
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we're reminded right here, even amidst all the garbage that Paul had to deal with, I have this verse underlined in red in my Bible.
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Many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed were baptized.
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Focus on the good, all right?
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Look at what God's doing in your life.
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Take time to celebrate that stuff.
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Third question.
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This is huge.
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Again, intentional wording here, but the third question is, am I personally seeking God?
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I don't mean that I do my daily devotions, which certainly you should do.
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I'm talking about personally seeking God.
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I don't mean just punching the clock.
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OK, I read my three Bible chapters today.
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I said my God bless grandma prayers.
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I mean, you are personally seeking the Lord with your whole heart.
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Am I personally seeking God?
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Because nothing, church, listen to me, nothing can replace your personal walk with Christ.
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Not trying harder.
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Not medicine.
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Not therapy.
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All of those things have their place.
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But none can replace your walk with Christ.
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I'm going to say that again.
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Not trying harder, not medicine, not therapy.
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These things have their place, but they can't replace your walk with Christ.
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If you have a physical problem, see a doctor.
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Absolutely.
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Anybody that comes to me for counseling, it's one of the first questions I ask them.
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Have you been to a doctor lately?
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Because we are body, mind, and spirit, and we're all tied together.
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But let's look at the other end of that, shall we?
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If you're having a spiritual problem, your PCP's not gonna be able to handle that.
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Only Jesus Christ can handle that.
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If you have a headache, take an aspirin.
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If you're having a spiritual problem, you need to go to Christ for that.
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Is everybody with me on that?
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You're like, "Seek the Lord, can you be more specific?" Well, certainly.
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Look at verses 9 and 10.
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I want you to see how the Lord met Paul.
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And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you." "For I have many in this city who are My people." You see how the Lord met Paul.
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Two things.
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With commands and promises.
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Did you see it?
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Verse 9 is commands.
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Three of them.
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Three commands.
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One, "Do not be afraid." Paul, I know you're scared right now, but listen, I'm telling you right now, don't be afraid.
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Command number one.
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What's the second command?
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Shout it out if you saw it.
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Go on speaking. Go on speaking.
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The third command is what? "Shout it out." "Do not be silent." Okay? "Keep preaching the gospel." Basically, he was saying, "Don't quit. Don't quit, Paul." Those are the commands.
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And then, okay, so look at the next verse.
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We see three promises.
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What's the first one? Verse 10. What's the first promise?
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Shout it out, come on.
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Is there a more beautiful promise that anybody can be given than for God to say, "Hey, I'm with you." You're going through some rough stuff right now, but listen.
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I'm with you.
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Those words change everything, don't they? I'm with you.
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To know that the God of the universe is with you, what a beautiful promise.
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Look at the next one. Do you see it?
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Verse 10, shout it out.
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Yeah, no one will harm you.
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I put in my notes, the promise here is I will protect you.
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Right? God says I'll protect you.
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But God, there's like all these people asking me.
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I'm with you, and I'm going to protect you, man.
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I'm going to protect you.
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Okay, what's the last one? Verse 10.
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I have many in this city who are my people.
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What's the promise?
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The promise is you're not alone.
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You're not alone.
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Because Paul was obviously feeling that at this point.
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Like all burnout people do.
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Nobody understands.
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I just feel so alone.
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No, no, no, you're not alone.
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You're not alone.
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Commands and promises.
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Listen, when we're at our lowest, those are the things that the Lord's going to use to comfort you.
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Commands and promises.
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Right now you're reading this with me, and you're like, "Pastor Jeff, I hear what you're saying, but Paul, man...
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Paul had God give him specific commands and promises.
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I wish...
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Oh, I wish I had commands and promises from God." Is there somebody here saying that?
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I just wish that God gave me some commands and promises.
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And some of you have a knowing smile right now.
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Did God give you commands and promises?
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Did God give you commands?
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Okay, if you have commands and promises from God, hold them up.
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Hold them up.
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Do you have?
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Oh, okay.
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Okay, so we do.
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We do have commands and promises from God.
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He wrote them down in here.
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We have a whole book of them.
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So, do what God calls and empowers you to do, because there's a promise attached to it.
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See, God says to love others, even my enemies.
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That's the command.
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Why?
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Because it makes me like Him.
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Makes me more like God.
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Here's a command, God says to share the gospel.
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Why?
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Because He takes care of the results.
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Here's a command, God says to give cheerfully.
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Why?
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Here's the promise, because He gives back to me.
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Here's a command God says to persevere.
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Why?
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Because there's a crown at the finish line.
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See?
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I could go on.
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All through God's Word, commands and promises, commands and promises.
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And for the person that says, "I don't like God's commands." Well, I've got to tell you, you're not in good biblical company, because the psalmist said, I love the commandments and the statutes of the Lord.
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Not seeing them as burdensome or restricted, but saying, "I love the communication that God has given.
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I love the fact that there's a God who cares so much about me that He's giving me instruction for my life." "Well, Pastor Jeff, keeping God's commandments doesn't save you." I know, but that doesn't mean that we don't love the commands of God.
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Because through the commands of God, He's revealed His heart.
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He's attached a promise to them. Right?
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Does that make sense?
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I can start over.
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This encounter was refreshing. Look at verse 11.
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"He stayed a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them." Apparently it had some effect because Paul kept going.
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The total time there was a year and a half.
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And you're going to find, like Paul, when you let the Lord be your strength, when you let the Lord be your strength, you can't be stopped.
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You cannot be stopped.
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I promise you, based on the authority of God's Word, if you're trusting in your own strength, you're going to burn out.
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But if you're leaning on the strength only God can give you.
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You cannot be stopped.
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Am I personally seeking God?
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Last question.
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Last question.
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Am I trusting God with what I can't control?
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Look at verses 12 and 13.
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It's a familiar scene.
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But when Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul He was brought in before the tribunal.
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It was the court.
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It was in the marketplace on a big stone pavement.
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It was like this open public courthouse thing.
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He was the authority.
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Like the mayor, the judge, all of it rolled into one.
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The official title was pro-counsel.
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And the Jews attacked Paul, dragged him to court, so to speak.
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Verse 13, saying, "This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law." We've seen this so many times, right?
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So Paul's dragged into court, and he's accused.
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But there's not a familiar outcome.
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Even though the scene's familiar, the outcome is really different this time around.
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Look at verse 14.
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So when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.
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But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves.
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I refuse to be a judge of these things.
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And he drove them from the tribunal.
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I'll be honest with you, I wasn't expecting that.
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Not how these cases typically end up in the Bible.
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Verse 17, "And they all see Sostenes, the ruler of the synagogue." Like, wait, I thought Christmas was.
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Christmas came to Christ.
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He and his household, and he had to be replaced, right?
36:25-36:28
So the replacement was a man named Sostenes.
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They all see Sostenes, ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal.
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What?
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Anybody else with me on that?
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What's going on there?
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They dragged Paul to court.
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We don't like what he's doing, and the judge says, "I don't care." grab their leader and they kick his teeth in like out in the marketplace like Galeo paid no attention to any of this he's like guess what I still don't care his attitude was look no real harm is being done it's not my business I don't care um why was Sostenese beaten I don't know I don't know why but eventually The same man came to Christ because in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 1, he's mentioned specifically.
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And I have to wonder, I don't know, but I have to wonder, was it because of this?
37:30-37:35
Was it because of what he saw from Paul and what he was seeing from his own people?
37:36-37:36
I don't know.
37:38-37:44
The burnout people often carry this sense of, "I'm trying so hard, why isn't it working?
37:44-37:47
Why aren't people on board? Why is there so much opposition?
37:48-38:02
If you are banking on your control of things, on your control of things, if you're banking on your control of people, you're heading for burnout.
38:04-38:09
I want you to take a hard inventory right now. The hard inventory right now of the things that are stressing you.
38:10-38:14
Okay. This is a little test within a test.
38:16-38:20
The thing stressing you right now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and these are yes or no questions.
38:22-38:30
How much of these things that are stressing you are actually outside of your control in the first place?
38:31-38:36
So, I'm going to ask you a question, and you're going to write down yes or no answering this.
38:36-38:37
Is it in my control?
38:39-38:39
Is it in my control?
38:42-38:42
You ready?
38:43-38:44
Doing my job.
38:45-38:45
Is that in your control?
38:46-38:46
Yes or no?
38:46-38:47
Write it down, doing your job.
38:49-38:50
Yes or no, is that in your control?
38:52-38:53
Alright, let's check our answers.
38:53-38:54
What did you put?
38:55-38:57
Yes, yes that's in your control.
38:59-39:00
Keeping a good attitude.
39:02-39:04
Is that in your control, yes or no?
39:04-39:06
Go ahead. Yes.
39:06-39:08
Good. All right.
39:09-39:10
Other people's attitudes.
39:11-39:11
Is that in your control?
39:12-39:12
Yes or no?
39:13-39:17
No. And we're stressing about that again.
39:17-39:19
Why? Other people complaining.
39:20-39:21
Is that in your control?
39:23-39:28
No. Other people criticizing the work that you're doing.
39:29-39:30
Is that in your control?
39:31-39:38
Now, I just want to encourage you, the things that you can't control, easy prayer.
39:38-39:40
God, I'm trusting you to deal with them.
39:42-39:48
Paul, he was once again thrust into a situation beyond his control, thrust into court.
39:49-39:54
But God in His sovereignty, you know God's not just sovereign over the church, He's also sovereign over the secular realm.
39:54-39:58
And God in His sovereignty took care of Paul.
40:00-40:02
God and His sovereignty is going to take care of you too.
40:04-40:09
Do what God has called you to do, but trust Him for what you can't control.
40:09-40:10
Okay?
40:12-40:13
Now look at your answers on your outline.
40:15-40:16
Look at your answers.
40:17-40:19
Am I nurturing the relationship God has brought into my life?
40:19-40:21
Am I recognizing how God is working in my life?
40:22-40:24
Am I personally seeking God and am I trusting God for what I can't control?
40:25-40:26
Look at your answers.
40:27-40:36
If you answered "no" to these questions, to any of these questions, you are heading for a devastating burnout.
40:39-40:44
Because it means you've isolated yourself, number one.
40:46-40:48
It means you're focusing on the negative, number two.
40:49-40:52
It means, number three, you're not spending time with God.
40:54-40:55
Number four, it means you're trying to control everything.
40:57-40:59
You're stressing about the things that you can't.
41:00-41:01
You're heading for a bad place.
41:04-41:17
But I want to encourage you, by God's grace, if you've answered yes to these questions, or if you will seek the Lord on turning the no's into yes's, you are going to cross the finish line strong.
41:20-41:46
If you will nurture your relationships, if you will focus on what God is accomplishing in your life, if you will be diligent to spend time alone with the Lord, obedient to His calling and claiming His promises, through it all trusting God for things that you can't control, there's going to be at least another 30,000 miles on your tires.
41:47-41:48
Let's pray.
41:50-41:57
We are all susceptible, like Paul, to burning out.
41:59-42:01
God, I pray for my brothers and sisters here.
42:02-42:04
We saw the hands up earlier.
42:04-42:08
They've either experienced it, and there might be some experiencing it right now.
42:10-42:17
God, we try to wage fleshly and mental and spiritual wars all in the flesh.
42:18-42:20
We want to try harder.
42:22-42:25
We want to spend longer hours.
42:26-42:28
There's certainly nothing wrong with hard work.
42:29-42:38
There is certainly something wrong when the hard work replaces the spiritual work that only you are able to accomplish.
42:39-42:44
Father, I pray that today is a self-checkpoint for all of us.
42:46-42:55
that if we see ourselves heading in the wrong direction, and we're heading towards burnout, I pray that your Holy Spirit would empower a U-turn today.
42:57-42:59
We don't want to be people who quit on our jobs.
43:01-43:04
Much more, we don't want to be people who quit on our ministry.
43:04-43:07
And so much more, we don't want to be people who quit on our families.
43:09-43:13
By your grace, Lift these people up to you today, Father.
43:16-43:20
Let us wait upon the Lord.
43:22-43:26
Be renewed in the strength that you've promised.
43:28-43:30
Pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 18:1-17

Have you ever felt burnout, or felt like you were close? Describe how that felt. What did you do?
How do we know Paul was experiencing burnout in this part of his ministry? (Hint: Acts 18:9)
How do healthy relationships prevent burnout?
How do God's commands and promises bring encouragement? (See Psalm 119:35)

Breakout Questions:

Go around the group (or breakout group), take turns answering the 4 sermon point questions with a YES or NO.

Am I Nurturing the Relationships God Has Brought Into My Life? (Acts 18:1-6)
Am I Recognizing How God is Working in My Life? (Acts 18:7-8)
Am I Personally Seeking God? (Acts 18:9-11)
Am I Trusting God with What I Can’t Control? (Acts 18:12-17)

Do you feel on the way to burnout? How can you use these principles to prevent burnout in your own life?

Jeff Miller

February 19, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Unstoppable Against Idols

Jeff Miller

February 19, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Review / Intro:

How Do You Witness to Greeks? (Acts 17:16-34)

Meet them where they Are. (Acts 17:22-23)
Just share the Basics. (Acts 17:24-29)

Who is God? (101):

God Created you. (Acts 17:24)

God Provides for you. (Acts 17:25)

God Cares about you. (Acts 17:26)

God wants a Relationship with you. (Acts 17:27-28)

Rethink how you View God. (Acts 17:29)

Encourage a Decision. (Acts 17:30-31)

Leave the Results to God. (Acts:17-32-34)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:02
Alright, open up your Bibles to Acts chapter 17.
00:04-00:05
Acts chapter 17.
00:07-00:13
As you're turning there, by way of review, just to sort of cap this off, since this will be our last message in Acts for a while.
00:15-00:18
This year we've been talking about the unstoppable church.
00:18-00:23
Jesus promised that He would build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against His church.
00:24-00:26
And that's exactly what we see in the book of Acts.
00:26-00:40
We saw in chapters 13 and 14, on their first missionary journey, back in time for the Jerusalem Council, where there was this whole discussion, "What place does the law have in salvation?" And it was back to mission work.
00:42-00:45
We saw them in Thessalonica presenting a clear gospel.
00:46-00:49
And we saw the jealous Jews inciting a mob to riot.
00:50-01:00
Remember, we saw Jason and some of the brothers who were guilty by association just because they were Christians and the missionaries, they were persecuted.
01:01-01:07
Paul and company went to Berea to find people eager to receive the Word, and they examined it daily.
01:07-01:09
And I encourage you to be a Berean.
01:10-01:14
Whether it's me speaking, or John MacArthur, or John Piper, or whoever you listen to.
01:15-01:17
Examine everything through God's Word.
01:19-01:25
But the enemies of the Gospel came from Thessalonica to Berea and chased Paul out.
01:26-01:28
all the way to Athens.
01:28-01:39
And when Paul got there, the people that escorted him down, Paul said, "Hey, when you get back, tell Silas and Timothy to get down here as soon as possible." Okay, so that's where we're at.
01:39-01:39
Everybody there?
01:40-01:46
Paul's in Athens, he just fled, and he's kind of like hanging out, waiting for Silas and Timothy to show up.
01:48-02:01
Verse 16, "Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
02:02-02:07
Athens was the greatest city in the world centuries before Christ.
02:07-02:11
It was the home of culture, of art, of philosophy.
02:11-02:17
All these people that you've read about in school came from Athens.
02:17-02:22
like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.
02:25-02:31
But Athens was also known, not just for the philosophy and the art, Athens was known as a place of idolatry.
02:31-02:32
There were idols everywhere.
02:33-02:35
The buildings were dedicated to gods.
02:35-02:38
And there were statues everywhere dedicated to gods.
02:39-02:46
And one ancient writer named Petronius had this famous quote talking about ancient Athens.
02:47-02:54
He said, "It's easier to find a God in Athens than a man." That's how prevalent idolatry was.
02:56-02:58
But I want you to see Paul's attitude.
02:59-03:14
It says, "Now while Paul was waiting for them, Silas and Timothy, my Bible says," and your Bible says something similar, "his spirit was provoked within him." We're going to see what that did.
03:17-03:21
We're going to be talking about how to share the Gospel and some of the elements.
03:21-03:22
And I can teach you that.
03:22-03:24
I can teach that to a four-year-old.
03:26-03:30
Something I can't teach is this.
03:32-03:33
Being provoked in your spirit.
03:35-03:40
Because sometimes, church, let's be honest, we see people who don't yet know the Lord.
03:42-03:47
worldly people living in a worldly way, and we look at them with disgust.
03:49-03:50
Shame on those people.
03:50-03:53
How stupid, how foolish, how irresponsible.
03:54-03:57
And we'll be disgusted, or we want nothing to do with them.
03:59-04:03
Paul saw the idolatry around him.
04:04-04:06
It says his spirit was provoked.
04:06-04:13
He had to do something about it, but it wasn't criticized, It wasn't to judge or condemn.
04:14-04:17
It was, these people need to know Jesus Christ.
04:17-04:21
I just want to ask you, when was the last time that you felt so provoked?
04:21-04:23
When was the last time that's happened to you?
04:24-04:44
That you had that co-worker or that other student that you know is going through the worst season of their life, and they're hurting, or they're rebellious, and you're looking at them, not with disgust, not with, "What a loser!" And you're looking at them like, "They need to know the Lord.
04:45-04:47
And I've got to say something.
04:47-04:49
I have to say something to them about Jesus Christ.
04:50-04:54
I have to say something." When was the last time you were there?
04:55-05:01
For some of us - and I'm not condemning you, I'm just challenging us, because for some of us it's been a long time.
05:03-05:10
Some of us have adopted the attitude, "To hell with the world." But when was the last time you saw the world through the eyes of Christ.
05:11-05:15
What they need is to know God.
05:18-05:19
Provoked in spirits.
05:21-05:22
Provoked in spirits.
05:24-05:28
If you're not there, I encourage you this, you need to pray for that.
05:29-05:30
For yourself.
05:31-05:32
I pray that for myself.
05:33-05:35
You need to pray that for yourself too.
05:38-05:45
So, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons.
05:45-05:50
What does that mean? Those were Gentiles who were sort of into Judaism.
05:50-05:52
They were Gentiles who feared the Lord.
05:55-05:59
And in the marketplace, every day with those who happened to be there.
05:59-06:00
I love that.
06:01-06:07
Like, "What's your mission, Paul?" He's like, "I'm just going to get out into the mall and whoever's there, I'm going to tell him about Jesus. That was it.
06:08-06:11
No real like, you know, here's my strategy.
06:12-06:18
He's like, "Here's my plan. I'm just going to show up and I'm going to see somebody and I'm going to tell him about Jesus." That was his plan. I love that. I love that.
06:18-06:20
That's simple. I can do that.
06:21-06:29
Look at verse 18. It says, "Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him." Who are these guys?
06:29-06:34
Well, the Epicureans, their philosophy was anything you can do to avoid pain.
06:35-06:36
anything you can do to avoid pain.
06:39-06:40
I'm on board with that a little bit.
06:40-06:41
Not to the degree they were.
06:42-06:43
And what about the Stoics?
06:43-06:47
The Stoics, their philosophy was you shouldn't feel anything.
06:49-06:50
Don't be happy, don't be sad.
06:51-06:51
Stoic.
06:53-06:53
Feel nothing.
06:54-06:55
Stay on neutral all the time.
06:56-06:57
These are the people that Ball was dealing with.
06:59-07:02
And some said, what does this babbler wish to say?
07:05-07:07
This guy obviously had the gift of encouragement.
07:08-07:30
Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection." Verse 19, "And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
07:31-07:34
For you bring some strange things to our ears.
07:34-07:37
We wish to know therefore what these things mean.
07:39-07:41
Now the Areopagus, that was the court.
07:42-07:48
And understand, so many times in Acts we saw the apostles on trial, like a criminal trial.
07:48-07:50
This really wasn't like that.
07:52-07:58
This was sort of a, we want to hear you out, but we want to give you sort of an official format to do that.
07:58-08:01
He wasn't on trial like he was going to go to jail or anything.
08:04-08:09
The word was getting around that he was preaching something that was unique to them.
08:09-08:10
And they're like, "We've got to hear this.
08:11-08:15
Get this guy down to the courthouse and we'll get a crowd together.
08:15-08:18
We want to hear what this weird thing is he's talking.
08:18-08:19
This Jesus, this resurrection.
08:21-08:24
We've got to hear more about this." Why did they want to hear him out?
08:25-08:25
Look at verse 21.
08:26-08:49
It says, "And all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing "Hey, did you hear about this religion?" "No, I never heard about that." "Well, this religion teaches this." They were just constantly looking for the next newest thing when it came to religion or philosophy.
08:52-09:01
We're going to stop here for a second, because we see that there's a stark contrast in the two audiences that are here.
09:01-09:03
that Paul had in Athens.
09:04-09:13
Verse 17, he was in the synagogue with the Jews, and he was in the marketplace with the Greeks, the non-Jews.
09:14-09:16
There's a huge contrast between these two audiences.
09:18-09:28
In the synagogue, when you're dealing with the Jews, these were people who already acknowledged the Scriptures.
09:30-09:33
These are people that already had a reverence for the God of Israel.
09:34-09:37
These are people who already believed in one God.
09:38-09:39
They believed in creation.
09:39-09:41
They believed in the Ten Commandments.
09:41-09:44
Everything in your Old Testament, they sort of had that as a backdrop.
09:46-09:55
That's why Paul could go to people like that and say, "Hey, you know what the Scriptures say about the Messiah?" Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and he could just run it down, Zechariah 12.
09:55-09:57
He could just list these Scriptures.
09:57-09:59
You know what the Old Testament says about the Messiah?
09:59-10:01
Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled that.
10:01-10:02
They had the backdrop.
10:02-10:14
And they're like, "Oh yeah, we're familiar with these Scriptures, and we see how you're connecting the dots here." But I want you to see that the people in the marketplace were a much different audience.
10:15-10:18
They would have been much looser in their beliefs.
10:19-10:27
Unfamiliar with the Bible, but somehow, for some reason, antagonistic towards Jesus and the resurrection.
10:29-10:31
I just want to pause here and ask.
10:33-10:35
Multiple choice. You've got two choices.
10:36-10:38
Which one of these sounds more like our culture today?
10:39-10:57
People that already have a background in understanding the Bible, people that have accepted creation and the Ten Commandments and some of those things, or people who are much looser in their beliefs, They don't really know much about the Bible, but they're antagonistic towards it anyways.
11:00-11:03
Okay? So, inform a poll here.
11:04-11:08
A) Bible creation and Ten Commandments have the backdrop.
11:10-11:19
B) Don't know much about the Bible, but sort of antagonistic to it, but open to any other silly doctrine that comes down the pipe.
11:20-11:21
Which one sounds more like our culture, A or B?
11:23-11:24
That's what I thought too.
11:24-11:25
That's what I thought.
11:26-11:34
I think a generation ago - and there's some people here that lived through that - I think a generation ago, there were more A's.
11:34-11:46
There were more people like, hey, even if I'm not a Christian, I believe the Ten Commandments, and I try to be a good person, and I believe that someone created us, and there was that general backdrop.
11:47-12:03
I think more and more we're becoming to people in the marketplace, our culture, loose in beliefs unfamiliar with the Bible, but antagonistic towards Jesus and the resurrection.
12:06-12:14
The reason it's important to see the distinction between the A's and the B's, between the Jews and the Greeks, is because it makes a difference in how we share the Gospel.
12:14-12:15
You have to know your audience.
12:17-12:20
The question is how do we engage people who don't know the Bible?
12:21-12:26
How do we witness to people who have no real fear of the Lord, or understanding that there's one living God?
12:27-12:28
Where do we even start?
12:29-12:30
Another question on your outline.
12:32-12:33
We're just going to say it this way.
12:33-12:34
How do you witness to Greeks?
12:36-12:40
Okay, that's Greeks with an "r." Okay? Not geeks.
12:41-12:42
What did you learn in church today?
12:42-12:45
Pastor Jeff taught us how to share the Bible with geeks.
12:51-12:52
How do you witness to Greeks?
12:53-13:02
I love this passage, but I so did not want to preach on it because I could preach like eight sermons on this passage and we're going to try to do it in one, so we're going to go through some things rather quickly today.
13:03-13:05
Because I need you to see the whole picture.
13:06-13:07
Okay, how do you witness to Greeks?
13:08-13:09
Number one, meet them where they are.
13:10-13:11
Meet them where they are.
13:12-13:13
Look at verses 22-23.
13:14-13:24
Again, they didn't have this Bible backdrop Paul's like, "You know the Messiah in Isaiah 53? That's Jesus!" Clueless. Clueless. He couldn't start there.
13:24-13:26
Look at what he said. This is awesome.
13:26-13:36
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
13:39-13:49
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription.
13:50-13:51
To the unknown God.
13:53-13:57
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
13:58-13:59
Meet them where they are.
14:01-14:04
Notice that Paul, yeah, he was provoked in his spirit, but he wasn't a jerk about it.
14:04-14:09
He identified with the people, and he found a point where they could meet.
14:10-14:11
Did you see that?
14:13-14:29
He says, "I perceive in every way that you are very religious." And I was doing some reading this week, I was studying, some people were like, "Well, he was complimenting them." And other people were like, "He was insulting them." Like, what do you think, Pastor Jeff?
14:32-14:33
I think he was identifying with them.
14:34-14:38
I don't think he meant to compliment them, and I certainly don't think he meant to insult them either.
14:39-14:41
I think he was just saying very matter-of-fact.
14:42-14:45
"You people are religious. You guys like to worship." That's all he was saying.
14:46-14:50
"You guys like to worship, don't you? You love to worship." Like, how do you know that we love to worship?
14:51-14:51
Because you have idols everywhere.
14:52-14:59
He was just meeting them where they were, and then he honed down to an unknown God.
14:59-15:01
He said, "I even saw an idol that here was the inscription.
15:02-15:05
The inscription said to the unknown God." Now, here's the mindset behind that.
15:06-15:08
Like I said, they had an idol for everything.
15:09-15:15
And, you know, there was a god of the rain, so we better make an idol for the god of the rain.
15:15-15:18
But there's a, well, the sun, so we better make an idol for the god of the sun.
15:18-15:22
And well, it gets windy sometimes, so we better make a god for the god of the wind.
15:23-15:26
And they even had like, they even had like a goddess of their sewer system.
15:27-15:29
Like they had a god for everything.
15:32-15:47
And eventually when you do that, you get to the point that you think, what if we forgot Maybe there's a God out there that we didn't make a statue to worship in honor of this God.
15:47-15:56
What if this God's out there and this God is ripping mad because we haven't acknowledged Him or Her or Them or It or whatever?
15:57-15:59
What if there's a God out there that we didn't acknowledge?
16:00-16:01
So somebody had this brilliant idea.
16:02-16:06
Well, I've got an idea. We'll make an idol and we'll just put, to the unknown God, we'll put that right on the idol.
16:06-16:11
So that way, if that God ever gets mad at us, we'll be like, "No, no, no, this one was for you, we just didn't know your name.
16:12-16:20
But this is totally you." And so Paul saw that, he goes, "Hey, you guys are religious.
16:20-16:33
You know what, I even saw a statue that said, 'To the unknown God.'" What Paul didn't see was anything that had to do with worshipping Jehovah, the God of Israel.
16:34-16:42
Paul's like, "Ah, I know the God that you don't know." And that's what I'm going to tell you.
16:44-16:52
Paul was saying, "You acknowledge yourselves that there's a God that you don't know." But here's some good news.
16:53-16:54
He can be made known.
16:56-16:57
Because He's revealed Himself.
16:59-17:00
I just want to encourage you to look for ways.
17:02-17:03
Look for ways to make a connection with people.
17:05-17:06
Look for ways.
17:07-17:26
I know a guy that came to the Lord because it was a Friday during Lent and somebody asked him about having pizza or something, and he goes, "Oh no, no, no, I can only eat fish on Friday." And that opened up a whole conversation that ended up leading this guy to the Lord.
17:26-17:28
And this guy laughs about it today.
17:28-17:30
The person led to the Lord over a fish sandwich.
17:32-17:40
But you see, the person who led him to the Lord used that as the point of contact to say, "Why do you only eat fish on Friday?" And got to the heart of that.
17:43-17:49
But he found a point of connection, and that sounds silly, but we have a guy that was saved because of a fish sandwich.
17:50-18:02
Another one that I've shared with you many times in the past, looking for a point of connection, ask people, "Do you have a church home?" "Do you have a church home?" And then their answer says a lot.
18:04-18:21
And they say, "No, no, no, I don't go to church." "Oh. Can I ask why?" People like to talk about themselves. They'll be glad to open up. "Well, I went to church when I was a kid and you know, they were mean or the preacher was always chewing us out." That opens up the conversation.
18:25-18:25
What do you think about?
18:27-18:29
I just want to encourage you like Paul.
18:30-18:32
Find a connection point. Meet them where they are.
18:34-18:42
Paul didn't just walk in and say, "Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law." Like, what?
18:43-18:44
That's true.
18:45-18:46
He didn't start there.
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He started where they were.
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He identified with them.
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Ask them where they are.
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Number two, I'm going to go through these things very quickly.
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Number two, just share the basics.
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When you're dealing with somebody that doesn't know the Lord, and doesn't know the Bible, okay, first of all, that's why we're doing the Bible 101 thing, because we want you to bring people to know and understand and learn about God's Word.
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But you're going to encounter people that have never cracked the spine of a Bible in their life.
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They never have.
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They're like, "Well, what do I share with them?" Here's what you share.
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I share the basics.
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Keep it simple.
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Talking about the deep things of the Lord is going to be senseless.
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You know, you're like trying to witness to somebody.
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Like, "Can I tell you about Jesus?" And they're like, "Yeah, I'd love to hear about Jesus." You're like, "Well, let me tell you something about Jesus." You know, the Bible says Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
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You know why it says that?
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Because the Old Testament Levitical priests, they couldn't beat priest and king at the same time.
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It wasn't allowed.
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He came before, he was in Abraham's time, he was a priest and a king at the same time.
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And Jesus, priest and a king, just like Mephizedek.
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And they're like, "What was in your coffee, dude?" But is that gonna... that stuff's all true, and it's a fascinating study, and those are some of the deeper things.
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That's like 102, right, man?
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That's 102 stuff.
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You don't want to start there.
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But look at where Paul starts.
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Just start with the basics, right?
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So in your outline, this is kind of a preview to Bible 101.
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We're just calling this "Who is God 101?" Okay?
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Oh, that's very creative of you, Pastor Jeff.
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Everything is 101.
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Who is God 101?
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Here it is.
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First of all, just look at the elements here.
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We're going to go through this quickly.
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The first one is this, "God created you." Paul says in verse 24, "The God who made the world and everything in it, The being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man.
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That was the first thing.
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First of all, this unknown God, you've got to know something about the unknown God.
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He's a Creator. He created you.
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See, the Epicureans, they believed that matter is eternal.
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There are some people who still believe that.
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That matter has always existed.
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The Stoics, they were more pantheists.
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They believed that everything was a part of God.
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You see, this is where Paul started.
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He goes, "You get all these gods, all these idols for all these different things.
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Let me tell you about the unknowing God. He's over all of it.
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You have a God of the rain, a God of the wind, a God of the sun, a God of the snow, a God of the sewer system or whatever.
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The real God is God over all of those things.
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He doesn't specialize.
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It's not like, "Well, I'm really good at one thing, and that's it.
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Don't bother me about nothing else." No, no, no, no, no.
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Let me tell you about this God.
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He's the God over everything.
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He created the sun, He brings the wind, He brings the rain.
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He is the God who is over every single thing because He created all of it.
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There is not a message in our day that is more attacked than this one.
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God created.
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I'm going to say this very quickly because in two weeks the whole message is about creation.
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But you have been living under a rock if you haven't noticed this.
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The idea that God is a personal creator.
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That message is attacked more than anything else.
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With the damnable lie of evolution.
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The most pervasive and accepted lie in our day that's disguised as intellectualism and science.
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It's nothing more than a fairy tale for adults.
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Evolution.
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Given enough time, a cell turns into a fish, turns into an amphibian, turns into a lizard, turns into a bird, turns into a monkey, turns into you.
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Given enough time, that happens.
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If you say you don't believe that, then you're unintellectual.
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You're out of touch.
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you don't understand science.
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Like I said, we're going to talk all about creation in a couple of weeks.
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Don't get me started.
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I want to say this, though.
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You might say, "You know what?
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I'm not really prepared.
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I'm not really equipped to have these discussions with people." Do you know there are entire ministries designed to equip you to be able to discuss these things intelligently?
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They built an entire museum in Kentucky, the Creation Museum.
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And the whole purpose is to equip us to be able to share with this lost world that's denying the truth of creation.
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Look, it's not unintellectual. It's biblical fact.
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Verified by science.
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Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 14-7.
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Over and over and over and over.
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God is constantly talking about this key truth.
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God created you.
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You see, I think people deep down know that.
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I think people deep down know.
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Even people that say they believe in evolution, they don't believe in evolution for intellectual reasons.
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They just don't want to be held accountable.
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I don't want to think that there's a God that I have to answer to. Nobody's my boss.
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So I'm going to embrace this idea that we came from nowhere and we're going nowhere.
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Listen, I promise you, deep down, people know that God created them.
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Deep down they know.
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We'll talk more about that in a couple of weeks.
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God created you.
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2nd Corinthians 1. Look at verse 25.
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Paul says, "Nor is He served by human hands, because He doesn't need anything, He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
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The second thing He says, not only does God create you, listen, God provides for you.
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How foolish to think that divinity would need something for me.
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That's one of the really foolish things about idolatry.
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The gods need me for something.
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Right?
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They're up in their heavens or wherever, and they need something for me.
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How foolish is that?
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Let me tell you something about the real God.
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He doesn't need anything from anybody.
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He doesn't need anything.
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He's all-sufficient.
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Guess what? He was all-sufficient before we were created.
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And 100 trillion years into the future, He's going to be all-sufficient still.
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He's never lacking anything.
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This God provides.
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Deep down, we know everything in life comes from God.
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Deep down we know that we should be thankful.
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That was a point of contact.
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He goes, "Listen people, God created you.
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God provides for you." Thirdly, letter C, God cares about you.
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God cares about you.
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Look at verse 26.
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He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place." First of all, I want to say parenthetically, He made from one man every nation.
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That's why racism is so stupid.
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Because we're all technically related.
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We all came from Adam and Eve, right?
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If the Bible's true.
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came from Adam and Eve, right?
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That means we're all people of one blood.
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So the same blood is going through the blacks, the whites, Latinos, Asians, all the same blood.
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Yeah, there's different shades of skin color and hair texture or whatever, but it's all the same blood.
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That's why racism is so stupid.
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Like, we're the same.
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We all came from the same.
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He said here's the level of God's care.
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He determined times and places.
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That it's no accident when and where you are in history.
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It blows my mind.
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It should blow your mind too.
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It's no accident that you were born when you were born.
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It's no accident You're living in this geographic area now.
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So wherever you go a year, five years, whatever down the road, that's not going to be an accident.
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God has appointed your time and your place.
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Because He cares about you.
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Like how do you know that?
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Look at the next thing He says, verse 27, letter D, God wants a relationship with you.
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So God determined your time and place in history.
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Why did He do that?
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We're talking about it on a national level, and I believe it goes all the way down to the individual level.
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I believe God's sovereignty is much deeper than we'll ever be able to guess.
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Verse 27, "That they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him, yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being." even some of your own poets have said, we are indeed His offspring.
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He says God wants a relationship with you.
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"Pointing your time and place so that you would seek after Him." Do you see the common thread?
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God created you, God provides for you, God cares about you, God wants a relationship with you.
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Do you see the common thread in those things?
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Paul was saying was, "Listen, people, you matter to God." You matter to God.
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Paul didn't walk in and say, "You hellbound, foolish, pagan idol worshippers." He didn't take that approach.
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He goes, "Look, I see you're religious, and I see you don't know God.
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I'll tell you about Him.
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I'll tell you one thing about Him.
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He loves you.
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You matter to Him.
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You know how I know you matter to Him?
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He created you.
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And He provides you.
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And He's determined your time and place.
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And He wants a relationship with you.
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He's not far from you.
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He is one prayer away.
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And I would encourage you to take these elements that when you're sharing with people, and make that the focal point.
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People that don't know God, God's mad at them.
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Maybe they've heard bits and pieces of, "Yeah, I know what the Bible says, because I've done wrong things, God wants to send me to hell, right?" No, no, no.
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God doesn't want you to go to hell.
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That's the thing.
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God wishes that none should perish.
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God wants you to be with Him in heaven so much that He sent His Son to die for you.
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I wouldn't do that.
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God did. He loves you.
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That needs to be the point of conversation with people.
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God loves you.
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He cares about you.
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You matter to God.
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The final thing, if you do nothing else in your witnessing, you have to do this.
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Look at verse 29.
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Oh, by the way, verse 28, he's quoting a couple of their poets.
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It would be sort of like us, you know, witnessing in a secular environment and quoting some lines from a heavy metal song.
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Like, these are things that you already know because you sing about them and you understand them.
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I'm going to tell you the reality of this.
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The last one, letter E.
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You've got to get people here.
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If you can do this and nothing else, wow.
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Rethink how you view God.
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Look at verse 29.
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He says, "Being then God's offspring..." You guys already acknowledge that.
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Your own poets have said that.
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than God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
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Here what Paul was saying is, "Look, you guys need to rethink. You guys are always talking about gods and gods for this and gods for that. I want you to think about something.
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If, as your poets say, we're God's offspring, and if that's true, if we're God's offspring, then it doesn't make sense that a hunk of metal is God.
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I mean, let's think about that.
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So we craft this idol, we take this hunk of gold or silver or stone or whatever, we take it and we craft it, and we shape it, and we put it up on a pedestal, and then we call I was like, why would we think that way?
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If we are the offspring of God, why would you think the rock is that God?
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I just want to say this to you, if you can just get people to re-evaluate their concept of God, what a huge step that is.
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Re-evaluate their concept of God.
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Like I said, the people that grew up, "Yeah, God wants to send me to hell, because I had a bad thought. No, no, no. You need to rethink. That's not who God is.
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Yeah, God wants me to keep the rules. If I keep the rules, God's happy with me. No, no, no, no.
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You know that's not true? You need to rethink your concept of God.
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That's what Paul did with these men in the area.
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Two more quickly. Number three, encourage a decision.
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Encourage a decision.
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Look at verse 30.
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He says, "The times of ignorance God overlooked." What's that mean?
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That means God didn't always intervene with special judgment when a nation didn't know Him.
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That's what that means.
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Like you can look through history, just because this particular nation didn't worship God, God wasn't like, well, okay, tick, tick, they had their five minutes and I'm going to judge them.
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Sometimes, in God's grace, nations that didn't know Him, God would say, "You know what?
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I'm going to overlook that." Not saying they were saved, saying He didn't swoop in and burn them off the globe.
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He was willing to put up with their rebellion, in a sense, for a time.
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That's all He's saying.
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Look at His next line.
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Now, but now, He commands all people everywhere to repent.
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This is for everybody.
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This is all-inclusive.
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That's why I don't really get hung up on the whole Calvinism thing when I preach, because of this verse.
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I know that God knows who's going to pick Him.
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I know all that.
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I understand the doctrine.
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I'm just saying that when you look at this verse, it's pretty straightforward.
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God commands all people everywhere to repent.
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How exhaustive is that?
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That's everybody, right?
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That's everybody.
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I know some people are and some people aren't, but that doesn't change the command.
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God commands all men everywhere to repent.
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See, what Paul was doing here was he was bringing it to a point of decision.
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There's a sense of urgency.
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Here's verse 31, here's the urgency.
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"Because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed.
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And of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead." Here's the urgency.
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Paul says, you know, God has a calendar on His wall and He's got a date circled on it.
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And on that day, He's appointed somebody who's going to come to judge the world based on this message.
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That's why this "He now commands all men everywhere to repent" thing is so vitally important that we get on this immediately.
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Like, well, how do you really know?
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How do you really know Jesus is coming back?
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Well, here's the proof right here.
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It's right in the text.
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He says that of this, he's given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.
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Like, how do I know Jesus is coming back?
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Because He rose from the dead.
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That's how I know.
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Can I suggest to you that that be our measuring line?
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If somebody says they're going to raise from the dead, and they raise from the dead, let's believe everything else that guy says.
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All in favor?
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Okay, yeah.
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I'm gonna believe everything that guy says.
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He's like, "I'm gonna die, and in three days, "I'm gonna come out of the grave," and he does.
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Like, boom.
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You get a ticket for the rest of your life.
36:46-36:47
I'll believe everything you say.
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That's what Paul's saying here.
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This guy rose from the dead.
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this judge, this man, this Messiah.
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He rose from the dead.
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God gave us the assurance that because of that, He's going to come back.
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That's why He was communicating urgency here.
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Communicating urgency.
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You have to encourage a decision from people.
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You know, when Barnabas from Thailand was here, I was talking to him.
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He said, "You know, when I would share gospel I always love when he says that.
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He goes, "In the past time..." I love that.
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He goes, "When I share the gospel with people in the past time, I would be friends with them for a very long time and get to know them." And he says, "No, I don't have time.
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I just share the gospel immediately with them.
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I'm running out of time.
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I just give them the gospel immediately.
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Because there's urgency." I was sharing the gospel with a guy one time, and he says, "So, let me ask you a question.
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I live my whole life however I want, and then I'm on my deathbed, and on my deathbed I pray and receive Christ, will I go to heaven?
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I said, well, technically, yeah.
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He says, okay, I'll just do that.
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And I said, no you won't.
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He said, what do you mean no I won't?
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I said, because there's two problems with your little scenario.
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First problem is this, you're not guaranteed a deathbed.
38:16-38:21
Oh, wouldn't it be lovely, wouldn't it be lovely That's how the narrative of my life played out.
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I lived to be 110.
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I'm laying on my deathbed, surrounded by my family and loved ones, who held my hand as I gently fell asleep.
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And everybody sang, you know, "Kumbaya" or whatever.
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And wouldn't it be nice?
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Wouldn't it be nice if that happened for everybody?
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The sad reality is it doesn't happen to very many people.
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I can tell you stories of people that have died very young from weightlifting accidents.
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And one of my best friends from high school had a little sister who died in a car accident, suddenly, on her way to work.
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And I can tell you stories like this the rest of the week, people that died very suddenly, very unexpectedly, some in very unusual ways.
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But my point is this, that I shared with this man.
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You're not guaranteed a deathbed.
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Like, where is that written?
39:17-39:18
I said, "But here's the other problem.
39:18-39:23
This is an even bigger problem than that." I said, "Granted, let's say you're gonna have a deathbed.
39:23-39:24
I'll give you that one.
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Let's say that you are gonna live to be 110 or whatever and you're on your deathbed.
39:27-39:29
Here's the problem with that.
39:30-39:32
What that means," and I asked him how old he was.
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I think he was 30.
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I said, "What that means is you're going to have decades of saying no to God, of saying no to Jesus Christ.
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You're going to be doing that for decades.
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if the deathbed escape is your plan, that means from now until your deathbed, every time God's calling you to Himself, calling you to repentance, calling you to receive Christ, you're saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." And I said, "What makes you think when you're on your deathbed, all of a sudden, you're going to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and your one true passion in life?" What's going to turn that around at the last second?
40:11-40:22
I said, "Because what you're doing for decades is the one thing the Bible absolutely warns you more than anything else, "Do not harden your heart." Read Hebrews over and over and over, today, today, today.
40:22-40:28
If you hear His voice, "Do not harden your heart, do not harden your heart." Why does it keep saying that? Why does God keep saying that?
40:32-40:34
Because you're sending yourself to hell, that's why.
40:36-40:55
By constantly saying no, constantly shutting Him out, constantly, "No God, no God, not today God, not interested today God." I said, "I promise you, if you make it to your deathbed, the last thing that you're interested in is Jesus Christ." That's why today is the day of salvation.
40:55-40:57
That's why a decision has to be made today.
40:58-41:01
And people need to know you've got to do something with this message.
41:02-41:06
It's not like, "Okay, Jesus died on the cross for your sins, rose from the dead.
41:08-41:12
FYI, just thought you'd like to know, have a nice day." There's something you need to do with this message.
41:12-41:15
God now commands all men everywhere to repent.
41:17-41:20
Get serious about God now, because you don't know how much longer you will have.
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And finally, this is so important, leave the results to God.
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Leave the results to God. Look at verse 32.
41:32-41:36
Paul gives this awesome sermon. Awesome sermon.
41:38-41:41
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.
41:43-41:57
But others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius, the Areopagite.
41:59-42:01
That guy had to have a nickname.
42:01-42:06
And a woman named Damaris and others with them.
42:08-42:11
Rich Sprunk and I were talking about this a couple weeks ago.
42:12-42:19
People on both sides of the fence, like, "Was Paul successful here?" I mean, look what happened.
42:19-42:20
Was Paul successful?
42:21-42:22
Some people mocked him.
42:22-42:22
He mentions resurrection.
42:23-42:24
By the way, you should always mention resurrection.
42:25-42:26
That's the key right there.
42:28-42:29
Some people mocked him.
42:30-42:32
Oh, this is the guy that talks about raising from the dead.
42:32-42:33
They made fun of him.
42:35-42:36
Some were curious.
42:36-42:37
They're like, well, we never heard this stuff before.
42:37-42:38
We'd like to hear some more.
42:40-42:41
It says that some people believe.
42:43-42:44
So is this successful or not?
42:46-42:50
But we can't evaluate our witnessing effectiveness based on results.
42:50-42:50
We can't.
42:52-42:54
I'd like to remind you, just jot this reference down.
42:54-42:54
We're not going to turn there.
42:54-42:55
2 Corinthians 2.14.
42:58-43:00
Victory is in the proclamation of the gospel.
43:01-43:07
If you share the gospel with 100 people, and 100 people get saved, that's victory.
43:08-43:13
If you share the gospel with 100 people, and nobody gets saved, that's still victory.
43:14-43:16
Because the victory is not based on your results.
43:16-43:20
The victory is based on the fact that the gospel is proclaimed.
43:20-43:22
Read 2 Corinthians 2.14.
43:22-43:24
We had a whole sermon about this once upon a time.
43:25-43:29
Remind yourself also that Noah - He preached for 120 years.
43:30-43:31
How many converts did he have?
43:34-43:36
Zero! None. Just his family.
43:37-43:40
And praise God, his family got on the ark, and I'm sure that meant a lot to him.
43:40-43:49
I'm saying you preach for 120 years while you're building a boat in the middle of your yard, and not one person - not one - not one person outside of your family believed you.
43:51-43:52
Was Noah successful?
43:54-43:55
God found him faithful, and that's success.
43:57-44:03
We should be praying, we should be striving, we should be looking to see new people coming to Christ.
44:03-44:09
We should always be trying to up our game in evangelism, but always with the mindset that we can't save anyone.
44:12-44:16
Let's be faithful to do our part, because God is certainly faithful to do His.
44:18-44:23
This week, when you leave here today, you're going to be encountering some Greeks.
44:25-44:25
What do you do?
44:27-44:28
Meet them where they are.
44:30-44:31
Share some basics.
44:32-44:33
God loves you.
44:36-44:36
God provides for you.
44:36-44:37
God has a plan for you.
44:40-44:41
Encourage a decision.
44:41-44:42
There's urgency.
44:44-44:45
At the end of the day, just leave the results to God.
44:48-44:48
That's correct.
44:49-44:54
Father in heaven, Thank You for the glorious truth of Your Word.
44:57-45:03
Father, You know our culture is becoming more and more like the Greeks.
45:04-45:08
I remember hearing a preacher say this 15 years ago.
45:10-45:13
And I see it even more so today than then.
45:16-45:18
Father, we're not intimidated by that.
45:18-45:19
We're not in despair.
45:22-45:23
It's Your message, God. It's Your power.
45:25-45:29
We've been talking this year about the unstoppable church.
45:32-45:37
Father, we're not concerned that some idolatry and Bible ignorance is going to stop the advancement of Your kingdom.
45:39-45:44
By Your power, Father, and through the opportunities You give us, might we be found to be faithful witnesses.
45:46-45:48
Help us, Father, to be discerning.
45:49-45:51
Father, first, put that passion in us.
45:51-45:58
Let us be provoked to want to move to witness to lost people.
46:01-46:03
Give us discernment to be able to meet people where they are.
46:06-46:08
May your Spirit fill us with the words.
46:09-46:15
Tell them about You and ultimately bring them to the point of understanding who Jesus Christ is and what He's done.
46:17-46:18
Father, we trust You. We know You're faithful.
46:19-46:20
That's never in question.
46:22-46:27
So Father, find us faithful to be ambassadors, to be Your spokespeople.
46:31-46:32
We're going to look to You to do big things.
46:35-46:39
Thank You, Father, that the victory isn't in our results.
46:40-46:42
The victory is in the proclamation.
46:44-46:52
So we will all the more gladly about the victory in Jesus Christ.
46:53-46:54
It's in His name that we pray.
46:55-46:55
Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 17:16-34

Why was Paul's approach different in witnessing to these "marketplace" people than it was to the Jews in the synagogue? What does this say about how we should approach people with the Gospel?
List some things about God that Paul taught. Why did he focus on these things in particular? See Acts 17:24-31.
Was Paul's preaching successful in Athens? Why or why not? See 2 Corinthians 2:14.
When was the last time your spirit was provoked (righteous anger) to the point where you had to act (Acts 17:16)?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another to have opportunity and boldness in sharing the love of God with people.

Jeff Miller

February 12, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

The Unstoppable Word.

Jeff Miller

February 12, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Review / Intro:

Acts 9:25 – Damascus
Acts 9:30 – Jerusalem
Acts 13:50 – Antioch
Acts 14:6 – Iconium
Acts 14:19 – Lystra
Acts 16:23 - Philippi
Acts 17:5 - Thessalonica

Two Life Changing Decisions You Must Make About the Bible. (Acts 17:11)

I will Receive it Eagerly.

I'm Ready to Receive the Word When:
1. My desire is to stop sinning. (1 Pet 1:22-2:3, James 1:21)
2. My desire is to do God's will. (John 7:17)

I will Examine it Daily.

Review: Proverbs 2:1-5

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:01-00:02
Acts 17.
00:03-00:14
The title of today's message is "The Unstoppable Word." If you remember last week, we were in Thessalonica where we saw Paul preach the Gospel.
00:16-00:18
You have four wheels on the Gospel.
00:18-00:19
These are four parts of the message.
00:19-00:20
You've got to get down.
00:20-00:22
Jesus Christ died for your sins.
00:22-00:24
He rose from the dead to give you eternal life.
00:25-00:26
He is the King.
00:27-00:28
So get off the throne of your life.
00:28-00:32
He gave him the rightful place, and there is a cost to following Jesus.
00:32-00:36
We saw all of those elements in the passage last week.
00:38-00:51
Well, we saw that the Jews incited a mob to riot, and Jason and company, who were associates, friends of Paul and the missionaries, were dragged out, and they were fined.
00:52-00:53
Now let's go to verse 10.
00:54-00:59
It says, "The brothers immediately "Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
01:01-01:03
When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
01:04-01:07
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
01:08-01:15
They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
01:16-01:28
Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing, as well as men." So we see Paul and company off to Berea now.
01:28-01:31
This was actually about 50 miles from Thessalonica.
01:32-01:40
In fact, this hasty exit is what prompted the writing of a book in your Bible - 1 Thessalonians.
01:42-01:46
And immediately they went to the synagogue, which was Paul's M.O., right?
01:46-01:49
He shows up in the town and he makes a beeline for the synagogue.
01:50-01:53
And it rarely ended well for him when he did that.
01:54-01:56
Maybe it will be better this time. Let's see.
01:57-02:17
Verse 13, "But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was proclaimed by Paul of Berea also," uh-oh, "they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds." What is up with you people?
02:18-02:19
Like, live and let live, right?
02:19-02:21
They're like, "No, Paul's preaching in the next town.
02:22-02:28
We're going to take a bus trip, and we're going to load it up, and we're going to stop this guy." Unreal, right?
02:30-02:38
It says, "Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.
02:39-02:51
Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
02:53-02:54
Paul was run out again.
02:55-03:01
This time ended up 300 miles south to Athens.
03:02-03:11
Your Bible says that Silas and Timothy stayed behind, but when Paul got to Athens, the people that took him there, Paul said, "Hey, take a message back with you.
03:11-03:22
Tell Silas and Timothy to get here as soon as they can." I just want to pause here for a second before we look at the main event of this passage.
03:23-03:35
It's an obvious main event, but while you're doing what you do throughout the week, I'm reading this passage, and I'm thinking and studying and praying and just kind of meditating through it.
03:35-03:42
One of the things that hit me this week, one of the questions that I was asking was how did the Apostle Paul keep going?
03:43-03:45
We've been in a passage in Acts where we see a bit of a cycle.
03:45-03:46
Have you noticed that?
03:46-03:51
Paul shows up, Paul preaches in the synagogue, everybody gets mad, Paul gets run out of town.
03:52-03:53
Do you see that pattern over and over?
03:55-03:57
Look, I'm all for perseverance.
03:57-03:58
I'm all for it.
03:59-04:16
But at some point, at some point, let's be honest, I would think that Paul would be like, "Maybe it's not God's will that I do this." "I don't seem to be getting the results that I'm looking for." Do we have that list of passages?
04:17-04:18
I just went back through my Bible.
04:20-04:21
We saw this over and over.
04:22-04:24
925, he was run out of Damascus.
04:24-04:25
930, he was run out of Jerusalem.
04:26-04:27
1350, he was run out of Antioch.
04:28-04:29
1460, he was run out of Iconium.
04:30-04:32
1419, he was run out of Lystra.
04:32-04:34
1623, he was run out of Philippi.
04:34-04:38
And then last week we see 1705, he was run out of Thessalonica.
04:42-04:43
Here's what I was wrestling with this week.
04:44-04:47
Why was Paul so patient and gracious?
04:49-04:55
And we don't see any retaliation, we don't see any anger, we don't see any bitterness.
04:56-05:05
How could he be so gracious in regarding zealous Jews chasing down Jesus followers?
05:06-05:07
I'm thinking about this.
05:08-05:12
Paul's like, so gracious with these guys.
05:12-05:17
How could Paul be so gracious with zealous Jews chasing down Jesus followers?
05:19-05:24
Zealous Jews chasing down Jesus followers.
05:26-05:28
Did the lights come on for you?
05:28-05:30
Probably a lot quicker than me.
05:30-05:31
Because it took me a while.
05:33-05:34
And it hit me this week.
05:34-05:42
I'm like, I think the reason that Paul was able to persevere, I don't think he was ever mad at these people chasing him down.
05:43-05:44
In fact, I think that he pitied them.
05:44-05:45
Do you know why?
05:46-05:48
Because that used to be him.
05:48-05:50
That used to be him.
05:50-05:52
Do you think he saw that in the faces?
05:52-05:56
Do you remember back when we were in the early days here in Acts?
05:57-06:00
Paul was the zealous Jew chasing down Christians.
06:01-06:07
And I think he had to have seen that in the faces of these people that were coming after him.
06:07-06:08
That was me.
06:09-06:09
That was me.
06:10-06:14
I was the guy that was doing that just yesterday.
06:16-06:28
And church, only when you realize that used to be me, will you be moved with compassion instead of disgust.
06:32-06:35
Christians, we can have a lousy reputation sometimes.
06:36-06:45
and rightfully so, of looking at people who need the Lord with disgust, looking down our noses at people.
06:47-06:48
Don't forget where you came from.
06:49-06:52
You were a sinner in need of God's grace.
06:54-06:57
People you're looking down are no different than who you were.
06:58-07:05
We could say so much more about the attitude that we should carry towards the lost, but today we're going to focus the main event of the passage.
07:06-07:08
We're going to focus on the Bereans.
07:10-07:11
On the Bereans.
07:13-07:21
You know, my previous church, one of the things that I did very often was I did these services at senior citizen homes for people that couldn't get out.
07:22-07:26
And there were probably, I don't know, four or five, six different ones over the years that I would go to.
07:27-07:29
We'd have the Lord's Supper and share a message.
07:30-07:32
Sometimes we'd have some music.
07:34-07:35
I just remember this one in particular.
07:38-07:40
I felt like I was getting punked.
07:41-07:43
Because it was like they set me up to fail.
07:43-07:45
The place was called Classy Country.
07:47-07:54
And they wanted me to come and have a non-denominational church service, a Bible study or whatever they wanted to call it.
07:55-08:01
But they scheduled it for one o'clock Friday afternoon.
08:03-08:09
Now, most people schedule, what is one o'clock in the afternoon?
08:09-08:10
That comes right after what?
08:11-08:12
It comes right after lunch.
08:14-08:21
So I had a room full of the dearest, sweetest people who just ate lunch.
08:22-08:28
And they're sitting in these big, comfy chairs and couches, and I'll never forget the day.
08:29-08:33
I get up to preach, and I kid you not, probably three sentences into the message.
08:34-08:44
I'm like, "Okay, today we're going to be looking at the Gospel of John, and we're going to see something that Jesus taught." And I looked up, and literally every single resident was out.
08:44-08:51
And I don't mean head-bobbing, like, "Oh, trying to stay awake, Pastor Jeff." I mean coma toast.
08:53-08:54
Every single person.
08:57-09:00
Some with heads back, some with heads down, some with blankets.
09:03-09:06
All of them completely out.
09:08-09:16
And I just remember, no joke, I just remember looking for somebody to be awake.
09:16-09:17
Nobody was.
09:17-09:18
I remember that particular day.
09:18-09:22
I was just like, and I just laughed.
09:23-09:23
Nobody knew.
09:23-09:27
And then they put me right in front of the TV.
09:28-09:31
And they wouldn't turn the TV off.
09:32-09:33
I kid you not.
09:33-09:37
Okay, so here you have this kid standing here with a Bible.
09:37-09:41
And then behind me is the young and the restless or whatever.
09:41-09:47
And some of the people, when they were awake, were just like, "Can you move your oversized head?
09:47-09:52
I'm trying to see the TV." Why was I there?
09:54-10:00
Because you didn't have a room full of people that were ready to receive the Word.
10:03-10:03
Obviously.
10:06-10:09
That's what I want to talk about today is receiving the Word of God.
10:09-10:11
I want you to think of it in terms of food.
10:12-10:13
Think of it in terms of food.
10:14-10:23
Imagine if we took a couple of the best cooks at our church - I'm thinking of like Jessica Walski and Kristen Orton - froze at like cooking.
10:25-10:32
Imagine if we invited you and we said, hey, we got our two best culinary experts.
10:32-10:40
They are going to make you the finest meal that they know with the freshest ingredients and show up at 5 o'clock.
10:40-10:49
And on your way to this meal that's being prepared, you see the golden arches.
10:50-10:53
And you think to yourself, you know I am kind of hungry.
10:55-11:01
And you stop and you get three Big Macs and a large fry, chase it down with a shamrock shake.
11:03-11:11
How are you going to feel when you show up to Kristen and Jessica's culinary masterpiece?
11:13-11:14
Not very hungry, huh?
11:16-11:17
How do you think Kristen and Jessica are going to feel?
11:19-11:21
Like, we've spent hours preparing this for you.
11:22-11:28
Like, yeah, I stopped for something that barely passes as food instead.
11:30-11:35
I'm thinking to tell you, that's a lot like preaching sometimes.
11:37-11:50
I spend hours and hours and hours and hours every week studying and preparing a feast, And people show up already full on junk.
11:51-11:59
And they don't really have the capacity to receive anything else, and quite frankly, not really interested.
11:59-12:06
Some people right now are like, "And how long does this go again?" Are you ready to receive?
12:08-12:09
Are you ready to receive?
12:10-12:11
Look at verse 11 again.
12:13-12:19
It says, "Now these Jews, The Jibreel Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
12:19-12:20
Why were they more noble?
12:21-12:26
Not by their looks, not by their riches, but by what they did specifically - what they did with the Bible.
12:26-12:31
So two things today that I want to encourage you, because this can change your life.
12:31-12:36
I promise you on the authority of God's Word, these two things will change your life.
12:39-12:41
Two life-changing decisions you must make about the Bible.
12:42-12:43
Number one.
12:44-12:45
And it comes straight from the text.
12:46-12:51
Number one, "I will receive the Word eagerly." "I will receive the Word eagerly." Look back at verse 11.
12:52-12:56
"Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica." Look at the next phrase.
12:56-13:08
"They received the Word with all eagerness." "I will receive the Word eagerly." That's a readiness. That's an enthusiasm.
13:09-13:18
I'm not stopping at McDonald's on the way to the meal, because I want to have an appetite for the good stuff.
13:21-13:24
And again, as you're doing what you're doing through the week, this is what I'm doing.
13:24-13:26
I will receive the Word with eagerness.
13:26-13:32
And I'm like, what can I do to instill eagerness for the Word in these people?
13:32-13:33
What can I do?
13:34-13:35
What can I do?
13:36-13:39
If I tell you how excited I am about the Word, that won't do it.
13:40-13:41
That won't do it.
13:42-13:43
You know it won't do it.
13:45-13:51
Somebody can tell you how excited they are about a new band or a new TV show, and you're just like, "Man, when are you done talking?
13:51-13:56
This is boring." It's hard to communicate that kind of enthusiasm, isn't it?
13:57-13:58
That kind of eagerness.
13:58-14:01
So how can we...
14:01-14:03
I just wish there was something I could...
14:04-14:07
Like Andy Nauer's handing out the bulletins, She hands out eagerness too.
14:07-14:12
Like, "Here, make sure you get your bulletin to take notes, and here's your eagerness for the Word.
14:12-14:15
Make sure you have that." And how can we do it? I don't know.
14:17-14:19
But I do know this for sure.
14:21-14:25
I know what keeps you from being eager.
14:28-14:38
Once you jot these two things down under this heading - here's the subheading - "I am ready to receive the Word." I am ready to receive the Word...
14:40-14:42
Two points under here, two sub-points.
14:42-14:47
Number one, when my desire is to stop sinning.
14:48-14:50
I want you to turn with me, I don't want you to take my word for it.
14:50-14:54
I want you to be a Berean today, turn to 1 Peter chapter one, I want to show you something.
14:56-15:05
1 Peter 1 I'm ready to receive the Word when my desire is to stop sinning.
15:07-15:08
Look at verse 22.
15:10-15:25
He says, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from up your hearts, since you have been born again." Not of perishable seed, but of imperishable.
15:26-15:29
Through the living and abiding Word of God.
15:31-15:35
For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass.
15:36-15:39
The grass withers, the flower falls.
15:40-15:42
But the Word of the Lord remains forever.
15:42-15:46
And this Word is the good news that was preached to you.
15:48-16:09
So put away and all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." You see that in this passage?
16:09-16:13
Peter says, "The Word, the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word, it's imperishable.
16:13-16:15
You're born again by the Word.
16:15-16:22
The Word, the Word, the Word." Then he turns around and he says, "Now put away sin and receive the Word." He says the same thing actually.
16:23-16:46
James 1:21 James says, "Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls." So according to Peter and James, Christians, if you have unrepentant sin in your life, you're not going to be ready to receive the Word.
16:48-16:49
You're just not.
16:51-16:58
Unrepentant sin is like the McDonald's that you have stuffed yourself with.
16:58-17:01
And you have no appetite for righteousness.
17:03-17:10
You have no appetite for, God, I just want to hear what Your Word has to say and I want to see what You have for me.
17:10-17:15
You don't have that when you're harboring sin in your life.
17:18-17:21
I'm ready to receive the Word My desire is to stop sinning.
17:22-17:25
We're not talking about a perfection here.
17:25-17:29
To say unless you're absolutely perfect, you're not ready to receive the Bible.
17:29-17:30
None of us are perfect.
17:30-17:32
I'm talking about your heart attitude.
17:32-17:33
I'm talking about your appetite.
17:34-17:42
You coming in here saying, I realize that I still sin, and I realize I need to grow, and I realize this is what's going to change me.
17:45-17:46
And I don't need to convince you of this.
17:46-17:47
You know this.
17:49-17:55
Your life is full of vulgarity and pornography and drunkenness.
17:57-18:12
You don't come off the tail end of that and say, "Oh, I'm ready for Bible study." Peter and James say, "You've got to put away the sin so you can receive the Word." I'm ready to receive the Word when my desire is to stop sinning.
18:14-18:19
Secondly, and this is stating it positively, I'm ready to receive the Word when my desire is to do God's will.
18:20-18:22
That's saying the same thing in a positive way.
18:23-18:25
But Jesus said this in John 7:17.
18:25-18:26
Just jot this down.
18:26-18:28
You don't have to turn there, but just jot it down.
18:28-18:54
John 7:17, Jesus said, "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority." There's a verification of the power of the Word of God that only comes to the person that's inclined to want to do what God would have them to do.
18:55-18:57
Say, "Look, I'm here for whatever God has for me.
18:57-18:58
Just give me the Word of God.
18:58-18:59
Just give it to me.
18:59-19:00
My heart's open.
19:00-19:11
I want it." Jesus said, "That's the guy that's going to know that the Bible's the Word of God." But the person that comes and says, "I don't want to change.
19:11-19:16
Nobody tell me what to do." "Yeah, you're not going to get it.
19:17-19:21
You're not going to get it." I heard somebody put it this way.
19:21-19:25
I don't know who started this saying, but maybe you've heard it.
19:26-19:29
It certainly fits here and it certainly lines up with what the Bible teaches.
19:29-19:35
Somebody said, "This book will keep you from sin.
19:37-19:47
And sin will keep you from this book." when your child is bad at school, and he tries to avoid you when he comes home.
19:49-19:49
Why?
19:51-19:53
Not because he's afraid you're going to throw him out of the family.
19:54-19:57
Because he knows you're going to sit down and say, "We've got to deal with some stuff, son.
19:58-20:02
We've got to talk about this. This is important." He doesn't want to have that conversation.
20:03-20:09
And in the same way, when we're harboring sin in our lives, we know God's going to say, "Look, we've got to talk about this.
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This isn't right. This doesn't glorify Me.
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This isn't benefiting you.
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This isn't blessing those around you.
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We've got to talk about this.
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And we want to avoid that.
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We're not ready to receive.
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Peter and James say, "Put it away.
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Put it away.
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Put it away. Turn from that sin.
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Put it away.
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And open your heart up to receive." These Bereans were ready.
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They received the Word eagerly.
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My question is how eager are you?
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I want you to close your eyes, because I want to ask you something.
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I'm just talking to you. Close your eyes.
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I just want to ask you a few questions that I want you to apply to yourself.
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Close your eyes.
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Would you miss your Bible?
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If you forgot your Bible here in the auditorium, and I took it home to give it back to you next week, Does it completely not even matter to you that you went a week without your Bible?
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Or maybe you take your Bible home.
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You put it on the shelf this afternoon, and that's exactly where it remains until next Sunday morning before you come here.
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Do you remember the last time you read or heard God's Word with a hungry heart?
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Not as a chore or a sense of obligation, but the sense of I need this.
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Do you remember the last time God's Word moved you to change?
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Do you remember the last time you were comforted by God's promises?
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Do you remember the last time made you long for His presence, made you long for heaven.
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You can open your eyes.
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The first life-changing decision you have to make is you have to receive the Word eagerly.
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You have to receive the Word eagerly.
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If you're staggering in here with a head and a heart full of sin, you're not going to be ready to do it.
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Receive the Word eagerly.
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Secondly today, I will examine the Word daily.
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I will examine the Word daily.
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Going back to 1711 here, talking about the Brains, it said, "They received the Word with all eagerness..." Look at the next phrase.
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"...examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." examining the Scriptures daily.
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I looked up this - what does this word mean?
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Examining.
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And it almost has a courtroom type terminology.
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Cross-examination.
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You know those courtroom shows where they are going to cross-examine the witness, and that's where the attorney gets up and I'm going to ask some questions, and I'm going to dig deeper and try to get to the truth.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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I was thinking about that.
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You know, the word "examine" means "cross-examine." And I thought, "Isn't that what Bible study is?" Cross-examination?
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Isn't Bible study cross-examination?
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Everybody say, "Pastor Jeff, I see what you did there." Yeah, did you see what I did there?
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Okay, okay, it was funnier at home.
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But that's what Bible study is.
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We are cross-examining.
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We're digging into God's Word to verify truth.
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And as Christians, we love our Christian books and podcasts and radios and Word FM and Family Christian Store and all those things are great!
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But none of them can replace the Bible.
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Look, I'm not discouraged.
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I have a whole library.
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I have so many Christian books and theology books that don't even fit my library.
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There's a lot of them in boxes in storage.
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I think they're wonderful, but listen, nothing replaces the Bible itself.
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There's a huge red flag in my life when I make time to read all these other books about people's opinion about the Bible, but I'm not spending time in the Bible itself.
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So I discipline myself.
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Hey, always in at least three or four different books in the Bible, just the text.
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And for myself, I don't even use a study Bible for that.
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If you have a study Bible, fantastic.
24:52-24:53
Praise the Lord, they're fantastic.
24:54-24:54
I have a couple of them.
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But there's nothing like just the Word of God and just spending time.
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This is what God's Word says.
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But see, they cross-examined, but notice this other little word they use here as the sermon point because it's straight from the text.
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In the name of the Lord, daily.
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Daily.
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Meaning Bible study must be consistent.
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It's the only way that you're going to learn it.
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When you think about it, who were they checking up on?
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This wasn't some weird, fringe preacher.
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This was the greatest missionary of all time.
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This was a guy who wrote 13 books of your New Testament.
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This is the guy that God used, God's Holy Spirit used, to completely change the world.
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This was the guy that they were checking up on.
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They didn't even take Paul's word for it.
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He had this reputation.
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They could have said, "Well, obviously, he knows what he's talking about." When Paul preached, they were like, "Okay, we're going to see if what he's saying is actually what the Bible says." That's why I'm never offended if somebody here "Pastor Jeff, in your sermon you said this, and I was reading, and I have some questions about that." That doesn't offend me at all.
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In fact, that thrills me to death that you wouldn't just take my word for it or anybody else's word for it without digging deep to see is this what God actually said?
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It doesn't matter how great my grades were in Bible college, or how many books get written, or whatever.
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What matters is, everything I communicate that line up with what the Bible says.
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Examine the Word daily.
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Because there are so many weird and blasphemous teachings out there.
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So many weird and blasphemous teachings out there.
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There are people that believe that you need to be baptized in order to be saved.
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That you can pray to receive Christ, but until you're dunked, you're going to hell.
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There are people that teach and believe that.
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The question is, what does the Bible say about that?
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There are people that believe that as Christians, we can become perfect in this life here on the earth.
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That the sin penalty has been removed, but then also the presence and the power of sin have been removed as well in this second crisis moment, second act of grace, second baptism of the Holy Spirit, that you can live life on earth without even ever being tempted to sin.
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There are people that believe that.
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My question is what does the Bible say about that?
27:46-27:51
There are people that teach, and this is becoming more popular, we've talked about this, hell is not a real place.
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Hell is just sort of a boogeyman type thing.
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Just something to scare people.
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What does the Bible say about that?
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One time in prison ministry, we had these huge, enormous Muslims came in to Bible study.
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and I started speaking and the one said, in a very threatening tone, "Hey, the Bible doesn't say that Jesus is God." And I caught his drift.
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He was basically saying, "Shut up, or I will eat you." But I said, "Well, let's just see what the Bible does say." "Let's see what the Bible does say." We went to John 1, John 8, John 10, we went to Colossians 1, It's a Revelation 1.
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And I said, "What's your conclusion after looking at these passages?" I'll never forget, they put their head down and didn't say a word for the next two hours.
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It was dismissal time.
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The question is, what does the Bible say?
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You're saying this and I'm saying this, but what does the Bible say?
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See, you can disagree with what God said.
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You have that right.
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I don't recommend it, but you have that right.
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You can disagree with what God said, but let's be clear on what He actually said.
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And you're not insulting someone to ask when they have a crazy belief, "Where did you get that from Scripture?" There are some goofy things out there.
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One of our first meetings that we had to promote the church and to tell people we were planning, we had this guy show up with his two wives.
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You heard me correctly, he had two wives.
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And I'm like, dude, I can't even handle one.
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First of all, what are you doing?
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But anyways, kidding aside, that was like his thing.
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It wasn't just like, hey, this is my job, and this is my hobby, and by the way, I have two wives.
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And it was just like, this is my thing.
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And I realized by getting online and doing some Google and searching and messaging.
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There's this whole subculture of people that promote this.
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Like, God had two wives, and so should I kind of thing.
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I just said, you know what, buddy, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I don't think this church is going to be a good fit for you.
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He blasted me.
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I mean, the email that he sent me was - I mean, if I had feelings, they would have been hurt.
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And it was rough.
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It was really rough.
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But the question is, what does the Bible say about that?
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Just this past week, one of the pastors in the fellowship through a Facebook page that the pastors share where we ask questions and exchange ideas, he said, "Hey, I heard a new one and I wanted to run this by you guys to see if you ever heard it.
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These people in our church are going around that demons have a legal right to afflict believers if they're given permission.
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What's that all about?
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And very wisely, one of the pastors in the thread said, "You just need to go to those people and say, 'Hey, can you show me Scripture that teaches that?'" And I'm fairly confident there aren't any.
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But you see, that's the answer. What does the Bible say?
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What does the Bible say?
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You're making this goofy claim.
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Ok, well, you're going to have to show me where that is in the Bible so I can study it, so I can understand, and then we're like the Bereans.
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Verify with the Bible.
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Let's do that. Let's be Bereans for a couple of minutes.
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You want to? Yeah. That sounds great.
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Because the danger is we either believe everything we hear without verifying it, or we try to interpret the Bible Let's play a little game here.
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We're going to be Bereans here.
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I'm going to share with you -- I had a list.
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I just tried to narrow it down to three that we can get done rather quickly for our purposes here.
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I'm going to share with you three things that are taught.
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And we're going to be Bereans and see what the Bible actually says about that.
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So the first one is this.
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You ready?
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You have your Bibles?
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We're going to be turning a couple places here.
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Because we're going to be talking about the Bible.
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because we're Bereans.
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Here's something that's taught.
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You know the flood in Noah's day?
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You know Noah's flood?
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Some people teach that that was not a global flood.
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It was local.
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You heard this?
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How many people have heard people teach that?
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Okay, I see some hands going up.
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There's some people that teach that it was a local flood.
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It just happened in one part of the world.
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the global flood, it's a little far-fetched.
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That's probably not what happened.
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Okay, so let's be Bereans.
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Let's turn in your Bibles to Genesis 7.
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Okay, so the claim here is the flood was only local.
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It was only in this one little part of the world.
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Look at Genesis 7. Look at verse 17.
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"The flood continued 40 days on the earth.
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The waters increased and bore up the ark, rose high above the earth.
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The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
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And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.
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The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits deep, and all flesh died that moved on the earth.
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Birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, from all mankind, everything on the dry land, and whose nostrils was the breath of life died.
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He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground.
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Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, they were blotted out from the ark.
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Only Noah was left, and those who were with him on the ark, and the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
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Ok, so, according to the Bible, was the flood global or local?
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Just according to the Bible, was the flood global or local?
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Global, right?
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Is it possible to read that passage and come up with any other conclusion?
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No.
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How else could God have written it?
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If it was a global flood - let's say you're like, "I still think it was a local flood, Pastor Jeff." Ok, you're wrong, but I'm going to give you that.
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that it was a local flood.
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My question is, how could God have written that to communicate to us if it was a global flood?
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How many times in that passage, "Oh, oh, oh, everything, oh, everything, everything." So for Bereans, here's the claim, the flood was local.
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We're searching the Scriptures and seeing, no, that's not what the Bible says.
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So we have a difference of opinion here.
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Scientists, or so-called Bible scholars, making one claim, and God makes another claim.
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Which one are you going to go with on that, by the way?
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Okay, we're Bereans.
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Here's another claim.
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The thousand-year millennial reign of Christ.
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Some people say there is no millennium.
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They're called "ah-millennialists." There is no millennium.
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Some people say it's just metaphorical.
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It's not really literally a thousand years.
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It's just a metaphorical word for a period of time.
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And okay, we're Bereans.
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I want you to open your Bibles to Revelation 20.
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Are you there?
35:58-35:59
Okay, so here's the claim.
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Well, the thousand year reign of Christ and millennium isn't really a thing.
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Okay, so let's see what the Bible says about that.
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Revelation 20.
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"And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, and putting in His hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
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And He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who was the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.
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After that, he must be released for a little while.
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Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.
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And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God.
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Those who had not worshipped the beast or its image had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.
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They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
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The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.
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This is the first resurrection.
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Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.
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Over such a second death has no power.
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They will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with Him for a thousand years.
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and when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison.
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Pastor Jeff, do you think the millennial reign of Christ is literally a thousand years?
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Absolutely I do. Why?
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It says it six times in one passage. Did you see that?
37:24-37:32
And I have to ask you again, if the millennium is not a literal thousand years, why would God have written His Word like that?
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Six times in seven verses, it's a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years.
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And then some knucklehead who calls himself a Bible scholar, like, "Well, I'm not really sure how long the millennium is." Or if there even is one.
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God's sure.
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He said it six times.
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How else could He have made it more clear?
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This is what Bereans do.
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Let me give you one more.
37:58-38:01
We had communion today, right?
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And there's different views about what happens at communion.
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We know that some churches teach that Jesus Christ's sacrifice is represented at communion.
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Did you know that?
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We believe that we do this in remembrance, that it is a little piece of unleavened bread, it's the fruit of the vine, or grape juice, unfermented wine, whatever you want to call it.
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But it represents the body and blood of Jesus.
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But there are some people that teach when we receive the Lord's Supper, that Jesus' sacrifice is happening again.
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It's being represented.
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He is suffering again.
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In fact, Pope John Paul II talked a lot about that.
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Every time the Eucharist is taken, Christ is suffering again.
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And He's dying again, so to speak.
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His sacrifice is being presented again.
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Is that what the Bible teaches?
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Alright, Bereans, turn to Hebrews 9.25 Okay, so here's the claim.
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Every time we have the Lord's Supper, Jesus is suffering again, He's dying again, His sacrifice is re-presented again.
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That's the claim.
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Alright, Bereans, what does Hebrews 9.25 say?
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It says, "Nor was it to offer Himself..." not Jesus obviously, nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy place every year with blood not his own, for then he, Jesus, would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. As it is, he has appeared once for all, at the end of the ages, put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So according to this passage, which I is pretty clear.
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How many times did Jesus show up and suffer and die?
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How many times?
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Just one, right?
40:10-40:10
Just once.
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When we receive the Lord's Supper, He's not suffering again.
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Jesus did it once.
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Done. It is finished.
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Complete.
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That's the thesis of the book of Hebrews.
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Jesus is the High Priest that greater than the Old Testament sacrifices, and for all to put away sin.
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This is what it looks like to be a Berean.
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We hear these claims, and we think to ourselves, "That claim seems a little weird.
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What does the Bible actually say about that?" Everything you hear, whether you are listening to the radio or hearing a message on Christian television, your favorite podcast, or you're listening to me on a Sunday morning, is what you hear line up with what God said.
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Are you a Berean?
41:08-41:12
You receive the Word eagerly and examine it daily.
41:13-41:14
I want to close with one Scripture.
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And this Scripture really sort of encapsulates what it means to be a Berean.
41:21-41:23
I want you to turn back to Proverbs 2.
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Go back to Proverbs 2.
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I love this passage.
41:31-41:35
Because this sort of sums up the whole Berean mindset.
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Proverbs 2. Verse 5.
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"My son, if you receive My words and treasure My commandments with you, make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding.
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Yes, if you call it for insight Raise your voice for understanding.
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If you seek it like silver - look at this next phrase - and search for it as for hidden treasures, search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
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I want you to imagine that you were given a treasure map.
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And this isn't a joke.
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This isn't a hoax. This isn't a scam.
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given a treasure map and it was guaranteed that if you followed this treasure map, you would find four billion dollars worth of treasure, guaranteed. All you need to do is follow the map. But there's one problem. The map is written in Spanish. How many people here would learn Right? But I want you to think about your attitude in learning Spanish.
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Would you be eager?
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I would. I could use $4 billion, I'll be honest with you.
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I'd be eager.
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It wouldn't be like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, what are you doing?" "Oh, I had to buy this stupid Rosetta Stone." "Why?" "Oh, I'm learning stupid Spanish." Why?
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"Oh, I'm going to find some stupid treasure." That wouldn't be my attitude whatsoever.
43:21-43:25
Like, "What are you doing, Pastor Jeff?" "Hey, hey, don't talk to me, because I've got to learn Spanish.
43:25-43:31
This is so important that I learn this, because I'm trying to find this treasure." I'd be eager, wouldn't you?
43:32-43:32
And I'd be diligent.
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I'd be diligent. I wouldn't put it off.
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"Oh, a $4 billion treasure, that sounds interesting.
43:38-43:44
Maybe my schedule's going to free up in April and I'll have time to look into that." I would be on that immediately.
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I'd be on that daily.
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Because I could sure use that money.
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And the Bible says that's how you should go after God's wisdom and His Word.
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And I'd suggest to you that in God's Word, you have so much more to gain than a couple of doubloons.
44:09-44:09
Right?
44:11-44:15
Father in Heaven, I just pray for our congregation.
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And I know, Father, so many people are out sick right now.
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Father, I pray for them.
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But Father, for all of us, I pray that we would be like the Bereans.
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Father, we live in a day of the media and communication.
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There are just so many voices out there.
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And there are so many voices denying clear teaching from Your Word.
44:39-44:43
And it's just so easy for us to get into believing some foolishness.
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There's movies that are playing.
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There's podcasts that are being recorded and put out.
44:53-44:55
There's things broadcast on the radio.
44:57-45:00
Father, we are bombarded with all these claims.
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This is what God said.
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This is what the Bible said.
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Father, I pray that we would be like the Bereans.
45:07-45:15
Every claim that we hear, Be diligent to line it up with what Your Word says.
45:17-45:27
Father, I pray for people here, for there are people in this room that just haven't been eager to receive Your Word in a while, because they're harboring sin in their lives.
45:28-45:30
As Peter and James says, that has to be put away.
45:32-45:40
That has to be put away so that our appetites are available and feast on the stuff that You would have for us.
45:42-45:44
Father, I pray that You would grant repentance where it's needed.
45:46-45:48
Father, we thank You for Your Word.
45:48-45:53
We're not left wondering who You are or what You're like, or how then shall we live.
45:53-45:55
Father, You've made it so abundantly clear.
45:57-46:01
You wrote it all down for us, and we never take that for granted.
46:03-46:04
But use it eagerly and use it daily.
46:06-46:08
In Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 17:10-15

What made the Bereans "noble"?
How can I receive the Word of God with eagerness (Acts 17:11) if I am not doing that NOW
Should you examine the Scriptures to verify EVERY message you hear? Why or why not?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another to grow as Bible students. Pray for our upcoming Bible 101 series.

Jeff Miller

February 5, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Unstoppable and World-Changing!

Jeff Miller

February 5, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Review / Intro:

The Four Crucial Elements of the World-Changing Message:

Jesus Christ had to die for my Sins. (Acts 17:3)

Romans 5:19 - For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Four Reasons Jesus Had to DIE for My Sin:

To be my Sacrifice. (John 1:29)

To be my Propitiation. (1 John 4:10)

To bring Reconciliation. (Romans 5:10)

To pay for my Redemption. (Mark 10:45)

Jesus Christ had to rise from the dead to give me Life. (Acts 17:3)

Four Reasons Jesus Had to RISE from the Dead:
1. Because He Said He would. (Luke 18:32-33)
2. Because the Old Testament Promised the Christ would rise. (Psalm 16:10)
3. Because that's how He gives His Righteousness. (Romans 4:25)
4. Because that's how He gives His Eternal life. (1 Corinthians 15:17-18)
Jesus Christ has to be my King. (Acts 17:7)

Luke 6:46 - Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?

There is a Cost to following Jesus. (Acts 17:6-9)

Matthew 16:24 - Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

John 13:16, 15:20 – a servant is not greater than His master

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:13
Alright, Acts chapter 17, again we're going to be back in Acts for the next three weeks, but just as a quick review, we started our mission trip back in October in Acts chapters 13 and 14.
00:16-00:23
And remember we talked about the Jerusalem council, where they were talking about does somebody have to be circumcised in order to be saved?
00:24-00:27
What purpose does the law have in salvation?
00:28-00:30
and it was back to mission work.
00:31-00:36
We saw Paul and Barnabas have a falling out over taking Mark with them on the mission trip.
00:37-00:48
But Barnabas takes Mark with him to Cyprus, and Paul takes Silas to Syria and Cilicia, where they picked up Timothy and got a vision to go to Macedonia.
00:50-00:59
Then in Philippi, the crew witnesses to a group of women, and one woman in particular named Lydia She receives Christ and invites the missionaries to stay with her.
01:01-01:09
After driving out an evil spirit out of a fortune-telling slave girl, Paul and Silas are beaten and imprisoned.
01:10-01:12
God sends an earthquake to release them.
01:14-01:17
The jailer attempts suicide, but is stopped by Paul.
01:19-01:20
It has led to Christ.
01:21-01:28
Paul and Silas are asked to leave and they did, after they got the magistrates to apologize.
01:29-01:32
That's sort of an overview of where we've been in Acts so far this year.
01:33-01:51
Now in Acts 17, it says, "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia," that's easy for you to say, "they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
01:53-02:28
Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ." And some of them were persuaded of the devout Greeks, not a few of the leading women.
02:30-02:31
But the Jews were jealous.
02:34-02:45
Taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.
02:46-03:09
When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them." And they're all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.
03:12-03:20
And the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things, when they had taken money and security from Jason and the rest.
03:21-03:22
They let them go.
03:24-03:33
Their mission trip continues. Paul and company traveled southwest to Ampipholus, which was 30 miles.
03:35-03:39
And to Apolonia. Is that how you say it?
03:42-03:43
Apolonia?
03:44-03:45
Tomato, tomato.
03:47-03:48
Apollonia.
03:49-03:49
I kind of like that better.
03:50-03:50
You're right.
03:51-03:53
I know this one, Thessalonica.
03:55-03:59
So 30 miles to Ampipolis.
04:01-04:02
Apollonia, another 30 miles.
04:02-04:04
Thessalonica was another 40 miles.
04:04-04:09
This is a 100-mile total journey.
04:10-04:15
Notice here also it says "they." Did you see that? Third person.
04:15-04:26
You've got to pay attention to this in Acts because when Luke's with the group, he says "we," and when he's not with the group, he says "they," so apparently, Luke must have stayed in Philippi.
04:27-04:30
He's still writing about what's happening with the missionaries.
04:31-04:36
It says they headed to Thessalonica, which was the capital of Macedonia.
04:36-04:37
It was a port city.
04:37-04:39
It had about 200,000 people.
04:42-04:45
The Bible says they went straight to the synagogue.
04:46-04:53
Verse 2 says, "On three Sabbath days." That means three weeks.
04:54-05:02
You know, sometimes we can read through the Bible like we can go through Acts, and we can think that this stuff was just happening rapid fire, and we can kind of gloss over some of this stuff.
05:02-05:11
But it wasn't like Paul just rolled into town and all of this happened in the course of a couple of minutes it took us to read the passage.
05:12-05:14
happening over the course of weeks.
05:16-05:26
Before we look at the actual message itself today, I want you to take note of how Paul shared the message.
05:26-05:29
Look at these words in verse 2 and 3, jot them down.
05:31-05:32
How did he share the message?
05:32-05:33
First of all, it says he reasoned.
05:34-05:35
Did you see that in verse 2?
05:35-05:36
He reasoned with them.
05:39-05:41
That means he had a dialogue.
05:41-05:48
He didn't go in and say, "Ok, open up your Bibles, I'm going to preach at you for an hour." He had a dialogue with them.
05:50-05:51
He reasoned.
05:51-05:52
He explained.
05:53-05:58
The Greek word for "explain" literally means to open that which is closed.
05:59-06:04
And in this context, it means He opened their minds with a reasoned explanation.
06:07-06:08
Explain.
06:10-06:12
See, the Gospel is reasonable when you think about it.
06:13-06:17
And I know it has to be spiritually appraised and the Holy Spirit has to open your heart.
06:17-06:19
I know that, I get that, we preach that.
06:19-06:23
But there is a sense in which the Gospel is reasonable, isn't it?
06:25-06:30
Because every one of us have some things in common that we have to face the reality - things like sin.
06:32-06:35
Every one of us know deep down that we're sinners by nature.
06:36-06:37
You know that.
06:38-06:46
As much as you want to mask it, or deny it, or put on a face, you know deep down that there is something messed up inside you.
06:48-06:54
Another thing that we have to stare in the face is just the aspect of death.
06:54-06:55
We're all going to die.
06:58-07:01
Ecclesiastes says that the Lord has set eternity on the heart of man.
07:01-07:10
We all know that we were made for something more What about death?
07:10-07:11
What's on the other side?
07:12-07:14
And how do we know what happens when we die?
07:17-07:19
See, only the Gospel has the answers to those things.
07:22-07:31
So when it says that all open their mind with reason, explanation, that's some of the persuasion that he would have been using.
07:32-07:37
proving, proving, the reason explaining, proving.
07:40-07:47
Some people think that if you're a religious person, if you believe in the Bible, then you're intellectually inferior.
07:47-07:48
You're stupid.
07:51-07:54
The Bible has satisfied some of the greatest minds in history.
07:56-07:59
The Bible certainly doesn't encourage you to check your intellect at the door.
07:59-08:00
Don't think about it.
08:01-08:02
It's just blind faith in nothing.
08:05-08:07
Proving. It engages your mind.
08:09-08:15
And lastly, you see, it says, "This Jesus whom I proclaim..." Proclaim.
08:17-08:18
Harvest Bible chapter - we have four pillars.
08:18-08:20
And our first pillar is what?
08:21-08:24
Proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
08:25-08:27
Proclaim. Not sugarcoating it.
08:28-08:29
Not apologizing for it.
08:30-08:31
without softening the blow.
08:34-08:37
See, Paul didn't walk in and suggest that Jesus might be the Christ.
08:39-08:44
Suggested it might possibly be a good idea for you to maybe rethink some things that you thought about Jesus.
08:44-08:47
He just went right in there and he's like, Jesus is the Christ!
08:48-08:51
And I'm going to prove it to you from God's book.
08:52-08:53
Like, boom!
08:53-08:54
In your face.
08:57-08:57
Proclaiming.
08:59-09:06
I think it's sad that God has said some things very clearly and preachers get up and want to dance around it.
09:07-09:09
God's not apologizing for what He said.
09:09-09:10
Why should we?
09:10-09:12
Our job is just to echo.
09:12-09:14
We don't make up the message, we just broadcast it, right?
09:17-09:18
Proclaim it.
09:20-09:20
Proclaim it.
09:20-09:26
So not only do you have to have the bold persistence that we see that Paul had, You have to have the right message.
09:28-09:30
You have to have the right message.
09:32-09:39
That's why today we're going to look at four crucial elements of the world-changing message.
09:41-09:43
Four crucial elements of the world-changing message.
09:43-09:51
These are four elements of the Gospel that if you leave any of these out, you're going to have a lopsided message.
09:54-10:19
years ago at an elders meeting we were talking about some preachers who most of their message is good, but there's maybe a little untruth gets sprinkled into their messages. I'll never forget this, one of the elders, a farmer, very quietly said, "Well, you know, rat poison is like 95% cornmeal.
10:21-10:23
It's not the cornmeal that kills the rats, right?
10:24-10:25
It's that 5%.
10:26-10:27
It's not the cornmeal.
10:27-10:30
It's the 5% that's poison, that's destructive.
10:33-10:38
That's why when we preach the Gospel, we don't want to leave anything out.
10:38-10:41
That's why when we preach, we go through the Bible.
10:42-10:46
This is what God says, we exposit the passage.
10:49-10:50
Or think about it this way.
10:51-10:52
Think of your car.
10:52-10:54
How many wheels do you need on your car?
10:55-10:56
I go, I don't really know this, Pastor Jeff.
10:57-10:58
I'm not exactly a mechanic.
10:59-11:00
How many wheels do you need on your car?
11:02-11:03
You need four, right?
11:06-11:07
You need four.
11:08-11:11
And I want you to think of each of these points as a wheel.
11:11-11:14
that if you're missing one, your car's not going to go very well.
11:16-11:18
Okay, so four crucial elements of the world-changing message.
11:18-11:22
Number one, Jesus Christ had to die for my sins.
11:23-11:25
Jesus Christ had to die for my sins.
11:25-11:26
Look again at verse three.
11:29-11:33
It says that Paul was explaining and proving that it was necessary.
11:35-12:04
It was necessary for the Christ suffer. Necessary. Not just, "Oh, this is what happened." Paul said, "This is what had to happen." You see, something that's lost on us today is the Jews thought of the Messiah as being this political king.
12:04-12:07
They thought the Messiah was going to come and restore Israel.
12:08-12:15
and thought the Messiah was going to come in and defeat the enemies and usher in this earthly kingdom.
12:15-12:19
The Jews were looking purely at this political Savior.
12:19-12:22
I think in our day we can kind of identify with that, right?
12:23-12:25
People looking to Washington for salvation.
12:26-12:35
If only Clinton gets in, or if only Trump gets in, or if only Obama could stay in, and people are just looking for this politician to be the Savior.
12:36-12:42
So, that mindset was what was held by many Jews in this day concerning the Christ.
12:43-12:55
Christ is going to come and He's going to be our King, and He's going to restore Israel, and He's going to make us happy and healthy, and everything's going to be great.
12:56-13:02
So this idea that the Messiah was going to come, and He was going to suffer, and He was going to die, they had none of it.
13:05-13:07
In fact, the Bible tells you even the apostles struggled with this.
13:08-13:09
Matthew 16.
13:11-13:16
Remember Jesus told His apostles, "I'm going to suffer and die." Peter pulls Him aside.
13:17-13:21
He's like, "Don't talk like that!" The Bible says that Peter rebuked Jesus.
13:21-13:22
"Don't talk like that!
13:22-13:24
We don't want to hear any of that kind of talk.
13:25-13:26
You suffer and die.
13:26-13:27
We're not going to let that happen.
13:27-13:33
It's not going to happen to you." And Peter got called Satan to that.
13:34-13:34
It's not a good day.
13:35-13:40
So, Jesus Christ had to die for my sins.
13:40-13:42
This idea that the Messiah is going to suffer.
13:42-13:44
You know, even people today still struggle with that.
13:46-13:52
I was sharing the Gospel with this one lady several years ago, and she got very sad.
13:52-14:03
She said, "You know, the worst thing that's ever happened in history is they got Jesus." I'm like, "What are you talking about?" She said, "Well, Jesus was here, and He was healing, and He was teaching, He's doing so much good.
14:04-14:08
And then they killed Him and they cut Him off and nothing's ever been the same since they got Jesus.
14:10-14:12
What a horrible thing that they got Jesus.
14:12-14:22
And I said, "What are you talking about?" And I said, "The very reason that Jesus came was to suffer and die for your sins." And she looked at me like she'd never heard that before.
14:24-14:26
It's a hard pill to swallow for some people.
14:26-14:32
You see, there are people that are saying, "Well, the Messiah's not going to suffer." Paul comes in with this message.
14:32-14:34
He says, look, the Messiah had to suffer.
14:36-14:40
Because man - Adam - brought sin into the world.
14:42-14:47
So payment must be made by a man.
14:49-14:51
Who the Bible calls the second Adam.
14:51-14:52
Jesus Christ.
14:52-15:04
Romans 5.19 says, "For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, by one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.
15:06-15:11
The man brought sin into the world, it had to be a man to make payment for sin.
15:13-15:14
So jot these down on your outline.
15:15-15:17
Four reasons Jesus had to die for our sin.
15:17-15:18
He had to die.
15:20-15:25
Not just appear, not just suffer, but to go all the way and die.
15:25-15:28
Four reasons Jesus had to die for our sin.
15:29-15:29
and he wrote this down.
15:29-15:30
These are so important.
15:31-15:37
First one, letter A, "to be our sacrifice." To be our sacrifice.
15:38-15:46
All through the Old Testament, especially the law, you see the Old Testament sacrifices were a picture of our need for payment.
15:46-15:53
You see, God says you can offer the blood of an animal to be atonement for your sin.
15:56-16:01
But the problem with that The Old Testament was those animals atoned for sin.
16:01-16:03
They didn't take sin away.
16:04-16:05
There's a huge difference.
16:05-16:06
You're like, what's the difference?
16:07-16:08
Well, it's like this.
16:11-16:13
The Old Testament sacrifices were like a credit card.
16:15-16:21
You know, when you use a credit card, you know you're not really paying for it.
16:25-16:29
Because you're going to get a bill that says you still owe the money.
16:29-16:32
When you use the credit card, it's not like payment has been made.
16:34-16:41
It just hunts the payment a little further down the line, but it doesn't make payment.
16:42-16:45
You see, this is what the Old Testament sacrifices were like.
16:47-16:49
This will cover your sin for now.
16:49-16:51
This will cover your sin for now.
16:51-16:52
Every swipe, every sacrifice.
16:53-16:55
will cover your sin for now.
16:58-16:59
But the bill's still going to come.
17:00-17:02
Right? That invoice is still going to come.
17:03-17:04
And you're still going to owe.
17:06-17:08
That's what the Old Testament sacrifices were like.
17:09-17:12
And Jesus - Jesus was this.
17:14-17:20
Jesus was actual cash payment to say I'm not just covering your sin.
17:22-17:24
I'm going to take it away.
17:25-17:26
Huge difference.
17:27-17:28
Huge difference.
17:30-17:34
You're still not sure if there's a difference between covering sin and taking it away.
17:37-17:42
Imagine if a possum crawled up on our front porch and died.
17:44-17:54
And Aaron said, "I need you to do something about the possum." I take a tea towel and I go out and I cover the possum up.
17:56-17:58
She's like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "Well, I solved it.
17:59-18:03
I covered it." Is that what she wanted?
18:05-18:06
Take it away.
18:07-18:09
There's a difference between covering and taking away.
18:10-18:12
And you see, this is the glorious thing about Jesus Christ.
18:12-18:14
He didn't just cover your sin.
18:14-18:27
John 1.29, the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Jesus doesn't just cover your sin.
18:27-18:28
He takes it away.
18:30-18:35
Did you notice what Jesus was called in John 1.29?
18:35-18:36
The Lamb of God.
18:36-18:40
Picturing that Old Testament sacrifice, Jesus being the fulfillment of that.
18:40-18:41
The Lamb of God.
18:43-18:45
had to die for our sin to be our sacrifice.
18:47-18:49
Let her be to be our propitiation.
18:52-18:52
Propitiation.
18:54-18:55
That's a fancy word.
18:56-18:57
What does that word mean?
18:58-18:59
It means wrath bearer.
19:01-19:04
And the reason I use that word is because it's in the Bible in a couple of places.
19:05-19:08
Romans chapter 3 verse 25 I believe.
19:09-19:36
1 John 4:10, "And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." This might be a new concept to some of you, but it's so very important because I talk to so many guys that feel like God is still mad at them for their sin.
19:38-19:51
I've talked to so many guys, I've sat across the table, and they're like, "Well, I know, Pastor Jeff, I know I'm forgiven in Jesus, but sometimes I just feel like I've done so many wrong things that God must still be mad at me." He is not!
19:53-20:00
You see, when the Bible says Jesus is our propitiation, it means He bore the wrath of God on Himself, and God is satisfied.
20:01-20:30
God is not some angry old man in the sky that's like, "I punish Jesus for your sin, "Darn it, I'm still mad, and I'm going to take it out on you too." You see, propitiation says, God says, "Because my Son was willing to bear my wrath, and I poured my wrath on Him, now I'm satisfied." There's no more wrath to be poured on the person who receives Jesus Christ.
20:31-20:37
Now if you don't know Christ, you're going to taste every drop of God's wrath someday.
20:39-20:42
And I can't say that without a tear and without shaking.
20:45-20:47
But someday the dam is going to break.
20:48-20:50
You're going to experience every drop.
20:52-20:59
But when you turn to Jesus Christ, and you allow Him to be your propitiation, there is no wrath of God for you.
21:01-21:03
Because Jesus took it all on Himself.
21:05-21:07
reasons Jesus had to die.
21:09-21:11
C. To bring reconciliation.
21:14-21:15
To bring reconciliation.
21:17-21:18
By nature, God is our enemy.
21:20-21:24
And if you're here today and you don't know Christ, God is against you.
21:26-21:29
God is, as we just said, poised to pour out His wrath on you.
21:31-21:32
But here's the good news.
21:32-21:35
which Christ's death totally healed the relationship.
21:37-21:38
Look at Romans 5.10.
21:38-21:46
"For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
21:48-21:55
Much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His light." We're reconciled.
21:56-22:04
We're enemies of family of Jesus Christ and he had to die to make that happen.
22:04-22:05
Did you see that?
22:05-22:08
We were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
22:10-22:12
Letter D to pay for our redemption.
22:15-22:15
Pay for our redemption.
22:18-22:22
Jesus Christ literally bought us back from slavery to sin.
22:23-22:24
The cost was his own life.
22:26-22:40
Jesus said, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Salvation is free for you, but salvation wasn't free.
22:43-22:44
It cost Jesus Christ everything.
22:46-22:48
He willingly paid it to buy you back.
22:51-22:53
Those are four reasons Jesus had to die.
22:55-22:58
Number two in your outline, Jesus Christ had to rise from the dead to give you life.
23:00-23:01
This is our second wheel.
23:01-23:02
We've got to get these down.
23:03-23:13
Not only was it necessary that Jesus died, it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.
23:15-23:16
This is often left out.
23:16-23:19
This is crucial to the message is Jesus dying.
23:19-23:21
A lot of people, we ask them what the Gospel is.
23:21-23:23
They say the Gospel is Jesus died for my sins.
23:24-23:25
That's half the Gospel.
23:27-23:35
And you have to see, as we've gone through the book of Acts, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was central to every single sermon that we've seen in Acts.
23:35-23:36
Did you notice that?
23:37-23:42
Jot these down, you can go, look, Acts 2.32, Acts 3.15, Acts 4.10, Acts 5.30.
23:43-23:48
Every time the Gospel is proclaimed, it gets right down to Jesus rose from the dead.
23:49-23:51
This Jesus, God rose up.
23:51-23:52
The grave couldn't hold Him.
23:53-23:57
God resurrected Jesus Christ.
23:58-24:00
Jesus Christ had to rise from the dead to give me life.
24:01-24:03
Four reasons Jesus had to rise from the dead.
24:05-24:06
Four reasons He had to.
24:07-24:09
Four reasons that it wasn't enough that He died.
24:09-24:11
He had to rise from the dead as well.
24:12-24:13
Four reasons why.
24:13-24:16
Letter A, because He said He would.
24:18-24:42
Over and over and over and over and over in Jesus' ministry, He said things like in Luke 18, talking about Himself, "He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, be mocked and shamefully treated, and spit upon, and after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise." Jesus said this over and over and over.
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"I'm going to rise from the dead." He had to.
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He would have been a liar otherwise.
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He said that was so key to his ministry was to suffer and die, to rise from the dead.
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Let it be because the Old Testament promised that Christ would rise.
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Psalm 16.10 says, "You will not abandon my soul to shield or let your Holy One see corruption." The Old Testament promised that not only would the Messiah suffer, but the Messiah would rise from the dead.
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because that's how He gave us His righteousness.
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Romans 4.25 says, "Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." You see, if Jesus just died for your sin and removed the sin penalty, we'd be like Adam and Eve in the garden before they fell into sin.
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But, Jesus did so much more than that.
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The Bible says that because Jesus resurrected, He gave you His righteousness.
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2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God took Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.
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This to me is the most mind-blowing thing of the Gospel.
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You look at all these elements of the Gospel, this to me is the most mind-blowing aspect of all of it, is when you receive Jesus Christ, He gives you His righteousness.
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He puts it on your accounts.
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And God sees you as righteous as Himself.
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Now think about it.
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He doesn't see you as righteous as your dear sweet grandmama.
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What a saintly woman she is.
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He sees you not as righteous He sees you as righteous as Himself because He puts that on your account.
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Letter D, because that's how He gives us eternal life.
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1 Corinthians 15 says so much about the implications of Jesus resurrecting from the dead, and if He hadn't, how worthless our faith would be.
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In particular, He says, "And if Christ has not been crucified, Christ didn't raise from the dead, guess what?
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This is as good as it gets and you're wasting your time here today.
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You're just wasting your time.
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And that dear sweet grandmama of yours that died, who knows where she is?
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She's worm food.
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Because there's no hope of eternal life.
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She didn't have it. You don't have it.
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Life is meaningless.
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You don't have it.
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You don't have it.
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if Jesus didn't raise from the dead.
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But because He did, we have the hope of eternal life.
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Whether our life ends today, or tomorrow, or ten years, we have the hope of being in the world.
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Those are the first two wheels.
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Number three - we'll get through these last two quickly.
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Jesus Christ has to be my King.
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Jesus Christ has to be my King.
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I want you to get back to the text here.
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Because you see this person was introduced, and the Bible doesn't really say much about him.
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We don't really know much about him.
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Some people believed, verse 5 says, "But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble..." Who's that?
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Well, those would have been like guys who didn't have jobs.
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They just hung out in the marketplace all day.
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Do we have a name for people like that today?
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And you don't-- don't shout anything out.
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I'm afraid of what some of you might say, honestly.
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But you get the idea.
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They didn't have anything better to do.
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They didn't have jobs.
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They weren't productive.
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They just kind of hung out.
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They were lazy.
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I think the best term we could use is ne'er-do-wells.
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Do you remember that word?
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Ne'er-do-wells?
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I think that's-- no?
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No?
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One?
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OK.
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Wow.
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She's showing my age.
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That term was old when Charles Dickens used it.
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OK, it's going to sound politically incorrect, but they were worthless people.
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they contributed nothing, and they just hung out in the market.
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And you see the Jews saw them as primed toward, like, hey, you guys want to start a riot?
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And these guys were like, yeah, let's start a riot.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, let's get a mob going.
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Let's attack these people.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And it was like this big-- like, what?
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And it says that they attacked the house of Jason.
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Again, we don't know anything about them.
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They formed this mob.
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They got the city in an uproar.
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And they brought them out to the crowd.
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It says, verse 6, when they could not find them, meaning the missionaries, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers, some of the Christians, before the city authorities.
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And you see the charges.
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"These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar." Saying that there is another king, Jesus.
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See the charges?
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First of all, the first charge was, "These missionary troublemakers came into town, and Jason received them." Isn't it ironic? Who was causing the problems here?
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Was Paul the one causing problems?
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Was it Silas? Were they the ones causing problems?
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They were just sharing the gospel.
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These people were causing the very problems.
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They were accusing the missionaries.
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Did you see the other charge?
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This is the big one, folks.
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Saying that there is another king, Jesus.
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Okay, now it's a very serious charge, At least it wasn't a false charge.
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They actually killed Jesus for that charge, according to John 19.12.
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See, the Roman Empire took that very seriously for somebody to say that they're a king.
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So here's Jesus who people are proclaiming as the King of Kings.
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So we see one part of the message was received clear.
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there is another King.
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People want their ticket to heaven, but they don't want Jesus to be their King.
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And the idea that Jesus can be your Savior but not your Lord is completely foreign to the Gospel.
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Your faith hasn't changed you.
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Your faith hasn't saved you.
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Because nowhere, nowhere in God's Word He offers forgiveness without repentance.
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And the idea of the kingship of Jesus Christ is at the heart of repentance.
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Just picture, on your hearts sits this throne, and by nature, we think that we have the rightful place on that throne.
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I sit on the throne.
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Nobody tells me what to do.
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I call my own shots.
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I'm the boss.
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And repentance means you get off that throne.
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And you allow Jesus Christ, His rightful place on that throne.
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That's repentance.
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How much of your life is dictated by this worldview?
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Where you say, "I'm not my own.
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I was bought with a price.
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Jesus Christ is my Lord.
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There are things that I do just because of that fact.
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There are things that I won't do He says Jesus Christ is my King.
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Jesus said in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?" Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord.
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You see, that's not multiple choice.
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That's a package deal.
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You have to receive Him for how He presents Himself.
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Like, yeah, I want the ticket to heaven thing, but I don't want you Lord over my life thing.
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Not an option.
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Not an option.
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Jesus Christ has to be your King.
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Do you know Him as your King?
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And finally, there is a cost to following Jesus.
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There is a cost to following Jesus.
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Look back in the text again with me quickly.
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It says, "And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.
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When they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
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Again, Jason and some of the brothers were dragged out.
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It's crazy.
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The charge against them.
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Like, Jason really didn't do anything here.
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Do you see the charge against them was they might know some of the brothers?
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We think that the missionaries are staying with them.
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company weren't even with them at the time.
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The Bible says they took money as security.
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That was sort of like a bail bond.
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They took money from them and that money was going to be forfeited if there was more trouble.
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What I want to point out to you church is this.
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Jason, we know nothing about him other than what's in this passage.
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But what we do know about Him is plenty for us to apply today, and that's this.
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You don't have to be a missionary.
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You don't have to be a preacher to suffer loss for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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See, when we think of persecution, we read about these guys that are over in Turkey, or over in Saudi Arabia, or over in Afghanistan.
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We read about these preachers stateside, some of them I know, who have lost, experienced great cost for preaching the Gospel.
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When we think persecution, we think, well, that's the preachers and the missionaries.
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They've got to deal with that stuff.
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I'm just Joe Pucitor.
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And Jason reminds us, guess what?
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You're guilty by association.
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You mean to tell me if the government cracked down on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they came in while we were having They think they'd let you go?
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I didn't even sing that much today.
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I didn't even give a full time.
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I was just passing.
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I thought we were having a dance recital here.
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I didn't know what was going on here.
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You think they're going to let you go?
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Jason did nothing.
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See, if you follow Christ, there's a cost.
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It's going to cost you.
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We leave that out.
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We think we're doing people a favor by leaving that out.
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Like yeah, you follow Jesus, it's going to be great.
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It's going to be great.
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Everybody's going to love you.
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I had that thought for about four seconds when I was called into ministry.
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I'm like, oh, this is great because the gospel changed my life and it's going to change other people's lives.
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And just as I was so happy to receive the gospel, everybody's going to be happy to receive the gospel.
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Yeah, that didn't work out so well because not everybody is so happy to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It's going to cost. People want to leave that out.
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It's going to cost.
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There's only one demographic that it's socially acceptable to insult and revile.
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And that's Christ followers.
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And if you've been with us as we've been going through the book of Acts, did we have any message from Acts that didn't involve persecution in some way, shape, or form?
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It seems like every passage was some form of persecution.
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Jesus never promised that following Him would be easy.
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The opposite's true.
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He promised that following Him would be hard.
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And this is a whole other sermon.
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I just want to give you a couple of verses to go with this.
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Matthew 16.24, Jesus told His disciples, anyone would come after Me.
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Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." Take up his cross.
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That wasn't a metaphor.
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We use that as a metaphor today.
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"Well, you know, I've got asthma.
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That's my cross to bear." Or, "I've got a bad knee.
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That's my cross to bear." That wasn't a metaphor.
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These people would have seen people walking through the town carrying a cross.
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And they knew every time, "Well, that guy's going to die.
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This guy's heading to his death every time.
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So when Jesus said, "If you're going to follow Me, you've got to carry your cross." You know what that meant.
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It means I've got to be ready to die for Jesus.
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Luke 9, verse 62, Jesus said, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Jesus said that.
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He didn't make it so easy.
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"Just bow your head, say this prayer, sign this card, come down the aisle." Jesus said if you put your hand to the plow, but you're still distracted, and you're still looking back, and you're still longing for the former things, you're not fit.
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You're not ready.
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Pardon.
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I'll remind you of a phrase Jesus used over and over.
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He said it in John 13, 16.
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He said it in John 15, 20.
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One of Jesus' apparently favorite sayings, because His servant is not greater than His Master.
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They persecuted Me, they're going to persecute you.
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The perfect sinless Son of God was going to come to the earth.
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He was going to be beaten and spit on and crucified because He stands for the things of God.
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What makes you think you're going to get off when you stand for the things of God?
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It's a great paradox, isn't it?
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Following Jesus costs you nothing, but it costs you everything.
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This is the Gospel.
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Four wheels.
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You can't take any of them off.
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No death of Christ.
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No payment for sin.
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No resurrection of Christ.
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No new life.
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No Jesus as King.
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No real repentance.
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No promise of suffering.
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No gospel rooted in reality.
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That's a prayer.
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Father in Heaven, thank You for Your glorious gospel.
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Father, it is not our intention to make it up, to alter it in any way.
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Father, we would never intentionally wish to twist Your Word or Your message for our own purposes.
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But let Your Word ring clear and pure and true and certain in our hearts.
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For those of us who know You today, Father, I pray this message is just a great encouragement for what You've done on our behalf.
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Father, I pray if there's anyone here today who doesn't know You, I pray that they would join the prayer team in the back.
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I pray that today would be the day of salvation, that they realize, Father, that there is an urgency in the Gospel.
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We don't have forever to make up our minds whether we want to get on board with you or not.
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Today's the day.
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Please, Father, let Your Spirit move through this room right now.
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Get us all where we need to be.
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I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 17:1-9

What would you say are the essentials of the Gospel? Do you agree with the four presented in this message? Why or why not? Would you add anything, or remove any of these four?
How do you think Paul kept from being discouraged, since it seems in every city he preached in the synagogue, he faced a serious backlash?
Acts 17:5 says the Jews were jealous. What do you think caused this jealousy?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another to be bold witnesses who KNOW the Gospel and SHARE the whole Gospel.

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Unstoppable Over Burnout.

Am I Preventing Burnout in My Own Life?

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Unstoppable and World-Changing!

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Am I Preventing Burnout in My Own Life?

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