Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 177 - Paul on Mars Hill: How to Tactfully Reach a Pagan World

Transcript

Ep. 177 - Paul on Mars Hill: How to Tactfully Reach a Pagan World · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:05
  Emeal Zwayne: Paul and Mars Hill was.
• 1:06
  Emeal Zwayne: you know, he was dealing with idolatry and he was provoked, which is good, But then he showed us how to handle it.
• 1:14
  Mark Spence: Okay, wait a minute.
• 1:14
  Mark Spence: You built that up and it's a great analogy, right.
• 1:17
  Mark Spence: I mean, your transition is really great.
• 1:19
  Mark Spence: But I can't help but think somebody's on the edge of their seat thinking, well, what do you do when?
• 1:26
  Ray Comfort: Ant Gertrude comes over and is now showing that.
• 1:28
  Ray Comfort: George.
• 1:28
  Ray Comfort: George, I had the same thought.
• 1:30
  Ray Comfort: I can understand you being upset and going to the apostle Paul from there is like a little drop.
• 1:37
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, Well, okay, look, let's touch on that a little bit.
• 1:39
  Emeal Zwayne: We don't know what we're doing anyway, Just do that.
• 1:42
  Emeal Zwayne: I think and this is what I was sharing with this brother I mean, I think that we do have to draw the line somewhere and where we do things and love, And here's the thing.
• 1:52
  Emeal Zwayne: right, We wouldn't ask that question if our sibling was coming over with their new dog husband and we're going to treat them like they're really a couple and they're going to sit and be affectionate in inappropriate ways in front of I mean, you know what I'm saying.
• 2:05
  Emeal Zwayne: Or if one of our relatives says oh, you know, I'm coming over today with my dad, who's also my new husband.
• 2:10
  Emeal Zwayne: Right, I mean we would, and because you're thinking about kids too and normalizing this, And so I don't know.
• 2:18
  Mark Spence: Does this go across the board?
• 2:19
  Mark Spence: whether they're a Christian, claiming to be a Christian, or a non-Christian, are you saying that you would not allow them to be inside your house Or if your kids weren't there?
• 2:27
  Mark Spence: depends on the age of the kids.
• 2:30
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, i'm saying that.
• 2:30
  Emeal Zwayne: Well, if they claim to be a Christian and they're living in sin, scripture's clear We're not even eat with such a one, right, We're not to have a regular, normal fellowship.
• 2:36
  Emeal Zwayne: We're still to love them and try to reach them, calling them to repentance.
• 2:40
  Emeal Zwayne: If it's an unbeliever, it depends on the context, right?
• 2:44
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, am I going to, i think, relatives and close family members, because of how that impacts, especially the next generation?
• 2:52
  Emeal Zwayne: I think we have to be careful.
• 2:55
  Emeal Zwayne: Gift, gift, wonderful gift.
• 3:02
  Emeal Zwayne: We all love gifts, and if anyone tells you they don't love gifts, they're a big fat liar.
• 3:07
  Emeal Zwayne: You guys have heard people say they don't like gifts.
• 3:09
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, i don't like gifts.
• 3:10
  Emeal Zwayne: Don't give me gifts, don't give me gifts.
• 3:11
  Mark Spence: Well, it's kind of like you with your birthdays.
• 3:12
  Mark Spence: You don't like anybody to acknowledge your birthday.
• 3:15
  Mark Spence: But is that actually true?
• 3:16
  Emeal Zwayne: It is true, i don't like people singing happy birthday to me, but you want the gifts on your birthday.
• 3:22
  Mark Spence: Ray, you hate it too, I hate it.
• 3:24
  Ray Comfort: I'd rather people just pop the gift in the driveway and leave.
• 3:26
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, give me gifts, Say a nice, quiet, gentle happy birthday, but don't get around me and worship me.
• 3:31
  Emeal Zwayne: As you like candles to me and sing.
• 3:34
  Emeal Zwayne: He's a jelly good fellow.
• 3:35
  Mark Spence: Yeah.
• 3:36
  Emeal Zwayne: But I love gifts and I have a gift in my hand that has forever changed my life, one of the greatest gifts I've ever received, and changed my status.
• 3:43
  Emeal Zwayne: Look at it and weep gentlemen.
• 3:46
  Oscar Navarro: Look at it, look at it And weep, who gave you that yourself, dad joke champion, dad joke champion.
• 3:52
  Ray Comfort: So you bought that for yourself?
• 3:53
  Ray Comfort: No, this is a gift from.
• 3:57
  Emeal Zwayne: Janelyn, my son Luke's girlfriend for Father's Day.
• 4:01
  Mark Spence: The misspelled bad Bad joke champion.
• 4:03
  Mark Spence: That's good, Mark.
• 4:05
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, i love this thing.
• 4:06
  Emeal Zwayne: And what's more fitting than to tell dad jokes to kick this off?
• 4:13
  Emeal Zwayne: You don't have to, i will.
• 4:14
  Emeal Zwayne: What did one hat say to the other hat?
• 4:17
  Emeal Zwayne: Stay here, i'm going on ahead.
• 4:21
  Emeal Zwayne: That really is good.
• 4:24
  Emeal Zwayne: What do you call someone with no body and no nose?
• 4:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Nobody knows What's the best thing about Switzerland.
• 4:35
  Emeal Zwayne: Yes, i don't know, but the flag is a big plus.
• 4:43
  Ray Comfort: Oh yeah, the educated one, That's good.
• 4:46
  Emeal Zwayne: What did the baby corn say to mama corn?
• 4:47
  Emeal Zwayne: Where's popcorn?
• 4:49
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, it feels so good.
• 4:54
  Emeal Zwayne: Oscar, you know you're laughing inside, So like you, just you could reread the same joke over and over again.
• 5:00
  Oscar Navarro: It gets you every time.
• 5:01
  Ray Comfort: They're so funny, that's true, they all may be funny, so I am the champion.
• 5:04
  Emeal Zwayne: Now, i selected them.
• 5:05
  Emeal Zwayne: They're not original.
• 5:06
  Ray Comfort: I was just going to say Yeah.
• 5:08
  Mark Spence: I was hanging out with my kids the other day and they have so many new words in sling.
• 5:11
  Mark Spence: I think only Oscar would be able to know what those sort of like L-Riz Yeah.
• 5:16
  Emeal Zwayne: And things like.
• 5:17
  Emeal Zwayne: I'm like what You know that same word.
• 5:18
  Emeal Zwayne: They said it to me, the other day, l-riz What?
• 5:21
  Mark Spence: Or W-Riz Seriously.
• 5:23
  Emeal Zwayne: And I get frustrated and Rachel goes A.
• 5:24
  Emeal Zwayne: They don't do that.
• 5:25
  Emeal Zwayne: We once had weds.
• 5:26
  Oscar Navarro: People didn't know, is it co-oculism?
• 5:28
  Oscar Navarro: She still has words.
• 5:29
  Oscar Navarro: People don't know.
• 5:30
  Emeal Zwayne: That's true.
• 5:30
  Oscar Navarro: That's bussin.
• 5:33
  Mark Spence: And then they just start laughing like oh yeah, they're rolling their eyes forward, but I mean where do words come from, like who gets to decide?
• 5:37
  Mark Spence: Well, enough people have used this word.
• 5:40
  Mark Spence: Let's put it in the dictionary.
• 5:41
  Mark Spence: Right, yeah, web.
• 5:43
  Emeal Zwayne: Webster's dictionary.
• 5:44
  Emeal Zwayne: Well, you know who shocked me a lot is Oscar, because he used to say the word rad a lot.
• 5:48
  Oscar Navarro: I still say rad, that's a 90.
• 5:50
  Oscar Navarro: I'm keeping that one.
• 5:50
  Emeal Zwayne: That was an 80s word.
• 5:51
  Emeal Zwayne: No, no, i thought it was before 80s.
• 5:53
  Ray Comfort: It was before 80s, it was 60s.
• 5:56
  Emeal Zwayne: It's coming back, though You guys said rad, of course.
• 5:58
  Ray Comfort: That's the surfing term.
• 5:59
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah.
• 5:59
  Ray Comfort: That's like tie-dye is really in.
• 6:02
  Oscar Navarro: Burn And also it's coming back.
• 6:04
  Ray Comfort: They had it in the time of Christ tie-dye.
• 6:07
  Mark Spence: You know I've created a word.
• 6:08
  Mark Spence: I wanted to tick off.
• 6:10
  Ray Comfort: I don't think anybody else has used it.
• 6:11
  Ray Comfort: Play journalism.
• 6:15
  Mark Spence: Well, that's true, nobody.
• 6:18
  Emeal Zwayne: That's a really good one, Mark.
• 6:19
  Ray Comfort: How long have your kids been rolling their eyes?
• 6:21
  Ray Comfort: That sounds very strange to me.
• 6:24
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh man, that's crazy, but yeah no rad.
• 6:28
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, rad's coming back.
• 6:30
  Oscar Navarro: I held onto it, since I was a kid.
• 6:32
  Emeal Zwayne: They said rad when you were a kid too.
• 6:34
  Mark Spence: Yeah, that was.
• 6:34
  Mark Spence: I think he has a shirt with the word rad.
• 6:38
  Mark Spence: Do you remember the?
• 6:39
  Oscar Navarro: movie rad Tubular.
• 6:40
  Oscar Navarro: That's probably where I was.
• 6:41
  Oscar Navarro: It was the BMX movie, See.
• 6:42
  Emeal Zwayne: That's probably where I was, Also did you guys say like burn in your time, oh, burn or face Remember face Mark.
• 6:49
  Emeal Zwayne: Speak to the hand, talk to the hand.
• 6:51
  Emeal Zwayne: The face don't want to hear it, but you remember face Mark.
• 6:53
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh yeah, oh, face Burn, i got that one.
• 6:57
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, we'll teach you a few things We have.
• 7:00
  Emeal Zwayne: We have Comment.
• 7:02
  Emeal Zwayne: By the way, guys, the band is back together again.
• 7:05
  Emeal Zwayne: It's been a while.
• 7:06
  Emeal Zwayne: It's been a while.
• 7:07
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah now, friends, you may not know, we may have deceived you.
• 7:10
  Emeal Zwayne: You may think we record these Instantly every week.
• 7:13
  Emeal Zwayne: We don't.
• 7:13
  Emeal Zwayne: You're letting them behind.
• 7:14
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, I'm letting them behind the curtain.
• 7:15
  Emeal Zwayne: They're seeing the Wizard of Oz.
• 7:17
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, we pre-record these.
• 7:18
  Emeal Zwayne: We can't do them all like on the fly, so there's times we take breaks, but we have some in the can, and it's been a while.
• 7:25
  Emeal Zwayne: A Few weeks Oscar and I were at NRB in Florida.
• 7:29
  Ray Comfort: This is on the fly in the can you like that on the fly in the can Sounds like the tea I had this morning Sounds like insect repellent.
• 7:38
  Emeal Zwayne: Mark, you're in England twice.
• 7:40
  Mark Spence: I was in England twice within a month.
• 7:42
  Ray Comfort: He left something there.
• 7:43
  Ray Comfort: Ray, you were in what?
• 7:45
  Oscar Navarro: you were in Serena's right back to you.
• 7:48
  Ray Comfort: Saratoss, i'm not moving away from home.
• 7:51
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, you've been reveling Ray and being home after Ken Ham told.
• 7:55
  Ray Comfort: I'm even a feet up watching TV when he's stuck in an airport.
• 7:58
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, yeah, poor guy, all for mate-pies.
• 8:01
  Emeal Zwayne: All right, friends.
• 8:02
  Emeal Zwayne: We have a comment.
• 8:04
  Ray Comfort: This is for that necessary.
• 8:06
  Emeal Zwayne: Very much so one more time Faith has faith in Christ.
• 8:14
  Emeal Zwayne: That's a cool title there for them life changing.
• 8:16
  Emeal Zwayne: I'm 15 years old and love this podcast.
• 8:19
  Emeal Zwayne: Each and every one of you did something different in my life.
• 8:22
  Emeal Zwayne: Easy.
• 8:22
  Emeal Zwayne: You made me realize how important it is to have a good Christian husband.
• 8:25
  Emeal Zwayne: You talk about you and Rachel and the things you did and It makes me want someone who will treat me as you treat Rachel Ray.
• 8:32
  Emeal Zwayne: The biggest way you impacted me is with my passion to spread the gospel.
• 8:36
  Emeal Zwayne: I always knew I would go on a mission trip at least, but you brought that to a higher level.
• 8:41
  Emeal Zwayne: You're my role model, mark.
• 8:43
  Emeal Zwayne: You remind me of my dad and my grandpa and my great, great, great, great great.
• 8:49
  Mark Spence: I'm adding, and I never met them.
• 8:52
  Emeal Zwayne: My dad and my grandpa, both very passionate and wise.
• 8:55
  Emeal Zwayne: You have taught me so much and I find myself Throughout the day of quoting you.
• 9:00
  Mark Spence: That's just like, it right, hello, oscar Oscar.
• 9:06
  Emeal Zwayne: Oscar, i detest everything about you.
• 9:08
  Emeal Zwayne: Oscar, i love your humor.
• 9:11
  Emeal Zwayne: The biggest thing I think you've helped me with is a realization that prayer impacts.
• 9:15
  Emeal Zwayne: God listens.
• 9:16
  Emeal Zwayne: You told the story of your grandma and how she would always pray for you, and here you are now.
• 9:20
  Emeal Zwayne: I've been praying for many people ever since.
• 9:23
  Emeal Zwayne: Thank you all so much for everything you taught me.
• 9:26
  Emeal Zwayne: Wow, that's a great one.
• 9:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, you're gonna cry.
• 9:29
  Emeal Zwayne: Thank you so much.
• 9:34
  Emeal Zwayne: Faith has faith in Christ.
• 9:36
  Emeal Zwayne: Awesome, that was really a blessing.
• 9:37
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, my man, all right.
• 9:39
  Emeal Zwayne: Francis podcast has brought you by the starter kid Man.
• 9:44
  Emeal Zwayne: The starter kid's been doing well right, i love this.
• 9:47
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• 9:53
  Ray Comfort: You know, you're broken down.
• 9:54
  Ray Comfort: You need the starter.
• 9:55
  Ray Comfort: Kid put those Answers in general just ordered a hundred of them, which was encouraging.
• 10:00
  Ray Comfort: So yeah yesterday.
• 10:01
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, they.
• 10:02
  Emeal Zwayne: But we even recently we were emailing about just different resources and how they're doing, and this one is just really doing well, it took off.
• 10:09
  Ray Comfort: This was your idea, right.
• 10:11
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• 10:12
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• 10:16
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• 10:22
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• 10:27
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• 10:30
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• 10:37
  Oscar Navarro: Often you might have like choice anxiety.
• 10:39
  Oscar Navarro: Going to our website and seeing so many tracks Available, you might be wondering which one is the right one for you.
• 10:45
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• 10:48
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• 10:58
  Oscar Navarro: Once you start there, you'll discover which ones right for you and you'll you'll start handing out tracks.
• 11:03
  Emeal Zwayne: No wait, there's more, there's more.
• 11:05
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, friends, and if you haven't, and really if you're not that familiar with our tracks, one You may want to even get before that, or along with it, is the tracked sample pack.
• 11:14
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• 11:18
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• 11:25
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• 11:29
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• 11:30
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• 11:40
  Oscar Navarro: Oscar, what in the world?
• 11:42
  Oscar Navarro: Wednesday night I tore a ligament between these two fingers here Basketball listening when you say these make us plain basketball playing basketball.
• 11:50
  Emeal Zwayne: Dude, you're destroying your life with basketball.
• 11:52
  Oscar Navarro: It's not two fingers, so here's what happens if okay, so yeah, for those who can't see, my ring finger is currently taped to my middle finger, Because if I go like this with this hand, this one just flops up and down.
• 12:04
  Ray Comfort: This doesn't mean anything and you're gonna keep playing basketball, right?
• 12:07
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, I played last night.
• 12:10
  Ray Comfort: I still.
• 12:13
  Emeal Zwayne: Walk in here.
• 12:14
  Emeal Zwayne: One day my head fell off, but I gotta go play basketball.
• 12:17
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, i played yesterday, yeah.
• 12:19
  Emeal Zwayne: All right, friends.
• 12:19
  Emeal Zwayne: There you have it, man, lots of good stuff.
• 12:22
  Emeal Zwayne: But today we are talking about Paul, or, as we say in Arabic, boulos, bullos, bullos That sounds like that, i think I think that in Spanish It's a woolos but in Arabic bullos.
• 12:33
  Emeal Zwayne: Paul on Mars Hill had attacked fully reach a pagan.
• 12:38
  Ray Comfort: I want to know who my was and why did she have a hill?
• 12:41
  Emeal Zwayne: Where's Mars Hill?
• 12:43
  Ray Comfort: I've been on Mars.
• 12:44
  Emeal Zwayne: That's the problem, ray, because you guys blend in ours with a lot of your words.
• 12:48
  Emeal Zwayne: You think that that's how we would say it here.
• 12:50
  Ray Comfort: That's how you're supposed to say it Mars.
• 12:52
  Emeal Zwayne: Mars, mars.
• 12:53
  Emeal Zwayne: And every time I try to remember the words you guys blend ours with, i can't remember them.
• 12:57
  Emeal Zwayne: Ma, i try to catch Rachel whenever she does the car in the dark mark.
• 13:00
  Emeal Zwayne: Now, not that one, park the car.
• 13:03
  Emeal Zwayne: Why can't you say it normally say park, park, park, impossible.
• 13:11
  Emeal Zwayne: All right guys.
• 13:12
  Emeal Zwayne: Paul on Mars Hill was, paul in Mars Did you always crack right there, yes.
• 13:17
  Oscar Navarro: It was I just want to know when, when Ray talks about lines roaring, do they actually not roar, or?
• 13:31
  Emeal Zwayne: So, guys, paul on Mars Hill, you know this is probably one of the sermons that you've quoted most.
• 13:38
  Ray Comfort: Ray, yeah, at least part of it, love it.
• 13:40
  Emeal Zwayne: God now commands all men every way to repaint, repaint, repaint and then no more.
• 13:46
  Emeal Zwayne: But this is really a phenomenal Passage of scripture because it gives us a glimpse.
• 13:51
  Ray Comfort: So there are passages that aren't phenomenal?
• 13:53
  Emeal Zwayne: Yes, Yes, in the Quran Mormon.
• 13:58
  Emeal Zwayne: But it gives us a glimpse into fly on the wall Experiences of one of the greatest men that ever walked the earth.
• 14:06
  Emeal Zwayne: Preaches Not as good.
• 14:09
  Ray Comfort: There's no to be on the wall.
• 14:10
  Ray Comfort: It's always a fly.
• 14:11
  Ray Comfort: Why is it a fly?
• 14:12
  Ray Comfort: right by the most creature you can imagine.
• 14:15
  Oscar Navarro: Well, i've you just to be a Nat in your food, i Yeah.
• 14:19
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, so Paul and Mars Hill, i mean, this is such a great example for us who are living in hyper-paganized times to really get a grasp on.
• 14:32
  Emeal Zwayne: Hey, how do we relate to the culture?
• 14:34
  Emeal Zwayne: My biggest struggle, honestly, is, i don't know, it's anger, it's lack of compassion We've talked about that a lot, you know a lot but Towards your hosts Always.
• 14:44
  Emeal Zwayne: But you know, when we're seeing such rampant sin and debauchery and blasphemy toward the Lord, and especially when it gets into things like you know what we've been seeing lately reassignment surgery, you know, as kids are being mutilated, it really does.
• 15:01
  Emeal Zwayne: Just, i do wrestle sometimes Like Lord, how do we deal with that?
• 15:05
  Emeal Zwayne: I was talking with a brother this morning and we were talking about how do you deal with family members that are, you know, beginning to go in the direction of homosexuality or transgenderism.
• 15:17
  Emeal Zwayne: How do you relate to that?
• 15:19
  Emeal Zwayne: Where do you draw the line?
• 15:19
  Emeal Zwayne: Like, do you just hang out with them like it's normal?
• 15:22
  Emeal Zwayne: Do you let your you know your sister who's been your kid's aunt since they were little and now they're 5, 6, 7, do you let her come over And her name is George now and she's got a beard and like, what do you do?
• 15:34
  Emeal Zwayne: Like, how do you handle these things?
• 15:36
  Emeal Zwayne: And we're getting more and more desensitized.
• 15:38
  Emeal Zwayne: If I met who George, i'll bring her over, him over.
• 15:43
  Emeal Zwayne: In the midst of trying to figure out what to do, i also find myself getting unrighteously angry and agitated in a way that I shouldn't, because I lose focus of the lost and where they're at and what's going on.
• 15:55
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, and so Paul, and Mars Hill was, you know.
• 15:59
  Emeal Zwayne: He was dealing with idolatry and he was provoked, which is good, but then he showed us how to handle it.
• 16:07
  Mark Spence: Okay, wait a minute.
• 16:07
  Mark Spence: You built that up and it's a great analogy, right.
• 16:11
  Mark Spence: I mean, your transition is really great.
• 16:12
  Mark Spence: But I can't help but think somebody's on the edge of their seat thinking, well, what do you do when?
• 16:19
  Ray Comfort: Aunt Gertrude comes over and is now showing up.
• 16:20
  Ray Comfort: That'll be George.
• 16:21
  Ray Comfort: I have the same thought.
• 16:24
  Ray Comfort: I can understand you being upset, and going to the apostle Paul from there is like a little drop.
• 16:29
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, well, okay, look, let's touch on that a little bit.
• 16:32
  Emeal Zwayne: We don't know what we're doing.
• 16:33
  Emeal Zwayne: Anyway.
• 16:33
  Emeal Zwayne: I think and this is what I was sharing with this brother, i mean, i think that we do have to draw the line somewhere and where we do things in love.
• 16:44
  Emeal Zwayne: And here's the thing right, we wouldn't ask that question if our sibling was coming over with their new dog husband and we're going to treat them like they're really a couple and they're going to sit and be affectionate in inappropriate ways in front of I mean, you know what I'm saying.
• 16:58
  Emeal Zwayne: Or if one of our relatives says oh, you know, i'm coming over today with my dad, who's also my new husband, because you're thinking about kids too and normalizing this.
• 17:08
  Emeal Zwayne: So I don't know.
• 17:10
  Mark Spence: Does this go across the board whether they're a Christian, claiming to be a Christian, or a non-Christian.
• 17:14
  Mark Spence: Are you saying that you would not allow them to be inside your house or if your kids weren't there?
• 17:19
  Mark Spence: depends on the age of the kids.
• 17:21
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, I'm saying that.
• 17:22
  Emeal Zwayne: Well, if they claim to be a Christian and they're living in sin, scripture's clear we're not even eat with such a one, right?
• 17:27
  Emeal Zwayne: We're not to have a regular, normal fellowship.
• 17:29
  Emeal Zwayne: We're still to love them and try to reach them, calling them to repentance.
• 17:31
  Emeal Zwayne: If it's an unbeliever, it depends on the context, right?
• 17:36
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, am I going to, I think, relatives and close family members, because of how that impacts, especially the next generation, I think we have to be careful.
• 17:47
  Emeal Zwayne: It depends on the age of the kids, obviously, yeah, i don't know how much I would allow it to be normalized Like, yeah, come over and let's just act like this is normal and fine.
• 17:56
  Emeal Zwayne: One of my kids got forbid.
• 17:58
  Emeal Zwayne: Hey Dad, i'm a girl.
• 18:00
  Emeal Zwayne: Now one of my sons call me Linda and say she and I can't do it.
• 18:04
  Emeal Zwayne: I won't do it, you know.
• 18:05
  Emeal Zwayne: And this is the problem, like I think we've been so desensitized that immediately people are like oh, that's not really nice, that's not loving.
• 18:13
  Emeal Zwayne: And I think the nicest and most loving thing I can do is be real and not go along with their fantasy.
• 18:20
  Emeal Zwayne: That is destructive.
• 18:22
  Ray Comfort: So they can go to kids' home and take them out for a meal and witness to them for the meal and make it a long meal.
• 18:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, and look, i'm not against.
• 18:29
  Emeal Zwayne: we got to educate our kids.
• 18:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Society around us, of course, is changing.
• 18:33
  Emeal Zwayne: They need to learn how to interact in that realm.
• 18:35
  Emeal Zwayne: But there is an age at which you know I think it's both an age and a principle, too Like there is a principle about not giving them the sense like this is you approve of it and this is all fine, you're going to go on like it's normal, you know.
• 18:48
  Mark Spence: We're going on a tangent right, i mean.
• 18:49
  Mark Spence: I think we definitely need to address this on a future podcast, because I think this is the culture, this is the day and age, this is our society and it is being rammed down our throats, yeah Right.
• 19:00
  Mark Spence: So we are seeing secularists leave secular school systems because of this issue Not just Christians, not even those who are religious in any way, shape or form, but it is very prevalent in today's culture.
• 19:12
  Mark Spence: We have to address it on a future podcast.
• 19:14
  Oscar Navarro: I'm going to bring it back to Paul, because I think where you started was really good, which is we tend to live in the tyranny of the immediate.
• 19:21
  Oscar Navarro: The tyranny of the immediate is by looking around at the news cycles, at the reels of the very real things that are happening now, and we think like man, we live in unprecedented times.
• 19:35
  Oscar Navarro: You know, you use the phrase hyperpaganistic and we think like that.
• 19:38
  Oscar Navarro: We've never seen this before, the world has never been in it, and it could just feel like the tyranny of the immediate, like, oh man, this is the worst it's ever been.
• 19:49
  Oscar Navarro: But as we look at the scriptures and as we understand church history, what we find is that the birth of Christianity was born into a pagan culture.
• 20:00
  Oscar Navarro: That makes our pagan culture look minor, minute, look mild.
• 20:05
  Oscar Navarro: Right, you had Nero the Caesar.
• 20:09
  Oscar Navarro: Essentially, he was married to a woman, but he also had a openly male sexual partner.
• 20:16
  Oscar Navarro: That's like the president of the United States being in a polygamous relationship with both male and female.
• 20:21
  Oscar Navarro: While we could argue that that might one day happen, that wasn't a conspiracy theory, that wasn't under the radar, it wasn't like big news.
• 20:30
  Oscar Navarro: It was simply a part of his right as a Roman male citizen to have a male sexual partner.
• 20:37
  Oscar Navarro: And so the point I'm making here is that we can actually find hope that the early church thrived in an anti-Christian culture, far more anti-Christian to us.
• 20:50
  Oscar Navarro: And Acts 17 puts on display how Paul presents the gospel in slightly different ways when he goes to people in the church and he goes to people outside the church.
• 21:04
  Oscar Navarro: And that's one of the reasons why I love Acts 17, because in this same chapter we've got Paul arguing from the scriptures when he's talking to the Jew, but then we see him in the Greco-Roman world and it doesn't say he's arguing from the scriptures.
• 21:19
  Oscar Navarro: Instead, he chooses to quote their own poets to point them towards truth.
• 21:25
  Oscar Navarro: So the gospel never changes, without a doubt, but the way in which we proclaim the gospel can shift a little bit based off of our audience, and that's what Paul displays here in Acts 17.
• 21:36
  Oscar Navarro: You've got the cloth to fit.
• 21:38
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, there you go.
• 21:39
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, and Ray, i'd love you to chime in on this point.
• 21:42
  Emeal Zwayne: We're talking about what is grotesque sin, obviously a Romans one type depravity, but in light of what Paul's doing here on Mars Hill and we'll get into the text but he's addressing idolatry.
• 21:56
  Emeal Zwayne: We can't downplay the severity of idolatry in the sight of a holy God.
• 22:03
  Ray Comfort: I tell you he's the root cause of all sin.
• 22:05
  Ray Comfort: When it comes down to it And I've often said, people like Richard Dawkins are idolaters by nature.
• 22:09
  Ray Comfort: They're not atheists.
• 22:10
  Ray Comfort: He's got a wrong concept of what God is like.
• 22:13
  Ray Comfort: He's gone through the Old Testament and created a God that's ghastly horrific, taking it all the judgments and wrath of God and says well, that's what you guys like, i don't want anything to do with him, and he's thrown out the God of his own creation.
• 22:25
  Ray Comfort: But the God of the Bible is balanced in nature.
• 22:27
  Ray Comfort: He's just and holy and love and mercy.
• 22:29
  Ray Comfort: So when anyone gives themselves to sin, it's obvious they don't fear God.
• 22:33
  Ray Comfort: Because they don't fear God because they've got their own concept.
• 22:35
  Ray Comfort: Psalm 50, i think it is says you thought that I was altogether such and one as yourself, and so people really do think God is wearing pink nighties, got long hair, sitting on a cloud, playing, touch fingers with Adam.
• 22:48
  Oscar Navarro: I see what you did there, hmm.
• 22:49
  Oscar Navarro: There's not one in the image Pink nighty.
• 22:54
  Ray Comfort: You look at his pink, it's Michael Angeau.
• 22:55
  Ray Comfort: I was just having, he had a propensity for a pink nighty.
• 22:59
  Emeal Zwayne: I love that description right.
• 23:00
  Oscar Navarro: Well, just to go on what Rage has said too, by the way, calvin has this quote where he says that, where he says you know, the reason why the first two of the Ten Commandments addresses idolatry is because it is the root of all sin.
• 23:12
  Oscar Navarro: If we didn't have idolatry, the rest of the commandments wouldn't be necessary.
• 23:16
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, that's true, yeah, and Mark.
• 23:18
  Emeal Zwayne: Often we're deceived into thinking idolatry is merely the bowing down before a sculpted image, but it takes all kinds of forms with whatever we put before God.
• 23:29
  Mark Spence: Yeah Well, it definitely starts inside the mind, right, we saw that thought.
• 23:32
  Mark Spence: It reaps in action.
• 23:32
  Mark Spence: So it is in the place of imagery inside of our mind where we listen.
• 23:37
  Mark Spence: If you're not meditating through God's word, you're going to believe lies are true.
• 23:40
  Mark Spence: So this is why it is so important to meditate day and night through God's word, because it is not difficult to stray from the truth of God's word.
• 23:49
  Mark Spence: Remember, we are sanctified by his truth.
• 23:51
  Mark Spence: His word is truth.
• 23:53
  Mark Spence: We must always go there.
• 23:54
  Mark Spence: You know, as we're talking about Mars Hill here, it's important to know that Mars Hill was a place where you would have different people come together and they would discuss philosophy and religion.
• 24:05
  Mark Spence: I was reading an interesting thing about this earlier, that Mars Hill was the Roman name for a hill in Athens, greece called the Hill of Ares.
• 24:12
  Mark Spence: I've been on it.
• 24:13
  Mark Spence: Ares was the Greek God of war according to Greek mythology, And this hill was the place where Ares stood trial before the other gods for the murder of Poseidon's son.
• 24:24
  Mark Spence: In other words, here's the apostle Paul going up to wage war against the culture and the society and the philosophy and vain religion of the day.
• 24:35
  Mark Spence: And that is exactly what happens when we go open air preaching.
• 24:38
  Mark Spence: When we go to contend for the faith in an open square, we are waging war, recognizing that there is a spiritual battle at play.
• 24:48
  Mark Spence: Yeah, so we cannot take it as a light thing.
• 24:50
  Mark Spence: Well, i'm just going to kind of proclaim the gospel Note get ready.
• 24:53
  Mark Spence: You need to guard yourself because this spiritual battle is way stronger than any physical battle will ever come across.
• 25:00
  Emeal Zwayne: Amen.
• 25:01
  Emeal Zwayne: I was also in my research mark reading that the Areopagus, which we call Mars Hill, was really kind of the supreme court of that day And that's where people would come together for civil, criminal, religious matters even, and so Paul was using that as a springboard.
• 25:18
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, that's what we used to do, you guys remember, back in the day, with the courthouse, people standing in line waiting to go into court, and we would tie that in And that's what Paul was doing, and people would gather there.
• 25:27
  Emeal Zwayne: They talk about religious things, philosophy, the issues of the day, and so it's like you couldn't have set up a better scenario or a better location for an open air preacher than this.
• 25:40
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, we're always dreaming about places.
• 25:41
  Emeal Zwayne: Where can we go?
• 25:42
  Emeal Zwayne: This was like.
• 25:43
  Emeal Zwayne: This is kind of like almost like the square, but on steroids, dad, back in the day, yeah.
• 25:47
  Ray Comfort: I mean, you think of Paul's courage.
• 25:49
  Ray Comfort: He's gone alone, yeah, he's not going with a bunch of guys to encourage him, to pray for him.
• 25:53
  Ray Comfort: He's there alone, isn't he?
• 25:55
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:55
  Ray Comfort: Yeah.
• 25:56
  Mark Spence: That's what we know for sure.
• 25:57
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah.
• 25:57
  Emeal Zwayne: So let me read the text.
• 25:58
  Emeal Zwayne: It's Acts 17, 16 to 32.
• 26:01
  Emeal Zwayne: And then we'll jump in on different sections of it.
• 26:03
  Emeal Zwayne: Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
• 26:11
  Emeal Zwayne: So that's a first note there.
• 26:12
  Emeal Zwayne: right, it's okay to be provoked, and we should be.
• 26:14
  Emeal Zwayne: Anything that grieves God's heart should grieve ours.
• 26:16
  Emeal Zwayne: Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace, daily, with those who happened to be there.
• 26:24
  Emeal Zwayne: Now, ray, that should be the heart of every Christian, shouldn't it That?
• 26:28
  Emeal Zwayne: longing to want to see people brought out of darkness and light.
• 26:30
  Emeal Zwayne: So we reason with them.
• 26:31
  Ray Comfort: Absolutely.
• 26:32
  Ray Comfort: I love the word reason.
• 26:33
  Ray Comfort: Paul reasoned with Felix and Felix trembled, because judgment becomes reasonable when you open up that law.
• 26:40
  Ray Comfort: And that's what Paul did when he met the Jews to the Jew, he became a Jew To others.
• 26:44
  Ray Comfort: He opened up the law, as we see in this sermon.
• 26:48
  Ray Comfort: And when the law does its work it really makes people tremble because the neuron personal earthquake, like the Philippian jailer, because suddenly it makes sense, like an echo goes in the mind oh no, this could be true.
• 27:02
  Emeal Zwayne: Amen, all right.
• 27:04
  Emeal Zwayne: So it goes on to say.
• 27:04
  Emeal Zwayne: then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him and some said what does this babbler want to say?
• 27:10
  Emeal Zwayne: Don't you love that as babbler?
• 27:11
  Emeal Zwayne: Terrible, but it's funny though, like that's kind of how we appear to the world.
• 27:18
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, once you come to Christ and your eyes are open, you really do see your folly from the past.
• 27:23
  Emeal Zwayne: but to the world we sound like we're just a bunch of idiots.
• 27:26
  Mark Spence: Yeah Well, the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, you know?
• 27:31
  Mark Spence: let me point out something here in Acts 1726, where we see the apostle Paul, he says for one man, he made every nation of men and that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the time set for them in exact places where they should live.
• 27:45
  Mark Spence: What Paul is doing here is something that I think we need to do more within our gospel proclamation, and that is who are we talking about?
• 27:55
  Mark Spence: And that is he is starting with the God of the Bible.
• 27:58
  Mark Spence: Yeah, he can go very deep concerning the character and the attributes of God, and right here, he just eliminates all gods, all idolaters, all anybody and everybody that is going to think that they have a right handle on who God is, by just saying the God of the heavens and the earth.
• 28:16
  Mark Spence: No, the creator of the heavens and the earth.
• 28:18
  Mark Spence: This is the one that I proclaim to you, and I think that we would do, did you want to say that again, Oscar drops his phone.
• 28:22
  Mark Spence: Sorry man, I'm pulling up.
• 28:24
  Oscar Navarro: I was pulling up my digital Bible and then dropped my phone.
• 28:26
  Mark Spence: Yeah, i just think that we would do a better job if you would that, if we go off on the character of God when we start going through the gospel message itself, because it eliminates all other gods.
• 28:37
  Ray Comfort: So the common argument against Christianity by many atheists is there are so many gods, but there's only one creator, and that eliminates all the other man-made gods.
• 28:46
  Ray Comfort: There's one creator.
• 28:47
  Ray Comfort: He's the one that spoke the heavens and the earth into existence.
• 28:51
  Oscar Navarro: My man.
• 28:51
  Oscar Navarro: Let me point out, too, that Paul recognizes that these pagan people are religious, and that's really important because we are all ultimately religious, as we were talking about before, that we all have.
• 29:02
  Oscar Navarro: the whole world is full of false idolatry.
• 29:04
  Oscar Navarro: And so to say that.
• 29:07
  Ray Comfort: True idolatry.
• 29:07
  Oscar Navarro: True idolatry, for the culture to come back and say we're not religious.
• 29:11
  Oscar Navarro: one of the things that's really valuable for us is to help them recognize how we are all worshiping something We are all created to worship.
• 29:21
  Oscar Navarro: In other words, the question isn't whether or not you are worshiping.
• 29:25
  Oscar Navarro: The question is always what are you worshiping?
• 29:28
  Oscar Navarro: And Paul understood that.
• 29:29
  Oscar Navarro: he went into a pagan culture and pointed out the false idolatry that's in there.
• 29:34
  Oscar Navarro: And it's the same thing the secularist, the atheist, the regular old guy who's hustling and bustling with his career.
• 29:41
  Oscar Navarro: everybody is worshiping something And in order for them to come to the belief and knowledge that Jesus is their Lord and Savior, they have to put to death those false idols, repent from them and turn to the one true God which is our Lord and Savior.
• 29:58
  Emeal Zwayne: Because we were created to worship.
• 29:59
  Emeal Zwayne: I think when we put it to people like that, oscar, that everyone worships everything, i think there's something in their heart that bears witness with them.
• 30:07
  Emeal Zwayne: They recognize oh wow, that kind of is what I'm doing, you know, and I think the Lord can use that to open their eyes.
• 30:13
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, absolutely.
• 30:14
  Ray Comfort: Yeah, so you cannot serve God and man when you look at what money does.
• 30:17
  Ray Comfort: Money takes precedent over God, becomes the supplier of our needs, becomes our supplier of peace and joy, in believing that money can protect me and take care of me in the future.
• 30:29
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, Yeah, that's what happens.
• 30:31
  Emeal Zwayne: We turn from God being the source of supply for every need and we begin to look to other things.
• 30:38
  Emeal Zwayne: and they do become our gods, but again people at the same time deny that because they have a misconception of what worship is.
• 30:46
  Emeal Zwayne: Again they envision it as bowing down and doing some kind of religious practice.
• 30:51
  Emeal Zwayne: But no, it's the devotion of your heart and your life and your time and your energy to something before God.
• 30:57
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, this is how Augustine talked about it.
• 31:00
  Oscar Navarro: He talked about sin as disordered loves.
• 31:02
  Oscar Navarro: In other words, augustine said that we were all lovers at heart and our issue in the world is that we love the wrong things in the wrong way at the wrong time.
• 31:12
  Oscar Navarro: And so you think about.
• 31:13
  Oscar Navarro: You know, actually I have a friend who's incredibly successful in business, but he got so enamored with his success that he ultimately created an altar, which we would call business, and sacrificed his wife and children on that altar.
• 31:27
  Oscar Navarro: And now he's dealing with divorce and he's dealing with the repercussions of his kids going through, you know, this destruction in their family, and all because he pursued success in a way that it became his God.
• 31:41
  Oscar Navarro: Or to put it in Augustine's way, he loved money, he loved his reputation so much that he devalued the love of his family.
• 31:50
  Oscar Navarro: And so what Augustine argues is that, in what we talk about, false idolatry is ultimately a rearranging of our loves, and the first priority is the love of God, and then, once that becomes your primary love, everything else begins to be rearranged in the right, orderly fashion.
• 32:08
  Ray Comfort: Shakespeare said flee ambition, for by such sin fell the angels.
• 32:12
  Mark Spence: Oh, that's good.
• 32:13
  Mark Spence: That's good.
• 32:13
  Mark Spence: Now you know, tozer.
• 32:14
  Mark Spence: He said Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them.
• 32:20
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, I got to put that in my notes, man.
• 32:22
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, Wow, Oscar, great quotes.
• 32:24
  Emeal Zwayne: Augustine was brilliant.
• 32:25
  Emeal Zwayne: And then it went on to say here other said I thought we got over it.
• 32:29
  Ray Comfort: Oh, no, no, no, never, never.
• 32:32
  Mark Spence: We just passed this.
• 32:33
  Mark Spence: It's going to be the death of you easy.
• 32:34
  Emeal Zwayne: Never, never.
• 32:35
  Emeal Zwayne: What does this babbler want to say?
• 32:37
  Emeal Zwayne: Others said he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods, because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
• 32:42
  Emeal Zwayne: And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying may we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
• 32:47
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, to have sinners bring us and tell us, tell me, so we can stone you to death.
• 32:52
  Emeal Zwayne: The trap.
• 32:55
  Emeal Zwayne: But, guys, seriously though, we've had those very, very rare moments where people have said that And that's what happened in England.
• 33:02
  Mark Spence: Yeah.
• 33:03
  Emeal Zwayne: Mark, can you just tell us that, because this ties in all this.
• 33:06
  Mark Spence: Well, listen to my embarrassment, to my shame.
• 33:08
  Mark Spence: I took them to the end, as I normally do when going through the gospel, and there were people, person after person, just saying all right, so what do I do exactly to become a Christian?
• 33:20
  Emeal Zwayne: Now, this was on your second trip.
• 33:21
  Emeal Zwayne: We talked a little bit before on your first, so you went again and you were there with doing an academy for water Right.
• 33:27
  Mark Spence: We have our master's academy with John Harris, and so I was talking to different people and I remember this one lady specifically.
• 33:35
  Mark Spence: She was saying so, what do I got to do?
• 33:37
  Mark Spence: And I said well, you need to cry out to God.
• 33:39
  Mark Spence: I mean cry, cry out to God.
• 33:41
  Mark Spence: What do you mean by that?
• 33:42
  Mark Spence: I go, well, you need to be willing to, you need to turn from your sins and you need to place your trust in Christ.
• 33:48
  Mark Spence: Okay, but what does that look like?
• 33:50
  Mark Spence: What do I?
• 33:50
  Mark Spence: what do you mean by that?
• 33:51
  Mark Spence: Well, you got to be born again, born again, all right.
• 33:53
  Mark Spence: So it didn't matter what angle I took, she was just, she was eating it up And at the same time, I was at a loss for words.
• 34:02
  Mark Spence: I was not ready for that, for her to continually drill me, and she wasn't.
• 34:06
  Mark Spence: She didn't mean anything by that, right, oscar, she was.
• 34:09
  Mark Spence: She was simply saying all right, i have two little kids here with me and I want to lead them.
• 34:14
  Mark Spence: What does it mean to be born again?
• 34:17
  Mark Spence: Lay it out very simply, very clearly.
• 34:19
  Mark Spence: And it didn't matter what angle I took, i was just like at a loss.
• 34:23
  Mark Spence: I could listen, all right.
• 34:24
  Mark Spence: Hey, hey, hey, listen, go get alone with the Lord.
• 34:28
  Mark Spence: Well, will you watch the kids?
• 34:29
  Mark Spence: Okay, listen It.
• 34:33
  Mark Spence: Just it was.
• 34:34
  Mark Spence: It was beautiful.
• 34:35
  Ray Comfort: She was a natural English citizen.
• 34:37
  Mark Spence: Is that normally?
• 34:38
  Ray Comfort: very conservative.
• 34:39
  Mark Spence: Yeah, oh, i don't know, i didn't ask her She sounded.
• 34:41
  Ray Comfort: Did she speak English?
• 34:42
  Mark Spence: She sounded like your wife.
• 34:44
  Emeal Zwayne: Oh, okay, very English.
• 34:45
  Emeal Zwayne: Was she from Bonsley, bonsley A?
• 34:48
  Ray Comfort: Northern District I.
• 34:50
  Emeal Zwayne: Wow, mark, that's so, that's just so awesome.
• 34:52
  Emeal Zwayne: I love that.
• 34:53
  Emeal Zwayne: And you know we did the 13 countries in 13 days, way back when, and you know there's a lot of complacency in Europe, a lot of kind of whatever.
• 35:02
  Ray Comfort: So it's just I had to think of what Mark was saying.
• 35:04
  Ray Comfort: when the Philippian jailer called out what my students be saved and forces believe on the Lord Jesus, did he say what do you mean believe?
• 35:10
  Emeal Zwayne: What does that mean?
• 35:11
  Emeal Zwayne: Who's going?
• 35:12
  Ray Comfort: to look out for prisoners.
• 35:14
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, But anyway, that's, that's just great.
• 35:16
  Emeal Zwayne: So what were?
• 35:17
  Ray Comfort: you saying when interrupted really easy, You forgotten.
• 35:19
  Emeal Zwayne: I don't remember It's gone.
• 35:21
  Emeal Zwayne: No, just saying there was so much complacency there.
• 35:23
  Emeal Zwayne: It's so, so refreshing to see someone you know, especially when, when you know they're engaged, like give me someone, even if they're not necessarily positive, give me someone antagonistic any day over, someone who's just like you know, you know what I found working more than one-on-ones was open air preaching.
• 35:39
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah.
• 35:40
  Mark Spence: Open air preaching, with people on the outside on the outskirts watching and listening to preacher after preacher, after preacher.
• 35:46
  Ray Comfort: So we told them about you.
• 35:48
  Mark Spence: And yeah, they're specifically in London and central London and then up near Lincoln where we had our Academy, where they have our Academy every year.
• 35:56
  Mark Spence: That's awesome, Love it.
• 35:57
  Mark Spence: People listening and people not wanting to really engage until afterwards, where people would go up and talk to them.
• 36:03
  Oscar Navarro: They were listening to the gospel, that's great, just real quick, because you mentioned the Academy multiple times and we have the Ambassador's Academy here.
• 36:09
  Oscar Navarro: Easy, do you want to explain to our listeners what the Academy is?
• 36:13
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, the Academy has been going on for a long time.
• 36:15
  Emeal Zwayne: It's number 27, isn't it 28?
• 36:16
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, it's so many we've done over the years And basically people come from all over the country, some from different parts of the world.
• 36:22
  Emeal Zwayne: We limit it to.
• 36:24
  Emeal Zwayne: It used to be 50.
• 36:25
  Emeal Zwayne: We opened it to 100.
• 36:26
  Emeal Zwayne: And so we have very intensive focus training where we're in the classroom for a few days teaching practical elements of sharing the gospel And then we go out on the streets and we actually do it.
• 36:38
  Emeal Zwayne: We have team leaders, people broken up into teams.
• 36:40
  Emeal Zwayne: It's one of the highlights of our ministry.
• 36:42
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, this is how Eddie Roman, our producer, came to be a part of Living Waters.
• 36:46
  Emeal Zwayne: He was stirred about evangelism, looked it up, learned about the Academy, came, experienced it and then became a passionate evangelist, now part of the ministry.
• 36:54
  Emeal Zwayne: So, yeah, look on our website.
• 36:56
  Emeal Zwayne: We announce whenever those are happening.
• 36:58
  Emeal Zwayne: So in fact, we have one in town now, so we're excited.
• 37:01
  Emeal Zwayne: May we know what this doctrine is of which you speak, for You are bringing some strange things to our ears.
• 37:06
  Emeal Zwayne: Therefore, we want to know what these things mean For all the Athenians and foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing.
• 37:16
  Ray Comfort: And we think what a pack of idiots sitting around waiting for a new thing.
• 37:18
  Ray Comfort: And we have a news media that just inundates us through television, through social media, where news sounds.
• 37:25
  Ray Comfort: And I'm the same, i want to find out what's new, what's news, what's news, what's happening.
• 37:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah.
• 37:29
  Ray Comfort: And we just if it's new, we want to hear it.
• 37:30
  Ray Comfort: If it's like an hour old, it's gone, Forget it.
• 37:33
  Emeal Zwayne: Well, and this should stir us to say let's fill that void, right?
• 37:39
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, people want that.
• 37:40
  Emeal Zwayne: Let's bring in the good news of the gospel.
• 37:42
  Emeal Zwayne: It's new News.
• 37:44
  Oscar Navarro: I think it's important to recognize that these are the cultural elites of the Roman, the Greco-Roman world.
• 37:49
  Oscar Navarro: Yeah, and it might sound weird where it's like well, how could the cultural elites be sitting around doing nothing up into that point?
• 37:54
  Oscar Navarro: They had their phones.
• 37:56
  Oscar Navarro: They had their phones with them, that's right Up into that point your elevation of status was all about how much time you had to philosophize.
• 38:05
  Oscar Navarro: So in our cultural precedents you are considered more value the busier that you are If you're an attorney or whatever the case, and you're running a business the busier you are, the more it seems like you are of value and worth.
• 38:17
  Oscar Navarro: But in the Greco-Roman world the cultural elites got to a place where they're hired servants to take care of all of the busy work and they got to sit around and philosophize and plan legal proceedings and matters and things of that nature.
• 38:30
  Oscar Navarro: So Paul is talking to the cultural elites in Athens at this point.
• 38:36
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, the intellectuals.
• 38:37
  Emeal Zwayne: Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said men of Athens, i perceive that in all things you are very religious, for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, i even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.
• 38:52
  Emeal Zwayne: So let's just pause there real quick.
• 38:54
  Emeal Zwayne: When we, especially as evangelicals, hear the word religious, it kind of makes us bristle a little bit, right, a little bit.
• 39:01
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, but this was a compliment.
• 39:04
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, paul was complimenting them.
• 39:06
  Emeal Zwayne: He wasn't like you guys are religious.
• 39:08
  Emeal Zwayne: Just for anyone listening who has that lodged in their minds.
• 39:11
  Emeal Zwayne: He starts off with this tact.
• 39:14
  Emeal Zwayne: He's not.
• 39:15
  Emeal Zwayne: He was provoked, obviously.
• 39:17
  Emeal Zwayne: He was grieved by the idolatry, but he didn't get up, you stupid pagans you know, and start rallying on them.
• 39:22
  Emeal Zwayne: Ray, how important is it to be congenial and civil and tactful when we preach the gospel?
• 39:29
  Emeal Zwayne: So we know that there are some who do the shock and awe method, where they get up and just blast people like crazy.
• 39:35
  Ray Comfort: If you want to be heard and you want people to receive your message, you've got to do what the scriptures say and not strive, but be gentle to all men and meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves.
• 39:46
  Ray Comfort: And so it's essential to watch your tone, especially with your opening words.
• 39:50
  Ray Comfort: You know to show respect, and often I stood up on Waikiki This is 1986, a group of American people wanted me to teach them how to evangelize women straight to Waikiki, and I had to preach to this bathers on the beach as they sat there, and I thought how am I going to start this?
• 40:09
  Ray Comfort: And so I just said you know, it just seems like a wonderful dream to be lying on the beach at Waikiki and want a nightmare for some preacher to stand up and preach to you.
• 40:18
  Ray Comfort: But please bear with me, i'll be really quick.
• 40:20
  Ray Comfort: I've got something super important to share with you, and I remember a police officer came up to me and he said eight people have complained.
• 40:27
  Ray Comfort: I thought I'd better come across and say something.
• 40:29
  Ray Comfort: So, he waited for eight people to complain before he said anything.
• 40:32
  Ray Comfort: So I had about about 10 minutes of just going through the gospel and thanking them for listening.
• 40:37
  Ray Comfort: And just go back to your dream.
• 40:38
  Ray Comfort: The nightmare is over.
• 40:39
  Ray Comfort: Is that the?
• 40:40
  Emeal Zwayne: one with the picture of you standing on the trash can?
• 40:42
  Ray Comfort: It's around that same time, Yeah standing on the trash can.
• 40:48
  Mark Spence: And it says trash.
• 40:49
  Emeal Zwayne: Yes.
• 40:49
  Ray Comfort: Because I remember when a police officer came up to me when I was standing on that trash bin, he said you cannot stand on the trash bin.
• 40:54
  Ray Comfort: I was going to say, god, i stand in it.
• 40:56
  Ray Comfort: But I did it.
• 40:58
  Ray Comfort: I didn't.
• 40:58
  Ray Comfort: I said, yeah, i'm off.
• 41:00
  Oscar Navarro: Let me point out also what Paul's doing here, which he's finding common ground.
• 41:04
  Oscar Navarro: A part of being reasonable and winsome with the gospel is to find common ground, And what we know about common ground is that people tend to be more willing to change their minds on things they don't agree with you on if you first find common ground with them on things you do agree upon.
• 41:24
  Oscar Navarro: And that's what Paul's doing here.
• 41:27
  Oscar Navarro: He's finding a common ground with them.
• 41:29
  Oscar Navarro: He's beginning to sort of woo them with reason over to the one true God by starting with recognizing something that they're doing.
• 41:37
  Ray Comfort: Yeah that's going to sound a little dumb but I do that with dogs all the time.
• 41:40
  Ray Comfort: I take my dog and his immediate common ground with people, immediate common ground.
• 41:45
  Emeal Zwayne: You're saying your reason with your dogs in front of you.
• 41:47
  Emeal Zwayne: No, I don't.
• 41:49
  Ray Comfort: Creeching the gals wherever you're creaching.
• 41:50
  Ray Comfort: No, i've just got my dog there and people come up and say do you have a dog?
• 41:53
  Ray Comfort: What sort is it?
• 41:54
  Ray Comfort: You know, da, da, da, yeah, and I've got immediate common ground.
• 41:58
  Emeal Zwayne: Man, you know what?
• 41:58
  Emeal Zwayne: It's not hard to be a nice person.
• 42:02
  Mark Spence: Why don't you do it?
• 42:02
  Mark Spence: Yeah, goodness me.
• 42:04
  Emeal Zwayne: No, i'm serious, Like especially now we've talked about it before how, how customer service has just gone down the drain since COVID, you know.
• 42:11
  Emeal Zwayne: And just people are so not nice And it doesn't take a lot of work, just a smile, a friendly compliment, and we need to learn from that.
• 42:21
  Emeal Zwayne: With unbelievers, rami, you've talked about it before.
• 42:23
  Emeal Zwayne: There have been times when you've walked up to someone, try to get them attracted.
• 42:26
  Emeal Zwayne: I think it happened with Arnold And you ended up learning just to greet someone first.
• 42:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Yo, i was struck that day.
• 42:33
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, good thing you weren't struck by a star.
• 42:37
  Ray Comfort: I know The thing is I couldn't have said to him I love your movies because I've never seen one.
• 42:43
  Emeal Zwayne: I do never seen an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
• 42:44
  Emeal Zwayne: No.
• 42:44
  Ray Comfort: I've seen little things with a mook going.
• 42:46
  Emeal Zwayne: I'll be back.
• 42:47
  Ray Comfort: And all this sort of stuff.
• 42:48
  Ray Comfort: But I've never seen a whole movie because they're pretty nasty.
• 42:51
  Ray Comfort: So I probably would have said hi Arnold, i like your wife.
• 42:55
  Ray Comfort: Oh man, next wife now.
• 43:00
  Oscar Navarro: Give an example of common ground.
• 43:02
  Oscar Navarro: I don't know if I've shared this story before, but this one time I was walking out of a store and there was a group of young ladies there And they were in green piece type shirts.
• 43:10
  Oscar Navarro: I think it was like Save the Dolphins Green piece Green piece I knew you couldn't let that go.
• 43:14
  Emeal Zwayne: I can't say it.
• 43:17
  Ray Comfort: Izzy, what do you read?
• 43:17
  Mark Spence: me so well I actually love this story from Moss Girl okay.
• 43:25
  Oscar Navarro: So she's like hey, can I tell you about dolphins or something like that.
• 43:29
  Oscar Navarro: And honestly, in that moment I didn't want to care about dolphins.
• 43:31
  Oscar Navarro: I don't care about dolphins, no offense to the dolphin lovers who are out there.
• 43:35
  Oscar Navarro: And I say to her It tastes like chicken.
• 43:41
  Ray Comfort: Terrible.
• 43:44
  Oscar Navarro: But I was convicted, because here's this moment to proclaim the gospel.
• 43:47
  Oscar Navarro: And so I say to her yeah, you tell me about dolphins as long as afterwards I can tell you about Jesus.
• 43:51
  Oscar Navarro: And she kind of like, okay, so she goes on this 10 minute conversation about dolphins that are being slaughtered, and it was compelling.
• 44:02
  Oscar Navarro: She wanted me to sign something And I don't know much about the law, but I knew that what she was coming from was maybe more of a liberal position And so, while I sympathized with her concern over dolphins, i wasn't really ready to sign the document.
• 44:17
  Oscar Navarro: But when she was done I didn't get into some like big argument about liberalism and conservatism and politics.
• 44:24
  Oscar Navarro: Instead I was like, hey, in a way you're doing the Lord's work.
• 44:29
  Oscar Navarro: And she was like, huh, i said, well, in the scriptures God calls us to steward the land well, to care for his creation, and if there's this thing happening to dolphins that is atrocious to God's beautiful created order, then you advocating for that to stop is, in a way, doing the Lord's work.
• 44:50
  Oscar Navarro: And I began to use that as sort of a common ground launching pad into how all the work we do is leading up to Jesus coming back and reconciling the world to himself making all the wrong things right, and ultimately, i ended with telling her like the only world that you'll ever live in where all of these wrong things are made right is heaven.
• 45:14
  Oscar Navarro: And then we got into the gospel.
• 45:16
  Oscar Navarro: From there is, basically, you know where are you going to go and you die, and so the point is, there's ways in which we can find common ground in these conversations with people that draw them into the promises of the gospel.
• 45:28
  Emeal Zwayne: That's good.
• 45:29
  Emeal Zwayne: I love that, oscar, and that's exactly what we need to do.
• 45:31
  Emeal Zwayne: We need to again show tack.
• 45:33
  Emeal Zwayne: So let me we're almost out of time, but let me just give us that example through what Paul did.
• 45:38
  Emeal Zwayne: So he said, for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, i even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.
• 45:44
  Emeal Zwayne: I mean, these guys were so idolatrous in case we missed one, let's just make sure we cover our bases.
• 45:50
  Emeal Zwayne: What's baseball have to do with this?
• 45:51
  Emeal Zwayne: Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him, i proclaim to you God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life breath and all things, and he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.
• 46:31
  Emeal Zwayne: Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.
• 46:39
  Emeal Zwayne: Truly, these times of ignorance, god overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world and righteousness by the man whom he has ordained.
• 46:50
  Emeal Zwayne: He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.
• 46:53
  Emeal Zwayne: And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked while others said we will hear you again on this matter.
• 47:00
  Emeal Zwayne: Wow, what an excellent example of how to engage the lost.
• 47:06
  Emeal Zwayne: Paul could have blasted them, he could have railed on them, he could have, but he related and Ray, you always talk about how he even quoted pagan poets, yeah, and they were probably their idolaters.
• 47:18
  Ray Comfort: They're probably adulterers and fornicators and blasphemers.
• 47:20
  Ray Comfort: Why did he do it?
• 47:21
  Ray Comfort: It was to build a bridge to his hearers, that's all.
• 47:24
  Ray Comfort: And when we went to London, we did that with coronation and it worked.
• 47:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, but he also showed no compromise, And I think that's where the modern day preachers fall short, Mark.
• 47:35
  Emeal Zwayne: Don't you think they'll get up and they'll speak, they'll relate, they'll springboard, but they'll never get to pointing out sin and hitting them with the gospel?
• 47:44
  Mark Spence: Nor will they connect with the people in a conversational way, and I think that is very important that when you speak, when you ask a question, give them a chance to answer the question and then give them a chance to bring a question themselves.
• 47:57
  Mark Spence: You let people see that you're normal in a conversation and I think you'll have a better conversation.
• 48:03
  Ray Comfort: But isn't it good when someone asks a question because it gives you a springboard to go in different directions?
• 48:07
  Ray Comfort: bring out the truth to them.
• 48:09
  Emeal Zwayne: Yeah, no, but Mark, i like that.
• 48:10
  Emeal Zwayne: That can't be overlooked or undervalued.
• 48:14
  Emeal Zwayne: Making that relational connection of showing them that you're a normal person, you're not some, because I've seen videos of open air preachers and it's maddening, you know like someone will try to talk to them And they'll just like what are they saying?
• 48:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Remember that guy right?
• 48:34
  Emeal Zwayne: Santa Monica Friday night.
• 48:36
  Ray Comfort: Santa Monica.
• 48:37
  Ray Comfort: He's driving me crazy.
• 48:40
  Emeal Zwayne: Anyway, i digress.
• 48:41
  Emeal Zwayne: But yeah, and look this.
• 48:43
  Emeal Zwayne: What I love is Paul is practicing what he preaches.
• 48:46
  Emeal Zwayne: in the word right, i mean Philippians.
• 48:48
  Emeal Zwayne: You know, in Second Timothy he talks about the importance of the Lord's bond servant.
• 48:53
  Emeal Zwayne: Second Timothy 2, 24 to 26.
• 48:55
  Emeal Zwayne: And the servant of the Lord was not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition.
• 49:05
  Emeal Zwayne: That's what he did.
• 49:06
  Emeal Zwayne: He showed humility, he showed gentleness, he showed tact.
• 49:10
  Emeal Zwayne: Colossians 4, 5 through 6,.
• 49:11
  Emeal Zwayne: Make the most of your time with outsiders.
• 49:14
  Emeal Zwayne: Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to respond to each one.
• 49:20
  Emeal Zwayne: You know those things are so important And, friends, this applies.
• 49:25
  Emeal Zwayne: We're living in pagan days.
• 49:26
  Emeal Zwayne: Oscar pointed it out.
• 49:28
  Emeal Zwayne: Well, we are living in times that are wicked, just like in biblical days, and they had really heinous and extreme things going on.
• 49:35
  Emeal Zwayne: We need to be provoked and we need to be angry, but not sin and our anger.
• 49:40
  Emeal Zwayne: We need to remember we were once lost, we were once blind, we were once dead, and the Lord redeemed us and transformed us.
• 49:45
  Emeal Zwayne: Amen, amen, amen.
• 49:47
  Emeal Zwayne: All right, friends, don't forget the starter kit at livingwaterscom.
• 49:50
  Emeal Zwayne: Don't forget the mugs, don't forget the evidence Bible.
• 49:52
  Emeal Zwayne: Thank you for joining us.
• 49:54
  Emeal Zwayne: Hey, guess what?
• 49:54
  Emeal Zwayne: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast, where we have no idea.
• 50:02
  Emeal Zwayne: Dear, do you say idea, right?
• 50:04
  Emeal Zwayne: No, what we're doing.