Latest / Desoto Hills Baptist Church / SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 1, 2026 "Two Different Ladies, One Redeeming Lord"

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SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 1, 2026 "Two Different Ladies, One Redeeming Lord" · Desoto Hills Baptist Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: God bless.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles this morning, we're going to be back in Acts chapter 16.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to start reading in verse 11.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: As we turn to our passage today, what we're going to find in this passage is the power of Jesus.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: He saved both a wealthy religious lady and a poor possessed slave girl.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to meet Lydia, who is a lady who is wealthy.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: She is religious.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And while those things can present obstacles to salvation, Jesus overcame those obstacles and she entered into a relationship with him.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: He redeemed her.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: So the challenge for us today then is really twofold.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, the challenge is this we must believe in Jesus' power of redemption.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: We must believe in him for redemption.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then once we do that, the second part of this is then we must be proclaiming Jesus' power to save to those around us.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So as we dig in today and engage with this passage, the question that we want to seek to answer is this how do we see the power of Jesus at work?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Today in the lives of these women, how do we see the power of Jesus at work?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So this morning I'm going to invite you, if you are able, to stand with me as we give honor to the reading of God's word in Acts chapter 16, starting in verse 11.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to read down through verse 18.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Luke writes, God says, So setting sail from Troaz, we made a direct voyage to Samithras, and fought and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: We remained in this city some days.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And she prevailed upon us.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination, and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: She followed Paul and us, crying out, These men are sir, these men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And this she kept doing for many days.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it came out that very hour.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: God, once again, we are honored to have this opportunity to together open your word and engage with you.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: God, you have revealed yourself to us through the scriptures.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so we pray that today, as we seek you, we find you.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Help us to encounter you through your word.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, it's in your wonderful name that we pray.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: As I was preparing and studying for this week, I kept thinking of things that are kind of one size fits all things.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that I that particularly came back to my memory, I actually had to call my sister, and she was visiting some of my first cousins, and I called them to remind them because it was it was a diet plan that my mom and her sister, my aunt and uncle, uh got involved in when I was a teenager.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember the name of it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: As I'm talking about it, you may have done it.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not making fun of you.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm making fun of my mama.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: So uh so there was this diet plan that they got on, and and it was supposed to be one of those diets that if you held strictly to it, it would cure all of your ailments.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Everything, it wasn't just a weight loss, it was gonna, it was gonna make your joints feel better, and it was gonna fix everything, all of it.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember we had to wake up in the morning, and man, she tried to make us do it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: I did it for about two days.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you had to wake up and there was this green powder that you mixed with water, and you had to drink it every morning.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then after that, what the the the kind of the base of the diet was you you drank a lot of fruit and vegetable juice.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of it, but you but you it wasn't juice that you bought.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: It was you we bought a juicer, and we juiced our own fruits and vegetables and and drank a lot of juice.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: But the but the cornerstone vegetable, the cornerstone vegetable that you juiced and drank was carrots.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you were supposed to drink so much carrot juice that people who were really into this diet turned a little shade of orange.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it was supposed to cure everything.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen, I it sure didn't cure me because I didn't stay on it very long.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And while I don't know that that diet would cure all the ailments that were out there, I don't know that there's anything that it that does.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: One thing.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: I do know this.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: There is one way to salvation.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: There is one way to redemption, and his name is Jesus.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't matter if you are are wealthy and affluent and religious, or if you're a poor slave girl, possessed by a demon, Jesus can redeem you.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: As we see in this passage today.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: So let's remember where we are, though, in this book of Acts.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Where we see last week, if you you watched the online service, if you didn't, shame on you, but it's still up, you can go back and watch it.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, just listen to it.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: I know I don't have a face to look at, so just listen to it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: But if you what happened last week in the passage that we were at is Paul and his missionary team, they were traveling and they received a call to go to Macedonia.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so what we find happening in verse 11 today is them being very obedient, and that they they travel to Troaz, which is in Asia, and from Troaz they sail on the Aegean Sea to Samothrace, which is an island, and then they sail on up to Neapolis, which is a city in Macedonia, on European soil, and from Neapolis they walk on over to Philippi, which was a leading city, according to Luke.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was a leading city in Macedonia.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there were several reasons that it has become a leading city.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: It has Philippi has a rich history.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was it's named after Philip of Macedon, who was Alexander the Great's dad.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was named after him, and and they grew, and then Rome took over the city, and it became a place of military battles happened outside of Philippi or in Philippi, and so it became a and and and Rome won those battles.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so what happened in Philippi is a lot of Roman veterans settled there in Philippi.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Octavian made it a part of the Roman colony.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: We see that it's a Roman colony in the year 31.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you had a lot of Roman veterans who who lived in the city of Philippi, so it became a leading city, especially of Rome, because you had a lot of Roman patriots living there.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so the Roman culture and the Roman influence was greatly there.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was a great place for this missionary team to start their journey, to start their mission.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that's ice.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just a fun note for you.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope you're not parked right there.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: But it became a great place for them to start this missionary journey.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so now what is going to happen is we're looking to see how we see the power of Jesus in this passage.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're introduced to two ladies.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: First, we're introduced to this lady named Lydia.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: We know that Paul and Silas, we've seen, we've talked about how Paul had a habit of, or made it a habit of when he went into a new town, to go into the synagogue first.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: But most commentators believe that there wasn't a large Jewish community in Philippi.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And here's a couple of reasons why.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: One is there doesn't seem to be a synagogue because instead of going to the synagogue, they go down to a river where they supposed to be a place of prayer.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: So this missionary team, they go out to the river to meet with these, to, to, to people who were Jewish or if not Jewish God worshipers like Lydia, we're going to get there in a minute, to meet with them to pray and talk about scripture.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: So there wasn't a large Jewish community.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: One, because they met with these people out by the riverside.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Two, is because it would seem that most of the people who met were women.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so we can assume that it's not this huge Jewish community there because most of the people there were women.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: But Paul, keeping the habit of meeting with the in the synagogue first or meeting with the Jews first, he goes out and he meets with these people and with these ladies there by the riverside.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And as they meet and he begins to talk, we find Lydia.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 14, one who heard us was a woman named Lydia.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: One who heard us.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now there's some things that he tells us about Lydia.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: She is from Thyatira, which, if you have read Revelation before, that is one of the seven churches that Paul addresses in the book of Revelation.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Tells us that she is a seller of purple goods, and because she is a seller of purple, and that which makes sense because Thyatira, it was a center of purple dye.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Purple dye was made in Thyatira, so it would be easy for her to get stuff that had been dyed purple from her hometown and sell it in Philippi.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: But another thing that we can probably know about Lydia is that she was wealthy because purple was an expensive thing.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you had a purple fabric or things like that, it was a very expensive.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: It dealt with royalty, and so to buy it, you had to have money to buy, which means the people who are selling it made money.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So she is wealthy.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: We also assume that she's pretty wealthy because she invites this missionary team to go and stay with her.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we meet Lydia here, and she is already also a God worshiper.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: We met a guy who was very similar to that back in Acts chapter 10.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: A guy named Cornelius.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you remember Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, Cornelius, he liked to, or he was a devout Gentile.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: He was devout to the practices of Judaism and worshiping the God of the Jews, but he wasn't yet fully committed to being a Jew.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So he was a God worshiper.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with Lydia.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: She is a God worshiper.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: She was devout in her worship practices and meeting with the river, meeting by the river with these women and praying.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: She was devout in those ways, but she had not yet fully committed to the God of the Jews.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so Paul comes and he is teaching, teaching about Jesus and who Jesus is.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And God, she heard, and then the key to this is this.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: God opened her heart to pay attention to what was said.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the opening of the heart there, she responded in faith and became a believer.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Not only did she was she baptized, but then she went back to her household and shared, and her household believed in Jesus and were baptized.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And while we understand that that, listen, there can be obstacles, as I said earlier, to someone like Lydia coming to faith.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obstacles that aren't unfamiliar to us.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: You have people say all the time, hey, man, Grant, I was at church when there's ice on the ground.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: I get credit.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Grant, I have been a Sunday school teacher for years.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Grant, I haven't missed church in decades.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: Grant, everybody knows where I sit at church.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's my seat.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you are out of place today.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: I see you.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And there's obstacles to being religious.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And there's obstacles to being wealthy.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because we we don't have a lot of needs and we don't have things.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes there are obstacles.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: But but for Lydia, when God opened her heart, Christ had removed those obstacles, and she recognized that the only person who could redeem her and save her was Jesus.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And she believed.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then we come to the second lady.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: The second lady we're introduced to in verse 16.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm just gonna be honest for a second.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: I struggle because we're not giving her name.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I struggle just calling her poor little slave girl.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I struggle with that.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's take a minute.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's give her a name, all right?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let's call her, and you're gonna think I'm crazy when I say this name.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Let's call her Blandina.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And here's why you think that's a crazy name.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: There was actually a Christian slave who was martyred, a young lady who was martyred at the end of the second century because of her Christian beliefs.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, in honor of her, let's let's call this young lady Blondina.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know a whole lot about her other than this.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: She was possessed with a spirit of divination.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what that means.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: She was a fortune teller.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that when we hear that, often we think scam.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we see fortune tellers today, most of the times it is people pulling scams.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: But in reality, this woman was actually possessed with a spirit that gave her the ability to see some into the future.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: She was a fortune teller.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the sad part of this.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we're going to talk more about this next week.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you come back next week, but there were men who were profiting off of her demon possession.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Taking full advantage of her demon possession.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're profiting off of her.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Needless to say, she had reached the lowest of lows.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: She was poor.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: She was not only enslaved to human beings, she was also enslaved to the spirit that was possessing her.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: She was following this missionary team around, spouting half-truths, calling out to them as they were going and speaking.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And here's what she said.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: We find it in verse 17.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: She followed Paul and us, crying out, these men are servants of the most high God who proclaim to you the way of salvation.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: And you may say, Grant, that's not a half-truth.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: I agree.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: He is the most high God.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the way of salvation.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: I agree, but understand what's behind this young lady's words.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: The term most high God, God most high, we find that all throughout the Old Testament as reference to God because he is the most high God.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: But within Roman culture, within the Gentile culture, that was a phrase also used to talk about their little g gods, particularly Zeus.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: So as this woman, as they are proclaiming the actual real most high God, the only most high God, as this young lady is going and doing that, what she can be doing is sowing doubt into the minds of those Gentiles who are hearing her saying, you know what?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's talking about Zeus.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: He's talking about Zeus.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then, as she proclaims he is the way of salvation.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: The term savior, redeemer, and the idea of salvation, redemption was very big in the Gentile society of the time.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, the Caesar claimed to be their savior.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: So as she is going and saying, He is the he is the way of salvation, again, it could be confused very many of those Gentiles who are hearing this message of salvation, saying, Yeah, well, he's talking about Caesar.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: So Paul finally, as she continues to do this day after day, becomes annoyed with her, and he looked at her and he says, In the name of Jesus, come out of her.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, be very careful in how we understand this him casting this demon out.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Paul has doesn't have the authority to do that.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus does.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Remember how we've talked about the book of Acts is a continuation of the work of Jesus through the apostles and the church by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is a continuation of the work of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through Paul.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And he looks at this girl possessed with this demon and he says, Hey, demon, get out of here.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: In the name of Jesus.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's where his power is from.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's where he gains it from.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then we see right here what happened is at that very hour.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: At that moment.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: So what does this mean for us?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Understand that Grant Great, we we he saved a rich woman, he saved a poor woman, he saved a religious woman, he saved a woman possessed by a demon.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, where do we fit in into this mix?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we fit here.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: We are probably somewhere in between that.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: So what do we do with this message?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what we do.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, we need to seek the Lord.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: We need to seek Him.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: We need to go after God.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is a continuation of the work of Jesus.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: It is the power of Jesus that has overcome the obstacles for salvation for both of these ladies.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: And salvation and redemption only comes through Jesus.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: It begins with him.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Just this past week, I was watching a video of Aleister Begg, and he was preaching, and I can't give you the exact quote, but but I'll try to get close.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: In that Aleister Begg said, you know, when there's always this story of when you go to heaven and you get to heaven and somebody meets you there and says, Why should you get into heaven?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's he's Aleister Begg said, if you begin with the term I first, there's a mistake.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't begin with I.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Look, we don't gain salvation because I first believed.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't find life because I first trusted.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: We find salvation, we find redemption, we find life because Jesus saved us first.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then I put my faith in him.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: We must seek God.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Not seek how I can make my life better, not seek what I can do to improve my place, but to seek God first.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: We must seek the Lord.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Secondly, we need to listen to God.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hear what it said about Lydia as they were gathered together.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: One lady in particular, one who heard us, was a woman named Lydia.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: One who heard.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we know that Lydia, we can know here that Lydia didn't just hear the words and then go in one ear and out the other.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: But what happened is she listened to those words.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: She took heart to those words.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: She let those words infiltrate her life.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And she was moved by those words.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: She listened to the word of God.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: She listened to the word of Scripture.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And listen to me.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: She listened to the gospel message of salvation.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Which for Lydia was this.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Lydia, you need Jesus.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: I understand you are affluent.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: You need Jesus.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that you meet every week and pray by this riverside with this group of women.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: You need Jesus.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can't do it on your own.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: You need him.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: She listened to those words.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: And God opened her heart.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: While we need to seek God and we need to listen to God, listen, we need to open our hearts.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I understand what I just said, and it seems paradoxical to say that God opened her heart.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: And while I'm and and I know I just said salvation when we go to heaven, it's not I trust it, it's Jesus saved me.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: I understand what I just said and all that.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I also understand that in our salvation, while salvation begins and ends with Jesus, we hold a responsibility to respond to the call of God.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so while He opens our hearts, we need to open our heart in response to Him.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hear the message of salvation.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Respond to the message of salvation by opening our hearts.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we need to trust in the power of God.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: This young lady was demon-possessed.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: A demon was living within her.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when Christ cast that demon out through the power of the Holy Spirit through Paul, when that happened, that was a miracle that we can't even begin to fathom.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you a greater miracle than that.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: We were dead.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: What Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians is we were dead in our sins.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: We were dead in our transgressions.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: But God made us alive.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: The miracle of taking a dead person and making them alive is the greatest miracle that we will ever experience.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it only happens through the power of Jesus.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we need to trust him.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, I can look out at this crowd and say, you know what?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've got some dedication to you.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now it may be dedication that you're just tired of being at the house and you're about to choke everybody.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that too.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: But you could have gone somewhere else.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you're here.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not here and you're watching online, you know what?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's some dedication to sit in front of that TV and listen to me.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: So there is some dedication.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: But hear me.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, if Jesus has never saved you, your dedication is in vain.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: He is the only way to salvation.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Just like Lydia, just like Blandina, you need a savior.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: I needed a savior.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was imprisoned.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was enslaved just like this young lady.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was enslaved to the bondage of sin and death.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came and he walked upon this earth and he lived a perfect life and he died on the cross and he arose from the grave to free me of those chains.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: And when I have trusted in him because he saved me, when he saved me and I trust in him, listen, he frees us.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: You need a savior.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And his name is Jesus.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: And this morning, I don't care where you are in your life, if you're more like Lydia or more like Blandina, if you're anywhere in between, you need a Savior.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray that today you will walk with him.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: But if you have, and again, I see you, I know a lot of you are.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're here, your willingness to be here and to watch is evidence of that.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Then our challenge is this there is a world outside of these walls who needs a savior and needs to have an encounter with the Most High God.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we are called to be witnesses to them about Him.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: I say it almost every week.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: But you will be my witness.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: So when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: We are called to be witnesses of the kingdom of God.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because there are people who don't know him.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: And there is no one beyond his redemption.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: We need to be witnesses of Jesus.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: So this morning, as we enter into this time of invitation, if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, we invite you to come.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: We would love to share with you how you can do that.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you have, maybe this morning you just need to come and dedicate yourself to being witness, to bearing witness about Jesus wherever you go.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: We invite you to come.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: This morning, if you are looking for a church home, we invite you to come.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'll pray with you.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: David will pray with you, and there will be counselors who can take you up and share with you how you can do any of those.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: But as we stand in just a moment and sing, we invite you to come.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Open your heart.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Trust in the power of Jesus.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: God, we love you.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for this moment, for this opportunity that we have.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Even as we have encountered these two ladies, God, and have seen how you saved them.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: We cry out for you to save us.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: God, open our hearts.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Help us respond.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: And trust you.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: God, we love you.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Work in our lives as only you can.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus, it's in your name that we pray.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.