Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24473 - Turning The World Right Side Up - Acts 17:1-21

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#24473 - Turning The World Right Side Up - Acts 17:1-21 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Open your Bibles to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17 as we start
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a new chapter today and I've entitled our Bible study Turning
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the world Right Side up. Turning the world Right Side up.
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I know when we think of missions and missionaries or even mission
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trips, we almost immediately think of someone who has left
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our country or their native country and gone to a faraway
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land. We think that missionaries are
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only those that have gone to another country and dedicated
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their whole life to sharing the gospel.
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While that is an accurate description or definition of
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missionary, it is not an exclusive definition because
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when you read the Bible carefully, you find that every
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single true, real born again believer is a missionary.
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Every single one of us. You'll recall in Acts chapter
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one when Jesus told that small group to wait in Jerusalem, He
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said you need to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be my
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witnesses. And he gave three areas.
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Remember, first he said, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem.
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And what he meant by that is in their hometown everything starts
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at home. So they would be missionaries
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with the gospel in their hometown.
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Then he said also into Judea and Samaria.
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In Judea and Samaria, if you take out a map, you'll notice
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that that was the region around Jerusalem.
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And then he said, you'll become my witnesses to the uttermost
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parts of the earth. All three of them really
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revealed to us the fact that we're missionaries wherever we
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are. You know, for us it would be
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here in Aurora, then to the Denver metro area, then to
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Colorado, then the United States, and of course to the
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ends of the earth. Another way of looking at this
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is what we learn in chapter 13, that we are all on mission.
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Not just a mission, but on mission.
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Our whole lives are lived to honor the Lord with His word and
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with the gospel. So you could say in a very real
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way, even if God never calls you out of Colorado, that you are a
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missionary of Colorado, that you're a missionary in your own
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community at work, that God is using you well, just like the
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book of Acts, the book of Acts could be described this way.
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The Spirit of God working through the Word of God, through
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the people of God to reach a lost generation.
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The Holy Spirit of God working through the Word of God, or with
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the Word of God through us, the people of God, to reach the
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lost. And if this is something you
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haven't grasped yet as a believer, you're really missing
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out on the most important part of your relationship with God,
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and that is to share the love of Christ with others in a variety
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of different ways. Chapter 17 now continues what's
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known as the second missionary journey of Paul.
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It started back in chapter 16. Remember, it actually started
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with a couple hard nose from God or what we described as closed
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doors. He wanted to go into the
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province of Asia with the gospel.
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And God said no. Actually the Bible describes it
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as the Holy Spirit forbidding him to go in that area.
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And while he was waiting and received that vision, a man in
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Troas said, come and help us. And as he headed in that
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direction, he lands in Philippi, where he's drawn to these women
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at the Riverside, Lydia and her friends at a prayer meeting, She
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shares the gospel with them and they get saved.
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Then he goes into the city and he meets that girl that was
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possessed by a demon. He delivers her, which brought
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all attention to him. He gets beat up, thrown in jail
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where he's singing in the middle of the night.
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The Philippian jailer hears him as well as all the prisoners.
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They get saved. The Philippian jailer's family
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gets saved and now he's heading off here in verse one to another
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city, Thessalonica, It says. Now when they had passed through
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Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there
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was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was,
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went into them, and for three Sabbaths, basically three weeks,
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he was there. He reasoned with them from the
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Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ
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had to suffer and rise again from the dead, saying this
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Jesus, whom I preach to you is the Christ.
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Thessalonica was a large city, about 200,000 people, a major
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port, an important commercial center.
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Paul gets to Thessalonica and he finds the synagogue.
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That was his pattern. The reason he would go to a
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synagogue is it would be an immediate connection with the
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audience. They're already studying the Old
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Testament and he would take what they're studying and an
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immediate bridge would be built to begin to show them from their
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own scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
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Now you note takers, you want to reference the word Christ here
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mentioned in verse three, and also it's mentioned twice there
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at the beginning and the end. Another way to describe Christ
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or what that word is describing is Jesus as Messiah or Savior.
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So at the end of verse 3 where it says he's demo this Jesus who
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I'm preached to you is the Christ.
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Another way he's of saying that is he's telling them this Jesus
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that we're preaching to you is your Savior.
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He is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament scriptures.
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And that's what he did for three weeks.
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He went in, shared the gospel and God, we'll see in a moment,
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used him greatly. But before we get to verse four,
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I want you to mark a few words because it will be very helpful
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in your own relationship with others on how to approach them
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when you begin to talk about the things of God.
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I know it's easy to talk about football and baseball and what's
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going on in the news and maybe what's happening politically
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with others, but God wants it just as easy for you and I to
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talk about Him. He really wants him to be at the
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top of that list. More important than sports or
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what's happening in our government, The gospel of Jesus
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Christ is what men and women need today and the way they're
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going to hear it. You know, the Bible says how are
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they going to hear unless someone's sent to them?
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Well, guess what? Every day you're sent to people.
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Every day God sends people in our lives or sends us into other
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people's lives, and it's important.
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Today. I'll give you a little bit and
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in our next study, we'll go into a deeper depth on how to
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effectively share the gospel, what happens behind the scenes.
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But here's a few things here I want you to notice if you'd like
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to write in your Bible circle these words.
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The first one is in verse two. Notice that Paul reasoned with
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them. This is important for us to
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reason with people, this word in the original language and
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remember the New Testament is written in the common 1st
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century, a Greek language, they called it the Koine Greek.
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The Old Testament written primarily in Hebrew.
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So sometimes when you look up the original words, they
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actually have deeper definitions than the English word.
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So with this word for reason, it literally means to mingle
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thought for thought. The idea is this.
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You share and you listen. Listening.
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So important. When you reason with someone,
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you are listening to what they said and what they're saying so
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that you might match their thoughts with the truth.
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So important. You learn to do this.
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Listening is key and not just waiting for them to finish.
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Sometimes that's what's defined as listening, where you've
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already got it made-up in your mind and you already know what
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you're going to say and you're already thinking about it and
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formulating it and you completely did not hear what
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they're saying because you weren't listening.
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Instead you were in your own head.
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This was important. He reasoned with them.
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He listened to what they had to say and then matched it with
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what the truth of God's Word was.
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Number one. Number two, I want you to notice
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and circle in verse three, the word explaining, explaining, and
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this means to cause to understand.
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That makes sense. It's what the English word
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means, where you take the time to explain something, you give
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clear answers and reasons, and you help answer the questions
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that are being asked. And we'll see this in our next
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study. But sometimes we get into a mode
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where we're answering questions that nobody's asking.
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We're giving all these kind of answers, but nobody's asking
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those questions. We need to learn where
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somebody's coming from so that their questions are being
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answered. Not just all these general
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statements and things, but really stepping into someone's
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life, listening carefully to them and answering the questions
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that are on their minds. And let me assure you, those of
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you that have questions today about Jesus, about the Bible,
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about Christianity, there are good solid answers to the
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questions that you're asking. Even if some of you listening
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right now are really skeptical or you're an atheist and you're
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just going to stump the pastor, Are you going to stump the
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family member? Or you just have these questions
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that you've made-up because you think nobody can answer them.
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Even those questions can be answered with a reasonable,
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honest answer. So it's OK if you take that
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approach. Ask the questions, There are
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good answers. And Christians, you and I, we
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have the privilege of searching for those answers to study and
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to learn the scriptures and not only know, not only be able to
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say what, right? Because a lot of times that's
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the answer the what, but what's most important in answering a
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question is not merely the what, but also the why.
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And then for us you have to add The Who, the source and origin
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of all things God creator. So he explained to them very,
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very important. Thirdly, notice that word in
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verse 3 circle it demonstrating demonstrating such an important
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and this is this is something that even gets used today.
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You hear this phrase, this word means to set the table.
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That's the idea demonstrating where you, you put something on
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display. And there's a phrase today
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that's become very popular where you, I've heard people say, are
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you picking up what I'm putting down?
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And that's the, the picture of a table.
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As a matter of fact, for many, many years I've been training
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men and women helping you with the difficult conversations
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because we all have them. You know, the kind of
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conversation where somebody comes after you and they just
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want to argue and get in your face.
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And if you're not careful, you'll meet them argument to
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argument and you'll become all defensive.
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And those are natural reactions. So don't look down on yourself
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if that's how you respond. That's natural.
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But there's a better way to approach it.
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And what I say is take a take a moment and pause, Take a breath.
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I mean, it's all going to happen really quickly, but take a
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breath. And then in your mind, picture
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between you and the person that's really upset or really
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wanted to argue, I want you to picture a table.
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And in your conversation, I don't want you to go after that
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person with all your answers. I want you to think about a
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table that you're laying out all this information, giving them a
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chance to pick it up. They may or may not, but I know,
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I know this. You are not going to argue
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anybody into the Kingdom. That is not going to happen.
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And there's a very good chance that you're going to walk away,
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perhaps even losing your testimony by getting all up in
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the flesh and angry over the situation, which is sometimes
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what they wanted to begin with. They just wanted to rile you up.
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And so if you picture a table and you're just putting things
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down, putting things down and maybe you're, you're having that
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conversation so you can have another conversation and you can
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recall, hey, remember we talked about this and you, you never
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know what they're going to take home with them.
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You never know how the Holy Spirit's going to use that time.
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But that's what demonstrating is.
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As he was speaking with them very patiently, he clearly laid
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out everything that was needed to believe in the Lord Jesus
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Christ. And notice what happened in
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verse 4. Some of them were persuaded and
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a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the
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leading woman women joined Paul and Silas.
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This was a tremendous work of God, an outpouring of His Holy
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Spirit where many people came to know Jesus Christ in
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Thessalonica, in this Greek. What is modern day Greece today?
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Which leads us to the 4th point. The only way people could
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respond this way and the only way men and women could be born
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again is that fourthly, notice in verse 2, Paul used the
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scriptures. So there's four things I want
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you to circle reasoned scriptures and then in verse 3,
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explaining and demonstrating Only the Bible can change your
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life. Only the Bible can change your
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mind. It isn't the philosophies of
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men. It's certainly not your opinion.
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And as much as we value our opinions, our opinions have no
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power, even our right opinions, even when we're right about
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something. There is no real spiritual power
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to change anybody. Now, you might change somebody's
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mind with your opinions and your strong arguments, but hey,
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there's always somebody with greater philosophy and stronger
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arguments that can come come down the road and change their
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minds again. The Bible says that we're not
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ashamed of the gospel. Romans chapter one, Paul says
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I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why?
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Because it is the power of God, undue salvation for everyone
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that believes, for the Jew 1st and also for the Greek.
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We're seeing it right here. It's only the word of God.
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I mean, you want to see life change in your marriage, It's
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going to start with God's word. You, you need to line your life
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up, align your life with God and his word.
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That's why we would spend so much time planning and preparing
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to bring a brother in to teach you how to study the Bible.
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If you would just, and maybe you will, maybe you're not at that
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level yet and you're like, I'm not ready to learn how to say,
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fine, fine. Then make a commitment.
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And, and as a believer, just like you want to eat every day,
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just like you have a meal in the morning and you have a meal at
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lunchtime and you have a meal at dinner.
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And you probably some of us, we snack all day that, that that's
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you're taking in physical food. But the Bible says it's
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spiritual food and you need it in the morning and you need it
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at lunchtime and you need it at dinner and you need a few snacks
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along the way. Because only the Word of God
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will revolutionize your life. Only the Word of God will
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cleanse your mind. Only the word of God is what God
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uses to speak to your spirit, spirit to spirit.
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Where where do you meet in the Word of God?
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Let me show you. Turn over to 1st Corinthians
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chapter 2. This is such a great scripture.
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First Corinthians chapter 2. When you get there, pick up in
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verse 10. It's a great reminder.
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You bring your Bibles to church. We study them, use them.
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You don't have a Bible. There are free Bibles available
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here if you want to take it, even though the words are so
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small, I don't think you can read them.
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But downstairs, you can always purchase a Bible.
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They're never marked up. They're always available.
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You can get a nice Bible, use it, write in it, highlight it,
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and then you can turn in it and read it yourself.
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This is authority. That's why when I'm, when I'm
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sharing or I'm at the doctor's office, I like my Bible.
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I could take my iPad and I could read on my iPad.
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That's not a problem. But when somebody walks in the
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doctor's office and sees me there in the chair on my iPad,
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they don't know what I'm doing. I could be reading the news, I
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could be playing Angry Birds, I could be doing a lot of things.
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But when I'm sitting somewhere, you know, at a restaurant, if I
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have a lunch by myself or, and I have a Bible open, that speaks
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authority right there. That's why a paper Bible's so
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valuable, so important. The technology's great.
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I use it all the time. But a paper Bible is amazing.
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You know what I found in my paper Bible?
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The battery has never run out. I never get a text message in
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the middle of it. I don't have it all just like
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turn off right away or any of that.
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My Bible, this is the same Bible I've used for 30 something years
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and it is reliable and powerful. Now notice in verse 10, verse
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10, it says in chapter 2. But God has revealed them to us
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through His Spirit. So we know that God wants to
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reveal something to us by His Spirit.
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For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of
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God. For what man knows the things of
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a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him?
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Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
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Now verse 12, we have received, not the spirit of the world, but
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the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that
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have been freely given to us by God.
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And where do we learn those things?
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But in His Word, verse 13, these things we also speak, not in
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words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy
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Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit
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of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them,
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because they are spiritually discerned.
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When you open the Bible, you're immediately in the Spirit.
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When you open the Bible and begin to read its words, you're
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immediately connecting with the Spirit of God, and He's
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revealing new things to you. You're looking for wisdom.
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Be in the Proverbs every day. There are 31 chapters in the
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Proverbs, so you can read a chapter a day most months, and
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at the end of the year you would have read through Proverbs 12
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times if you just take a chapter a day.
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For us, the wisdom of God is found in Proverbs.
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You're looking to stir up worship in your heart.
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Read the Psalms. The Psalms is one big worship
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book that's been given to us by God and it connects us with God
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in the Spirit. Are you looking the ways?
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Are you looking for the ways of Jesus?
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Are you learning? You want to learn how it is to
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follow Him? Then read parts of the gospel
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every day. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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You need your faith built up. Read the Gospel of John.
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It was written so that we might believe.
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If you're wondering where everything came from and who
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you're accountable to go back to Genesis and read about the
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beginning of creation and how much God loves us that he would
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pursue us like Adam and Eve. He would pursue us even though
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we've turned our backs on him. Unbelievable.
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What's available to us in the Bible if you would just read it
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and pray every day. So the city is changed because
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of the gospel. Verse 5 now, but, and there's
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always a but and a contrast. The Jews who were not persuaded,
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becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the
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marketplace and gathering, gathering a crowd notice, he
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gathered a mob. They set the city in an uproar.
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They set the city in an uproar and attacked the House of Jason
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and sought to bring them out to the people.
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But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of
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the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out.
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These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
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Jason has harboured them and these are all acting contrary to
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the decrees of Caesar saying there is another king Jesus and
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verse eight they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city
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when they heard these things. So when they had taken security
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from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
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There's always a contrast whenever God is working.
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You can look for this in your life.
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Whenever there's progress, whenever there's victory,
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whenever there's strength, whenever there's revelation,
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there's always going to be opposition.
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Remember that. Don't be surprised by it.
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Sometimes we're just shocked. We're so caught up in the
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goodness and the greatness of God.
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I can't believe what God is doing.
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Kids look at everybody's turn to the Lord, and this is so
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exciting. But then there are those that
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would come against and it almost always comes from people.
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God's blessing is among people, but also the resistance of the
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enemy is also from people. And we see it here.
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There were those that didn't believe and they became envious.
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We don't have time to deal with this one word here.
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But for the sake of a moment now, I want you to be careful
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with envy, church. It will wreck your life.
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Envy, jealousy instead of learning to be content where you
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are in the Lord, envy and jealousy will cause believers
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and unbelievers alike to do some horrible things, to say some
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horrible things. And in this case, this
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dissatisfaction, this anger among this group of men caused
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them to go and gather other notice.
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They went for evil men. I like how the old King James
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described this. The old King James called these
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it says here in the new King James some of the evil mob from
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the marketplace or the evil men. The old King James translated
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lewd fellows of the baser sort. These were bad dudes.
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These were guys that were just caught up and doing nothing but
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evil, and then they stir up other people and they stir up
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the city and they're upset they create a mob.
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It would be very similar to what we're seeing in our day and age.
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But this is the 1st century, by the way.
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So what we're seeing in the 21st century is no different, where
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there's gathering groups of people around that are upset
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with the way that things are going, maybe upset at the church
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or upset at the government or upset at something.
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And they gather a group of people who really don't care
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about the city. They don't really care about
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people. They only care about themselves.
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They gather together so that they set the city in an uproar.
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They do a lot of destruction, a lot of damage, and they really
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don't even know. We'll see later on in Ephesus,
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there's a group together as a mob, and they don't even know
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why they're there. And you can come today to some
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of the mobs and some of the riots today and you can
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interview them. Like, what are you doing here?
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I don't know. I just came here because I saw
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it on TikTok and I wanted to be here and I wanted to make it
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because I'm upset and I'm mad. Well, what are you upset and mad
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about? I don't know.
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I'm just upset and mad. And here they are stirred up
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taking advantage of people. It tells you that there are
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people in our city, there are people in our state, there are
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even people in our levels of government that do not care
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about people. We see that right here.
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They do not care about people. They don't care what price gets
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paid. They don't care what gets
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damaged. They don't care who they
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influence and draw into their mob and the evil.
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They just want their way. They just want their way.
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But you see, this is the the thing church, this is so
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important. There is a group of people on
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the earth today that do care. There's a group of people
23:35
reserved on the earth today that do walk in love the church.
23:42
They're they're the ones that care.
23:44
We're the ones that care. And you can see the you can see
23:49
how the enemy of our souls would stir us up too, So that we kind
23:55
of gather and we kind of understand how we, we turn our
23:58
hearts against these very people.
24:02
These very people are the ones that were not persuaded.
24:05
Did you see that in the text? It says right there in verse
24:07
four. These were people who were not
24:10
persuaded. You know what that tells me?
24:12
That tells me that Paul shared with them too, that he cared for
24:16
them too, that he extended them the hope of Christ too.
24:21
And listen, the only group of people that can accurately
24:25
demonstrate love today, the only group of people that can
24:28
accurately demonstrate care and concern even for the rioters,
24:34
even for those that stir up a mob, even for those that don't
24:37
care for our city is you. And you really got to take this
24:43
to heart. Church, in your prayer, you have
24:46
to ask yourself, because maybe you agreed with me in the
24:48
beginning. Well, I think, yeah, I guess I
24:50
am on mission with Jesus and I am a missionary to our city.
24:53
I guess the next question is, are you really, do you really
24:58
care for this city? And perhaps you don't live in
25:01
Aurora. You maybe live in Elizabeth or
25:04
in Bennett or in Highlands Ranch, wherever you do you care
25:06
for your city? Do you care for your workplace?
25:09
Are you asking God, when you see something on the news, does that
25:13
provoke you to prayer and action in the Spirit or does it just
25:17
stir up your flesh? And then when you're in your
25:19
flesh, you're just like the world.
25:20
You know that when I'm in the flesh, I live like the world.
25:24
I live with only me in mind. I live in such a way where I'm
25:30
not walking in the Spirit. And when I'm not walking in the
25:32
Spirit, I'm not walking in love. I'm not walking in peace.
25:37
I don't have joy flowing from my life.
25:39
I don't have the long-suffering and patience that's needed with
25:44
people that God has brought into my life.
25:47
I'm not kind when I'm in the flesh.
25:50
I, I, I, I don't live with self-control.
25:52
And what's true for me is true for you.
25:54
And the enemy is always using. I was sharing with the sister
25:58
last night who has troubled over this text and I reminded her, as
26:01
I'll remind you today, you actually have a threefold enemy,
26:05
The world system that we're in your own flesh and the devil and
26:10
the devil gets blamed for a lot of things that he has nothing to
26:13
do with. It's just your flesh.
26:16
It's your unwillingness to submit to the Lordship of Jesus
26:20
Christ. It's my desire to take things
26:24
into my own hands or think that my thinking is better than God's
26:28
thinking. You're the only group on the
26:30
planet church that can show the love of God.
26:33
And when you watch the news and you see the riots and you just
26:36
see, you know, it just doesn't make any sense.
26:38
And I just the, the world just seems so upside down.
26:41
It's nothing new. It's happening here in the 1st
26:44
century in ancient Thessalonica. It's nothing new except that we
26:50
have the privilege of these thousands of years of testimony
26:53
of the Christian and the power of God through them.
26:56
We'll notice in verse six, one of the things they said about
27:00
Paul and Silas and Luke and those that came is that these
27:03
who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
27:07
And you might have heard that and go, wait a minute.
27:09
Didn't you title your message turning the world right side up?
27:12
That's not what the text says. And you would be right.
27:15
But the reason I titled our message differently is simply to
27:19
draw out for you that it's true. Man doesn't see like God sees so
27:25
that when the Christians come to town or love comes to work or
27:28
you, you extend some care and concern to someone, it's viewed
27:32
as uplifting and disrupting the status quo and you're just
27:37
ruining my life. And and you're, I don't want any
27:39
of that Christianity thing. I don't want any religion
27:41
because it'll ruin my life. No, no, no, it'll turn my world
27:44
upside down. No, actually, when you come to
27:47
know Jesus Christ, your, your world actually gets turned right
27:50
side up. It's actually upside down right
27:52
now. Apart from Christ, everything's
27:56
upside down. The culture we live in, the
27:59
culture apart from God, is this no God, no morality, no
28:04
restraint. We just do whatever, as we see
28:07
in the book of Judges. Again, something, not nothing.
28:10
There's nothing new under the sun in the book of Judges.
28:12
The problem that they had is it says very clearly they all did
28:16
that which was right in their own eyes.
28:19
And certainly we live in a day and age like that today.
28:24
I mean, you, you hear the mantra of our world, our culture sounds
28:27
something like this. Hey, man, do whatever you want,
28:29
whenever you want, however you want, as long as you don't hurt
28:31
anyone. And it's always interesting that
28:34
the ones that are doing anything and anywhere, whatever they
28:36
want, they always get to define what someone me what it means
28:40
when someone gets hurt. But the reality is sin always
28:44
hurts and it does great destruction to the moral and
28:48
fabric of society and the moral fabric of your own home.
28:54
And what we learn here, like in Thessalonica today, is this
28:57
world needs the gospel. That's the answer today more
29:02
than ever before. And while we may Amen that and
29:06
get behind that, the significance is the world needs
29:11
the gospel through you. You know, I'm a little concerned
29:16
today that Christians are not turning the world upside down or
29:21
right side up for that matter. Instead, we see the society
29:24
around us and culture flipping the church on its head.
29:28
And a lot of times that gets referenced, you know, pastors
29:31
are like to say, I can't believe look what's coming into the
29:33
church, entertainment and all kinds of things.
29:35
And and, you know, set that all aside for a second that that's
29:38
not what I'm referring to at all.
29:40
What I'm referring to is how much the church.
29:43
I mean, it would be very, very hard for believers if I to see
29:47
you outside to see me outside of this building to really tell the
29:50
difference whether I follow Christ or not.
29:53
Because the culture, as we learned just recently in
29:55
Wednesday on our midweek Bible study in Exodus, like you, you
29:59
know, we live in the world. We don't have a choice.
30:00
We live in the world, we work in the world, we breathe in the
30:03
world, we take in the culture of this world.
30:05
We watch the movies, we may listen to the music.
30:08
We we have the social media of the world, the TikTok, the
30:11
Instagram. We're taking in the world, we
30:12
live in the world, we swim in the world.
30:14
But the real question is, is the world in you?
30:18
And you'd be surprised how much the world gets in US.
30:24
One of the ways that gets revealed is through crisis.
30:27
When a crisis comes, you find out what's inside of you.
30:31
And I'm concerned that as a church, we just live in the
30:33
world. We just kind of, you know, we'll
30:35
add Christianity so we have a little morality and we have the
30:38
take the kids to church and such, but not really have a full
30:41
commitment to the Lord, like a real walk with the Lord living
30:46
not as self as the priority. You know, the Bible is not a
30:50
complicated book. It's not as complicated as
30:53
people make it out to. So much of what Jesus taught is
30:56
very simple, like a time like now.
30:59
Like there's a simple teaching of Jesus that is important for
31:02
you and me to grasp. It's simple.
31:04
I mean, kiddos can understand it.
31:07
You don't need to know the original languages.
31:09
You don't need to take a seminar.
31:10
You don't need to sit through a class to understand this
31:13
principle. And if you understand this
31:15
principle, it'll revolutionize your life.
31:17
If you live it out, it'll take your life farther than you have
31:19
ever gone before. And it's the teaching that Jesus
31:21
said when he said, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his
31:27
righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
31:31
And it would be easy to skip over and go, well, what do you
31:33
mean? What's the Kingdom of God?
31:34
And people argue about the Kingdom of God is and they argue
31:36
about what will be added and they argue, but they skip the
31:39
easiest part of that verse. I think we all understand what
31:43
it means to put some, to make something important, to have a
31:47
priority. I think we all understand that
31:50
there's something important to us and then less important.
31:54
I think we all understand about spending our time on that which
31:57
we care about and we really just go for it.
32:00
So that I can tell by how you spend your time and money what's
32:03
important to you as you can do that for me.
32:06
So when Jesus says to seek first, that's not hard.
32:10
You make Jesus Christ a priority in your life.
32:13
Everything else will fall into place.
32:15
You've put him first in your life as the highest priority.
32:19
Everything else will fall into place.
32:22
But so many today aren't doing that.
32:24
I mean, even today it's, it's kind of sad, but there are
32:27
churches that gathered today, there are churches of thousands
32:29
of people where the pastor won't use the Bible at all.
32:32
And I don't mean just hold it. I mean, he'll just give a pep
32:35
talk or some hoopla, you know, and just like something around
32:39
the like, look at that, that church not even teaching the
32:41
Bible. So many churches not teaching
32:42
the Bible. But you know what?
32:44
That's not even our concern. You know what our concern is?
32:48
This church, and this time you're in a church that values
32:53
the Bible. You're in a church that teaches
32:55
it verse by verse. You're in a church that believes
32:58
the power of the Holy Spirit. You're in a church that
33:01
emphasizes obedience and repentance.
33:03
You're in a church like that. We don't need to be too
33:06
concerned about churches that aren't using the Bible, although
33:08
that's sad and it's wrong and I don't like it, but it's not my
33:12
business. My business is here, what I'm
33:16
going to answer to God for, what you're going to answer to God
33:19
for. And so while it might be easy
33:22
and I think churches, you know, Christians today, you know,
33:24
Christians today, they're just become so good at calling out
33:27
all the darkness in this world, all the darkness.
33:29
I can't believe it's so dark, so dark.
33:31
You know, we don't need to be known so much for now that that
33:36
we can tell how dark the world is.
33:38
What we need to be known, as Jesus said, is salt and light.
33:42
That's the key. Living out our lives with him
33:47
first. That's how you turn the world
33:50
right side up. Notice verse 10.
33:51
Now then, the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas
33:56
away by night to Berea. This is a city, an area.
34:01
When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
34:04
These were four more fair minded than those in Thessalonica, in
34:08
that they received the Word with all readiness and searched the
34:12
scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
34:16
Therefore many of them believed, and not also a few of the
34:19
Greeks, prominent women as well. Now when the Jews from
34:22
Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul
34:25
at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds.
34:30
Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go to the sea.
34:34
But both Paul or Silas and Timothy remain there.
34:37
So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens and
34:41
receiving a command to Silas and Timothy to come to him with all
34:45
speed, they departed. Now this is where we get the
34:50
phrase Berean. When you might hear a pastor say
34:53
on the radio or might hear me say it's important church to be
34:57
a Berean. We get it from right here.
34:59
And what it means to be a Berean is that you test all things by
35:03
the word of God. Anything you hear taught,
35:06
anything on the radio, anything online, anything from this
35:09
pulpit, you learn to take what you hear and compare it with the
35:13
word of God. Which is why we would bring a
35:15
seminar in to teach you, to help you with this and to grow in
35:18
this so that you can test all things.
35:20
Maybe today you can only test one thing.
35:22
Maybe next week it'll be two. Maybe in in the future you'll be
35:25
able to compare everything and hear it right away.
35:28
But it's important like the Bereans, to be more fair minded
35:32
and to grow in this area. I like in the old King James in
35:35
Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, it translates this study to
35:40
show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not be
35:44
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
35:50
And as they come to Berea and they go into the synagogue, they
35:53
preach the gospel. And I want you to understand who
35:56
are they listening to but Paul the apostle.
35:59
Who is Paul exactly? Well, he just happens to be the
36:02
future author of 13 books in the New Testament.
36:07
I mean, this is a well reasoned former Rabbi Pharisee of the
36:11
Pharisees. But even for him, they want to
36:15
make sure that what he said is accurate to the scriptures that
36:20
they're already studying. And you would do well to test
36:24
everything by the word of God. Because, you know, since post
36:27
COVID, it was that way before. But post COVID, man, a lot of
36:29
people went online and all of a sudden I start hearing about all
36:32
these new guys on YouTube and TikTok and they get your ear
36:36
with a little sound bite and they take you.
36:38
And then you start to follow them and listen to them and they
36:40
follow. They take you down a path that
36:42
is so unbiblical that the soon as you open the Bible, you're
36:45
like, why are you listening to these people?
36:47
But you know why the Bible says in the last days that men and
36:52
women, they'll raise up for themselves teachers that will
36:55
tickle their ears. Really.
36:57
There is a temptation for you to go looking for what you want to
37:01
hear. And if you're not careful, what
37:04
you want to hear by might be mixed with a lot of things that
37:07
aren't biblical. And by the way, what you want to
37:09
hear may not be biblical itself. And you got to be careful.
37:14
There are great teachers available, but there are far
37:16
more worse teachers available. And let me just say something to
37:20
you and maybe those of you listening in another state,
37:22
another country. It's super important.
37:24
You got to understand this because we live really in an
37:27
informal society right now where relationships aren't as as a
37:32
great priority because of technology.
37:34
When you choose to follow someone on TikTok or on YouTube
37:39
and you start to study under them, you have a great
37:42
disadvantage in listening to them.
37:45
And the great disadvantage is this, and I know it sounds, it's
37:48
going to be obvious, but I need to say it out loud.
37:50
Here's the great disadvantage. You don't know them.
37:56
You don't know them. You don't know their character.
37:59
You, you don't know their behavior.
38:02
You, you don't know their how they treat their husband or
38:06
their wife. You don't know how they treat
38:07
their kids. You don't know them because
38:10
you're not in community with them.
38:12
You're not in relationship with them, so you're willing if you
38:15
choose to do this, to follow somebody that that you don't
38:18
even know their lives. You're choosing to give your ear
38:21
to them. You're choosing to follow them
38:22
and you don't even know them. You can't even talk to them.
38:24
You can't even watch them and see them, but you have yielded
38:28
your spiritual life to them. Church be careful and become
38:31
Bereans. That will eliminate a lot of
38:34
people. You'll be start unfollowing and
38:36
start clicking off and just getting back.
38:37
You'd be better just to fast YouTube and TikTok for a while
38:41
or whatever, whoever you're listening to and just get into
38:43
the word of God. Let Jesus be your teacher
38:46
through the Holy Spirit. Comparing spiritual things with
38:49
spiritual. The Bereans are very noble here.
38:53
They give us great insight on testing the things that we
38:56
learn. But also notice verse 13 as we
38:59
wind down here. These are the Jews from
39:01
Thessalonica. Now this is about a 45 mile
39:05
journey from Thessalonica to Berea.
39:08
And now the Jews from Thessalonica end up catching up
39:11
to Paul and, and causing him havoc and difficulty.
39:16
And I just want you to pause. If you read this in the 21st
39:18
century, almost immediately, if you're not careful, you're like,
39:20
well, of course they did. Of course they knew where Paul
39:22
was because they got a text message or they watched their
39:25
they saw it on Drudge Report or they saw the Twitter feed.
39:28
And now they know in Berea. But you know, the, the
39:30
technology doesn't exist. They traveled by land.
39:34
They traveled by sea, 45 miles. It took a long time to get
39:38
there. So they get rid of Paul and he
39:40
heads to Berea. That's one trip.
39:42
And so how did they find out? I suspect that they sent spies
39:46
following Paul at a distance. So the spies show up behind him
39:50
in Berea. They find out what Paul's doing.
39:52
He's there for a while. Then they have to go back to
39:55
Thessalonica and tell everybody you won't believe what Paul's
39:58
doing. And then the Jews from
40:00
Thessalonica, then they have to go back.
40:02
So a lot of time and effort is being paid by the enemy of our
40:07
souls that destroyed Paul's life and ministry.
40:11
And you can expect the same thing.
40:13
The devil, if he's anything, he's patient and he will take
40:19
the time that's needed to tear us down if it means a few
40:24
journeys of days and days and days where you think, oh, I
40:28
mean, you know, it just kind of let up.
40:29
No, no, he doesn't let up because he wants to thoroughly
40:34
damage and destroy our lives. So this is pretty significant.
40:38
Like this is, this is very sophisticated and their attack
40:42
on Paul and their lies and the price they're willing to pay to
40:47
destroy the work of Jesus Christ.
40:49
You got to understand that we, we live with people like that
40:51
right now that are willing to pay a high price to destroy
40:55
Christianity. But here's the thing, the gates
40:57
of hell will not prevail against the church.
40:59
He's going to do just fine. Jesus is in his church and he'll
41:04
be our guard and our protector. Notice now they sent him off in
41:08
verse 16. Now while Paul waited for them
41:10
at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw
41:14
that the city was given over to idols, 30,000 idols or so little
41:20
idols, little statues all throughout the city.
41:22
Athens was a city, very intellectual, very
41:26
philosophical. This is the city Aristotle came
41:29
from. This is the city Plato was at.
41:32
This was the center of arts and architecture.
41:34
Remember, the Romans ruled the world politically at this time.
41:38
But the thing that the Roman government and the Romans lacked
41:41
was culture. So they adopted the culture of
41:44
the day, which in this case happened to be Grecian culture.
41:47
Or you might when you're reading Hellenistic culture is what
41:51
that's referred to in the Bible and Athens was home based for
41:55
that. This everything flowed from
41:57
Athens. I mean, we we did many years ago
42:00
and we probably will in the future organize a trip that we
42:03
call the footsteps of Paul trip. And we'll take you to
42:06
Thessalonica in different places.
42:08
And one of the stops that we stop at is at Athens.
42:11
And when you get to Athens, you'll see up on the high hill,
42:14
the Parthenon is up there. I mean, tourism in Greece is
42:19
built upon all of the remnants of the idolatry and false
42:23
worship that's being spoken of here in Acts chapter 17.
42:27
I mean, it was powerful. And when Paul gets there, he is
42:31
overwhelmed. Even when we were there a few
42:34
years ago. You can feel the darkness of the
42:37
idolatry in that city. However, it's enough to see
42:41
idolatry. You need to remember this.
42:43
Whenever you see idolatry or false worship, remember this.
42:46
It's just a reminder that God has put eternity in all of our
42:50
hearts. Men and women are going to
42:53
worship something and someone because how we were created.
42:57
We were created to worship God. However, when our worship isn't
43:02
toward the one true God, we will make something up.
43:05
And it always shocks me and startles me what people will
43:09
worship instead of the one true God, what will be created.
43:13
Well, that's Athens, philos, philosophical center, Cultural
43:18
Center of the world. So what does Paul do?
43:20
He reasoned in the synagogue, verse 17, with the Jews and the
43:24
Gentile worshippers. He also reasoned in the
43:26
marketplace daily with those who happen to be there.
43:29
Verse 18, it says certain Epicurean and Stoic
43:33
philosophers, The Epicureans would be the atheists of the
43:37
day. These would be the ones that
43:39
would live just for pleasure. They would come up with the
43:42
phrase eat, drink for tomorrow we die.
43:45
That's the Epicureans. No God, no care for God.
43:48
They they didn't even they, they weren't even idolatrous.
43:50
They just worshipped themselves. The Stoics on the other hand,
43:54
were more more of a moral people.
43:57
Philosophically, they believed in the simple life, they
44:01
believed in living a controlled life and that you know, Stoic
44:05
even today when we use that phrase refers to someone that
44:07
doesn't show much emotion. So they didn't believe in
44:10
showing much emotion and certainly did not believe in
44:13
worship. So you got the Epicurean
44:15
philosophers, the Stoic philosophers and notice what
44:18
they say verse 18. What does this babbler want to
44:20
say? Others said He seems to be a
44:23
proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them
44:26
Jesus in the resurrection, and they took him and brought him to
44:30
the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine is
44:34
of which you speak? For you are bringing some
44:37
strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what
44:41
these things mean. For all the Athenians and the
44:44
foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but
44:48
either to tell or to hear of some new thing.
44:54
While this missionary trip started with a closed door, it
44:58
continued with amazing open doors.
45:00
This is a huge open door to have an audience with all the
45:03
philosophers of the day. And they're asking him, tell us,
45:06
tell us, tell us. And I think this is interesting
45:08
in verse 20 where it says some strange thing.
45:12
When they heard the gospel, they were they were familiar with the
45:15
synagogue, they were familiar with Judaism, they were familiar
45:19
with God of the universe. And when Paul comes and begins
45:22
to speak about the resurrection, it pricks their ears.
45:26
We want to hear about that, which tells us in our own
45:30
culture that it's important that we recognize and value the
45:35
person that's in front of us and not belittle them or make fun of
45:39
them if they may say to you that they haven't heard the gospel
45:42
before. Because I know when you're out
45:43
sharing the gospel. And again, in our next study,
45:45
we'll put some pieces together and I'll give you a little bit
45:47
more. But as we're interfacing with
45:49
people's lives and we're connecting with them, you have
45:51
this assumption perhaps, well, everybody's heard the gospel.
45:54
Nobody needs to hear it. We live in a Christian nation
45:57
and every no, no, no, no, that, that is not the way it is in the
46:00
world. If if you still believe that,
46:01
you haven't been interacting with unbelievers very much
46:05
because most people have not heard a clear, loving
46:10
presentation of the gospel. What the world usually gets from
46:14
the media or from other believers is actually just a
46:18
caricature of Christianity. The world makes fun of
46:22
Christianity. The church is seen as not good
46:25
and not valuable. So that's not something we can
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lead with. We've got to lead with the love
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of God. We've got to lead with the love
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of God for the person in front of us.
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And we it's like, what do you mean you've never heard the
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Gospel before? No, most of the interactions
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that the world has with people that say they're Christians can
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be rather hypocritical and not reflective of Jesus.
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Like sometimes people can't get to Jesus because they can't get
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through you and your life. I mean, think about it that some
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people, their only interactions with Christians are on I-25 and
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they just always seem to be getting cut off on the lane by
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Christians. It's always Christians, it's
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always Christians. How do you know?
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Because everybody that that cuts them off has a little bumper
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sticker on their guard. God's not finished with me yet.
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God's mind. And then you're the person
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behind you is like God, would you finish with them and teach
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them how to drive? Like finish with them already.
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And the church is only known by the negativity of our culture.
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So it is strange. Listen, it is strange for so
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many when you step into their life loving them more than you
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love yourself. The agape love of God is strange
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to a culture that loves themselves.
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So don't think that everybody's heard or everybody is like, you
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know, you just here's the thing, Just be obedient.
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In my own experience, I knew that my life was upside down.
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I knew it. And out of the blue, my phone
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rings from a guy I hadn't heard in years.
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A Christian rings my phone, invites himself over to my
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house, but he has no idea what's going on in my life.
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None 0. He just probably heard a Bible
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study from Pastor Jeff that said find the worst Sinner in your
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life and call him. And my phone rings.
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He has no idea what's going on in my life.
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But you know who does? God, God knows.
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And church. The world in which we live needs
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you. You need the world.
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This is the place where we live out our lives, where we are not
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caught up in things that might take us away from God, but truly
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we're caught up in the sense of seek ye first, the Kingdom of
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God. Only one life will soon be
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passed, and only what's done for Christ will last.
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This is where Paul is. He's not provoked where he's
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just going to go. I can't believe you bunch of
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idolaters. What's your problem?
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You don't know Jesus. I don't have time for you.
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That's not what he does. He he doesn't start criticizing
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the culture. And you can read ahead on how he
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opens his mouth and begins to share, but he doesn't start
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criticizing. He doesn't start pointing the
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finger when he's provoked or exasperated, when he's moved
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with emotion. He's moved to reach and to share
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and to love and to care, which we will get into in a much
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deeper way in our next study. So Father, we are in a place of
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reception today as we come to the communion table.
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Forgive us, God, for being perhaps a part of the
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caricature, for living life sometimes in our flesh and not
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in your spirit. For being the one that maybe
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doesn't drive in a way that honors you, or doesn't speak in
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a way that honors you, or doesn't love in a way that
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honors you. We realize that you're not done
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with this yet, but it's not something to glory in.
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It's something that would bring us to our knees and humility and
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brokenness. We want God to be used in these
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final days. We want our lives to make a
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difference. We wanted to start at home and
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then spread out beyond home and and into our known world.
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We want to make a difference in the city in which we live.
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Green Valley Ranch or Aurora or or Parker, Castle Rock,
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Highlands Ranch, Denver, whatever it might be, Watkins
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and Bennett and all the towns out east, we want to make a
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difference. Lord, You know our hearts.
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And so as we come to the communion table in remembrance
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of you, you can minister to us as we open ourselves to a work
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of your spirit in Jesus name, Amen.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study,
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delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
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For prayer, call us at 87730 Grace that's 877-304-7223.
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To listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.