Yeah
But you can do the third and the last okay had it
You know glory to his name what about did you think to pray you know that one?
I'll just I'll swap with amazing grace
you
You
Thank you so much coming up your words for this evening
We'll go ahead and get started with our first song song number 87 and our hymnals just when I need him most
song number 87
Just when I need him most
In
Song 87 just when I need him most than the first just when I need him Jesus is near
Just when I falter
Just when I fear
Ready to help me ready to cheer
Just when I need him
Most
Just when I need him most
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most
Just when I need him Jesus is true
Never forsaking
all the way through
Giving for burdens
Pleasures are new
Just when I need
him most
Just when I need him most
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most
Just when I need him Jesus
is strong
Bearing my burdens all the day long
For all my sorrow giving a song
Just when I need him most
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most
Just when I need him he is my all
Answering when upon him I call
Tenderly watching lest I should fall
Just when I need him most
Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most
For the camera would you pray for us this evening, please?
And
So we'll go to our third our second songs
361
361 did you think to pray 361?
Did you think to pray
On
The first air you left your room this morning
Did you think to pray
In the name of Christ our Savior
Did you sue for loving favor
As a shield today
Oh
While praying rest the weary
Prayer will change the night today
So in sorrow and in gladness
Don't forget to pray
When you met with great temptation
Temptation
Did you think to pray
By his dying love and merit
Did you claim the Holy Spirit
As your guidance day oh
While praying rest the weary
Prayer
Will change the night today
So in sorrow and in gladness
Don't forget to pray
When your heart was filled with anger
Did you think to pray
Did you plead for grace my brother
That you might forgive another
Who had crossed your way
Oh
How praying rest the weary
Prayer will change the night today
So
In sorrow and in gladness
Don't forget to pray
When sore trials came upon you
Did you think to pray?
When your soul was bowed with sorrow
Oh
Did you borrow
At the gates of day
Oh
While praying rest the weary
Prayer will change the night today
So in sorrow and in gladness
Don't forget to pray
pray
Good reminder there
If you don't have a bulletin brother Brandon come by and get you a bulletin
Just look your hand up real quick and he can get you one
We have our Bible memory passage Romans chapter number eight and it's a really long chapter of the Bible
But a lot of really good verses. I
Really like this verse here verse 26. Likewise the spirit also help with our infirmities
We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit itself make an intercession for us with groanings
Which cannot be uttered so the Bible just it's a pretty famous verse there verse 26
But helps us understand the Holy Spirit is there to help us when we pray to God
Even if we don't even know exactly what we're supposed to say or communicate that he's making intercession there for us on the inside
we have our service times or sowing times and
Also a regional soul winning time we also have church stats for soul winning I'm gonna get a count
I know I got someone turn one in for today, but was there anything for the past few days?
Okay, well the same city had one so we got three for the last few days praise the Lord on that
also, please be in prayer for mr. Gomez as she's expecting and
December that'd be good little Christmas tree there. So and then also we have some upcoming guest preachers
September 12th brother Chris Segura is coming. So this Sunday he's coming again and
He's always really excited about coming out here. He really likes new guys. And so it's really great to be here
Pastor Aaron Thompson is gonna be coming October 3rd. And so
definitely want to be here for these services and
Thanking these men for coming out here
Pastor Thompson is gonna be coming here first and then he's gonna be driving up because we're gonna have our conference
That following that week basically and so he's gonna be out here for a while
And so it's gonna be great that he's able to make it out here
We have a couple other events this Saturday is the Shreveport, Louisiana
Marathon who's actually planning on going to this thing anybody I think brother Nick
So there's a couple people that are planning on coming. I'll have to double-check on who that is
But if we can't make it just pray for us that everything will go smoothly and it's about three hours
east of the Dallas Fort Worth area
definitely when researching it's one of the poorest cities in the United States and
You can kind of tell as you look through housing everything like that. I saw a house for sales five hundred dollars
Like man, I know in Detroit, Michigan
I think they have houses for like a dollar like that, but
Five hundred bucks is pretty cheap. So you might get what you pay for but you know, it's so we're all excited about the sewing
Oh, I think it's gonna be a great time
fellowship
September 25th is gonna be a sewing marathon here and
It's also gonna be our third annual false Bible burning. We've definitely been collecting those throughout the year
I have a lot even up and steadfast that I'm gonna bring with me and so I'm really excited about that
The schedule is going to be basically meeting here at 9 a.m. And
Then we'll go out still winning around 10 for a couple hours
I'll have lunch back here at the church and they'll go out for another couple hours. We'll be meeting for the
False file burning at 5 p.m
So basically we'll probably wrap up soaring on 4 4 30 meet back here and we'll have some hot dogs s'mores and everything like that, too
So it'll be a different fire because the other one's a strange fire. Sometimes it glows a little green or blue or whatever
and we don't know what's being released, you know out from those Bibles, but it probably goes into the swine that's a different and then
Also, October 6th to the 10th is the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship
We're gonna be having up in hearse and who's planning on coming to this thing. I have an idea
Okay, so we got some people coming up. That's great. I'm really excited about this and then we have our chili cook-off
Emphasis on Texas style. Okay, October 31st. This means no beans. Okay, and your chili no fillers
We want it to be a pure chili. Okay, just like we have a pure Bible King James Bible
We want to have a pure chili. We don't want to defile it and some people say oh you hate beans
Look, I don't hate beans. Okay, just like I don't add works to my salvation. I don't add beans to my chili
Okay, and any of Texas official chili contents you're not allowed to have fillers and beans and this stuff and so
You know, it's just pure meat. All right, and you say I'm offended. Well, you know what?
You can't be right about everything. Okay, that's why you came to church to learn
Okay and to grow and to draw closer to the knowledge of the truth
You know the Bible says there's strong meat of the word and so some people can only handle beans
but we like the strong meat here, all right, and
And then also
Thanksgiving service
Instead of having a Thursday service. We're just gonna bump it up to Tuesday. So we'll still have a service
I'll be down here preaching for you guys and
Also, we'll have a candlelight service December. I'm gonna be
Traveling down here with my family. God willing the Thursday before September 25th
So we'll be here and then I'm gonna be here for the whole
Tony marathon and I'm gonna preach both services on that Sunday, so
September 26th, I guess I'm not cool enough to make the upcoming guest preacher list, but you know what?
I'm okay with that because it's fine, but I'll be here for all those services. God willing as well and
Then if you have any other prayer requests throughout the week, you could submit those looks like we had Kevin and Christian's daughter
We were praying for her also just we can continue to be in prayer for brother Cameron
I know he just got a surgery for his leg
And so we'd like to be in prayer for them. And so that's pretty much all I had for announcements
We'll go to our third song brother. I was gonna leave for us. We'll do song number two glory to his name
All
Right turn to your song what's the song number two
Song number two glory to his name. We'll start out there on the first
Down at the cross where my Savior died
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to his name
I am so wondrously saved from sin
Jesus so sweetly abides within
There at the cross where he took me in
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to his name
All precious fountain that saves from sin
I am so glad I have entered in
There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to his name
Come to this fountain so rich and sweet
Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet
Plunge into day and be made complete
Glory to his name
There to my heart was the blood applied
Glory to his name
All right, good singing. If you would turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17.
Acts chapter 17, Brother Brandon is going to read for us.
All right, we're there in Acts chapter 17 and the Bible reads,
Now when they had passed through Epipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews.
And a Paul, as his manner was, went unto them, and their Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
opening and alleging that Christ must need have suffered and risen again from the dead,
and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.
And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout Greeks and great multitudes of the chief women, not a few.
But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser store,
and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar, and saluted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and a certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying,
These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received,
that these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is none other king, one Jesus.
And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.
And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go,
and the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea,
who come and thither went into the synagogues of the Jews, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
And they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Therefore many of them believed also of the honourable women which were Greeks, and of men not effused.
But when Jews of Thessalonica had known, had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea,
they came thither also and stirred up the people, and immediately, then immediately,
the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.
And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus.
For to come to him with all speed, they departed now with Paul, waited for them in Athens.
The spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Therefore disputed he and the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons in the market daily with them that they met with them,
and the certain philosophers in the Epicreans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say?
Other some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of the strange gods, because he preacheth unto them Jesus of the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him unto Aeropagus, saying, May we know that this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is,
or thou bringest to the certain strange things to our ears, we would not therefore that these things mean.
For all the Athens and strangers which were there spent their time and nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
For I have passed by and beheld your devotions, and I have found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship.
Him declare I unto you, God that made the world and all the things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in the temples made with hands.
Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he give it to all life and breath in all things,
and hath made of one blood and all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the time before appointed and the bounds of their habitations,
that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though be not far from every one of us.
For in him we live and move and have our beings, as certain also of your own poets have said.
For we are also his offspring, for as much then we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device.
In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to pretend, because he hath appointed the day in which we will judge the world in righteousness by the men whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
So Paul departed from among them, howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed among which was Deinoeus and the Aropaegate, and women named Damaris and others with them.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, we thank you for every year, Lord, we thank you for your many blessings, and we pray that you take time to pray. Amen.
So it's been a while since we've been going through Acts chapter number 17, I had only gone through the first several verses, and so we're going to be picking up Acts chapter 17 and finishing the chapter here,
and it's really great to be here and see you guys in the flesh, and I want to pick up back at verse 14 where the Bible read,
And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul, to go as it were to the sea, but Silas and Jamotheus abode there still.
And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving of man-men unto Silas and Jamotheus, for to come to him with all speed they departed.
Now, just to give you kind of a recap of some of the things that have been happening, in chapter 17 they first go into Thessalonica,
and the Apostle Paul is, every time he goes into an area, he's going to the synagogue, he's preaching to the Jews, they're not receptive,
then he ends up getting a lot of Gentiles saved, or Greeks saved, and because of him getting a lot of Greeks saved, the Jews are moved with envy, they chase him out of town.
And then it's just basically rinse and repeat with the next city, the next city. In this chapter he then goes to Berea,
and Berea, they are a lot more receptive, more people get saved, but the Jews from Thessalonica end up following him,
they hear about the fact that he went to Berea, and they end up following him to Berea, stir everybody up again,
and so they're constantly on a run for their life. I mean the Apostle Paul is literally having to leave these areas under the threat of death,
or horrible and severe persecution, and we even see that it's not even safe, apparently, for them to travel together,
because they're kind of like split up, you kind of have Paul being conducted by a few guys,
and then you have Silas and Timotheus going somewhere else, and then he's trying to say like, let's all go to Athens, but kind of their own way, as it were.
And so they're really just kind of diversifying the assets, as it were. It's funny because I remember when I worked for a software company,
there was two other developers that I worked with, and it was pretty much just all three of us, there was only three of us,
and I was like a junior, I didn't really have that much, but these two guys were the brains of the company,
and they had a literal policy where neither of them could fly on the same airplane together,
because if they both died, the company would just be in a horrible shape, because they basically ran the company.
And so here it's kind of the same, I guess, they didn't want to put all their eggs in one basket,
we literally have a separation of these apostles, of these early evangelists going out and preaching the gospel,
and so it's a very dangerous time, and it's real easy for us to just read this in the safety of our home,
sitting in a chair, drinking a beverage that we enjoy, but for them, this was real life, it was a real threat,
people are hunting them down, people are wanting them to die on a regular basis, and primarily for just preaching the gospel.
Now, at other times they get upset through other doctrines or other preaching of the Bible,
but just even the gospel itself is that offensive, and there are parts of the world today, even,
where if you were to preach the gospel, you're going around from city to city to preach the gospel,
it would be under the threat of your life. You know, certain Muslim countries, it's not even tolerated,
Asian countries, a lot of them, China, these places, if you were to preach the gospel and they were to catch you,
they would just literally kill you, or horrible imprisonments or suffering,
and so the gospel, you have to understand, is not something that everybody is receptive towards,
you know, there's actual real threat here. Let's keep reading, it says in verse 16,
Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with them that met with him.
So it's interesting because the apostle Paul basically gets to Athens first.
Now he's just kind of waiting, but he's not very good at just doing nothing, you know, he's just kind of sitting there,
and as the Bible describes it, when he's noticing all the idolatry in the city, it just really eats him up,
you know, his spirit is really just kind of stirred within him, and it makes a lot of sense because,
you know, idolatry, according to the Bible, is worshiping not just a false god, but literally devils.
Keep your finger here, I want you to go to 1 Corinthians, just go to the right in your Bible, just a few pages,
1 Corinthians and look at chapter 10 for a moment, and look at verse number 19.
Now it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 19,
What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered as sacrifice to idols is anything?
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God,
not that you should have fellowship with devils.
Now one thing you have to understand about the apostle Paul is he grew up in, you know, an area where idolatry was abhorred.
You know, the Bible even says in Romans chapter number 2 that the Jews taught that, you know,
idols was something to abhor, it was something very evil, something very wicked,
and in his subset of Pharisee, you know, the sect of Pharisees that he grew up in,
he probably didn't even see very much idolatry, he probably wasn't even exposed to it around it.
So he's being injected into a culture where they're just worshipping idols, you know,
rampantly, it's open, it's got to be very vexing to the apostle Paul,
you know, it's not something that he's just very used to,
it's probably very egregious to him, his spirit feels really troubled by it,
because he also understands that even though it's just a rock,
or even though it's just a statue, or even though it's just a wood carved image,
and it's technically nothing, that they're actually worshipping devils.
And it should really make you upset to watch people mindlessly worship devils,
mindlessly be entrapped by false religion today.
If you went to Ephesians chapter number 2, Ephesians chapter number 2,
as silly as it would be for me to have a little graven image up here and literally think it's a god,
people literally worship them, people literally think that they're special.
I mean, even today idolatry still exists, and it exists in very extreme forms.
Catholics for sure have lots of idolatry.
I mean, you go to a Catholic church, it's full of graven images, of carved images, in their homes.
They have little places, devotional areas, they'll have like a little window seal,
or a carved out place in the wall.
There's even restaurants, yes there's restaurants, it's called Buca di Beppo,
who's ever eaten at a Buca di Beppo, you know what I mean?
It's like a Catholic restaurant, I didn't even know this.
My company one time had them cater.
And it makes sense now because my CEO was like trying to become Catholic or something,
so now I understand why.
But I went there, and literally they have like, the restaurant is decorated in only Catholic paraphernalia,
and they have like carve outs in the wall.
You know how like in a shower they kind of put the little hole to put like the soap dispenser?
They have that with like idols in the wall everywhere.
And then there was this one table, it literally had a pope head on top of the table.
It was like this image of a pope head just sitting on the table.
I was like, I had already scheduled the dinner there and everybody showed up,
but otherwise I was thinking like if it was just me and my family, I'd probably just laugh.
But I was just kind of like, man this is weird, this is bizarre.
But you know in India, and other places in the country,
they have certain feasts every year, where they literally will prepare all this wonderful food,
and they'll lay it before their little false god image, and it's supposed to eat it or whatever.
Even though it doesn't, it's just all this food just sits there and rots and just is wasted on completely nothing today.
And as silly as that would be to us, as foolish it is to us today,
to some people they're sincerely thinking this is a god.
And to me it's just a picture of the fact that they're a mental slave to false religion.
They're a mental slave to the devil.
And the Bible tells us this, go to Ephesians chapter 2,
Galatians Ephesians chapter number 2, and look at verse number 1,
so it's just a little bit further right in your Bible.
Ephesians 2 verse 1,
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
wherein in time past you walked, according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air.
The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past,
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
So the Bible describes everybody that's unsaved as being a child of disobedience,
and that there's someone working through them, working in them,
it's the prince of the power of the air, which is the devil.
Meaning that people that are not saved are actually fulfilling the will of the devil,
whether they realize it or not.
And I would say this, 99.9% of them don't realize that they're doing this.
Most people don't think that they're actually serving the devil.
In fact, even satanic temples today, there's a lot of them that exist,
and there's a lot of Satanists today, but if you ask them,
they say they don't even believe the devil exists.
It's just a mockery to them.
They think that worshiping the devil is cool, or it's fun,
or it's a fun way to mock or ridicule Christians or something like this,
but they're going to realize that they're still fulfilling the will of the devil.
They're still actually worshiping the devil and giving him some kind of respect
by calling themselves a satanic temple and everything like that.
So the joke's still on them.
They think that they're joking, but really they're just making fun of themselves.
And the reality is that the world that we live in today,
people are taken captive by the devil,
and we should not basically just ignore this,
but rather it should stir in our spirit to want to get these people saved,
to want to actually expose them to the truth,
to actually show them the word of God,
and not just allow them to constantly go day after day after day
worshiping the devil, worshiping a false god,
because notice when they're worshiping a rock,
Paul said, yeah, I know it's a rock.
I know it's just a wood piece of image,
but it's actually a devil behind it.
There's actually something satanic by nature here,
and when you go into an area where they're just worshiping the devil,
they're mindlessly just worthless, their life is worthless,
you know, that should cause us to feel something inside
and want to do something about it.
Go to Jeremiah chapter 20.
I want to show you another verse here that made me think of this,
how his spirit was kind of stirred up.
And I really liken this unto Jeremiah because
when the apostle Paul came into Athens,
if we kind of get the context,
it doesn't seem like he was really going there
because he just really wanted to go.
He's kind of just like running for his life.
You know, he's kind of just trying to escape,
and he's just waiting to meet up with his buddies.
So this is just kind of like a meet-up rendezvous.
It wasn't really according to plan.
It's not really a place that he wanted to go necessarily.
He just finds himself in this situation,
and he's probably even a little bit weary of preaching the gospel,
because in Ephesians and other places in the Bible,
he talks about the fact that he asked them to pray for him
that he'd have boldness to open his mouth,
to speak boldly as he ought to speak.
Why would you say such a thing?
Well, every time he walks into town, he opens his mouth.
Everyone wants to kill him afterwards.
I mean, you've got to think, that's got to get a little bit tiresome.
Every once in a while, you're going to feel that pressure of like,
you know what, I'm just going to kind of keep my mouth shut for a little while.
Or I'm going to wait to go ahead and start talking to people,
or explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because at this point, he's gone through enough towns
that he realizes it's going to happen everywhere.
At first, you're just kind of like, well, that town's kind of weird.
And then you go to the next one, and it's like, same thing.
You're like, well, maybe that region's kind of weird.
Then it's just like town after town.
The Jews just are not receptive to the gospel.
And they just get really mad about this,
and it's going to happen everywhere.
He's going to get to a point where he's kind of frustrated with preaching the Bible.
And he's not the only preacher like this.
Jeremiah goes through a very similar phase,
where he's constantly preaching to the Jews,
and they're not receptive.
They don't want to hear what Jeremiah has to say.
They're constantly persecuting Jeremiah.
They're calling him a false prophet.
They want nothing to do with him.
And it gets to a point where Jeremiah's just kind of like frustrated.
He doesn't even want to preach anymore.
Isn't that kind of sad?
The Son of God, the preacher,
just gets to a point where he just doesn't even want to preach anymore
because people aren't interested in the truth.
But we see this with Jeremiah,
yet something changes in his heart.
Look at verse 7.
O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived.
Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed.
I am in derision daily.
Everyone mocketh me.
Think about that statement.
Can you imagine if every single person in your personal life
mocked you every day?
I'm not just saying like, you know, the world.
We're talking about your family, your friends,
the people in your church.
Just every single person thinks you're a bozo.
Everybody thinks that you're gone out to lunch.
Everyone's against you.
I mean Jeremiah's saying, Lord,
it's like I know you told me this,
but no one else agrees with me.
Everybody thinks that I'm wrong.
Everybody thinks that I'm crazy.
And you know, there have been times in my life personally
where it almost felt like I was in this situation,
where everybody was like, you're crazy.
Everybody's just like, you're a psycho.
And coincidentally, it was about vaccination.
You know, it was like I was against vaccination,
and I felt like I was in this bubble by myself,
you know, against it.
It was like every one of my coworkers and friends
and family members and everybody's like,
I was trying to convince the whole world I felt like.
And I'm thinking like, I don't know why, you know,
I see the world in one way,
and everybody else sees a completely different color here.
But you know what?
I'm gonna just continue to believe what's right, you know?
And eventually, a lot of other people came around.
It wasn't like that forever, but you know,
these type of situations can be really frustrating.
Verse eight, for since I speak, I cried out,
I cried violence and spoil,
because the word of the Lord has made a reproach
unto me at a derision daily.
Now, why is he specifically being persecuted
for the word of God, for preaching the Bible?
People don't like it.
It's constantly a reproach unto them.
They're making fun of him.
Verse nine, then I said, I will not make mention of him,
nor speak any more in his name.
That's kind of a sad few statements there.
He's saying, you know what?
I've been made fun of so much.
Nobody wants to hear so much.
I'm just done.
Imagine if you went door knocking, right?
And you're preaching the gospel at every door.
They're just like, you're a loser, and slam the door.
You know, after the first 10,
you're just kind of like, okay, 100, 200, 300, 400.
I mean, eventually it gets people.
Eventually it'd be like, this isn't fun.
I don't enjoy this.
Praise the Lord, Houston's still really receptive
to the gospel.
Praise the Lord that never, but I mean, for Jeremiah,
it's just like everywhere he turns,
he's just being made fun of and mocked.
He gets to a point where he's just like,
man, I just don't know, I just want to preach.
Look at the next statement.
But his word was in my heart as a burning fire,
shut up in my bones.
And I was weary with forbearing,
and I could not stay,
for I heard the defaming of many,
fear on every side.
Report, say they, and we will report it.
All my familiars watched for my halting,
saying, Peradventure, he will be enticed,
and we shall prevail against him,
and we shall take our revenge on him.
But the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one.
Therefore, my persecutors shall stumble,
and they shall not prevail,
they shall be greatly ashamed,
for they shall not prosper.
Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
But, O Lord of hosts, that tryest the righteous
and seest the rains in the heart,
let me see thy vengeance on them.
For unto thee have I opened my cause.
Sing unto the Lord, praise you the Lord,
for he hath delivered the soul of the poor
from the hand of the evil doer.
So he says, you know what?
I shut up for a while,
I didn't want to talk about him for a while,
but then just, his word was inside me,
it eaten me up, and I just had to open my mouth again
and just preach the word of God.
And I'm just so sick and tired of people
just not being obedient to the word of God,
just rebelling against the word of God,
his spirit was stirred because the word of God
was like a fire inside of him.
You know, we have our conference coming up
called the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship,
and people are like, oh, you breathe fire?
Look, it's not about you, it's the fact
that the Bible is fire.
And if you read enough of it, it's inside of you.
You need men that are bold enough,
men that have enough courage to open their mouth
and let that fire come out.
Let the word of God come out of their mouth,
and that's why it's called
the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship,
because when you preach the Bible,
when you preach the word of God, it's like fire.
And you know what?
Not everybody's gonna like that,
not everybody's gonna appreciate that.
You know, when the two witnesses are here,
someone tries to hurt them,
they're literally gonna breathe fire out of their mouth
and consume their enemies, as the Bible says.
He's gonna make his word like fire.
Go to Jeremiah, just go backwards.
I believe it's Jeremiah chapter number five.
Look at verse number 14.
Jeremiah chapter five, verse 14.
Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
because you speak this word,
behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire,
and this people would, and it shall devour them.
So notice, he's literally saying,
the words are coming in our mouth,
I'm gonna make them like fire.
And you know what, when you preach against sin,
when you preach against the evil of this world,
it's a lot of times like fire,
and they don't like it because they realize
it's gonna devour them.
Now, go back, if you would, to Acts chapter number 17.
Why do I make that comparison?
Why do I make that parallel?
Because, you know, when we see people
that are being deceived by the devil,
they're taken captive at his will,
when we see them just worshiping a false god
and worshiping a false religion,
it's hard for us to say, you know what,
that's not right.
We need to expose the wickedness of this world
and we need to draw people,
we need to pull them out of the fire,
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
You know, we need a desire to see people saved.
We need a desire of people to stop believing
in weird, wicked, false religion.
You know, it makes me cringe
when I see people worshiping Mary's statues,
or worshiping a false god.
And in fact, going to Joel and Victoria Osteen's church,
that burns me up,
because they're wicked false prophets, my friend.
And you know what?
False religion and false doctrine
and all of this evil religion out there that exists
should cause us to feel something inside
and not be so apathetic
and not just let them all die
and be like fodder to the fire,
but rather say, you know what,
come out from the fire, you know,
don't be consumed, don't be destroyed,
and we preach the word of God unto them
and you say, oh, when you preach the Bible
it's going to hurt their feelings.
You know what's going to hurt their feelings more? Hell.
The fact that someone didn't warn them,
the fact that they wasted their entire life
worshiping a devil, the fact that
what they're doing is wrong, you know,
and if you're going to make some people mad
but you're going to save some people,
you really just need to realize
that it's worth it just to save a few people.
And that's what Paul's attitude is.
That's why he's just sitting here,
you know what, I can't just be quiet.
Can you really just watch people
just walking off a cliff and not say something?
Can you let people be in a burning building
and dying and not say something?
Paul's just like, I can't do it, you know.
I know I'm supposed to just wait here.
I know I got in trouble.
I know that if I get kicked out of this place
they're going to have no idea where I'm at.
I mean, think about it.
There's a lot of consequences to him opening his mouth
because he just got separated from his friends.
His friends don't know where he's at.
As soon as he opens his mouth he's usually
ran out of a place but he's, you know what,
I just can't just sit here and be quiet.
I got to open my mouth.
He goes into the synagogues, bad decision,
and he starts reading the Jews again.
Within that area other people are there,
they hear the word of God,
and they're going to desire him.
Look at verse 18 to speak to them.
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans
and the Stoics encountered him and some said,
what will this babbler say?
Others, some.
He seemed to be a setter forth of strange gods
because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus saying,
may we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is?
It says in verse number 20,
for thou bringest certain strange things to our ears,
we would know therefore what these things mean.
Now, we have to understand about verse 18
is the group that's saying what will this babbler say
is not everyone.
It's just saying like it's a group of a bunch of people.
Some are just basically like this guy's a bad,
nobody wants to hear what this guy is going to say.
He's just blabbing on about nonsense or whatever.
Other people are just like,
he's just blabbing on about nonsense or whatever.
Other people are basically saying, this is weird.
Who is this Jesus?
We don't know.
Strange just means something that you're not familiar with.
It's not something that you've heard before
or anything like that.
And then another group is wanting to know,
okay, teaches this doctrine.
What is it that you have to say?
Let's hear what you have to say.
And verse 21 says, for all the Athenians
and strangers which were there
spent their time in nothing else
but either to tell or to hear.
Some new thing.
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill
and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive
that in all things your Jews are prestigious.
Now this seems like a pretty good place to go
because they just want to hear some new doctrine.
He's like, I'll give you some new doctrine.
I'll give you something to hear.
Now again, the apostle Paul,
he's a pretty bold preacher
because what you have to understand,
he's walking into a group of a bunch of people
that are very religious.
They know a lot of different things
and he walks in and here's his first statement.
He says, I mean, he just opens up the gates
and he just says, I perceive that in all things
you're too superstitious.
I mean, that's his first statement.
Criticism.
His first statement is like,
you guys are a bunch of scaredy cats
because what does it mean to be superstitious?
It means that you're afraid of everything.
You just think that everything could harm you.
You don't want to make anybody upset.
You want to be on the good side of everyone
and specifically from a religious perspective,
this is you want to be on the good side of every god.
This is like, I respect all religions.
I love all religions and all gods and all faiths
and you just tell me where to sign the check.
You just tell me where to bow.
You just tell me what crack not to step on
so I don't break my mother's back
or whatever.
It's just like basically just anything
and everything out there, they're all in.
New age, spiritualism.
I'm into this religion.
I'm into all religions, every god.
And really, Hinduism is pretty similar to this
because they just accept every god.
Someone comes up and they're like,
I got a new god for you and they're like,
I'm on his team.
It's just like no more said.
They're just ready to basically embrace
any kind of god.
But sin is a transgression of the law
and one of the sins according to the Bible is just fear.
So superstitions actually would be a sin
if you're just afraid of everything
or if you're afraid of every religion.
And some people say, how can you know
that the Bible's right?
Have you heard every single religion and every god?
No, because I'm not superstitious.
Just hey, if I got the real thing,
I don't need to know about all the frauds out there.
I don't need to know every single thing
that could possibly exist
and every single false god that possibly exists.
If I have the real god and he says
there's none other but he, I'm done.
I don't have to look anywhere else.
I don't have to study every other textbook.
Have you read every single religious text
that exists out there today?
No.
Are you going to?
I'm not superstitious.
I'm not that worried about it.
On the surface, you can just read a little bit
and realize it's junk and then discard the rest.
And when it comes to these false religions today,
I don't have to just be so worried
and so concerned with every single thing that's out there.
But you know what?
People today live in constant fear
and even though it may not be a false god,
maybe you're like, well, I don't worship any false god.
You could have this superstitious attitude
like they did in other areas.
Some people are like this in the medical world.
Where they just, they're afraid of every single disease
that's ever existed.
They're afraid of every bad thing that can happen.
Or they constantly are going to WebMD
and they type in their symptoms
and they think they have every disease.
They think they have every illness.
They're like, I think I have this chronic arthritis
and you're like, how do you know?
I just typed it in WebMD.
That's what came up.
It's like they think they have every single illness,
every single evil that could possibly happen
and they constantly want to run to the doctor.
They want to run to the ER to have everything checked out.
This is going to be a hypochondriac.
The hypochondriac thinks they have every illness,
every disease.
And look, it's not much different than this person
that's afraid of every god that could exist
because they don't want to make them mad
and have some kind of a bad repercussion.
Or people think, I got to just catch every disease early.
If I don't catch it early, I could go blind.
Or if I don't catch this early, you know.
And they're just constantly out to,
check for every single illness and every single disease.
And look, I'm not against wellness checks.
I'm not against medical advice.
But to some degree, it's a little too much for me.
Prostate exam, I'm good.
When it comes to taking your baby,
I mean, when you look at the pediatrician schedule,
how often you're supposed to take your baby to a pediatrician,
it's a lot.
I mean, they're just like six weeks, two months,
four months, six months, eight months, a year.
And then you're just constantly going to the doctor
to have every single thing checked.
And it's like, how did people ever exist
without these pediatricians?
They just didn't live in fear.
That's how they existed.
That's how they really lived their lives.
I don't need to be afraid of every disease, every illness.
You know, my kid hiccups, they're okay, you know.
My wife says they're just growing, okay.
You know, just because of every little bump in the road,
you don't have to worry about it.
You don't want to pull over.
Every time you have a bump in the road,
did I get a flat tire?
You could be worried about everything the government does.
That's easy to do because everything
the government does, it sucks.
I mean, what does the government do that's well?
And I had somebody say, oh, I'm not against the government.
I think they do some things good.
And I said, name one.
And they were like, uh.
And I was just like, exactly.
And again, we need government.
Government needs to exist.
But at the end of the day, our government especially
doesn't do anything well.
Just evil, they're just afraid of every evil
that possibly exists or they're afraid of every religion.
You know, the Bible says God has not given us
the spirit of fear but of power and love in a sound mind.
And so as Christians, we're not supposed to go around
being so superstitious and being afraid of everything.
Really, we just should be afraid of one thing
and that's the Lord.
The only thing we're supposed to be afraid of,
we're supposed to constantly read the word of God
and study His commandments and try to walk in the spirit
and be afraid of how He feels, what He thinks.
And you're gonna worry yourself into an early grave
if you worry about everything else.
You worry about everybody else's opinion,
all the evil that could happen to you.
I mean, the Apostle Paul certainly can't live by fear
because he should be afraid of everyone
because everybody wants to kill him.
But yet, he really only fears the Lord.
That's why he's gonna open his mouth
and preach a pretty bold message to a pretty hostile crowd
here, potentially.
Let's keep reading verse 23.
For as I passed by, I beheld your devotions.
I found an altar with this inscription,
To the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship Him
declare I and you.
Now, they were so superstitious.
You gotta think about how superstitious these people are.
Not only do they have an altar to every God
that they've ever heard of,
they have then an extra altar to the God
that they haven't heard of yet
that they know exists potentially.
Like, well, there's probably another God out there
that we don't even know about
and we're probably upsetting Him
and we're not worshiping Him yet,
so we'll just make an altar to an unknown God
and then we'll just worship that too.
That's how superstitious these people were, okay?
Pretty silly.
But Paul kind of uses this as a jumping point
or starting point to bring and introduce
the doctrine of Christ
and to bring the real God of the Bible up.
He's like, hey, this unknown God,
you certainly don't know about Him.
Let me tell you all about Him.
Verse 24, God that made the world
and all things therein,
seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
Neither is worshiped with men's hands
as though He needed anything.
Seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all things
and hath made of one blood all nations of men
for to dwell on all the face of the earth
and hath determined the times before appointed
and the bounds of their habitation.
So the Bible's making it clear
when He's talking about God,
He's differentiating Him
from all the other idols that they're worshiping.
He's saying, hey, He doesn't need anything, okay?
And what He's alluding to here
when He's saying He doesn't need anything
or though He needed anything,
worshiped with men's hands,
is idols, they're rocks.
They're wood.
So they have to, as the Bible says, be born.
And that's B-O-R-N-E meaning carried.
So whenever you have these false gods,
if they want to take them out to Mars Hill,
they have to pick them up
and they have to carry them to Mars Hill.
If they want them to be positioned a certain way,
they have to move it.
They have to kind of put stuff on it.
Even the Hindus, they'll get milk
and they'll put it up to the mouth of a statue
and they'll literally try to get it to drink or whatever.
Why?
Because the statue can't do anything.
The wood can't do anything.
So they need men's hands to worship it.
They need men to do things
in order for its service and everything to happen.
He's saying this God's not like your gods.
Your gods need all this stuff.
Our God doesn't need anything.
He's helping you.
He's the one that's feeding you.
He's the one that's giving you breath.
He's the one that's giving you life.
He's the one that's giving all the things that you need.
It's not, it's completely backwards here.
He's saying what you're doing
and what you're worshiping is something with your hands.
The God that made the heaven and the earth,
he doesn't even dwell in any of these things.
You can't even make him a habitation.
He's outside of all,
he's bigger than every single thing that you have
and he can't be worshiped with these stuff
because he's the one that gave you life.
He's the one that gave you the breath that you have.
He's the one that gives everything that even exists
and he's made us to dwell on the face of the earth
and specifically he made all nations one blood.
So what does that mean?
He's the God of everyone.
That's what he's alluding to.
He's saying hey, there's a God that's everybody's God.
He made every single thing that you see today
and you can't give him anything.
He doesn't need anything from you, okay?
So we've already learned a lot about God
just in these few statements who he's declaring unto them.
That he's infinite,
that he doesn't need anything.
He's all powerful, he has all the power,
he has all the control.
And essentially everything that we could possibly
ever want or need he's able to supply
so he's a provider.
A lot of great things that we've learned.
He made all of us and he's even determined everything.
He said he determined the times before appointed.
That would allude to his knowledge
and the fact that he's probably infinite
in knowledge and wisdom.
The fact that he's already determined all of these things
and even the boundaries in which we live.
Everything that we're subject to.
Verse 27.
That they should seek the Lord
if happily they might feel after him and find him.
Though he be not far from every one of us.
For in him we live and move and have our being
as certain also your own poets have said
for we are also his offspring.
Now he's also alluding this,
you've got to think about his context.
He's talking about an unknown God
and he's saying look you can find him
if you just feel after him
but he's not far from every one of us.
Meaning like it's not like you have to go
to some distant area or some distant place
to find out who the God of the Bible is.
In fact in this city Athens
didn't they already have a synagogue?
Now if you read other places in the Bible
he says that Moses is read in the synagogue
every seventh day in every single area.
So they have the word of God right there.
They didn't even have to go anywhere.
They probably even heard the word of God
at certain times in their life
just because of the fact that it's always been existent.
So it's not like this unknown God to them
is really far off or it's someone
that's really hard to find.
He's saying that we even in verse 28
for in him we live and move and have our being.
So it's like if you realize that you could
you're just like touching him at all times
because he's everywhere.
He permeates everything.
Everything even exists because of him.
He gives us all the life
and we are his offspring.
Now he uses their own poets
to basically talk to them about this
and what I like about this is
the apostle Paul he's kind of trying
to reach people where they're at.
Think about how he's trying
to reach people where they're at.
He's trying to reach people
where they're at.
Think about how he's trying
to reach people where he talks to the Jews
and other places in the scripture.
He just starts with the scripture
or he just starts with talking about Moses
or Abraham or whatever.
That wouldn't really be that effective
to this crowd because this crowd's
not necessarily Moses.
Well who's Moses?
Then he has to explain who Moses is.
Who's Abraham?
What are the covenants?
What was Passover?
They're not familiar with all these things
so he doesn't bring that stuff up.
Keep your finger here but go to Romans
chapter 12 for a moment.
Just flip the page to the right of here.
Romans chapter 12 and look at verse number 16.
The Bible says be of the same mind
one toward another.
Mind not high things but condescend
to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
So the Bible says we're supposed
to condescend to men of low estate.
What could be an example of this
or picture this?
Well look not everybody grows up
or not everybody's been given
as much knowledge or information
about who God is as you are.
Sometimes we have to condescend
to where they are and start there
and start with okay,
here's the word of God.
God created the heavens and the earth
and just kind of explain things
to people and kind of catch them up
to speed on certain facts
or certain details.
Now what I also like is as he's
going to preach to them the resurrection
he doesn't bring up Moses or Abraham either.
So it's not like he has to
elaborate on all those details.
It's really just a starting point
but everything is going to end up
leading to Jesus Christ leading
to the resurrection.
Not only have we learned several
things about who God is but he's
using logic okay.
He's trying to persuade them
about how they're superior
to an idol okay.
In verses number 24 when he's
talking about not dwell at the
temples made with hands and neither
the man's hands though he needed anything.
It's like this idol needs stuff
that we don't.
Like I can supply my own food.
I can eat for myself.
I can move myself around or whatever
and it's like why would you think
that the God that created you,
the one that gives you life
and breath or whatever is somehow
so far inferior to you that you
have to then feed it and give it
life and give its movement.
It's like God obviously the creator
has to be greater than its creation
you know or it has to have the
ability to have done the things
that you can do to some level.
It doesn't make any logical sense
to worship a rock when you're
infinitely greater than the rock.
Worship should be an idyllic sense
to something that's greater than
you or better than you.
You know when it comes to sports
we don't really worship the average
Joe who can't even shoot a basket
or can't even run down the football
field they who do they idolize
the guy that's the greatest at it
right someone that's better than
them at that particular sport
someone that's achieved some kind
of a greatness or you know even in
the world people worship people
because of how much money or success
or whatever but they're not really
worshipping someone inferior to them.
That's just really counter logical
it doesn't make any sense to worship
something that's inferior or lesser
you know just like if you win you're
just like you know usually they
congratulate themselves right they're
given the ultimate praise the
ultimate glory so it's like when it
comes to the God of the universe or
whoever they're supposed to worship
why would you be in worshipping
something that's inferior to you a
rock or some kind of piece of wood or
anything like that what's the point
he's just using logic and reason to
talk to these people and I think
that's great I think it's fine to use
logic and reason when talking to
somebody because if they have no
reason either okay the people that
have no reason and no logic are
usually not gonna get saved either
you gotta have some reason you gotta
have some logic if I'm talking to
somebody I'm talking about heaven or
hell or a sinner you know some people
will be like I've never sinned and
it's like okay well I've ever lied
never lied I'm gonna see you later
it's like I mean you can't reason
with someone that's unreasonable you
know or they'll just say something
really off the wall or they just they
have they don't want to hear what the
they're like the Bible just written by
man or they bring up really illogical
facts about the Bible this is a person
that's probably just not gonna get saved
you need to just probably move on from
them you know there's certain people
that are just not reasonable and there's
no time there's no reason wasting time
with someone that's unreasonable that
can't even believe one plus one equals
two that doesn't even think a man's a
man you know I mean if you can't even
get to that how are you gonna convince
them? You know Jesus Christ is saying
in John chapter number three when he's
talking with Nicodemus he's kind of
ridiculing for the fact that if you do
not believe the earthly things how shall
you believe heavenly things if I tell you
he's basically saying like if you can't
even understand a carnal truth how could
I explain a spiritual truth to you that
doesn't even make any sense so if they
can't even realize that they're better
than a rock good luck explaining them how
to believe in Jesus Christ is basically
what he's trying to appeal to and it
makes a lot of sense so what am I trying
to do? Why would I then take what he's
showing me here and say you know what we
should try to convince atheists that God
exists it's like that's bad if I can't
even if the person can't even believe
that God exists then how am I gonna get
that person safe just like the person
that thinks that they're not better than
a rock how am I gonna then get that
person safe it's like they need to have
some level of reason logic intelligence
in order to get someone safe you know
someone tells me they're an atheist at
this point I'll say well how about this
if I could show you that the Bible is
teaching that God exists and that
salvation is a free gift if I could show
you that would you believe it or would
you want to hear and if they're like no
then I just move on now there's not
really a point in arguing with people
that are unreasonable that you can't even
convince them that they're better than a
rock because you know what atheists will
believe that we evolved from rocks I
mean literally I mean they say that we're
just stardust they just say that an
accident we just everything just
happened here we are or whatever it's
like okay that person's not close to
getting saved that person would have to
start having some kind of reason some
kind of logic and we only have so much
time in the day he's not going for the
idiot here he's going for the person that
realizes he's better than a rock okay and
he's using logic he's using reason and
he's appealing though to things that
they're familiar with hey your poet said
that we're his offspring so what is he
saying if I'm the offspring of God and
I'm not a rock that means that God's not
a rock okay that's what he's pointing to
that's the point that he's trying to
drive in that's what he's trying to
illustrate he's saying look you have a
brain you're able to move and jump and
talk and eat and create and develop this
rock is just sitting here doing nothing
so even if your own poets the people
that you're singing and listening to and
praising or saying where is offspring
he's not a rock then wake up he's
trying to get people to stop thinking
like an idiot and realize God's not a
rock here God's not a piece of wood
we're his offspring that's the point that
he's making so you can look at this and
say oh it's cool he's referencing their
own people yeah but he's using it to kind
of point to how stupid they're being he's
kind of actually criticizing them and
he's saying look guys even your own poets
are saying that we're his offspring so
if we're his offspring then he either has
to be equal to us or greater than us
that would have to just be a pure logic
okay at this point he hasn't really
preached a lot of verses so then he says
in verse 29 so he's continuing with this
logic train right for as much then as we
are the offspring of God we ought not to
think that the Godhead is like unto gold
or silver or stone graven by art and
man's device so you get the conclusion
of what he was drawing the point that he
was making well if we're the offspring of
God then why in the world do you think
we're a rock or a statue or some kind of
a graven image or some kind of a molten
image you know that can't make sense it's
just not logical it's not possible just
like telling someone look nothing didn't
explode and create everything it's just
not possible you know and if you think
that you're really far off you know the
Bible says the fool has said in his heart
there is no God you know the person's
already too stupid to basically learn
anything says in verse 30 at the time
to this ignorance God winked at but now
commended all men everywhere to repent
and understand winking in our culture I
think of winking as being like flirting
I don't know why but that's just what I
think you know a lot of people like you
know if like you're in high school or
something and a girl winked at you or
something you'd kind of think like she's
interested you know or if a guy winked
at you if a guy winks at me that's a
different you know I'm not interested
it's like don't wink at me ever again
in modern society I don't know who else
thought that who else thinks that's kind
of like what you would think when someone
was winking or something but to wink at
in the Bible means to ignore it means
that you're just like you're just kind
of letting it go you're just tolerating
something you're just kind of just
whatever you're just allowing it to
exist you're just letting something
happen and so it's just basically saying
God was just kind of a letting the whole
world just do their thing and be stupid
and not really punishing them severely
for their rebellion to God or having them
be chastised as much as they probably
deserve for their ignorance but
something's happened but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent so what does
he say no longer is he just going to
tolerate idolatry in the world no longer
is he going to let people just do
whatever they want without severe
consequences no now is there's going to
be severe punishment if you don't
actually believe in Jesus Christ and he
says in verse 31 because he had appointed
a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom
he hath ordained where have you have
given assurance unto all men and that he
hath raised him from the dead so he says
look before you didn't know the God of
the world was you didn't understand the
God of the universe but now you have no
excuse no one has an excuse anymore and
you're all going to be judged by a
certain man now who's that man Jesus
Christ okay he makes it clear that
there's going to be a day when the whole
world is going to be judged in
righteousness by who by that man they
could look at this a lot of different
ways one would say this Christ was
perfect we're not so if we're judged
according to his standard we're going to
come short for all of sin comes short of
the glory of God as the Bible teaches and
also Jesus Christ you know says that all
judgment has been committed unto the Sun
so you can look at it from a perspective
that Jesus Christ is going to judge
people you're going to be judged by the
Word of God you know when it says that
that the great white throne judgment the
books are open and you're going to be
judged according to your works so you're
going to literally have the Word of God
sit there you know people don't like to
hear the Word of God now well you're
going to hear it at the great white
throne judgment if you're not saved I
mean all that mean preacher he's just
telling you what God was going to say to
you and you know what it's a lot scarier
when God's saying it to you than when
God's saying it to you and everyone is
going to have no excuse the Bible says
in Romans chapter number one that they
have no excuse you know for the
invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen being
understood by the things that are made
even as eternal power in Godhead so
they're without excuse you know if I mean
an atheist that's actually what I quote
today I say can I give you verse and
that's the verse that I give them and I
say you know God exists you can see the
trees out in the world you can see the
birds you see life you see me and you
know God exists and you don't have any
excuse that's what I tell them and you
know it doesn't necessarily always work
but at least they realize that's what
the Bible is teaching and they know that
deep down in their heart they just just
like a criminal doesn't want to find a
cop they don't really want to find God
okay but he preaches them finally what
the resurrection of Jesus Christ so
while I'm okay with the idea of you
condescending the minimal estate of using
logic and reason of meeting people where
they're at of even bringing in cultural
references you got to eventually get to
the gospel and if you think about it this
sermons pretty quick I mean if we were
to just read straight Paul's words I
mean it's not very I mean it's like 20
seconds and he's already preaching the
resurrection of Jesus Christ so it wasn't
like a real long intro as it were but
what I can learn from this is the fact
that when I go soul winning sometimes the
best soul winning is to try and relate
to the person and I really believe this
I think if you just started out going
soul winning you should just kind of
stick with whatever presentation you got
you know just get really good at whatever
it is that you got and use kind of the
same questions talk about the same thing
but as you get a little bit more
experience as you go swimming a little
bit more you talk to more people if
they're a Catholic I may kind of say
things a little bit different to a
Catholic or a Church of Christ or a Hindu
or an atheist or whoever it is I'm
trying to think about where they're at
what they believe what they think the
doctrines that they hold to and I'll try
to craft my gospel presentation in a way
or bring up things that they're more
familiar with so as to condescend a
minimal estate and try to reach them
where they're at understanding perhaps
what they believe or things that they
struggle with or doctrines they're not
keen on I think it's important to try to
draw that out and think about so you know
you ask the person the question do you
go to church anywhere listen what they
say because sometimes that can be helpful
they say I go to St. so-and-so they're
Catholic all right I mean if they say
St. Thomas Mary Joseph James it doesn't
matter Lucifer it's a Catholic Church
okay and you know if they say I go to
this Church of Christ you know they
believe baptism is necessary for salvation
you know if they say I go to such-and-such
Church of God they're Pentecostal I mean
you just know that the Pentecostal if
it's a Hispanic lady you know her name is
Maria already you don't even have to ask
I mean but you can use these things to
your advantage and I think that you
should you know the Apostle Paul is
trying to you know trawl out use their
own poets talk to them condescend a
minimal estate you know if they're from
Texas use Texas lingo they're from a
foreign country or a foreign state or
something and you know something about
that bring it in your gospel
presentation I think that that's good to
use every skill everything you have but
at the end of the day you got to get to
the right and it's the resurrection is
where it's at and that's what we preach
we preach that Jesus is the Son of God
and you know that's what gives us even
our assurance is what the Bible says now
assurance of what well the resurrection
gives us the assurance that Jesus really
is the Son of God because he preached the
gospel he told people that he was going
to be delivered to the Romans and that
he'd be crucified and that the third day
he'd be perfected he said that he'd be
raised risen again okay that happened
proving and giving his assurance that
Jesus testimony was true okay this is
the true God in eternal life is what
first John chapter 5 tells us it also
gives us assurance that we will be
resurrected one day you know it'd be
kind of more difficult maybe to believe
in a resurrection when it's never
happened but we have the first we have
Jesus Christ having been resurrected and
that's the evidence and a token and the
assurance to us that we too will be
risen again one day instead of searching
for physical eternal life we have it
through spiritual eternal life and
realize we'll get a new body one day that
makes me feel great because it's like
this one's being tracked okay this one's
got lots of problems and you know at the
end of the day whatever happens and look
I'm all for taking care of your body but
even if you're not very good at it you're
getting a new one okay so that praise
the Lord and even you made mistakes in
taking care of your body you're getting
a new one no matter what illnesses no
matter what diseases no matter what
happens I mean look white men can't jump
but my spiritual body is gonna jump high
okay you know what I'm gonna leap for
joy you know it's like whatever it is
that you got problems with you're getting
a new one praise the Lord on that that
gives us assurance you know that makes
us feel better now let's read the last
few verses and I'll make a couple
concluding statements verse 32 and when
they had heard of the resurrection of the
man some mocked another said we will
hear thee again of this matter so Paul
departed from them I'll be at certain
men clave unto him and believed among the
witch was Dionysus the areopagite and a
woman named Amarius and others with them
now this is a really important thing to
think about the response to the gospel
is always going to be like this what was
the response some mocked right and then
others say I'll hear again and then
sometimes got saved we have to realize
is that not everyone's gonna get saved
not everyone's gonna mop you know not
everybody's gonna get saved the first
time either and really when you go out
and you preach the gospel you should
expect some people are gonna mock some
people like I don't have time maybe talk
to me later and then some people get
saved and because the response is varied
you should realize that you don't want
to waste your time with the mockers and
if someone's like not interested now
plant the seed move on and find the
people that are interested because you
can waste a lot of effort and energy on
the mockers on the people that just don't
have they're not interested today you
know you have to realize there are people
out there right now that want to get
safe there are some and we want to try
and find those people and we want to try
and get them the gospel and and realize
that hey you know what I can't save
everyone some people get mad at talking
about walking away from somebody or they
get frustrated with me and like well I'm
gonna get every atheist saved pastor
Shelley so against getting atheists safe
look I'm against getting atheists saved
because I only have so much time and the
Bible says to redeem the time because the
days are evil and you know instead of
just beating my head against the wall and
trying to reach the most unreceptive
people in this country in this city I
rather focus on the people that are
interested and get as many of them safe
because if you say I hate atheists I say
I hate the receptive people because if
you're gonna waste all your time trying
to get the atheist safe you could have
put all that time and effort energy and
some of that's actually receptive and
gotten actually more people saved so who
really cares more about souls the one
who's beating their head against the wall
getting the atheist not saved or the guy
that's moving on and just finding the
receptive people taking the easy fruit
out of the basket as it were so here's my
philosophy I preach to people that want
to hear I mean that's a very important
principle that want to hear I mean that
makes sense why would I want to preach
someone that's not interested in hearing
the gospel and as soon as I realize the
person's not interested I move on you
know some people it's like they when you
go soul winning and doing door knocking
they'll be walking up the door the knock
on the door and the person kind of opens
the door and you're trying to hand them
the invite and just upon seeing you
they're already starting to close the
door okay you know what I do you know
hey I'll still hand them the invite but
by like some people like shoving their
foot the door no hey let me give you the
gospel let me tell you this is like look
if they're already shutting the door let
them shut the door or they'll be like not
interested I know you said you're not
interested but let me give you a couple
verses let me and they're like not
interested no let me tell you it's like
look if they're not interested move on
don't worry about getting every single
door saved or if they're not interested
don't worry about getting every single
door saved worry about finding someone
who's receptive you know worry about
planting good seeds and putting good
taste in people's mouth and you know
confrontational soul winning is bringing
it to people that weren't asking for it
necessarily but at the end of the day
when someone's just not interested
they're busy they they're just not
wanting to hear or they're mocking or
they're rude or they're whatever I just
move on say have a good day bye see ya
you know and just go to the next door
and realize you're not gonna get every
single person saved the Apostle Paul
didn't get every single person saved
Jesus didn't get every single person
saved if Jesus didn't get people saved
I'm not gonna get everybody saved okay
and you just got to keep moving on Jesus
was going to a town priests everybody go
to the next town go to the next town go
to the next town you know that's why I
even said now is the day of salvation now
is the accepted time because some people
their opportunity was now and then it's
not later there's eight there's like what
are 11 billion people on this planet you
can't waste all of your time on the
people that aren't interested you got to
find the people that are and that's why
our so many efforts in our inner methods
are to try and just go to every door and
and try to give everybody at least one
opportunity try to find people that are
receptive and I think it sometimes grinds
people's gears and they just think like
oh man you know you didn't want to you
didn't want to like break into everybody's
house and do a check on everybody's
house every single person in the building
or something like that I even say this if
a house is gated up it's got like barbed
wire on it and they've got two pit bulls
I'm not saying like I'm going to scale
that fence I'm saying they've already
shown me that they're not interested I
can leave a card at the gate or whatever
and I'm just going to the next door
because I only got so much time I only
got so much energy you know I sufficient
of the days the evil thereof you know if
you've already said you don't want any
of that now if they have a sign on the
door that says no soliciting or we found
Jesus or I hate religion I'll still knock
that door and in fact recently I got
someone saved with one of those it says
like do not knock on our door we found
Jesus we had whatever and I was I said
you know what I'm still knocking those
doors and most of the time they they're
not even mean about it sometimes they are
like did you read the sign and I'm like
yeah they're like well you have to get a
permit to solicit here and I'm like I'm
not soliciting and they're like but you
need to get a permit and I'm like okay
have a good day you know see ya and they
just yell at you as you walk away they're
like someone's gonna call the cops on you
and I'm like it's you you're the one
that's gonna do that you know but
whatever they call the cops and they
show up and they don't care because
you're just preaching the gospel or
whatever but you know what I also think
is interesting think about this what did
Paul not preach you notice he never
mentioned repenting of your sins and
notice he never mentioned baptism notice
he never mentioned going to church notice
he never mentioned turning it over a new
leaf what was the one thing you wanted
to get them to do believe in the
resurrected Lord Jesus Christ because
the only thing you have to do to be saved
is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
that's the old episode or the emphasis of
the New Testament of the gospel of Jesus
Christ is going out and spreading the
good news that it's not turning over a
new leaf it's not repenting of all your
sins it's simply putting your trust in
Jesus that saves us it's just a free
gift not by works of righteousness which
we have done but by his mercy he saved us
you know that's another thing that's
completely different he's pointing to the
resurrection because the resurrection is
what saves us not your dead works not
your life and you know what these people
I guarantee were real sinful I mean they
didn't have God they didn't have the law
I mean you don't think that they were
committing all kinds of fornication and
abusing all kinds of substances drinking
alcohol on a regular basis I mean you
know they're involved in all kinds of
stuff why didn't he say turn from your
drinking turn from your fornication
quickly and in fact other places in
Scripture indicate that the Gentiles were
definitely into fornication they were
definitely in a lot of these sins that we
see in the Bible yet we only see the
saved Christians getting that advice
after they've been saved when he's going
into an area where they haven't even
gotten the gospel yet it's just the
gospel it's just believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ here's the resurrection and
you know these people that are believing
they're getting saved and then they're
following Paul around they want to hear
more that he has to say and just realize
this there's people that want to get
saved in every single town and and I'll
kind of conclude on this statement you
know what's really funny to me is if you
go to small towns and you preach the
gospel you go anywhere you know you'll
find a Catholic Church Church of Christ
Methodist Church Pentecostal Church
those witnesses Hindus Muslims it's like
and then you go to the next town you
find a Catholic Church a Methodist it's
like the same thing just over and over
and over I mean you find them everywhere
why because it's like every area just has
their group that just box and then you
got their group that will hear you again
and then you got your group that's gonna
get saved and look we're looking for the
people that get saved in every town a
few the proud the same okay let's go in
prayer thank you Heavenly Father for
this chapter and the example that was
set out by Paul thank you that we don't
worship a rock today or some just piece
of wood something that we have to you
know literally spoon feed here thank you
that we worship an Almighty God that
created the heavens and the earth I pray
that we would just realize the
importance of preaching the gospel to
the lost and that while not everybody's
gonna get saved that it's our duty and
it's our job to go out and to reach them
and to try and find those that are
receptive and try to use the truth of
the Word of God and try to use the
resurrection of Jesus Christ to win them
over and I pray that you would just stir
something up in our spirit that when we
see the world going to hell in a hand
basket and we see all these false
churches and false religion in this world
today that it would motivate us to try
and save people that are trapped by
deceit trapped by the lies of the devil
and that we would hate the even the
garment spotted by the flesh and in
Jesus name we pray amen.
Go to our final song for the evening
244 amazing grace
244
all right song 244 amazing grace we'll
sing it out there on the first amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a
wretch like me I once was lost but now
I'm found was blind but now I see was
grace that taught my heart to fear and
grace my fears relieved how precious
did that grace appear the hour I first
believed through many dangers toils and
snares I have already come
his grace have brought me safe thus far
and grace will lead me home when we've
been there ten thousand years bright
shining as the Sun we've no less days to
sing God's grace than when we first begun
all right good singing you're all
dismissed
you