← ArchiveActsSunday, July 21, 2019DateJuly 21, 2019Speaker—TextActs 17Passages in this sermonActs 170:48Revelation 4:118:06Colossians 4:331:26Matthew 736:49TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Music.0:30Alright, for those of you that have not ever met me, my name is Brad, I'm the associate pastor, youth pastor here, I'm at Bethel, and it is always a joy to actually get behind the podium, get behind in the pulpit, even though this thing seems to be getting smaller every time I get up here. And so, I'm hoping that nothing falls off here, so. Go ahead and turn with me to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, we're going to pick off where we left off with last week, starting in verse 16. One of the things that we need to understand about the early church is that it was not0:59a building or a place, it was a movement. It was a movement of people centered around the gospel. So, we've been in a series called The Model Church, and so the question throughout this series is, what does the model church look like according to scripture? What does it look like according to God's word? Specifically today, we're going to look at how do we as the church collectively and individually as people infect and engage our culture with the gospel.1:27Years ago, we were having what we call the back-to-school bash in our youth ministry, and we all encourage our students to invite as many friends as they possibly can. And I will never forget, there was a student that we had, he ran up to me very frantically out of breath, and he goes, man, Brad, I got this guy, he's an atheist. And I told him we're having this kind of party thing, you know, and everything, and so, but1:52when I turned into the church, man, he was ticked. And so, this kid basically invited an atheist friend that did not tell him this was a church function, just told him it was a party. And so, he goes, hey man, he's out in the car, can you go talk to him about Jesus? And I went, okay. And so, I went out there and everything, and so, this young man was sitting in the car in the pastor's seat, he was pretty upset, not happy. And I said, hey man, listen, I know you're upset, and this is not where you thought you2:22were coming and everything, but we have corn dogs and pizza. And, I mean, it's going to be awesome, I'm just telling you. Why don't you come with me, I'll get you something to eat. And so, he came out and everything, we had a really good conversation, actually became friends. And so, sometimes we find ourselves in those situations where we really don't know what to do. Have you ever been there before? It's like all of a sudden, you're faced with presenting the gospel to someone.2:53And so, Paul found himself oftentimes throughout his walk, throughout his journey. And so, in Acts chapter 17, it's a situation he found himself, and so, we want to know how to handle those situations better as believers. We want to know how mentally, in our mind, we know what to possibly say, but we're going to see in Acts chapter 17, what Paul did and how he handled those situations. And I think there's nothing better to look at the scripture to find out how to handle those3:22situations, how to engage our culture. And so, the book of Acts was written by a doctor named Luke, who traveled with Paul and kept a record of the things that had happened and the things that Paul preached. Before Paul's conversion, he absolutely hated Christianity. He hated Christianity. He went out to kill it, to snuff it out, mainly because he thought it was against the laws of Moses and that no good Jew needed to have anything to do with this cult that was being portrayed.3:49Even though Jesus himself was a Jew, Paul was a very religious Pharisee. So, Paul was a man who had spent his entire life defending a way of salvation, a way of acceptance with God that basically said, if you want to be right with God and have eternal life with Him, you have to take the law of God and put it on like an ox wears a yoke and pull your own weight. So, that's what he believed, that's what he understood, and for Christianity to come along4:21and say something different, it meant that his entire life was a mistake. And so, he wouldn't know part of it. So, Paul gets saved on Damascus Road and has radically changed. And he went from hating and hunting Christians to kill them to hunting lost people that knew Jesus. And so, we know, as Paul's account, something happened to him. And so, for many years now, Paul has been proclaiming Christ and discipling believers, and we come4:48to a place called Athens. Paul came to Athens after being forced to flee Thessalonica and Berea. Athens was the heart of Greek culture and thought, famous for his art, famous for his philosophy, and some of those famous philosophers came out of that area. So, when you think of Athens, this is what I want you to think about, okay? When you think of Athens, I want you to think of Harvard, Yale, Tuscaloosa, and Auburn.5:14All wrapped into one. And you say, well, how in the world does that work, Brad? How does that work? Well, first of all, Harvard and Yale, you have this incredible education system there. And then Tuscaloosa and Auburn, you have athletes. And so, in Athens, you had these coliseums, you had these museums, you had all this kind of wrapped up in the one. And by the way, that is where the original Olympics took place. So, these people were very well-rounded.5:43As a matter of fact, you could look at their culture and kind of go, you know, it's kind of similar to what we live today. Very similar. And so, Acts chapter 17, starting at verse 16, let's dive in. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols. So, while Paul was waiting, he was waiting on some friends to come join him. He did what any tourist does.6:14He went sightseeing. He wanted to check things out. He wanted to go and taste the coffee and go to the theaters and go to the temples and the marketplaces and go shopping a little bit. And all the ancient Athens were there with their idols. And that's one thing that he noticed. One of the ancient writers tells us that at this particular time, there's 30,000 idols in Athens of different sorts, different statues. And Paul recognized that this was not merely objects of art, but objects of worship for them.6:42Objects of worship. And so, right now, it's easy for us to kind of check out because we're like, Brad, there's not that around here. You can't, you don't see statues of idols and you don't see people bowing down to idols in our culture. You just don't really see that. That would be kind of weird. But we don't have physical idols to bow down to.7:09We need to understand that the culture in Athens is closely related to our culture today. So, we may not have physical idols to see, but there are idols that are present in our culture and our lives. Anything, anything that we give more time, attention, or resources to than the one true God is, in fact, an idol. An idol. And some of us have many of those in our lives.7:38So, this is how this connects with our culture. Anything that we create that replaces the one true God is idolatry. Anybody, when you say, Brad, that's kind of harsh. When we create something, when we put something in place, in the place of our Lord and Savior, it is idolatry. Revelation chapter 4, verse 11, you don't have to turn there, but this is what it says.8:06Worthy are you, O Lord God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. And so, why is the Lord worthy of glory and honor and power? Because He created all this. He created all this. It started with this. He trumps everything. He trumps everything. So, take that truth and insert it into every area of our life, as an individual and as a group of collective people in our culture.8:34When we create something, whether it is physical or a priority in our life, that we spend more time and resources to than God. Anytime we create something, we set ourselves up for being in charge. We set ourselves up for being in charge and over that thing. And when that thing consumes us, when whatever it is, whether it is a physical thing, whether it is a spiritual thing,8:59when that thing consumes us, and that is all we think about, that's all we do, and we stop paying attention to the one true God. That is, in fact, an idol. We become creator. And we give glory to ourselves. We live in a society and culture of pleasure seekers, always looking for what feels good. Intellectual know-it-alls that worship knowledge and education, craving more stuff which feeds our egos to get more stuff.9:24And we become so busy filling our schedules with events to keep our kids entertained. If we're not careful, those things will become idols. Those things will become idols. And we wonder, oftentimes, why isn't the church growing? Why isn't the church collectively growing across our country? I believe because we have fallen away from what is important. And we're going to look at that here in a minute.9:54I think we have to look at how Paul engages the culture in Athens. I think we can learn something from how Paul engages that culture and how we can engage our culture today. We have a tendency to program evangelism. We've done a lot. You guys have probably been through faith. You've been through trainings. You've been through all kinds of different things. You've shared Jesus with love here. There's nothing wrong with those. As a matter of fact, I've been through several of those. There's nothing wrong with those things. I learned a lot on how to share my faith with folks.10:22But if that is in itself, is all that we do is get trained on how to share our faith and we put it up here. And it never gets here, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. And so oftentimes we think that we have all this knowledge and we want to go and share our faith. There's something that we can't just flip the switch and go.10:53We can't just, okay, I'm just going to flip the switch and I'm just going to go. It doesn't happen that way. It may happen for some people, but it doesn't always happen that way. You see, we know we're supposed to be going out and telling the world about Jesus. We know this. We know that that's what we're supposed to be doing. And that's what we're commanded to do. But I'm going to be really transparent and very honest with you. I'm not always up to sharing the gospel. I'm not always up to it.11:22There may be a season in my life where there's just something going on. I'm either, either I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm busy or, or my heart is just not into it. And if we're honest with each other, you're, you're, you've been in the same boat. We know we're supposed to, but our heart isn't just, is not there. So evangelism becomes a matter of the heart. Becomes a matter of the heart. We can have the knowledge, but if our heart's not there, it's not going to work.11:51It's not going to happen. The first thing that Paul is showing us in this text is we need a passion for the Lord, for the glory of God. We need a renewed passion for the glory of God. So in verse 16, the last part of verse 16, it says, his, his spirit was provoked. His spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols.12:19Some translations, and I love this translation, it says was stirred. His spirit was stirred within him. Why? Why? Because Paul's spirit was stirred because of the unbelief and the lostness that was in this great city, mainly because of idolatry. His heart was broken. His heart was torn out of frame because he walked into the city and he's seen all these great things. And all of a sudden he sees people worshiping idols.12:49And it broke his heart. It broke his heart. Paul felt intense trouble in his spirit, a storm within. And he saw the city given over to idolatry. The only positive thought about this is each idol revealed these men and women of Athens had a great capacity to worship. They had a great capacity to want to worship something.13:17They knew that there was something beyond man and there was, they were seeking it. And so Paul was stirred because he saw men, women, boys, and girls that was giving glory to something that was dead and didn't deserve glory. The one true God deserves the glory that people were not giving him. And it stirred Paul's spirit. So we need a passion, a broken heart for the lostness in our area. When's the last time that you were broken over your neighbor's lostness?13:46When's the last time that you were, that you looked across the city and you were broken over the fact that there's people that don't know Jesus? In our area, it's very difficult. Because we live in this area called the Bible Belt. Where you can't sling a dead cat and hit a church, not hit a church. They're everywhere. And so everybody goes to church.14:18I ask my students a lot of times, they go, yeah, they go to church. Everybody goes to church. At least it seems. At least sometimes they tell you that. But here's what we have to do. Our heart has to be stirred. We have to have a passion. And this should be the beginning of our evangelism. Not necessarily the knowledge and learning a new acrostic or learning a new way to share the faith.14:45Because if our heart isn't into it, it's not going to work. So this should be the beginning of our evangelism. This should be the starting point. We must be motivated with the glory of God on our minds and on our hearts. And let me tell you this. The glory of God is shown out when someone receives Jesus. That should be the end game. That's what we should want to seek after, that glory of the Lord.15:14We should look at our lost friends and our neighbors and go, you know what? There's potential. What if that person confessed Christ? Could you imagine what the Lord would do through them? And so we give the glory to Him. So we must be motivated with the glory of God on our minds and our hearts. This means we have to look at people with their hearts and see them as the Savior sees them.15:42So we can't program this and expect it to be effective. What is effective is a broken heart and a passion for lost people to be saved. The second part is we need to be motivated for the souls of people. We need to be motivated for the souls of people. And we see this motivation in verse 17. It says, So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons.16:11And in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. So Paul is doing what Paul does best. He's finding ways to communicate the gospel. He's finding ways in the marketplace in the ancient city where the culture center was. Not just a place you shopped. He went to the culture city. And by the way, he's not hanging out at Walmart at the Sporting Good Isle creeping up on people. That's not what he's doing here.16:39He's trying his very best to find where people are. And he's very strategic on how he does this. He's not confronting. He's going to them. But he did it in a very strategic way. And we're going to see what he does here. It's very interesting that the first people that he went after in the city was the religious. You notice that? That's the first people that he went after. The Jews. The religious people. And so these religious people, the Jews, mainly the Jews, they were regular attenders of worship services.17:06They were familiar with God. They were familiar with the scriptures. And usually trying to live moral lives. So that's the first group that he went after. Why was he reasoning with religious people? Why? Because of idols. Because of idols. Is it possible for people in the synagogue to start to be influenced by the culture around them? Is that possible? Yes.17:37Yes. It's possible for the religious people to be influenced by the culture around them. We see that today. For the religious, power can become an idol. Traditions can become an idol. Buildings can become idols. Position or status can become an idol. So yes, culture can influence the church. And all of those things can be a disaster and a distraction for reaching lost people. So having a passion for the glory of God will lead to motivation for the souls of people.18:05So Paul shared with the Jews in the synagogue. Then he moves his passion and motivation toward the pagan philosophers and the Gentiles in Athens. Verse 18. Some of the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some says, what does this babbler wish to say? Others say he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.18:33Now they were trying to throw an insult at Paul. Throw a shade at him basically. Calling him a babbler. Which was someone that was basically uneducated. Is what they were trying to tell him. But Paul must have said something to them to spark interest. He must have said something. Had a conversation with them to spark some interest. In verse 19 it says, they took him and brought him to Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting.19:01Verse 20 says, for you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean. Verse 21 says, now all the Athens and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing. Except telling or hearing something new.19:29This is what they did. This is basically what they did. They sat around and they talked about nothing. I see people at Jack's doing this often in the mornings. Basically they sit around and they talk about things that aren't important. That's what the scriptures are basically referring to. There's really nothing. But here's what they're doing here. All they're doing is they're interested in something new. They're probably thinking, you know what, this could be another idol.20:00This is something new that we're hearing so we could worship this. And so that's what their minds are moved toward. Something new. Something different. And these people did not, they didn't know who Paul was. They didn't see him as the great missionary to the Gentiles. They didn't know his story. So Paul is about to preach a short sermon to these people.20:28And we're going to see how strategic Paul is in sharing the gospel. Man, I love this. I've read this several times over and over again and just thinking, man, this is just, this is a strategic prescription for sharing the gospel. In verse 22 it says, so Paul standing in the midst of, I can't say this word, Aeropagus, and said, men of Athens, I perceive that every way you are very religious. So here's what he did.20:59The first thing we see, Paul, is we found some common ground with them. Paul is basically saying, you guys are very, you guys are very religious. You're, you're very spiritual. He's finding common ground with them. He's getting to know them. He's saying, you know, I'm, I'm very religious too. I'm very spiritual too. And so some people may not even believe in God and still have an interest in spiritual things. Even in our culture, people are trying to find their purpose and they may use religion21:27to help them find that purpose. As a former agnostic myself, I can tell you that when I was in trouble, I'd pray to give to a God that I didn't know. Some of you that know me well, you know, man, I, maybe I was in a mess. And God, help me with this. I wasn't a believer. And so for some reason in our culture, there's this draw to something bigger than us.21:5278% of atheists say they pray. What do they pray to? So there's this, there's this, this draw to something spiritual, something better, something more. And so Paul used this as his advantage. You very religious people. It wasn't a compliment. It wasn't a slam. It was basically, hey, we have something in common here.22:22And that's what we've got to do. We've got to find common ground with those around us. Those that may believe different than us. There's a great inroad to a conversation that asks, Do you have spiritual beliefs? Do you have spiritual beliefs? Tell me about those. Tell me about those spiritual beliefs. You see, we must, we must show genuine interest in others. And it can't be manufactured. It can't be manufactured.22:52In verse 28, we're going to go a little further down, but we're going to go back up to 23. Verse 28, this is really interesting. He quotes one of those poets of Athens. So he studied their culture. He studied their culture. He found common ground with them. He got to know about who they were. Verse 23 says, For I passed along and observed objects of your worship. I found also an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God. What therefore you worship is unknown.23:21This I proclaim to you. And I love this part. Basically, he's getting ready to put the hammer down. He went around and he studied their culture. He got to know who they were. He got to know what they're all about and everything. He's found some common ground with them. He's quoting poets of them. And he's actually telling them, Hey, I've seen this inscription. To the unknown God. Paul says, You have a God that you don't know his name. Let me introduce him to you.23:49Let me show you who he is. Then he begins to tell them the gospel. In the following verses, Paul strategically places the character of God in every single verse. He starts by stating that God is the ultimate creator. In the next three verses, 24, 25, and 26. This is what it says. Then God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.24:18Verse 25. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. So we not only see creation, but we also see the sovereignty of God in verse 26. He made man from every, from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. Having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of dwelling places.24:46Then in verse 27 to 28, we see the grace of God. That they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each of us. Verse 28. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said. For we indeed his offering, offspring.25:16Verses 29 and 30 we see his holiness. Being in God's offering, we ought not to think of the divine beings like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. Verses 30 through 31 we see God's justice. The time of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man who he has appointed.25:44And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. So when we share the gospel with people, we should share it like Paul just did. He painted a big picture. He painted the big picture of the gospel. And he wove in26:15literally from Genesis to Revelation, creation to judgment in just eight verses. And you notice he didn't quote the Old Testament. In other words, he didn't throw knowledge at them. He didn't throw his weight around it because he could have. He could have told them how awesome he was and how learned he was, but he didn't do that. He pulled back and he said, you know what? My heart is broken for these people.26:43So I'm going to find common ground with them. I'm going to communicate the gospel in ways that they understand. In ways that they understand. So guess what, ladies and gentlemen of the church? Bottom line is we need to get to know our neighbors. Who are they? And we have to start looking through a different lens. In other words, the prejudice and things that we may have toward people need to stop.27:09And the things that maybe are ingrained in our minds. We need to get into the scriptures and start looking at the scriptures. And our heart needs to become broken. And I'm convinced that is the only way. That is the only way that we as God's people are going to be able to influence the culture.27:32So we've got some work to do. So Paul met the people of Athens exactly where they were. And presented the gospel in a way they can understand. We should meet people where they are. In their loneliness. In their addictions. In their depression. In their idolatry.28:03And even in their religion. I will never forget. And there may be some people in the room that was with me that night. We were doing faith. F-A-I-T-H. You guys that have been through that, you know. And we had a visit. And the associate pastor here, for some reason, I know that he put me on it. This is Randy Gunner. And he goes, you need to go see this guy. Take your team with you. I said, okay. And Randy said this. I'll never forget it. It's going to be a cakewalk, Brad.28:32It's going to be easy. This guy, he's a former pastor. He's retired. Moved this area. It would be great if he could start coming here. I'm like, yeah, okay. That's very strategic. You get a pastor on board at the church. Former pastor on board at the church. I mean, we can put him in a life group. And he can start teaching. I mean, it would be great. And so basically, I was going out as a recruiter. Pretty much. And so I didn't mind that and everything. And so we were doing faith. And so one thing that I've never done is I never assume. Those of you that know me well, I never assume you're saved.29:01I just don't. Pretty much every person in my family, I've asked the question, hey, where are you at? And so I'm sitting in this guy and I walk in. And man, the Ten Commandments are hanging here. There's crosses everywhere. And I'm thinking, okay. Looks religious. This is going to be a short visit. It's going to be great. We sit down. And he starts talking about just different things in general. And I ask the question, in your personal opinion, what do you understand it takes for someone to go to heaven?29:29That's the key question that we throw out there. And I was blown away. You just have to be a good person. That's what you've got to do. You've got to be a good person and do right. And I'll never forget my team members literally did this. Oh, gosh. Because I'm going to just go full out.29:57And I did. I basically said, I struggled with this guy. And he was lost. A retired pastor. Ladies and gentlemen. And I walked away going, how could that happen? How could that possibly happen? And many people may say, well, maybe he misunderstood you. No.30:28No. I shared Christ with him that day. And he looked at me and he goes, well, gosh, I've done that. I said, sir, you just told me that you can just be a good person. So what do you believe? And he just kind of just was like, maybe I've lost something here along the way.30:52So how many lost friends do you have? We should have many. We should have a lot of them. For years, we have yelled the gospel at people. We've shunned people because they have maybe different views than we do. Here's another question. Have you been praying for them?31:22Have you been praying for them? Colossians 4.3 says this. All the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ. So we should be praying for our lost friends. We should be praying that the Lord would open a door up. Man, I do that all the time. I say, look, I just pray for opportunities. And I'm going to be, again, transparent with you. There are some times when I probably have missed opportunities.31:51I've got three boys. So I stay pretty ticked off most of the time. And sometimes pretty irritated, you know, because, you know, they're screaming everything in the background and stuff and everything. And all of a sudden, you even see the opportunity sometimes. You're like, uh-uh, I can't. There's no telling what I might tell them. And I have to go to the Lord and repent of that and go, Lord, I'm sorry. Because I know that there's nothing more important in our life is to share.32:23That's what we're put here for, ladies and gentlemen. That's what we're in church. That's what we're supposed to do. My kids need to see me doing this. Not to take the Bible and just bash people over the head with it all the time. But to get to know people. Find common ground with lost people. Then invite them over to my house and have dinner.32:53So in other words, God will create opportunities for the gospel to be heard in response to our prayers. So we're going to have to engage those who do not believe like we believe. Do not walk like we walk. And do not love the God that we love. And we've got to seize up that opportunity and let us make most of our time with them. And be intentional and purposeful about how we do life around others. Because how we do life around others makes all the difference in the world.33:24Because we can't leave here and live a double life. Those of you that work in the secular world, you know what I'm talking about. You've heard it. I don't want anything to do to the church because of the way people act. And this is a shame. It really is. But if we're real and we get to know people and they get to know us.33:55This is what they get to understand. You cut us, we bleed too. But if we're friends with them and they begin to understand. They see the difference in the way we live and the way we react to certain things. Makes all the difference in the world. Paul shows us that he didn't yell. He didn't shun them. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.34:25So what's the three responses we see here? Verse 32. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, we will hear you again about this. So some people mocked. And others brushed him off. And we see that today. We see people mocking Christ, mocking the church.34:56And you may say something to someone and it's offensive to them. And they'll mock. And then you have people that will just kind of brush you off. I'm not ready for that yet. I'm not quite there yet. The sad thing about those two responses is both responses are rejecting the gospel. And our hearts should be even more broken. Jesus told us that this would happen.35:26People are going to reject the gospel. And so we shouldn't be discouraged. Oftentimes that's what people will automatically get discouraged. I'll never forget. I was on another faith visit one time. And before I could knock on the door, a guy raised the window up above his door and says, don't want none. Go away. I had a group of teenage students with me. They're all like, oh my gosh. Do you hear what he said? I'm like, guys, it's okay. It's fine. As a matter of fact, I would rather that happen than nothing happen.35:53In other words, I would rather my life be a life of rejection often. Because at least I'm rubbing against the culture. At least I'm doing something. So oftentimes we shy away because it's hard. It's difficult. This is not easy. It's not something you can just flip a switch and you say, I'm just going to do this.36:23It's not something you can just learn an acrostic or a way to do it and just go. Your heart has to be in it. Because guess what? Oftentimes when your heart's not in it, you get rejected. One time you go, I'm not doing that again. And we end up sitting right here our entire lives and never sharing the gospel again. Because we've been rejected once. And don't be discouraged. Matthew 7, 13, 14 says this. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.36:52And those who enter it, by it, are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. Ladies and gentlemen, not everybody you present the gospel with, not everybody you share with, they're going to get saved. There's going to be mockery and there's going to be rejection. Jesus is not surprised by that. And we should never be discouraged for sharing the gospel because of the third response.37:21Verse 33, so Paul went out from their midst. But 34, listen to this. But some men joined him and believed. That's the glory that we need is a desire right there. Some men joined him and believed.37:50Among whom also were Deniasis and Herod. And a woman named Demarius and others with him. You should be able to, right now, identify people in each category. In other words, you should identify people that you know personally in each category.38:16Those that mock, those that are thinking about Christ. Maybe they've brushed you off and those that have joined you. And I want to submit to you this morning, this may be hard, but it's okay. If you don't have those three people in your categories, in your life, on a regular basis. You may not be sharing the gospel. If you don't personally know someone that has mocked.38:46If you don't personally know someone that has said, I'm not familiar with that. I'm not really into that right now. And other people have joined you on the journey and believed. Maybe you need some motivation. Jesus saw us in our lostness, in our idolatry. He was provoked, but instead of condemning us and rotting us off, he ran to us.39:16Showed us his love for us from creation to judgment. And then revealed God to us in his death and resurrection. As he has done to us, let us now do to others. That should be our motivation. So where are you?39:48What's it going to take for us to have broken hearts and be motivated? To tell others about what has happened in us. Because that's effectively what you're doing. You're telling others about you've been changed and you... Jesus has done something in your heart. And we should want to tell others. So as we close.40:18Here's the invitation. Maybe you're thinking of people you need to engage. In this life. And you need to ask God for passion. And motivation. Right now, I hope you're thinking of someone that you need to go talk to. Someone that you can engage. Someone that you can find common ground with.40:47And ask God to give you that passion. Ask him to give you that motivation. And maybe you've seen the truth of the gospel today. Maybe for the first time you've seen the truth of the gospel today. The question is. Will you mock Jesus? Will you just put him off? Or will you believe? And I'm going to tell you something.41:18I've been in all three categories. All three of them. I've mocked him. I've put him off. And eventually. I believed. And there's nothing like the last one. There's nothing like. Coming to Jesus.41:47There's nothing like it. So let's pray. Lord Jesus.← Previous in ActsSunday, July 14, 2019Next in Acts →Sunday, July 28, 2019More sermons on Acts →
