The Prevailing Power of God’s Word

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Let's pray together.

Lord, uh, there's nothing that you're not worthy of.

The Bible uh makes that clear.

We understand that.

We also understand that because you're worthy, we're responsible to conduct our lives in such a manner that we live in lives that reflect the worth of the gospel.

So, Holy Spirit, illuminate your scriptures.

We've already reminded ourselves that you say in your word in the Psalm 119 that the unfolding of your word gives light.

We don't need a lecture, we need light today.

We need revelation, we need illumination.

We need you to kind of shine into the nooks and crannies of our life where we hide stuff we're not done with, but we need to be done with today.

So, Holy Spirit, help us understand what the difference in repenting and renouncing.

Because some of us need to repent of some stuff, and some of us need to renounce some stuff to say, hey, this is no longer a part of my life, like a high school letter jacket.

This doesn't fit anymore, and those accomplishments aren't as important as I once thought they were.

So I'm gonna be done with this.

Only your word has that capacity, God.

So demonstrate and unleash the power of your word today in our presence.

We ask for this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat if you got a Bible.

I invite you to take and open up to Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

I'll start reading verse 8.

I want to talk to you this morning about the prevailing power of God's word.

The prevailing power of God's word.

If you're our guest today, we were preaching through the book of Acts.

We took a break for the month of July and our staff preached.

Uh, I appreciate y'all's comments.

Must be nice having a month off.

Uh, I want to meet you in the parking lot when we're done here.

Um, I just didn't preach, and I was here.

Uh, but anyway, so we're back in the book of Acts.

Now, one of the things that you should uh uh you should have noticed by now that in the in the book of Acts, it talks about what the word did.

Nowadays we talk about what preachers do, but in the book of Acts, it talks about like the word grew and spread, the word increased, the word caused this.

And so Acts is all about the word, not those that preach the word.

Like chapter 18, it says Paul was occupied with the word.

And and so in chapter 18, uh, that this this couple that worked with Paul, Priscilla and Quill, they meet this guy.

He he's a kind of a young hotshot preacher named Apollos.

He didn't really understand all the whole story of Christianity.

And so they sent him down and educated him and talked to him, help him understand the big picture.

He's like, Oh, that's super helpful, thank you.

Uh, and then we see where we left off, where there's some people they didn't understand that that Pentecost had happened and the Holy Spirit had come.

So young preachers need some educating, and these new believers need some educating about what all has happened.

Now, again, we're gonna pick up chapter 19, verse 8, because you see the word just keeps doing what only the word can do.

So, Acts chapter 19, verse 8, the Bible says this.

Acts 19:8

Um, and he entered the synagogue for three months.

He spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning in the hall of Tyrannis.

This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Verse 11 says, And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and evil spirits came out of them.

Then some of their itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you, by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims, seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skeva were doing this.

But the evil spirit answered them, Uh oh.

The evil spirit answered them.

Look what the evil spirit said, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?

And the man in whom was the evil spirit, he leaped on them, mastered all of them.

That's Bible talk for putting a beat down on these fools.

Mastered all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.

I don't know if you got into a fight where when it was over, you when the fight started, you were fully clothed, but when it was over, you were naked, you lost the fight, okay?

I'm just saying.

They ran out of the house naked and wounded, and this became known to all the residents of Ephesus.

I bet it did, both Jews and Greeks.

And fear, get this part right here, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

Also, many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices, and a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.

And they counted the value of them and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

See, one of the things you see all through here is the prevailing power of God's word.

There's three things you see in the text I want to point to and and unpack just for a little bit.

The first one is what I call gospel saturation.

It's verses 8 to 12.

Gospel saturation.

Just you, I it's so easy to just kind of read past this, and it's easy to miss it.

But I want you to see, and in verse 9, I believe it's verse 10, he says, This continued because what happened was Paul was talking and they experienced some resistance, okay?

And so he goes into the synagogue.

That's where, like, kind of like the church on the day where the Jews met to uh teach the law, to teach God's word.

And he the Bible says he speaks boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom.

Uh, but some people became stubborn and continued in unbelief, and they spoke evil of the way, which is Christianity, before the whole congregation.

And Paul just said, I tell you what, I've not got time.

It's easier to birth babies than raise the dead.

I'm not gonna sit here and try to have conversations with religious knuckleheads.

And so he goes and he rents out a hall, the hall of Tyrannus, and he basically says, Hey, I'm gonna teach the gospel over here, and people go over there, and people are listening to him.

And the Bible says this here, verse 10.

This is gospel saturation that continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Um, all the residents of Asia, you know how big Asia is?

As you sit in this room right now, there's 4.7 billion people in Asia alone.

Most of the world's population abides in the country in the country of Asia.

Now, were there 4.7 billion people back then?

No, probably not, okay?

But all the residents of Asia, can you just imagine all the residents of Fort Bend County?

It's not even 4.7 billion.

So when you read something like that in the Bible and you hear me say gospel saturation, you should think, where does the gospel, where, where does this juicy reality of the gospel, what dry and arid places has the juicy reality of the gospel not gotten to, not hadn't saturated those places?

Because they saturated in all of Asia, Jews and Greeks, Jews, religious, Greeks, smart people, both ends of the spectrum, they all heard the word of the Lord.

How does this happen?

Well, it happens because of what's called this pattern of what's called apostolic preaching.

Now, when I say apostolic preaching, if you have an idea of what I'm talking about, say amen.

Y'all couldn't even say that much comment.

I said that sounds kooky, like hand raising stuff.

No, preachers sometimes say stuff and it makes no sense.

They just keep going.

Apostolic preaching, you have to you don't have to be afraid of that phrase.

What that means is apostolic is apostles.

Apostles are people that saw Jesus, okay?

Living, breathing.

Hey, we hung out with Jesus.

He was a cool dude.

Those are the apostles.

But basically, the apostles preached in the manner they saw Jesus preaching, okay?

And so there's this four-step process involved in apostolic preaching.

Let me just give it to you.

Number one, they reasoned and persuaded people in dialogue.

They reasoned and persuaded people in dialogue, they had conversations.

See, a long time ago, they came to church to be equipped to go out and have conversations with people.

In America, we just think, hey, the church is supposed to try to convert people every Sunday.

No, we're supposed to equip you to have intentional conversations with people out in the world.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

And so there's nothing that's more helpful.

See, you're not going to get gospel saturation by depending on one preacher.

You're going to get gospel saturation because one preacher labors long and faithfully to equip a thousand people, to engage people and reason with people and persuade people in a conversation over a salad at Salada.

Which I highly recommend, by the way.

It's the best$20 salad you'll ever have.

Anyway, they reason, my wife loves it, and I'm like, ah, I feel like they're stealing from me as I'm sliding down the line.

Then I get to the end, they flip the screen around, they go, Would you like to leave a tip?

And I say the same thing.

If I'm standing up, I ain't tipping.

If I'm sitting down and you're waiting on me, I tip.

But if I'm standing up and you just go, Would you like to leave a tip?

No, I tip you enough.

I think enough profit is baked in to this$20 bowl of lettuce.

I'm fixing a jam in my pie hole.

And my wife just walks off because she's like, please, do you have to say this every time?

It's so bad that the people that work there, they go, Oh, I want to wait on you.

I bet you do.

Something like, hey, that little eighth teaspoon, just keep scooping.

How about you keep scooping until I tell you to stop?

Don't just flick like two pieces of grape in there.

Just grab it with your hand, but I digress.

They reasoned and they persuaded.

This is apostolic uh uh preaching.

Four four-step process.

They reasoned and they persuaded people in dialogue.

Secondly, they were bold.

They were not obnoxious, they were bold.

Ask yourself this question this morning.

If you were really bold, what would you do this week?

Is there something you put off, delayed, denied?

Kind of, oh man, push out of my mind.

I want to have to face that.

They were bold, not obnoxious.

Thirdly, the focus was on the kingdom of God.

That's what he says right there.

This is what he does.

He's reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

If somebody asks you, what is the kingdom of God?

how would you answer that?

Could you explain the kingdom of God to somebody?

It's not a couple of 40-year-old unmarried single nerds at someone's apartment playing risk.

No, the kingdom of what is the kingdom of God?

I'll just give you a real simple answer to that question.

The kingdom of God is the realm within which what God wants done gets done.

It's the realm within which what God wants done gets done.

That's why when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

When you and I obey, our lives become the medium by which the will of God finds expression.

This is what we mean by the kingdom of God.

Fourth thing, they expected resistance.

They expected resistance.

This always seems to surprise us.

Yes, they expected resistance, and this is why they could saturate a whole country, almost a continent, with the gospel.

Why?

Because they reasoned and persuaded people, they were bold, they focused the focus was on the kingdom of God, not their own personal well-being, and they expected resistance.

So much so that John Calvin, the Swiss theologian, he wrote this.

This was written, by the way, in 1543.

He said this, he said, they eventually descended, talking about this, what happens in Acts 19.

They eventually descended to attacking in public what they did not want to embrace.

And they did this simply because they wanted, if possible, to have everyone share in their impiety.

Impiety means I don't believe in this God stuff.

Go away, people.

We're gonna mock this.

Now, let me read this quote again, and I want you to just envision in your mind what you wish you could unsee from the opening, uh uh uh the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

They eventually descended to attacking in public what they did not want to embrace.

And they did this simply because they wanted, if possible, to have everyone share in their impiety.

This is why you were like, Why am I so angry right now?

And I get it.

If you want to understand the culture, just ask this question: What does our culture most want to not be true?

This explains their behavior.

And so we don't get shrill and loud and obnoxious, we just stay bold and stand our ground.

This is how gospel saturation happens.

The second thing you see in the text is gospel imitation, it's verses 13 to 16.

This is the part of Acts 19 that everybody remembers gospel imitation.

Well, it's these seven sons of Skeva, Jewish chief priests.

They look around and they're like, the word is going out and supernatural things are happening.

Because when there's gospel saturation, you're gonna have a manifestation of powerful realities that establish the gospel, okay?

And so this is what you read in in verse 13.

Uh I read earlier, they go out and they're like, oh, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.

Uh, I would use the word, the the the the the the name Millie Vanilli, but most of you are too young to remember them.

If you remember Millie Vanilli, say amen.

Every time, okay, you're with me, you're my age group people.

Every time I read Acts 19, I just think this is Millie Vanilli.

Girl, you know it's true.

Yes, a long time ago, kids, lip syncing was a crime.

Now it's an industry, but I digress.

People like Johnny Cash could play an instrument and actually sing.

Nowadays, a long time, back in the early 90s, there's these two brothers, they were twins, good-looking guys, ripped up, big pecks, six-pack, kind of like me, long dreads, you know, and basically they were models.

And a record executive figured out, hey, we can get these guys, they're good looking and they can kind of dance.

And and they had they had number one song.

They won Grammys, and then finally somebody blew the whistle and said, These guys are lip-syncing.

They don't sing anything.

Basically, they move their mouth while somebody else's words come out.

Now, some of you are like, ah, this feels strangely threatening.

Yeah, because some of you, you're not really converted.

You just move your mouth while somebody else's words come out.

And this concerns you, and it should.

Because gospel imitation is not Christianity.

The Bible says this.

They said, I adjure you by the by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.

Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skeva were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them, Jesus, I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?

I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul.

I don't even recognize you.

Ask yourself this question today over lunch.

Are you known in hell?

It's one thing to be somebody in the religious subculture in America and builds your brand and this, that, and the other.

But does hell know your name?

Do evil spirits, are they aware of your existence?

And the man in whom of the evil spirit leapt on them and he mastered all of them and he overpowered them, so they fled out of the house, naked and wounded.

And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all.

Now, let me just pause right here.

I do not, as your pastor, I do not want fear to fall upon you.

I don't want you to walk out.

I don't want your kids to walk out and kind of go, hey, are the bad people gonna jump on us and get us and beat our pants off of us?

No, if you're a Christian, you got nothing to worry about, okay?

Gospel imitation.

See, there's a difference in being popular and being known.

These guys wanted to be popular, but they weren't known.

The difference is that one comes with acceptance and the other comes with authority.

And again, I mean, this word gets out, and fear fell on these people.

Now, let me be clear.

These seven guys are not Christians, these are preachers' kids.

You know how they are, right?

Bunch of rebellious little hellions running around saying one thing and living a double life.

Yeah, they were the sons of a high priest, of a chief priest, okay?

And so let me be clear.

These are not Christians.

They emulate behaviors because that, but but but they themselves are not converted.

They know the words to the songs, they have a favorite worship leader, they probably have a favorite speaker, they probably listen to a bunch of religious podcasts, but their heart has never been transformed.

It's important for you and I to understand this.

I don't want you living in fear that this could happen because I do not believe that the Bible teaches that that the well, I let me say it in the positive.

I believe the Bible teaches that as a Christian, you have authority over everybody and everything.

Spiritually speaking.

I don't mean you can go to Salata today and go, give me a free salad.

I got authority over you.

No, I mean in the spiritual realm.

You say, Well, what why do you say that?

Three reasons they all come from the Bible.

The first one is Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30.

Ephesians 4:30

He says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

You have any zip-lock bags at your house?

Red and and red and yellow make what?

Not blue and yellow make green.

Where did I get red from?

No.

Blue and yellow make green.

Okay?

And so the Bible says you've been sealed by the Spirit until the day of redemption.

People, there's a lot a lot of controversy and a lot of people like, well, can a Christian be oppressed or can a Christian be possessed?

I do not believe that the Bible teaches that a Christian can be possessed.

I believe that a Christian can be oppressed.

Like, like the enemy can come against you, but he cannot like come into your house and take over.

Why?

First reason is because you've been sealed by the spirit.

Secondly, first John 4 4 says this, little children.

This is in a section of 1 John where it's talking about testing the spirits.

He says, Little children, you are from God and you have overcome them.

Who is them, these evil spirits?

For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

You see, life by nature is spiritual.

It's not just physical.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

It is spiritual by nature.

And the Bible says we don't war against flesh and blood, but against principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places.

A quick history lesson a long time ago, before he was Satan, his name was Lucifer.

He was an archangel, he had some authority in heaven, but he also looked around one day and said, You know what?

All this can't come from God.

I gotta I gotta be responsible for some of this.

And so he rebelled against God's authority, as did one-third of the angelic host.

And God expelled them out of heaven.

And God said, You guys like rebellion?

I'm gonna send you to a place where it happens day and night, 24-7.

And so God cast them from heaven to a place called Earth.

Not hell.

Thank you.

You just failed the spiritual sobriety test.

Officer, I'm I've had one drink.

Uh no, not hell.

Look at me.

Hell is empty right now.

If you rang the doorbell of hell, no one would answer.

Well, why?

Because they're here on earth.

Now you're like, slipping your hands over your kid's ears.

Do not listen to this.

Now you don't have to be in fear.

Why?

Because greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.

You see, the enemy knows that it's time, that hell awaits him.

He knows that destruction awaits him.

Read Revelation.

He's gonna be cast into this pit and judged.

I mean, they know they're kept in cages for judgment.

They know what awaits them.

So what do they do?

Misery loves company.

So they tried to they try to pervert everything the Bible says.

And so you don't have to live in fear.

Why?

Here's here here's probably for me one of the bigger reasons.

I don't believe what some people believe when it comes to oppression and possession.

This is Matthew chapter 12, verse 43.

Matthew 12:43

Uh, now let me give you the context.

Jesus is talking, he's just cast out an evil spirit out of this man.

And he's talking to these religious leaders.

They're like, hey, well, by what power do you do this?

This is the power of Beelzebub.

I mean, you're just you're you're the devil and you're casting out other devils.

And Jesus is like, you guys are a bunch of religious morons, okay?

And he tries to explain to them, he says, This when the unclean spirit is gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, but finds none.

Then it says, uh, then it says, I will return to my house from which I came.

And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.

Hey, by the way, that's the church in America.

Empty, swept, and put in order.

It's orderly, it's clean, but it's empty.

And you can go your whole life to a church that's just swept and clean, but just empty.

It has a form of godliness, but it denies the power thereof.

And you know you've done that because when you go, you just walk away and go, this is an hour and a half of my life, I'll never get back.

You don't feel equipped, you don't feel helped, you don't feel provoked, you don't feel nourished spiritually.

You're just like, well, that started and ended on time.

That's that that that's all I can say for that.

Jesus says, and when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of the person is worse than the first.

So also will it be with this evil generation.

You have to hear that last part of Jesus.

So also will it be with this evil generation.

Again, Jesus is talking to Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day.

Now, let me just uh uh I don't want to get into too much detail about this, uh, but but life by nature is spiritual, and sometimes you have to deal with things that are of a spiritual nature, not a physical nature.

And I remember a while back uh uh dealing with a young lady who had been dabbling in some things she shouldn't have been dabbling in, and we had to take authority over some things, and some things left her.

And I just opened up the Bible and said, Hey, when the unclean spirit is gone out of a person, and I read this to her and I said, Hey, you got to fill the house because if you don't, he'll go get it seven other spirits stronger than himself and come back.

And she said, I want Jesus in my life, I want Jesus in my in my house.

What do you mean, the house?

The Bible says in in other places, hey, don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

When you become a Christian, the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you.

And this young lady said, Please explain that to me.

So he explained it to her.

She receives Christ into her life, okay?

I see her about three months later.

I said, Hey, how you doing?

And she said, Oh, I my friends say, like, hey, we're doing this and we're putting these spells and curses and blah, blah, blah.

And this girl, by the way, was 16 years old.

16 years old.

It all started with Dungeons and Dragons.

That's what opened the door, the portal in her life, and she got in some dark stuff.

Now, please don't send me your DD players, don't send me emails.

I don't want to hear you, okay?

I don't want to hear.

I'm not saying D D is the doorway to the devil.

I'm just saying this young lady, it was like It was like a starter drug.

It got her going and going and going.

And then she's she's gotten some really dark stuff.

And her friends would threaten her and all this kind of stuff.

And she would say, Listen, they may come back.

These evil spirits may come back, but they can't come in.

And her friend's like, What do you mean?

And she said, My body's the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever seen like uh Dateline when they set up these perverts and predators that think they're online talking to a 13-year-old girl and they go up and ring the doorbell and they open the door and it's the cops?

That's what happens when a person who's been clean and they receive the house has been swept and empty and they fill it with the Holy Spirit.

That evil spirit comes back and rings a doorbell, and the Holy Spirit answers the door and says, What do you want?

And they're like, uh.

Same thing.

This is why this little 16-year-old girl goes, Oh, they can come back, but they can't come in.

It's not being sealed by the Spirit.

This is what I mean when I say gospel imitation.

See, you can only carry on the charade so long.

Let me just love you enough to tell you this.

If you're a gospel imitator here in this room today, you can only keep up the charade so long until one day, eventually, you're gonna say some things that you've heard said or sung in church, and it's not gonna be the response that you want.

And so you have gospel saturation, you have gospel imitation.

Uh, one of the reasons that the culture mocks Christianity is because deep as our core, we don't want this to be true.

And one of the reasons that people pretend is because they want things to be true, but they don't want to pay the price for them to be true.

And the price is free, you just have to surrender yourself.

These kids don't want to do that.

They just think this is funny, this is cute.

Last thing we see in the Bible is gospel demonstration.

It's verses 17 to 20.

What do you mean, gospel demonstration?

Don't miss this part.

This is where the rubber meets the road, and this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them.

And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

And also many of those who were now believers came confessing.

Hello.

Many of those who are now believers, they came confessing and divulging their practices.

I wonder if you got any practices in your life that you need to confess and divulge.

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.

And they counted the value of them and found it to come to 50,000 pieces of silver.

So the word of the Lord, once again, here's the word, doing what the word can do.

The word of the Lord continued to increase and to prevail mightily.

When I say gospel demonstration, I mean the deep work of the gospel is on display here in two ways, okay?

This demonstrates the power of the gospel of God's word.

Uh, and it's two hard words.

There's repentance and there's renouncing.

Verse 18 is repentance.

Verse 19 is renouncing.

It says they were confessing and divulging their practices.

Let me just say this secrecy is the power of badness.

And you may be hearing, like, hey, I got some things.

Notice it says right there, very clearly.

And many of those who were now believers, but so they recently came to faith and they held on to some things from their past.

And they realized, whoa, I've kind of left a door open in my life for some things to be a part of my life that do not need to be a part of my life.

And so they come and they confess and they divulge their practices.

When I was traveling, I was at a church in Mississippi and they had a room.

It was open, it was a room in their church, but there was a door that opened to the outside.

And the pastor said, Hey, if you've got anything that you want to get rid of and you don't know how to get rid of, but you want to get rid of nobody, knowing, this door is going to be open for the next month.

You can come any time of day or night and drop anything off just to get it out of your life.

And because I'm morbid and very curious, I said, So, and he goes, Oh, dude, every Monday we'd have to clean it out.

And I was like, Of what?

And he said, TVs.

I was like, What are you talking about?

Willis, let's don't get crazy.

He said, People said, Hey, I this is an idol in my life.

Other things I won't mention in public were put in there.

Because what was happening?

People are confessing and divulging their practices.

Because when you first come to faith, there's a lie that you believe that says, Hey, I can live in this world and still dabble in this one.

And the gospel says, No, you can't.

There will be no gospel saturation without gospel demonstration.

And so they demonstrate the gospel in repentance, confessing and divulging their practices.

And then, secondly, renounce.

He said they brought their books together and they burned them in the sight of all, and they counted the value of them, and it came to be 50,000 pieces of silver.

Now, now we don't really understand this.

And they count the value of them.

It's 50,000 pieces of silver.

Let's just do the monkey math here.

Are you still with me?

Say amen.

Uh 50,000 pieces of silver, a piece of silver was a day's wage.

So this is 50, these books, these people that dabbled in magic arts and sorcery and spells and witchcraft, black magic, white magic, all this kind of stuff.

Nowadays, what we call it, that people dabbled in all the how these of the books, and the power of these spells is that they were secret.

So they divulged them in public.

They no longer, the mystery is now solved, okay?

50,000 pieces of silver.

A piece of silver is for the day's wage.

So it's 50,000 days of a day's laborer's salary.

50,000 days is almost 137 years.

Now, you may be thinking, what's the big deal?

What is the big deal?

Simply this.

What they value changed because their values changed.

And so 50,000 pieces of silver worth of dark, unspiritual, ungodly nonsense is thrown into the fire.

Why?

Because they value the kingdom of God more than they value that.

And this is what it comes down to, folks, for every one of us.

It just comes down to what you value.

What you value.

Does what you value have the volume, the weight, the capacity, the mass to displace all these things out of your life that you used to value.

There's a lot of things I used to value before I became a Christian.

I don't value them anymore.

Why?

Because I value the things of God in ways that I used to value the things that were not of God.

And so I said these two words, repentance and renouncing.

Let me give you just real accessible language and we'll be done this morning, okay?

Repent means this, to change your mind.

Renounce means to change your ways.

Now look at me.

A lot of you have habitual sentences, keeps hanging on to you because you repent but you don't renounce.

Or you renounce, but you don't repent.

You renounce, you say, Oh man, I'm gonna change my ways.

I gotta change, I gotta change, I gotta change, but you never repent.

You never change your mind.

You never bring your mind into alignment with God's mind about what you're doing.

And so you can you can renounce all you want.

You can go to luncheon and go, I'm never gonna lose again.

Here, take this, and I've got this hidden here, and here's my stash over here, here's where I keep this.

And unless you repent, get your mind changed about that, it's just a matter of time before you fall back in it.

And eventually, here's what you do: you just kind of shrug and go, Well, I guess that's just who I am.

I'm just an addict.

No, you're not an addict.

You're a man or a woman who needs to repent and renounce.

You can't just do one, you gotta do both.

Again, repent means to change your mind, to bring your mind in alignment with God's mind about sin.

What does God say about this?

I don't care what's legal in 22 states.

Stop being lazy.

Yeah.

I'm talking to you, and you know what I'm talking about.

I'm so sick to death of adults telling me, well, you know, it's legal in 22 states, and I just think this person ain't never gonna renounce this because they haven't repented.

They haven't had their mind changed about it.

It also sounds like this when we're consenting adults.

I don't know what the harm is.

You need to repent.

Your mind is not in agreement with God's mind about that behavior, and that behavior will never stop.

And your children will slowly stop respecting you.

Verse 20 says, the word continue to increase.

So the word of the Lord continue to increase and prevail mightily.

If we want the word of the Lord to continue, to increase and prevail mightily, we have to be people who are repenting and renouncing and repenting and renouncing on a consistent basis.

You can't do one without the other.

It's just spiritual gymnastics.

To quote Shakespeare, it's full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing.

You sound serious, but you're not serious because your mind hadn't been changed.

And your ways will never change if your mind isn't changed.

If you don't bring your mind, your natural mind, into submission with the mind of God and what God says about what's going on in your life.

These are why these people came and they repented and they divulged publicly and they said, you know what?

This is worth 137 years.

This is the retirement right here, okay?

This is 137 years of me working every day.

And I tell you what, I so value my newfound relationship with Christ that I'm gonna burn all this to the ground.

My favorite word in this whole passage, and I'm done.

Look at verse 20.

So.

So, as a result of these things, see the word prevails and increases, and increases, and prevails mightily in proportion to our obedience.

Does that make sense?

So, the question you gotta ask yourself today is simply this has what you value changed?

How is your faith changed what you value?

Let's pray together.

If you're our guest today, just relax.

Uh I'll pray a prayer.

Some questions come on the screen, Clyde will come, you may play, you may sing something over you.

We like to teach the Bible and give you some space to think about it.

So, no pressure, no gimmicks, no Mickey Mouse nonsense.

Just, hey, you're adults.

Think for about a minute, okay, about what you heard today.

Because what I want you to see today is that the the power of God's word is on display when we as Christians we engage the culture in dialogue, we maintain our boldness, we we model and preach the kingdom, we expect resistance.

When we agree with God, when we bring our mind into submission with God's mind, that's when things happen.

Until then, your your Christianity is just a whole series of telling God you're sorry and formulating some belief structure that gives you permission, the gospel never does.

That's called idolatry.

So, Holy Spirit, be over us.

You we we reminded ourselves in the beginning that the unfolding of your word brings light.

So let us live and act in light, in the light that your unfolded word just brought to bear on our life.

So root over us now as we think about these things.

God, sometimes silence is loud, but we're not afraid of silence.

It's in that quiet place that you come to us in really accessible ways, and you're very clear, and you just kind of put your finger on things and say we need to be done with this.

This doesn't fit anymore.

It may have fit you years ago, but you've outgrown this.

Let's be done with it.

Let's not keep it for a rainy day.

Let's divulge this.

Let's get this out of our house.

So we just say to you that anything you say to us will do.

However good it is, however hard it is, we'll do that.

Because we trust you more than we trust ourselves.

That's our confession, God.

Make it our experience.

We pray in Jesus' name.

What everyone said.

Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, let me say thanks again for being here.

You're always welcome.

If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard, some of our pastors will be available down front.

Uh uh, as soon as you're dismissed here in a minute, we'd love to answer questions, pray with you, help you process anything.

All we ask of you is if you just text welcome to the number on the screen behind me.

That gives us a record of your visit.

We're not going to show up at your house like some creepy cult or something.

Uh, we'll just shoot you back a text and we'll let you inform the dialogue from there, okay?

We always have things going on in the life of our church.

We'll make you aware of that by way of our video announcements.

So let's check out our screens today.

Here's what's happening at Grand Park Way Baptist Church.

Today as a church, we have a unique opportunity to gather and pray over Orchester Creek Elementary School.

We are gathered at the school at 7 p.m., and all ages are welcome.

You do not have to pray out loud.

We're just going to simply prayer-walk the building, and this is a great opportunity to teach your children about prayer.

Join us for men's breakfast on Tuesday, August 6th from 6 to 7 in the student building, where we'll enjoy great food, a brief message, and a wonderful fellowship.

Come and learn why membership matters and how you can get connected to Graham Parkway Baptist Church on August 18th during the second service in the Fellowship Hall.

Ross King will be leading the full service on August 18th.

Ross King is a songwriter, theologian, a passionate follower of Jesus, and a devoted husband and an adopted dad.

He knows about heartache, anguish, joy, and deep abiding peace.

You'll be blessed after experience his priesthood.

Finally, midweeks begin on August 27th for our Tuesday Women's Bible study, and August 28th for everyone else.

Here are the classes' offerings.

Spiritual gifts, a two-week overview of spiritual gifts to help you discover yours and why you have it.

Gospel fluency.

Believe and speak the gospel in all life.

You will learn how to connect the gospel to all areas of your life and then speak it fluently to believers and non-believers alike.

How God changes people.

Theological perspective.

We will see how God begins to relate to us and then sustains us all the way into glory.

Finally, life hacks.

Decide now and join later.

You will understand how to manage all that God has entrusted to you so that you can experience the joy and contentment.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Again, midweek classes are on Wednesday nights.

They start at the end of the month, like the 27th, 28th.

And I hope you notice there's the variety.

There's things that are theological in nature.

There's things that are, hey, life hacks.

Decide now, enjoy later.

Ten decisions you can make that will bless you and your legacy.

And so there's all kinds of different things available because we're all at different places in our journey.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

All right.

I love you.

I'm glad to be back preaching to you.

I miss you during the month of July.

I was here working.

I just wasn't preaching.

So stop sending me snarky emails, you jerks.

Uh must be nice to get every July off.

I'm like, what's your address?

I'm coming over.

Uh what's the law?

Is your HOA have a law against drive-by shootings?

Anyway, it's just a joke, kind of.

Uh all right.

Hey, uh, Oyster Creek Elementary is right there at that light at West Airport.

You hang a right right there at seven o'clock tonight.

Love you to join us.

We're just gonna walk and pray.

We're gonna saturate that campus with prayer.

Our men's breakfast meets in the student building, which is right here at the back of our property, six o'clock on this Tuesday.

It's our last one.

We just do them during the summer.

So, men, I'd love you to come join us.

I'm gonna talk for about 20, 15, 20 minutes.

You have some time to discuss around the tables.

All right, and the breakfast is free.

Love you to join us Tuesday at six.

Stand to your feet.

We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

Hold your hands out.

Your father is so good.

So whatever he asks you to give up, to divulge, to displace, tells in comparison is what he wants to give you in return.

He works for his glory and your good.

Those are not mutually exclusive.

So depart now and live in light of both of those realities.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.