The Return of the Gods

Father, God, we're not good people. We're your people. It's

easy for us to go astray. It's easy to get discouraged,

to lose our way in life and forget that you

are the way of the truth and the life. We

don't come to church because we have a lot to offer.

We come to church because we offer ourselves and sacrifice

so that You can give us, Jesus, and we can

know You. And internal life is to know You. So Lord,

take false gods out of our life. Give us the

Living Christ in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The title of my message today is called the Return

of the Gods. In the year I was born, if

you had to guess what year it is, what do

you think, don't say eighteen something. Nineteen sixty three, a

movie was made called Jason and the Argonauts.

I did not see the movie. I was too young

to appreciate such things.

The movie is about a reluctant hero used by the gods,

the gods of Greece, to perform their will in Jason's

exploits and adventures, adventures that only the gods could script

for an unlikely mortal. At one point in the film, Zeus,

the chief god of the Greek pantheon, who towers over

the midget man. Jason said this enduring line that defined

the film more than any other point of the plot line. Zeus,

the great god of the pantheon, really a false god,

he said, No man calls upon the gods unless he

wants something. The gods are best served by those who

want their help least interesting friend. In the Coming of Jesus,

we are introduced to our savior, who was God in

human flesh. The Bible affirms this. In fact, at his

very birth, the Angel said, Emmanuel, God with us. You

look into the eyes of Jesus. You see the eyes

of the Father looking back, because the Father and the

Son are one. Jesus affirmed that Jesus spent thirty years

of his life doing ordinary things for people in the

human encampment. As Sister White refers to it in the

first chapter of Desire of Ages, how the infinite encamped

among us as one of us, and he was faith

He was a faithful son to his mother, an adopted father.

Christ spent most of his life doing ordinary things. He

was a good citizen in a bad town called Nazareth.

He was a faithful worker. Most people are just lazy.

He was the model human being living in a place

scarcely noticed and easily forgotten. It said, can anything good

come out of Nazareth? And then Jesus left his home

at Nazareth as he was called by his father God,

the True God and creator of us all, called by

his father God to unleash the power of the Holy

Spirit in his life, his ministry, to heal the world,

to create a healing stream that would go all the

way to the end of time, to touch my life

and your life. Christ ministered in the power of the

Holy Spirit, where the display of miracles the world had

never seen, but it will see again at the time

of the end. In the end, hanging on a cross,

Jesus would not work a single miracle to save his life.

He saved others himself, he cannot save Truth was the miracle.

Man died on the cross without a miracle, and that

fact alone became the miracle that saved us all from

the misuse of power. The misuse of power, friends, there

is a danger as a Christian, as Christian servants of God,

ministers of God. The danger is the temptation to rely

on the miracles in our life instead of God in

our life. Did you hear me to rely on some

manifestation the supernatural rather than the ordinary, constant presence of

the Holy Spirit. When we trust ourselves to miracles, it

is easy to forget the one who works the miracles,

the one who is the greatest miracle of all, and

who directs our lives. In the darkness, when there's no light.

God sends his servants to share the gospel, the good news,

the good news of Jesus, of his death, his burial,

his resurrection, that God has appointed one man whereby all

can be saved. But he does not send servants to

draw attention to servants. God works miracles that are signs

and wonders when it is safe to do so, because

he can trust the servant in humility to point to Jesus.

There's always a danger signs and wonders will steal the

show that should point to the one who is the

true miracle, the manifestation of the glory of God, Jesus Christ.

These lessons are born out in the first missionary tour

of Paul and Barnamus. Take your bibles, turn with me

to Acts fourteen, beginning verse one, and let's read down

now at Aconium. They enter together into the Jews synagogue,

and so spoke that a great company believed, both of Jews.

And of Greeks.

Notice how the Gospel is working not just for those

who are familiar with the scriptures, but for those who

were not as familiar Jews and Greeks.

It says in verse two.

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned

their minds against the Brethren. Suddenly we have drama in

the mix. Suddenly the gospel success story is met with

fierce opposition. Econium was an ancient city located in south

central Turkey on the Central Anatolian Plateau, is known today

as the modern city of Kanya. In the first century,

at the time of Paul, it was located in the district.

And I think I'm saying this light right. You know

in my translation Lysinea some people could translate or Laconia.

I'm gonna go with lysonea. Is that correct for you

all out there? Gunny experts in Greek here because I

know how it should go in Greek, but the English

sometimes is different.

Lisonia.

It was famous for being a prosperous city on a

fertile plane. And Acts fourteen one, Paul and Barnabas entered

the Jewish synagogue, and there they had immediate success in

that fertile field of the Gospel. I mean, it feels

good to preach and teach, and bam, it suddenly works.

That's invigorating. In verse two, the unbelieving Jews stirred up

strife that revealed the satanic nature of their character, the

fact that they were opposing people coming to Christ, and

it showed that Satan would not give up that ground easily.

There are good reasons why the book Revelation calls such

antagonists to the truth to the Gospel, the synagogue of Satan.

And verse two, the self righteous servants of Satan went

after new baby believers to poison their minds against God

and messengers of the Gospel who had led them to Christ.

Now I have seen the same thing in my ministry.

I know whenever I'm getting ready to be baptizing new

people in I've discipled them. The devil often moves on

unconverted church members to destabilize the experience of new believers.

And I believe that when a person does that in

the church, when they are undermining the faith of a

new believer by going after the pastor going after the church,

going after the beliefs that they were taught to that

person is a manifestation of the Synagogue of Satan. Satan's

methods are always the same in every age, and it's

hatred of the Gospel. The devil attacks the shepherds who

share and the baby sheep who feed and believe. So

what did Paul and Barnabas do when confronted by this

kind of satanic opposition that attack them as teachers and

the sheep as new baby born believers. Look at verse three.

So they remained for a long time. All right, They're

not going to just preach and move on now. They're

going to stay there and work the flock to help

them grow and the like.

It says.

So they stayed there for a long time speaking how

what does it say in the Bible, boldly for the

Lord who bore witness to the word of his grace,

granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

You see.

So the Holy Spirit stepped up to the plate. The

Holy Spirit said, you know you're gonna attack by truth.

You're gonna attack the baby believers. I'm going to empower

my men to have Holy Spirit power to stay and

grow disciples in this place.

Friends.

When faced with a vicious attacks on their character and

attacks against the sheep, Luke records that Paul and Barnamus

remained for a long time. They upped the ante with

the devil. They worked even harder for the cause of Christ.

They met the challenge head on with more Bible preaching,

more Bible teaching, more sharing, more praying. The text says

they spoke boldly for the Lord. Now, friends, they didn't

say they spoke boldly for how some new idea they

came up about theology. They didn't speak boldly about how

difficult a prophetic theme was. They were enamored with Jesus

and their preaching and teaching. So should we. The text

says they spoke boldly for Lord. If you are being

attacked by demonic forces in your life, friend, then it's

time to.

Stay right where you're at.

It's time to dig in and ask God to do

a work for you in the midst of the fight

to save men and women for Jesus. Do you hear

what I'm saying. That's what's necessary. It is time to

up the ante and through your best efforts at the

cause that the enemy is attacking. It's not time to

run in fear. It's not time to shake in your shoes.

It's not time to give in. Rather, it's time to

engage people with courage and strength to speak.

Boldly for and of the Lord.

All the more, Friend, Heaven has a way of coming

to your aid when you are fully committed to the

cause of Jesus Christ. You want God to help you,

but you're half committed. How much help you're gonna get?

Zero?

But if you are fully committed and you're being attacked, guests,

who's gonna help you? God, Angels, the Holy Spirit? Satan

cannot win in your life. If you are boldly proclaiming

in a fully committed mode who Jesus is. You're not

governed by some secret sin. You're not governed by a

half loyalty. You're not governed by some love of an

idea that's not in God's word, but you think it's great. Friends,

when you are about Jesus, it's about helping others come

to Jesus. So what did God do for Paul and

Barnabas to bail them out?

Friends? God entrusted these.

Committed men with the power of the Holy Spirit to

perform signs and wonders. Look records that these faithful servants

of God didn't bear witness to the signs and wonders themselves.

They bore witness, as it says in the text, to

the Word of His Grace. Now, Paul will often say

that we should be strengthened by the grace of God.

I mean, I don't get strengthened when somebody puts me down,

do you. I don't get strengthen when someone goes negative

about how I messed up?

What about you?

I don't get strengthened when someone points out how perfect

they are and imperfect I am. And I'm not strengthen

when someone brags about how good a minister they have.

When I'm struggling to do my best friends, I'm strengthened

when someone comes up to me and they put their

arm around me, or they pray for me. He says,

May God's grace be in your life. I'm praying for you.

Made the kindness and love of God strengthen you. God

is with you, He accepts you. He's working in your life.

And friends, That's how people are encouraged in the church.

We must be a Christ centered, loving people, full of

the word of the grace of God. Now, the signs

and wonders came because the apostles were fully focused on

the grace and the love of God in Jesus. That

is the Gospel of the crucified, buried, and risen Savior.

You know, people say, what's the gospel. I hear all

kinds of theories out there. Well, the Gospel is the

good news about God. Well, that's true, sorda because in

the since the law is the Gospel reveals the character

of God. But in concrete terms, in the New Testament,

the Gospel is Jesus as the revelation, the manifestation, the

appearance of God. He is the revealing, as the messenger

of the Covenant through his death, his burial and resurrection

is primary. He died for my sins, it says, our

sins of first importance. He was buried to remove our

sins from us. He was raised for our justification, our acceptance,

so that in Christ we have a right now righteousness,

good enough for the judgment day and every day of

our life, so we can get through the trial on

the stuff of life and not give up on Jesus. Friends,

I frankly cannot relate to theology that would somehow make

it so difficult for me to be accepted. When I'm

on my knees surrendering to God. When I'm on my

knees surrendered to God, it is at that moment that

God accepts me as if I had never sinned, and

He works in my life to take away sin. And

the one who started the work will finish the work

because God gets it done. The Gospel, Paul and Barnabas

were not speaking seeking power to perform miracles for themselves.

Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. It is

the power of God and the salvation to everyone who

has faith, the jew first and also the Greek, and

so it starts from faith. It moves through faith. If

you don't give up on God, you will be saved.

God can take care of the miracles in your life.

But friends, the greatest a miracle life is a let

Faith work for you, so you are in Christ. It

is possible in the Christian life to be so blessed

by God that we focus on the miracles, the gifts

instead of the character and love of God revealed in

the life of Jesus. The word of grace, God's grace

as kindness revealed in the face of Jesus is worth

more than many miracles performed with in front of people

and the like. It is the greatest miracle of all

the world needs to see Jesus, not more miracle magic men,

and definitely not men who pointed themselves, who are all

about themselves in power. We need Jesus. Even when God

sends miracles, and he does because he did with Paul

and Barnabas, it doesn't mean people will believe because of

the miracle. I once saw the dead raised in a

miracle in the church in Michigan. I saw it, the

church prayed and the person was resurrected from the dead

right in church. But months later some of those people

who saw that miracle got discouraged and lost their faith

in Jesus. One of the key people that was talking

about how important the miracle was fell into a lifestyle

of sin, of consistence, surrendered to sin. He died. It appears,

I hope, not out of Christ. So what does this mean?

Miracles don't keep you in the faith. The word of

God's grace keeps you focus on the truth, the Word

of God growing in Christ. Now one thing that can

help you. Now, what book have I recommended for the

series of the Book of Acts Acts of the Apostles

by egw Acts of the Apostles. Now those books in

the Conflict of the Ages series. When I'm tired and

sometimes I can't read my Hebrew, because I do my

devotions in Hebrew and Greek, I will sometimes slip into

the book the Desire of Ages or Acts of the Apostles,

or Christ's object to lessons or thoughts from the mount

of blessings. These wonderful inspired books that have been given

to us as a people to bring us to Jesus

as the testimony of Jesus, to anchor us in a

relationship of God that's strong in the Word of God.

And I can feel the Lord tugging at me and

holding me and bringing me into Scripture. And I treasure

those gifts in my life. Why because I want to

get to heaven. If God gives me the testimony of

Jesus that will bring me back to Scripture in my life,

I had better use the gift.

In my life to have I say, so I can see.

God will use simple weak men and women like your pastor,

who will not deny his name, to share the Gospel

to the ends of the earth. In the final conflict

of the Mark of the Beast struggle. Men and women

who were once prominent in the movement we have been

told will betray its ideals join the ranks of Satan

in the very end. I do not want to be

a part of that kind of compromise to the Church

of Philadelphia that symbolized faithful advent believers at the time

of the end. The same kind of challenge will arise

that faced Barnabas and Paul at the hands of the

Jews who denied Jesus. But this time the sin of

God of Satan is not false Jewish brethren. This time

it is represents false Christian brethren who know enough to

be dangerous, but who fight against the truth and oppose

those who share it. Revelation three to eight, a prophecy

of the end of time. I know your works. Behold,

I've set before you an open door. The open door

was the door that was opened in eighteen forty four

at the longest the end of the Longest time. Prophecy

in Scripture the twenty three hundred year Prophecy. I have

set before you an open door. When that prophecy ran out,

the world was ripe for the proclamation of the eternal

Covenant of the Gospel and for the reversal of the

damage of the Middle Ages to occur globally. I've set

before you an open door which no one is able

to shut.

I know that you have but.

Little From fifty people who endured the great disappointment of

eighteen forty four grew the fastest prophetic movement in the

world today. Now, I was surprised to find out that

we have had baptisms in recent years in which there

were three hundred thousand people baptized in an effort. Three

hundred thousand. I cannot grasp that in one day, one

hundred and eighty thousand. This is greater than Apostolic times.

Now we don't see it in North America. Why because

worldliness is running rampant in our culture. But there are

places where people are crying out, where paganism has had

a hole in their life. And when the great prophetic

message of the Three Angels, messages of Christ our righteousness

impacts people in the mission field, they turned in the

thousands to accept Jesus Christ. We're working in hard ground

in North America, but we should praise God for this

kind of things. You know, obedience is not the product

of personal power or innate ability, or talent, or even

trying hard. He says, I know that you have but

little power, and yet you have kept my word, have

not denied my name. You may not be a superstar

Christian your own eyes. But if in your weakness you say, Lord,

give me the ability to obey you, to have faith

in you, to do your will no matter what it means.

Do you realize that God will hold you, God will

use you. There will be an open door where your

life will make a difference in the lives of others.

Obedience is glued to the love of the truth that

comes from God's words. Weak people at the time of

the end will be obedient people because they have not

denied Jesus' name, which is also God's law. Because God's

name God's law. Same thing I am who I am

is God's name.

Yahweh.

Jesus is the revelation of who God is. And if

we hold Jesus right and tight, We're gonna make it

to the end Verse nine, Behold, I will make those

of the Synagogue of Satan who say that they are

Jews and are.

Not but lied.

And we've been told in early writings that this group

represents Advent Christians, nominal Advent Christians who are who are

Advent Christians at the time of the End in name only,

He says, Behold, I will make them calm and bow

down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you. Friend,

you may be shamed by people of importance in the

church because you are walking humbly with God and trying

to advance God's word and truth when others outright deny

it or compromise it. Now, the way you can tell

if you're a humble servant of God is if you

don't talk that much about how good you are at

doing the work of God.

Hear me, you.

Don't say, well, you know, I went here there, and

I'm I'm just the greatest thing ever happened to the church.

God doesn't need that. God wants humble people doing a

work for God God and letting God take care of

how it looks. You may have been attacked by the

dards of Satan through his willing servants in the church.

And yet God protects you from falling when you should

have by all means failed and falled fallen. But God

did not let you fall away. Why because you have

little power, He has great power. God doesn't need self

confident Christians. You hear me, You hear me. He upholds

christ confident Christians by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse ten. Because you have kept my word

of patience in durance. Now you should take your pencil

and under my line or pen I will keep you.

How mean you like that? I will what?

I will keep you from the hour of trial which

is coming on the whole world to try those who

dwell up on the earth. Friends, if you keep God's word,

God will keep you by the power of word. God

will not let you fail him because his word and

his strength and your life is stronger than your weakness.

The hour of trial that the Bible is talking about

is the mark of the beast. Test Now, on May

seventeen of this month, coming month, the President of the

United States is going to rededicate this country to God.

He's been reading scripture, and that's a good thing. I

don't mind a lick a president reading Scripture, and I

think it's a good thing if our country is dedicated

to God. But you know what, the book Revelation teaches

that one day this country will establish a church state

system that is contrary to the principles of the Word

of God, that enforces the violation of at least two

or three of the commandments of God, and the mark

of the Beast will be instituted in a Christian America

gone wrong. So we should always rejoice in the right.

When I see young people across the land in religious

revivals in our universities, I praise God God for that.

I don't put that down, I don't belittle it. But

you see, a revival must be informed by the knowledge

of the scriptures, obedience to God's Word, the Gospel, and

the Law of God. Friend, you will not be lost

in this final test when the Synagogue of Satan comes

after you at the end like it is pictured here

in the Church of Philadelphia. People who know the truth,

who turn against the truth, who turn against you, if

you lose yourself to sin in relationship with Jesus and

his Word, you are going to make it. The Word

and the patient endurance we need go together. If there's

no word of God in your life.

There is no.

Endurance in patience that gets you through life to the

Kingdom of God. At this point, when the Synagogue of

Satan could not convince all the people at Aconium, that

they moved on. They moved on their coalition of Jews

and Gentiles to molest paul It Says and Barnabas and

to kill them, just like they stone Stephen who died

in Jerusalem.

They moved to do the same.

Look at verse five, when an attempt was made by

both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to molest them

and to stone them, I mean religious people doing this.

Religious people say, well, we can't convince the people. They're

they're winning the day of the arguments. Let's molest them

and kill them. Well, I'm telling you that kind of

religion is worth nothing. Verse six. They learned of it

and fled to Listra and Durba, cities of Lysnea, and

to the surrounding country. And there they preached the gospel.

So they didn't stop preaching, They just went to a

place where they could Listra. These names are signific significant.

Listra means to let loose, are to or perhaps to

be crazy. Have you ever seen someone let loose like

in a modern rock concert, Not that you should attend them,

but maybe you've seen clips of this and they let loose,

but then they go crazy. Now I've seen religious gatherings

would do the same thing. They get the drums going

on the stage, you know, then they could start moving

back and forth with the mic. They started huffing out

in the microphone like they're a rock star. Maybe they're

dressed awful like rock stars do, not caring for God's holiness.

And then people start swaying back and forth, jumping up

and down. But nobody is reverend of God's presence and

paying attention to the Bible. That's the word of God

in the Gospel. We don't need that kind of religion

in our church. We need good religion in which hearts

lift to God and joy. We don't the somber stuff

is not good. But we're heartslift to God and joy.

But we're mind and heart meet and worship to God,

and we honor God's character. Listra means to let loose,

or perhaps to be crazy. Derby means skin or juniper tree,

Lysania means she wolf. And we got our ore from

the Greek word lucas. We get our word like caanthropy

from the same root, like canthrapy is werewolf syndrome. I

mean this is where they went. We learned here that

when you can't preach to people who know the Bible

but don't live it, don't be surprised if God sends

you out the crazy kind of people in places where

they let loose in the wild woods with juniper trees,

where the naked danced around totem poles seeking the gods,

where their wild wolves abound, where she wolves prey on

young men for lustful ends. Places you would never expect

God to send you as a missionary to the immoral

pagan lands and cities like the ones right near us,

because we live there. We lived near own Listra, Derby

and Licinea Acts fourteen eight. Now at Listra, there was

a man sitting who could not use his feet. He

was a cripple from birth who had never walked. I

have a sympathy for lame people. I have to this day,

since twenty something years ago. A paralyzed muscle right here.

Sometimes you'll watch when I'm preaching, I'll raise my right

foot a little bit but for one hour, I lost

my entire right leg in an injury, and.

I thought I would never walk again. Right.

It's a terrifying thing to be lame or to experience paralysis.

But there's one good thing about it. When you can't

move and you're in the presence of good preaching, you

have to stay there.

Look at verse nine.

He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul looking intently at

him and seeing that he had faith to be made well,

dear heart, there are people in the world today who

have never known anything but pure misery from the time

they were born to the time they die. Many of

these dear people will never walk and have a normal life.

They will never have a life as we know it.

Like I said, my mother was schizophrenic for most of

my life, and somehow she pulled out a relationship with

God in the midst of her misery. They will never

know God's love, many of these people, unless someone like

you and me takes the love of God to them

in their great need. Paul and Barnabas didn't know that

their trouble at Econium would become this man's opportunity to

be healed. This poor lay man couldn't get his eyes

off of Paul and Barnabus as he fixed on these

messengers of God in this far off, awful land he lived.

And he was one of those people in need. And

the Gospels for people in need. And this lame man

had one credential, one described in the text. Luke records

that this poor lay man had faith to be healed.

He didn't have a PhD. He didn't have a bunch

of credentials. He didn't come from here and there of greatness.

He had enough faith to be healed. Verse ten, and

Paul said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet,

and he sprang up and walked. The man didn't stagger up,

He sprang up. The word of God means to leap up.

And when the word of God is fully believed, God

gives us the power to leap and to walk and

to have energy for His cause as we act upon

the word of grace, which is for faith, for people

have faith. When we were in India a number of

years ago, Brother Christopher, I want to refer back to

this healing Power of the Cross series that you ran

after the death of your son Neuraja, and he put

the proceeds of his son's future education to an evangelistic meeting.

His son had died on the Beltway, and as Christopher

was grieving, God was leading us to a place and

we had chosen. He had chosen a place where there

was a lot of Adventist presence and professionals there. Now,

I'm not saying this to detegrate our church, because we

have faithful administrators in many part of the world field.

But in that meeting, a ministerial man came up to

Brother Christopher and asked him for a bribe so that

he could bring a lot of people to the meeting

and give the facade as if we had a successful

evangelistic meeting. And Brother Christopher, you said no, right, he

said no, you don't go like this, You go like

the That's right.

You said no.

And so now the word went out, these are offshoot

kind of people, don't go to the meeting, and our

numbers dropped. Now, brother Jack Saquera, who was a bush preacher,

he led my wife to Christ in a week of

prayer in Africa. Jack just preached the gospel of Christ's death,

baron resurrection, and he would do something after he preached. Now,

I got sick in the meeting, and Jack took over

half my preaching, saved me.

He tucked me in like a.

Good father loves a son and the Lord, and he

was mentoring me to come out of my weakness here

and to stand firm. I love Jack Saquera his impact

on my life for Christ. But he would stand right

there for two hours after he had the first the

afternoon meeting, and open up the doors to the people

that are all outside, and he would just invite people

to come so we could pray for them. Two hours

of praying one person after another. Now no fanciful faith

healing kind of thing, just praying for them in a soft,

calm voice. I saw a devil cast out by Jack,

but not like this, Oh.

Come out.

No prayed in Jesus's name, and calm came over the

life of the man. But there was a miracle that

was performed in that meeting, of a divine healing. And

the word got out to all the people who were

not Adventists. And suddenly the hall was full of people

from the streets who wanted to hear the word of

God's truth and the Gospel of truth. And now these

I call him false brethren who were trying to manipulate

the outcome to make it look like we had a

successful meeting started showing up and they got jealous of

everybody in the meeting, but they didn't attack us. In

the end, they put garlands on her head as the

end of the meeting and they were rejoicing. I don't

know what to make of it. I still don't know

what to make up to this day, but I know

what God did. God moved on people who never heard

a thing to hear the word of truth, because Brother

Christopher did not compromise with evil when it was in

our own ranks. And we went back and we had

marvelous workers in the field in India who worked with us.

Besides these men who helped us and go in other places.

So this was not the rule. It was just what

we had to deal with in that one meeting. So

don't think what we're looking at here in the Book

of Acts only happens in the Book of Acts. It

can happen here or anywhere where someone sells out.

To the enemy.

We don't want to be in that kind of a mentality,

dear heart. We need to be in the saving people business,

not the looking big business.

Verse ten.

Paul said, a loud boy, stand up, and he sprang

up and walked the word of God fully believed changed

his life verse eleven. And when the crowd saw what

Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in Licenarian,

the Gods have come down to us in the likeness

of men. Then, the Greeks believed that the gods often

visited Earth, and that they often took the disguise of

men and women, meant to test them. In fact, the

Bible says angels do that. In verse twelve, they called

Barnabas Zeus or Jupiter, and Paul Hermes verse twelve. Barnabas

they called Zeus the Latin as Jupiter, and Paul they

called who was the chief speaker, They called Hermes, which

would be Mercury in Roman my theology, which is nothing

but Greek theology with mythology with new names. So in

Roman theology, Zeus is the great god of the pantheon

wields the lightning bolt, and Hermes is Mercury, the messenger

of the gods, and they were pictured as moving in

Greek mythology through homes and villages and the like.

Masquerading as men.

In Ovid's Metamorphosis, which is a Greek work of mythology,

both Zeus and Hermes visited the same region we have

here in Ax fourteen, many years earlier, and the gods

went through a thousand homes, according to the myth and

they were not accepted. They were really sent away, except

they came to the home of Baoss and Fileemon, a

couple that they then ministered to.

And so what do they do.

They ended up wiping out the whole area with the flood,

but doing something special for the couple that were nice

to them. Of course, the lesson is be nice to strangers.

In Greek mythology, Zeus and Hermes were the patron gods

and power to protect travelers. In the context of Acts fourteen,

the people of Lister had assumed that the gods had

returned to exact revenge for what had happened in Ovid's Metamorphosis,

so they were not going to make the same mistake twice,

that this time they would greet the gods with a

lavish and warm welcome, and that's the context of verse thirteen.

And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front.

Of the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates

and wanted to offer sacrifice with the people. Paul and

Barnabas had come to share Jesus and the love of

God with the people, and now that people were worshiping

the servants of God as God's Now it's a bad

thing when someone says, well, you know, mighty preacher, rity

teacher should say mighty God, mighty Savior. We don't look

at preachers and teachers. We look at Jesus in his word.

Paul and Barnabas had come to share Jesus and the

love of God with the people, and now the people

were worshiping the servants of God's as God's friends. When

God sends a gospel, menner, minister or evangelists with truth

and light into your life, the focus should never rest

on the minister or the evangelist.

The people need Jesus.

God his Father, and not more of us Acts fourteen fourteen.

But when the apostle, Barnabas and Paul heard of it,

they tore their garments. Now I'm not going to do

that as an illustration. Up here, you see the picture.

They tore their garments, rushed out among the people crying, men,

why are you doing this? We are also men of

like nature with you and bring you good news that

you should turn from these vain and things to a

living God who made the heaven and the earth, the sea,

and all that is in them. In Greek, the word

gospel means good news. Notice here that you cannot bring

the good news of the Gospel of God if you

deny God. In the story of creation, Modern paganism finds

its roots in modern science, the idea that we were

not created by God in seven days, but somehow we evolve,

violating the second law of thermodynamics for millions of years,

so that information is symboled without help to create the

complexity of what we are. Nonsense. We are information systems

more complex than any computer. The DNA in your body

cannot form randomly. It is a code implanted by God Almighty,

from the word of God, who is Jesus Christ. We

are beings made in the image of God. All life

came from God. And so the modern three of revelation

is a direct attack upon the Gospel, because the one

who made us is the one who saves us. And

if you don't believe God created you, you cannot believe

he can recreate you in the resurrection. It's the problem

with it Verses sixteen seventeen. He continues, in the past generations,

he who is God, allowed all the nations to walk

in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself

without a witness, for he did good. Now by the

way Verse seventeen should make his pause. A witness can

be a person. In Revelation three fourteen, Jesus says, I am,

I am, I'm the first and the last, I'm the Amen,

the true Witness John one ten Jesus, it says he

was in the world.

The world was made through him.

God left Christ in the Old Testament, the true Witness,

working with Israel for centuries before he became a human being.

So he didn't leave the witness. The witness was there. Yeah,

he did not leave himself without witness. That's why John

one nine will say the true light and enlightens every

man was coming to the world, he says, for he

did good and gave you from having reins and fruitful seasons,

satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Paul and Barnabus

affirmed four servant truths that all Gospel workers will affirm

in every age if they are faithful and true servants

of Christ. Now, Katie weighed our special needs. A young

adult here gave me a wonderful thing as I came

through here, and I don't have it handy, but she

gave me a little card where she says my talking

about her missionary work for Christ, and I just it's

must be in my Bible and may have slipped out,

but I read that right before the sermon. Praise God

that you're willing to do missionary work for Christ. Thank you, Katie.

Now where was I at here? Let's take a look

at these four universal servant truths that Paul affirms that

are true for every single missionary of Jesus Christ. Katie,

come on up here, get the microphone right there. I'm

gonna let you read them one at a time to us. Okay, yeah,

right there, pull it out. She wanted a chance to

help me preach one Sabbath. Can I have her help

me here?

Already? Good?

She just wants to be a missionary so bad. I

have just lost my spot. Give me a second here,

give me a minute. I turned the pages. Okay, Now

here's what I want.

You to do.

I want to repeat it. Servant Truth number one. I

want you to read it right now. Go ahead and

read it.

Yes, God Service are only man.

How many of you read that God's servants Servant truth

number one are only men?

Are they Gods? No, they're men.

Let's go to servant truth number two that Paul affirms.

Go ahead and read it.

God Service be you good news, seth. God can truthful

and fain and in real life it's you something beautiful.

Now that's true of your life too, Katie.

God servants bring you good news that God can transform

a vain and im moral life into something beautiful.

Do you believe that's true in your life? Yes, it

is true. Let's go to Servant truth number three. Go

ahead and read it.

Gossip so eliving God, who is a quail of the

whole beautiful.

Let's read that together. Let's read point number three together.

God's servants serve a living God who is the creator

of the whole universe. We don't have a small God,

a weak God, an evolution God. We have a God

who gave us Christ, who made us and saved us,

who is bound to us.

In covenant commitment. All right, Servant Truth.

Number four gossis to a God who communicate cuocase with

people by his many acts of kindness in poverty.

For th me. Now, Katie, you like helping people, don't you. Yes,

you want to.

You've told me you want to have a ministry in

the church, Is that right?

Yes? Yes, A'm a school too, at.

Your school as well. How many of you would like

to pray for Katie and her ministry. And God has

put you on earth so you can reach certain people

for Jesus that no one else could. Now I'm going

to read Servant Truth number four. Let's read it together.

God's servants serve a God who communicates with people by

his many acts of kindness in providing for their needs.

Thank you, Katie. You can go back to your seat.

Thanks for helping me here today. So basically, here Paul

was hitting them hard with good truth. He was saying, look, you,

the God that you cannot recognize because of all these

gods in your life.

Has been there all along.

These are the evidences of it, and it's now time

to wake up and realize the truth and turn from

these vain ways to the true way. As the story unfolds,

it took a lot of effort for Barnabas and Paul

to convince the people to not offer sacrifices to them.

But that same group of unfaithful Jews from Antioch and

Econium follow Paul and Barnabas to Lystra, and there they

convinced the people to turn on Paul and to kill him.

They stone Paul. They dragged Paul out of the city,

thinking that he was dead. And at last Paul knew

what it felt like to stone Stephen because he was

there when Stephen was stone holding his coat. But that

is when God worked the miracle for the minister who

was beat up so badly by the Synagogue of Satan.

He should have died, look at verse twenty, but when

the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered

the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas

to Derby. When they had preached the gospel to that

city and had many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to

Aconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples,

exhorting them to continue the faith and saying that through

many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God. Dear heart,

I ask you the question how do we enter the

Kingdom of God?

Is that valid? How do we enter?

Do we get there the easy way or the hard way? Friend,

we get there the hard way, full of trouble, But

we get there through the trouble all the way if

we let the word of God's grace strengthen us, and.

We live for others.

Paul and Barnabas encouraged the people and strengthen them to

continue in the faith to endure trials as good Christian

disciples should. I would like to ask you a simple question.

Would you like to do the same? Raise your hand

you want to do the same. Let us con con

tinue in the grace of God, as good disciples should.

Dear Heavenly Father, it's easy to live in darkness. The

worst kind of darkness is arrogance and pride. And Father,

there are two churches you know this that represent the

great advent people at the time of the end. The

Church of Philadelphia that has a little power, in the

Church of Ladaca that thinks it's the sinner of the universe. Father,

help us to be good Advent Philadelphia and Christians who

have not denied your name, who value Bible prophecy that

points to Jesus.

And who are the weakness of our lives? Broken?

At times are used by God to bring people to Jesus. Lord,

these dear people here, every one of us, we need

to be using gifts for You. Help us not to

run in fear when we are attacked, but to stand

our ground and do a better work for God in

that place. And Lord, I pray for your mercy upon

everyone here today. Our world could change dramatically this year.

It already has. We're in a war that is redefining

Western power. We don't know what will happen next year

or the following year, but help us to keep our

eyes on Jesus to use the time we have to

bring people to the Church, to Christ, to prophetic truth.

And Lord, not because we're anything good, because we're not,

but because of Jesus. Bless your dear people in Jesus' name.

Amen.