Conversing About Faith: Lessons from Paul in Acts 17 on Listening, Challenging, and Sharing Your Beliefs

We're doing that seminar today at four o'clock.

If you'd like to attend, we can teach you how to do that, how to be so charming and influential and persuasive.

Show that as an obvious exaggeration of what our basic topic is about today, of how to not engage people with the story of how Jesus changed your life, and so I thought that and Braden did a great job of putting that together for us Does raise an interesting point, though in lieu of that, what is the right way to do it?

What is the wrong way to do it?

And that's where we will engage the Scripture today, in Acts 17.

So thanks for bringing your Bible.

Grab one in front of you there, turn your device on at home.

Thank you for being here.

My name is Randy.

We would love to hear from you if we can pray for you, if we can encourage you in any way or recommend the next step, wherever you live, whether it's here, locally or somewhere else.

And, by the way, speaking of somewhere else, I want to give a shout out to Dave and Sue, who are watching every single Sunday in Milwaukee, wisconsin.

How about that Shout out to Milwaukee?

We're just so thankful that you're viewing today with us an hour earlier, by central time and all.

But that's what we want to talk about today, because the more we're just going to talk and joke around about it, it is vitally, vitally important.

You know, there's a few anxiety creators in all of our lives.

It's like you know that thing you have in your brain where it's like I'll do most anything, but don't ask me to do that.

Most people would count this and that if they are a Christ follower and if we peel that back, why is that so scary?

Why are we so hesitant to do that?

A lot of side reasons, but it boils down to it's a social issue.

We're afraid of being rejected, we're afraid of doing it wrong, we're afraid of driving people even further away.

So I guess at this point, since we're talking to a big room and a lot of people out there, if you're listening and you're currently not a Christ follower, it ought to make you feel pretty good that we are so fearful of approaching you, because we don'twe do care and we do care a lot about you, butand we don't want to get it wrong.

And so there is this fear factor that always creates a lot of anxiety.

But if you're doing like in your world, in the marketplace or something.

Have you ever done risk assessments?

How much is going to cost me?

Is it worth it?

Does that justify the pain that it will create?

Our point from the Scripture is oh, it's definitely worth it, because one of our core values is simply this nothing beats a changed life.

Saint Corinthians 5.17 says that Same writer, paul, says this you become a new creation.

The old things are gone, old things are dead.

Everything about you, from the inside out, becomes a new person who has a new identity in Jesus Christ, and that makes it worthwhile every time we do it, although none of us are going to be flawless.

So can I take a little bit of pressure off?

I don't want those of you who are Christ followers and you do have people in mind right now that are close to you but maybe far from God is simply this Don't overthink it.

Don't think of it in terms of some big presentation.

Just have a conversation.

Today we're going to start in terms of how do we start a conversation that, either then or down the road, will be one that we'll celebrate with our friends or family that they have come to faith, because, as we know, we can't force any of that.

That truly has to be a work of God.

So let me give you a little context of what's going on.

Have you had a chance to get to Acts 17?

Everybody there.

You can get to Acts 17.

Out there, grab your device or your Bible too.

Acts 17,.

Paul is in first century.

He's in Athens Now.

Athens was the like sophistication center of the world at that time.

That's where you went.

If you were like smarter than everybody else, a philosopher, a deep thinker, an intellect, that's where you went.

That's where all the great philosophers had been.

They are stottles in the Socrates.

That's where a lot of the scientists of their day hung out.

And so there was this pervasive feeling that we're getting so smart that we're about to figure out all the meaning of life.

But because we're not there yet, we're not a bunch of atheists.

We do believe, but not in one.

But there are many, many gods, and that's reflected in what's going on.

Paul comes there as, of course, a defender of the faith of Jesus Christ and he immediately, as he tended to do, he immediately engages in some people, and that's what happens here.

So to set you a little back story, because it'll mean more, I think, can you put that first photo up there.

This is a place that exists today in Athens.

It's just what it looks like it's a hill, it's an elevated hill, a rock outcropping.

In the Bible it's called the Aragopagus, but it's more often called Mars Hill, and this is a place where the elite thinkers of town formed a council and they would come together and it was actually court.

They would hold court on top of that bald rock and they didn't put anythat's just where.

They went to sit on top on rocks, on that bald rock, and they would hear cases brought before them.

Now, if you notice, in the background there's another larger hill and you can make out some ruins.

Can we go to that photo?

This is the Acropolis and you can see it today also.

This is what remains of one of the most magnificent architectural things in the world.

At that time it was a temple, not to a God, but to many gods, probably at least a dozen of them Dionysius, zeus, athena, who they named their city after, and all of those.

So that shadow is cast over this council.

That would be our version of the Supreme Court on Mars Hill.

Why do I mention all this?

Paul is brought to the other place, the rock outcropping, mars Hill because what he has been talking about has stirred up some people and he's brought up there to meet with this council.

It looks pretty neutral, it looks pretty tame in the Bible, but let me tell you it was not Because they're not there to debate with him or to hear his new idea.

They're here to rule in a court case, as our version of the Supreme Court.

They would have those debates and those discourses down at the marketplace or here in the temple.

What they're here to hear from Paul is is his defense valid or not?

If it is not, you just need to know.

Paul is standing all alone before the most powerful thinkers in that whole region and he's being asked to defend his faith of a strange new teaching that they're trying to get their brain around.

This is a dangerous, dangerous time for Paul, so we're going to move right into what he does.

Does he shrink back or does he go for it?

Let's pray, lord.

Help us to have the mindset that we love you enough to take the risk when it affords itself and to use your Spirit as our guide.

Lord, those of us that are in this room are watching.

They're really struggling and there's really like zero faith when it's very, very weak.

Help today be another giant step that we can take and for all of us.

Lord, we know that we can be closer to you.

So help us today to take the next step in our faith, however that may demand, and we'll give you the glory for it.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so here we go.

We're going to talk about a few verses, like we normally do, but talk about what we can learn to apply to our lives, of how to have, not presentations but conversations with people who may have walked away from their faith or may have never really engaged with Jesus, in a way that, hopefully, will be helpful and encouraging and not discouraging to them.

Okay, so let's start reading.

I've given you the context Verse 17,.

Verse 22 and 23 is where we'll start, because Paul does a great job of confirming a need that we all have Got it.

He's going to confirm something that they have.

Paul then stood up verse 22, in the meeting of the Ergopagus, and he said Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious, for as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with the inscription to an unknown God.

So let's back up Verse 22,.

He says hey, he's building a common ground.

You don't know me, I'll know you, but I know this we all have a common need, because I can see that you are very religious people.

That's not necessarily an affirmation, but it's also not a put down.

He's just stating the obvious, because in that city there were just statues everywhere, there's some memorial or there's some inscription to some God everywhere, because there were a ton of them.

But then he goes on and says I see, in verse 23, you even have one inscription.

Doesn't have a name to it, you're just not sure.

It says to a unknown God.

That's what you do when you're not sure you're on the right track and you want to cover all your bases.

Right, there may be another one out there that we've not given any reverence to, and just so he doesn't zap us or nail us, maybe we better recognize him.

Also, ingeniously, paul says I'm going to tell you who that one is, because that's the one that I worship, because I didn't find him anywhere else.

So how are we going to go about this First reminder to all of us?

In a lot of settings, and this is no different, hey y'all, we got to be a good listener first.

I know we've you know kind of thought what we would say or what we have said to people.

Just be a good listener, listener.

James 1.18, on to your right a little further.

Some of you know that one where it says be quick to listen, be slow to speak and be slow to anger.

You ever heard that verse before?

I read about a CEO of a company who had that put on a little plaque and put it on his desk, propped up actually, and everybody walked in there.

It was a reminder to them and to him.

Be quick to listen, be slow to speak, be slow to anger.

That's how we learn how to relate and to connect with other people.

If you have had to spend much time talking publicly, communicating to groups, you know this to be the case.

There's only like three or four massive general needs that all of us have.

We've all been there.

If we're not there right now, you want to hear an example of them.

Everybody in this room and everybody in the world has been lonely before.

Everybody in this world and everybody in this room has thought what is my purpose or what is my meaning before.

Everybody I believe in this room probably in the world too has spent at least a little bit of time feeling shame or guilt.

So if we can start in those regions, that's something that we can relate to.

It's not offensive, it's actually.

Oh hey, and somebody else has been here, so I'm thankful for that.

Then we can connect with them, maybe intellectually, and later God might connect it to the heart.

New Testament's got a bunch of people.

They did a great job.

Of course the master was Jesus, but you have Philip.

Philip earlier in Acts is just kind of feels led by the Holy Spirit to go out away from town, out where nobody is.

And when he gets out there he realizes the reason.

There's a guy in a chariot.

He's an Ethiopian unit, he's pretty high official as a servant in Ethiopia.

He's an international in town as somewhat of a Christ seeker, if you will.

He's trying to put it all together.

He's standing in his chariot, he's got a scroll enrolled and he's reading from what we would call today the book of Isaiah.

And so Philip comes up to him and he says hey, you know what you're reading there.

And he says how can I?

You know, this is all foreign to me and this I like the beauty of this.

Philip gets up in shoulder to shoulder with him in the chariot as an equal, but he says, hey, maybe I can help with it because I'm a Jew.

And he goes back to the beginning with creation and he goes through the end of what they would have had in that day, which is the Torah, which was the laws, and then he starts connecting the dots about someone recently who has come.

The savior of the world Goes through the death and resurrection and pretty soon the eunuch says well, hey, there's some mud puddles over there, some muddy water.

Why can't I?

What's holding me back from being baptized as a symbol of my belief?

And he is.

This maybe helps y'all and helps me, because I can still get as anxious as anybody.

God created the person that we're engaged in talking with.

God loves that person as much as he loves us.

God wants a relationship with that person as much as he wants one with me and you right.

So God is in this.

God is going to affirm that, and we're notcan't be anyway.

We can't be responsible for the results.

Our job is just to tell what's been going on in us and tell what we do know and why it is genuine in us and why it is real in us.

And again, if you're not a Christ follower, I'm not expecting you to stay on beam with this.

I just want to tell you that, on where I live, we actually do spend a lot of time with a little bit of anxiety about this, because we don't want to create a problem where there is no problem.

But yet we have this calling and we have this belief system that is so real and to us it's factual.

Years ago, another place, I was looking for some form of a system for outreach for my church, for people who had attended, but also just for people whose names we kept getting or were meeting in the community, who probably had no real faith system at all, no real beliefs, and like, how do we engage them?

So anyway, I read about something and I thought this is it, this is it.

This is a great little plan.

There are two problems with it.

One was the pastor of every church had to go take the course first so you could bring it back and train your own church to it.

I wasn't all that fired up about that, but I'm like well, if you've got to do it, I understand it, so I will do it.

The second problem was for that semester.

It was only offered in Florence, south Carolina, and I was about three hours away from Florence.

I thought, well, I'll do it, I'll burn three days and I'll go.

So for three days I got crammed about 13 weeks of content into my brain.

You probably did it too, bert, for here, because I think y'all did it and that was okay too.

Nearing the end, I think at the end of day two of the three, I'm looking forward about three o'clock I'm on over load and I'm looking forward to just getting some dinner and going back to my room, right, but about 4.30, the instructor said oh, by the way, we have a surprise for everybody.

At five o'clock we're going to pray and usher y'all out by groups into the hallway.

We've got drivers from our church that are members of our church that know the area really well.

They're going to come by back parking lot.

They're going to pick you up, they're going to take you to a street and you're just going to yep.

You're going to knock on doors and you're going to either invite folks to the church here or, if the opportunity arises, you're going to be able to share your faith with them.

I'm like, oh no.

And that room was full of pastors and I got to tell you we all were like, oh no, you got to be kidding me.

And so we got matched up in pairs and we're standing shoulder to shoulder this long hallway.

I'd never been in before.

It's kind of dark in there, you know, and there's a light at the end and that's the street Light is already dark outside.

There's cars pulling up and I can see them way down.

The guy next to me that I got paired with, he said you ever see the movie Gladiator?

He said does this remind you of that?

Like right before they're let out to be mauled by the lions?

And I said, yeah, it sure does.

So I'll spare you all the details.

Other than I had to go first.

Nobody was at home.

I thought I'm off the hook.

I'm like, yes, you know, silently you try to act disappointed.

Well, you know.

And I walk out and everybody in the car said, oh no, you're still up, you didn't get to go.

I'm like mm.

So the next house guy, a lady, actually comes out the door.

I start into my little.

Hey, my name is Randy, I represent.

She said where is that church?

I have no idea where I am, let alone where the church is, and you know how you do things.

Just out of reflex, I said, oh, it's over there, and the person that drove us, who was a member of the church, I didn't know, she's standing behind me going.

It's like that way, and that was my beginning to a lot of this too.

But it's a conversation.

Here's how we can connect with everybody.

I've never had anybody to deny this.

We all are sinful people, aren't we?

We're all sinful people.

Romans 3 confirms that.

I think we can start building the common ground there, because in my life I realized that since that is a true statement, there's sense of, there's enough brokenness in me that would keep me disappointed in me and discouraged about me and would make me fall short of what I felt like I should have accomplished the rest of my life.

So let's move on.

Verse 24 through 28,.

Paul takes it further down the track.

He's going to now create a little curiosity.

He's going to want to bring a little bit of hey.

Wouldn't you like to know this?

Verse 24, the God who made the world and everything is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by hands.

I love that because, remember, if you could see that off in the distance, where they're talking, they can see their big temple.

It's looming over them.

And he says hey, a little bit different thing here for you to grasp.

My God does not live in a place like that.

It couldn't contain Him.

My God's pretty much transcendent.

So we got to get our thinking right.

And he's the creator of everything, not part of it, and he is not served by human hands, as if the Lord needed anything, because he Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

Hey, you want to check out something and probably make you smile sometime this week.

Read Psalm 50, like verses 9 through 12 along in there, because when he says, hey, he doesn't need anything, that's exactly what God is saying in Psalm 50.

He said let me remind you as you slaughter those animals, for me, I don't really need them.

I own the cattle on a thousand hills.

And he says I don't need your offerings, I don't need this.

I know the reason for it, but if you think that's making you special people, just forget it.

Stay at home and keep your stuff.

I don't need any of it.

And that's still true today.

He doesn't need me, he doesn't need my stuff, he doesn't need you, he doesn't need your stuff, he doesn't need you as a response of His grace, and once we understand His grace and His love poured into us, though we don't deserve it, that's when you freely want to be generous and you freely want to give some time and money to serve Him, because that's why we're created and still on this earth.

Sometimes I remind myself, and maybe I need to remind some of you too.

You know what He'll do, really famously, after me.

And you are gone, won't he?

He doesn't really have to have us Now.

He invites us and it's a great calling, I think to partner with Him.

Alright 26,.

From one man.

He made every nation of men and they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the time set for them and the exact places where they should live.

That's His way of saying.

He's omniscient, he's omnipresent, he's got everything figured out because he is sovereign.

He was around at the beginning.

He'll be around at the end of the earth into eternity, so nothing is going to shock Him.

Verse 27,.

God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out to Him and find Him, though he is not far from each of us.

And there's the curiosity thing.

Hey, you know what I'm talking about a big God here.

He makes all of this kind of be dwarfed, but I'll also suggest this to you he's not far, he's right here, he sees you, he knows you, he's listening to every word.

Jesus said the same thing when a Pharisee came to him with a legit question, remember that.

And he could tell the guys not trying to trap him, he's just trying to honestly get a handle on things about the greatness of God.

And Jesus answers it.

And then Jesus says hey, you're not far from the kingdom of God.

And that's what Paul is wetting their curiosity with here, I think, by saying you know he's not far away, he's one step away, for in him 28, we live and move and we have our being.

As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring.

Paul is a very savvy guy.

He's a very sharp guy.

In order to build a connection, common ground, he's read enough of their philosophy and their poetry.

There were two prominent poets in that day.

We don't have the whole thing, but he takes some of both of their poetry.

He kind of blends it together and that's where his short quote comes from, probably a longer quote that they didn't record there.

That's part of that.

So it's a great way to engage them, and what he's doing is simply this.

This will be on your screen too he's building the case that God is holy and that he's loving.

The gods there were worshiping out in the city were maybe a little bit of one or the other, but none of them were infallible.

They all had human characteristics and some were kinder and gentler than others, but none of them were completely loving and none of them were completely holy, to the point that, as you see on the screen, 1 John says the essence of him is love.

He is love.

He cannot be not loving, because that's what comprises him, is his love.

So can I suggest an application here with this curiosity thing?

We all have people in our brain right today that we care a lot about.

We love them and they're very close to us, but maybe they're far from God.

Maybe a good way for a conversation, if you've not, is find a way to segue into just telling your story.

You are the expert of your own experience, are you not?

And we've all said this before.

I'll tell you what happened to me.

I know what happened to me.

I know what I saw, I know what I heard and just go there.

How do I do that?

We follow the trap.

The mistake we make is we get so expansive, we think we've got to help tell our whole story and an hour and a half later they're dozing and drooling on themselves and we have completely lost them.

If you tell your initial story and it takes more than a minute, you've gone too long, and I know some of you are like well, forget that.

I can't say hello in a minute.

You do it before and after.

There was a time that I was fearful, I was angry, I was like just a bad person, I had lost him or whatever.

Then I met Jesus.

Then I surrendered my heart to Jesus.

Then I came to know Jesus.

However, you want to say that and then you address the prior problem, but since then I'm not perfect.

But that's not an issue.

That's been replaced by something.

You see what I'm saying.

Some of you are looking at me like what in the world are you talking about?

Let me let somebody else do a better job than I just did.

Can we roll that video here, matthew, we're going to take a little walk together here along the base lines of the gym.

Tell me about your life before you and I met.

Before we met, my life was sinful, I was depressed, I was angry at the world and I was selfish.

Okay, so what happened?

Well, I found the Lord.

That's what I did.

So has that made any lasting difference in your life?

Absolutely.

I'll never be the same.

Wow, never be the same.

And that's where you can be, where many of you are now, and many of you can tell your story just as eloquently as Matthew just did, and God will use it to change somebody else's life For grace.

You have saved through faith.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Ephesians 2, 8.

So I want to thank Matthew.

Matthew's a member.

He was baptized just a few months ago here in the church.

He walked in this morning and I just hijacked him and he wasn't a big fan of that at first, but of course he was so willing to do it because I just know Matthew.

I know that his faith is real, I know his experience with Jesus was real.

He completely turned his heart around, completely turned his life around, and he said many times he's in two groups now, two life groups now, because he has a hunger.

And he said this morning well, I guess that's evidence of what I would say is turn me around is I would have never been in one group earlier, let alone two groups.

He said God's given me a heart to know him more, to know his Word more and to follow him more.

So he's a natural of that.

And now let's look at verse 29 through 31.

He's going to clarify a need for response, and this is where I have fallen short Maybe you have too where we've kind of told our story before, but then we just kind of let it go, and sometimes God's spirit is saying no, press a little bit further, ask him about theirs and all, and then out for one reason or another fear or whatnot we don't go there.

So he clarified, though, for response, look at verse 29 and 31.

And let me remind you, although he is on trial, he is standing all alone in front of the most powerful court in the country.

He's not backing off Verse 29,.

Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by God's design and skill.

You know, they all know what's all over town and what's in that temple all kinds of idols.

He said man, he's not going to be composed of a piece of rock or wood or gold.

30.

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

See what he's saying.

He goes from hey, I can see you guys are really religious and everything tohe feels like, probably in the discussion, in his talk, conversation with him, he's earned the right to go there and if they're going to kill him, they're going to kill him anyway, I guess.

So he says you know what you keep believing like.

That that's pretty ignorant, is really what he's saying.

And then in verse 31, after he says repent, for he has said a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man.

We know who that is.

He has appointed.

He has given proof of all of this to all men by what?

Raising him from the dead.

And there is the volatile part of the discussion that he knows from these philosophers and these thinkers, these intellectuals, these science-based guys.

Nothing wrong with science.

They come together.

But there was a group of what were called Epicureans that were in that group that believed oh, it's only the natural world.

We would call them today humanists.

I've gotten smart enough I've gotten science under my belt well enough that I think I can live my life and determine my own destiny and figure out stuff on my own, or I know people who do.

They believed that back in those days.

The others were Stoics.

Stoics believed oh yeah, there's a high power, not even a higher power.

There's probably a thousand of them.

They were pantheists and we're going to have a little bit of everything just to cover our bases.

He's addressing both of them and he's saying, basically Jesus, who I think is the Christ, is the creator of everything.

He was given that authority by God, the Father, and that's why I'm sold that what happened to me is real To the point.

He's suggesting today you need to repent, and repent meant, and still does, a complete change of mind.

It means I used to believe this.

I don't believe that anymore.

I realized that's part of my sinfulness and I'm not only going to not believe that anymore, I'm going to turn and walk away from it.

That's why you a lot of you would say, and how I hear and I've said this before too I used to be here and by God's grace I'm not, and I don't see myself ever going back there.

I won't be perfect, but I repented, I turned from that and I walked away from it.

So, 31, for he was.

He has said today when he would judge the world with justice by the.

I've already read that.

Did I not read that?

Why'd you let me read that again?

So I'll stop right there.

He introduces us to a creator, and this is where it gets a little bit more up close and personal.

He said oh, and you know what?

This man, who was more than a man, was killed for his identity, but he was resurrected.

That's where the crowd is going to start to separate out.

He was resurrected.

If that is true, if a man was a man and he was killed and hundreds of people saw him.

And he's buried and they know the exact location, was guarded for two and a half days, but on the third day the tomb is empty.

There's no explanation why the elite Praetorian guard let that happen, other than they couldn't control it.

And then, for the next 40 days, he's seen by his close followers, but he's literally seen and heard by hundreds of people for the next 40 days, fully alive, and I owe my life to him because that means he is my creator.

He is the God, the only true God.

Every other God is an idol.

Every other God is pretty much make-believe, because no other gods can, nor will they make that claim, and that is the difference.

That's calledfancy church word, that's called justification.

I'll use me.

That means I used to be totally apart from God.

When I became aware of what we're just talking about, that Paul's telling these guys, I knew the gap and I wasn't in favor of staying in that gap.

I also was keenly aware of this.

I'm not a good person.

I'm just not a good person and I can't get right.

I've got to have help from outside of me.

Hence the introduction of Jesus.

When Jesus gave his life to atone for my sins and then was resurrected, that means, if God has power over death itself, this is small act ofthis is small potatoes for him.

He can certainly forgive me and he can certainly change my life, and that's what he did.

That means y'all as your pastor.

I'm still as guilty as the day is long.

I'm still sinful, I'm still not a good man, but I've been pardoned.

He saved his justice back for a while so that I could come to Jesus and know Him and live for Him, and in a very imperfect way.

That's what my charge is for the rest of my life and y'all.

I think that's worth talking about.

I think that's worth sharing with people around us.

We call it blessed rest, because in these days and everything, the most curious, the most attractive things sometimes that somebody can do for us is just go out of their way to be nice to us, to be encouraging, to serve us, to be generous, to do something for us that they don't expect anything in return, because most of the rest of the world is not wired quite like that.

And so, whether it's something significant or whether it's likethat's a great starting point to have a conversation of what changed you and have that lead towell, let me show you in the Scripture where all that works, because Jesus is the Redeemer.

I think that's going to be on the screen.

Ephesians 1-7 basically says that is, that wein Him we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins.

So can I make it a little bit more visual?

Just to try to help here, let me just pull in the reason a response is called for is the Bible teaches and Jesus validated it.

This is where I used to live.

I was not in relationship with Jesus.

You would have probably liked me okay, and you would have called me a pretty good person, but there was nothing spiritual in me but deadness.

I am an empty suit looking for meaning.

God was my Creator.

God sits over here Now.

God loved me from before I was born, but God also is not with me.

There's a big gap here, because he's holy, perfectly holy, and he's loving, but I'm perfectly unholy and I am sinful and not loving all the time.

And he can't.

He's not going to contaminate Himself.

I mean, he can't be around somebody that impure.

I've got a big problem because sooner or later I realized here I sit, I'm not even intended to be here.

God's design was for me to be over there.

I've walked away.

I've never been with Him.

What in the world am I going to do?

Because you know what separated me and I realized it.

This was done by my sins, not Him.

He didn't move.

I moved because of my sinfulness and you know what still gets to me.

I realized I have no plan.

I can't work harder, I can't be better.

I can't learn the Bible.

I can memorize that whole cotton picking Bible.

I won't be one step closer to him if my heart has not turned.

I need help, and the greatest day of my life Was when I realized Somebody's come to be a mediator.

His name is Jesus, and and Jesus came and did what he did and gave himself up for me and died a terrible, horrible death on the cross, so that I can't get there, but I can get here.

And I realized that day he was one step away.

I Didn't have to be perfect, I didn't have to know everything.

He, the Bible, actually said the Bible.

He loved me just like I was.

He changed me.

On the other side of that and when I finally came to, I could not surrender quick enough.

I Could not hit my knees quick enough to ask him to come in, because now it gets really good.

Life's not over here with him.

Guess where we go?

We go to the father, and that's when you start to figure out your purpose, your calling, and you have this promise that is with then, with me.

You will be with me forever.

Now let me remind you of something.

I'm still.

I'm still like that guy Some days I'm not a good man, but he will never.

He will never put me back here.

I Will never be in time, out permanently.

I Can only be his son, adopted by his grace, not by my works, but by his grace, and that's what Paul is trying to communicate to them and In their high intellect and their intellectualness, he.

What was the result?

Let's just go ahead and look at that.

Versus 32 through 34, when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said we want you, we want to hear from you again on the subject.

We consider that in my world, we consider that a win.

No, thank you, but I'm open to talk about it later.

That's a win because we don't produce any results anyway.

Only God does that.

33 at that.

He left the council.

You know why that's a win.

He's still alive.

He's in court.

Man, it sounds pretty neutral, pretty tame.

There was nothing tame about this encounter.

He is defending his life here in his belief system Because Romans had a prop.

They they allowed a lot of different gods, as long as you didn't get people stirred up and Unified by that belief, because there was only one real God, caesar.

And if you started infringing on that, they're gonna deal with you really quick.

We know that because Socrates was put on trial a couple of hundred years earlier for that same thing.

It wasn't about God, our God, but he had this religious belief that started to unify people and attract to them.

They dealt with him really quickly.

34, a few men, a few men became followers of Paul and believed.

Among them was Dionysius, a member of the.

One of the council members comes later and says I'm in, that's the truth.

I've heard a lot of opinions, but I realize now you're speaking the truth.

And Also a woman named Damaris and a number of others.

It wasn't a Billy Graham esque revival where people are streaming and they're having to hold the buses up in the parking lot, you know, and there's hundreds and hundreds.

No, but Paul was faithful to tell the most important thing that had ever happened in his life, and that's the meaning that we get when we are faithful.

He will always be faithful to us.

And so we have the result he walks out still a free man.

He's gonna live to hunt another day.

So how about you?

If you're like me and you realize my existence Is all because of him and my purpose in life is because of him.

We got a lot to celebrate today.

We got a lot of gratitude and we we should have, we should have an awareness of some people that we want to just share our stories with.

If you know you're not.

If you know or you're pretty sure that you don't really.

Maybe you've been religious, you've dabbled at it, you've tipped your cap at him, Maybe you've been a little more skeptical than that.

I would ask you to open your mind and your heart, because We've never been so sure of anything in all of our life, because in my boat y'all I was there when it happened and I'll never be the same.

I did not contribute one single thing to it either, but I know what he gave me and he can give you the same thing, although I also promise you the dose of reality.

Your life will get harder, it will be more sacrificial, it will be more challenging, it'll be more difficult to navigate in the society around you.

To me, that's more evidence that it is real, because it will always polarize people around us.

Right?

We, okay you.

We still friends here, y'all still up there in the balcony with me, braden.

There you go, braden, and some of our guys gonna come forward.

We always have a time to worship.

I'm gonna ask you to stay put for three more minutes To an announcement time or closing.

If we can help you take a next step.

Would you please just feel comfortable enough just to slip out?

Come down here, one of us pray with you, guide you a little bit, or we'll do it at the tent out there, whichever you'd rather do, but why don't you stand?

Let me pray for you and We'll see you down front if you have a next step, whether it's as a believer, to unite with the church or to be baptized something you haven't done yet or whether it's to start the start your faith.

Lord, we we're only as good as our Trust in you and our surrender to you, and we know that.

But, god, we need those constant reminders, and I'm thankful one more time for the day that you walked into my life and, even though I wasn't really in a mood to welcome you, you changed me forever, and there's a lot of people, I think, within listening distance of this, that would agree.

So, lord, the question is over.

For us, the question is will we be faithful to be your followers?

We ask it in Jesus name, amen.