SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 15, 2026 "Turning the World Right Side Up"

Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.

You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.

We hope you enjoy.

God bless.

Favorite Bibles this morning will be in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

The first uh 15 verses there in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

As you turn there, on October the 30th, 1938, Orson Wells uh produced and broadcast his The War of the Worlds.

I don't know if you've you've heard about that and know about that, but what it was is it was a radio broadcast that sounded like just a normal radio broadcast, but they would interrupt the broadcast for emergency announcements.

And the announcements were that aliens, Martians, had landed in New Jersey.

And at the very beginning of the broadcast, they told them, hey, this is an act, this is a play, don't worry about it, and that kind of stuff.

But some a problem happened.

Some people missed the disclaimer at the beginning.

So as they hear these interruptions of this live broadcast that they're declaring that Martians have taken over New Jersey and there's explosions and there's bombs and there's all these kinds of things, people began to panic as if it were real.

Police stations started getting phone calls, families started packing bags, getting out of town.

Like there became mass chaos around this because people believed that Martians had landed in New Jersey.

Sometimes a lie can be so convincing.

Sometimes a lie can be so convincing, and we can become so deceived in that lie that we begin to take the lie for the truth.

And what was happening and what was going on.

Today in Acts chapter 17, we're going to see some of the same things happening.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

Down in Acts chapter 17, if you go down to verse 6, it says, and when they could not find them, this is a crowd, when they couldn't find Paul and Silas, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, These men have turned the world upside down and have come here also.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

These men have turned the world upside down and they have come here also.

And while the accusers may believe that Paul and Silas were turning the world upside down, that wasn't necessarily God's view.

I believe in God's view, he doesn't see himself turning the world upside down.

I think he sees himself making the world right.

Let me explain from Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

In Romans chapter 1, down in verse 18 through 23, Paul writes this to the church at Rome.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.

In the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

See, the world was already upside down because as mankind, what we had done is we had changed, we had traded the immortal God to worship created things.

And as we did that, we began to suppress the truth.

And as we suppressed the truth, the world got turned upside down, but it got turned upside down by mankind long before Paul and Silas came onto the scene.

So now what's happening with Paul and Silas is they're not turning the world upside down, but they are turning it right side up.

Let's read this morning from Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

If you are able, I invite you to stand with me as we read God's word together.

We'll start in verse one.

Now, when they had passed through Amphili Amphipolis and Apollonina, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of Jews.

Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.

Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women.

But the Jews were jealous.

And taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set in the city an uproar, and attacked the house of Jacob, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, These men have turned the world upside down.

These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.

Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Search Caesar, saying, There is another king, Jesus.

And the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things, and when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

And these now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

They received the word with eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.

Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Paul and Silas to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you.

We thank you for this opportunity that we have to open your word, your revelation of yourself to us.

Help us today.

Open the eyes of our hearts that we may see you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So what we're we find in our passage today that is as Paul and Silas they left Philippi and as they traveled through Thessalonica and Berea, and then we'll see it on over in Jacks as in Acts, as they traveled, they proclaimed the gospel.

They shared the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, while we may not be on a missionary journey like Paul and Silas, I think the application for us is very similar.

As we journey through this life that God has placed before us, we should be sharing the gospel message.

Our objective this morning, what we want to get from this, is this.

Let's turn the world right side up.

So the question that we're seeking to answer is this how did they turn the world right side up?

If that's what we want to do, if that's our goal, let's look at how they did it and what they did to be accused of turning the world upside down.

What did they do?

Maybe we can learn from what they did and know how we can do the same.

First thing I think that we see here in their turning the world right side up is they reasoned with people from Scripture.

See what Paul did, he went into the synagogue, which was his custom.

We've talked about this before, that Paul, when he went into a new city, the first place that he would go was into the synagogue.

And what we find him doing here is three weeks in a row, for three Sabbaths, he goes into the synagogue.

And what it tells us there is that he reasoned with them from the scriptures.

Now, this is not like Paul standing up and preaching a sermon.

This is more like Paul sitting down and discussing the Old Testament with people who were already discussing the Old Testament.

He was asking questions, he was fielding questions, he was talking to them and reasoning with them from the scriptures.

And what he reasoned with them was this.

He went about explaining and proving what we see in verse 3.

He explained and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.

See, what had happened among the Jews is they had set the Messiah, the Christ that was to come.

They had made him into a person who was going to come and free them from their oppressors.

Namely, at that point, he was coming to free them from Rome.

Here's the problem with that, though.

Jesus came not to just free them from Rome, he came to free their hearts and to free their minds from the oppression of sin.

Because let's be honest, if he doesn't free their hearts and minds from sin's oppression, what good does it do to free them from Rome?

They needed true freedom.

So Jesus came, but he came to free them from their sin.

So what we find here is it was necessary for him to suffer.

It was necessary for him to die.

It was necessary for him to arise.

And Old Testament had pointed to that when he talks about how it might have been necessary for Jesus to suffer.

He might have turned back to Isaiah 53.

In Isaiah 53, it's a long chapter, but bear with me.

I think Isaiah says it way better than I could.

Here's what he says.

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.

We esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one to his own way.

And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before his shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation was who considered that he was cut off of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

And they have and they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grief.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offer offspring, he shall prolong his days, the Lord shall prosper in his the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

When Isaiah wrote this, he was writing about the coming Messiah.

How Israel ever got in their mind that the Messiah, that the Christ that was to come, would not suffer.

I have no idea when you read Psalm 53.

The Messiah was going to suffer.

He was going to be pierced for our transgressions.

The Lord was going to crush him.

For us.

The Messiah was going to suffer.

He might have also pointed to Psalm chapter 22, verses 14 through 18, when he talked about the Messiah must die.

Psalms 22:14–18

In Psalm 22, he said, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax.

It is melted within my breast, and my strength is dried up like a pot sherd.

My tongue sticks to my jaws, and you lay me in the dust of death.

For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me.

They have pierced my hands and feet.

I can count all my bones.

They stare and gloat over me.

They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

But he was going to arise in Psalm 16, verse 10.

Psalms 16:10

The psalmist writes this for who will abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption?

His soul would not be abandoned to Sheol.

His soul would not see corruption because he was going to arise from the dead.

Paul sits and he reasons with them from Scripture.

That the Messiah was going to suffer, that the Messiah was going to die, that the Messiah was going to arise, that the Christ would do that.

And then Paul makes his greatest point.

The point that Jesus fulfilled all of those.

Paul said, Jesus was the Christ.

So he sat with those for three weeks and he reasoned with them in scriptures.

Then what we find next, after he leaves Thessalonica, he goes to Berea.

And in Berea, he does basically the same thing.

He goes into the synagogue.

The message doesn't change for Saul, he for Paul.

He goes into the synagogue and he tells them about Jesus.

He reasons with them from Scripture.

But Scripture talks about the Bereans a little bit differently because here's what it says: they were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

Well, why?

Why were they more noble than those in Thessalonica?

Well, it doesn't really tell us outright, but I think from the flow of the story, we can understand why they were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

I think it was because if you read on in verse 11, now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

They received the word with eagerness.

Now catch that.

They received the word with eagerness.

It doesn't say they received Paul and Silas with eagerness.

It says they received the message of Paul and Silas with eagerness.

At this point, I don't think it mattered who came and proclaimed.

What mattered is the word that they proclaimed.

And then here's what the Bereans did with that.

After they received the word, they didn't just go, oh, okay, we'll take it.

That's not what they did.

It says they did this, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

They examined the scriptures daily.

They didn't wait for the next Sabbath for Paul to explain it to them again.

They didn't sit and say, I wonder what he's going to say this week.

That was interesting.

Maybe I can learn more next week.

No.

What they did is with eagerness received this word, and then with eagerness, daily, they went and searched the scriptures for themselves.

They searched for themselves, examining what Paul and Silas had said to find the truth of it, to find the truth of these words, to find that Jesus is the Messiah.

I think that's why it says that they were more noble than those than the Thessalonians, was because they searched the scripture to see how God had revealed Himself to them.

Searched, they examined.

Paul and Silas, they shared the gospel in both Thessalonica and Emberia.

But we can't miss something that happened in both of those places.

In both of those places, the Jews stirred up trouble.

If you go back to verse 5, we see it says in verse 5 about the Jews, it says, but the Jews were jealous.

Jealous.

I mean, we really don't know.

Again, it's not really given us.

It's only speculation at this point, but but if we speculate some, I mean, they could have been jealous because Paul and Silas were drawing people away from them.

They could have been jealous that maybe Paul and Silas had a better grasp of Scripture than they did.

They could have been jealous that Paul and Silas had such authority that maybe they didn't have.

We're not real sure.

We don't know why they were jealous.

We just know that they were.

And so here's what they did.

They go out into the marketplace, they go out into the city, taking some wicked men of the rabble, and they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar.

Can I just say this?

If you have to go out and get wicked men to follow you, you might need to question your cause.

If it's only wicked men who are following you, you might be the problem.

But no, they didn't do that.

They didn't stop and see that.

Instead, what they did is they set this in an uproar.

So they they go into this man named Jason.

We're introduced to Jason and we don't know much about him, but they go into Jason's house.

He must have been housing Paul and Silas.

So they go into his house, and when they couldn't find Paul and Silas, they drag Jason out.

They drag some of the other brothers out.

They take them before the magistrates, kind of like happened, what happened to Paul and Silas last week in Philippi.

They take them before the city authorities and they say these men who are turned the world upside down are with us all.

Also, and this man, Jason, he's housing them.

So they come before the city authorities and they bring up lies and accusations similar to what happened with Paul and Silas last week.

That there is another king that's not Caesar.

Well, they are definitely saying that Jesus is the king, but he is not a king like Caesar.

They're saying other things.

What they're saying about Paul and Silas and about Jason and the followers is really circumstantial at best.

They go, they stir up the crowds.

So Paul and Silas leave and they go to Berea.

We just talked about Berea.

Many there were hearing and examining daily.

But verse 13, but when the Jews from where?

Thessalonica.

Not the Jews from Berea.

When the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of the Lord, the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea, also they came to Berea doing the same thing.

Agitating, stirring up the crowds, trying to prevent this message from going out, trying to stop the gospel message from happening.

But let's not forget the conversions as well.

The conversions back in verse 4.

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

Then, if you go down in verse 12 as well, many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

The message did go out.

They did hear.

They did receive.

They did believe.

Which causes us to wonder and causes us to see.

So it's not many Jews.

It does say there were a great many Greeks, but so the question comes: if they were turning the world right side up, what does God need to turn the world right side up?

Understand this: God doesn't have to have a big crowd to turn the world right side up.

It's not what he's calling for, it's not what he's asking.

Here's what God needs.

He needs people, let me rephrase that.

Here's what God desires.

Not what he needs.

He can do it all by himself.

What he desires is people who believe in him through faith and repentance, who are trusting him and obeying him, being his witnesses, and let them watch him turn the world right side up.

That's what he desires.

So as we come today, as we look at this passage, and so if the message is similar for us, Paul and Silas, they were traveling around the world sharing the gospel.

If the message for us is the same, that as we journey through this life that God has placed before us, we should be sharing the gospel, and he's going to turn the world right side up.

How does that look then?

How does this affect us?

We see him doing that with Paul and Silas, but how does he do that through us?

Well, first of all, he does it this way.

If you have never trusted in Jesus, if you have never believed that he is the Christ, that it was necessary for him to come, to suffer, to die, to arise.

If you have never believed in him, hear me, you must stop believing the lie that you don't need him, because you absolutely do.

Understand, here's what Scripture says: that we are all sinners.

And we all fall short of his glory.

And God, because he is a great and just God, he is going to punish sin because that's what a just God does.

A just God punishes sin.

And because God is just, he is going to punish sin.

But God is also loving.

And he loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son.

He sent Jesus to live a perfect life, to die on a horrible cross, to be buried, and to arise.

And so now when we believe in him through faith and repentance, when we believe in him, he redeems us, he saves us.

Now that's the truth.

And we gotta stop believing the lie.

Listen, we are not good people.

And if our good outweighs our bad, we'll be okay.

That is a lie.

We got must stop suppressing the truth.

We must understand the truth.

We need a savior, and his name is Jesus.

So if we are going to see the world turned right side up, first we must believe in him and let him make our world right.

Let him make my world right.

Let him turn your world right side up and your life right side up.

We must believe in him.

Secondly, we need to do this.

We need to stop believing the lie that God can't use you, or that God doesn't want you, or that you're not good enough, or that you don't know enough.

We've got to stop believing the lie that it's the preacher's job to share the gospel with people.

We gotta stop believing the lie that it's the church staff's job to be witnesses of the kingdom of God.

That's not what he says.

In Acts chapter 1, verse 8, he's not just talking to the 12, he's talking to the disciples.

Acts 1:8

All the disciples gathered around.

And he says this after the Holy Spirit, you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

We have to stop believing the lie that we don't, I God, you didn't give me the gift of evangelism, you didn't give me the gift of witnessing I'm not good enough, I can't talk to people, I'm too shy, I'm an introvert.

We gotta stop believing all of those things, and we must trust in him and let him use our shyness, let him use our introvertedness, let him use all the things that are all of our weaknesses and all of our frailties.

Let God use them and overpower them with his might and with his power and let him turn the world right side up, and we're just watching him go.

We gotta stop believing the lie.

We gotta stop suppressing the truth, like Romans says, And we must believe him, trusting him, watching him turn the world right side up.

We're about to enter into a time of invitation.

Want to pray for us?

We're gonna stand and sing as we sing this hymn of invitation.

Here's what we are inviting you to do.

If you've never trusted Christ in your Savior, we invite you to come forward.

So you must believe in Him in faith and repentance, and we would love to share with you and talk with you what that looks like and how you do that.

We invite you to come.

There are counselors who will take you out and share with you how you can do that.

If you have, but you've believed the lie.

You've you've believed the lie that God can't use you.

This morning you need to repent.

You need to repent of that, and you need to believe that he is enough, that he is enough to change the world, that he is enough to overcome all of our weaknesses and use us and make us his witnesses.

You need to trust him.

We invite you to come.

We would love to pray with you here.

We you can come and kneel at these steps and make them your altar, or you can just pray right where you are.

But we invite you this morning.

I invite you this morning to repent.

Stop believing the lie and trust God.

Let me pray for us.

God, you are good.

We thank you for this opportunity that we have now to respond to your gospel.

We need you.

God, we need you to save us because we can't save ourselves.

Jesus, we need you to redeem us because we can't buy ourselves back.

It is only by your blood it was necessary for you to come and live, be persecuted, and die and arise so that we could have life.

I pray for those here this morning who need to believe in you.

That this morning you will call them and give them the faith that they need to come forward.

God, we pray for the others who have accepted the lie and believed the lie that you can't use them.

God, help them to feel the power of the Holy Spirit to be your witnesses.

This morning, may they repent of that lie.

Trust you.

Jesus, it's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.