The Sons of Sceva | The Power That Cannot Be Imitated | Alex Sands

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast.

Today, Pastor Alex Sands takes us into Acts 19, 11 through 20, where the city of Ephesus witnesses something undeniable.

The power of God cannot be copied, controlled, or used like a formula.

In this passage, miracles are happening through Paul.

Evil spirits are being cast out, and a group of men try to use the name of Jesus without truly knowing Jesus.

But what happens next takes the whole city.

This is more than a story about spiritual power.

It is a wake-up call about real faith, true surrender, and the danger of using Jesus' name without living under his authority.

So lean in, open your heart, and let's discover how the word of the Lord continues to grow, prevail, and transforms lives in Acts 19.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you.

Well, today, guys, we are continuing our study in the book of Acts, and we are in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 19 today.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And we remember the book of Acts is about the unstoppable advance of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God cannot be stopped, cannot be blocked, cannot be held back.

It is because the kingdom is Jesus' kingdom.

He is the king, and he is the one who commissioned the apostles to share the good news.

The news of the kingdom that go from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the world.

Gospel can't be stopped, can't be blocked.

And we've seen it time and time again.

Opposition would arise and then operate opposition would fall.

Jesus is so awesome.

So today we're going to see it again.

We're going to see opposition and we're going to see how the opposition fails and collapses.

Ephesians 19, verses 11.

Verses 11 through 20.

Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Verse 20 says the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Oops.

I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself.

Alright, verse 20 says the word of the Lord continue to increase and prevail mightily.

Two words I want you to highlight and keep in mind as we go through.

First one's increase.

Everybody say increase and prevail.

Increase and prevail, not slightly, but mightily, with great power.

As we've studied Acts from time to time, Luke will give us a progress report.

We've seen it dropped in at the midpoint of Acts chapter 6 after there had been some rustling about the division of food amongst the widows.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Well, at the end of the day, the word of the Lord increased.

King Agrippa launched opposition against the church.

He had James beheaded.

But then God took Agrippa out.

And the word says, the word of the Lord increased.

The word of the Lord increased.

And so here at the end of the story that we're going to talk about today is that the word of the Lord increased and prevailed.

Now last time we were together, we we uh studied through verse 9, excuse me, verse 10, and we saw how it said that this continued, Paul teaching for 18 months, continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

So it the word as we had left it is moving forward.

And Paul has been there 18 or two years, excuse me, two years.

And the Lord, and and the word was moving forth as he was teaching in a lecture hall every day.

But what we'll see today is that it wasn't just Paul's teaching, God came alongside Paul's teaching, and that's the reason why it increased and prevailed in a mighty way.

God came along and did some special things because there was a special audience that needed it.

So let's take a look.

Verses 11, start verses 11 and 12.

It says, and God was doing what?

Extraordinary miracles.

Extraordinary miracles.

That's interesting there.

You know, miracles just by definition are extraordinary, right?

Miracles defy explanation and can't be explained by natural laws.

So they are extraordinary to begin with, but Luke says God was doing extraordinary miracles.

So there were miracles that were being done in the apostolic age.

You know, you had Peter, you had John, there were miracles that were being done at this time, but these miracles done in Ephesus were at another level.

Paul is ministering in Ephesus.

Ephesus was the capital of Asia, and it was a city that was large, somewhere over a quarter million people.

I know conservative numbers are a quarter of a million, much, some have said half a million.

It's a large city.

It's a commercial hub.

There's a lot of money passing through, a lot of people passing through.

It's a large city.

A lot of money, as I shared.

It was known for the temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world.

The worship of Diana was look, it was a the the uh economy was built around the this temple, this huge, massive temple.

And with all the money and all the commerce and all of the people beneath the veneer that folks had it going on, and all the beneath all of that was you see, that was the city was saturated with the occult, superstition, magic, and things like that.

It was in the atmosphere, it was what they breathed, that was their world view.

They were spiritual, believed in a spiritual world, but they thought they could control it with chants and spells and different and magic.

That's Ephesus.

That's what Ephesus was like.

There in Ephesus, as Paul is teaching, he's doing extraordinary miracles.

In this place where there was a lot of belief in the supernatural, but confused about who was in rule, who ruled it, who was in control.

God was doing extraordinary miracles.

And before we go any further, it says God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.

But don't miss the first part.

God was doing it.

God was doing the extraordinary miracles through the hands of Paul.

It wasn't Paul doing the miracles, it wasn't Paul doing the work.

Paul was what?

The instrument.

The power belonged to God.

So God was working through Paul, working miracles by his hands.

Doing these miracles, not so people would stare at Paul and think that he was all of that, not because you know people would be able to look at him in some kind of different way.

No, it wasn't about that.

It was so he could point them to Jesus.

But here's the extraordinary part.

Verse 12, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

Wow.

That's extraordinary.

That would constitute extraordinary.

Now remember the context, the apostle Paul, he is teaching in Ephesus, but he is also working.

He's working his trade.

He was a tent maker.

He worked in leather, in animal skins.

And what the tradesmen would do in Ephesus, they would get up at dawn and start working.

Paul was like a blue-collar worker.

He's just working to sustain himself so we he wouldn't be dependent on anybody.

He'd get up at dawn, work until like 11, and then around Ephesus, work stopped at 11 because it would get so hot.

People would take a siesta until around four, then finish up some work.

But instead of taking a siesta, Paul went to the uh a lecture hall that he apparently rented from a man named Tyrannus.

And he used that lecture hall to tell and teach his disciples, the ones who were following him, about Jesus who he was following.

So he would post up there every day.

Disciples would come and he would teach.

Others who didn't know about Jesus would come by and he'd share Jesus with them.

He was on the post day after day after day, working hard in the morning, sweat drenching all over his face.

And then after that time was over, he would set down his tools and and and his apron and go over to the lecture hall and teach.

Sometimes wrapped around the head like a sweatband.

Another times just grabbed and wiped his face, lay it down.

And in his trade, you had to have an apron, a heavy-duty apron, because of the tools and everything else you're using.

So everyone had an apron.

But he didn't need the apron when he was teaching from 11 to 4.

So I'm sure he just put the apron, left the apron in the shop.

Those handkerchiefs, there's nothing special about them.

The aprons, nothing special about them.

These were not religious items.

Paul did not embroider handkerchiefs and sell them.

He didn't go on TV with special anointed prayer handkerchiefs.

These were his everyday sweaty, nasty handkerchiefs.

And I can imagine what happened.

Paul leaves them there and he goes to the hall to teach.

And somebody has a need, and they know God is working through Paul, and Paul heals, has the power to heal.

And they can't get to Paul or they can't get their loved one to Paul, but he's not there at the shop.

And then they see the apron and the handkerchief and they think to themselves, well, this might have power.

In that culture, it was superstitious.

There's a lot of superstition.

There was the belief that objects could absorb the power of the user.

That was a common belief, superstition at the time, that a cloth could absorb that power.

And so I'm confident that someone went and took the handkerchief and carried it away.

Wasn't Paul like giving it to them?

They took it.

And they laid it on someone who was sick, someone who was possessed with demons.

And it worked.

Look at that.

Their diseases left them.

And the evil spirits came out of them.

Now, saints, this is these are signs of the kingdom.

Healing and deliverance.

The king has arrived.

And so the demons had to flee.

Sickness in the when the kingdom is fully manifest, there will be no sickness, there will be no disease, there will be no tears.

Hallelujah.

Jesus was doing these things.

Jesus was healing people of their infirmities.

Jesus was causing the lame to walk and the blind to see.

Jesus did these things and he drove out demons.

And Paul is doing these extraordinary miracles, but his handkerchiefs?

Aprons?

What is that all about?

Won't the people get the wrong idea?

Won't they start to worship the cloths?

Won't they start worshiping the aprons?

What about all of this?

What could happen?

Why do that?

Why did the Lord do that?

Here is our kingdom truth.

God did it because he's gracious.

And he meets people at their level of faith so they can know how great he really is.

That's why he used the handkerchiefs.

People grew up in a culture where they worshipped objects.

People grew up in this culture where they were, uh believed in their special charms and things of that nature.

And so they that that was rooted in their belief system.

And God, what he did is he he allowed that not for them to worship the handkerchief.

There's no power in the cloth.

But that they would remember where they got it.

And Paul would be present to explain.

Oh, you took it?

I was looking all over for that.

Man, you have me.

I've been looking all over the hand.

That's my favorite handkerchief.

You took it?

I did.

I ain't mad about it.

I would do it all over again.

What happened?

I laid it on mama.

And mama got better.

You got a powerful cloth.

No, I have a powerful God.

Let me tell you about this God.

He's the God who drives out demons.

He is the God who causes those who are sick to be healed.

I have no power in and of myself.

There is a God in heaven.

And the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you need to know, the Lord Jesus, he did these things.

He drove out demons.

He caused the sick to be well.

He is the Lord.

You need to know him.

He never accepted praise.

That's why God can use him like this.

And Paul was just doing his everyday thing.

And I just love the fact that the Lord condescended to where the people were.

Meaning, it condescends met them where they were.

Anybody else, God met you where you were with all of your misunderstandings about things that are divine and what you had to do and you know, you don't have to have a degree in theology to be saved.

God could take you right where you are.

The thing he graciously meets you with all of your spiritual misunderstandings, he'll meet you right there, but not leave you there, take you to where you need to be.

And this, these extraordinary miracles took place because that's what the people would speak to the people, and he did them in a way that was greater than any other thing, any other God that they knew.

God was doing the amazing.

And Paul would be at the same place at the same time.

Jesus did this, same thing, same principle.

Mark chapter 6, verse 56.

Mark 6:56

Wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.

And as many as touched it were made well.

You remember the woman with the issue of blood?

She read just to touch the hem of his garment.

There was no power in the garment.

And listen, just because it touched Jesus didn't mean it suddenly had power.

The Lord knew what was going on.

He he healed that woman.

He healed these people, he healed all of these Ephesians who just received this handkerchief, a handkerchief.

He did the healing.

He's the one that drove out.

He gave holistic healing.

So they would go back to Paul.

And maybe they thought Paul could do it, but it wasn't Paul.

Paul would point them to Jesus.

And this is the word of the Lord increasing.

The word of the Lord increases when people see that God can do the extraordinary with the ordinary.

So at two words, the word of the Lord increased and prevailed.

Increase means that it takes more ground.

The Lord is taking the enemy's territory because people are talking about it, is going out further geographically.

People are sharing this news.

Hey, you need to hear this teaching.

You need to hear this.

Where do I go for that?

Oh, uh, the hall of Tyrannus, you got to go there.

He's there every day, 11 to 4.

He'll tell you all about this Jesus.

The word was moving outward, it was increasing.

People began to talk.

All because the Lord met them where they were and gave them what they needed.

So they could understand that he was superior.

God meeting people where they were, where they are?

I think about Elijah.

So remember Elijah in his contest with the false prophets of Baal?

Remember that?

Remember he said, you know, we'll what he built an altar and put wood on the altar, and he challenged the prophets of Baal, said, uh, whoever's God, you know, manifest, shows up by fire.

He is the true God.

And the people of Israel, they were watching.

And and and and and Elijah said, Y'all go first.

And you remember the story?

They started dancing around it and everything else, cutting themselves for hours, trying to come along Bell, and Elijah's like talking trash.

Maybe he's asleep.

Come out louder.

Maybe he's Can't hear you.

They did all that, they exhausted themselves.

And then Elijah said, Hey, get some water, pour it on the wood.

Put some more on the wood.

And it poured over into the trenches.

Put it all on there.

And then he cried out to God for him to answer, that the people would know that he was the living God, and God answered through fire.

Poof! And the flames go over and it licks up all the water, it's gone.

Now, why was that important?

Why did that work?

Baal was a Canaanite deity.

He was the storm God.

There were pictures of him with a lightning bolt in his hand.

If anyone could light up, if anyone can light up a pile of wood, it should have been Baal.

But Baal couldn't answer.

Why couldn't he just send a lightning bolt?

Because Baal isn't real.

He doesn't exist.

And God beat him at his own quote-unquote game.

And the people said, Oh, the Lord, he is the living God.

We thought Baal was the storm God, but he must be the Lord and superior to him.

And they worshiped and all of that.

That's all Elijah wanted to hear.

Now the story goes on about Ahab and Jezebel and all that stuff.

But the thing about it was God, the whole setup was to be exactly where, to meet them where they were and to show them how great he was.

He was greater than all the things that they trusted in.

That's how it worked.

But understand this for us.

As God's people, as God's people, keep this in mind.

God doesn't need you to be extraordinary or do extraordinary things in order to spread the gospel.

If God could use Paul's nasty, stinky sweat rags to increase, to enable the word of the Lord to increase.

If he could do that, look, there isn't anything he can't do.

There isn't anything he can do.

And so, you know, we live in a culture that if you're not careful, you would think that in order to uh to lift up Jesus, in order to be effective, you need a big platform, you need a lot of followers, you need to get on all the social media channels, you need to do this and that.

And and look, I look, people used to tell me all these things I'm supposed to do as a pastor, as a preacher, to make the church grow and da da da da da.

Look here.

A sweaty rag.

If you're not careful, you'll get swept up into thinking, well, God needs me to do this.

It's got to be a great thing, a great thing.

Be faithful where he planted you.

You don't know what la what rags you are leaving around in your workplace that God is using to bring other people to himself.

I remember uh uh someone sharing with me that uh at her desk, she had a scripture.

It was like on a rock, and it was a scripture right there on the rock.

She just had it was for herself, encourage herself.

And she had left her desk for a meeting or something, and another person came and saw it.

And just seeing the scripture, she rededicated her life to Jesus and later told her about what that scripture did and what it meant.

Do you think that the uh my friend was there by accident?

Do you think that that she was where she was by chance?

Do you think that little scripture just happened by chance?

You know, God drew even, it wasn't even for anybody else.

Wasn't trying to build up a brand, build up a platform, whatever.

She just used that for her own encouragement.

And God drew somebody to the rock.

Oh, that rock that is greater than that.

That rock, he used that little rock that she didn't know it was just for herself.

That's what God will do.

She had just been faithful, representing God at her workplace.

Whatever, wherever you are, wherever you are, what community you live in, the sphere of influence that you are in.

Look, be faithful where you are and don't be anxious.

God is using your life as a testimony.

Let him use you.

Just keep being faithful.

Paul kept leaving rags behind.

Paul kept using Abraham.

Paul kept, he was willing to talk to anybody.

He kept and God used those simple things to increase the word of the Lord.

Amen.

Colossians 3 23.

Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for man.

The whole idea of the secular and the spiritual, that doesn't exist.

It's all spiritual.

It's all spiritual.

You showing up, having a good attitude, giving thanks in all situations, smiling when people expect you to frown.

You showing up, not partaking in gossip.

You show up with your goodness and kindness and your peace and your patience.

You showing up and being a blessing to others when they are in need.

You doing that, you just showing up and exhibiting that fruit of the Spirit, that faithfulness, God will take that and He'll use it.

And you don't even think you did anything.

Just walking, and as a believer, it produces an aroma.

And for some it smells good, and for others it it stinks.

But there's still that aroma of Christ.

Some God is drawing through that.

So be faithful where you are.

So God is doing extraordinary miracles.

Here's this handkerchief, handkerchiefs, aprons, so on and so forth.

Well, you know what?

When God is moving and the power of God is is manifest, counterfeits always show up.

If there's truth, there's somebody's gonna give something that's false.

And we're not surprised when we look at verse 13, we see then some of the itinerate Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the name of Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.

Itinerant means they will just travel around.

Just go from this city to that city and travel around.

And they were exorcists, and an exorcist literally is uh those who bind by an oath.

People who claimed they could drive out demons by using spiritual formulas or commands, people who claimed to have spiritual authority in themselves.

These were professionals, they were the professional uh uh exorcists, they were the ones who had all the kinds of magic spells and chants and incantations, all of that.

They were professionals, and the fact that they were Jewish, or that just added to it.

It's Jewish that Judaism was an old religion, and it was mysterious to those on the outside because they had a God they wouldn't even call his name out.

But the high priest would go once a year behind this, you know, behind this curtain.

This was weird.

They did stuff that was different, and so you had a Jewish exorcist, they could command a premium.

Because again, Ephesus was a city that was steeped in the occult, in superstition, and everything else.

There were people who were desperate, people who were in need, people who were searching, people who were trying to get curses lifted off of them and to curse somebody else.

And these religious professionals, these exorcists, they weren't pastors, they weren't ministers, they sounded spiritual, they sounded religious, but only to impress others so they could police them and take and take and take.

From people who are desperate, people looking for answers for life, those were the ones that would really pony up for the special, special magic tricks and chants.

Well, they hear about Paul, the reputation continues to go out about evil spirits being driven out and folks being healed.

And the thing about it is that they can't really understand is there's no special chant.

It's not complicated.

Because they had complicated stuff, they had all kinds of movements and stuff like that.

There was nothing complicated.

He just said, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, well, that's cheap.

We can try that.

They just added his name to another list, another in their bag of tricks.

And so I swear verse 13, I adore you.

I adore you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.

They didn't say in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord, didn't say by the authority of the risen Lord Jesus.

They didn't speak as men who knew Jesus.

They didn't know Jesus, they had no relationship with Jesus.

They just knew Jesus as the one that Paul preached and talked about.

Well, we bind you.

We call you out by the name of that Jesus that Paul talks about.

Now listen, Jesus is not a spell.

There's no magic, magic word, he is not a religious cheat code that people can use.

Claiming the name of Jesus, saying the name of Jesus isn't going something that will make your life suddenly everything that you want it to be.

There's nothing magical about saying in the name of Jesus.

Because it's not about the words, it's about the relationship.

These men didn't have a relationship, and then here we have these special ones.

You can't see because you can't use his name and reject his rule, his lordship.

So you have seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skeva.

The seven sons of Skeva.

It just sounds like who were doing this very thing.

You know, like one who uh was in a family where the high priest came from, but in terms of a person's name.

It's either somebody that's real real, we have no idea who they are, or they made it all up.

We are the seventh number of completion, the seven sons of the high priest Skeva.

And it's only the high priest who goes behind the curtain.

It's only the high priest who knows the special words to say, only the high priest know what this mysterious God's name really is.

Oh, it's a talking, it was a selling point.

These guys tried it.

Hmm.

Verse 15.

But the evil spirit answered them.

Read it for me.

There we go.

Jesus, I know.

You know what?

People debate about Jesus in our world.

You know, who is Jesus?

Is Jesus Lord?

You know that hell doesn't debate Jesus' identity.

The demonic realm, they're not confused.

There's no debate about who Jesus is.

The demon says, Jesus, I know.

And that is uh that the Greek word gnosco, and and so it it means to be really acquainted with, to really know.

I we know about his character, we know what he does.

Other demons, that demon over there, he got spanked and kicked out, and then that so we they knew Jesus, he knew his authority.

And then he said, Paul, I recognize it's a different Hebrew, a different Greek word.

It's not on this level of no, but it's I'm acquainted with him.

I know about him, but not like he knows about Jesus.

But I've heard about this Paul because he's wreaking havoc in the kingdom of darkness.

He's wreaking havoc in the kingdom of darkness everywhere.

So the demons even know this Paul character.

And now in God using him.

Again, demons know about Jesus.

So belief in Jesus isn't that that doesn't that's not impressive.

You believe that God is one, you do well, even the demons believe and shudder.

But just knowing facts about Jesus, there's no power in that.

The question the demon asks is, who are you?

Jesus, I know, Paul I recognize, but it's literally you, who are you?

It's like, who are you?

To tell me, who are you?

God to give you the recognize, to be well acquainted with, to know about someone because of their presence and their work being clearly known.

Who are you?

Saints, do you know Jesus?

And does Jesus know you?

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

The evil spirit sprung on them.

Now, you got seven dudes.

Seven.

But you know, demonic spirits can enable people to do things physically they aren't able to do in their own strength.

He leaps on them, mastered all of them.

That means to bring under complete control, to overpower.

The word of the Lord increased and prevailed, to overcome.

They overpowered, mastered and overpowered, and this overpowered means to be strong against someone to prevail over them by force.

So that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.

So he jumps on them and gets all of them.

Does like some Avengers thing.

And and even as they try to leave, give me that robe.

Maybe it wasn't like that.

They're trying to leave, and they're trying to run and rips their clothing off to the point where when they get out, they don't have a strip of clothes on them.

They're running around naked, bloody.

They got torn up from the forum.

Hey, fathers.

We don't know if sciva is real.

We don't know if these were seven sons of skeba.

If you have a son or a daughter that's wayward doing things out in the world, this is the best thing that could happen.

For God to discipline them now and not later.

Maybe that's something to pray about.

If you have a son or daughter that's out in the world, pray God brings disaster enough for them to turn.

Turn it over to God.

Don't nag, pray.

And look what happens.

This became known to all the residents of Ephesus.

To all of them, Jews and Greeks.

And what happened?

Fear fell on them all.

And then what else?

The name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

Yes, sir.

To be extolled.

To extol means to make great, to magnify, and to honor highly.

The word gets out about this.

See, God was doing extraordinary things.

Extraordinary miracles.

And then someone tried to, or a group tried to hijack his name.

Well, well, God, his name will not be hijacked.

He's not like all these other gods.

No, no, he's not like any.

He has all authority.

Those other quote-unquote gods, they have no authority.

The word got out, and the word of the Lord prevailed.

You will not cheapen his name.

You will not be copied, co opted.

And friends, truth principle the name of Jesus carries authority only for those who belong to Jesus.

Don't go trying to call on Jesus, and he's not your Lord.

Jesus said, Matthew 7, 22 and 23, On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?

And then will I declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

The name of Jesus carries authority.

So we've seen how the word of the Lord increased these extraordinary miracles.

We have seen how the word of the Lord prevailed.

It's gone uh wide and deep.

Because now people are understanding it's not just miracles that this God can do, but he can do greater.

He is greater than all the others.

He's even able to drive out these.

They tried, he must be something else.

Power wasn't in the cloth.

Those were the professional exorcists, and they couldn't use his name, and they got beat down and naked.

Knowledge is getting deeper and wider, prevailing, overcoming.

But it wasn't just through this that the word of the Lord increased and prevailed.

Look at verse 18.

This is an amazing part.

Many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices.

Confessing and divulging.

That's powerful.

First of all, the fact is, as Luke says, they who were now believers.

He's not speaking of people who had been like pagans and just got saved.

He's talking there about those who had already professed faith in Christ.

They were already in uh included, you know, in the church, the family.

They were saved before.

They weren't brand new.

But they came confessing and divulging their practices.

Well, yes, they had faith in Jesus, but they also had backup plans.

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

Some of those believers, they had special, these spells that they bought.

Again, Ephesus traded in this.

They bought some and and and had them in their homes.

Again, just in case.

You know, sickness came, just in case our prayers of Jesus did, just, you know, having a backup just in case.

They practiced these magic arts.

God is exposing not just the counterfeits in the world, but he's exposing the compromise in the church.

They came confessing and divulging, and confessing means to acknowledge openly, to admit guilt freely and honestly before God and others.

They make a public profession.

Y'all, I've been living wrong.

I've had these, that I've had my chance and everything else, just like those uh exorcism.

I'm wrong, I've been wrong, and they're confessing them and not just saying, I'm just so sorry in their hearts.

They are making it public.

And then divulging them to disclose or report to bring into the open what had been hidden.

This isn't the believer saying, Well, I ain't nobody perfect.

This isn't the the believers giving a little snippet of something that they've done so they can feel good about confessing, but got this big monster that they didn't.

This is not the believers saying like real vague things.

They're getting down to nitty-gritty.

Why?

Because the fear of the Lord fell on everyone, and they see how great God is and their awe of him.

And then knowing him is so much more valuable than these scrolls and magic arts.

They name what had been what they had hidden.

That's what real confession is all about.

Here's the kingdom truth.

The word of the Lord prevails when the people of God stop protecting what Jesus came to destroy.

We may not have scrolls in our day, we may not have books with special chants or anything like that, but don't be fooled.

We got some stuff lingering in the closet.

Thank God when he exposes it.

But there are some things that the body of Christ brings just in case.

Got one foot in the world and another foot in the church, trying to hold on to some old things.

Just hope, no.

We got to do as they did here.

They brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.

Burn them up so they can never go back to them.

And no one else can go get them either.

And did it in the sight of everyone.

Their confession is visible.

Burned is continuous.

It means it wasn't just a one-time.

People just kept going back in their houses and pulling out more and pulling out more and throwing it on the fire.

I got one too, pulling it on the fire and just confessing all of it, burning it up.

You gotta burn the bridge so you can't go back.

That you can't go back there anymore.

You remove yourself from an environment.

Period.

You won't see me again.

Fellas, you can come to my house, but I'm not hanging over there.

Because of what that is bringing me to, I'm staying in my house.

You can come and I I'll I'll grill for you.

Maybe it's a relationship, and you know that it ain't right.

Call them and tell them it's over.

It is over.

I am blocking your number.

Never call this number again.

It is over.

And let somebody know you did it.

Now, not everybody.

You can't tell everybody everything.

Don't hear what I'm not saying.

But this, there's something about confessing it publicly.

Confess your faults, your sins to one another.

And then this wasn't a cheap bonfire either.

They counted the value of them and it came to 50,000 pieces of silver.

50,000 pieces of silver.

That's the equivalent of 137 years of a daily worker's wage.

If someone worked every day, 137 years.

It's over a million dollars in our, you put it into our dollars, and you you you put in like what a typical worker would make.

It's over a million dollars.

Up in smoke.

You see, you know, repentance is costly.

If what you're repenting doesn't cost it, look, Jesus calls for everything.

And again, repentance, yeah, it could cost, and you could give up, but that's not the way you need to look at it.

You need to look at the way they did.

I've got all I need in Jesus.

And so even the things I have to let go of, they pale in comparison to what I'm having in Jesus.

And what I'm gonna so good, I'm willing to burn everything up in order that I can have more of it.

I have found the pearl of great price.

I have found the pearl, and now I'm getting I want the whole field.

I want everything, I'm gonna want all.

I want all of Jesus.

And things that you gotta give up, give them up.

Cut them up, cut them off the subscription, and you don't need it anyway.

You got too many channels as it is.

Cut the subscription number.

Cut the do whatever it is, but do it so you can get closer to Jesus.

I promise you, don't think of what I'm gonna lose.

There are people who think this closer, what can I still do and not cross the line?

No, I wanna be closer to Jesus.

Jesus this way, then I'm gonna wanna go this way.

It's not about crossing the line.

When you when Jesus gets in your heart, you're like, Jesus, you are worth everything.

And I'm not moving on to my clothes anymore.

I'm not holding on to what's in my closet anymore.

I'm coming out of the closet with my sin.

I'm done.

Don't ever come on me again.

I'm not gonna answer.

Find Jesus and you'll find me.

But until then, we're not talking.

Jesus, Jesus said.

Matthew 13, 45 and 46.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all he had and bought it.

Boy, it's not misery being a Christian, it's not drudgery.

We gain so much more than what we've given up every single time.

And then looking at verse 20, the word of the Lord continue to increase and prevail mightily.

Increase in number, reaching more people, going further and further and now out and prevailing, overpowering the darkness.

The wider it goes, it's going wide and going deep.

No, he's not like those other gods.

God met people where they were, but didn't leave them there, continue to unravel all of their false ideas and everything else to show that he is the exclusive one and only God, not like any other.

Last life principle believers, do not manage your secret idols.

Burn the bridges back to your old life.

Don't go on a sin diet.

Sometimes we get a diet sin.

Well, I'm not gonna have the whole, it's like I have, you know, I gotta, instead of drinking Pepsi, I'm gonna have a diet Pepsi, but you eat it with your whopper value meal.

Well, at least I didn't get the Pepsi.

It's time.

We're not going on a sin diet or light.

We give it all up.

Do you have a secret habit?

Do you have something on the phone you need to get off of, you need to get out to delete?

Do you have bitterness in your heart that keeps bringing up coming back, coming back?

You need to burn it up.

Don't hold on to it.

Don't let that grudge become part of your life, your reality.

Matthew 5, 29 and 30.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away.

It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Radical, radical confession and repentance.

The word of the Lord increased and prevailed.

Increased and prevailed, not just in people learning about Jesus, but increasing and prevailing in the body of Christ.

I pray that Jesus would prevail in your life, that he would claim more and more and more.

And then you go out and tell others, and it increases.

It increases as we share and live out what we believe.

Lord, thank you so much for this grace you've given us and your word.

Thank you for it, Lord.

I just pray it resonates in our hearts and that Lord will live it out.

The Lord will be faithful to you in all things.

Thank you for meeting us where we were and not leaving us there.

Lord, you are the pearl of great price.

Thank you for your grace in Jesus' name.

Amen.