When the City Turned: Paul, Artemis, and the Gospel That Upended Ephesus

Lord Jesus, we welcome You into this space, God. We believe so surely that

it's Yours. God, I thank You that You tell us that everything on heaven and

earth belongs to You. So Lord Jesus, we give this room and this time to

You. God, I pray that You would speak to us through Your Word, that You

would use it to do what it does, to stir us up, to convict us,

to cause us to soar a little bit today, Lord Jesus. I pray that all

the things that are distracting us today, where we're going to lunch, what we got

this week, that load of laundry we keep spinning in the dryer because we don't

want to fold it, God, all the things that could take up the space in

our brain. Would You remove those and allow us for just a moment to lean

in and to see what You may have for us today through Your Word?

May it speak loudly and clearly. God, I pray that we

walk out of this room a little differently than the way we walked in.

In Your name we pray, amen. All right,

church, here's the question I want to ask you. Is if someone really

knew you, like there's someone's like, this person like, you would know me

if, okay? So if somebody really knew you,

They would know that you, like, 3 things

that you really like. Like, if somebody really knew you,

they would know, I like these things.

What are those 3 things? I'm going to give you 30 seconds to tell your

neighbor what those are. Ready? A go.

Go. Talk. What are those 3 things?

What would they be?

I like that better.

All right. Now listen,

I should have said this, because the cheating answer is like,

if you're married, it's like, well, I love my spouse. I love my

children. Those are churchy answers. I'm a teacher,

and if you give me churchy answers in my classroom, I'm a Bible teacher,

I literally boo you. That's like what I do in class. They're like,

they're like, you know, I love reading my Bible. I'm like, boo!

Don't do that. Say something that means something.

So obviously, you would know that I love my wife Casey,

that I love my children. I'm never bothered when they wake me up because they

had a bad dream.

I'm like, I don't care a monster's chasing you. It's 2 AM.

I don't care. What you

would know about me, one, I love sports. And you may be like, that's superficial,

I'm going to make you feel bad about that. Like, oh, of course you love

sports. Let me tell you about why I love sports. When I had my eye

accident, I lost my eye in 1991. See, you already feel bad. You already am

like judging it? No, I'm already making you feel bad. I lost my eye in

September 1991. We were throwing sticks, and that's a bad idea,

and did that, and I was like blind for a while. I couldn't open either

of my eyes. And so I listened. The first, like, memory I had that wasn't

surgery or recovery was listening to the 1991 World Series. I know you're

like, you're that old? I look like 20, I know.

Listening to the 1991 World Series, it was the first thing that didn't connect.

Like, my first memory of my life was my accident, so other than that,

I was like, this makes me not think about anything but this, so I love

it. I love what the escape sports gives you. I love that I go to

a game, I'm sitting next to people I've never seen in my life. And midway

through the third quarter, I'm fully embracing people I've never met, you know? It's just,

there's something magical about it. You would know that I love movies.

I love movies so much. Like, I am a nerd. I want to talk about

them. I am always trying to figure out how is this shot,

what's going on. My wife hates watching things with me because I'm looking things up

all throughout it, and she's like, just be here. And I'm like, but we

are not asking the right questions. Why are they doing this? And she's just like,

I'm going to the other room. I like to watch scary

movies. I'm kind of dead inside, I like to like be scared a little bit.

I like to watch confusing movies. I remember I watched A Beautiful Mind in college,

and me and my roommates after that were terrified that like my buddy came to

me, it was like 3 in the morning, and he woke me up, and he

was like, I'm really afraid that you might not exist. And I was just like,

and I was like, and I was like, you should be. Go to bed.

I love the way things make you think like that. And I

love mysteries. Okay, I think about the pyramids all

the time, okay? We don't know how they happened. We don't know what's going on.

We don't know— like, it takes us 9 months to build a Taco Bell,

and they built the pyramids that long ago. That doesn't make any sense.

Like, I'm so fascinated with it. I'm researching all the time. There's a show on

Netflix called Ancient Apocalypse that I just keep rewatching,

and he's talking about the Younger Dryas and how did this happen to these

ancient peoples, and I'm just like, what? I love things

that I can't figure out. I really do. I,

I— the thing I like most about myself, other than my muscles and my height

and my hair, other than those, um, I, I really

like the way my brain works. I like the way that I can't ever settle

on anything. I'm always trying to figure things out. And the story we're looking at

this morning in Acts chapter 19 is the first time

Acts 19 · chapter mention

that when I read the Bible that that I actually loved what I was reading.

I would love to be that person who stands in front of people and was

like, you know, I was really needing something from God today, and I opened the

Bible and it gave me just what I needed. And I'm like, well, how come

every time I open the Bible it's like, and they walked through the goat gate

and the sheep gate? And I'm like, this is not what I needed today.

And everyone's like, well, I got— it didn't do that until

I read this passage. And then I was like, what's going on? Why is it

this way? What are the things that are And it was the first thing that

like clicked in my brain, and it really made me love this book. It's so—

I love— I talked about last time I was here, we talked a little bit

about the book of Ruth, which is my favorite book of the Bible. I talk

about it all the time because I couldn't figure out why a rom-com was in

the middle of the Bible. And that's not a shot at rom-coms. You and I

know that I love a rom-com. I don't want true crime. Everything we

watch in my home is either true crime, true crime, or true crime. Scrolling through

Netflix, this kid was stolen, that kid was stolen, your kid's gonna be stolen.

And I'm like, I don't want this to be in my top 10 algorithm,

right? I just want to watch Home

Improvement again, like see Tim Taylor. That's all I want. I got

to relax before I go to sleep. But this is the first story

that made my brain think this way. So we're going to dive into it a

little bit today. I'm going to teach you a little bit today. I hope you're

ready for that, okay? Are you ready to learn? Okay, so I go to an

inner-city church, okay? And we be talking. In services,

okay? So you're going to have to talk to me a little bit this morning.

Can we do that, Refuge? All right, here we go. So I'm going to teach

you a little bit. In Acts chapter 19, it starts with a city.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

This story takes place in a city called Ephesus. Everybody say Ephesus.

Good, Ephesus. Ephesus was one of the most important

cities in the world, definitely in the Roman Empire, okay? It was a—

it's in modern-day Turkey, so think— or now we call it Türkiye, I guess

I learned. Via the World Cup. Um, I guess we can just change what countries

are called now. That's a thing that we do. Think of this as a combination

of a tourist city, a financial center, a religious capital. The largest

city in the world basically at the time was Ephesus, okay?

Over 250,000 people lived in Ephesus, and it had over

a million visitors every year. That's a lot of people in the year

12, okay? Like, it's a— it's not easy to travel.

And any of you taking vacations this summer, you're like, well, we gotta load the

car with this, gotta plan out where I'm gonna get gas, gotta pack several bags

to this. Think about the year 12 when it's like, well, I hope the donkey's

leg doesn't break. I hope, you know, my kid doesn't die on the journey.

Like, oh, like this is like, it's a lot of thing to get to the

city of Ephesus, okay? Massive, think New York City,

London, Bangkok, Tokyo. This is the city of

Ephesus. And it says this in verse 23 on the screen, it says,

about that time, serious trouble developed in Ephesus

concerning the Way. Notice Way is capital W

right there, okay? So before they were called Christians, they were

called people of the Way. This is what they followed, the way of Jesus.

They were called this. Now, there is a group of people out there today that

call themselves the Way. They will make you dress a certain way, eat certain things.

Run, run, run away from the Way now, okay?

Very, um, that's a, that's a Netflix cult waiting to happen. So run

away from the Way. But that's what they were called before they were known as

Christians. So verse 24, it says this, it began with Demetrius,

a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing

silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis,

and he kept many craftsmen busy. So this story begins

with a guy named Demetrius. Say Demetrius.

Yeah, this guy, Demi, he decides we have

a problem. Now Demetrius is a silversmith, and he made shrines to to Artemis.

So this is a very important lesson. We're talking about the goddess Artemis.

Refuge, say Artemis. Artemis. Now Artemis was

the goddess of fertility or the goddess of blessing. And Artemis

was, of all the gods of all the world, she was the

god of the gods that existed in the world. She was the goddess of fertility

and blessing and prosperity. Now, so the

reason you traveled to Ephesus was to worship

at the temple of Artemis. I think we have a picture, a rendering of what

it was like. Do we have that? Can we go— oh, there it is.

That's so cool. This was the temple of Artemis, absolutely massive.

Its reaches stretched about like up to like 80 kilometers away from where

it is. I don't know that math, but that's what it said on the page,

okay? There's some pillars that are still standing. That's Artemis right there.

It took a family to build a pillar. Each pillar took about 100 years to

build. It's one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. In fact, there is

a historian who lived at these times, and he visited these ancient wonders.

He said— his direct quote was, I have seen the Great Pyramids in Egypt,

and I have stood in the gardens that are hanging in Babylon, but when I

saw the Temple of Artemis, I would say the sun shed its light on nothing

sublimer. So it's like, I've seen the pyramids, eh.

Hanging Gardens, they were air-conditioned, Eh,

nothing compared with the Temple of Artemis. And a

million people every year would come visit this temple. And why— what

would they come to do? They would come to worship whom? Artemis. Why?

Because she was the goddess of blessing. And what you did there is you

wanted to buy a statue of Artemis to take to your home because

you wanted Artemis to bless your home. So you would travel, purchase a silver

shrine of Artemis, take it home and put it outside your house because you wanted

the people walking by your home to know that you worshiped Artemis so that you

could be blessed. Artemis would see the statue and bless your home. And the

next year when you went to Ephesus, it was the iPhone 15 and 16

and 17, the Artemis 17. You had to get that one, right? The Artemis 24,

had to get the new one. So you bought another shrine and you took it

home and you put it in your kids' room because you definitely want God to

bless your kids, right? Because every blessing comes from Artemis.

You have a child, Artemis blessed you. Your child is healthy, it's because Artemis

blessed you. You get a job, Artemis thought you were good enough to get a

job. You get a raise at that job, it's because Artemis said you were good

enough to get a raise. Anything good that happened was because of her, so you

definitely wanted a statue in your kid's room. No one wants their food to taste

bad, so you bought another statue and put it in the kitchen so that everything

you ate would make your family healthy and strong, and that would take care of

that. You put a statue in the front yard so people could see. You put

one in the backyard so in the backyard Artemis could bless you. No one wants

problems in the bathroom, so you had 2 in there. Like, you took You bought

this stuff. These people made a lot of money building

these statues of Artemis because this is what it was.

It was the hub of the entire world.

So back to Demetrius the silversmith. Verse 25

says this, um, he called them together. Demetrius called

all the other, uh, workmen together, and he said, along with other employed

silver trades, he addressed them as follows: Gentlemen,

you know that our wealth comes from this business.

Okay, this business meaning buying all of the things because

we needed Artemis to bless our family. He goes on this,

verse 26. He says, but as you have seen and heard,

this man Paul has persuaded many people that

handmade gods aren't really gods at all.

And he's done this not only here in Ephesus, but throughout the entire

province of Asia. Paul would be getting busy,

would you agree? All right, this guy's like, this is not good.

Paul's been doing work. Paul's traveling with a couple teenagers and

they're doing work. They're like, this guy is causing problems. Let's go

to verse 27. It says this,

of course, this is Demetrius, I'm not just talking about the loss

of public respect for our business. I am also concerned that the temple of the

great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis,

the magnificent goddess worshipped throughout the province of

Asia and all around the world, will be robbed of her great

prestige. This is somebody who's saying a bunch of things that aren't

really about the thing. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I'm saying?

What's this really about, church? Money. This is about

money. Can I say this? The gospel confronts every part of your life,

right? It is not just a book that's about a ticket and why we gather

here. It confronts your economy. It confronts our political system.

It confronts everything that we do. The gospel has a hand in.

So this guy's like, there's a problem here, and he's going to spice it up

real political-like, right? Like, we've got to make sure our great goddess

is not robbed of all of her great things. Story gets

fun. Verse 28, it says this. This is

how you know this was a bunch of dudes, by the way. No thought in

this at all. It says this: At this their anger boiled and they began

shouting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!

Soon the whole city was filled with confusion.

Everyone rushed to the amphitheater, driving— dragging along Gaius and

Aristarchus. Those were, who were Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia, OK?

Another version said this, some were in confusion. Some were shouting one thing,

some another. Most of the people didn't even know why they were there. So I

want you to imagine this, OK? They start shouting, great is

Artemis of the Ephesians, which is how dudes handle things. We don't know what to

do, so we just start shouting about things, you know what I'm saying? Like,

we're watching a basketball game and it doesn't go our way, so we're like,

the refs, it's the refs' fault. Refs, you— this is

what happens, right? We don't know what we're doing, so we start shouting. These people

start shouting. They grab Gaius and Aristarchus. These are teenagers, 15, 16,

17 years old, 2 kids traveling with Paul. They grab

them, rush them into the theater, and begin shouting, Great is Artemis

at Ephesus! Now, this theater isn't like, I don't know,

the one in Yukon that we have here, West End, you know, Point 8,

not that kind of theater. This is what the theater looked like. Here it is.

Here's the base where they would have been standing.

25,000 people fit inside this theater, okay?

The city of Ephesus, 250K on a normal day, plus a million

visitors every year. 25,000 people rush into

this theater. Really cool fact about this theater: if you're standing down there at the

base and you're talking the level I'm talking, you can be heard at the very

top. How did they do that? I don't know.

We can't make a schlotzky work, but they can do this.

Okay, go to the next picture. You'll kind

of get a view of it. So I want you to imagine they're standing here

at the base, 25,000 people shouting,

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of

the Ephesians! Gaius and Aristarchus are sitting there like, What are we going to do?

I don't know, dude. I just soiled my toga. I don't know. Like,

this is not good. Like, what do they think is about to happen to them?

They're about to be killed. Right? Like, they don't know what to do. They're causing

a problem. You're disrupting their entire economy, political system,

economic system, saying man-made gods or no gods at all. What is happening here?

Verse 32. Is that

where we're at? No, where are we at? Verse 30. Verse 30, Paul wanted to

go in, but the believers wouldn't let him. Some of the officials of the province,

friends of Paul, also sent a messenger to him. Begging him not

to risk his life by entering the amphitheater. We're going to come back to that

later. Verse 32: Inside, the people were all

shouting. Some were shouting one thing, uh, some another. Everyone was in confusion.

In fact, most of them didn't even know why they were there.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible. When people are like, what's your life

verse? I often send them to this verse, and I, I hope they read it

at home like, Caleb's a jerk, why did he do this? Like, what does this

mean? I just love it. The Bible is like people

like the Bible are boring, I'm like, you're reading the wrong parts. Like, can you

imagine someone's like, great is Artemis! What's happening? I don't know, follow them. Yeah,

great is Artemis! Some were shouting one thing, some another. Someone's like, dude, what are

you doing here? I don't know, someone said free beer. I just followed the crowd.

Like, I don't know, like, great is Artemis! Great is Artemis!

Someone's just like, let's go thunder! Like, they don't know what's happening. They just

followed the crowd because they wanted to be in a crowd.

Meanwhile, Verse 33 happens, it says this,

the Jews then pushed Alexander, who was like one of the leaders of

the city, forward and told him to explain the situation. He motioned for silence and

he tried to speak, but when the crowd realized that he was a Jew,

they started shouting again and kept it up for about 2 hours.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of

the Ephesians! 2 straight hours. Of shouting. Verse 35,

at last, the mayor was able to quiet them down enough to speak.

Citizens of Ephesus, he said, everyone knows that Ephesus is the official

guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, whose image fell down to

us from heaven. Verse 36, since this is an undeniable

fact, eh, you should stay calm

and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here Um,

verse 37, you have brought these men here, but they have stolen

nothing from the temple, and they have not spoken against

our goddess. Now, I do often send

people to funny verses when they ask me what my life verse is, because I

think that's funny. Um, it's hard for me to pick a life verse. I give

them something about horses in Ezekiel, or shouting one thing or another. And but if

I had to have life verse, 2 of them would come from this

story. This verse right here changed the way that I read the Bible.

It is, in fact, why I teach the way that I teach.

It's why I teach my class the way I teach my class. It's why I

teach sermons the way I teach sermons. It's the way I read. I really think

it's why I am here. This verse that says,

you have brought these men here, but they have stolen nothing from the temple

and not spoken against our goddess.

When I see churches or pastors or

Christians, people who claim to follow Jesus,

believers in general, spending so

much energy bashing culture— this

is bad, they're bad,

Hollywood's of the devil, this political party is sending us one

way, these people are doing something, these people are doing something wrong. When I see

Christians and pastors in churches spending time beginning to

bash people that don't behave like them, something in me begins to

stir. Like maybe we've missed

it. It doesn't sit right for me. And then I read this story,

and it says that Paul and Gaius and Aristarchus never

even mentioned her by name and the whole city starts

flipping out. Read the book of Ephesians.

You won't find the name Artemis mentioned once.

They just start talking about Jesus and the biggest city

on planet Earth goes into a full-blown

riot because it's uprooting everything they believed in. What could Paul

have gone in? Here's why Artemis is a lie. Everything she's offering you

is not true. She's He's made up. They made that image that you're so obsessed

with. Demetrius chiseled it over there. But he didn't do that. He didn't rob temples

or blaspheme their goddess. He starts talking about Jesus, and the whole city

flips out. So, what I see is when Christians spend all their Facebook posts talking

about why this person's bad and that person's bad, and why this culture's bad

and Hollywood's bad, and why we spend sermons— something tells me that you lack confidence

that this story is actually enough. What you're

mad about— when I see Christians obsessed with things that aren't in the Bible,

that tells me that you're mad you didn't get a different book.

We obsess and die on hills that aren't in this book.

Why? What are we doing? If we really believe the story of Jesus is the

greatest story ever told, why on earth do we waste so much breath telling other

stories? Like, that's actually unbelievable. Can I

just give us a lesson, church? Stop hating lost people

for being lost. They're lost.

Jesus on the cross said, forgive them, Father, they don't know what they're doing.

And the church today is loudly saying, punish them, God, they don't

know what they're doing. I see so many Christians every

day, Jesus, come back soon. And I read that post and I'm like, God,

whatever you do, don't come back yet. There's still people I know that don't

know you. Please don't come back yet, Jesus.

Give me one more day. Give me one more chance.

Put one more person in my path. Give me one more phone call to

my uncle, to my cousin, to my sibling, to my brother to tell them about

the grace of Jesus. Give me one more shot. Give me one more shot.

We got— listen, the church is way too loud about the things

that we are against and way too quiet about the things that we're for.

Paul never even mentions her by name. They just start talking

about Jesus and everyone freaks out. Verse 38,

the mayor goes on and says this, if Demetrius and the craftsmen have

a case against them, the courts are in session and the officials can hear their

case at once. Let them make a formal charge, which is the first time in

history anyone ever said, if you have a problem with that, there's a form

you can fill out.

I know you don't want that data center, here's a paper.

Verse 39, and if there are complaints about other matters,

they can be settled in legal assembly. Verse 40 says,

I am afraid we are in danger of being charged with

rioting by the Roman government, since there is no cause

for all this commotion. And if Rome demands an explanation,

we won't know what to say. Verse 41,

then he dismissed them and they dispersed.

End of riot, because they had nothing to actually say.

So, when you're a Christian, you hear other Christians being like, they have to know

why they're wrong, tell them they haven't actually read

this book. No, what they need to know is about

the grace and love of Jesus. That has the power to change everything. Friends,

you aren't going to be able to change someone who's lost. You couldn't even fix

yourself. Christ is having to do that. Would you agree? Like, I don't have

the power of life and death. I can't resurrect anything. But Christ

can, and that's the good news. So what does

Paul do? Here's these 2 teenagers. Paul goes to them, verse 1 of chapter

20. He says, when the uproar was over, Paul sent for the believers,

Gaius and Aristarchus. He encouraged them. He was like, guys, what happened?

And then he said goodbye and left for Macedonia. What was it like in there?

Was it crazy? They're like, yeah, dude, it was crazy. They were shouting, they were

yelling at us. What was it like? It was insane. Did you think you were

going to die? Yep, thought we were going to die. He's like, that's crazy.

Well, you guys got it from here. I'm out. And he leaves.

And he leaves. He just left them there.

Now go back to verse 30. Could we do that?

I told you we're going to come back. We're going to skip this. Don't get

like, oh, Caleb's skipping the Bible. No, I'm not. We're coming back. I told you.

Verse 30, this is in the middle of the riot. Paul wanted

to go in there too, but the believers wouldn't let him. Some of

the officials of the province, friends of Paul— who are the

officials of the province? People of what city? Ephesus.

How did they get their job? They were blessed by whom?

Artemis. So followers and worshipers of Artemis were friends

of Paul. Do you think they would have been friends of Paul if Paul was

walking up and being like, here's everything that you're doing bad? Hey, when you go

at people with an agenda just to convert them, they can sniff you out.

Maybe we just love people and show them the— try to

be the hands and feet of Jesus and let Him have the power to do

all that. Friends of Paul begged him not to

risk his life. Followers of Artemis were

begging Paul, don't risk your life, don't do it. And Paul's like, when am

I ever going to have 25,000 people gathered together ever again? They're like, they're going

to kill you. And he's like, yep, I'm about to write it down in a

book later. To live is Christ, but to die, that's gain. Now you know where

that verse came from. He's like, I got to get in this theater. Let me

in there. In fact, I have a picture of this. This is the tunnel that's

leading out. So I imagine Paul standing here. Looking out at the

theater there, being like, I gotta get out there. Let me out there. Give me

another shot to talk to them. One more chance. They're like, don't do it,

Paul. Don't do it. They're gonna kill you. And he's like, but I'll never have

this opportunity again. Let me at 'em. Give me one more chance.

When's the last time you woke up to go to work filled with people that

don't know Jesus, begging to get into the theater to tell people about the good

news of Jesus? When's the last time you dropped your kid off at school having

prayed for every student walking up and down that hallway that doesn't know Jesus?

Please, God, give me— give him one more shot. Let me in the theater one

more time. Well, they'll think I'm stupid, and you know, they'll laugh at me.

Paul would've been like, yeah, you're right. Let's not do it. No,

he's begging to get in the theater.

Now, very quickly, as I finish, I want you to look at Ephesians chapter 1,

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

very quickly. You know those verses that we skip over, how Paul starts every letter?

He says this in Ephesians chapter 1. He says, this is a letter from Paul,

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

chosen by the will of God. I want you to imagine. You're in Ephesus.

Gaius and Aristarchus receive this letter from Paul after

this riot. This is maybe a year after the riot. They get this letter,

they're reading it. All right guys, I got a letter. This is a letter from

Paul chosen by the will of God, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing

to God's holy people in Ephesus. They're like, guys, that's us, he's talking to us.

This little crowd gathered around, he's like, cool. Who are the faithful followers

of Christ Jesus. Great, everything's good so far, right? Remember,

these are the verses that we skip over before the book of Ephesians really starts.

I'm about to change that. Verse 2, may God our Father and the Lord

Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Wonderful. All right, verse 3,

they start reading louder. They're like, okay, now we get good stuff. All praise

to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us

with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms,

because we are united with Christ. So Paul

right away— guys, this is political propaganda

at its highest point. Right away Paul's like, hey,

we bless God in a city where all blessing comes from Artemis.

Hey, do you see why they got killed for having this book?

Those things that we skip over is actually him completely

flipping everything about an entire city upside down. We bless

God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing on heaven and

on earth. That's what's radical about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Friends, this story is a story to remind you

and I— in those first few verses of Ephesians— is a story to remind

you and I that the Gospel is not a ticket out of

hell and into heaven. That's not what it is. The Gospel is

a story of revolution that flips cities upside down, because 100

years after the riot in Ephesus, there are so many documents.

Ephesus is a dominant center of Jesus worship.

It is estimated that it is 90% Christian. And for

those like 50 years around there, there's no writing about Artemis on

any scroll and taught in any school or taught in any temple.

She's completely erased because

Paul and 2 teenagers show up and start talking about Jesus. And the

city flips upside down, and they never even mention her name once.

That's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It flips cities,

schools, lives, and families upside down.

May we, Refuge Church, be a church that begs

God to let us into the theater. Give me one more day to reach

people, one more person, one more opportunity. Beg me, because I

know what the power of the Gospel is. I'm not going to waste my breath

telling any other story than, than the story of the news that Jesus came

to save and redeem all who would believe. May we be

a people that believe that is the greatest story ever told. And would

God do things like Habakkuk tells us, things greater than we could

believe, things we wouldn't believe even if he told us?

That's the power of the Gospel. May we be a church who

participates in this gospel that is a story of revolution that flips

cities like Ephesus, cities like Mustang and Yukon, schools like Riverwood

and all the other schools around here. It can flip them upside down.

May we live with that gospel. May that be the hands and feet of

Jesus that we participate in. Lord Jesus, thank you for this church, for this

time, for your word, that it is alive and well. I pray you stir us

up today, convict us, God. I pray that we walk out of here a little

differently in the way we walked in, and may you you continue

to do what you've always done. May the gospel continue to be this revolution that

changes cities, lives, and people forever. And for that,

Jesus, we give you praise and honor.