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In the heart of a city dominated by magic and multiple gods, one apostle's ministry sparked confrontations that no one saw coming and transformations that shocked everyone watching. What happens when the true power of Jesus collides with counterfeit spiritual forces, forcing believers to make an irreversible decision about what stays and what must go? Together, we’ll uncover the evidence of true loyalty that still sets believers apart today.
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/more-than-a-name
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📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/more-than-a-name
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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00:00Albert Moeller, who writes a lot of stuff for, I think he was actually the president of the
00:04Southern Baptist Convention at one point, but he was writing in words from the fire in the Moody
00:08Magazine in 2009. He said, several years ago, researchers in England went door to door asking
00:14people about their belief in God. So they're just going around asking people, what do you think
00:18about God? One of their questions was, do you believe in a God who intervenes in human history,
00:23who changes the course of affairs, who performs miracles, etc.? One man who was asked that question
00:31answered, no, I don't believe in a God like that. I believe in an ordinary God. I thought an ordinary
00:39God, what we're going to see here in Ephesus is anything other than ordinary. In fact, the text
00:44says it is extraordinary what God is doing here in Ephesus today. It's anything but ordinary. He's
00:51changing lives. He's manifesting himself as God Almighty. He's cleaning up the occult here in
00:58Ephesus and showing who the true and living God is. All of the Gentiles worship multiple gods,
01:05a pantheon of gods, hundreds if not thousands of different gods. They may have had their chief
01:09small g god that they worship, but God is showing himself more mighty than, or mightier than any of
01:14these other occultish gods in the city of Ephesus. And what we see here in Acts chapter 19 is that
01:21the
01:21name of Jesus is exalted and those who know him must be completely loyal to his name.
01:29Loyal. What he has done for us brings into a state of our desire to be loyal to him. Loyal.
01:41Do we really believe that we can live with a divided loyalty in our Christian experience?
01:48Do you think we can kind of dabble in what we were in the past and dabble in what we
01:53are now in
01:53Christ and kind of blend the two together in a syncretism? Do we think we can live with a
02:01divided loyalty? Where does that bring one? God is at work in Ephesus. He's proving that he alone is
02:09the true and the living God. And he's showing it, first of all, with extraordinary miracles.
02:14Look at verses 11. We're in Acts 19. So open up your Bibles. There's one in the chair in front
02:18of you
02:19if you need one. We want to look at it together. This is God's word. Just going to look at
02:22verses 11
02:23and 12. It's going to set the stage. It's just one paragraph, but we're going to break it into three
02:26sections. We can see they break really well. Verses 11 and 12. And God, so in Ephesus, God was doing
02:34extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. So God was doing them through Paul. So that even
02:40handkerchiefs, headbands, or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick
02:47and their diseases left them. And the evil spirits came out of them. That's not normal. Even in Paul's
02:55ministry experience, that kind of thing was not a normal kind of thing for him. God was using Paul to
03:01perform extraordinary miracles more and more than what was usually to happen. In fact, Luke doesn't
03:08see that these are typical things. These are extraordinary miracles. They're not like anything
03:12we've seen before. If you remember, there was a, in the Old Testament, when you read about nations
03:19fighting against nations, the belief in the Old Testament, when the belief in that day was simply
03:23this, the nation who conquered the other nation, their God was stronger than the God of the nation who
03:30was conquered. So the God, the nation that was conquered, their God was weaker than the God who
03:34conquered that nation. Think about Egypt. When God came in and did the plagues in Egypt, he did the
03:41plagues basically on many of the Egyptian small g gods. What was he trying to show? That he was far
03:46superior than any of those small g gods. He was greater than the gods of the Egyptians. This is what
03:52he's doing here. He's showing himself greater than all the small g gods that the Ephesians could ever
03:57possibly have, and all their magical arts that they wanted to call upon to help them get through
04:02life. He is bigger, stronger, and more powerful. Satan in Ephesus had a stronghold, a super stronghold,
04:13and God is going to destroy this stronghold, proving once again that he is the true and living God,
04:18the most powerful God. Extraordinary miracles. Paul considered miracles as his apostolic credentials.
04:26In other words, an apostle would perform miracles. That proved that he was at one sent by Jesus to
04:31carry the gospel message out. He performed miracles. He considered that part of his apostolic credentials.
04:36He mentions that in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you
04:43with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. So we see here that God is doing the
04:49miracles through Paul, giving the attention of the Ephesian people. Even the clothes that had touched
04:55Paul's body, his headband, his sweatband when he was working, or his apron. Remember, he was a tent
04:59maker. They wore aprons. Those things were set aside, and even if they would just touch that,
05:04apparently, they were healed, is what the text said. That's not normal. Actually, it happened in the
05:09life of Jesus. Happened in the life of Jesus in Mark chapter 6. And whenever, wherever he came,
05:16that's Jesus, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored
05:21him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as he had touched, touched it
05:27were made well. So even the life of Jesus, we see touching a garment in a sense of healing.
05:32And what God did with Paul here at Ephesus, he did with Peter earlier on in Acts chapter 5.
05:38So that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats,
05:43that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from
05:49the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they
05:52were all healed. So this is not normal. This doesn't happen like this all the time. This was an
05:57extraordinary series of miracles. And we have to remember the objects themselves had no power.
06:04Those objects had no power in themselves. God is the one doing these miracles, not the objects.
06:09God is the one performing these miracles. And the miracles are never meant to be an end in
06:14themselves. But point people to faith in Jesus. It's not about the miracle. It's about faith in
06:20Jesus. And so it was to get someone's attention so that they would look to the Savior and be saved.
06:25That's the idea of miracles. We see God's compassion and his mercy healing people,
06:30authenticating Paul's message that Jesus is the Messiah. Believe in him. The Bible always ties the
06:38miracles to the preaching of the word of God. Miracles always arouse. The word saves. So it
06:45gets people's attention, the miracles, and then the word of God comes along and people believe the
06:49word of God and are saved. The miracles themselves are not what's important, but what they're pointing
06:53to. The truth of God's word. Just think about this. Ephesus was Satan's territory. Satan's territory.
07:03In other words, he was the God of the city. And God has come along and said, no, no, no.
07:07I am more powerful than you. You are just a small G God. You are a created being. You demon.
07:12You're not worthy to be worshipped. It was Satan's territory. He's doing extraordinary miracles
07:20in Satan's territory. What's he trying to accomplish? Well, here's Paul wrote to Colossians this. It's a
07:27very interesting statement. He, that's Jesus or God. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness,
07:34darkness, a kingdom of darkness. That's what we were in when we were dead in our trespasses
07:38and sin. We were children of the night, not of the day, and transferred us or translated
07:45us to the kingdom of his beloved son or the kingdom of light. We were in the kingdom of darkness,
07:52reigned by Satan, and he redeemed us and pulled us out of that and placed us into the kingdom
07:56of his dear son, his beloved son, the kingdom of light. And he says, don't tarry in that kingdom
08:01any longer. Throw off that kingdom. You're no longer part of that kingdom any longer.
08:10Why do we always want to go back?
08:16Transfer us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
08:23He's doing a lot of things at the same time, but extraordinary miracles to give people's attention
08:28so they would turn to the word of God and be saved with what's going on right now. But not
08:31only that,
08:32he had visited Corinth at this time, and apparently it was a real painful, painful visit. That's
08:37recorded in 2 Corinthians 2. For I made it by mind not to make another painful visit to you. So
08:43he had
08:44written 1 Corinthians already, and he went and visited them, but it was a painful visit. So that
08:48took place there. He probably wrote the book of Galatians, also from Ephesus. And the collection for the
08:53poor saints in Jerusalem was being organized out of this general area as well. So the discussion at
09:00the end of evil spirits in verse number 12 sets up the stage for the next encounter that we see
09:05in
09:05verses 13 through 17. 13. Then some of the interrent, that's people who travel around, traveling Jewish
09:14exorcist, undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying,
09:21I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were
09:29doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?
09:38And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on these seven, mastered all of them, and overpowered
09:44them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. He beat them up. Verse 17. And this,
09:52that event,
09:52became known to all the residents of Ephesus. In other words, that word traveled fast. It traveled fast.
09:59They all heard about it, both Jews and Greeks, and look what happened. And fear fell upon them all, and
10:06the name
10:06of the Lord Jesus was extolled, exalted. The name above every name, Jesus, he was exalted. Boy, did this
10:15group of people miscalculate, didn't they? So they saw, they saw Paul casting out demons in the name of
10:21Jesus. So they thought they would use this special incantation, a new incantation, a new spell that they
10:27could use. And they said, I adjure you by the, by the Jesus Paul preaches. In other words, they didn't
10:32even
10:32know Jesus. They're a bunch of unbelievers. They thought Paul was using some kind of spell. In
10:39Jesus' name. That's the magic words. In Jesus' name. So they thought they would try it. Sounded like a
10:46great idea at the time, didn't it? It didn't turn out too good for them, did it? They got beat
10:51up,
10:51stripped off of their clothing, and ran out of the house beaten, wounded. Sounded like a good time,
10:57a good idea in their mind at the time, but it was not a good idea.
11:01Sceva, the high priest. Who's that? We don't know. I mean, there's no known high priest named
11:06Sceva. Two things are possible. He lied. He wasn't really a high priest. Or secondly,
11:12that same word translated high priest is used as a chief priest. So he was a priest, but not
11:17the high priest. Either those two, either he lied, he wasn't, or he was a chief priest. And you say,
11:23how do you know? In Acts 9, that same word high priest translated here is translated chief priest,
11:27Acts 9. And all who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in
11:33Jerusalem of
11:34those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound
11:39before the chief priest? Same word. So either he lied, or he was just a chief priest, not really the
11:45high priest, which makes him a liar, I guess anyway. So for me, this passage is quite humorous,
11:52to be honest with you. I wonder if Luke was laughing why he wrote it. I mean, this is pretty
11:56humorous.
11:56This is pretty funny. They thought they could get away with something that they couldn't possibly
12:01get away with. He said, Jesus, I know. The demon says, I know Jesus. I know him. He knew by
12:07interaction,
12:08is the term, by experience. Remember every time the demons meet Jesus and he casts them out,
12:13what do they say? We know who you are, the Holy One of God. Have you come to torment us
12:19before our time?
12:19They knew who he was. And he says, Paul, I recognize. I have firsthand knowledge about this
12:27guy named Paul. I'm sure the demons are talking about this guy named Paul, preaching the gospel
12:31all over the place, seeing people get saved. They know him. They recognize him and they know Jesus,
12:36but I don't know who you are. Who are you? People have believed that invoking a particular incantation
12:45or some name granted them special powers. They'd like special powers to do this.
12:52They had no power over the demon and the demon yielded no ground to them and mocked them.
12:59Again, I'll put my tone in there. Who are you? I mean, he mocked them.
13:04I don't know who you are. I know Jesus and I recognize Paul, but I don't know who you are.
13:08Who do you think you are? And he beats them up. I'm sure probably they had undergarments on,
13:16they stripped their outer garments off. I doubt they were running around full naked. It's possible.
13:20Likely just their outer garments were off, but they're still naked in the public's view
13:24and beaten, probably wounded, maybe blood, and they're running around. The people that are possessed
13:30by demons often show supernatural power. This is one against seven. And he takes them all out.
13:37In Mark chapter three, we see the same thing. The supernatural power in one possessed by a demon.
13:42He lived among the tombs. That's a demon possessed man. And no one could bind him anymore. Not even
13:48with a chain. For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart
13:54and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. So people possessed by
13:59demons often have supernatural power, which this demon did. Supernatural power. And them fleeing
14:06away naked totally sums up the whole encounter. I mean, that really tells us what they had no power
14:11over this demon. Exorcism is a very dangerous thing if a person does not know Jesus Christ.
14:19You don't want to play with this. There is no spiritual gift of exorcism. The Bible doesn't
14:24talk about that. Like you have the gift of exorcism. There is no spiritual gift of exorcism in the Bible.
14:34Christianity has nothing to do with spells or incantations or special names used to achieve
14:40special purposes. Christianity has nothing to do with magic. Nothing. We were in the kingdom of
14:46darkness where we played with these things, but now we have been transferred by the blood of Jesus
14:50Christ and salvation into the kingdom of his dear son, the kingdom of light. And we don't play with
14:55that stuff anymore. We're not of that kingdom. We belong to a new kingdom. We have nothing to do
15:02with magic. And we must never, ever use the name of Jesus as a magical incantation as believers.
15:09And you say, oh, a believer would never do that. Yeah, I've actually heard believers do that.
15:15They can use the name of Jesus like a magical incantation. What do you mean? I've heard
15:21believers pray and tell God what he's supposed to do and close in Jesus' name. You can't tell God
15:28what to do. It's not a special power just by closing a prayer in Jesus' name doesn't give us
15:33everything we ask for in the prayer, especially if it's contrary to the will and the character of God.
15:37God, Christians can say, oh, in Jesus, I prayed in Jesus' name. I'm going to get it. Well, it may
15:42not be a promise for you to claim. And to claim a promise that's not there is to take God,
15:47not at
15:47his word, but to put something into his word. And we use this special incantation to get what we want
15:54in Jesus' name. I've experienced that. Not here, not with you, in another prayer group where we were
16:01praying. And in the prayer group, people were literally telling God what he must do in a particular
16:08situation. And I thought, you can't do that. I mean, we could ask God if he would do that. We
16:13could beg God to do that, but we can't tell God he's going to do something and then close in
16:18Jesus'
16:19name expecting like some incantation. We can't do that. Any prayer made outside the will, character,
16:26and plans of God will not be answered, no matter if we put Jesus' name at the end of it.
16:31It's not a talisman. It's not some special incantation. And also we see here, don't use
16:37Jesus' name secondhand. They didn't even know Jesus. They're using his name secondhand. Don't
16:43do that. That's always a dangerous thing. Just like there's no secondhand salvation. A person
16:48must know Jesus personally. You can't grow up in a Christian home and say, I'm a Christian because I
16:52grew up in a Christian home. There is no secondhand salvation. You must personally repent of your sins
16:57and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. There's no secondhand salvation.
17:02So the question is, have you trusted Jesus Christ for salvation today? Do you know him as savior?
17:08Have you believed? Have you repented of your sins and trusted him? You can't just think, well,
17:12I'm part of this church. I must be a Christian. Or I grew up in a Christian home. I must
17:15be a
17:15Christian. No, there's no secondhand Christians. Only first. We must be born again.
17:22It was not the people. It was the name of Jesus that drives out demons. The demon did confess that
17:29Jesus had power over it. He did confess that. So these seven men were attempting an exorcism and
17:35they did not have Jesus' authority to do it. They didn't know him. It's dangerous. Don't play in that
17:40realm. Through this event, the overpowering of the seven men by the demon, look what happened. Fear fell
17:46on the Ephesians and Jesus' name was exalted. Oh, he wasn't as powerful as we thought he was.
17:53This Jesus is more powerful. Notice the contrast. The Jewish exorcist used the name of Jesus as a
18:01magical incantation. But after hearing about this event, the Jews and the Greeks honored the name of
18:07Jesus. We see abuse of his name and honor of his name here in the text. The name of Jesus
18:14is powerful
18:15when we don't want to play with it. We want to honor it and exalt it as it should be.
18:20So the believers now in Ephesus are honoring the name of Jesus and they're going to do something to
18:25show their loyalty to him. They're going to say, I've been transferred the kingdom of darkness into
18:29the kingdom of light. Now I'm going to show my loyalty to him. My loyalty will be to Jesus alone.
18:35Him alone. Look at verse number 18.
18:39Also, many of those who were now believers came. So they're now they're believers in Jesus
18:48came confessing and divulging their practices, things that they were doing, how had done in the
18:54past. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burn them in
19:01the sight of all. It was a very public thing. It wasn't private. They brought their books,
19:06these magical art books, these incantations, these magical. Ephesus was known as the city of magic.
19:12It was known as the center of the cult practice of magic in the Roman Empire.
19:18So they brought their magic arts and brought the books together and burn them in the sight of all
19:22very public. And they counted the value of them. That's what they burned and found it came to 50,000
19:28pieces of silver. And then look at the conclusion. What happened after that? So the word of the Lord
19:35continued to increase and prevail mightily, mightily. The believers came in the ideas. They
19:43kept coming. They kept coming back. Maybe they forgot something at home that they wanted to burn.
19:48And they said, Oh, I forgot that. And they went back home and got it and came again. They just
19:51kept
19:51coming, bringing all of these magical art books, these incantation books, these things that connected
19:56them to the kingdom of darkness and burn them. They just kept coming. The response of the believers
20:03in Jesus to this event was to repent of their previous worship of magic and destroy everything
20:09attached to magical arts in their lives. Everything. They wanted to be loyal to Jesus alone.
20:17Not have anything to do with that kingdom that they were a part of before they got saved.
20:23It's no surprise that Paul's encounter with magic took place here, this center of magic in the
20:27Roman empire. So they take their, their, their, remember there's the Bible says books. There are no
20:34printing presses at this time. So they're, they're rolled scrolls, typically on papyrus, obviously very
20:41expensive. Only few people own these and they had them in their homes. They were very valuable pieces of,
20:48of, of, of documents. Very expensive. And you say, have you, did you ever wonder why Luke records the
20:57value of these things? Why didn't he just say, Hey, they came in, they burned their magical art books
21:02and they just kind of, he just doesn't stop. He actually tells us the value of, why would he do
21:06that?
21:06Why would he tell us the value? It's just not some arbitrary thing. He wants us to know how much
21:14they burned. So it says 50,000 pieces of silver. So if the silver piece was a drachma, which that's
21:22typically what a silver piece was, a drachma was one day wages for a person, an average one day wages,
21:3050,000 pieces, 50,000 drachmas equals 50,000 work days, 137 years worth of working.
21:43So how much do you make in a year? Don't tell me. It's not important for me to know.
21:46Multiply that by 137. That's how much it costs.
21:54He wants to emphasize the value here. So according to February 3rd, when I looked this up, the value
22:00of silver at that point in time, the value of those 50,000 coins would be around a 583,870
22:07dollars.
22:08We're not talking about five or 10 bucks. It was valuable. And they said, I am not part of that
22:14kingdom any longer. I don't want anything associated with that kingdom in my life. I want to live in
22:18this kingdom, the kingdom of God's beloved son and the kingdom of light. I want nothing to do with
22:22the kingdom of darkness. I'm burning my books, getting rid of them. In fact, burn them as an
22:28imperfect verb as well means they kept doing it. They kept burning them over and over again. They kept
22:32bringing more and more stuff saying, I don't want that in my house. I don't want, I'm going to
22:36associate, I'm not associated with that anymore. I'm associated with him. And I want Jesus. I want
22:40to be loyal to him alone. I don't want that stuff any longer. So they burned them. You say, really?
22:46Was it that important? Come on, they're just books. It's not that important. Really? I mean, magic.
22:53It's just, we, it, it, it, ah, come on. Well, what does God say about it? What does God say
22:58about magic?
23:00Look at Deuteronomy 18. He wrote to his people, when you come into the land that the Lord your God
23:06is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. He tells us
23:12right up front, they're abominable. They're an abomination to God. For there should not be found
23:17among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering. That is so disgusting, but it happened.
23:25anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a
23:34medium nor a mech or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead. Whoever does these things
23:40is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out
23:46before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. You're not part of their kingdom.
23:51You're part of my kingdom, God says. For these nations, which you are about to dispossess,
23:56listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you
24:03to do this. It is forbidden for us to deal in magic. Leviticus, you should not eat any flesh with
24:13the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens, tea leaves, rolling the bones on the ground and
24:19interpreting the bones as they fall on the ground, omens or tell fortunes. And Exodus 22 is really,
24:27really tough one. You shall not permit a sorceress to live. You must put her to death.
24:34That's what God thinks of this realm. He has forbidden us to play in this realm. And now that
24:39we're believers in Jesus Christ, why would we want to go back to that realm and play in it?
24:43We're now in the kingdom of his beloved son. Why would we want to play the kingdom of darkness?
24:51To be obedient to God, the believers sacrifice a great deal of money because they wanted to be
24:57loyal to Jesus Christ alone. No mixed loyalties, not dabbling here and dabbling there, but loyal to
25:03him alone. Luke 16, Jesus said, no servant can serve two masters for either will hate the one
25:12and love the other, or he would be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
25:18in
25:18money. He's talking about money as a God, as an idol. You're either loyal to one or loyal to, you
25:23can't
25:23have two masters. We can't play in both realms. The price of the magical books was no concern for the
25:32Ephesian believers. It didn't bother them at all. They were more concerned with pleasing the Lord.
25:36The value wasn't important to them. They just wanted to please God. They wanted to show their
25:40loyalty to him. This is a godly attitude to be copied, to say, you know, I don't want to play
25:46in
25:46that realm anymore. And I want nothing to do with that realm any longer. I don't want it in my
25:50house.
25:50I don't want to own books about it. I don't want anything to do with that whatsoever because I want
25:55to be loyal to Jesus and Jesus alone. And I'm not playing in two kingdoms.
26:01I'm going to ask you, what's in your house? What's in your house?
26:11Horoscopes? Board games that supposedly communicate messages from the dead?
26:16Tarot cards that are supposed to give direction and guidance for life?
26:21Crystals? And I'm not talking about rocks. I like rocks too. I'm talking about people who say
26:24there's healing value in these crystals or these crystals will do something special for you.
26:29And there's magic in the crystals. That's the kind of crystals I'm talking about.
26:35Movies. Props for movies. Magical wands as props for movies. What's in your house associated with
26:41the kingdom that we came out of? They said, I'm not, I don't care. I want it out. I want
26:45it burned.
26:46I don't want it in my house any longer is what they said.
26:50Is there any former practices of the kingdom that you used to belong to that are still clinging to
26:54your life right now that you're using as a replacement for God, gaining direction or strength
26:59from? Paul told the Thessalonians this, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of
27:07reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
27:15They turned to God and away from idols. They devoted themselves to God and not to the idols.
27:23Edward Hinson wrote, it was normally thought by magician that if their magical secrets were made
27:28public, they would lose their potency. Therefore, a public discrediting of their practices was seen
27:34as a genuine conversion of turning from evil to Christ. In fact, earlier on, as a side note,
27:41earlier on in baptisms, they would actually have the person stand up and face the West and denounce
27:47Satan and face the East and embrace God. That was part of the baptism service.
27:53As a genuine conversion of turning from evil to Christ, it is often noted even today by missionaries
27:59in such places as Haiti, where voodoo is still practiced, that a private confession of faith is
28:05almost worthless until the individual is willing to go to his home, bring out his occult objects,
28:11and openly and publicly destroy them. I don't want to play in that realm anymore. I don't want anything
28:17to do with that realm. I want to be part of, I want my devotion and my loyalty to be
28:21to God alone
28:21and not distracted with these things of the kingdom of darkness.
28:24darkness. We were transferred to God's kingdom. We don't want to play in the kingdom of the darkness.
28:34The tough ones are the cultural practices that we have accepted as being okay in our society.
28:41Things that we say, wow, they're really not that big. It doesn't really mean the same thing today
28:44that it used to mean back there. And they're cultural practices that we just kind of adopt into our life,
28:49not discerning, not thinking about it. What about Halloween? What about Halloween?
29:03I'm not going to tell you you can't celebrate Halloween. I'm going to ask you to go home and
29:07think about it for a little bit though. The origins of it, what it's all really about. And you say,
29:12do I really want to participate in something like that? Is that really something I want to do?
29:19Meditation is a biblical practice. We're supposed to sit down and we're supposed to meditate and let
29:24the word of God come into our thinking. In other words, we open our minds to the word of God
29:28to be
29:29filled with the word of God so that he will change our hearts. Meditation is a biblical thing. But when
29:34you think about it in the realm of the meditation of the Eastern meditation is you sit down and you
29:38empty your mind of all things by saying a certain mantra, hoping that something will fill your mind and
29:44it's usually not God. Life application Bible notes that you cannot be a believer and hold onto the
29:53occult, black magic or sorcery. Once you begin to dabble in these areas, you may become obsessed by
29:59them because Satan is very powerful. I don't want to play in that world anymore. It's time that we make
30:06this right. And it's time we make it right today. It's time we throw away any of those items that
30:11are
30:11associated with the kingdom that we came out of and embrace those things that represent the kingdom
30:15that we are a part of. It's time for us to be completely loyal to Jesus alone.
30:25Today in the word, April 1989, we read this, a person that's going to make it right.
30:32Not too many years ago, newspapers carried a story of Al Johnson, a Kansas man who came to faith in
30:37Jesus Christ. What made his story remarkable was not his conversion, but the fact that as a result
30:44of his newfound faith in Christ, he confessed to a bank robbery he had practiced when he was 19 years
30:49old. Because of the statute of limitations on the case had run out, Johnson could not be prosecuted
30:57for the offense. Still, he believed his relationship with Christ demanded a confession and he even
31:03voluntarily repaid the money that was his portion of what he stole from the bank.
31:07He made it right. It's time for us to make it right today.
31:14The burning of the magical arts books got the attention of the Ephesians. Did you notice that?
31:19And the word of the Lord increased. Why? Because these people were completely devoted to him.
31:25And people paid attention to that. They saw that. And God's word increased. Wonderful summary statement by Luke.
31:33Luke, what do we see? First of all, God is the actor. We are the agents. Let's place ourself in
31:41a
31:41position to be used by him. He's the one doing all the stuff. Let's just make ourselves available to him
31:46that he could use us to work in this world. We want to place ourself in a position to be
31:51used by him.
31:52Paul was there. Second, do not misuse the name of Jesus for your own personal gain.
31:59Don't play that role. It's not some incantation, some special spell by saying in Jesus' name at the end
32:05makes everything right. And third, be willing to cleanse your life from anything that would
32:13sidetrack you from your loyalty to Jesus Christ. Anything. And let us be completely 100% loyal to him.
32:23Let's pray. Father, thank you. It's a hard text and it was just very powerful what these Ephesian
32:30believers did. I actually have never seen that happen before. I've never seen people get saved
32:37and burn their occult things. I've never, I know it happens. It happened in Haiti and other places where
32:43occult worship is much more obvious and open. But Father, I thank you that we are challenged today
32:50about our loyalty to you. Whose side are we on? I pray that you would strengthen our loyalty to you,
32:58especially as when Darren's mentioning the days that we find ourselves in, that our loyalty to you
33:03is utmost and complete. We're not going to waver in our loyalty to you. So help us to be strong
33:11in the faith, be obedient to your word, to be loyal to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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