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Has the greatest force for cultural renewal, already inside every believer, been quietly sidelined for generations? As Paul’s journey turns toward Rome amid an economic uprising in Ephesus, one ancient city discovers that a simple message can unravel centuries of tradition... and profit. That same message still holds the power to reshape our own divided world today, but have we overlooked the one strategy that actually works, both from the bottom up and from the inside out?
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/grassroots-gospel
#mlcc #church #churchonline
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/grassroots-gospel
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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LearningTranscript
00:00Well, we're coming back to the book of Acts, where we've been gone for several weeks now,
00:03Resurrection Sunday, and some things following that.
00:05So we're coming back to the book of Acts, chapter 19.
00:07So maybe you want to try to find that right now.
00:10But I was thinking, have you and I, have we believers, have we forgotten the most powerful
00:16way to see change in our society and our culture?
00:20The most powerful way.
00:23And it's tightly intergrained with what our mission is as disciples of Jesus Christ, and
00:29that is to go out and make disciples of all nations, to proclaim the gospel message and
00:35to watch gospel message change lives and to change families and to change cities and nations
00:42and the whole world to change this powerful thing.
00:47Have we forgotten what the most powerful thing is that will change our society and our culture?
00:54Edward Henson said, in many cities throughout the world today,
00:58people are not opposed to the church because they are not even aware of the threat which
01:05she poses to their lifestyle.
01:08Now think about that for a second.
01:09That's actually a condemnation to us churches is that there is a marked difference on a follower
01:15of Jesus Christ, one who lives out their faith on a daily basis than the world around us.
01:20There's a marked difference.
01:22And when we come to faith, people are not opposed to the gospel because they don't see change in
01:27people's lives.
01:29The gospel radically changes your lifestyle.
01:32Think about when you got saved.
01:33If you're a little bit older, I was 19 when I came to faith.
01:36You remember what it was like before.
01:37If you're a child, it's a little bit different.
01:39But there's a radical change that takes place in one's life.
01:44And we've forgotten that powerful change that took place in our lives when we believe the gospel
01:49message and begin living it out daily in our lives.
01:53You see, the gospel changes everything.
01:59Do you and I want to see a righteous changes in our society and culture?
02:03And I would say, I mean, there's a rhetorical question.
02:04Yes, you do.
02:05You want to see righteous.
02:06I do too.
02:06We want to see righteous changes.
02:09But some Christians, I don't know why, but they check out and become indifferent.
02:15I mean, kind of like the saying that goes, it's going to get darker before Jesus comes
02:20back and everything's going to get progressively worse.
02:22So why do anything about it?
02:24Because it's going to get bad.
02:26It's like rearranging the deck chairs in the Titanic.
02:28It's sinking anyway.
02:30So they become indifferent to what's happening around them.
02:36There's a saying that goes something like this.
02:38Again, I think it comes from a Chinese proverb.
02:40I'm not sure.
02:40So I'm just kind of paraphrasing it.
02:41It's not exactly, but this is kind of how it goes.
02:44If you want to change a nation, first change a region in the nation.
02:49If you want to change a region, you must first change a state in that region.
02:53If you want to change a state, you must first change a city.
02:57If you want to change a city, you have to change a neighborhood.
03:00If you want to change a neighborhood, you have to change a family in that neighborhood.
03:04If you want to change a family, you must first change yourself.
03:07Now, that's where it breaks down because we do not have the ability to change ourselves,
03:11but God changes our lifestyle.
03:15When God comes into our life, things are radically different because he begins working from the inside out,
03:21changing desires and motivations, and things change when he comes into our life.
03:27When God redeems a person, he changes them, and that change is felt by people around them,
03:34their families, their neighborhoods, their city, their state, the world.
03:40So as we come back to conclude chapter 19 in the book of Acts, we're going to see this.
03:45The gospel believed and lived has the power to change society and culture.
03:51Now, those two verbs are very important.
03:54Believed as we've come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but are we living out the gospel daily?
03:59They go hand in hand.
04:01When the gospel is believed and lived out, it will make a change in a culture and a society.
04:08You're going to see that today.
04:11I have kind of a rhetorical question.
04:13I think I know the answer.
04:14Are we satisfied with the ungodliness that we see around us in our nation, our state?
04:18And of course, no, none of us are.
04:19We want to see our nation changed for the glory of God.
04:24Verses 21 and 22 out of this, remember last time we were, several weeks ago, we were talking about they
04:31took the magical books and they burned them.
04:33And there was a vast amount of 50,000 pieces of silver.
04:37And then the narrative kind of stops right there.
04:39Verse 21 and 22 is almost like a parentheses.
04:42Because if you took them out, the narrative would follow through because they're still at Ephesus.
04:46But what we're getting is Paul's thinking at this point, verses 21 and 22, what he has planned, Lord willing,
04:52what he wants to do, if God is for that, and kind of an insight into where he's at.
04:57So, you could strip 21 and 22 out and say, oh yeah, the narrative continues at 23.
05:01But this is what Paul wants us to know about himself.
05:05So, let me read to you verses 21 and 22.
05:09Now, after these events, okay, that's the, of course, we have the demon that beat up the seven sons of
05:16Sceva.
05:17We have the people that burned their magical books.
05:19And now, after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem.
05:26So, he's going to move then eastward, saying, after I've been there, that's Jerusalem, I must also see Rome.
05:35And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
05:41So, we're just kind of getting his heartbeat here, what he's thinking, what he's planning right now.
05:47So, after the city learned of the seven sons of Sceva being humiliated and beaten by the demon and the
05:52burning of the magical books,
05:53we're told that the word of God increased, became readily more available.
05:59So, before Paul's going to go to Rome, he wants to go to Jerusalem and say, well, that's kind of
06:03like the opposite direction.
06:04Why is he going to go to Jerusalem eastward and then go back Rome westward?
06:08Because he's got this offering that they have been collecting for the poor saints in Jerusalem.
06:12And he wants to take that contribution and bring it to Jerusalem to help the poor saints in Jerusalem.
06:17So, that's his first stop.
06:19We know that in Romans 15, he talks about this.
06:22He said,
06:22At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints.
06:27For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.
06:33For they were pleased to do it, and indeed, they owe it to them.
06:36For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings,
06:39they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.
06:43When, therefore, I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected,
06:47I will leave for Spain by way of you.
06:50I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessings of Christ.
06:54So, he's got to take the contribution to Jerusalem.
06:56Then he's hoping to go westward to Rome and then to Spain.
07:00That's his desire.
07:02He's first going to strengthen all the churches that he started as he's heading back to Jerusalem.
07:06And he also wants to preach the gospel where other places where people have not preached before.
07:11That's why we want to head to Rome.
07:13In Romans 15, we read this.
07:15But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions,
07:19it means he's just really preached the gospel in the whole region.
07:23And since I have longed for many years to come to you,
07:26I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there
07:30by you,
07:30since once I have enjoyed your company for a while.
07:33So, he wants to go to Jerusalem and then to Rome and to Spain.
07:37And this marks a turning point in the book of Acts.
07:40From this point forward, everything is moving Paul towards Rome.
07:44Everything from this chapter on to chapter 28,
07:47we're seeing Paul being moved towards Rome as his end goal.
07:50And he does end up in Rome, but he ends up in Rome as a prisoner,
07:54not what he was expecting.
07:57So, now we come to the continuation of the narrative in verse number 23.
08:02These two verses, we see Paul's dedication to his calling.
08:05He is totally dedicated to his calling, even if it's cost him a lot of hardships.
08:09He's dedicated to his calling.
08:11Verse 23.
08:13About that time, so again, in this time frame here,
08:17there arose no little disturbance.
08:19That means there was a big disturbance.
08:22Biblical writers write it like that.
08:23It's just, there was a big disturbance concerning the way.
08:26For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis,
08:32brought no little business to the craftsmen.
08:34Okay, that means he brought a lot of business to the craftsmen.
08:37You know, you get how it's written.
08:38These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said,
08:43men, you know that from this business, we have our wealth.
08:48This is how we've gotten rich.
08:49And you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia,
08:55this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people,
09:00saying that gods made with hands are not gods.
09:03And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute,
09:08but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing,
09:12and that she may even be deposed from her magnificent she whom all Asia and the world worships.
09:20So there's this problem that's going on now.
09:23This guy, this silversmith who makes little shrines, he's saying,
09:27you know, so many people have come to faith
09:29that we're not selling as many shrines as we used to sell before
09:33because the gospel changes everything.
09:36And these people from the way,
09:38the way was just a designation of those who follow Christ and those who go after Christ.
09:42That's all it means is it's the designation of the gospel.
09:45But these craftsmen say, you know,
09:47we're losing our business now because people aren't buying our shrines anymore.
09:52Basically, what they would do is they would go to the silversmith,
09:54they would make a silver shrine, not real tall,
09:57and two things they would do with it.
09:58One or two things.
09:59First thing is they would take the shrine and they would go into the temple of Artemis
10:03and they would offer the shrine, it's silver,
10:05offer it as an offering to her.
10:07And I'm sure the priest took it and melted it down,
10:08did whatever they did with it or disperse it somewhere else.
10:11Or they could take the shrine,
10:13put it in their house as a household god and worship it.
10:16Those are the two things that they would do with the shrines.
10:20But all of this brought money to the craftsmen and to Ephesus, the city.
10:27The economic hub of Ephesus was the temple of Artemis.
10:32It was an economic hub of the city.
10:34It was what people looked to as an economic force within the city.
10:39And this temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
10:43And it was believed that so much money came into this temple
10:47that they began loaning money out just like a bank would do.
10:51That's how rich this temple had become.
10:53It was an economic hub of Ephesus.
10:57But things were changing because the gospel changes everything.
11:02The text reports that Demetrius' overwhelming concern was financial, not religious.
11:08He kind of throws in there the great goddess Artemis,
11:11but he's more concerned about he's losing his livelihood.
11:14He can't sell his shrines anymore because people aren't buying them anymore
11:17because they've changed.
11:20The gospel changes everything.
11:23And fear of loss is a powerful motivator.
11:28When you think you're going to lose something, it motivates you.
11:31See, the gospel believed and lived will change economics.
11:37And when it does, those who suffer the loss are the angriest about it.
11:42I mean, the makers of the magical books, they made the magical books,
11:45they sold the magical books, maybe they even had conferences on the magical books.
11:49Guess what?
11:49No one's buying them now.
11:50I shouldn't say that.
11:52Fewer people are buying them now.
11:53They're not attending their seminars.
11:55They're not buying the books.
11:57They're losing revenue.
11:59And when you start losing economic revenue, people get angry.
12:05The Silversmith Guild is losing business because the new Christians are not buying the shrines anymore.
12:11And they're encouraging people that there's only one true God.
12:14Not a bunch.
12:16The gospel believed and lived has the power to change society and the culture.
12:21And they go hand in hand.
12:22It's not just believed.
12:24It's believed and lived.
12:26That we take this word of God and incorporate it in all areas of our life and live it out.
12:31It changes everything.
12:34Notice the influence of Paul.
12:36We were told that all of Asia heard his preaching.
12:39He persuaded so many people.
12:41And Acts 20, we know that he was three years at Ephesus.
12:44He spent a lot of time there.
12:45Acts 20.
12:46Therefore, be alert.
12:47He's talking to the Ephesian elders.
12:49Remembering that for three years, I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
12:54So, Paul has persuaded many people to turn away from the small G gods.
12:58So, they're losing their economic power.
13:02The city is in an uproar.
13:05The gospel believed and lived has the power to change society and the culture.
13:12Let's say that a brothel popped up in our city.
13:14We're all adults here.
13:15We know what a brothel is, right?
13:16We could go out and picket the brothel.
13:18We could make awareness that a brothel has come to Medical Lake.
13:21There's nothing wrong with that.
13:22Our government allows for peaceful protest.
13:24Nothing wrong with that.
13:25We could do that.
13:25We could do that.
13:26We could raise awareness that there's a brothel now in our city.
13:31But is that the best way to close the brothel down?
13:34By just picketing it.
13:38You've created awareness to the problem, but you've not taken away the inner desire of people to visit the brothel.
13:48Best way to stop sex trafficking in our state is not to create more laws.
13:52We have laws about kidnapping people.
13:54You're not supposed to do that.
13:55We have laws about holding people against their will.
13:57You're not supposed to do that.
13:58We have laws already.
14:02But if it's just laws, you've not taken away the inner desire to use a sex slave.
14:10If we want to stop fraud, financial fraud in our state, which we should.
14:15It's not about making more laws.
14:17We have laws about embezzlement.
14:18We have laws about stealing.
14:20We don't need more laws.
14:21There are already laws about theft and embezzlement.
14:26We ought to pay attention to good laws as citizens.
14:28We ought to.
14:29In bad laws, we ought to do something we can to try to change them.
14:31We have that ability in our country.
14:33That's good.
14:33There's nothing wrong with that.
14:34It's not an either or.
14:35We ought to do those things and pay attention to those things.
14:41Peaceful protest may be an avenue to see that accomplished.
14:47But it never changes the inner desire of people to visit or use those things.
14:53See, the gospel changes everything.
14:55It begins working from the inside out.
14:57It takes away the desires to go visit a brothel.
15:00It takes away the desires to go use it in a sex slave.
15:02It takes away the desire to steal money fraud from other people because the desire is no longer there.
15:06We could try it from the outside and that may help a little bit.
15:09But unless we preach the gospel message and see people saved, they will never change inwardly.
15:14And all these things will remain because the gospel changes everything.
15:21We preach the gospel and God takes away that inner desire to violate his laws.
15:27A truly saved person living out the gospel message won't participate in a brothel, won't hire a sex slave, won't
15:34defraud people.
15:37The gospel believed and lived has a power to change the society and the culture.
15:42Warren Wearsby said this,
15:44Paul did not arouse the opposition of the silversmiths by picketing the temple of Diana, Artemis, or staging anti-idolatry
15:52rallies.
15:53All he did was teach the truth daily and send out his converts to witness to the lost people in
15:58the city.
15:58As more and more people got converted, fewer and fewer customers were available.
16:05It's not an either or.
16:07We ought to pay attention to what's going around us.
16:08But if we want to see lasting change in our society, we must go out and preach the gospel message
16:13because the gospel changes everything.
16:17So he appeals, first of all, to their financial.
16:20And then he appeals to their emotion.
16:22Oh, yeah.
16:22Well, we're known as Ephesus for this great temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
16:27We're known about that.
16:28So he moves from financial now to their love of their city.
16:32He changes it and makes it an emotional argument.
16:34The two things that they loved was the temple of Artemis and how great their goddess was that fell from
16:41heaven, we're told later on.
16:44But the Ephesians are now starting to understand as a city.
16:47They saw it with the seven sons of Sceva.
16:49They saw it with the magical books.
16:50The word of God always increased afterwards.
16:53The Ephesians are beginning to understand the implication of the gospel message.
16:57There can only be one Lord to whom we owe loyalty to.
17:02No, Demetrius' appeal to religion and sylvic pride won the people over and now a mob formed.
17:10Look at verses 28 through 34.
17:14When they heard this, remember he's out there saying this in Demetrius.
17:18When they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out,
17:22Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
17:24So the city was filled with confusion and they rushed together into the theater,
17:29dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel, his co-workers.
17:35But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him.
17:39And even some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and were urging him not to
17:45venture into the theater.
17:47Now some cried out one thing and some another,
17:49for the assembly was in confusion and most of them did not even know why they had come together.
17:55Typical mob.
17:56Why am I here?
17:57I don't know, but there's a lot of activity and there's a lot of emotions going on here.
18:01I'll feel that presence.
18:02They don't even know why they're there.
18:05Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews have put forward,
18:08and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd.
18:12So he says, hey, he puts his hands up.
18:13Hey, listen, but when they recognized that he was a Jew for about two hours,
18:19they all cried out with one voice, great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
18:24You know, I was thinking about, I was going to stop right here and pause for 30 seconds and not
18:28say anything
18:28and make you realize how long 30 seconds actually is.
18:33Two hours they're screaming this.
18:37Two hours, great is Artemis, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
18:41It's two hours there's, I don't know if their voices got tired.
18:44Did they have to drink lots of water?
18:46Because they're screaming out, no, this great is, great is Diana, great is Artemis.
18:53So Paul was somewhere else.
18:54I don't know where, we don't know where he was at.
18:56His two companions got dragged into the theater.
18:58The theater held about 20 to 25,000 people.
19:00It was a big place.
19:01It was probably packed.
19:03The city's in an uproar right now.
19:04It's in a mob state.
19:06Paul, we don't know where he was at.
19:07But two of his friends got dragged into the theater.
19:12These Asiarchs, these were high-ranking officials, political officials.
19:17They were chosen annually.
19:19It was an office of great honor.
19:21So they were politicians.
19:22And you notice, they were friends of Paul.
19:25These politicians were friends with Paul.
19:29And they urged him, don't go in there.
19:31And he's going, well, let me, let me go.
19:33No, don't go in there.
19:34They kept urging him over and over again.
19:36And it's written in a way that they kept doing it over and over again.
19:38No, let me go.
19:39No, I don't, don't go.
19:40No, I want, don't go.
19:41They kept urging him, don't go.
19:44These political leaders supported Paul because they understood that Christianity was not a threat to Roman political power.
19:51And they were friends with Paul.
19:53See, politics and Christianity must not necessarily be opposed.
19:58We're only opposed to politicians and politics when it goes against God's moral laws.
20:02And we're opposed to it.
20:03But they're friends, so they had a good working relationship, the political people and Paul.
20:09Paul, maybe he was going, well, listen, I'm a Roman citizen.
20:12They're not supposed to do this to Roman citizens.
20:14I'm safe.
20:15That didn't really work well at Philippi, did it?
20:18They beat him, even though he was a Roman citizen.
20:20So they're saying, I don't care if you're a Roman citizen, Paul.
20:22Don't go in the theater.
20:23That mob will tear you apart.
20:26And Paul was wise enough to listen to good counsel.
20:30So he didn't go into the theater.
20:31He was smart enough to listen to his political friends.
20:34Don't go in there.
20:34Don't go in there.
20:37This was not a legal assembly.
20:39This was a mob.
20:41I mean, it was a mob.
20:42They didn't even know why they were there.
20:43You ever seen mobs?
20:44People that don't normally do things on their own, get in a mob and they'll do stuff they've never done
20:50before.
20:51Benjamin Franklin said that a mob was a monster with heads enough, but no brains.
20:58That's about a mob.
21:00They don't even know why they're there.
21:01The city's in confusion.
21:03So the Jews say, hey, Alexander, go talk to him and calm him down a little bit.
21:08Alexander being a Jew.
21:10So the Jews put Alexander forward to represent them, the Jews.
21:14The reduction in idol business was not the Jews' fault.
21:18Don't blame the Jews.
21:19Blame those Christians over there.
21:20It's not us Jews.
21:21And you know what?
21:22As soon as they saw that he was a Jew, they just screamed for two hours, great is Artemis of
21:25the Ephesians.
21:26Two hours long.
21:27And I'm thinking, why would you?
21:28A Jew is a monotheistic person.
21:30He doesn't have multiple gods.
21:31Why would you put him forward?
21:33I mean, he's not for the temple of Artemis.
21:38They cried, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
21:42Two full hours.
21:44So now the town clerk is concerned.
21:46The town clerk is a person who's responsible to roam for the state of the city.
21:50He has to answer to roam.
21:52Now remember, Ephesus was a free city, which means they had ability to self-govern themselves.
21:57They had special privileges that other cities didn't have.
21:59So the town clerk realizing, if this doesn't stop, we could lose some of those things.
22:03So he jumps in to save the day.
22:06Look at verse number 35.
22:33I find that an interesting statement.
22:34If therefore Demetrius and the craftsman with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts
22:39are open.
22:40We have a court system.
22:41Bring it to the court.
22:42And there are pro-councils.
22:44Let them bring the charges against one another.
22:46But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in a regular assembly.
22:50This is out of order.
22:52For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause
22:58that we can give to justify this commotion.
23:01And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.
23:04Good crowd management skills this guy had here.
23:08Paul certainly preached against idols, yet he still had a hearing with the people.
23:12I find that interesting.
23:13You know he didn't say, hey, Artemis is okay.
23:15He would never say that.
23:17Even though he preached against idols, the people still were willing to listen to him.
23:20He had a way of doing that.
23:21I appreciate that.
23:23Now we're all adults here.
23:24Apparently, what the story is, that this Artemis was most likely a meteorite that fell out of
23:29the sky.
23:30And when they picked it up, it looked like a mini-breasted woman.
23:34So, she was the goddess of fertility.
23:36Makes perfect sense.
23:37That's the way they looked at her.
23:38They thought of the divine origin, that it fell out of the heavens, that must signify the
23:42divine origin of this thing.
23:45And Paul probably likely had said over and over again, no, it's not divine.
23:49Divine, it's still creature worshiping the creature, the creation, and not the creator
23:55itself.
23:56It's not divine.
23:58She's not divine.
23:59There's only one true God.
24:00His name is Jesus Christ, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
24:05Romans 1, clearly here talking about this, this thing of worshiping the creation and not
24:10the creator.
24:11For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, nor give thanks to him, but become
24:16futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
24:20Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
24:23Why?
24:23Because the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
24:27We know there's a God.
24:28If you go back to the first part of this, we know there's a God.
24:31They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal
24:36man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24:39It's still the worship of creation and not the creator.
24:41Or what's important for this town clerk that he said was that Christians were not guilty
24:47of any crimes.
24:49It wasn't the Christians that were at fault here.
24:51The mob may be, if they don't stop what they're doing, they may be guilty of a crime.
24:55The Christians are not at fault here.
24:58This town clerk had good skills.
25:00The city of it is in danger of losing some of its privileges.
25:03They could no longer be a free city if they don't behave themselves well.
25:08And Luke wants us to understand that Rome had no case against Christianity in general
25:13at this time.
25:15Later on, there will be an imperial persecution.
25:17But right now, Rome has no case against the Christians.
25:20It's okay.
25:21Keep preaching.
25:23However, in the Roman Empire, the effect of the gospel would soon change the empire.
25:28You ever thought about the origins of hospitals and schools?
25:36Are all coming out of Christianity.
25:39As Christianity moved across Europe, as it moved across Europe, changes happened within
25:45the society.
25:46Hospitals were established.
25:48Education for children and adults was established.
25:51The Western society was shaped by Christianity.
25:55And Rome would soon feel that change as Christianity began spreading across the empire.
26:01You see, the gospel changes everything.
26:08We saw here in verses 21 and 22, Paul's dedication to his calling.
26:12And it's not in our takeaways for today, but that's a good point to make.
26:15He was dedicated to his calling, even if it cost him something.
26:19Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
26:20You see all the things he suffered for the cause of Christ.
26:23He paid a penalty.
26:24Or not a penalty.
26:25It was a joy that he did it.
26:27It was no penalty.
26:28From our side, it looks like a penalty.
26:29I mean, when you get thrown rocks at your head and someone tries to beat you with a stick.
26:34I mean, that looks like a penalty.
26:35It's not.
26:35He took it all for the glory of God.
26:38He was dedicated to his calling.
26:40So we want to be dedicated to our calling.
26:42But there's some other couple things I want to show.
26:44Number one is this.
26:45Elements of society will not be happy when we faithfully preach the gospel message.
26:50Be prepared for the hostility.
26:53When we preach against, when we preach the gospel and we see people change and they no longer want to
26:59go visit a sex slave.
27:00Guess what?
27:00All of those people who hold these sex slaves will lose their business.
27:04Do you think they're going to be happy with Christians?
27:07Go to the areas that the cartels are running down in Mexico and Christianity when it's flourishing.
27:11Do you think the cartels like Christianity?
27:13No.
27:14There's an open hostility against it.
27:17So be prepared for that as we preach the gospel and we see change.
27:20There's going to be hostility coming our direction.
27:23And secondly is this.
27:25The gospel believed and lived has the power to change the society and culture.
27:30And those two verbs must go together.
27:33Believed and lived.
27:35That means I take this word of God, the gospel, the faith, and I wrap it around me and it
27:40becomes a part of who I am.
27:42And from the inside out, God begins to change me.
27:46It has the power to change society as it begins with the individual and works its way out.
27:54So the first question is, have you believed the gospel message?
27:57Are you saved today?
27:59Have you been born again?
28:00Are you what Paul calls in Christ?
28:03Do you know Jesus as Savior?
28:05That's the first question.
28:06Are you born again?
28:07Have you believed the gospel message?
28:09And if you have believed the gospel message, the follow-up question is, are you living it out daily in
28:15your life?
28:17Believing is one thing.
28:19But living it out daily is where the real change comes in us and around us into the higher entire
28:25nation.
28:28Does your faith govern your everyday life?
28:32Let me think about it.
28:34You know where you're at.
28:37Are you living out your faith in your family?
28:42Are you being kind to one another?
28:44Tender-hearted?
28:46Forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven us?
28:50Are you being gentle with one another?
28:53Are you living out your faith in your family?
28:56Those people that are closest to you.
28:58Because when you came to faith, it affected them too.
29:01And they see God working in your heart.
29:03But as you live out your faith, it changes your family.
29:07It can change your neighborhood and your city and your state.
29:12Are you living out your faith in your family?
29:16Are you living out your faith at your job?
29:20Not frauding people.
29:21Not stealing from the company.
29:23Being faithful with your time as you give your time and they give you money for your time.
29:27Are we living out our faith at our job?
29:29Do people see it in us as we live out the gospel at our job?
29:34How about in the books that you read?
29:37Are you living out the faith in the books you read or choose to read?
29:42Some of them we know we ought not to be reading.
29:45We know we ought not to be reading them.
29:49Does the faith influence the books you choose to read?
29:52How about the entertainment that you watch?
29:55Does your faith shape the entertainment that you choose to watch?
29:58I have a television, full disclosure.
30:00I watch TV.
30:00I have no problem with television.
30:02I have a problem with some of the stuff on television, yes.
30:04But I'm not against television.
30:06But am I letting my faith guide what I choose to watch on television?
30:10Does it impact my daily life?
30:14What about am I living out my faith in the participation by the way that I vote for people who
30:22represent me in this nation?
30:25Far too many times I think believers just shut their Bible and forget to take their Bible into the voting
30:29booth and vote according to the word of God.
30:31Does it shape your life and how you vote for people who represent us?
30:38Because the gospel believed and lived has the power to change the society and the culture.
30:48Let's preach it.
30:50Let's teach it.
30:52And most of all, let's live it.
30:56Father, we thank you for saving us, placing us in your son, Jesus Christ, giving us your spirit.
31:03And you begin working on us from the inside out.
31:06You change our desires.
31:08You change our motivation.
31:10You change the way we think.
31:12And when that changes, everything around us begins to change.
31:16And when we as believers live out our faith day by day, it will have an impact.
31:21It will have an impact in my family.
31:24It will have an impact at the job.
31:25It will have an impact in society.
31:28And as it's done in the past, we're asking for the gospel to change our nation.
31:35That it would be a righteous nation.
31:38A godly nation.
31:40That would honor and please you.
31:43Father, thank you.
31:45Thank you for your word.
31:46And thank you for your spirit.
31:47And thank you for what you're doing in us.
31:50For it is true, the gospel believed and lived has the power to change society and culture.
31:56And we thank you.
31:57We pray in Jesus' name.
31:59Amen.
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