My name is Carlos. Like Cole said, I'm one of the
pastors here. We're going to be in Acts
chapter 19 this morning. It's a lot of texts, a lot of
texts. And so instead of me reading it
all at once and then us forgetting, we're going to chop
this thing up. And so you're going to be able
to doing a lot of standing and sitting today.
But that's OK because a lot of y'all like me are very tired.
So let me pray for myself and then we're going to jump in.
All right, All right, all right, come on, y'all.
Well, I guess I should mention today's sermon is about work and
the secular world's resistance, and it's going to hit on work,
but it's essentially what I'm trying to paint the picture.
What I think God is trying to paint in, in, in Acts 19 is what
happens when a group of ordinary people get lit on fire for
Jesus, like what happens when ordinary people hear the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and not just say yes with their mouths,
but they say yes with their lives.
That's what we're going to be exploring today.
So let me pray, Heavenly Father. Yeah, I kneel before you, Lord,
just because I need you. I pray that this is a an example
of what the sermon is. Lord, just me kneel before you,
giving other hungry people the bread that I found.
And so, Heavenly Father, would you use the words of Paul and
use the words of the writer Luke to remind us, Lord, that in an
age of rage and confusion, you have called us to be a people of
peace. Not passivity, not cowardless,
like being cowards, Lord, but a people of peace who look to you.
And so use my words, Lord, to help us become those type of
people in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
So how do you react? How do you react?
Think about this for a second. How do you react when the thing
that you love is threatened? This is the question that we're
going to be thinking about this morning as we look at Acts 19.
And so far in our sermon series, we looked at work and we've said
work is worship. We've looked at work and said
that in our work we should we should use our work to be on
mission. We've looked at what happens
when work becomes an idol. And last week we looked at what
happens when we are lazy in our work.
And this week we will look at what happens when a church
faithfully works and witnesses in the community and the society
around them resists. We will see what happens when
ordinary people like you and I say yes to Jesus and commit to
living this way and how sometimes when we do that, it
might upset the culture around us.
And my hope is that after looking at the example of the
Ephesian believers in Acts 19, we, we will be able to, to, to
answer that question, how should we live?
My hope is that we can answer the question, what implications
does this have on our work? But before we do that, I got to
lay the foundation for you because Acts 19 is crazy.
I mean, this will be like an HBO box office film if you had to
had to had to put this on film. So what I'm going to do, my temp
is I, I want to paint a picture of what's going on.
And then near the end of my sermon, I'm going to get a
little bit more practical. So I need y'all to just stay
with me. All right, hold on to your
seats. I appreciate you.
Hold on to your seats. I appreciate all y'all.
All right, so as we come to our passage of Scripture this
morning, we will see that Paul, he enters a city named Ephesus
and he disrupts the way of many people who are living there.
But to set the context, right, it's not just a city.
This is like a city of cities. Ephesus.
You could say it's like New York City, but not just New York
City. This is like Times Square in New
York City. Can you picture, can you picture
this place? I imagine that this place was it
was like on and popping, like there was never a restaurant
closed. You could go get, you know, I
could go get ramen at 3:00 in the morning if I wanted to.
This was a a place that was that was that was bustling.
If we were to transport ourselves back to the time
period, we might find ourselves walking down the street and
seeing Chariots go back and forth in a feverish pace.
You might see merchants yelling at yelling at you on the corner,
being like, hey, I got what you want.
I got what you need. Come over here.
Come talk to me. But the most significant thing
that we would notice as we walked around this city is that
we would see that this is a very wealthy and a religious city.
It would become very apparent that this city's wealth.
It would be very apparent where this city gets its wealth, and
it's from its religion. You see, the ancient Greeks
worship this God named Artemis and it was thought that her
image had fallen from heaven and was housed in the temple that
resided in Ephesus, which by the way, this temple was bigger than
a football field. So the question we have to ask
ourselves is how could this unknown nomad named Paul disturb
such a great city? How could one small group of
believers change an entire society?
Well, to answer that, it's simple.
Paul, the nomad that I just mentioned came to the city with
a vision of starting a faith community of word of Jesus
worshippers. And the way that he did that,
listen, the method that he used the the evangelistic strategy
that Paul used was to proclaim the gospel verses one through 10
says this. Let's stand for the reading of
God Word, God's Word if you can, verses one through 10.
While Apollo's was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the
interior regions and came to Ephesus.
He found some disciples and asked them, did you receive the
Holy Spirit when you believe? No, they told him, we haven't
even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
And So what then? Were you baptized?
He asked to John's baptism, They replied, Paul said John baptized
with a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they
should believe in the one who would come after him, that is
Jesus. And when they heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on
them and they began to speak in other tongues in the prophecy.
Now there were about 12 men in all.
Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of
three months, arguing and persuading them about the
Kingdom of God. But when some of them came,
became hardened and would not believe the slander, and not
would not believe slandering the way in front of the crowd, he,
Paul, withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted
discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannius.
This went off for two years. Everybody say 2 years, two
years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks,
heard the word of the Lord. You guys can be seated.
So, as is customary of Paul, when he enters a new city, he
heads down to the synagogue, the Jewish place of worship, to
proclaim that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises that
they search for so diligently. But before he gets there, he
rose up on some of John's homeboys and, and, and they're
there and, and, and, and Paul asked them, Yo, have you, have
you been baptized? Paul begins to proclaim to them
the word of God and they come to the true belief of what John was
preaching. They get the, the, they, they,
they see the, the dots connect. And that was namely that God was
sending a savior. He had sent a savior into the
world. And after that, Paul goes to a
synagogue and for three months, faithfully and consistently
preaches the Kingdom of God. Three months, 90 days of
preaching the same message over and over again.
Then after three months, some of the Jews within the synagogue
begin to harden their hearts and begin to try to lead the people
of stray. And so Paul, he bounces, he
leaves the city, right? He goes on to another city.
No, that's not what happens. He goes to another area, an area
that's mixed with Jews and Gentiles, and proceeds to preach
every day for two years, two years of day in and day out
proclamation. And what's beautiful and
important and important for us in our sermon series, that it's
most likely that Paul worked during the day and he preached
at night and those who followed him worked in the day and then
they went and worshipped at night.
Meaning that for almost for, for, for over for almost 2 1/2
years, for almost 2 1/2 years that Paul was in Ephesus.
The church was comprised of mainly ordinary Christians like
you and I Paul's strategy for this, What is it?
It's God's words proclaimed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
peeling back the pages of the Old Testament and showing the
people that Jesus is the fulfillment of them all.
And I know what you're probably thinking, because it's probably
the same thing that I thought when I was reading This is why
would Paul use this as a strategy, right?
He's saying the same thing over and over again, like, is this
actually going to do anything? Parents, you know what I'm
talking about, right? You're at the dinner table.
Not just parents. It's Chloe.
Chloe's not here, but I was going to.
She's downstairs. She's serving.
Look at her. Bless her heart, man.
I was going to say to Chloe, you know what it's like as well,
right? You're at the dinner table.
You put some vegetables in front of your your kids or your
husband, not throwing them right in the bus.
Cole doesn't eat vegetables. You throw some, some broccoli,
some steamed broccoli. You put some lemon pepper
seasoning on it. It's like it's fire, right?
That's a trick to get your kids to eat broccoli, lemon pepper
seasoning, going off the rails. You put some broccoli in front
of your kids and you say eat, and they look at you like you
just spoke another language. And you do this week after week
after week after week, and they don't do it.
And to their credit, to your credit, Cole, there's a good
reason why you don't eat vegetables.
The reason why you don't eat your vegetables, the reason why
your kids don't eat your vegetables is because they have
not acquired the taste buds for broccoli.
And if you look at our text, you might be tempted to think the
same thing. After over 2 1/2 years of
proclamation, you think Paul would try something else to
appease the appetites of these people like Paul?
Haven't you studied the culture? Don't you know that the
Ephesians are a post monotheistic culture like one
God? Nah, you know that That's old
religion or or does Paul know something that the Ephesians
don't? Could it be that Paul in his
day, Could it be that Paul in his day in and day out
proclaiming proclamation of the gospel knows exactly what these
Ephesians hearts? He he knows exactly what these
Ephesian hearts need to change their appetites?
Could it be that the Ephesians hearts they they they need to
hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in order for their
hearts to salivate after God? It's Paul clued into the fact
that the taste buds of the human heart are changed when the Holy
Spirit of God activates the Word of God on the people made in the
image of God. Could it be that Paul
understands what John says in John one that the word was in
the beginning before anything existed that the word was with
God. They're not simply they were
wasn't just chilling with God. He was in deep communion and
fellowship with God that the Word actually was God, that all
things, especially the materials and metals that the Ephesians
used to build idols, were made by the very hands that he was
proclaiming. Could it be that Paul believed
that the Word was life and light?
Could it be that Paul knew that the Word didn't just stay
abstract and intangible, but the Word took on flesh and subjected
himself to oxygen and gravity and dwelt among us in a truer
way than their false God Artemis did?
Could it be that Paul knew that the Word being 100% man and 100%
God, what's the thing that these Ephesians needed to change their
appetites? Well, yes, Yes it could, and yes
it was and yes it is. It's God's word proclaimed.
It's God's word proclaimed that changes our appetites.
It's how their taste buds change.
It's the word of God proclaimed in pulpits, but also at dinner
tables and in nurseries and in break rooms that change ordinary
people into Jesus people. This is what happens when Paul
steps up and and comes to to Ephesus.
And as we work our way through our texts, we're going to see
three things that happen as a result of God's, excuse me, of
Paul's faithful proclamation of the word.
We're going to see three things. The first thing that we're going
to see is we're going to see God's power displayed.
The second thing we're going to see is that as God's power is
displayed, these believers are actually transformed into the
image of Jesus. And the third thing that we're
going to explore, pertinent to our conversation this morning is
that social norms are going to be impacted.
OK, God's power, people change, the world erupts.
All right, let's go ahead and stand again for the next section
of text. We're going to be in Acts 1911
through 17. Y'all with me.
OK, let's go. God was performing extraordinary
miracles by Paul's hands so that even face clothes or aprons that
had touched his skin were brought to the sick and the
diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
Now some of the some of the itinerant Jewish exorcist also
attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who
had evil spirits saying I command you by the Jesus that
Paul preaches seven sons of Sceva God Lee, a Jew.
This is such a crazy story. A Jewish high priest were doing
this the evil spirit answer them Can you imagine God Lee the evil
spirit answer them. I know Jesus, I recognize Paul,
but who are you hunting? Then the man who had the evil
spirit jumped on them, overpowered them all and
prevailed against them so that they ran out the house naked,
butt naked and wounded. When this came became known to
everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, they
became afraid. And guess what?
Y'all, the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high esteem.
Y'all could be seated, you could be seated.
We got one more of those just to prepare yourself.
All right. Now we got to remember, we got
to understand that the, the, the, the church, the, the, the
Ephesian culture, they were obsessed with power and magic.
And in this culture obsessed with power and magic, God
chooses to display his power in response to his Word being
preached. We see that people are being
healed and evil spirits being defeated by articles of clothing
that touch Paul's skin. God's power is on full blast.
There is no way, and this is the point.
There's no way that anybody could deny what's happening.
And like any society obsessed with power, it's no surprise
that someone would come along and try to steal that power and
use it for their own advantage. Right here into the Seven Sons
of Skiva. That sounds like a a metal band.
Great band name, terrible example, but great band name.
These dudes, they, they made a living exercising demons and
they saw a chance to come up. They were like, hey, we're about
to hit a lick. Like we're about to come up and
sorry, that's we're about to, we're about to flip this for our
own advantage. Hit a lick.
I can't believe I said that. They've probably been following
Paul around and witnessed him using the name of Jesus to do
good things. And in fact, like within this
culture, it's it's not uncommon for workers of magic to use the
name of the creator of certain spells to to conjure the power
that they were using. But instead of believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, they reject the gospel and seek
to use it for their own selfish gain.
They go in there and the demon says, hey, I know Jesus, I know
Paul, but who are you? Who are you?
And then he perceives to whoop their tail.
He perceives to jump on them, so much so that the clothes that
Luke describes that they, they, they run out naked and wounded.
And as a result of this, what happens, the Greek and the
Jewish people, they begin to talk.
Word goes on around this, about this, this new God preached by
Paul, this new God, he's, he's not like the guys that we know.
This God, he has power. His, his power can't be
manipulated. His power can't be shared.
This God is in an entirely new league.
When the word of God is proclaimed, God's power is
displayed. And the news about God, it
spreads. It spreads and what is the power
of God, by the way, the gospel, the gospel in verses 18 through
20, we see this. Let me read.
You don't have to stand for this one because you got to stand for
another one. And many who have become
believers, they came confessing and disclosing their practices,
right? As a result of this power of the
gospel being displayed. They came disclosing their
practices while many of those who have practiced magic
collected their books and burned them in front of everyone.
So they calculated their value and found that it was 50,000
pieces of silver. In this way, the word of the
Lord flourished and prevailed. We see that as believers are
transformed more and more into the image of Jesus, it's just
not enough for God's power to be displayed.
But it also happens that that as people say yes to Jesus and his
message, it's not enough that God's power is simply displayed.
It actually transforms hearts in a noticeable way within the
community around them. What we see here is this, this
theological term, what we see happening to these believers is
this theological term called progressive sanctification.
Let me nerd out for a little bit.
This is the idea that once you're saved by God, God
proclaims you not guilty, right? You're not guilty, but
functionally you still got sin and all the type of stuff in
your heart. And what progressive
sanctification is. This is a reality that as you
walk with Jesus, as you, as you walk with him in community, as
you read your Bible, as you, as you meditate on his goodness, as
you, as you, as you say yes to the Holy Spirit, what happens is
the gospel of the Lord. It just wrings out your heart so
that you actually you actually live the faith that you proclaim
or to buy broccoli analogy, your appetite for God is it.
It actually follows what you confess.
As we look at the cross of Christ through the Word of God,
we see that our sins are forgiven, right?
We see our righteousness given freely.
And this makes our true appetites awaken to the delight,
to delight in the things of God and live like it.
And the things that once seemed like cake, we're like, yo,
that's garbage. And the things that once seemed
like garbage, we're like, hey, that's good.
It's cake. And this is what happened here.
These believers, they have trusted Jesus for salvation.
They have been redeemed. And as they continue to see
God's power displayed through the proclamation of the gospel,
as they continue to hear God's word proclaimed through through
the mouth of Paul, and as they continue to live their lives and
community together, their appetites change.
And the things that were gained to them, they're like, yo,
that's loss. I want this.
And this is where Acts 19 in our series collide today.
Because as Jesus transforms these ordinary working people
into the image of God, and as their their appetites and
affections begin to align with that of God's, their work is
impacted. That's what we see happening
here, is it, isn't it? They all begin to take their
books and their possessions, their idols.
They're, they're tarot readers, they're crystals, whatever you
want to call it. They begin to take all this
stuff and they begin to burn it in the street.
This is a public public. This is not rebellion.
This is public protests and family.
This isn't just like they're like hobbies, their books.
You know what we see burning in the streets are these they're
idols of wickedness. They're these these things,
these strongholds that they had and many of these people
probably it's probably how they made their living.
And this ain't just like spend money, spending money or a petty
cash. I asked Chad GBT.
I was like, hey yo, Chad, how much is 50,000 pieces of silver
in today's coin? Anybody want to guess what that
is? Casey, you probably know this,
so don't answer. Anybody want to guess, throw it
out. You can talk to me.
How much? That's not that's low, that's
too low, $7.5 million, $7.5 million were burned in the
streets of Ephesus on that day. I might be wrong.
A million. It's a lot.
This amount of destruction to these objects of idolatry in a
city that was made rich off of these idols would have greatly
disturbed the supply chain of the day.
OK. It would have greatly caused the
stock market to crash because these and and this is the reason
why, because these believers were actually convinced that
Jesus was better. They said that Jesus is better
family. What a testimony this would have
been. This type of action wouldn't
have gone unnoticed. The whole city would have seen
this and they did, which is why is God's word is proclaimed in
power to ordinary people like you and I and those ordinary
people like you and I say yes to Jesus.
We begin to and we begin to really follow Jesus, like
really, really follow Jesus in a public in our public spheres of
vocation. This we will disrupt social
norms. We will.
And this brings us to our final point, right, that when God's
word is proclaimed and we say yes to Jesus and have our
appetites changed, what happens is that the world around us
erupts. So if you can stand one last
time for me, we're going to be in verses 23 to 29.
About that time there was a major disturbance about the way,
for a person named Demetrius, A silversmith who made silver
shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the
Craftsman. When he assembled them, as well
as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, men,
you know that our prosperity is derived from this business.
You see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of
Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled A
considerable number of people by saying that God's made by hand
are not God's. Not only do we run the risk that
our business may be discredited, but also, excuse me, that the
temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her
magnificence come to the verge of ruin.
The very one all of Asia and the world worship.
When they heard this, they were filled with rage.
Everybody say rage, rage and begin to cry out.
Greatest Artemis of the Ephesians.
So the city was filled with confusion, and they all rushed
together into the Amphitheatre and dragging out Gaius and oh,
Articaeus, let's go. Articaeus Macedonians, who were
Paul's traveling companions. All right, you can be seated.
Thank you guys. Thank you.
Now I love social media. I I don't want to share with you
guys what my screen time looks like because I'm going to be
embarrassed, but I love social media.
I love a good TikTok video. I love to get sucked into those
holes that probably have tons of reels that I've sent most of you
all in here. But there was this saying a
while ago on social media that began to circulate and I was
like, I don't know if I like that that and that saying was
this. That saying was that the gospel
and society should stay separate.
And to be honest, I get I get what they meant.
I get the sentiment, I get the sentiment.
I get that they don't want the pure, the pure gospel gospel to
be corrupted, to be perverted. But friends, family, I got to
tell you that a gospel that is preached that does not disrupt
disrupt the social norms of the day is a weak gospel.
A telling of the Kingdom of God that only stays personal and
doesn't impact the Kingdom of man is not the gospel that Paul
preached. Just look at our text.
The gospel that Paul preached disrupted an entire Society of
the Ephesians. Demetrius is at risk of going
bankrupt because Paul preaches that idols made with human hands
are not God at all and people are believing him.
The gospel has impacted society. And we know what this is like,
don't we? We, we've seen this.
I mean, we haven't seen it, but we've read about this happening
in our society. We've seen this in our own
country, right? Let's say slavery, for instance.
The gospel proclaims that all men are created in the image of
God, that as image bearers of God, it is unjust to still to
own, to beat, to torture and enslave another human being.
And even though slavery was a multi billion dollar industry,
the gospel of Jesus Christ in the hearts and mouths of
faithful ordinary Christians like you and I, right, was too
effective and it dismantled it. Talk about resistance.
There was a whole war, the Civil War about this.
So make no mistake about it, family, the world will resist.
As the gospel changes the appetites of ordinary people.
The gospel in the hearts of ordinary people like you and I
will disrupt societal structures because we are workers in this
society. The world will resist.
And in our text, we see that it caused a riot.
But in our day, right, it may not.
I mean, I don't know, we might be heading there.
It may not necessarily cause a riot within the seats of the
streets of Des Moines, but it may call you to be called a
loving. It may call you to be called a
bigot. It may cause you to be quote UN
quote, canceled as if you could cancel someone made in the image
of God, but that's a whole another sermon.
Oh man, there will be, as our text says, rage and confusion.
The question we have to ask ourselves is how will we respond
when this happens? Not if, but when, Especially in
our jobs as people who have heard the proclamation of the
gospel, who have seen God's power, who have burned our idols
for King Jesus, and who say that we want to follow Jesus in a
real, noticeable way. How will we respond when we get
sucked into the rage and confusion?
We add to the noise of the rage and confusion or, or or will we
trust ourselves to Jesus and remain as non anxious presences
in the culture as faithful gospel witnesses like our boy
Gaius and Artichaeus, right? Like do you notice that two of
Paul's homeboys get sucked up into this thing?
And if you continue to read, which I'm not because I've had
y'all stand up a lot, right? If you continue to read, they're
not mentioned at all. They're just in it, faithful,
faithful. The world will resist when in
and when empires of ideology crumble, when industries that
feed on the weaker crush, when the the ambitions of the wicked
are destroyed. We must stand firm as unwavered
people, unwavered people of peace and certainty in the age
of rage and confusion. Family, I I have confidence that
what Jesus said is going to actually happen.
And when it does, when, when God's Kingdom descends on the
earth through the work of ordinary people, the world will
rebel. I I have hope that the billion
dollar porn industry is going to get dismantled.
I have hope that Lord have mercy.
I have hope that the abortion industry that predatorily preys
on communities of color will get dismantled.
I believe that systems of economic systems that are that
economically disenfranchise the most vulnerable in our
community, they will get dismantled.
And when they do, the world will go crazy.
When people begin to take their work seriously, what happens is
that systems of evil and oppression are toppled.
Or, as I said, right. God's Kingdom comes on earth as
it is in heaven. Rage and confusion will come.
And when it does, we we might. My plea to you is that we must
be people of peace. Not passivity, but peace.
I mean, we must be people who work as though they know that
God is real and that he transcends all of the madness.
So as we close and as I continue to plead with you, I just want
to show you an example of how of, of maybe some of the sermons
that Paul preached to these Ephesian people to help them be
people of peace in the, in the sea of rage and confusion.
Can I do that? OK, let me, let's do that.
You don't have to stand for this.
This is this is my practical application.
I'm going to get out your way. OK Paul says this in Ephesians
4. So he, he probably wrote
Ephesians, this is one of his prison letters.
So he's in prison for doing this, the very thing that he got
in trouble with in Ephesus for doing so he's in prison and he's
thinking about this Ephesians church.
He's he's meditating on everything that he went through
there. And this is what he says to
them. He says this.
Therefore this is how you, this is how you be a person of peace.
He said, therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth each to
one of his neighbor because we are members of one another.
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down in
your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity.
Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he should do honest
work with his hands so that he has something to share with
anyone in need. Let no foul language come out of
your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in
need so that it gives grace to those who hear it And do not
grieve. God's Holy Spirit, you were
sealed by Him for the day of redemption, right?
Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander
be removed from you, along with all malice and be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving one another just as
God also forgave you in Christ. Do you see Paul leading these
people to be to be harbors safe harbors in a in a in a a an
ocean, a wild ocean of rage and confusion.
He goes on to say this in chapter 5.
Therefore be imitators of God. I'm not just giving you tips.
I'm actually calling you to be like God be imitators of God is
dearly loved children walk in love as Christ also loved us and
gave himself up for us a sacrificial and fragrant
offering to God. He goes on in verse 15.
Pay careful attention in how you walk, how you live in this this
crazy world, not as unwise people, but as wise, making the
most of our time because the days of evil.
So don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord is, the
Lord's will is. And don't get drunk with wine,
which leads to reckless living, but be filled with the Holy
Spirit, right? How do you be a person of peace?
You, you walk in the Spirit speaking to one another and sin
and psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making music
to one another with your heart to God, giving thanks always to
everything to God, giving thanks always to everything to God the
Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one
another in the fear of Christ to live as people of peace.
It's to follow Jesus in the midst of the, the, the, the rage
and the confusion. Paul is helping these people
live as peaceable people in a, in a, in a world gone mad.
He points them to the reality that this, that apart from God,
we too, right? This is the gospel.
Apart from God, we too are swimming in the sea of rage and
confusion, our appetites of sin. They have caused us to spiral
out of control and be separated from God.
But the good news says that the love and compassion of God, he
loved, that the love of compassion of God moved him.
It moved him to take on flesh, suffer and die in our place for
our sins, and resurrect from the grave.
And because of that, we are given peace, a sure and steady
hope. And not only are we saved and
forgiven and given a beautiful inheritance, we are actually
giving new appetites that long for God, appetites that long to
grow deeper as we walk with him and with each other in
community. And Paul says, because that is
your reality As you go out and work, as you go out and labor,
as you go out and be licensed to the world, you can be a people
who stand out with peace and steady steadiness and a firm
foundation. You don't have to, you don't
actually have to respond to the triggering posts on social
media. You can trust yourself to Jesus
and actually have the real conversation in life, right?
Like people of peace, people of peace.
So that's what it means. That's one of the ways that I
think it means to, to work in the midst of the secular world's
rejection. So let me pray, let me pray, and
then we'll continue to worship. Heavenly Father, the truth of
the gospel is that although you could have saved us from the
madness, although you could have saved our souls and plucked us
up to go to heaven, Lord, you, you.
You keep us here, You keep us here.
You say, Lord, that you did not wish that we come out of the
world, that, but that we are not like the world.
And so as we who have said yes to you live and work in this
city, in our vocations, in our homes, I pray that we would be
marked as a people full of conviction, but also full of
peace. That in an age that celebrates
rage and argumentativeness, that we would be a people, that
Frontier Church would be a people marked by their love,
unwavering conviction, and be marked as a people who fight for
righteousness and justice. And Lord, we recognize, I
recognize that we can only do that by the power of your Holy
Spirit. And so we ask Holy Spirit, come
fill our hearts, convince us, Lord, that we didn't just make a
decision