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Have your Bibles with you this morning. You can turn to the 17th chapter of Acts. And I'll start start there and pray that the Lord would be with us this morning and guide me. So the 17th chapter of Acts, where you are, the Apostle Luke wrote this, and he wrote this account of the Apostle Paul's travels, his missionary journeys, and the places that the Apostle Paul went to and the things that he suffered in his efforts to preach the gospel. To the Gentiles and to the Jews, and to all that would hear, all that the Lord would have to hear his message. We are given this account by Luke. I'm going to start and focus my efforts this morning at Paul's time in Athens. So he had been several places and he had been run out of places. He had been imprisoned, and this is after the prison was opened, and he converted the jailer there because he was gonna basically the jailer was gonna take you know fall on his own sword because he saw the gates open and knew that that was the end of him. And so Paul cried out and said, We're here. It's okay. And in that in that exchange, that jailer was converted to a belief in Jesus Christ. So this is after those things. And after Paul had been stoned and driven out of places, and um he was taken away and brought to Athens. And he was kind of alone in Athens. I say alone as in his traveling partners, uh Silas and Timotheus or Timothy, um, weren't with him at this place. He was waiting for them in Athens. Um it says in the 16th verse of the 17th chapter of Acts, now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred up, it's not stirred up, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Um so if you think about Athens, and we can place this time at the year AD 50. We can we know that because of um um I think how you say his name is um I want to mispronounce it, so I'm just not gonna say it. But there was a uh ruler over the city, and his time was in the starting the year 51, and this is right before that. So there's we can place this pretty accurately at AD 50. And you think about um the city of Athens, Greece, and at this time, there you could see monuments, you could see the things that they're restoring today, right? The things that you go there and you see the ruins of. These things were more wholly intact or restored. Temples and the Parthenon and things of that nature, idols and idolatry everywhere. Um there were um statues and temples to um false gods and um all kinds of things in the city of Athens. And this is the apostle Paul getting stirred up about all this idolatry going on, and and the Lord moved him to preach, um, moved him to preach first in the synagogues where there were Jews in the city of Athens, uh, where there were devout people in the city of Athens. So the Lord moved him to preach to these people in those places and in the marketplace, and whoever would listen, whoever would um talk to him, he would talk to. He would try to spread the message of the true and living God and Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Um and so if you know some basic world history about Greece, you know, you hear about um Socrates and Plato and and these um philosophers that people study today. You go to college and take courses in philosophy and study what these guys said. They were Greek, right? They were this is where they were. This is that culture about you know seeking some kind of understanding of things. They they sought knowledge, and I I don't say they sought truth as much as they sought knowledge. Um and the reason I say that, we get here in the in the 17th verse, it says, Therefore disputed he in the synagogues with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the um Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? Um so the Epicureans and the Stoics, you know, who were these people? These are people that had different philosophies of life, different understandings about the universe and the way things were. Um the Epicureans Um believed in the creation by chance, right? That the universe came to existence by chance. And that's you know, not an unfamiliar belief for us today, right? We all know people that believe that the world and the universe came into existence by chance. You know, that's what the um Epicureans believed. Um they actually believed in that there could be gods or there were gods, but they didn't the gods didn't really care about people. They were off some distant place, and they didn't really, they weren't involved in the daily lives of you of the people. Um they believed in uh that they were material beings, like that like because creation was by chance, um that they're by chance, and they're just material beings, and so what that their philosophy of life was was to to do what feels good, right? Seek pleasure. Um we're only here for a time. There's no real um gods like looking at us or caring about us, there's no real judgment for the things that we do. So their whole life was about um minimizing discomfort, minimizing pain and and and strife and struggle and maximizing pleasure. That's what that's that was the height of existence, right? If you could go through life and just have pleasure and no no pain, then you've you've got the key to success, right? Um so the Stoics um were were different. They um were panatheists and they believed um in that God was was the universe, or the universe was God, right? That you know you might hear this today, even there's people, these aren't strange ideas really to us. Um, that you know, you put good things out into the universe, and good things come back, right? It's that kind of thing, like that God was in in creation, that they were one and the same thing, you know. Um and they also sought pleasure, but they were moderate about it. They wanted everything in moderation, right? There was there was a lot about moderation and pleasure. Um it says that gods are not real personal, the God was moved in our lives, the universe, like we said, you put good things out and good things come, kind of that kind of thing. Um karma, right? Um, but they weren't real particular and personal, like they didn't they didn't care for you as an individual, right? Um and so it's real impersonal, and um that humans were rational people, and um that their form of worship was to gain knowledge and philosophy. That's how they worshiped was was seeking knowledge. Um so these are the people that came to Paul and called him a babbler. He's babbling some some things, right? And they took him to what we call Mars Hill. Uh Mars Hill is a uh geological feature, right? That's a it's an elevated place, um, not quite as high as where the Parthenon sits, there in Athens, um, but probably the next highest point in the area. Um you stand on top of that hill, and it's where people would gather to say things. It says here I'll say it the way that Luke explains it to us. Um in the 20th verse, for thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Alright, that's that's they just wanted to hear something new. They wanted to hear the news, they wanted to hear, uh, or to be the one to tell something new, right? And um I can somewhat relate to that. Um I can relate to both wanting to hear something new, some new thing, and wanting to be the one to say some new thing. There's a great danger, I believe, at least for me, um, and my efforts to preach um the word of God and wanting to be the one to say something um novel and to be the one to say something in a new way that that it catches the congregation's attention. Um I can relate to the one want to say some new thing. I've got some new piece of information that I'm gonna share, and the um credit that that would give me as a speaker. There's a real danger in that. Um here that this is what those people that gather here, and that's where the philosophers would gather, and they would they would say their philosophy, or they would hear the full the others. Um it says, then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. In all things ye are too superstitious. Now we think about superstitious, um, we think about you break a mirror, it's like seven years bad luck. You don't want to walk under the ladder, you know, the black cat crosses in front of you, that those are superstitions. And and while that is still in line with the way it's used here, um, it doesn't give us the breadth of understanding of what he was telling them, right? That word superstitious is um has there's a connotation about being devout, right? There's a certain connotation about that word, um, at least in the original Greek that I'm not even gonna try to say, um, that is about devotion, right? About being devout and a religious religiosity of following things. And so if you're superstitious and something happens and you throw salt over your shoulder, whatever it is, to like negate that, and you're real, you do that every time, you know, you're being devout about that superstition. Um what they were guilty of, and what Paul was telling them they're guilty of, is that they feared the wrong gods. There was uh there was being devout and and and fear. And so he was saying you're being superstitious, you're too superstitious. You fear the wrong things. You fear these false gods, and you you're concerned and really devout about what you're doing, but it's all false. It's all the wrong gods, it's all the wrong ideas, it's about you or you're doing these things and fearing the wrong gods. So he says that to them, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. It says, For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, devotions, the the different monuments and temples and statues and all the things that were there. There was it was, you know, from one border of the city to the next, that's what you saw as you walked down the street. Um part of their those Stoics and Epicureans was like beauty and making beautiful things and and that kind of thing was part of this. Said, when I beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. So they made an altar and put on it to the unknown God. It says, Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. You have some idea, right, that there is something beyond, that there's something higher. And you have created this altar, it says to the unknown God, and you're worshiping it ignorantly. Um you have no, for one thing, command to worship. You have no um direction or instruction on how to worship. You you have been received no idea of the consequences for your worship or you're not worshiping. Like you're just doing things out of ignorance. He says, Him I declare unto you. So I'm gonna tell you, you want to know about God, you want the knowledge about God, I'm gonna tell you who God is. I'm gonna tell you the God that created all things. I'm gonna tell you about the God that is the true, only one true and living God. Um I'm gonna declare him unto you. So these are people that are ignorant of God. So that he was earlier in the, you know, he first went to the synagogue there in Athens and talked to Jews who knew about the God of Abraham, right? He was talking to them first, and he was talking to the marketplace to devout people. But then these Epicureans and these um these philosophers, the Stoics, they came and got them and said, You come talk to us about it. These are Gentile people who had no knowledge of these things. Um I'm gonna declare the God to you. There are people today that we can look at that are just like the Epicureans. There's other people that are just like the Stoics, right? And there are people that will say some of the same things. They'll talk about karma. They'll talk about, you know, we don't, nobody knows who can know God, right? Nobody knows the truth. Um they have no faith. Um there are people that, you know, we use the term agnostic to say there could be or there could not be. They're not different than these people at Athens were at this time that the apostle Paul was talking to. They're they're, I mean, just the same, right? These ideas have not died or gone away. Um so he's gonna say, I'm gonna declare unto you God. It says, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. So he's he knows what their philosophies are, and he is speaking to their philosophies. You think that God is in creation, like creation and God are the same thing, is what the Stoics thought. He's he's saying that God created all things, they can't be the same thing. While God it exists on his own, he is a sovereign God, he is self-existent God, he doesn't need creation to exist, he is the one that created, right? So he is the um God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth. So the things visible and the things invisible. Um says, Dwelleth not in temples made with hands. So you go around Athens and there's all these temples with these idols, these false gods, and things that were overlaid with gold and all these things that people will go and kneel and worship in these temples. And it says, God doesn't exist in the temple. That's not, he doesn't need a building to inhabit, to dwell in. He is above all, he is in all, he is all. Um so he doesn't we don't need to go there to worship him. He says, um, dwelt in in temples made with hands. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as through though he needed anything. So that was one thing at that time that people would go and bring treasures, right? You would you would offer things um in a way to get rewards. I'm gonna I'm gonna bring so that the gods will have more money. Like God doesn't need all things, he created all things, all things belong to him. He doesn't need you to come offer your alms to him, because you can't make him better, you can't make him richer, you can't make him bigger. Um, as if it says, as though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, whatever you have, whatever you are, whatever you consist of, that was given to you by God. Your very life, your very the breath that you breathe, the oxygen that you breathe, is was given to you by God. Um He is above all and in all. It says, and hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. So he's telling them God created man. He's telling about the origins of man. It says one blood. Like we are all, if you trace us all back, he's talking to these Athenians, these Greeks, him being a Roman and a Jew, he's telling them, um, we are all one. Like we we all came from one family. We if you trace our our lineage back, we have one blood. We are one family of the first Adam, right? The natural family of Adam. Um He says, and he declared, you know, again, here you have um he declared the end from the beginning. It says that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. That you should seek the Lord. This is a common theme that we find through Scripture. That it is our duty, God has desires us to seek him. And he says, though he's not far from you, he is he's not it's not like he's far off and you have to go on a long journey, you have to go on a some uh a pilgrimage across oceans and across the world to go find God. He wants you to seek him, he wants you to seek him out, um, but he's not far from you. He is with you, he is right next to you. You just need to set, it's not a physical searching as much as it is a spiritual searching about opening your mind and your heart to him. Um now this is for understanding, this is for seeking him and being in conversion and understanding his nature and that he is a personal God. You know, they believe that one believed that gods were far off in some distant place and didn't care anything about you. The other thought it was real impersonal. God was just kind of like in existence. Um He's saying, no, God is He He knows you, He is next to you, He desires you to seek Him. He He is a personal God, He's a real God, He is near to you, He desires you to seek Him, and what you do matters to Him, because you are His. Um that's what He is telling these Athenians that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring. Um again, he knows their philosophy, he is He He understands, he's talking to them, meeting them where they are, right? He He's talking to people that um and He is using their own philosophies and either addressing them and saying you're wrong or showing them you have this vague, abstract idea about you know, kind of some hint of the truth. And here, let me tell you, let me clarify it for you, let me tell you what it is. Um he says, even some of your own poets have said that in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said. So it's kind of like what those Stokes saying, you're you know, you have this vague idea that God is in the universe. And that he moves in the universe and in time. So you have this vague idea. I'm clearing if I know he is there's intent. He is purposeful. It's not by accident. He is he is one and he has purpose in what he does. It's not some vague, wishy-washy thing. It says, For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. All these statues and all these things filled with in these temples, none of that it contains God. Ears to hear, let them hear, right? He is preaching to them, God the Creator, Lord of all. This is the truth. This is how the universe came to be. This is your origin. This is your God who created you, and he has commanded for you to seek him. And you've got all this idolatry going on each and every way, everywhere I look, there's idolatry. God is not okay with it. You know, those Epicureans didn't think there was judgment. They thought they could do whatever they wanted, and it they were material beings, and whatever it was, they were their own gods. They were gods unto themselves. He said, That's not so. There is judgment. There is judgment. He is commanded in wherever you are, if you hear what I believe what I'm saying, God has commanded you to repent. Repent from your idolatry, seek God. He says, Now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. There's appointed a time and a date you'll be judged, and now he's preaching to them Jesus Christ and him crucified. It says, And he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Others said, We will hear thee again on this matter. So some were like automatically dismissive. Like you're the babbler, like they talked called him earlier, right? You're you're ridiculous. This is not true. Um some were like, I want to hear more about this. I want to hear you on this again sometime. Um and some were converted. Some um it says uh so Paul departed. See, we'll hear him again on this matter, and some departed from among them, howbeit, certain men clave unto him and believed, among the which um were uh Dagonassis, the um Areopagite, and women named uh Demarius, and others with them. So there were some that automatically just dismissed him, some that their interest was piqued, and some that believed right then. He converted people in Athens. He converted these people that had their whole lives were surrounded by idolatry and and fulfilling the lusts of their flesh and all these things, and converted them through the power of God. So this is an example of the Apostle Paul preaching to non-believers, people that were completely ignorant of God and Jesus and were all about in idolatry. And in Athens, Greece, idolatry was um, you know, philosophical in nature, it was cultural in nature. It was um it was you know, they were real intellectual about all these things. Um if we look at here, this was probably six, seven years later. Uh sometime later, um the apostle Paul wrote the Roman letter. Okay, so he wrote the letter to the church at Rome, a church that he didn't establish, uh he hadn't been able to visit, he wrote this letter to them. Right. What we know about Rome is that they were also had so much idolatry going on. That they had they worshiped false gods and all these things. So the difference between the idolatry in Athens and the idolatry in Rome is that in Rome it was institutional. It was, you will worship these false gods. It was part of the politics, it was it was part of that. Um they also accepted like part of their um political um strategy to having this empire and keeping people in in relative peace, keeping uprisings down, was that they would accept all these different gods. Like they were accepting of all these things, um, but it was real political in nature and institutionalized for these pagan gods. And so the apostle Paul is writing this church, um, this letter to the church at Rome, and I'm thankful, you know, in this first chapter, he he talks about how he desired to be with them, and I believe God had a purpose for him not being able to be with them physically, and a that he was required to write this letter, this Roman letter. The if you know about how the way that the books, the epistles are arranged, they're arranged in your Bible in order by by length, not by um chronology. Um the Roman letter is the longest epistle. And why is that? Because he had a lot to explain. The other epistles, those were churches that he he seated, like he was there with them when they established those churches. He had spoken a lot of those doctrinal truths to them in person. Um, the the epistles were um encouragement, they were admonishment, they were things of that nature. But the Roman letter is doctrinal. From I mean, it it lays the whole foundation, it lays everything out, and it was required for it to be that way because he had not had the opportunity to be with them in person to do all these things. So while he desired to be with them, I think God had a um reason for him needing to write this to them so that we could even have it today, and we could have the apostle Paul's explanations of doctrine for us to continue to build upon or not build new doctrines, but to build our own understanding of the truth. Um the apostle Paul writes this in the first chapter, he covers a lot of the same things that he covered with those Athenians. Um, but he is not writing to non-believers, he's not writing to people that are ignorant of God, um, he is writing to believers. That that's the difference between the sermon he preached on Mars Hill and you know the basics of God is, he's the creator of all things, he is in all things, and he made you and he wants you to seek him and you should repent from your idolatry. To this letter to the church at Rome, to the people at Rome, um who believed in God, and as a warning, because they're surrounded by idolatry, they're surrounded by it each and every way. So it's not something that they should ignore, right? While they believe, that doesn't mean just because you believe in God that you shouldn't be reminded, that you shouldn't be encouraged to keep yourself from idolatry. Um I encourage us each to keep that in mind, right? Because we can fall victim. You and I believe this morning, we're here today, we're here this morning because we believe in God. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the only begotten Son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he was raised the third day, and that we have hope in the resurrection. We believe that here today. That doesn't mean that things of this world and the philosophies of this world can't come in and affect us. Right? There's multiple places in the New Testament where we're warned to keep our guard ourselves from philosophy and vain deceit uh uh of men and the knowledge or the wisdom of men. Um so the apostle Paul writes this, he starts this letter off um addressing some of those foundational truths in a way that is more applicable to believers. It says, Um, I'm gonna go to the fifteenth verse, he says, So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Um for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Um saying, You believe in God, you have the truth. Um you hold the truth, you own it, you know it. And to say that you um hold the truth in unrighteousness means that you know the truth, but you are going about and doing the wrong things anyway. You are um involving yourself in the ways of the society, the world around you. You are doing these things because culturally they're expected of you out in the world, um, and you're you know the truth, and you hold the truth, but you're being unrighteous. You're you're holding it in unrighteousness. Um I used this this morning with David. It was something with the kids, like they know what they're supposed to do, they know the truth, they know what they're supposed to do. And so they hold the they know the truth. They know they're supposed to be getting ready right now for church and without throwing a fit and not be like picking their toys up and stuff. And they know the truth. They're not doing it. They know what they're supposed to do, but they're not doing it, they're holding the truth in unrighteousness. Um, and we can do that too. We can fall victim to that. Um, the things that we involve ourselves with out in the world when we we're not here on Sunday morning, say we're out at work or at school or wherever we are, um, we know the right things that we're supposed to be doing. We know the things the way that God wants us to behave. We know we know the way a Christian should act, and we don't do those things. We're out seeking approval from the people outside. We're seeking approval from our coworkers, our friends, or whatever it is. Um, so we're doing things that we know we're not supposed to do. You know the truth, and you're holding it in unrighteousness. Um He was warning the people here at Rome, you're surrounded by all this stuff, don't get into it. Don't allow yourself to get into all this idolatry and these things that are going on around you because that's what's expected of you. Now there was real consequence, right? There was real consequence sometimes for them refusing to do something. Right? They couldn't worship Caesar as a God. You can't do that. You know, if you believe in the one true and living God, you cannot bow a knee to Caesar as this as if he was God. Right? That was something that would have been expected of those people out in the world. You can't do that. Um, there are examples in other places in scripture, you can think about the three Chaldeans when they were commanded to um bow and worship um that statue of Nebuchadnezzar, and they refused to do so. Now, were there did they have kindred? Did they have other Jews around them that were their kindred that did because they feared for their fit their lives? Yes, they did. They had people around them that knew the truth, and they did it anyway, because of the fear of their harm to their bodies and their lives. Those three Chaldeans are we use as an example of being faithful even unto death. It's something we're commanded to do. You know, and sometimes now we we live in relative peace and comfort in this country knowing that we can gather here. I'm not in fear of the military or the police coming through that door and arresting us and hauling us off. I'm I don't fear for that this morning. Right? There are places in the world today that they do fear, right? That they're meeting in secret because they will come in and be arrested or or killed because of preaching the truth. Um but if we know history, this is something to thank God for every day. Every time we get a chance, we should be thankful that we can do this. Um because it is more fragile than we want to admit this comfort and this peace that we we come here with. So we shouldn't forget that there might come a time. We should encourage each other and remind ourselves of these examples that we have in Scripture, um, because there might come a time when we have to stand up to persecution in a real persecution. We might you might get ridiculed, we might we see that we ridiculed for our beliefs. That's something we can get, but real persecution by the government and and and that kind of thing, we we haven't experienced, I haven't experienced in my life. Um doesn't mean I never will, and it can't happen. Because it, I mean, there's we're fighting a war right now with a country, with a people that would see us destroyed because largely of what we believe about God and Jesus Christ. That's they want to see us wiped off the earth because of it. And so these things aren't just old news, and we need to remember that we have a duty and a commandment of God to be faithful even unto death. Um says, for the wrath of God in the 18th verse, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Again, that goes to that point that I made about this is to the holding the truth in unrighteousness. God's he says, Um, you'll teach no more your brother to know me, all will know me from the least of them to the greatest. He'll write his law into the fleshly tables of their heart. God has revealed himself to them. God reveals reveals himself to his people. Um, and these people hold that truth, and it's been manifest unto them. He showed it unto them. It says, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Saying, we know that God is because he created all things and things exist. He's saying that going back to the those Athenians and what their the Stoics believed about God and how he was, that God and creation were the same thing. He's saying, No, they can't be the same thing. Like one had to come first. What came first? God, who created all things, came first. We know that God is because we are. Um says, Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Um you think about those kind of seeds of knowledge and philosophy and understanding of and you know, government organization that you had in Athens and you had in Rome, those people that made these great advancements when we look at human history, um, and they were full of themselves. Like they they thought they had it all figured out. It's one of those things where they were ignorant of, they were full of themselves and ignorant of God's righteousness and his um, and it says they were their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Because they thought they had it all figured out, they were foolish and ignorant of the truths of God and uh his grace. It says he changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. He's talking about these idols all over the place that made all different kinds of animals and things that were overlaid with gold and statues of men. We had um, they thought about the those pagan gods that were, they would, you know, they would look like men, right? And they were just these big statues made all of these fancy things. It says, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. This goes to something that I hear again and again about the nature of God and what we believe about the doctrines of election and predestination. Um people that would not understand or would be accusatory toward us in the and um in what we believe, saying that God is unfair, unjust in some way. The apostle Paul addresses this too, um, and especially like in the ninth chapter of this letter, um, that he crew that he would create people just to go and to be damned, right? Um that because we believe in the election and the predestination of God's elect to heaven, that that means that we think or believe that God predestinated people to hell. And we do not believe that. That is not the truth. If it was the truth, we'd believe it, but it's not the truth, so we don't believe it, right? That he didn't predestinate them to that's where their own choices brought them. This is this verse is saying much the same. He turned them over to their own lusts, he to their own uncleanness. This is what their hearts desired. He he just brought the shield back and said, Do what you want to do. He turned themselves to their own um their own devices. Um wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever. Um that verse is one that that sticks close to me. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worship the creature more than the creator? I I believe is my I'm convicted that so many of our issues when I think about first and foremost, myself, my own personal issues that I'm that I redeem, that I uh esteem myself too highly, that I worry too much about me. And my I I'm worshiping myself, that I am his creation, and I need to put him above myself. I need to do the things that he has commanded me to do because he's commanded me to do them. Not thinking about necessarily um what it does for me, but because he deserves to be worshiped the way he's commanded us to worship him. He he deserves all honor and praise, he deserves my devotion. Um Not because it does anything for me, but because he deserves it. Like that I am his and I belong to him, and I need to give him and serve him the way that he deserves to be served. Um, but even more broadly, when we think about those Athenians, we think about the Romans, we think about um the world today and the society that we live in, the world we live in, um worshiping the creature more than the creator. I mean, I think that sums up so much of the error we see in the world. Not only just those that would be not religious, those that would not believe in God, those agnostics, the atheists and those types of people, not just them, but even people that would profess a belief, that would hold the truth and unrighteousness, that they're worshiping the creature more than the creator. When they think about the righteousness or the justice of God, a sovereign God, and they would accuse him of being unrighteous or unjust because there is sickness, because there's pain, because there are some that are goats and will not go to heaven. Um they would be accusatory toward God for those things. They're worshiping the creature more than the creator. Um He created us, He created all things. In Him all things consist. We owe Him everything. Um, He is a sovereign God, He is a just and righteous God. Um, all the unjustice, all the sickness, all the famine and war and pain and sorrow. He did not bring that into the world. He is not the author of confusion, He's not the author of sin. He didn't do this. Man brought sin into the world. Man, it's because of our own sin that we suffer, it's because of our own sin that we struggle, that we have sickness, that we have war, it's because of our own, following the own, our own desires and lusts of our own flesh and worshiping ourselves more than God. Um so when we look at that 17th chapter of Acts, where the Apostle Paul was there at Athens on Mars Hill preaching to those pagans and non-believers, those Gentiles there, and we look at him writing to the church at Rome, um we should take that. It's preserved for us today that we can learn from it, we can remind ourselves, that we can watch out, that we are not, we don't fall victim, right? That we're not enticed with the wisdom of men, that we don't um fall into traps of um conforming to the world, be not conformed to the world, but be transformed from the renewing of your minds. That's we need to remember these things. It's not just history for us to know the stories of the Bible. It's good to know the stories, but what lesson is there for you in a spiritual way? Something you can glean from that to guard yourself against the wiles of the devil. Um God is near unto you. He desires you to seek him, he commands us to repent from our sinful ways and to seek him, follow after him, to walk after the spirit. Um, I pray that we all endeavor to do that each and every day, and then he's given us just the strength to do it, he's given us the devices, the ninefold fruit of the spirit, um, that we have the ability to do that. Don't think that you're too weak or you don't have enough or you don't know enough or you it's just too hard. It's not. God is there to help you do the things that He's commanded you to do. Um, but we have to set our minds to doing them. I thank you for your kind attention. If you gained anything from that, give God the honor and the glory.