WEBVTT 00:34:55.349 --> 00:35:00.150 Just recently, I had the opportunity to meet with another lead pastor in the DFW metroplex. 00:35:00.150 --> 00:35:02.599 As far as RockPointe’s concerned, we're gonna. 00:35:02.599 --> 00:35:09.150 We're gonna roll out some really big, exciting vision for this entire church, in the fall of this year. 00:35:09.150 --> 00:35:14.115 And so just staying ahead of that, we're doing a very special, unique, just incredible way. 00:35:14.115 --> 00:35:18.565 So I want to meet with another pastor who has kind of done this journey before and gone through that. 00:35:18.565 --> 00:35:21.382 And so, this guy in our area, who's been a part. 00:35:21.382 --> 00:35:27.315 So I just asked for, his time, it's, lead pastor Sherman down in Compass Church and and Colleyville. 00:35:27.315 --> 00:35:30.199 And so they're, pretty, pretty large church. 00:35:30.199 --> 00:35:32.000 We run about 2500 on a Sunday morning. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:33.949 They run about 10,000 on a Sunday morning. 00:35:33.949 --> 00:35:36.599 So I wasn't sure if I was going to, get an audience with this guy. 00:35:36.599 --> 00:35:39.182 But he was great. Super humble. 00:35:36.599 --> 00:35:39.182 Reached out to him. 00:35:39.182 --> 00:35:46.650 We spent a couple, hours over lunch talking and things of that nature, just picking up some some, some wisdom from a guy who's done it really well and is gone before me. 00:35:46.650 --> 00:35:49.550 But I'll never forget when I first met drew. 00:35:49.550 --> 00:35:51.300 And so he's down in, Colleyville. 00:35:51.300 --> 00:35:57.916 And so, I shot down there's going to meet him at his church, but I stopped at a coffee shop just like a mile from, his church. 00:35:57.916 --> 00:36:05.032 And so I just get there early, I'm going to hop on my laptop, knock out some emails, do some sermon, study this, that nature, and, and then I'll just go over, make sure I'm there. 00:36:05.032 --> 00:36:06.916 I don't I don't miss it. 00:36:05.032 --> 00:36:06.916 I won't be late. 00:36:06.916 --> 00:36:09.233 He's giving me a couple hours of, of his time. 00:36:09.233 --> 00:36:16.050 And so I was there and I was at this coffee shop, and, man, it was hard to get work done because there's just incredible people watching you ever, you know, one of those places. 00:36:16.050 --> 00:36:19.182 I mean, there's just all kinds of eclectic people from all different backgrounds. 00:36:19.182 --> 00:36:21.166 They're all here and the conversations that they're having. 00:36:21.166 --> 00:36:26.715 So I was just kind of soaking it up and love the diversity and the stories and everything I was seeing there. 00:36:26.715 --> 00:36:28.132 And I was like, well, this will be great. 00:36:28.132 --> 00:36:30.416 Like, this will be my my opener with drew, right? 00:36:30.416 --> 00:36:32.599 Like I'll talk to him, be like, hey, have you been that coffee shop? 00:36:32.599 --> 00:36:34.815 And, and the cool all these people like right there and stuff like that. 00:36:34.815 --> 00:36:36.465 So that's kind of what I was thinking. 00:36:36.465 --> 00:36:42.050 And I get to get to get to campus, walk into the lobby, Andrew comes downstairs to to meet me and I'm still a little nervous. 00:36:42.050 --> 00:36:42.250 Okay. 00:36:42.250 --> 00:36:44.150 I still fanboy a little bit, so he give me that. 00:36:44.150 --> 00:36:49.099 And, so actually drew offers me some coffee from the shop right there, and I'm like, no, thank you. 00:36:49.099 --> 00:36:52.099 Actually, just, you know, walked into my intro segue perfectly. 00:36:52.150 --> 00:36:56.849 I was like, I was just down to this coffee shop and all these people, you know, I'm like, I'm like, drew, I'm I'm sure you've been there. 00:36:56.849 --> 00:36:58.800 It's just down the road. It's got this weird name. 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:01.916 It's called like Buongiorno or something like that. 00:37:02.250 --> 00:37:08.715 And so drew puts his hand on my shoulder as soon as I say that and he says, I guess you've not traveled much. 00:37:08.965 --> 00:37:10.500 And I was like, this is a weird intro. 00:37:10.500 --> 00:37:12.315 Like, I've never spoken to this guy in my life. 00:37:12.315 --> 00:37:15.532 And the first thing out of his mouth is, I think you haven't traveled much. 00:37:15.532 --> 00:37:16.815 And I'm like, yes, I've traveled a ton. 00:37:16.815 --> 00:37:20.333 I've been all over the United States extensively in Europe for long periods of time. 00:37:20.333 --> 00:37:24.150 Of course, I travel like, why is he saying this to me with his hand on show? 00:37:24.150 --> 00:37:27.983 He goes, because the coffee shop is pronounced Buongiorno. 00:37:30.449 --> 00:37:39.465 So I was I mean, you want to talk about being humble and that Drew's like, who did I just give my all, you know, my time to. 00:37:39.682 --> 00:37:41.715 And so man, that was humiliating. 00:37:41.715 --> 00:37:45.233 And I was digging to try and get out of the hole and it didn't work. 00:37:43.250 --> 00:37:45.233 But here's what I say. 00:37:45.233 --> 00:37:47.333 That's not a one off event for me. 00:37:47.333 --> 00:37:47.849 Okay. 00:37:47.849 --> 00:37:50.215 This has been happening my entire life. 00:37:50.215 --> 00:37:54.449 I'm terrible at spelling, I'm terrible at pronunciation, and I don't blame me. 00:37:54.449 --> 00:37:58.016 I blame my my background, my context, my culture I grew up in. 00:37:58.016 --> 00:38:01.400 So I was educated by the Arkansas public school system. 00:38:01.400 --> 00:38:02.065 Okay. 00:38:02.065 --> 00:38:07.099 And I'll I'll never forget, in the third grade, we had that United States test. 00:38:07.099 --> 00:38:11.815 You remember taking that in the third grade, and there's just the blank map, and you gotta you gotta just write them all out. 00:38:11.815 --> 00:38:13.965 And I was a whiz. 00:38:11.815 --> 00:38:13.965 I had it done. Boom. 00:38:13.965 --> 00:38:16.882 Knocked it out, turned it in first one to turn it in. 00:38:16.882 --> 00:38:17.365 Take that. 00:38:17.365 --> 00:38:18.382 The rest of you hillbillies. Right. 00:38:18.382 --> 00:38:20.032 And so but the teacher came back to me. 00:38:20.032 --> 00:38:21.865 She said, you made a 99. 00:38:21.865 --> 00:38:23.266 I was like, no way. 00:38:23.266 --> 00:38:26.516 I made a 99, I nailed that, I know I did. 00:38:26.516 --> 00:38:28.650 She said, well, you misspelled a state. 00:38:28.650 --> 00:38:30.900 I said, which one? She said, you misspelled Washington. 00:38:30.900 --> 00:38:32.300 I said, there's no way. 00:38:32.300 --> 00:38:33.682 I said, I did what you said. 00:38:33.682 --> 00:38:36.500 I sounded it out and I spelled it just like it sounds. 00:38:36.500 --> 00:38:43.815 Washington and I put a big fat R in the middle of Washington. 00:38:44.150 --> 00:38:50.065 But that's what I've heard everyone in my entire life say it has. It's Washington. Right. 00:38:50.065 --> 00:38:58.766 And so the the I was close, I was close, but I missed it because of my upbringing, because of my culture, because of my context. 00:38:58.766 --> 00:39:00.766 I was just a little bit off. 00:39:00.766 --> 00:39:07.050 Now I share that with you because in the same manner, that's what's happening in Athens now. 00:39:07.050 --> 00:39:10.016 They're not having trouble with pronunciation and spelling. 00:39:10.016 --> 00:39:12.465 Okay, but here's what's happening in Athens. 00:39:12.465 --> 00:39:15.465 They are so close. 00:39:16.016 --> 00:39:25.365 But because of their culture, because of their context, because of their upbringing, they're off and they're missing it. 00:39:25.365 --> 00:39:36.016 And Paul is going to give this incredible speech to help kind of correct and bring them back, put a hand on the shoulder and go, no, it's been journo. 00:39:36.300 --> 00:39:48.416 That's what he's doing here in acts chapter 17, as we continue to go through field notes that the book of acts, the book of acts, as it's done being written, but the story is still continuing. 00:39:48.416 --> 00:39:50.333 That's why I want to study this book. 00:39:50.333 --> 00:39:52.800 So much is happening still today. 00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:58.016 The gospel is still going out through members of the kingdoms and believers in your own spheres. 00:39:58.016 --> 00:40:00.016 And so we're taking it out. 00:40:00.016 --> 00:40:01.250 That's what we call the field notes. 00:40:01.250 --> 00:40:05.849 As the gospel goes out, as we go to these new places, what are we learning in the field? 00:40:05.849 --> 00:40:07.699 What are questions? 00:40:05.849 --> 00:40:07.699 What can we be processing? 00:40:07.699 --> 00:40:09.166 So you have that journal. 00:40:07.699 --> 00:40:09.166 Grab it. 00:40:09.166 --> 00:40:11.565 It's not let's just, you know, go on your phone or something like that. 00:40:11.565 --> 00:40:15.416 I've got some some points that we can think about to consider and to learn. 00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:19.065 So what's happening here is that Paul is started at 17. 00:40:19.065 --> 00:40:22.365 Paul says, and to me, they're in Thessalonica now preaching the gospel. 00:40:22.365 --> 00:40:26.815 They're very typical response persuade some really ticked off others. 00:40:24.750 --> 00:40:26.815 Okay. 00:40:26.815 --> 00:40:30.449 The ones that he takes off, they kind of form a mob and they're like coming after them. 00:40:30.449 --> 00:40:34.882 So Paul says, and Timothy has a slip out in the cover of Darkness at Night to get out. 00:40:34.882 --> 00:40:36.500 So they decide, hey, let's go. 00:40:36.500 --> 00:40:38.815 45 miles down the road to Berea. 00:40:38.815 --> 00:40:40.849 We'll hang on Berea. 00:40:38.815 --> 00:40:40.849 That'll be safe. 00:40:40.849 --> 00:40:46.615 No, because the mob from Thessalonica followed them 45 miles to Berea. 00:40:46.615 --> 00:40:49.766 They were that man upset, and they stir up the crowds there. 00:40:49.849 --> 00:40:52.215 So now they're like, we got to get Paul out of here. 00:40:52.215 --> 00:40:57.115 So they take him 195 miles to Athens. 00:40:57.416 --> 00:41:05.932 So Paul is there by himself, Silas and Timothy probably going to join him later, but he rolls up into Athens now, here's what we have to know about Athens. 00:41:05.932 --> 00:41:09.565 I think there's two words that really define Athens at this point in time. 00:41:09.565 --> 00:41:11.365 Now we have to realize this is past. 00:41:11.365 --> 00:41:14.965 The heyday of Athens is kind of on the decrease, but it's still known. 00:41:14.965 --> 00:41:17.365 It's still it's reputation. 00:41:17.365 --> 00:41:18.166 And here's reputation. 00:41:18.166 --> 00:41:21.715 Number one, Athens is the intellectual capital. 00:41:21.715 --> 00:41:23.182 This is where all the thinkers went. 00:41:23.182 --> 00:41:25.050 The smart people, the philosophers. 00:41:25.050 --> 00:41:29.266 This is where universities came Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. 00:41:29.565 --> 00:41:33.750 So the intellectual elite are still around Athens. 00:41:33.750 --> 00:41:36.800 Philosophical ideas are running amok. 00:41:36.800 --> 00:41:38.032 Okay, so intellectual. 00:41:38.032 --> 00:41:40.650 When we think about Athens, also, we think about Athens. 00:41:40.650 --> 00:41:43.650 You think about religion or religiosity. 00:41:43.800 --> 00:41:48.650 There's so many temples and idols and all kinds of things. 00:41:48.650 --> 00:41:50.266 They're one of their own. 00:41:50.266 --> 00:41:52.965 Greek authors said this about Athens. 00:41:52.965 --> 00:42:02.266 It says this place is so full of deities that 1st May more easily find a god rather than a man. 00:42:02.849 --> 00:42:04.849 And so this is where Paul shows up. 00:42:04.849 --> 00:42:11.900 And so we go, well, what is him about to do in Athens with the intellectual, religious people have to do with you another day. 00:42:11.900 --> 00:42:15.083 And here's the premise, and here's what I want to put forth to you. 00:42:15.083 --> 00:42:28.699 It's the question, how do you and I in 2025, in Flower Mound, Texas, how do we engage in evangelize the intellectual religious lost? 00:42:29.400 --> 00:42:31.282 Because that's what he's about to do here. 00:42:31.282 --> 00:42:35.032 And I'm telling you guys, in our world, we just walk outside those doors. 00:42:35.032 --> 00:42:36.800 That's what we're running up against. 00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:41.300 Like a quarter of the population of Florida has a master's degree, intellectual people all over. 00:42:41.300 --> 00:42:42.465 They've they've heard of Jesus. 00:42:42.465 --> 00:42:45.000 They've had some sort of experience with the church or something like that. 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:52.400 But many of them that you're brushing shoulders with on a day to day basis, a religious intellectual, and they are lost. 00:42:52.516 --> 00:43:05.750 And so you may not take the exact words Paul is going to use here, but the structure, this rubric, this outline will absolutely help you engage in evangelize those God has put in your time. 00:43:05.750 --> 00:43:09.050 As I was studying for this sermon, great example came up. 00:43:09.050 --> 00:43:11.000 I was that trio. 00:43:09.050 --> 00:43:11.000 I know how to pronounce that. 00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:12.949 Thank you very much. Coffee? 00:43:12.949 --> 00:43:15.565 And, there was, people right beside me. 00:43:15.565 --> 00:43:19.449 I was not trying to eavesdrop, but they're like a foot away, speaking very loudly, so I couldn't help it. 00:43:19.449 --> 00:43:24.449 But it was a priest and another friend of mine of the church down the road here, and he was meeting with a woman. 00:43:24.449 --> 00:43:26.400 And here's what she told him. 00:43:26.400 --> 00:43:29.483 She said growing up, I would go to a church. 00:43:29.483 --> 00:43:33.615 And she said all we did was repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. 00:43:33.615 --> 00:43:35.699 We just say these things over and over again. 00:43:35.699 --> 00:43:43.050 And so she told the preacher, she goes, I knew a lot, but I understood very little. 00:43:43.050 --> 00:43:43.315 What? 00:43:43.315 --> 00:43:48.416 She was confessing the hymns growing up her whole life, she was intellectual, religious and lost. 00:43:48.983 --> 00:43:51.983 And you work with people just like that. 00:43:52.166 --> 00:43:56.550 There are people right next door in your neighborhood that are just like that. 00:43:56.550 --> 00:44:04.583 So what can we learn from Paul here about how God has told us to engage and evangelize the religious intellectual lost? 00:44:05.150 --> 00:44:06.983 Now what? Paul was waiting for them in Athens. 00:44:06.983 --> 00:44:11.483 His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 00:44:11.483 --> 00:44:18.349 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons, and in the marketplace every day those who happened to be there. 00:44:18.349 --> 00:44:20.565 Some were the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers. 00:44:20.565 --> 00:44:25.516 He also conversed with him, and he says, what does this babbler wish to say? 00:44:25.516 --> 00:44:36.750 Other said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection, and they took him and brought him to the area, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you're preaching for? 00:44:36.750 --> 00:44:39.500 You bring some strange things to our ears. 00:44:39.500 --> 00:44:41.900 We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. 00:44:41.900 --> 00:44:49.465 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. 00:44:49.800 --> 00:44:53.965 So the first thing we see from Paul is that Christians view the world differently. 00:44:53.965 --> 00:44:59.632 Number one, he walks in to Athens and he's got to marvel at the beauty. 00:44:59.632 --> 00:45:03.115 I mean, the Acropolis, the temples, the idols everywhere. 00:45:03.115 --> 00:45:05.932 This is, you know, art and architecture. 00:45:05.932 --> 00:45:08.182 It's some of it's finest in the world. 00:45:08.182 --> 00:45:10.166 And so he's like, wow, this is incredible. 00:45:10.166 --> 00:45:12.115 But at the same time, he's looking at the beauty. 00:45:12.115 --> 00:45:14.750 He also notices the brokenness. 00:45:14.750 --> 00:45:17.250 He sees the idols at which they're worshiping. 00:45:17.250 --> 00:45:19.699 The text says the cities full of idols. 00:45:19.699 --> 00:45:22.166 Or maybe your translation says given over to idols. 00:45:22.166 --> 00:45:30.465 It's a word literally translated that being submerged in idols, they are under the crushing weight of idols. 00:45:30.465 --> 00:45:33.349 They are swamped in idols. 00:45:33.349 --> 00:45:40.050 And so that's when he sees the beauty, but also the brokenness and what is the emotion that the text says he's provoked? 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:45.382 It means to revile something, to despise something. 00:45:45.599 --> 00:45:52.199 It is a serious emotion or a concern that he has here at this time. 00:45:52.199 --> 00:45:53.632 So he's he's angry. 00:45:53.632 --> 00:45:54.449 This word provoked. 00:45:54.449 --> 00:46:01.132 It's the same word used to describe God in the Old Testament and says, God has provoked a people's idol worship. 00:46:01.365 --> 00:46:07.699 So there's a serious kind of anger that's welling up inside of Paul, even kind of pointing to God doing the same thing. 00:46:07.699 --> 00:46:12.300 Now, it's been said the anger is a secondary emotion. 00:46:12.682 --> 00:46:14.550 You never get mad first. 00:46:14.550 --> 00:46:17.750 First you get sad and then you get mad. 00:46:18.150 --> 00:46:19.550 And I think that's true in this case. 00:46:19.550 --> 00:46:21.650 Why is God so angry at idol worship? 00:46:21.650 --> 00:46:25.365 Why is Paul so provoked by people being swamped under the weight? 00:46:25.615 --> 00:46:33.199 Because he's sad that they're missing it, that they're so close, but just a little bit off. 00:46:33.682 --> 00:46:38.815 And so this is what he will set out to do, is how do we kind of bridge the gap here? 00:46:38.815 --> 00:46:43.500 How do we help them see and understand what's truly going on? 00:46:43.500 --> 00:46:50.115 So we ask ourselves, first point, how do you and I engage evangelize the religious intellectual lost? 00:46:50.115 --> 00:46:55.132 Point number one is this you must have a heart that cares. 00:46:56.266 --> 00:47:02.333 He cared enough to be saddened, cared enough to be provoked. 00:47:02.782 --> 00:47:09.983 I would ask you this when's the last time you cried over someone else's soul because they were missing it? 00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:14.750 They were so close, but they were pursuing a path that was just off. 00:47:14.750 --> 00:47:18.983 And, you know, the eternal ramifications if they stay on that course. 00:47:19.666 --> 00:47:25.849 It has been said, you and I will never win the lost until we first weep for the lost. 00:47:26.900 --> 00:47:28.965 Who are you crying over? 00:47:28.965 --> 00:47:31.465 Whose soul are you weeping over? 00:47:31.465 --> 00:47:36.900 You are praying for them to come to the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ. 00:47:37.199 --> 00:47:41.182 We must have that God created us hearts that care. 00:47:41.750 --> 00:47:44.365 Now look what Paul did in his anger. 00:47:44.365 --> 00:47:45.115 He's provoked. 00:47:45.115 --> 00:47:45.615 He's angry. 00:47:45.615 --> 00:47:48.532 He's mad, but he doesn't sin. 00:47:48.532 --> 00:47:50.599 So he doesn't go to his friends that are bad mouthing them. 00:47:50.599 --> 00:47:52.766 He doesn't start, bashing them online. 00:47:52.766 --> 00:47:54.050 I can't believe these people in Athens. 00:47:54.050 --> 00:47:55.166 You know, he doesn't point fingers. 00:47:55.166 --> 00:47:57.349 He doesn't completely remove them at all costs. 00:47:57.349 --> 00:47:59.900 Look what he does. Anger provoked. Sad. 00:47:59.900 --> 00:48:00.715 They're in the way of idols. 00:48:00.715 --> 00:48:14.032 It says he reasoned with them in the synagogue, with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there. 00:48:14.115 --> 00:48:17.900 Now we know about my pronunciation of words and, you know, Greek. 00:48:17.900 --> 00:48:20.632 And so it's like me pronouncing Greek words is like putting socks on a rooster. 00:48:20.632 --> 00:48:26.750 So but here's a here's what I try, reasoned, is the Greek word die a ligament dialog. 00:48:26.865 --> 00:48:38.782 It's where we get our word dialog in his anger and his sadness being provoked, the responses I need to go have a discussion. 00:48:38.782 --> 00:48:40.965 I need to have a dialog. 00:48:40.965 --> 00:48:46.099 Two way communication, active listening, repeating back what I've heard. 00:48:46.099 --> 00:48:50.550 Listen for understanding, giving some thoughts, some ideas, some suggestions. 00:48:50.550 --> 00:48:58.733 This is his response to being angered and provoked is to enter into dialog in the synagogues and in the marketplace place. 00:48:58.733 --> 00:49:00.349 Which brings us to our second point. 00:49:00.349 --> 00:49:02.865 How do you engage the religious intellectual lost? 00:49:02.865 --> 00:49:06.615 You must find opportunities to share. 00:49:07.400 --> 00:49:10.916 You must find a solution, not just a heart that cares, but opportunities to share. 00:49:10.916 --> 00:49:17.932 So there in the marketplace, it's the word agora literally means just an open public area. 00:49:18.300 --> 00:49:21.865 And so the question for you and I is where is your agora? 00:49:22.432 --> 00:49:24.349 Where is your marketplace? 00:49:24.349 --> 00:49:29.365 Where do you brush shoulders with the intellectual religious lost? 00:49:29.365 --> 00:49:32.365 And maybe to kind of like push that one deeper? 00:49:32.365 --> 00:49:35.032 Are you in discussions with those people? 00:49:35.032 --> 00:49:40.282 Are you in true dialog, active understanding, active listening? 00:49:40.282 --> 00:49:43.833 Have you thought about not just dropping one liners or whatever? 00:49:43.833 --> 00:49:44.300 Right. 00:49:44.300 --> 00:49:47.632 But true dialog and discussion. 00:49:48.016 --> 00:49:49.800 Now, I love what one author writes. 00:49:49.800 --> 00:49:57.949 John, stop talking about the beauty of the church and the diversity, because look, tomorrow when you're not all in here, we're all over the place. 00:49:58.099 --> 00:49:59.266 I mean, some of you are going to hop on a plane. 00:49:59.266 --> 00:50:03.233 You're a fly somewhere driving in downtown Dallas, some of you staying here and flying around local, whatever it is. 00:50:03.233 --> 00:50:12.983 But we've got people in all spheres, in all sectors of the marketplace, and you're called to engage in evangelize the intellectual religious lost in those places. 00:50:12.983 --> 00:50:38.099 So here's what starts as there's an urgent need for more Christian thinkers who will dedicate their minds to Christ, not just as lecturers, but as authors, as journalists, broadcasters, television script writers, producers, personalities, artists and actors who use a variety of art forms in which to communicate the gospel as the hands and feet of Christ. 00:50:38.099 --> 00:50:45.715 As we disperse from here and you just keep adding to that list, we need principles, we need politicians, we need a lawyers and doctors and business owners. 00:50:45.715 --> 00:50:49.016 And that's the beauty of the church that we get to do now. 00:50:49.016 --> 00:50:52.215 Paul goes on some of the Epicurean Stoic philosophers. 00:50:52.215 --> 00:50:58.432 So here's these two different, philosophical ideologies that he's going to engage with. 00:50:58.432 --> 00:51:02.182 And so the the Epicureans and the Stoics, let's start with the Epicureans. 00:51:02.182 --> 00:51:06.750 So the Epicureans, they're a small group, but a very influential group. 00:51:06.750 --> 00:51:09.315 So it'd be like the elite of Athens. 00:51:09.315 --> 00:51:12.315 And they're not large in number, very influential. 00:51:12.315 --> 00:51:14.065 So they're the elite. 00:51:12.315 --> 00:51:14.065 And so here's what they think. 00:51:14.065 --> 00:51:18.416 They would think that the world is just, just randomly happened. 00:51:18.416 --> 00:51:20.365 We're just a big happy accident, right? 00:51:20.365 --> 00:51:22.349 There's not a design. 00:51:20.365 --> 00:51:22.349 There's not a designer. 00:51:22.349 --> 00:51:27.682 How creation came to be, they would believe in gods, but not like supernatural. 00:51:27.682 --> 00:51:29.565 They would say the gods are just like you and I. 00:51:29.565 --> 00:51:31.766 They're just like atoms and particles and molecules. 00:51:31.766 --> 00:51:34.215 They're all kind of made up together. 00:51:34.215 --> 00:51:42.199 And their view of those gods was that they're just trying to kind of pursue and do their own thing, and they're just going to kind of leave you and I alone, not really going to interfere with the lives. 00:51:42.199 --> 00:51:44.266 So a very kind of deistic approach, if you will. 00:51:44.266 --> 00:51:46.432 So like, there's some gods with their very hands off. 00:51:46.432 --> 00:51:52.766 So for the Epicureans in that day and age, their pursuit was happiness. 00:51:52.766 --> 00:51:54.199 That was their chief goal. 00:51:54.199 --> 00:51:56.266 Their pursuit was hedonism, was pleasure. 00:51:56.266 --> 00:51:59.099 But not in this like crazy. 00:51:56.266 --> 00:51:59.099 Just do everything they're like. 00:51:59.099 --> 00:52:03.016 It's like a pleasure with tranquility, if you will, put to side of it. 00:52:03.016 --> 00:52:06.000 Because they were like, we don't want to get in competition with other people. 00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:11.750 That's, you know, we don't want to have these intense, relational connections because that means jealousy and strife. 00:52:11.750 --> 00:52:16.132 And so here was their kind of official motto of the Epicureans. 00:52:16.132 --> 00:52:20.632 No fear of God, no feeling in death. 00:52:21.115 --> 00:52:26.115 Pleasure should be attained and pain should be avoided. 00:52:27.016 --> 00:52:27.916 You know anyone like that? 00:52:29.333 --> 00:52:31.550 You work with anyone like that? 00:52:31.550 --> 00:52:35.900 Anyone like that in your family, your neighborhood, your friendship circle? 00:52:35.900 --> 00:52:39.199 They're still around today, though they may not take the label Epicurean. 00:52:39.199 --> 00:52:41.849 We know those people pursuing hedonism pleasure. 00:52:41.849 --> 00:52:43.650 Now, the other group are the Stoics. 00:52:43.650 --> 00:52:48.800 They're more prominent, more numbers, maybe not as high up in Athenian society. 00:52:49.065 --> 00:52:56.900 They are pantheist and so they would say there's, a little bit of God and you little bit of God in me, a little bit garden stage, a little bit of God in the guitar. Okay. 00:52:56.900 --> 00:52:58.166 And so that's how it is. 00:52:58.166 --> 00:53:08.032 And, and that these, divine molecules actually kind of cause things are very, kind of deterministic, very fatalism, like this is the way things are going to be. 00:53:08.032 --> 00:53:13.882 So for them, it's like the world is just going to do what it's going to do, and that's fate and that's determined. 00:53:13.882 --> 00:53:18.050 But yet I still have, free choice and so I can choose. 00:53:18.050 --> 00:53:25.815 And so that was their chief chief virtue was that was just like making good decisions, being moral, doing right, being virtuous. 00:53:25.815 --> 00:53:28.965 So whatever happens to you, you choose good and you choose right. 00:53:28.965 --> 00:53:31.916 So here's their motto what will be, will be. 00:53:31.916 --> 00:53:33.115 It is what it is. 00:53:33.115 --> 00:53:34.916 Just roll with the punches. 00:53:34.916 --> 00:53:36.682 Keep a stiff upper lip. 00:53:36.682 --> 00:53:38.266 You're very stoic. 00:53:38.266 --> 00:53:39.300 Okay? 00:53:39.300 --> 00:53:42.233 No. Anyone like that, anyone you work with like that? 00:53:42.233 --> 00:53:47.032 When your family or neighborhood or friendship circle like that, they're still around today. 00:53:47.032 --> 00:53:53.333 So this is who he's engaging this religious intellectual loss who just missing it. 00:53:53.416 --> 00:53:54.565 And they call him here. 00:53:54.565 --> 00:53:56.032 They call him a babbler. 00:53:56.032 --> 00:54:00.266 And so it's a little translation of like seed picker or seed picker. If you will. 00:54:00.266 --> 00:54:05.416 It's got the image of a, of a chicken going around, like picking up some seed here and picking up some seed here. 00:54:05.416 --> 00:54:06.900 And that's what they're accusing him of. 00:54:06.900 --> 00:54:09.715 They're like this, this religion that you're talking about. 00:54:09.715 --> 00:54:14.400 You just got a little bit of this, a little bit of that's like, I'm going to get a little bit of Joel Osteen, a little bit Oprah, a little bit Taylor Swift. 00:54:14.400 --> 00:54:15.715 Boom of religion. Okay. 00:54:15.715 --> 00:54:19.766 That's kind of what they're accusing him of because this is so far fetched for them. 00:54:19.766 --> 00:54:24.166 And this is really kind of stretching their worldview, their paradigms and their schemas. All right. 00:54:24.166 --> 00:54:32.565 Because for him, as he's preaching the resurrection, they have no concept of that, that there is no afterlife, there is no kind of spiritual to them. 00:54:32.565 --> 00:54:35.032 It's all very material listed in a sense. 00:54:35.032 --> 00:54:38.166 So the Greeks, when you die, is just nihilism. 00:54:38.166 --> 00:54:40.065 You're like, you just done, it's over. 00:54:40.065 --> 00:54:41.516 You just don't cease to exist. 00:54:41.516 --> 00:54:43.583 Or maybe a very few in society. 00:54:43.583 --> 00:54:49.516 Then there's this kind of like ghostly gasps, like very temporal afterlife or something like that. 00:54:49.516 --> 00:54:50.416 They'll be over. 00:54:50.416 --> 00:54:53.150 So when he's preaching the resurrection, it's so odd to them. 00:54:53.150 --> 00:54:56.599 They accuse him of preaching foreign divinities. 00:54:56.599 --> 00:55:07.882 Did you catch the plural so they think he's preaching to gods, that he's preaching Jesus and Anastasia, or resurrection that they're two and he's got no, no, no, I got I got to correct that thought. 00:55:07.882 --> 00:55:08.266 There. 00:55:08.266 --> 00:55:13.215 So what they do is they, they take him, to the area because now they're in Athens. 00:55:13.215 --> 00:55:16.282 There's, two pretty prominent features in places. 00:55:16.282 --> 00:55:19.050 One is the Acropolis, which is actually in every Greek city. 00:55:19.050 --> 00:55:22.465 Acropolis just means a high city or the highest part of the city. 00:55:22.465 --> 00:55:29.000 So in every Greek town, what they would do on the high city, the Acropolis, the highest part of the cities, they they build a temple. 00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:33.416 This temple was dedicated to Athena, hence the name Athens. 00:55:33.615 --> 00:55:36.833 And then down below that there was the Areopagus. 00:55:36.833 --> 00:55:40.465 And so Aries, the Roman term for that god is Mars. 00:55:40.465 --> 00:55:43.550 And so it's the the hill of Aries or Mars Hill, if you will. 00:55:43.550 --> 00:55:45.199 So you've heard that that's what's happening here. 00:55:45.199 --> 00:55:46.916 So he's down at the area Ophiuchus. 00:55:46.916 --> 00:55:49.916 Now, you gotta realize he's out of the marketplace. 00:55:49.916 --> 00:55:51.050 He's out of the street. 00:55:51.050 --> 00:55:55.215 This is not just kind of informal public open space conversation anymore. 00:55:55.550 --> 00:55:57.532 This is a little bit different. 00:55:57.532 --> 00:55:58.065 Okay? 00:55:58.065 --> 00:56:04.315 I don't know if we can fully stretch it to mean this, but it's almost as if he was brought before the Supreme Court. 00:56:04.315 --> 00:56:12.565 Okay, so we're kind of there, but what this council did at the area is in the past they had done murder trials. 00:56:12.565 --> 00:56:14.250 That's kind of where that would happen at. 00:56:14.250 --> 00:56:16.065 When Paul's there in that day. 00:56:16.065 --> 00:56:17.815 It's not the case anymore. 00:56:17.815 --> 00:56:19.315 They're not trying that. 00:56:19.315 --> 00:56:26.365 But they still are overseeing kind of public life and education, religious practices. 00:56:26.365 --> 00:56:29.365 So they've got some weight, they've got some formality. 00:56:29.565 --> 00:56:31.500 And so they bring him in two reasons. 00:56:31.500 --> 00:56:35.699 Number one is this they bring him in because they're obsessed with the news. 00:56:35.815 --> 00:56:36.516 What's new? 00:56:36.516 --> 00:56:38.333 They did nothing but talk about what's new. 00:56:38.333 --> 00:56:40.166 We still do the same thing today. 00:56:40.166 --> 00:56:41.965 People wake up, they immediately grab their phone. 00:56:41.965 --> 00:56:43.166 They check the news. Right. 00:56:43.166 --> 00:56:44.483 You're standing in line, going to the bathroom. 00:56:44.483 --> 00:56:46.282 You hop on social media. 00:56:44.483 --> 00:56:46.282 What's new? 00:56:46.282 --> 00:56:49.132 You sit at home all day long with four hours of news. 00:56:49.132 --> 00:56:50.333 So very similar to that. 00:56:50.333 --> 00:56:53.333 So they're bringing them here to hear this kind of new thing. 00:56:53.782 --> 00:57:04.400 But secondly, they're probably had the authority to go like we'll accept or reject this new religion into Athens because there's some implications. 00:57:04.400 --> 00:57:06.565 So we bring Christianity in. 00:57:06.565 --> 00:57:09.315 Does this God need a temple? 00:57:09.315 --> 00:57:12.382 What do the followers of this God do? 00:57:12.615 --> 00:57:16.315 Are there feasts and festivals that, like, they're going to participate in? 00:57:16.315 --> 00:57:18.715 And how would this, like, mesh with everything else? 00:57:18.715 --> 00:57:26.965 So that's probably what's being done here in a little bit more formal setting, maybe for kind of a quasi supreme court, if you will. 00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:28.666 So that's what he's going to address. Now. 00:57:28.666 --> 00:57:33.615 He's going to answer some of those but also really share with them. 00:57:33.615 --> 00:57:34.965 So here we go in verse 22. 00:57:34.965 --> 00:57:47.150 So Paul standing in the midst of the area, you guess Marshall, he says, Men of Athens I perceive that in every way you're very religious. 00:57:47.666 --> 00:57:57.199 For as I passed along and observed objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. 00:57:57.449 --> 00:57:57.983 So what? 00:57:57.983 --> 00:58:01.349 Therefore you worship as unknown. 00:58:01.849 --> 00:58:05.815 This I proclaim to you brings us to our next point. 00:58:05.815 --> 00:58:09.715 How do we engage in evangelize the intellectual religious lost? 00:58:09.916 --> 00:58:13.815 We have to have eyes that are aware. 00:58:14.565 --> 00:58:15.949 See what? 00:58:15.949 --> 00:58:18.900 Where are they missing it, right? 00:58:18.900 --> 00:58:19.849 What are they reading? 00:58:19.849 --> 00:58:22.916 What is their, chief? End of man? 00:58:22.916 --> 00:58:24.900 What are they attaining to? 00:58:24.900 --> 00:58:27.266 And so that's what he begins to do here. 00:58:27.266 --> 00:58:32.099 They have this, thoughts about creation and deity and meaning he's trying to decrease the. 00:58:32.099 --> 00:58:34.583 This is trying to close the gap, if you will. 00:58:34.583 --> 00:58:36.682 I just working with what he has to like. 00:58:36.682 --> 00:58:38.250 He doesn't start with scripture. 00:58:39.266 --> 00:58:40.615 They don't have the Hebrew Bible. 00:58:40.615 --> 00:58:41.416 They're not reading that. 00:58:41.416 --> 00:58:44.782 They're not convinced by, you know, God in the Old Testament said so. 00:58:44.782 --> 00:58:46.550 He starts with context. 00:58:46.550 --> 00:58:50.400 He starts with their life, their longings, their desires, what they do. 00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:52.666 So in a sense, like he's trying to cross the river. 00:58:52.666 --> 00:58:59.782 And so he's just looking for the little rocks kind of just just poking up enough all I can get here and make this connection do this in my mind. 00:58:59.782 --> 00:59:02.333 The image on the why, it's like a zipper. 00:59:02.333 --> 00:59:05.416 Okay, so here's their beliefs over here that are that are off. 00:59:05.416 --> 00:59:07.849 And he's trying to like pull them together to this. 00:59:07.849 --> 00:59:11.365 You know, like, hey, I know you think this, but actually it's this. 00:59:11.365 --> 00:59:14.715 So that's what he's doing here in this moment. 00:59:15.349 --> 00:59:17.750 So do we have eyes that are aware? 00:59:17.750 --> 00:59:21.599 Do we understand their context? 00:59:21.599 --> 00:59:28.882 Do we love people enough to observe their culture, to study their background, to learn their history? 00:59:29.182 --> 00:59:29.900 This is what he did. 00:59:29.900 --> 00:59:32.416 This is why he refers to the altar of the unknown God. 00:59:32.416 --> 00:59:35.849 So here's what he knew about Athens and the altar city on them. 00:59:35.849 --> 00:59:38.750 God, it was a long time ago before he ever got there. 00:59:38.750 --> 00:59:43.016 Athens was in plague, had a pestilence, I mean, so bad they couldn't get rid of it. 00:59:43.016 --> 00:59:44.150 And so what do they think? 00:59:44.150 --> 00:59:44.815 This is fate. 00:59:44.815 --> 00:59:47.416 This is determined by the God material and all this stuff, right? 00:59:47.416 --> 00:59:50.250 The gods are mad at us for some reason, so we need to appease them. 00:59:50.250 --> 00:59:57.800 So they took one of every animal up to the Acropolis, up to the Parthenon, slaughtered them all, sacrificed them all, didn't work. 00:59:57.800 --> 00:59:59.599 Pestilence, plague. 00:59:57.800 --> 00:59:59.599 Still continue. 00:59:59.599 --> 01:00:00.650 So now these guys like. 01:00:00.650 --> 01:00:02.333 Well, we've done the best we can do. 01:00:02.333 --> 01:00:04.465 Let's go get some immunities. 01:00:04.465 --> 01:00:06.233 Was a priest and a prophet of Zeus. 01:00:06.233 --> 01:00:07.315 They lived on the island of Crete. 01:00:07.315 --> 01:00:08.632 So they go bring in a consultant. 01:00:08.632 --> 01:00:12.016 Okay, so they bring him in and they're like, hey, bro, we've like, we've done it all. 01:00:12.016 --> 01:00:13.166 We just slaughtered every animal. 01:00:13.166 --> 01:00:13.733 We don't know what to do. 01:00:13.733 --> 01:00:17.565 There's a plague still going on in other villages like, I got your answer. 01:00:17.565 --> 01:00:19.400 Go get 600 sheep. 01:00:19.400 --> 01:00:20.483 So they do. 01:00:20.483 --> 01:00:24.750 They bring 600 sheep to the area and they just set them loose. 01:00:25.199 --> 01:00:26.715 Scram. You know, goats. 01:00:26.715 --> 01:00:28.465 And they just followed him around. 01:00:28.465 --> 01:00:31.965 And wherever a sheep laid down, they would mark that spot. 01:00:32.182 --> 01:00:34.882 They would slaughter and sacrifice the sheep there. 01:00:34.882 --> 01:00:37.766 Two an unknown divinity. 01:00:37.766 --> 01:00:44.666 Because, like, if he's laying down here, there's some sort of thing happening here, some divinity, and we need to make sure to appease him. 01:00:44.666 --> 01:00:51.750 So as he's walking around Athens, there's at least 600 of these authors to the unknown God. 01:00:52.099 --> 01:01:00.750 And so he's going and grabbing that stepping stone, that bridge, that connector, and going like, hey, you're close, you've missed it. 01:01:00.750 --> 01:01:02.815 Let me make that connection. 01:01:02.815 --> 01:01:05.115 What is he's not unknown. 01:01:05.115 --> 01:01:06.615 He can be known. 01:01:06.615 --> 01:01:08.733 So that's what he's doing here at the area. 01:01:08.733 --> 01:01:09.016 Ophiuchus. 01:01:09.016 --> 01:01:12.083 Now, this all centers around the word foreign. 01:01:12.382 --> 01:01:14.449 The word foreign here talks about foreign divinities. 01:01:14.449 --> 01:01:15.300 They're looking at Paul. 01:01:15.300 --> 01:01:16.650 And look at this religion like this. 01:01:16.650 --> 01:01:18.166 God is distant. 01:01:18.166 --> 01:01:20.516 He's strange, he's different. 01:01:20.516 --> 01:01:21.900 He's removed. 01:01:21.900 --> 01:01:24.900 He's irrelevant to us in our life. 01:01:25.250 --> 01:01:26.815 And so he's got to decrease that. 01:01:26.815 --> 01:01:28.349 No, no, no, he's very close. 01:01:28.349 --> 01:01:30.016 He's very relevant. 01:01:30.016 --> 01:01:32.483 He's very able to be know. 01:01:32.483 --> 01:01:34.315 So look what he does. Verse 24. 01:01:34.315 --> 01:01:52.432 And the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, he does not live in temples made by men, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 01:01:52.815 --> 01:01:54.266 So here's what he'll do in his speech to them. 01:01:54.266 --> 01:01:56.565 He'll start with creation and he'll end in final judgment. 01:01:56.565 --> 01:01:57.416 So here you start with creation. 01:01:57.416 --> 01:01:59.750 Because creation is not an accident. 01:01:59.750 --> 01:02:04.465 It wasn't just some particles, particles slamming into each other like there is a design. 01:02:04.465 --> 01:02:05.865 There is a designer. 01:02:05.865 --> 01:02:08.032 There's a God who is creator. 01:02:08.032 --> 01:02:10.615 And oh, by the way, he doesn't live in temples. 01:02:10.615 --> 01:02:14.699 So if you're wondering if we need some extra temples in the city because this religion is coming in, no we don't. 01:02:14.699 --> 01:02:19.099 And also we don't need to slaughter 600 sheep because this God needs nothing from you. 01:02:19.400 --> 01:02:20.849 He's the creator of life. 01:02:20.849 --> 01:02:23.266 He gives life to all of you. 01:02:23.266 --> 01:02:25.400 He doesn't need your little sacrifices to him. 01:02:25.400 --> 01:02:30.050 So kind of addressing the practical, but also being very theological to them. 01:02:30.050 --> 01:02:34.800 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth. 01:02:34.800 --> 01:02:48.315 Having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, yet he is actually not far from each of us. 01:02:48.766 --> 01:02:56.099 So here he starts, and he's like, it's not the particles and the molecules and the atoms that define and determine everything. 01:02:56.565 --> 01:03:03.000 It is this creator God who has defined your boundaries, who determined what is going to happen. 01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:05.099 So again, you think this. 01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:05.099 But no, you're wrong. 01:03:05.099 --> 01:03:07.250 You're missing it. It's actually disgust. 01:03:07.250 --> 01:03:11.333 And then what he does here, he uses the term like you're feeling for him. 01:03:11.333 --> 01:03:22.050 So it's a it's a word that, Homer used in Odysseus when, when Odysseus, poked the one eye of the Cyclops and, you know, with the spear and blinded him. 01:03:22.199 --> 01:03:29.965 So the cyclops is in the cave, and the Cyclops is is groping, is grasping, is feeling, trying to get Odysseus. 01:03:30.233 --> 01:03:36.465 And so Paul is even using that word and that terminology from one of their own authors to apply it here. 01:03:36.465 --> 01:03:39.465 And he said, all of you, you're you're very religious. 01:03:39.715 --> 01:03:44.483 You're you're grasping for God, you're groping, you're blindly feeling like you're trying to get. 01:03:44.483 --> 01:03:49.516 And that's what all these temples in these idols and it's philosophical ideas, but you're missing it. 01:03:50.115 --> 01:03:51.016 You're just off. 01:03:51.016 --> 01:03:55.282 But he says, then there's great thinkers, but he's not far from any of you. 01:03:55.282 --> 01:03:57.382 He is attainable. 01:03:57.382 --> 01:03:59.065 He is knowable. 01:03:59.065 --> 01:04:02.065 He is gettable, if you will. 01:04:02.333 --> 01:04:06.416 He goes on, for in him we live and move and have our being. 01:04:06.750 --> 01:04:08.416 Even as some of your own poets have said. 01:04:08.416 --> 01:04:12.349 See, he's reading their writings, for we are indeed his offspring. 01:04:12.715 --> 01:04:21.599 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver stone, an image formed by the art in the imagination of man. 01:04:22.065 --> 01:04:22.849 Two things happening here. 01:04:22.849 --> 01:04:30.615 One one that John Lennox says is this is that philosophy is obsessed with life, emotion and existence. 01:04:30.949 --> 01:04:32.550 You know, what is life? 01:04:32.550 --> 01:04:34.650 What is motion? 01:04:32.550 --> 01:04:34.650 How does things move? 01:04:34.650 --> 01:04:36.532 And then like, what was being. 01:04:36.532 --> 01:04:38.815 So he's like kind of getting into philosophical ideals. 01:04:38.815 --> 01:04:42.382 Here he goes in him we live in move have a bring. 01:04:42.382 --> 01:04:43.800 He brings life. 01:04:43.800 --> 01:04:46.250 He's already talked about life to all. So life has purpose. 01:04:46.250 --> 01:04:47.115 It has meaning. 01:04:47.115 --> 01:04:49.849 It has value has worse than motion. 01:04:49.849 --> 01:04:50.782 Here's what he's saying here. 01:04:50.782 --> 01:05:01.650 We know this to be true, that everything that is at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force and everything in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. 01:05:01.650 --> 01:05:04.349 And so they're constantly debating and talking about that. 01:05:04.349 --> 01:05:07.650 He says, let me tell you what the outside forces it is. 01:05:07.650 --> 01:05:15.449 This creator God, he is the uncaused cause or who started everything in motion and keeps all things going. 01:05:15.449 --> 01:05:16.766 And in him we have our being. 01:05:16.766 --> 01:05:18.900 That's why there is something instead of nothing. 01:05:18.900 --> 01:05:20.782 That's why there is existence. 01:05:20.782 --> 01:05:25.099 So he's taking that philosophical idea and pointing it to Yahweh God. 01:05:25.465 --> 01:05:28.882 And then what he's doing is talking about the offspring here. 01:05:26.315 --> 01:05:28.882 So we are his offspring. 01:05:28.882 --> 01:05:35.599 So there's the idea that each and every one of you had the what they would call the Greek, called the the spark of the divine being. 01:05:35.599 --> 01:05:37.766 In you from Zeus. 01:05:37.766 --> 01:05:40.365 And the spark of divine being could be in lots of different things. 01:05:40.365 --> 01:05:42.233 And he goes, no, that's really not the way it works. 01:05:42.233 --> 01:05:46.199 But what you're grasping at, what you're blindly feeling at is Imago day. 01:05:46.199 --> 01:05:47.699 Yes, you are God's offspring. 01:05:47.699 --> 01:05:49.699 You are created in his image. 01:05:49.699 --> 01:05:53.250 So therefore God is not less than us. 01:05:53.250 --> 01:05:55.800 So we would make an idol of silver, stone or rock. 01:05:55.800 --> 01:05:58.215 But he must be more than us. 01:05:58.215 --> 01:05:59.483 So that's what he's pointing to. 01:05:59.483 --> 01:06:05.266 Again, this God is greater, not this little idol or stone, since we are his offspring quoting their own authors. 01:06:05.266 --> 01:06:06.615 Now he gets the last point. 01:06:06.615 --> 01:06:16.400 How do we engage the religious in the intellectual lost once we care, once we find that opportunity to share with you have eyes that are where truly understand. 01:06:16.400 --> 01:06:19.550 Now there's a message we must share. 01:06:19.550 --> 01:06:21.266 Look at this message. 01:06:21.266 --> 01:06:24.916 Times of ignorance God overlooked. 01:06:25.550 --> 01:06:37.282 But now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed on a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. 01:06:37.815 --> 01:06:41.632 And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. 01:06:41.632 --> 01:06:48.083 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we'll hear you again about this. 01:06:48.416 --> 01:06:50.000 So Paul went out from their midst. 01:06:50.000 --> 01:07:00.349 But some men joined him and believed, among whom were also Dionysius, the area, the guide, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. 01:07:00.900 --> 01:07:08.599 So he starts off very like in his powerful message times of ignorance, the God overlooked that's coming to him in. 01:07:09.300 --> 01:07:24.750 And so what he's saying here is that that now that Christ has come and died, resurrected and ascended now, now that they have some Scripture, now that Paul's there kind of laying this out for him, he said, God didn't judge you as severely as he could have back in the past. 01:07:24.916 --> 01:07:27.400 But that time is over now. 01:07:27.400 --> 01:07:30.865 Now ignorance has been dispelled and so now you will be held accountable. 01:07:30.865 --> 01:07:40.465 Now, if you're a parent in the room, you get this right when your kid is two years old and they say Washington, you go, oh, that's really cute, you know? 01:07:40.583 --> 01:07:43.666 But when they're 40, you need to correct them. 01:07:43.666 --> 01:07:44.300 All right. 01:07:44.300 --> 01:07:46.199 Time of ignorance is over. 01:07:46.199 --> 01:07:51.416 So you let your kids sometimes get away with things you don't really step in and judge all the time. 01:07:51.416 --> 01:07:56.099 But there comes a point where, like, you know, you're old enough to know, you know, not to do that, okay? 01:07:56.266 --> 01:07:58.965 And so that's what's happening here. In a sense. 01:07:58.965 --> 01:08:01.650 There's a test coming. 01:07:58.965 --> 01:08:01.650 You will be judged. 01:08:01.650 --> 01:08:03.865 And so important what we see here. 01:08:03.865 --> 01:08:06.865 God commands all people everywhere to repent. 01:08:07.365 --> 01:08:16.050 The word repent, it means to stop and turn towards God, to change your thoughts about God, to change your actions and attitudes about God. 01:08:16.050 --> 01:08:17.565 So that's why he's telling people like you're here. 01:08:17.565 --> 01:08:18.533 You're missing it. 01:08:18.533 --> 01:08:22.500 It's time to stop calling it Washington and start calling. 01:08:22.500 --> 01:08:24.533 You need a change of thought. 01:08:22.500 --> 01:08:24.533 Your attitude is an action. 01:08:24.533 --> 01:08:25.916 So that's what he's doing now. 01:08:25.916 --> 01:08:33.565 The most important piece of this is he says, God commands everyone everywhere to repent. 01:08:33.565 --> 01:08:35.065 Here's what's key. 01:08:35.065 --> 01:08:36.533 He doesn't invite you to repent. 01:08:37.733 --> 01:08:40.515 God doesn't suggest that you repent. 01:08:40.515 --> 01:08:42.615 God doesn't encourage that you repent. 01:08:42.615 --> 01:08:44.515 He doesn't beg you to repent. 01:08:44.515 --> 01:08:47.065 He commands repentance. 01:08:47.065 --> 01:08:52.699 And the difference between an invitation and a command is this you can reject an invitation. 01:08:52.949 --> 01:08:56.932 No harm, no foul, but you reject a subpoena. 01:08:57.716 --> 01:08:59.265 You're in trouble. 01:08:59.265 --> 01:09:05.865 You don't reject the command of a king, of a lord, of a God without there being consequences. 01:09:06.000 --> 01:09:07.500 So that's what he's saying. 01:09:07.500 --> 01:09:12.050 God is commanding you to repent. 01:09:12.449 --> 01:09:13.966 So we just pause there for a second. 01:09:13.966 --> 01:09:16.966 Even God put some application on us. 01:09:17.233 --> 01:09:19.632 Where is God calling you to repent? 01:09:19.632 --> 01:09:24.416 Not just salvific, like turning your mind thoughts about God and Jesus in a saving way. 01:09:24.416 --> 01:09:27.416 But as Luther said, all of life is repentance. 01:09:28.050 --> 01:09:34.199 Is there a place in your life right now, at the beginning of 2025, that you need to stop and turn towards God? 01:09:34.432 --> 01:09:36.166 He's not suggesting it. 01:09:36.166 --> 01:09:37.916 He's not encouraging you to do it. 01:09:37.916 --> 01:09:42.382 He is commanding you, and if you do not, there will be consequences. 01:09:42.382 --> 01:09:47.265 Paul says here by a judge who is a righteous man. 01:09:48.000 --> 01:09:57.466 He's not even using Jesus's name yet, but he's just saying there's a righteous man that will judge if he commands you to repent. 01:09:55.283 --> 01:09:57.466 You go like, oh, how? 01:09:57.466 --> 01:10:02.149 How can he make the statement, who is this guy who can command me to repent? 01:10:02.149 --> 01:10:04.100 Who is this guy who can judge me? 01:10:04.100 --> 01:10:06.166 What proof? 01:10:04.100 --> 01:10:06.166 What assurance do you have? 01:10:06.166 --> 01:10:07.850 And that's when Paul delivers the might drop moment. 01:10:07.850 --> 01:10:10.699 He goes, he resurrected from the dead. 01:10:10.699 --> 01:10:13.365 And that just to split the crowd. 01:10:13.365 --> 01:10:14.899 I think Paul had more to say. 01:10:14.899 --> 01:10:16.283 I think you wanted to talk longer. 01:10:16.283 --> 01:10:25.515 I think the reaction was so strong that it just ended the speech right here, because resurrection, like I said, that was not a concept in their mind. 01:10:25.515 --> 01:10:27.983 They didn't get it. 01:10:25.515 --> 01:10:27.983 So we see three responses. 01:10:27.983 --> 01:10:30.865 Some just mocked and left for resurrection. 01:10:30.865 --> 01:10:31.800 Yeah, right. 01:10:31.800 --> 01:10:35.865 You know, so really what they're telling Paul is like I'm pretty sure it is boo on jury. 01:10:35.865 --> 01:10:37.699 No okay. That's that's certain. 01:10:37.699 --> 01:10:39.949 I'm not going to listen to you anymore. 01:10:39.949 --> 01:10:44.115 Others would go, oh, I'll consider a lot. 01:10:44.115 --> 01:10:46.800 Let's talk about Washington. 01:10:44.115 --> 01:10:46.800 Washington tomato, tomato. 01:10:46.800 --> 01:10:52.800 You know, I'll consider it, but, but but some believed so. 01:10:52.800 --> 01:10:54.199 They were so prominent. 01:10:54.199 --> 01:10:55.632 Do you know why their names are in here? 01:10:55.632 --> 01:10:57.716 Because people wouldn't know their name. 01:10:57.716 --> 01:11:02.666 So some people of the Council of the area had to guess, believed. 01:11:03.132 --> 01:11:06.166 Now, some critics have looked at this and said, well, like Paul kind of failed here. 01:11:06.166 --> 01:11:11.365 Like he didn't didn't really do a good job because there's just a few people believed it wasn't like the thousands. 01:11:11.365 --> 01:11:13.466 And he kind of changes his method later on. 01:11:13.466 --> 01:11:15.449 I don't think that's the case. 01:11:15.449 --> 01:11:24.315 I mean, you tell me, if you were given an audience with the Supreme Court and two of the justices converted to Christianity, is that failure? 01:11:24.350 --> 01:11:28.949 You have to realize how high in society he is talking to. 01:11:29.250 --> 01:11:37.699 And so for council members of the religious and and other so prominent that see to be named, this is a huge win, a huge success. 01:11:37.699 --> 01:11:40.500 It gives credibility to the gospel. 01:11:40.500 --> 01:11:42.199 There's so many people in our world today. 01:11:43.166 --> 01:11:52.132 You'll meet them this afternoon, tomorrow, the office, their intellectual, the religious, and they're absolutely lost. 01:11:53.033 --> 01:11:55.199 There's people in your life, you know their face right now. 01:11:55.199 --> 01:11:56.483 You see it when I say it. 01:11:56.483 --> 01:12:07.050 Aren't they just blindly feeling and trying to find something of worth and meaning and value by just grasping for God, and they don't even know what they have? 01:12:07.050 --> 01:12:10.050 The God sized hole or that vacuum in their heart. 01:12:10.582 --> 01:12:12.166 There's so many people you know their name. 01:12:12.166 --> 01:12:15.916 When I say that they feel that God is distant, he's removed his foreign. 01:12:15.916 --> 01:12:19.216 He's irrelevant to them and believer. 01:12:20.100 --> 01:12:38.149 You have been called to bridge the gap, to close the distance, to have a heart that cares, to be in the agora, in the marketplace, finding opportunities to share eyes that are aware you love them enough to understand them, and what motivates them. 01:12:38.149 --> 01:12:41.149 And then you have a message to share. 01:12:41.182 --> 01:12:42.132 Commanding. 01:12:42.132 --> 01:12:46.432 Repent repentance because God loves them and he wants to save them. 01:12:46.432 --> 01:12:48.565 So maybe I'll just go out on a limb here. 01:12:48.565 --> 01:12:52.015 Is there anyone here today you feel like? 01:12:52.015 --> 01:12:55.015 Man, I've been close, but I feel like I've missed it. 01:12:55.283 --> 01:12:57.082 Anyone here today? 01:12:57.082 --> 01:13:00.350 You've just been blindly grasping for God. 01:13:01.132 --> 01:13:03.015 He's not far from you. 01:13:03.015 --> 01:13:03.649 He's close. 01:13:03.649 --> 01:13:05.865 And you can have a relationship with him today. 01:13:05.865 --> 01:13:08.100 Anyone here pursued other things? 01:13:08.100 --> 01:13:09.649 Wrong things. 01:13:09.649 --> 01:13:13.850 He monism, pleasure, virtue, whatever it may be. 01:13:14.483 --> 01:13:18.350 Would you believe and receive salvation? 01:13:19.015 --> 01:13:20.449 You can have hope eternal. 01:13:20.449 --> 01:13:21.983 You can have forgiveness of sins. 01:13:21.983 --> 01:13:25.515 You can have this incredible relationship with God. 01:13:26.000 --> 01:13:31.166 If you put your faith and trust in Jesus alone as your Savior, let's pray and worship God. 01:13:31.166 --> 01:13:34.166 Thank you. 01:13:34.283 --> 01:13:49.550 Paul just walking around Athens being invited to speak to the possibly Supreme Court of Athens and by the Holy Spirit, you guided him, God. 01:13:49.550 --> 01:13:51.800 His heart was provoked. 01:13:49.550 --> 01:13:51.800 It was broken. 01:13:51.800 --> 01:13:52.550 He wept. 01:13:52.550 --> 01:13:58.132 He was angered by people's sin, by the fact that they were missing you, missing salvation. 01:13:58.132 --> 01:14:01.500 Although they were so close to God. 01:14:01.500 --> 01:14:02.699 Break our hearts. 01:14:02.699 --> 01:14:04.850 For what? Break yours, God. 01:14:04.850 --> 01:14:14.716 May we weep every day for the lost in our life, because we know what happens if they die and they have not come to faith in you and God. 01:14:14.716 --> 01:14:22.966 Give us boldness, intellect, creativity, to preach like this, to dialog, to discuss. 01:14:23.416 --> 01:14:33.682 Yeah, people are going to mock us and people are going to be curious, but maybe there's a few in our marketplace that will believe. 01:14:33.682 --> 01:14:42.350 So God, may the people of Rock point be bold and courageous to share this message of hope that you are not distant. 01:14:42.350 --> 01:14:43.649 You are not removed. 01:14:43.649 --> 01:14:50.632 You can be no you love and you say so, God, we love you. 01:14:51.233 --> 01:14:52.615 We worship you. 01:14:52.615 --> 01:14:54.716 It's in your name we pray. Amen. 01:14:54.716 --> 01:15:03.649 If that's you today, if you're ready to come to a point where you believe, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, would you grab that card, that seatback pocket in front of you? 01:15:03.649 --> 01:15:13.250 Would you go online rpc fmt connect and just let us know so we can celebrate with you, support you, and walk alongside you in your decision. 01:15:13.466 --> 01:15:16.132 There's anything else that the Holy Spirit is prompting you to do? 01:15:16.132 --> 01:15:18.166 Would you be obedient to that at this time?