How The Gospel Sparked A Riot In Ephesus:August 16, 2024-PM Service

A city can turn into a mob in minutes, especially when money is on the line. We start with a quick update on a planned one-night revival service, then move straight into Acts 19 where Paul’s faithful preaching in Ephesus collides with a booming religious economy built around Artemis. When Demetrius the silversmith realizes the gospel is costing him customers, outrage spreads, rumors multiply, and the whole place surges toward a public showdown.

We unpack why this “riot in Ephesus” is more than ancient history. It’s a vivid case study in spiritual warfare, idolatry, and crowd psychology. Paul doesn’t operate on impulse; he makes Spirit-led plans to travel, serve, and even carry help to suffering believers in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the crowd shouts for two hours, many people not even knowing why they showed up, and a town clerk ends up speaking more sense than anyone in the frenzy.

From there, we bring it home. What should it do to us when people passionately worship what cannot save? How do we keep sin from becoming normal, especially in our speech and everyday habits? We talk candidly about conviction, humility, and why real revival starts when God makes our hearts tender again.

Subscribe for more Bible teaching you can apply, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review if it helped. What modern “idol economy” do you see pressuring people today?

Transcript

Announcements And One Night Revival

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Good to see you. Hope you're doing well tonight. Quick announcement. Have a good Deacon's meeting. The uh in the meeting we put the uh plans report out on the hall. People take a look at that. Uh please grab a copy of that. It's looking really, really good for the year. We're grateful for that. It's a blessing. Uh also in our in our deacons meeting, we are looking at the revival services that we're wanting to do in the fall. Uh we have a lot going on in the fall, and some things have come up uh specifically with me in the fall. I think I've talked to you before about the opportunity to go to Guatemala uh the last week of October. And uh the issue with that is, well, we're having revival services. I kind of need to be here for that. It'd be kind of bad. The preacher's not there, he needs to revive more than anybody here and be here, you know. So with that going on, and I had the chance, uh, I haven't accepted it yet, but I was asked to do homecoming for my home church, uh, Eastfield, where I killed, uh, October the 11th, which here is another Sunday in October. And yes, I could get back from that, but would be quite a push because uh home church is a big church and folks want to see you and see the family, things like that. So things were just looking kind of kind of walk in. I'd have a better piece if we change it up a little bit. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna have a one-night revival uh on the first Sunday night in October, which I think it's October the 4th, I think it is. Uh, we can get Reverend Chris Furtiff from uh from uh the Cameron Baptist is gonna come and preach. And Brantley Brown is gonna come into the music. Uh, we're gonna have a meal served at 5 o'clock, and we'll give all those details a little bit later. We'll have a meal at 5 and then we'll have the service at 6. Now, uh, we're calling it a one-night revival. Be a good preacher, I'll stick to my word to be a one-night revival. But in an event that it goes really, really well, and first wants to come out the next night, something happens. You know, sometimes there's a big revival as they plan and they get a little bit longer. So if something happens, he wants to do it again the next night. I'm not gonna say none of that. I mean, there may not be a big food or a big spread, but we don't need that to have revival. We just need to have people and the Holy Spirit movement. So uh we're planning on the first Sunday in October uh to have that and be looking forward to that time together. So make sure you plan on being here that that Sunday night for that with Chris Reverend Chris Furdiff and invite people to come, let's fill the fuse up. It'd be kind of awesome to do that. Okay, so just be aware we're gonna do that. Um I think that's all I need to mention from meeting. I think that's pretty much it. Yeah, yeah. We're

Opening Acts 19 And Goal

SPEAKER_01 2:26

good to go on that. All right, yes, of all us just take a look at Acts chapter 19 tonight. Acts chapter 19. We started last week on Acts 19, and we're gonna try to finish it up tonight. I'm pretty sure we will. Um we gotta have to do paint in the house because the other pain died, and I have to have a paint in the bedroom. And I didn't look at the measurements in the pain that's a lot bigger until it blows. But that's been kind of weird today. I'm not the stick or anything, it's just the fan that hit me on my phone. So you see me chugging water. Uh that's that's that's wild. And you look at Acts 19, I wanted to mention Richard before, just uh give a little thought. Um,

Costa Rica Mob Mentality Story

SPEAKER_01 3:08

my mind, when I read Acts 14, my mind goes back to the city of uh San Jose, Costa Rica. The year was probably 1998. I was a baby. Um we're living in San Jose, and I'd taken a taxi cab going from point A to point B. I don't remember what those points were at the time, but I was in a taxi. And I remember as I was in the taxi, we came up to a roundabout. You know, the roundabout here that you see that seemed to be annoying, but they're all over the place. They actually functioned really well overseas because of the amount of traffic. And I remember we had to stop before we even got to the roundabout, and we looked down, there was a lot of commotion. Okay, and the taxi driver even got out of the car briefly, took off toward the commotion. And I knew a little bit of Spanish, I was watching to see what was going on, but I was really kind of unsure. And what it was was there was someone in that area who had uh stolen something, was a thief. And the mentality they have at the time in Costa Rica was if somebody does something, by the time the cops get there, the cops are probably gonna let them go. So if there's any justice gonna be done, it's gonna be done before the cops get there. You follow me on that? So when we got to that roundabout, there were several people who had gotten out of their cars to see what was going on and joined in, they call it a melee or something, where you just all out let them have it, beating the mess out of this guy. Now, luckily it didn't last too long. The taxi cap, the guy got back in the car, the police showed up and everybody was on their way. I was like, well, Lord, nobody's gonna get accused of these me because that was some serious stuff. But that's how they deal with it, okay? Now, why do I say that? Well, looking back, it's like, oh my goodness. Those people just jumped the gun, got out there, and started beating this guy, not really 100% sure what's going on. You know, when we do training for uh carrying a weapon, they tell you to be careful because you might have to draw it because you see somebody just shot somebody, but you have to be careful because they might have been acting in self-defense on something else. If that's the case, and then you shoot them, you're going to jail. You have to be really careful. But what happens is when there's a quick mob mentality like that, rumor spreads, people just start assuming things, and then all of a sudden things turn into chaos and can get out of the control. And then when they get out of control, only the Lord knows what's going to happen by the time it's all said and done. Many times it's not going to be pretty. Okay, so just keep that in mind as we walk through this. So we're looking at Acts, and we've seen uh with Paul, we'd seen where there's uh one of the last things we looked at is uh uh some people were proclaiming Christ and trying to cast out demons in Jesus' name. And the demons confronted them and said, Well, we know about Jesus, and we know about Paul, but who are you? And then those seven guys took off, they got a book open and took off naked out of the house. It got messed up pretty bad. So we don't want to play around with a demonic. But tonight we're gonna look at how Satan will continue to try to stop his work.

Satan Cannot Stop Christ's Church

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Okay? I don't know if you remember or not, but Jesus told us the gates of hell were not gonna be able to prevail against his church. That means from the time the church was started at Antioch until he comes back, the church will continue. Now, yes, there's gonna be times where there's gonna be persecution, and maybe in one country they're gonna ban all the churches. Uh, maybe the church is gonna come to a stage where it has like an end of life, if you will, when the community changes and they have to close the church down. Those things are gonna happen. But the church as a whole, uh the gates of hell cannot stop the church. Christ made that very clear. That should give us encouragement, even in difficult times, that even though we may have churches that close, you know, get over congregations, and maybe the church doesn't grow, God's still at work and his will is going to be done. He's saying he cannot stop it. I say he's gonna try out, he's gonna do his very best to try to stop that, but he cannot completely stop that, no matter what he thinks. All right. So keep that in mind as we take a look at Acts chapter 19 tonight. Pick out your Bible if we'll pick up verse 21. And as you see, like it is online. The title up there says, A riot in Ephesus. Ephesus, you know, you think Ephesus, you think of Ephesians. You know, Paul's there, you got the book of Ephesians, letters that were written to the church at Ephesus. Let's take a look at what it says in verse 21.

Spirit Led Travel And Generosity

SPEAKER_01 7:36

He says, And now, after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaea and to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. Now, the cool thing about this is Paul's looking at his agenda. He's been traveling, he's been on missionary journeys, and it's not like he just says, you know what, I wouldn't mind going over to Macedonia. I don't, I wouldn't mind going to the Emperor City, go to Rome. We could be cool to check it out. He goes to places based off the leading of the Holy Spirit. Okay, even times past, we've seen where he was wanting to go somewhere, but the spirit kept him from going there. And then finally he got what the Macedonian called and he went there in different ways. The catch, the reminder for me and you tonight is to make sure that all that we do, we seek the spirit's leadership in it. Okay? Now, when it's time to go to dinner and you argue between Hardy's and McDonald's, you just got to get over it and do one of the two. Okay. But there could be times when the Lord could prompt you, say, I want you to go to this particular place. And you'd be like, well, okay, Lord, I wouldn't want to go there, but I will. And it could be that there'd be an opportunity to see someone you haven't seen in a long time, or maybe help somebody out, maybe share that gospel with somebody. So I don't want to nod the idea of not knowing where to go to eat, but just know, even in the simple things, if we listen to the Holy Spirit, watch what he'll do and enter our lives out of simple pure obedience. Mention about going to Jerusalem. Now, Paul's been one who probably wasn't the most popular person to be in Jerusalem, if you know what I'm talking about. If you think about it, Paul is going after the church, right? He was he was the best church-going person of the day within the system of Judaism, right? So much so he was so zealous that he was going after the Christians. So after he has this experience on the road to Damascus, then God calls him and he realizes his task. Later on, he makes the opportunity to go to Jerusalem to meet the disciples. Now, are they going to be excited to see him? No, they're going to make this a trap. Now he did meet, I think, with Peter and John the first time, and later he meant with more of them. And as we've been talking about on Sunday mornings, the idea is to make sure they're on the same page when it comes to the gospel, that to be saved is through faith in Christ alone, not through a system of Jewish laws, the services, and et cetera, et cetera. But this time, scholars talk about one of his goals for going back to Jerusalem is because he understood the situation. I don't know the details about it, but the situation about the things going on that the believers in Jerusalem were suffering pretty bad, very poor. So his goal as he was passing through was to collect offering to take up there to the church of Jerusalem to help those who were suffering in the church. And that's pretty impressive that you get those that are that are Jewish and Gentiles in these other places, and they're taking an offering to help out brothers and sisters in Christ in need and other places. So he lays down his artillery course, saying he's going to go past me to Macedonia because of the Spirit, going to go to Jerusalem. And after that, he also must see Rome. I don't know if you've ever been to Rome or not, not had the chance to go yet, maybe one day. But Paul's desire to go to Rome, and then the reason he ends up in Rome are not the most compatible things. You would think he would want to go to Rome to be a part of the church, to grow the church, and encourage the church, and he does that. But isn't it in Rome where he gets in some trouble and eventually loses his life? People say, Don't go to Rome because they're going to get you. He says, No, the Spirit's calling me. But he's faithful to go where the Spirit has led him. It says in verse 22, and had then sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erasmus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. So as you know, he's had different travel companions throughout his different journeys. We'll see some other names mentioned tonight. He sends those two guys on the way, he stays a little bit longer in Asia, uh spreading the gospel. Now, at verse 23, getting closer to the idea of the riot, it says in verse 23, it says, and about that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. And to me, the English grammar on that's kind of weird how they do that. When it says another little disturbance means there was a big disturbance, okay? And the disturbance is concerning the way. I mentioned this last week, the way, uh W A Y but the capital W is referring to those who we know now as Christians, people of the way, people who followed after Christ. So what do we got to do is find out what was the problem, why was there such a disturbance? Okay.

Artemis Worship And The Idol Economy

SPEAKER_01 12:21

So to think about that, we think about where we are. Okay. If we're in Ephesus, we're in a place where two things are happening. One, Rome's in control. And there's this whole idea that the leader of the time, the emperor Julius Caesar, whoever it's going to be at the time, it's like a God. So there's going to be worship to him. Okay. At the same time in Ephesus, there's going to be this person called Artavaeus, if I pronounce the name right, or Diana, whichever name you want to use for that, who is a goddess, and I'm not going to describe her because it's not appropriate, but you can go Google it and see what she looked like. But people worshiped her. Okay? She was an idol. They believed that uh she came down and fell from the sky. Okay. You and I both know there's only one true God. We're not half idols. Any other religion that has to build something to show their faith, whether it be a statue of Buddha or any other little creature that somebody would worship, that's created by man. So if it's created by man, it's not God. Okay? God, our God, created everything. We don't have statues of him. We know we're not to do that, so we don't do that. But here's the deal. And if you've ever been to Latin America, you see this big time, okay? Let me just uh turn a little story real quick. When we were in Latin America, uh specifically in Cartago, Costa Rica, and this was true in all the countries, but really in Cartago, Cartago has what they call a basilica. It's like you got like a church, but then you got like the a bigger mama church, like a bigger area. And that's not doing justice. So if you're Roman Catholic, listen to me tonight, my apologies. I'm just trying to make it short because it's not the main point of what we're talking about. But anyway, the basilica is a pretty big place. And in Cartago, Costa Rica, every year, uh the 2nd of August, people will come in to pay homage to the Virgin Mary because of a miracle that took place. Okay. So as you go there, you get into town 24-7, but specifically on the weekend of this March and everybody comes in, there's tons and tons and tons of trinkets that are for sale. Okay. Little statue of the Virgin Mary. Uh, sometimes they've got little um body part statues like legs, arms, heads. The idea is if you've broken your leg, you want to pray the Virgin Mary to heal you. And so you say, if you heal me, I'll come back. A lot of times you go back to pay home, which you say, thank you for that. Then you also buy a little trinket that you'll either leave on the altar or take home of you. Okay? What I'm trying to say is what happened in Cartago, and it happens all around the world, is it becomes a business, right? Somebody's gonna have the idea, hey, let's make this. Now, rather not than give the prophets of the Lord, I highly have a feeling the church might have some part of that, but somebody's making money off these little statues, right? I mean, this is how it is, okay? That's exactly what we're gonna see tonight. Let's take a look at it and see specifically what we're talking about. It says there in the next verse, verse 24, they're gonna explain what the disturbance was about. It says, for a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, Artemis, or might say the Anna in your version, it says, and bought no little business to the craftsman. Okay. So let's break this down. There mentioned this guy in Demetrius. Now, scholars tell us back in the day that they did have similar to what we had today, unions. People would get together to protect the union, to protect the price, and make sure that everybody was doing business fairly. So very likely this guy, uh Demetrius, was one of the ones who was at the head of that, uh, big leader in the business. He was a silversmith, so all the silver they're using, they're making it to the shrine for Artemis. Okay. But look at what it says brought no little business to the craftsman. Okay. Again, here's that English. It says, brought no little means it brought a lot. Okay. So the guy was making money in a big business on selling the silver and stuff to the craftsman so they can make this the um the little trinkets or the little idols and things they're gonna do. Okay. Uh the idea was you go and you buy the little idol and you take it back home, and the presence of the God would be with you, maybe even to protect you. Okay. Pure idolatry is best. That's what it's throwing right there, okay? Ephesus was known for this, okay? I don't remember how many shrines they had there in Ephesus, but it was a lot. Okay, so it was a very, very big business, okay? Now, if you've got a business, and then all of a sudden somebody comes in and starts messing up your business, are you gonna be happy? No, no, not at all. You might even go so far as to go to the Chamber of Commerce or town council or city council and say, hey, look, something's going on, this business is not right, it's not fair. That's kind of common sense, okay? But look what happens here. It says in verse 25, these together, talking about all the crash and people in the business with him, brought them together with the workmen in similar trades, and he said, Men, you know that from this business we had our wealth. In other words, there's a bit of pride in there. We make our living off selling these trinkets. Not that we believe in them, but who cares? We're making money off of it. Okay, so they've got quite a business going on. But then look what he says. Verse 26. And you see in here that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. All right. So he's telling what the problem is. Business is starting to slide. And now he wants to blame somebody for it, like he would do. You got to find out who's the culprit. So that's what he's doing. Who are we gonna blame here? And what does he choose? He chooses Paul. Good reason because that's why, because God is at work, the Holy Spirit's at work. Now we have a conflict between the satanic side and the side of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit's gonna move, and that's not only gonna bring people to Christ, but people who were in business before, they're gonna start losing out on their business. Haven't we seen that before with people who were involved with witchcraft and magic and stuff, but they found out they didn't know Christ, they got rid of all the books and they stopped doing it, practice and all that. I think we saw that last week. We saw some of that in that. But he's he's blaming Paul. He says, not only in Ephesus, but throughout all the agent, he's telling people that if any kind of God that's been made by somebody's hand is not a real God. Now, to that, we would say, Amen, Paul, you got it. Amen to this guy Demetrius, because he figured it out. That's what this is truth, right? But why is he complaining? Well, it's gonna hurt his business. Look what it says in verse 27. And he said, There is danger not only that this trade of ours may come to disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess uh Armaeus may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be disposed from her magnificence. She, whom all Asia and all the world worship. Now he's a little bit confused there because not everybody was worshiping this. There's other gods out there too, but he's just kind of throwing emphasis. What is he wanting? He wants to protect his income. He wanted to make sure he had plenty of vacation and extra spending money to go to the nice places. So, what's the danger? Uh, their business is gonna come to disrepute, it's gonna realize it's the shan because it's not really working, because it's just a piece of silver made by human people. But all of a sudden he's acting like he's concerned that people aren't gonna respect our remaining. Now, I don't remember all the dates, but the temple didn't get destroyed. I think it was built in like 550 BC, and then it had to be rebuilt like 250 BC somewhere around in there. But later on it got destroyed again and never got built back. Um, I don't know today, I guess there's probably some ruins from it, but it's not actually going on now. Uh so what he was saying is actually true because now we have churches in Ephesus, obviously, and throughout the whole region. But um, but he was saying that the great goddess, the temple of the great goddess would be counted as nothing, it should be deposed over magnificence, which that actually took place. Okay, has Paul never broken any laws? He didn't break any laws. He's just preaching the gospel where the spirit leaves him to go. When it's time for him to go, he up and goes, or if it's persecution sometimes, he up and goes. But he hasn't really broken any laws. All he's done is take thoughts from the local businessmen. So let's look at what happened, how the businessmen respond after Demetrius mentions

Riot In Ephesus And Confusion

SPEAKER_01 21:05

this. Look in verse 28. It says, when they heard this, they were enraged and were crying out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So they just start shouting, giving praise to this God that's not real. Verse 29. How much, how far did the shouting go? Quite a ways. It says in verse 29, so the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together to the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristocus, I think he pronounced his name, Aristicas, uh, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. So what happens? All of a sudden, we had this mob mentality. People in the street are starting saying, great as the goddess, praise the goddess. They don't know, other people don't know why they're doing that. Some of them jump in to do it, and all of a sudden, those traits would decide to go to a big meeting place, a big theater, where you would meet for different events, including when there's discussions, uh, not in court necessarily. But there's discussions, things that need to be uh talked about. But here's the catch: verse 29 the big word there, the city was filled with confusion. Again, they don't know fully what's going on. So people are shouting about the gods, and let's all go and talk about it. So that's what they do. They get there in the theater, and along the way, they maybe were looking for Paul, since that's the name that was mentioned, but they don't find him, obviously, because his name is not mentioned at the moment. But they find two people who are his traveling companions, people who'd gone with him, who spread the gospel, who knew how God was working, and they brought them in the theater as well. Hundreds of people. I think it said that the theater would hold up to 25,000. Don't know how many were there that day, but there's a good many that were there that day. Um, now verse 30 doesn't mention Paul. It says, but when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. Paul is writing to go in. He's good at making a defense. We know that. I mean, he's gone into places and saying, even what you call an unknown God, I know the name of that God is the one true God. You can see that in scripture. Uh God uh Paul was good at uh being rational with people and giving a good presentation of the gospel. He was good because he'd been trained and some of the greatest teachers got me out as Jew, and then he'd come to know Christ, and he was able to put the two together. So he was excellent at uh refuting arguments and things like that. But he was not allowed to go. The disciples stopped him. But not only did the disciples stop him, there was another group of people. Look at verse 31. Excuse me. Verse 31 says, and even some of the Assyrics who were friends of his sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. So Paul's got some friends, that's a big fancy word that I can hardly pronounce. The catch is who are these people? Well, a little bit of research, you find out that these are people who come from very wealthy families throughout Rome. Their job is to focus on emperor worship, to make sure everybody's worshiping Caesar, whoever the work the emperor is at the time, as if that person is God. That makes it even more interesting because Paul's friends with these people. That means Paul shares the gospel with everybody. And even though these people have not decided necessarily to follow Jesus, there's something about Paul that they say, hey, Paul, we need to step back from this. Here's the deal Rome's in control. They're protecting Rome and the gods of Rome, the emperor. If something happens, there's a big dispute, there's mob, Rome's gonna get concerned thinking something's going against them, and they're gonna go try to squelch it and stop it. So these guys have a little parting just to, hey, let's slow this thing down. So they want to protect Paul, that's exactly what they do. Being this friends, they send him and urge him not to go into theater. And then this is what happens after that. Look at verse 32. So now some cried out one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. And look how bad the confusion was. It even goes on to say, and most of them did not know why they had come together. All right, imagine that in the frenzy, the mob mentality. Somebody said something, rumor gets out, and next thing you know, everybody's come together. Some people come out of curiosity, some want to see a good fight, maybe, different reasons to show up. But all in all, people are saying different things, and it's so confusing they don't even understand totally why they're there. But look what happens in verse 33. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. Now, poor Alexander, who's this guy? How does he get put forward amongst his fellow Jews? Well, if people complain about Paul and they know the stance of the Jews and what the Jews think about Christians, and some of the Jews are Christians, and all this has to do between um the false God of the time and the Christians, the Jews want to make sure that they're not going to get thrown in the bus in this situation. Because if so, Rome finds out about it, they're going to get all over the Jews. So the Jews want to say, hey, we're not a part of this, you need to go after those Christians. That's what's causing all the trouble. But look what it says here. So the assuming the crowd, or sorry, the resumed crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and exaling Alexander motioning with his hand, wanting to make a defense to the crowd. That defense, I say, hey, what you're hearing, but the reason we're here is because Paul. Paul's preaching this gospel and saying that idols are not real, and that's going to hurt your business. He wants to make sure the Jews are clean. He wants to wipe his hands of it. But listen to this, verse 34. But they had recognized that he was a Jew. For about two hours, they cried out with one voice, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Didn't even give him a chance to speak. That many people in the crowd for two solid hours shouted about the greatness of a God that is not real. Oh, how Satan can get a hold of people's minds to get them to follow after false gods, to get them in confusion. And we know that God is not a god of confusion, so we know that there's something going on here spiritually. Now we see in verse 35, it says when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, uh, town clerk being the kind of the one to be in charge of any kind of meeting going on there, and also one that became responsible or wrong when something happened, he finally got the crowd calmed down enough where he could speak to him. And this is what he says in verse 35. Then of Ephesus, who is there who does does not know that the city of Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky. So he's going to appease the crowd. He believes like they do about the greatness of uh the of Artemis. He says, hey, everybody knows that this is God. This is what this is all we've done on our life, right? We know where it came from, we know how the story goes. So verse 76, he says, seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing wretched. Okay. He's telling them you lived your life, you know what they call the truth, they've seen it. Probably miracles of attachments are unbessed. People have been blessed because they had a statue in their house, but they thought was being blessed. You know this is true, so why are you even worried about these accusations about Paul? Let's don't go away. Don't worry about it. Verse uh 37. But you'd have all these men here who were neither sacrilegious, but they weren't talking about our masses, so they were just preaching the gospel, nor are blasphemers of our goddess. They weren't talking about her, saying she wasn't real. They were just, like I said, they were just preaching the gospel. It says, if therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are pro counsels. Let them bring charges against one another. So the way God's working through a lost person for his will to be done, saying, Hey, look, guys, don't worry about this. This is really not that big a deal. They're not even complaining. And if they were doing something wrong, all Demetrius has to do is follow the set pattern with the courts. Go through the courts, go to the broken council, set up a meeting, and do that. Don't do something rash and cause of the big stir, this mob mentality that's gonna make Rome look at us and maybe come after them. Verse 39. But if you seek it any further, it shall be settled by the regular assembly. Verse 40, for we for we really are in danger of being charged with writing today, since there is no cause that we can give to testify, no cause that we can give to justify this commotion. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

Let Lostness And Sin Hit Home

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Paul, did he sign up for all this hardship and all these riots and all this? He simply heard from the Lord that you're gonna be telling the Gentiles about me. Now, I think he heard in that, that he was gonna have to suffer and do that. But each time along the way, nobody took his life until the Lord allowed to do that after he had written all these books. Okay? Is that not true of us today? The Lord's in control. He wants us to be a witness. There are times when the devil's gonna try to stop us. Whether we get scared or nervous or sick, or maybe somebody says some bad things about us that are not true. But it will be faithful to walk in the spirit, to listen to the spirit, allow the spirit to guide us. We can still preach the truth in a world that does not honor God nor follow after him or state or city, not just the world center city, but more personal. And watch what God can do for the church that's willing to stand up for the truth like that. That makes sense. That went about faster than I thought it was going to be. God doesn't work in Paul's life. He's not a dungeon. He's gonna keep on, he's gonna keep on traveling. Uh in this case, the people that were with him, they got let off the hook. Other times we'll see they didn't necessarily get off the hook, they probably got a beaten too, or was it shipwrecked? They were shipwrecked too. In this case, they got off the hook, and so did Alexander, uh, being able to calm the crowd down. But imagine two hours of people praising a false God. Shouldn't that break our hearts? Didn't Jesus come to you over the wall in Jerusalem and his heart was broken because they were sheep without a shepherd. They didn't know it. How do we allow it to be different if we allowed the Lord to break our hearts over lostness? See, the problem is now we're used to it. We're used to seeing non-Christians act like non-Christians and do non-Christian things. We see it on TV. We hear it. We see it in the street, and we're like, okay, whatever. It doesn't even phase us anymore. But what if it phased us in such a way that it break our heart knowing that Jesus died for those people? And they need to hear the gospel so they can be forgiven and come into Christ.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

If we don't tell them, we'll be held again.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Exactly right. Yep. The catch is it happens so much, we kind of get used to it and think, okay, it is what it is. But what if you hang around with somebody at work and they got a potty mouth, dirty mouth, what you want to call it. What if one day you say, hey, you know, I find those words offensive? Let me think about Jesus. You know, let's not take his name in vain. His last name is not Darnett or whatever it would be, you know? And stand up for truth. Let people know. Um likely they might be offended or disown you or lie and tell bad things about you. But it's likely you've made a seed and if something's gonna happen in their life, maybe something tragic. And the only person they're gonna turn to is the person you first talk to them about Jesus or correctly them in some way. That might be what might bring them to be a believer and to be a part of the local body of the church.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

And not just that kind, but like the by words, you know, the D word and all that, they don't even realize what they're saying. They are so used to saying it. Because I know a few years ago I confronted someone that used those little by words all the time. And um, they asked me if I would dinner with them all the time. But I said, I will if you promise that you won't use those words. And they said, What words? I didn't know what I mean. If you remind people, they don't realize they're saying it.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah. It's interesting, it kind of works both ways. Sometimes they don't realize they're saying it. Now sometimes we get so used to it, it's like it don't bother us anymore. And when it gets to the point where sin doesn't bother us, then we got a problem with our relationship with Jesus. And we gotta fix that. That's why we're in need of revival. That's why the world's in need of revival.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

I have a habit of saying, like, you know, if I if something kind of shops me, I'll say, Well, well, I'll say, like, God Almighty, and my sister and my daughter-in-law. They'll call me on it every time. And I know I shouldn't, but I mean, it's like you still get to know when you say something. Not bad, bad, but bad.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

But I need to, I'm working on that, but I've got to do better. Because I still do it without even thinking. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

I mean, I mean, if you want me to be honest with you, I know there's a camera going, but so people know that I'm human too. Oh lord. I mean, see what happened the other day. I was working with some of my employees out behind my house. Before we got there, Mr. Deops had planted these nice chamellia bushes across the bag. It's not like a board for fence, and it's great. And as you know, I'm terrified of snakes, okay? Dead or live, I don't like snakes, okay? And I don't like to scare people of snakes because I don't want to be scared of snakes. And we had already seen one snake on the side of the property by some pine trees, a black snake. And I saw it in advance. So I was able to say, Oh, well, come over and watch out, there's a snake. Of course, by the time they get back or something to remove the snake, the snake was gone. But no lie, we come around the corner and we're standing there looking, and I'm explaining to them I want the bushes to be trimmed. And I'm not that this is the bush. I'm I mean, we're like two and a half foot from it. And the next thing you know, a snake drops out from that bush on the ground within a foot and a half of my foot. You know what I'm saying? Holy dookie. I don't know where it came from. I mean, I know where it came from because I heard it as it came out of my mouth. I was like, oh my gosh. And the guy looked at me, and luckily the snake took off real quick because I'm not, I might have said something else. So we're human, that's gonna happen. But the deal is we catch it, it's like, oh, and I told you, I shouldn't have said that. It took me off guard, scared me really. It's scared, really, really bad. You know what I'm saying? So don't ever scare me because I might swing it to you and probably say it in Spanish. If I'm teaching you word in Spanish, you don't do that. Okay. Um, but but seriously, though, yeah, those kind of things, we get that. But if it becomes the pattern, yeah, then we get used to it and it didn't bother us anymore. So that's what we want to watch for. Um, that's what we gotta be careful for.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Um is uh three-year-old western. Yeah, well, he's not the only one that said it because he um they never heard it so long that they say it, even with us saying she's two years old, but she'll say, Oh my. And uh I said, Well, I tell you about saying that word. I said, Yeah, if you were using it in the right way, it'd be okay. But you're not. And so the next thing he came around, he said, Oh my Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Yeah, I love our little ones. We've got to train them up into what they should go.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

Oh, you tell me that's what I need to say?

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Oh, just say coming out tonight. All

Prayer And Dismissal

SPEAKER_01 38:19

right, somebody want to close us in prayer, we'll be dismissed. All right, thank you, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time, Lord, that we can come to schedule come together. This this church come together, this congregation, all these members, and visitors here tonight. We thank you for them. Lord, as we study your word. Lord, we ask that uh help us, Lord, that uh we leave here that we do go out and make disciples and share your word with others, Lord, that do not know you. Lord, give us a word to say we do arrive. We can share with others for what you do and how revive. Praying for Chris Burning, Lord. The message of yours, the language of his heart to share with us not over, Lord. Lord, there's so many outside these church doors that do not know you. And they come into this church and hear your word. Lord, be with us when we leave here. Watch over and keep each and every one of us safe, Lord. The Lord know, all of us know. In times of adversity, times of trials, we will have these creatures, and we will always turn to you to give us strength to help us get through. We're not doing on our own. And thank you for being that loving God. Thank you for being a forgiving God, for what you did, for the sacrifice you made to send your son Jesus Christ, to die for each and every one of us on the cross. Lord, we love you, and we thank you for the many blessings you give us. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.