Our Being

0:01 As I have done for now 680 days, I will continue to remind you that there are 50 hostages that remain in captivity against their will, uh, held in Gaza. And we are assuming that there are about 20 of them who remain living. And I, I'm gonna give you a couple things that happened this week, good and bad and ugly, and perhaps things in between. First of all, the UN head put Israel on notice over ae. This is a, this is a, a, a headline that I read over alleged sexual violence against Palestinians.

0:49 Yeah, that, that was about my response also. Um, that being said, on Thursday, Hamas was finally placed on the UN's blacklist of parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence and situations of armed conflict. It took 678 days from the moment of live broadcasting the atrocities, by the way, those were live broadcast and seen around the world. It took nearly two years to make,

1:35 uh, for the un. By the way, it, it was recently, I was recently informed. I'm not entirely certain how much of that I wanna share. Uh, let's, let me say it this way. I was recently informed that there was an attempt, um, in the, in the near after days of October 7th, um, to visually show every Israeli what was going on. Um, in, uh, by Hamas in, in southern Israel,

2:23 there was an attempt to let every Israeli adult and child see the images of what happened, um, through mass dispersion. And, and I don't know that I wanna give 'em any more details than that, but if you wonder, no, nobody should wonder why Israel's in trauma, first of all. But if you do wonder, this is one of the reasons why, because people opened up on their phones something that they didn't know what it was, and they saw images that no, no living person should ever see children, by the way, you think, oh, kids don't have phones in Israel. Children have phones, because that's

3:10 how you know when rockets come. If you don't have a phone, you don't get a red alert and you don't know to go to a bomb shelter. So every child in Israel, dare I say, maybe four, five and up has a phone. So I want you to think, if you were a parent, your child who's five years old, I have a 5-year-old, think about them opening up a, a text message with video or pictorial evidence of the atrocities that happened that day. And if you, if you don't know what I mean, it's the reason that Hamas finally got put on this list of

3:57 war atrocities, patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence. I read this week, or, and lemme rephrase, I saw this week a protest sign, not here in Dallas. I can't remember where I saw it. I saw a picture of it and it said, Israel is temporary. Palestine is forever. I tell you that because that is directly contradiction, contradicting the word of the Lord. Israel will continue to exist as long as the sun and the moon and the stars continue to rule by day and rain by night, the word of the Lord will not be changed.

4:50 I'm telling you these things partially because I, I don't think it was new, but it about 80 years ago, 80, 90 years ago, I guess we're getting closer to a hundred years ago. There was a ruler who basically said, if you tell a lie loud enough and long enough, everyone will believe it. So the lies are beginning to be told again. Let's see. How much of this do I want to let, let's, I, I'm gonna share a couple more things. I read, I think it was on Monday, I think it was on Monday,

5:38 the NEA, the National Educators Association, that is the largest union of teachers in America. Uh, school teachers in America. They have changed their teacher guide and have erased Jews from the Holocaust. They have changed the language to say that the, the Nazis exterminated minority groups. Yeah, you can act shocked. That's fine. You should be shocked the event. Let me, let me read you another, I I'm gonna move on. Let me read you another, um, something I read this weekend. It said the events of October 7th, 2023 and the ongoing suffering in Gaza.

6:26 Lemme pause there. It's lines like this that lend itself to the propagation of the idea that Gaza's are suffering in Israelis are not. That it was done on October 7th against Israel, but now what is being perpetrated in longevity is by Israelis against Godins. I'm telling you, it's not Israelis, by the way that I know, that pr I'm gonna use a term that I'm becoming familiar and perhaps comfortable with, that's gaslighting against Jewish people, against Israelis.

7:11 Israelis continue to suffer. How do I know that there are 50 of them that are held against their will in captivity right now in Gaza? They were taken as hostages. By the way, maybe you saw the headline this week that Israel eliminated a journalist. Perhaps you're shocked at the audacity of Israel to, to eliminated a, a, a journalist, someone who's, who's, uh, announcing news to the world and serving as an agent to, to, um, indiscriminately tell everyone what's going on.

8:01 How can I say this nicely? Those were both really good answers. You can't, and he was on the payroll, both of which are true. But third, even if they weren't true on October 7th, it was Hamas, it was pal, uh, PPIJ, uh, Islamic Jihad and other groups and journalists and doctors who went and took hostages. I don't know if you remember the account, uh, of one of the hostages. He was released, and I think it was like three months ago or something. He was held in a journalist's home the entire time

8:46 against his will. You are no longer a journalist if you are a perpetrator. I'm sorry. You cannot wear both hats. You are one or the other. Israel continues to suffer. They have never, Israel has never received acknowledgement by the world that what occurred on October 7th was evil. Do you understand that? It has been, what did I say, 680 days and has yet to be condemned as evil by the world.

9:31 Every person in Israeli society was affected on October 7th. Dare I say, the living reality of most Jews in the world changed on October 7th. The sufferings of my grandparents and their generation no longer remain a historical fact. It is now a present reality. Things that were meant to stay in the past have not. It is now a present reality for every living Jew in the world.

10:20 Okay, let's move on. Everybody take a breath with me. Whew. Sorry, sorry, not sorry. There are certain things that have to continue to be said, or the volume and abundance of lies that continue to remain will take over. We're continuing our passage in, uh, acts chapter 17. Last week, we, uh, we covered verses 16 through 28 A. By the way, if you ever just see me utilize a B, it just means A is the first half of the verse,

11:07 and b is the second half. What I'm going to do is we'll reread the whole passage, and then we're going to cover today 28 through verse 34. So starting 17 verse 16. Now, while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was aroused within him when he saw that the city was full of idols. So he was debating in the synagogue with the Jewish people and the God fearers as well as in the marketplace every day with all who happened to be there. Also, some of the epicurean and stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, what's this babbler trying to say? While others we're saying, he seems to be a proclaimer

11:55 of foreign deities, because he was proclaiming the good news of Yeshua and the resurrection. So they took Paul to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are talking about for you're bringing some strange things to our ears, so we want to know what these things mean. Now, all the Athenians and foreigners visiting there used to pass their time doing nothing but telling or hearing something new. So Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, men of Athens, I see that in all ways you are very religious. For while I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription

12:42 to an unknown God. Therefore, what you worship without knowing this, I proclaim to you the God who made the world and all the things in it. Since he is the Lord of the heavens and the earth does not live in temples made by hands, nor is he served by human hands as if he needed anything. Since he himself gives to everyone life and breath and all things from one, he made every nation of men to live on the face of the earth, having set appointed times and boundaries for their territory. They were to search for him and perhaps grope around for him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being.

13:29 As some of your own prophets have said, for we also are his offspring. Since we are his offspring, we ought not to suppose that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an engraved image of human art and imagination. Although God overlooked the periods of ignorance, now he commands everyone everywhere to repent for He has set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed. He has brought forth evidence of this to all men by raising him from the dead. Now, when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began scoffing, but others said, we will hear from you again about this. So Paul left from their midst, but some men joined with him

14:17 and believed among them, Dionysus, a member of the Council of the Areopagus, a woman named DeMars and others with them, and we come to the end of chapter 17. I just want to do a, just kind of a refresher for all of us. Where is Paul? While at the beginning of the passage, he's in Athens. This is the former center of the Greek empire. It's a free city, not a Roman colony, ruled by its own governing structure, which in the passage is called the Areopagus, the ruling council in Athens. What is he doing? We talked about this last week. He's wandering, he's perhaps even touring the city. He takes time during his tour or his wanderings to notice the different gods

15:04 or idols that are present in, uh, Athens. He goes to the synagogue and he debates with them. He goes to the marketplace and debates with the people there. Who is he engaging in these places? Well, in the synagogue, he's, the text tells us he's engaging Jews and God fearers, and in the marketplace, he, it says he engages everyone. So who we already have Jews and God fears. Who else is everyone else? Pagans, philosophers, anybody else that you can imagine in a marketplace? While they're in the marketplace, they take him up to the areopagus where he engages the rulers, or if you will, the judges of Athens. And it is here that Paul, we,

15:51 we use this term on Wednesday night, which I, I love the term that Paul engages the free thinkers of this society. How does Paul engage these people? First of all, he takes time to notice all the details that are going on in the streets. What is it that that is, uh, of interest to this people? By the way, I painted a picture last week and, uh, of going through Athens and seeing God after God and temple after temple, and, and, and it is, I don't know how to say it, is pro maybe prolific or there is an abundance of temples and an abundance of Gods present in Athens.

16:39 Paul takes the time to, to, to wander and to see what, what they are. And in this wandering, he notices an altar to an unknown God, just in case they missed a God in their worship of all of these different gods. Paul uses utilizes this element. He says here, this unknown God that you guys already worship. Let me tell you about him. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, and he has sent his promised one. I, by the way, I'm, I'm putting in words here. We'll, we'll, we will invest, continue to investigate the speech in a moment. He has sent his promised Messiah, Yeshua, for the redemption of the world, and it was through his life, death

17:27 and then resurrection from the dead that he brought about the forgiveness of sins and the hope for life forevermore, but not just that. This is, that's, that's kind of what we would say, if you will. Paul begins to utilize quotes from their own philosophers and poets, and Luke tells us this, by the way, where we left off last week for in Him, we live and move and have our being is a quote from a, from a, a, a poet. Uh, and also it says here, for some of, as some of your own poets have said, for we also are his offspring.

18:13 Paul is quoting two different poets and or philosophers. The first is epi amenities, and he's, he's quoting someone from his own, from this own society as proof text for the God of Israel. Do you understand how odd that is? Except it's not really, because when you have nothing in common with someone, you have to develop. Um, I don't know. You guys perhaps are familiar with what is an old fable? Where is a a, um, Hansel and Gretel where they leave little cookies along the way? Am I, am I remembering the right one? Anyways, they're leaving little cookies. Paul is leaving little cookies along the way of, of,

19:01 of people that they're familiar with, starting with the unknown God, which by the way, epi amenities is the source of the altar to the unknown God as quite fascinating. We'll get into it in just a moment. There are no works of epi amenities remaining. Nothing has has survived history. However, there are surviving texts that are, um, commentaries on the book of Acts which reference epi amenities. So it's, it's maybe one or two or three down the telephone line, if you're familiar, play with telephone with your kids. It's a couple down the telephone line.

19:48 And, and so one of those is a Syrian lectionary garden of delights, and this is, this is the quote. They're quoting epi amenities, and this is the quote, A grave has been fashioned for thee. Oh, holy and high one, the lying cretins who are all the time liars, evil beast, idle bellies, but thou dies not for two eternity thou Ls and stand for in the we live and move and have our being. This is a quote of epi amenities. By the way, the high one mentioned here is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The high one mentioned here is Zeus. Paul is quoting something from a local author,

20:36 if we can put it that way, about a local God and saying, let me tell you about the real unknown God, the God of Israel. By the way, I, I just, I love the cadence of this for in Him. We live and move and have our being. I I I began to touch on this last week, but I want to take a pause from the passage and I want to remind us about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as he reveals himself in the book of Exodus, he reveals himself as yo fafe, it's the tetra Raman. It's, it's what is known as the unpronounceable name. Um, we say Aai or Hashem

21:23 or some other version thereof, if depending upon your text, uh, if you use something like NASB or I think ESV, if your Lord is all capitalized, that's the use of Yha Fafe, um, the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, the specific name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why do I say this? Because the name, uh, and, and now I I, there's this, there's this rabbi that I love his video about it in his explanation, so I'm gonna start to quote him. It comes from the, from the word Aya, which means existence or reality. And it is also related to the three words, ve

22:10 and ye, which means was and is and will be. And it is also connected to the verb le, which means to be. So when you take all of that, like what we did with the children earlier, when you take all of that and put it together, we believe in the ultimate re reality who was and is and always will be, who is the source of all being and is ever present. In other words, for in him, we live and move and have our being. Why? Because he is the ultimate being. In fact, I love, I almost, I almost was going to play the clip for you, but he, he even says, he uses the terminology.

22:55 He says, if you were to, if you were to look at someone who sings, what do you call them? A singer. If you look at someone who dances, what do you call them? A dancer. If you look at God, what would you call him? A bee ear. Not the kind you consume, but the one who bees. And the fascinating thing is the term beer is actually in the old Oxford dictionary as the English definition for Y va. It is very interesting. You ever wonder what the best beer is

23:44 and not too hoppy? No, I'm just, okay. Anyways, I wanted to take that. I wanted you to have that in your mind. The Lord who is the ultimate reality, who was and is and will be, and he always will be because he is the ultimate being. And I want you to keep that in your mind as we read this text for in him. We live and move and we have our being. It's quite fascinating because we think our being is defined by what job I have, uh, what color hair I have, how good am I at whatever thing it is

24:30 that I can I just tell. Can I share a secret with you? You were defined by how much of his being that you put on. That's what defines our being. In fact, Paul even references this in second Corinthians. He says, Paul says, daily, we have to die to ourself and put on the Messiah every day. What does that look like? Man, you could look at all of these. I I I just referencing back to our men's and women's Bible studies. Start with Galatians five. What is that? Uh, 15 through 28? Is that what we did? I think something like that.

25:17 Just start looking in and, and look at the evidence of the works of the flesh and the evidence of the fruit of the spirit, and see which one of those has dominance in your life, and you'll be able to define your being and how much your being is in submission to his being. By the way, those, when, when, uh, I think it's in Hebrews, when, when the author says, um, against these, there is no law against these things such as kindness and gentleness. Just think about that. Let me put a limit on how kind you can be to one another. Like if I were to say something like that to my children, y'all are being too kind to each other.

26:02 Stop it. That is every parent's dream. There is no law against kindness, against gentleness, against self-control. That's the hardest one for most of us, by the way. Okay, let's come back to the text. There's this story about epi amenities that may help us understand some context about this passage. There's a particular episode in the life of epi amenities that's related by the bi biographer. I'm gonna take a stab here at his name,

26:47 Dios Lyric, that one, that guy that is of some interest. According to this story, Athens was being attacked by pestilence, and after consulting the oracle of Delphi, the Athenians sent a ship to Crete to ask for the help of epi amenities. Epi amenities agreed to help the Athenians. He came to Athens and brought some sheep to the air, the opus. This is where Paul is, by the way, in the text, and it's an important location in Athens, also known as Aries Rock or what. You may be more familiar with Mars Hill. Mars is the name of the God of war. By the way, perhaps you've,

27:34 there are some churches named Mars Hill. This is maybe why you're familiar with the term. This is the rock, actually, where Paul is standing. He released the sheep epi amenities. He released the sheep and allowed them to go wherever they pleased. And wherever a sheep laid down epi amenities had the spot marked so that sacrifices could be made to the unknown local divinity. There epi amenities, remedy worked, and Athens was delivered from its scourge. Thus, from that day onward, visitors to Athens would find altars to unknown gods around the city. This is the origin story of the altar to the unknown God, which is what Paul encounters, I'm telling you, not

28:19 because it carries a whole lot of weight. It's just interesting to understand why something exists. So Paul, then that's epi amenities is one of them. Epi amenities was a, a poet. He now moves on to quote a philosopher. Uh, in, in transitioning to his next point, this philosopher's name was, uh, TIS, and Paul quotes him and he says, we are his offspring. So I want you to to remember the, the quote here is for in him, we live and move and have our being for we are his offspring. Paul's taking two different poets or philoso philosophers and mashing them together, by the way, is a rabbinic. Um, exercise is very common to take two different texts in the, in the TaNaK,

29:06 and to take a phrase from one and a phrase from the other, and mash 'em together to create one comprehensive phrase in him. We have our, in him, we live and move and have our being for we also are his offspring. I suspect that both of these would've been familiar to the, to the audience at hand. The poem, uh, that he's, he's referencing here with the, we are, his offspring continues on to ask Zeus to turn the darkness away from their souls. By the way, the poem is also about Zeus, again, the God in common with, with, uh, epi amenities. It's here that Paul takes the narrative that he has used to connect all of those that he's engaging with,

29:53 and he turns the narrative into a different direction. You see, Paul takes something that's going on. He take, let, let's do an exercise today. It's late in the summer. It's hot. It's, we're in Texas. School is beginning. I can reference and say the word two a days, and, and at least half of you are gonna know immediately the sport I'm dropping. And then I'm gonna say, we haven't seen a championship for three decades, and all of a sudden, everybody else should know what owner I'm talking about. Paul is dropping these phrases that are familiar to the society, drawing them in,

30:41 and now shifting the conversation a different direction. But I immediately, the moment I referenced football, I got half of your attention. And, and you weren't even paying attention up until that point. Think about Paul doing the same thing with his society. He's finding what is interesting to them. And as you remember, they like these people like to sit around and talk. I think they must have been Jewish. But anyways, anyways, so he says, we are his offspring, and he continues on. We should not suppose the deity is made of gold or silver or stone,

31:27 or an engraved image of human art or imagination. I I want you to understand what Paul's doing. He says he's taking the, the quote, we are his offspring from the society at large that they're familiar with, and now he's addressing everything that's in front of him, which are the idols. And he says, if we are his offspring, we shouldn't imagine that the deity is made of gold and silver and stone. He's looking around at every one of these deities which are made of gold and silver and stone, and he says, we shouldn't suppose that the deity is made of gold and silver and stone. Why? Because we are his offspring. Are we made of gold and silver or stone? No.

32:18 You can use reverse logic. By the way, logic finds its origin in, in, in, in Greek, in Greek, Grecian, Greco times that era. These guys are engaged with logic in all sorts of things, and he says, we shouldn't as his offspring, we shouldn't believe that the gods are gold and silver and stone, because none of us are made that way. Why would we assume that our parent, if you will, is that way? This is all in Paul's proof text. Secondly, we shouldn't suppose that the deity is a formed image of our own imagination. Why? All we have to do is look at one another

33:04 to see the image of God be why? Because we are created in his image. It doesn't take us to dream up the most beautiful, well sculpted athlete and pretend that he's our God. No, he looks like all of us combined. I mean, in some ways that'd be a funny looking God, but in other ways, you, you get the extreme beauty that that comes from all of the different ethnicities and cultures together, and you have something that's beyond our imagination. We can't even imagine what that looks like. We imagine things like this idols that are made of wood.

33:52 In fact, the, uh, perhaps there's a, there, there's a, a, a, a, a passage that Paul's referencing here in Isaiah, which is Isaiah chapter 40. It says, to whom will you liken God? To what likeness will you compare him to? An idol, a craftsman, uh, casts the idol, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashion, silver chains for it. All of that is within our own mental capacity, and yet our God remains outside of our ability to imagine. And, and if you will put a box around, he's beyond any box that you can create in this poem,

34:38 going back to the poem that, that Paul is referencing of, of, uh, ar ratis in the poem, Zeus turns the darkness away from the souls of the people. Now, Paul takes his text, his his message to the crowd, if you will, and he contradicts this idea. You see, Paul takes what they have and runs with it, and then moves to contradict it and, and to explain the, the, the true path. So in, in the passage, Zeus takes the darkness away from their souls. Here in this text, Paul moves to contradict it through these words, although God overlooked the periods of ignorance. Now he commands everyone everywhere to repent.

35:25 The onus isn't on Zeus or the Almighty. Now, I'm not equating the two, but the onus is not on the God. The onus now falls to the people to repent. It's not Zeus or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who forces us to turn. We, when we come out of our, um, period of ignorance, we have to repent. The onus is on us to repent when we, when we see the, the falseness or, or, or the way that was, that we were going by the way I want to, I wanna point out, Paul is speaking directly to, to Greeks and foreigners. There not Jewish people.

36:11 However, the text says, everyone everywhere has to repent. And in this case, Paul is not leaving out those who are within the family or the covenant or the the chosen ones of the Lord. And I'm gonna tell you that today also that is true. Whether you feel like you are a follower of Yeshua, it doesn't put you beyond repenting because Paul says everyone everywhere when they, when they emerge, uh, this period of, from this period of ignorance, the Lord commands everyone everywhere to repent. That means when you, when your sin is shown

36:58 or your error, your the, you are wandering, if you will, when it is illuminated, the onus is now on you to repent, not on the Lord, to turn you from your evil ways. That also being said, God has grace. If you've been in a period of ignorance, an extended period of ignorance, he's saying the Lord has grace for you. The Lord has overlooked it, but now you have to repent. There's no longer any ignorance. Now, everyone everywhere must repent. So we continue on in verse 31, for he has set a day

37:44 on which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he is appointed. He's brought forth evidence of this to all men by raising him, excuse me, sounds like my bar mitzvah. He has brought forth evidence of this to all men by raising him from the dead. Okay, let's break this down for a moment. He will judge through a man who is resurrected from the dead. The Lord will judge the world in righteousness, in complete righteousness through a man who has been appointed these gods that the Greeks have been serving, if you will, as they worship the Greek gods, they're petty

38:29 just like all of us. I don't know if you ever read the stories of different stories of Greek gods, and I'm telling you those stories, they backs stab one another. They cheat on their spouses with one another. They subvert one another's authority. These gods are now being put to shame because the one who will judge the world in righteousness will be a man in, in contradiction to the gods, if you will, will be a man who was appointed by the Lord. And the evidence as to who this man will be. Paul gives the evidence that that directly supports the,

39:15 the, the choosing of this man is the fact that Yeshua was raised from the dead. So the resurrection of the dead, this is an interesting thing. It's actually not within the accepted realm of either the epicurean or the stoics. That's who we're, who we're dealing. Some of the people who we're dealing with, they dealt with, how do we live our life here? They don't really think about the afterlife, if there was one to be considered. But now all of a sudden, Paul says that the judge who will judge all by, he's in front of judges. Just remember this, the judge who will judge all imperfect righteousness will be a man,

40:01 and that man was raised from the dead. Now, the text doesn't tell us that he says Yeshua's name at this point, but it seems to me like he probably would have that that man Yeshua was born, lived, died, and was raised again and ascended up to the heavenlies, and now sits upon the throne. By the way, this is what Luke says also, and sits upon the throne next to the or at the right hand of the Father. By the way, that's a Jewish man. It's quite fascinating. Yeshua wasn't, I'm sorry, Yeshua,

40:48 the phrase is not Yeshua was a Jew. The phrase is, Yeshua is a Jew because he didn't, after Ascension become not a Jew. I, I, I was trying to think of a, decided there was better ways to say what I was, had in my mind. Anyways, Yeshua was, is and always will be a Jew. That's the amazing thing. Okay? Where was I? Let's see. Yeshua was raised from the dead,

41:34 and that is the evidence that Paul gives, that he will be the judge to judge all. Now here, we have their reaction. Some begin to scoff. Others Want to hear from Paul again about it. It's interesting. We, we will hear from you again about this. I can't tell if it's a, we're actually interested or like when somebody says, Hey, you wanna come over to our house? Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Let's talk about it again sometime. I'm sorry, please, if, if I've said something like that to you, I would, I'm not trying to be offend offensive. Sometimes it's like the maybe button on Facebook when people

42:19 invite you to their event, you know you have the yes no, and there's like the maybe 'cause you don't wanna like upset them by saying no. I'm wondering if that's what these people's responses are. Here you're talking about the resurrection of dead, that's foolishness. And the others are like, oh, it's interesting. Maybe we'll talk about it some other time because there's a third group, and that third group, it says, some men joined Paul and believed, and among them was Dionysus, a member of the Council of the Areopagus. He is on the council, he's one of the judges, and he listens to what Paul says, and Paul's walked him from paganism to worship

43:07 of the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's quite fascinating, but it's interesting. Luke doesn't leave it there. Luke says, also a woman named DeMars and others with them, it's interesting, this others with them. When Luke has said this before in the book of Acts, it actually has referenced the households coming with them. So when there's you, you know, I, we talked about Cornelius, his whole household, and those who were under his command came to faith. We're not talking about five people. We're not, and like, we're not talking about, what do they call it in, uh, in America today? Um, uh, you know, the, the single unit household nuclear family, thank you.

43:57 I don't know who said it, but we're not talking about the nuclear family. We're talking about the generational family that has cousins and all of the other, you know, it's like 50 people or, or some maybe less, some maybe more. There others came with them. Maybe that's what's going on. It's interesting because we don't have another record. Paul doesn't write a letter to the congregation or the church of Athens. So most people assume that Paul isn't successful in Athens and he just leaves. But I actually would say

44:42 if success is measured by someone coming to faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then he is because he has at least Dionysius, DeMars and others with them, which are uncounted in this text. By the way, from a, from a, from a church historian point of view, there is a bishop of the church of Athens who was named Dionysius, and he was a member of the Council of the Areopagus. He was a council member. So there's historical record that that verifies Luke's record, which is fascinating. So

45:27 what does this mean for us today? I want to go back and hit on a couple things partially, which I said last week, and I want to reiterate this week, which is how willing are you to look beyond yourself? That's really, that's really the, the heart of the question. How willing are you to look beyond yourself and to see others? I don't mean I'm looking again, I can see Rocky sitting in the chair there. I mean, I can see Rocky and I know what Rocky's going through. I know what happened this week. I know the things that are influencing. How willing are you?

46:15 Because by the way, that's a lot of work. How willing are you to set your own issues aside so that you can look into someone else and see where Yeshua is already working? Because let me tell you something. Maybe, maybe this is news to you. I hope it's not, you are not the Messiah. Do I need to say it again? Maybe just for everybody's sake. You are not the Messiah. You can save no one. That's what I mean by you are not the Messiah. You can save no one. But what you can do is see

47:02 what God is doing in their life and speak to that. That doesn't save them. What it does is it encourages them and strengthens them and pushes them just a little bit toward Yeshua. Maybe it's someone who doesn't even know who Yeshua is, and you have to find in that person's life, the altar to the unknown God. But what it requires you to do is tour the person's life, to find the altar, because it's there somewhere in every person's life, there exists evidence that God is working.

47:47 Are you willing to take the time to find it because it's hard work and it requires, well, it requires an exorbitant amount of the fruit of the spirit, mostly self-control, because I'll tell you, that's what most of us lack. What is preventing? See here, right here, this is my next question. What is preventing you from seeing the image of God in someone else? You may respond, oh, I see the image of God in everyone. I want you to think of the person you are the angriest with right now.

48:34 Go ahead and think about that person. Who is the person, if they walked over to you right now, you would just slap the tar out of them. Now you picture that person in your mind, and now I want you to see the image of God in them. What's preventing you from seeing that image of God? Okay, there may be problems in between you. That's not what I'm talking about. It doesn't, I'm not, I'm not telling you the problems aren't solved or the problems are solved, and everything is, as we call hunky dory. But if you can't see the image of God in them,

49:22 then you won't ever fight to, to see the image of God in them and to see what the Lord is doing in their life. And that's often what it takes in us, is it takes a little bit of fight not to fight them, but to fight for them. Oh, you know what I forgot to tell you guys? Oh, well, my final question, and then I'll tell you what I meant to tell you at the very beginning. My final question is, are you able to learn from Paul's methods and apply them in your own life today?

50:07 Because that's a very difficult thing to do. You may say, well, Paul, Paul is just an extraordinary person. Yeah, I dare say most of you are extraordinary people. Paul became who he was because of the circumstances he faced along the way. So if you think, man, I'm in this rough time right now. In fact, let me give, I I, for some of you who are in the new members class, you'll hear this again. And if you've been in my new members class, you've heard me say it. And if you haven't, I'm gonna give you a story.

50:58 I know I don't look old to some of you, some of you I look like ancient, but I love music that's played on a record. I'm talking about a turntable with a needle. I love that music. It's, you hear scratches, you hear, you hear different elements. Maybe it's not the, what we would call the purest of the sound, but actually I think it's the most living of the sound, at least in my experience. Again, I know I'm gonna get people afterward who are like, no, no, it's this. I, to me, the record is I love the record.

51:45 And, and, and if for no other reason is for this example that I love the record. When you put the needle on the record, what do you hear? Oh, it depends on the album you're listening. You, you generally, if it's, if you're choosing your favorite album, you hear your favorite music and it's good music, and it's music that you love and you appreciate, and it perhaps takes you to another moment, perhaps it takes you into the presence of the holy one. Now, I want you to understand this about the record, that needle, when it drops on the, on the record, it sits in a groove.

52:31 And in that groove, it's ups and downs. It's peaks and valleys. Without peaks and valleys in your life, you will never have quality music. It's the peaks and valleys in your life that allow for your life to worship the Lord. You may be at the peak or you may be at the valley, which are two different experiences, but if it was, if your life had zero peak, zero valleys, you wouldn't have any music. You wouldn't have something that's not just between you and the Lord, but something that draws others near.

53:18 I went to a concert at one point with my wife, and, um, we had a moment. Both of us had a moment at the same moment, and it was, it, it was the, i, I don't know how to tell you. It was the most worshipful moment, perhaps, of my life. And I say that, and, and now I'm gonna tell you something else, and you're gonna be like, heresy. But it was not a Christian music concert. It, it wasn't even a Jewish music concert, But I I, it wasn't, wasn't Pagan

54:05 because they were, they were, the lyrics were quoting the Bible enough for me to say they're quoting the Bible, but these, these men weren't walking in faith to the best of my knowledge. And so I asked a really, what I consider to be a wise person. How was it that I experienced that worshipful of a moment in a setting that was not a setting of worship? And this wise person told me it's because they're doing what God called them to do. They just aren't doing it for him yet. It's a, it's a point of insight, which is amazing.

54:51 If you can, if you can see in someone else what Yeshua is doing in them already, then you can begin to speak to it and draw it out. But if you think the person is holy, pagan and not worth saving, and not worth being the made in the image of God, then you'll never take the opportunity to speak life into them. So see, what I want you to do is examine this week as you're going in your day-to-day. I'm going to, I'm going to do what Marcus does on Wednesday nights. The Lord's gonna give you an opportunity this week. I'm just telling you right now. The Lord will give you an opportunity in the next seven days to do this.

55:36 You have the choice to do it or to not. That's up to you. My encouragement is try it and see what happens. Maybe nothing happens. Or maybe you planted a seed or watered a seed that's already being grown, and maybe in 10 years that person's life will be totally different because you took the time to water a Venus, Shaba Sha May, our Father in heaven. Lord, we thank you for this time together, or thank you for, uh, the, this, this story in the book of, uh, acts that we have, uh, to look at. But I, I just thank you for the example that Paul, that Paul is or was in, in the Book of Acts

56:23 and through his writings. Lord, I just pray that you would guide us in, in our daily lives as we look to you. We bless you in Yeshua's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

57:33 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Sha.