Mars Hill

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Amen. If you wanna turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17, if you don't have a Bible, there should be one right around you in a seat, and there's also one on your phone, probably. There's probably one on your phone. Acts chapter 17 is where we're gonna be today, and we are gonna continue our series on Acts, the gospel movement. We're gonna be focusing today in particular on the Apostle Paul ministering in a particular spot. We have been reluctant to, well, not reluctant, but we've just been not focusing on Paul a ton. We've been kind of looking at some of the things that were happening with him, around him, things he was involved in, but today we're gonna be kind of focusing in on what he's doing here in Athens, and as we study this, just a word of warning, I'm not trying to tell everybody to imitate Paul exactly or that it always has to work this way. Just as we kind of move through this,

what I wanna just keep in mind is that these are firsthand accounts. These are meant to inspire and guide us toward a dependence on the Holy Spirit for ministry. And so if we don't do it exactly like Paul does, or it has to be this way, I don't wanna be overly corrective on that, but what I wanna do is as we read Acts 17, I really wanna keep the Spirit, the Holy Spirit as the main character, because that's the main character of the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit kind of working through. And Paul, as we're gonna kind of find out, Paul, what happens with him here is rather, I think it's rather instructive for us. I think it would help us kind of understand a few things.

And so last week we talked about Paul explaining the gospel in a way that clicked. And he did it with five different kinds of people. He did it with like a dual culture kid. He did it with a professional business woman. He did it with academics. He did it with kind of a social melting pot, and he did it with a police officer, okay? And that was all in Acts 16 and the first part of 17, or excuse me, yeah. 16 and the first part of 17. And now people are wanting to do him harm, and so he leaves. And he leaves kind of in a hurry, and when he leaves in a hurry, he's stuck there. And you can kind of see it in verse 14. So look at Acts 17, 14. It says, then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained theirs. That just means that Paul's alone. So they put Paul in a boat. They say, go over here, be safe. Silas and Timothy, his traveling companions at this point,

up to this point, were not there. So Paul lands in Athens, and he's got some idle time. He's hanging out. Now look what happens in verse 16. It says, now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. It's a very interesting thing to say that somebody's spirit was provoked within them. That's not a very normal phrasing for the New Testament. It doesn't really happen a ton. And so it kind of makes, who's provoking, right? It says his spirit was provoked within him. That means he didn't provoke his own spirit. Who's provoking him? It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is stirring up Paul's spirit to notice idols, okay? So as you can imagine, if you've ever gone to a new city, a new place, there's some things that you notice, right? You go, like I spent some time in Reno, Nevada once. I did not expect to be in Reno, Nevada.

But there we were in Reno, and I noticed how much it wanted to be like Las Vegas, but was not like Las Vegas. That it was peculiar, it was noticeable. You and I notice things all the time. We notice things on people, we notice haircuts, we notice beards, we notice new clothes, we notice these things, right? Recently, two weekends ago, I was at a concert at Calvin Plaza in Old Town. And I noticed, you could just look around and you could notice the vibe. The vibe was relaxed, okay? People were there to listen to music, to drink and to dance, maybe. But mostly they were there to listen to music. And honestly, if I had gotten up right then and be like, you know what, all these people need to hear the gospel. If I had gotten up right then, if I'd like rushed the stage and like got on, like tried to preach a sermon right then, I don't know if that would have been well received.

Now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that was not the vibe, okay? I'm pretty sure from what I noticed, that that would not have been kind of a welcome to interference. It wasn't the moment to do that, okay? It was not appropriate to do that, all right? And so when Paul is stirred up to notice these idols, what does he do? He goes somewhere so that he can talk to people about these idols. So the Holy Spirit's provoking his spirit and he's like, okay. So then what does he do? Next verse, Acts 17, 17, it says, and so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there, okay. So look at the connection between 16 and 17. 16 says his spirit was provoked because he saw all these, excuse me, all these idols. In 17, you have a so at the beginning. In other words, thus, therefore, hence there's a connection, right?

Because he was provoked, because he noticed those idols, he went into the synagogue, he went into the marketplace every day to talk to people there, because that was where to do it. So Paul goes to a synagogue and to a marketplace, but where is that for you? Paul's like, hey, I notice these things, I notice that there's something to speak into, I notice that there are idols everywhere. I notice that these people need to hear the gospel and so he goes to the synagogue and the marketplace. In our day, this could be really anywhere, any space that people talk. And so this is location, this is event, or this is activity. Location, man, people talk at coffee shops, people talk at bars, people talk at restaurants, people talk at a couple of different locations. They also talk at specific kind of events, so like ball games, practices, pickup lines, play dates.

They also talk in doing specific activities like hiking or disc golf or workshops, networking, right? There's a couple of different areas, a couple of different ways where you already are, where conversation like that, conversation about life and love and why and eternity and all of that, they make sense in that particular environment. I want you to imagine that you are at an event. Let's just say you're at baseball practice, right? You're at baseball practice and the Holy Spirit stirs you to notice a family that's broken. There's no idols, right? That's not what you're noticing. You're noticing brokenness in a particular family. Maybe they're together, maybe they're not, but you listen to their story, you ask them questions. You feel they're hurt like you empathize with them deeply. You ask if you can pray with them. They say yes, you pray with them. They say I'd love to meet up, okay?

What's happening in that moment is there is a spot for ministry in there. Right at baseball practice, right in the pickup line, right after school, right at the coffee shop, right at the restaurant, anywhere you are, right? The Holy Spirit, and here's what I want you to see. I want you to see it in Paul and I want you to see it in your own life. The Holy Spirit is constantly pulling you into a spot to minister, constantly, constantly. The Holy Spirit is constantly pulling you into a spot to minister. And what do I mean by a spot? Well, what I just said, a location, an event, an activity, whatever that spot is for you. You got a lot of different spots in your life, right? A lot of different opportunities to talk to people in your life. The Holy Spirit is constantly pulling you into those so that you can minister. Look, if you believe that Jesus Christ is on his throne,

if you believe that the Holy Spirit moves our lives along his plan to do good works, to do things in season, then it follows that the spot you're in, the spots that you find yourself in, that the Lord God in heaven has ministry for you to do in that spot. It should not surprise you when you are having a great conversation at a coffee shop, for example, and maybe you met somebody new, maybe you see somebody you hadn't seen in a long time and the conversation turns to the Lord. You got a spot. It's right there. Let's return to Paul. In the synagogue, the Holy Spirit is giving Paul a spot to share the gospel, and what he does is he goes there every day. Notice, he goes to the synagogue and he goes to the marketplace every day. It's not a one-off thing. It's not like a, I'm just gonna come by every once in a while. He positions himself there so that he can talk with people,

maybe talk with the same people day after day. And so here's what happens whenever Paul goes to the same spot. Look at verse 18. As he's preaching in the synagogue in the marketplace, it says, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him, and some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus in the resurrection. So you see the Holy Spirit now bringing Epicurean and Stoic philosophers to Paul's spot. So he's provoking, the Holy Spirit's provoking Paul or to notice something, Paul, he pulls Paul toward the spot and now he's bringing these philosophers to that spot. And look, it's so easy to get caught up in Paul's abilities right here. But let's just remember, this is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who is working on these philosophers to ask the question,

like, what do these strange things mean? Why are you telling us about this? The fact that they're curious at all is leading to what the Holy Spirit is doing. Now, at this point in the narrative, it's really interesting because Luke, who's the author of Acts, he stops down and he gives a little bit of perspective. Look at verse 21. It says, now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. This is something that Luke and probably Paul noticed in Athens, okay? And this is different than saying that Paul was provoked in his spirit. This is an observation, right? This is how the people in Athens act.

And so what does Paul do? It says, again, verse 22, it says, so Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, which is a particular hill, like it's, another translation for Areopagus is Mars Hill. So some of your Bibles might say Mars Hill instead of Areopagus, but it's a hill and it's just where people talked, right? It's all it was, a gathering place. So he stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, men of Athens are perceived in every way that you are very religious, okay? So Paul, in this moment, is recognizing and adjusting for the fact that the people of Athens like to hear something new, okay? And he's setting them up here for something new. Look at the next verse, verse 23. It says, for I pass along and observe the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

What is Paul doing? What's he doing right here? He's taking an ancient truth. He is helping them see something that is millennia years old, okay? It's a long time. It's from way back, but he's relating it to something new. In other words, Paul is looking around and he's sharing the gospel with these Epicurean Stoic philosophers. He's sharing the gospel with them in a way that clicks. And he's doing that by taking an ancient truth and he's relating it to something new.

He's taking an ancient truth and he's relating it to something new. So what's happening right here? Paul is doing this because he's really good at it. This is right in Paul's wheelhouse. This is his gift mix, if you will. This is what Paul loves to do. If you put Paul anywhere, the Apostle Paul, if you drop him in any country, he's going to notice things about where he is and he's gonna relate it to the gospel and he's gonna try to share the gospel in a way that clicks. That is what Paul does. That's how he does it. He does it by rhetoric, by relating things to other things that are interesting.

But when you look at the other people in the book of Acts, people right around this narrative, people in this narrative, they're not doing that. For example, Luke, what's Luke doing? He's just recording. Why isn't Luke preaching? Well, it's because he's doing what he's good at. He's writing, right? What about, we're gonna see this next week with a guy and his wife, Priscilla and Aquila. Priscilla's the wife, Aquila's the husband. Priscilla and Aquila, they are not like Paul. They don't go to synagogues and marketplaces and reason with people every day, but they disciple people. We're gonna see them play a pretty major part in the New Testament next week. This is Priscilla and Aquila. Timothy, Timothy, you see him pastor a church a little bit later. He pastors the Ephesian church. He's got a different gift set than Paul. But Paul is doing what he is extremely gifted at.

In fact, he's so gifted at it that sometimes we kinda get caught up and well, if I can't do it like Paul, I don't know, he's kinda the gold standard. If I can't do what he's doing like he's doing it, then maybe I don't, look, I get that. We'll get to that in a second. But I just want you to notice Paul's ability here. I just wanna go through little bits of this sermon and I wanna show you what Paul's doing as he's doing it because it's a master class. It's brilliant. And when I do this, I want you to be encouraged not to become a very gifted orator. You don't have to be some speaker, right? But you can see the care that Paul takes here.

His ability to contextualize in his spot, to explain the gospel in a way that clicks is we should notice it. And so in Athens, something that you should know, in Athens, this is not a Jewish audience. So this is, and if he starts talking about the God of Abraham, they're out. If he starts talking about like, oh, Moses, do you remember the 10 commandments? He's out. There's no grounding, there's no way that that clicks with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. So what does he have to do? He has to get to the gospel without going through Moses. He has to get to the gospel without going through Abraham. He has to get to the gospel in a different way. So here's what he says. Look at verses 24 and 25. We're gonna take like kind of bits as we go. This is Paul speaking to the men and women in Athens, the philosophers in Athens. The God who made the world and everything in it,

being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Let's just hang out for here just a second. He's introducing the God of the universe, but he's not connecting it to the Old Testament. He's not saying Jewish anything. He's saying the God who made the world and everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth. Remember what he's doing, he's connecting. He's saying, look, this God that you worship over here, because you have an idol, you have an altar to the unknown God, the unknown God. That's actually the name of the altar. He's saying, look, you Stoics, you philosophers, you worship this unknown God.

Well, Paul tells him, I know who that God is. And this is what he tells them. He says, I know who this God is. It's the God who made the world and everything in it. And he's the Lord of heaven and earth. And he doesn't live in temples made by men. He's not served by human hands. In other words, he's trying to help them understand that this God is all power. This God is different than the God that you worship. This God works on a different level than what you thought God worked at. Look at the next two verses, 26 and 27. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries for 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.

In verse 26, it says, and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth. He's not saying Adam. He's not talking about covenantal family with Abraham. He's trying to help them understand this God who created everyone and everything in it. This is how he made people to live. In fact, it's not chance. It's not chance, it's purposed. Look at what he says. In verse 26, he says, having determined allotted periods and boundaries and the boundaries of their dwelling place. In other words, what you thought was your heritage. What you thought were all these things about where you wanna live and what you wanna do. Hey, that's great. The God of heaven and earth, the God who made everything determined those things for you beforehand. Why? Why did God do those things? Verse 27, it says that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. He's about to go into a different point, but let's just stay here. In verse 27, he's helping them understand and he's saying this without saying this. He's giving them the reason for existence without saying, I know the reason for existence. He's helping them understand this in kind of narrative form. The God who created everything, allotted your life, allotted when you were gonna be born and when you're gonna die and where you're gonna live and put all the boundaries around you. Did all that without asking you, did all that for you, so that in order that you would seek him, that you would feel your way toward him and find him. What's he saying? He's saying that the God of the universe wants a personal relationship with each one of us. He's just not using those words. This is a great sermon he's preaching. I think it would preach just as well today

because it uses different words than even we normally use. Look at verse 28 and 29. It says, for in him we live and move and have our being. As even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring, being then God's offspring, verse 29, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone and image formed by the art and imagination of man. Look at verse 28 again, it says, for in him we live and move and have our being. What is he doing right there? Why is that in quotes? It's because he's quoting their poets. The Apostle Paul has taken the time to study the culture of Athens and read their poetry and even in their poetry, find. Find, like oh, this is where these poets are talking about the Lord God. This is where these poets, even without realizing it, are pointing to Jesus Christ. And he brings it out, he quotes them. Says, in him we live and move and have our being,

even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. And so he plays with this idea. He says, look, even poets who aren't even trying to make a theological point are testifying to who God is, to this unknown God that I know, that I have a relationship with, that wants a relationship with you. Like Paul is bringing all of that together. Could you imagine? Maybe you could. If somebody's preaching the gospel to you or somebody goes out sharing maybe like at a festival or something, you're talking to people and they start out with Taylor Swift lyrics. Okay, I don't know about you, but I'm in. Okay, if somebody starts quoting Taylor Swift to me, I'm like, tell me more. For some of you, Taylor Swift might not be your bag. That's fine. Maybe, you know, maybe just insert your favorite band here. But if it's your favorite band who doesn't know the Lord,

they're not singing about the Lord at all, they start bringing up your favorite band's lyrics and they say, look, even this band right here, even this band right here, who doesn't profess to know the Lord, who seems probably, I don't know, maybe even at odds with the Lord, they're still going to be reaching for, trying to discuss things, trying to hang on to truth that's real. They're trying to show us something that's true. And so if you're sharing the gospel with somebody and you bust in some lyrics, like if you bust out some Leonard Skinner lyrics as you're sharing the gospel with somebody, I knew half of you were in for that, okay? Half. The other half, you're not in. Just pick a different artist. But man, you bust out some Skinner and somebody's like, do you know Leonard Skinner points to the gospel and you're like, okay, I'm ready. Tell me everything. This ought to be great.

Okay, this will at least make a good story even if I don't believe the gospel, right? This is what Paul is doing. Paul is quoting Skinner in Burleson, okay? Paul is quoting Taylor Swift at a high school. Paul is speaking the language of the people to the people that you see. And he's taking great pains to do that. Paul didn't just whip this out. He's reading, he's studying this stuff. He's looking at the culture. He's listening as people maybe are quoting this to him. He's listening and remembering that and then quoting it back to them. And this gift, this gift is animated by the Holy Spirit in a spot for ministry. This is what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit animates our gifts on the spot.

And I mean that in that particular way. The Holy Spirit animates our gifts on the spot. And some of you might say, well, I don't have Paul's gift. I can't do that. I can't do, well, you just showed me, Drew. I couldn't do that. I don't have Paul's gift. And while that may be true, let me ask you. How do you know? How do you know? Have you ever tried to do it? You ever put yourself in a position where you had to do it? How do you know what your gifts are? The only way, the only way you're going to discover the way the Holy Spirit has gifted you is in a spot. Is when you put yourself in a position where, man, it's either the Holy Spirit's gonna animate your gifts and the gospel's gonna go out or you're gonna look dumb. Okay. You have to be able to put yourself out there to get into a spot. Let me give you the example. Let's go back to the example of the baseball practice

and the Holy Spirit has served you up to notice this broken family and you've prayed with them and you've planned to meet up. And you're like, okay, we're gonna meet at this thing at this time. We're gonna do, okay, we're gonna do that. And the idea is you're gonna talk. They're gonna tell you about things. Let me ask you, how do you prepare for that spot of ministry? How do you get ready for that? Well, let me tell you. You pray your heart out.

You go through sequences of freaking out and saying, I don't even know what I'm gonna say to this person. And then you're like, well, maybe I could say that. Well, no, that sounds dumb. Well, maybe I could say this. You agonize over what to say. You study the Bible. You ask trusted friends. You ask Pastor Daniel. You're like, Daniel, I'm gonna meet with this person. I have no idea what to say to them. And Daniel looks at you like, I don't know, man. I mean, you gotta figure it out. I'll pray for you though.

Look, it puts you in a position of fretting, of wondering what to do next. And it's because you have put yourself in that position. You've said, okay, Holy Spirit, I notice this family over here. I know they need help. I see them. I think about them. I pray for them. It's not like you got a prayer lesson there at the top. You just remember them often and you pray for them. And you ache for them and you want good for them, right? You want all of those things. The Holy Spirit's done that and then you've said, okay, you've kind of talked with them. Maybe you shared your 30-second testimony with them, something like that. And you've prayed with them and you've listened to them and they wanna meet up. What do you do? Can I just show you, I've never ever studied counseling, ever. I think counseling's a great thing to study, by the way. I just never have. I was studying other things.

It's fine. But I've never studied counseling, much less marriage counseling. Never studied marriage counseling. You can ask my wife. I am not good at it. I do not consider myself marriage counselor material. Now maybe the Lord has that calling for me, but I have not felt that provoking in my spirit, okay? I have not felt the call to marriage counseling. And I've never gotten a degree toward that or even taken a class on that. I don't even know the basics of counseling. Some of you can probably tell. However, when a good friend of mine, he came to me and he said, my marriage is in trouble. And he, oh, it was bad. And it was his fault and he knew it. I tell you what, over the next year and a half, we talked probably once a month and we would talk for hours.

And I both dreaded and loved those moments. Because in those moments, that was my spot. That was my spot. The Holy Spirit knew. The Holy Spirit was drawing me into that spot. And he empowered me. The Holy Spirit animated my gifts, small and meager as they were, to listen to this brother, to help him understand he was being stupid, which is great, but like I said, not counseling material. But it worked with him, so whatever.

But the Holy Spirit empowered me to counsel him, to speak truth to him. In a way, look, I didn't have all these really great things to say to him. I wouldn't make a book out of what I said to him. I wouldn't even put quotes on the internet of what I said to him. Nothing, nothing that I said to him was profound. Nothing that I said to him was like, I mean, I would speak scripture to him and that's profound. That's great. But I wasn't like following some master plan of healing your marriage, okay? Promise, I don't even know how to do that. But every time we talked, this guy would say to me, man, Drew, that was such a blessing to me. I took what you said. And I just did boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it was just really good. Well, I didn't give him boom, boom, boom. I didn't give him steps. I didn't tell him he needed to do it. The brother was just like hearing that.

I don't know, the Holy Spirit just told him to follow these steps, I guess. I was just talking, okay? I was not giving him steps. And a year and a half later, that guy's marriage was healed. And they're still together now. They've had a third child together. They're doing great. He's still stupid. But they're doing, all my husbands, y'all know, okay. But they're doing way better than they were. And their marriage has been healed, thanks to the Holy Spirit. Now, look, I'm not looking at that story going like, maybe I should open up shop, right? Like, oh, I wanna know, you know? Like, come on. No, I'm not doing that, right? Because it's not about me, man. It's just because I was in a spot and I prayed.

And maybe I was a little afraid, but I had, maybe I was just stupid enough to have confidence that the Holy Spirit was gonna come through. The Holy Spirit is constantly pulling you into a spot to minister to people. The Holy Spirit is constantly gnawing at you, getting you to notice things. You notice things? Sometimes you don't even say you notice things. You don't even notice that you notice things, but you do. You notice things. And the Lord is gonna give you a spot to minister to those people. The spots you already have, you're just gonna find it. And when you do, when you have the guts to say, can I pray for you? Can we meet up? How can I help? Can I bring you a meal next week? Can we read through the Bible together? Can we, I got a buddy right now. He's reading through the Bible with this other guy. And this other guy, he's not a church, he's not, but his life's kind of falling apart.

And he's like, do you wanna just read the Bible together? And I was like, yes, I desperately wanna read the Bible. I don't even know how to read the Bible, but I would love to read it with somebody. So they're reading the Bible together. They're just texting each other, reading and texting, reading and texting, okay. That's this guy's spot. He said yes to helping this other guy, right. He said yes to the Holy Spirit, pulling him into that spot. He said yes to saying, yeah, I'm gonna share my testimony with this guy. I'm gonna share the gospel with this guy. It is, it's not just a good idea. It's the only way you're gonna grow.

The only way you're gonna grow as a Christian is not by knowing more Bible. The only way you're gonna grow as a Christian is by saying yes to the Holy Spirit as he calls you into these spots. And as you find yourself in those spots, he's gonna animate you, he's gonna, and you're gonna fret and you're gonna freak out and you're gonna feel like you're doing everything wrong. That's completely normal, okay. I feel like that every day. I feel like that all the time, okay. I may not seem like it, but I do. I feel like it all the time. I feel like I've never done a good job on anything. But that doesn't matter. The Holy Spirit's not looking at me to say like, did you do a good job? No, the Holy Spirit is, does not always care how I feel about something.

Just, it's the only way that you're gonna grow. I'm gonna end with two encouragements. Two big encouragements. The first is don't miss your spots. You got them, they're there. Don't miss your spots. Do you have a friend? Do you have a friend who likes the same college football team as you? There's your spot. Do you have a friend who has a child that's your child's age and you guys get along?

There's your spot. Do you have a captive audience of any kind at all? Right? There's your spot. And look, I'm not saying like every time you gotta grab the mic and make it all the way through the Old Testament, okay. I'm not saying that. Don't be that guy. But take your spot. Listen, pray, talk. Don't miss your spots. Get off your phone. If you're at the grocery store, you may not be there just to get groceries.

Okay? Resist the fear that you're gonna mess it up. Use the gifts you have. And here's the rule of thumb. This is a bad rule of thumb. So just take it as it is. It's not worth much. If you don't know what to do, pray. If you don't know what to do next, listen. If you don't know what to do next, serve. Pray, listen, serve, then talk. And after you talk, pray, listen, serve again. Just keep going through that, right? The Holy Spirit wants to do so much work in you and it's not gonna follow a step. It's not gonna follow some protocol. It'll be messy. You're gonna feel dumb. You might say something you shouldn't say. It's okay, man. It's okay. You and I did not become Christians because people waited for the perfect moment. You and I did not become Christians because somebody had the perfect thing to say and they waited until there were enough people around and then they said it and then everybody became a Christian.

No. You and I became Christians clumsily. You and I are walking toward the Lord. Some of you might not even be Christians and you're still feeling clumsy walking toward the Lord. That's okay, man. That's how we all got there, amen? Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We all walk to the Lord clumsily, amen? Yeah. Look, we gotta feel that. We gotta know that. That is true in our bones. If you are not committed, here's my second encouragement. If you're not committed to following Lord Jesus right now, the Holy Spirit is still working on you. The Holy Spirit's still pulling you in a spot where you trust Him and sometimes, sometimes that's painful.

I know people that do not know the Lord and I pray for them to be uncomfortable, unapologetically. I pray for them to have bad sleep because they're running from the Lord and I know it and they know it. It's not because I want them to feel pain or I'm mad at them. It's because I want them to know the Lord. The gospel message, if we could kinda sum it up, like the gospel message is that the Holy Spirit is pulling on you and my encouragement is don't resist that pull. Give in and see what the Holy Spirit wants to do. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this opportunity to read your word. We pray that you would continue to make it clear to us as you pull us into different spots, as you help us to recognize the spot we're in, as you even are moving in us to listen to what you're saying now. Help us to trust you, help us to walk in obedience,

not to be perfect but to walk toward you in faith. Help us to do that, give us the courage and the strength to do that. Help us not to resist you. That's your name that we pray, amen. During our time of response, as we're about to stand and sing, I'm gonna be back there where those two chairs are, those couch, I'm just gonna be back there. And if you want, we can talk, we can have a conversation. I'd love to see you, I'd love to talk with you. I'd love to help you pray. So we're gonna do that as we sing and even after the service a little bit if you wanna come talk, that's great. I'd love to see you, let's stand as we sing.