Changing the World for the Gospel Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Changing the World for the Gospel Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 17:1-10.

Our message is not social reform. Our message is not political reform. Our message is not we’re going to fix the world. Our message is the death, burial, and resurrection. Welcome to Hope Worth Having.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and we are delighted to have you with us. Thank you for tuning in and being a part of the program today. We’re going to continue our study, Changing the World for the Gospel.

Acts 17 is our study. We’re pretty excited about learning how God worked in and through the apostles and how He can work in and through us today as we continue to impact people day by day. So let’s get our Bibles and let’s get into the Word today.

And if you have ever doubted whether God loves you, just look to the cross. The full manifestation of God’s love is demonstrated in that Christ gave His life and paid the penalty of sin for you and for me.

But we are not only called to be people who operate in the power of the Lord and the love of God, but of a sound mind. In the Greek, it has the idea of being balanced. We understand that sometimes we can get in that mindset that we are saying, what if?

What if? What if? And it only strangles us. It only causes us to be fearful. But a sound mind is a balanced mind operating in the constant faith and confidence that God is in charge. It does not call us to be foolish.

It does not call us to be reckless. It does not call us to abandon reason, but rather just the opposite. That if we are to be a courageous people that we must be a people who have a sound mind and that we operate in this faith that is balanced, a faith, a mindset that is based upon the truth rather than rumors, innuendos, or theories and philosophies that only end up to be a dead end road.

Now this call to be courage, to be courageous, we see in the apostle. I want you to go back to verse 2 and I want you to see that right at the outset it says that Paul as his custom was. What was his custom?

His custom was that he went to the synagogue. We come down to verse 10 and the Bible says again the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they arrived they went into the synagogue.

of Jews. You see, this was the plan. This is how the apostle operated. He’s already faced opposition. He’s already been chased out of several communities because of the power of the gospel, has so upset those who do not believe the gospel that their very lives were threatened.

But does the apostle give up? Does he quit? Does he hang up and they say, I’m done. I’m not going to do this anymore? No, he shows great courage. He regroups, he huddles, and he gets back at the task.

He is on mission for God. He stays true to his calling, and he shows great courage by keep going back to the synagogue, going back to be a witness for God. One of the reasons many people do not witness is because they’re fearful of what people might do to them.

They are fearful of what might happen. But friends, God has called you and I to be bold and not operate in the fear of people. The Bible tells us that the apostle claimed to the Galatians that if he lived in the fear of people, that he would not be a true servant of God.

You have to understand that God has not called you to be a person who lives in the fear of others. We fear God. That’s a healthy fear. We revere God. We have all for God. We have great reverence for our God.

We recognize him as holy and righteous. We recognize him as high and lifted up in a mighty God. But when it comes to people, we operate in the power of God, the confidence of God, the strength of God, and we refuse to back down from the truth because we know that Jesus said the truth will set you free.

Yes, it will. all the boldness of Peter and John and perceive that they were uneducated, untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus. That’s a key. That we are to be with Jesus and that this fuels the boldness and the courage.

God has not called you to be obnoxious, hateful, or rude, but He certainly has called you to be courageous, to take a stand for what is right and to speak up, stand up and do not be afraid of what the world can do to you.

The Apostle continued for the Lord despite great opposition and terrible persecution. People who do not understand the gospel sometimes react in emotional ways and they get very upset. Just jump down to verse 23 and I want you to see something here real quickly.

Verse 23 of chapter 17 of the book of Acts. here the apostle has stood up and he is helping them to understand that their religion will not save them but they happen to have this great list of idols or gods and one of them is named the unknown god so we pick up in verse 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown god just in case we got the wrong god we got an unknown god to make up for the wrong god how about that one that’s the way they operated and so the apostle continues and says therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you what a beautiful opportunity that the apostle takes in verse 24 says that god who made the world and everything in it since he is the lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in the temples that are made with hands now let’s jump down to verse 29 verse 29 therefore since we are of the offspring of god we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone something shaped by the art and man’s devising the apostle is trying to help them understand what it means to have a relationship with god and he’s not afraid to tell them in the midst of a large crowd in the midst of a dominant society that worships multiple gods and everybody pick your own religion and just in case we got the wrong religion we got one over here it’s a backup plan and it’s called the unknown god what does the apostle do he steps into the gap and he steps up into the vacuum and he speaks up and says hey this unknown god let me tell you about him his name is jesus christ that’s how powerful and courageous the apostle is so you might ask how do i build courage into my heart let me give you three things real quickly three things how do i I build courage into my heart,

pastor. God is calling me in these unique times to be courageous, like the apostle to speak up and stand up for him. Let me give you three things. First is faith. And when I say faith, I mean trust. I mean trust in God.

I mean trust in God. I want you to take your Bible this morning and I want you to jump back to the book of Psalms. Psalm 27, many of you know this wonderful passage of scripture, but I just wanna read a few of them.

Come with me to Psalm 27. There’s nothing like visualizing the reading of the scriptures. Psalm 27, we’re gonna read verse one through three together. I want you to make sure you mark this and take time to spend more time in Psalm 27 this week.

The Psalmist says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? afraid when the wicked come against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not what, church? The war may rise against me. In this, I will be confident.” Now there’s much more to be said and we certainly can’t take all of our time on this chapter but I want you to know that we are encouraged over and over in the Bible to have faith.

You could maybe say trust or even confidence. You gotta have confidence in God. You gotta have trust in God. Now the only way that I can have trust in God is get to know God, is to spend time in His word, it is to spend time in prayer, it is to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The more you know God, hear me, the more you’ll trust Him. Have you ever met someone the more you know them, the less you like them? I’m not talking about your spouses, okay? I’m sorry they didn’t tell you everything up front before you got married, but here we are.

But I just want you to know this, the more you know Jesus, the more you will love Him. You will never be disappointed. People will let you down in life but Jesus never does. And I wanna be real with you that there may be times that in my frailty and my selfishness and sinfulness that I may let you down, but Jesus will never let you down.

So I wanna encourage you to have that kind of faith. Here’s another one, how to build courage is purity in my life. It is purity. Again, I want you to take your Bible and go to 1 Peter chapter two. That’s in the back of the New Testament, certainly not in the book of Revelation but you can back up from the book of Revelation, 1 Peter chapter two.

Again, I want you to see this because I think it’s important in helping to build courage in our life, 1 Peter chapter two verse one and two. 1 Peter 2, verse 1 and 2, verse 1, therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

You see, if my heart is filled with filth, if my heart is filled with sin, it’s hard for the milk, the purity of God’s word and His truth to infiltrate my heart. That’s why the Bible says lay some of those things aside, that malice, that bitterness, that deceit, that hypocrisy, that envy, that evil speaking about others, put it all aside, get it out of your life so that there’s plenty of room in your heart that the pure milk of the word of God,

there is nothing that will help build courage in your heart that win your heart. is in alignment with God almighty. You don’t want a heart that is filthy. You don’t want to have a heart that is dysfunctional.

You don’t want to have a heart that is tainted with the sins of the world. Rather, God has called us to keep short accounts with Him and to repent daily of any sin in our life and to make things right with God and to make Him right with others.

You will be more courageous when your conscience is living in a clear, pure way before God and before others. When you are making things right with others and making things right with God, He is gonna use you in a courageous way in your life.

Let me tell you a third way how to build courage in your heart, and that is through hope. That is through hope. Again, I know you’re tired, but hang in there with me. Romans, go to the book of Romans, right after the book of Acts, Romans chapter five.

You say, Pastor, can’t you just throw these verses up there? I think you’re getting a little lazy. So I’m gonna have you exercise your fingers today. Romans chapter five, I love this, verse one. Romans five, verse one, therefore having been justified by faith, not by works, not by religion, but by faith in Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have accessed by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in what?

Hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulations produce perseverance and perseverance, character, and character what? Hope. And if you didn’t know enough about hope, how about verse five?

Now hope does not disappoint. Doesn’t let you down. The hope of God. Because the love of God has been poured out into the hearts by the Holy Spirit. Spirit who has given to us. So these things help us build hope into our hearts.

The apostle was driven. He’s a driven man to carry the hope of the gospel to as many people as possible. It didn’t matter what he had to endure personally, physically, emotionally. He just wiped the dust off his feet and he just kept plowing forward for God.

I want to give you a second characteristic of those who changed the world, and that is a message, meaning the right message. We go back to Acts 17. You got to have the right message because there’s nothing more disheartening than someone to have the wrong message.

But the right message in verse 2 and 3, we see that the apostle spent time reasoning, explaining, and demonstrating what was the message that Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead. that Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.

Jump down to verse 11. He’s now in Berea, having been chased out of Thessalonica because of the riots. He’s now in Berea, verse 11, these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica. How about those people?

In that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed and not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well, as men.

So he goes on to tell us that there was great results and why is there great results? Because there is the right message and the message for us church, hear me, our message is not social reform. Our message is not political reform.

Our message is not somehow that we’re going to fix the world. Our message is the death, burial, and resurrection. I know you want to fix people. I know you want to fix these things that exist, but hear me, you can’t.

Only God can change your heart. And God changes hearts through the power of the gospel. So it’s important that you understand that you have the right message because what a person believes determines everything that they become and do.

What a person believes, the Bible says, as a man thinks, so is he. My attitudes, they are the ones that drive my actions. My character influences my conduct. And so I want to make sure that my thoughts, my beliefs, they impact my behavior, and I want to make sure that those are in alignment with the right message.

We see that Paul explains. He proves. Paul does not just get up there and emotionally rattle off some kind of a new religion but ravage. he proves, he defends, he is the one who’s making sure that as he is explaining and reasoning with the unbelievers that all their questions are answered to prove that Christ did suffer and that he did die on a cross and he did rise again.

Now the natural response of the human heart is get out of here, that’s unbelievable. That’s unbelievable. But yet you and I are called to explain the scriptures and that’s the key, that when Paul was reasoning, when he was explaining, when he was demonstrating, he was using the scriptures to help people to understand because here’s what I want you to know, church, faith comes by hearing and hearing the what?

So do not underestimate the sufficiency of the Bible, do not underestimate the power of the Bible. Okay, you may try many other means to persuade minds, but they’ve all been tried and found wanting and the real truth and the real power is in the word of God.

So Paul’s message was logical and it addressed to the minds and the hearts of those who would listen. Do not be discouraged church, that as you are out there sharing this right message and what a profound time to be able to do that right now.

Yes, you will have some resistance. Yes, there will be opposition and there may be some people get hostile and upset, but friends, you keep telling the right message. God will work in hearts, He will open eyes and He will bring spiritual breakthrough in those who are responsive.

His plan, the apostle was wise. He first reached out to those who were already familiar with the scriptures. What did we see? When he went to Thessalonica, when he went to the Bereans, he went where?

The synagogue. They already had a foundation of the Old Testament and then he went to the Jews and he also went to the God-fearing Gentiles. They had a sense of religion and a sense of what the Old Testament taught and Paul used that to build upon his message.

So many times that we’re making the mistake that we’re trying to convince those who have no foundation and I’m not saying we shouldn’t, but I’m also saying don’t forget that the first plan begins with those who have the foundation.

They have the foundation of the Bible. They have the foundation that they respect God in their hearts. They may not have a relationship with the Lord and they may not know Christ as their savior, but they have some kind of a foundation.

That’s why your family is where it starts. That’s why it starts with those that you know. That’s why. You want to share Christ at that beginning and then watch that ripple out, watch that have an profound impact upon others’ lives.

Now, how can a Christian know God’s word in such a way they could use it effectively? Well, let me just give you three things here real quickly. Be diligent in your Bible study. Look, church, you gotta stay in the Bible every day.

You gotta walk with God. You gotta spend time reading, studying the Bible. You gotta carve out that time. I know. I mean, look, some of you, I mean, you know everybody’s posts. You know who posted what, and you could tell me for the last five months who posted what and what they posted.

But let me ask you something. Do you know the Bible? Because you see, you’re not measured. God’s not holding you accountable about how much time you’re spending on social media. But we as believers are accountable.

to how much time we spend in his precious word. There’s no better post than the post that was made in God’s word. Nothing better. I’m not against social media. You’ll find Pastor Mike there. I put a post up and I get out of there before the devil gets me.

They bad? And sometimes someone will say, well, did you see that post? I have to be honest with you. I rarely scroll down looking for somebody else’s posts because most of it is everybody just venting about their issues.

Okay, don’t vent on social media. You got to move forward in your life, okay? I mean, that’s like hanging your dirty laundry out. Don’t do that. You got to be a person who is positive and joyful and full of hope.

Now, be diligent in your Bible study. How can I use God’s word effectively? Be committed to live the Bible. Now see, if you sit there and claim to be a Christian, but your life does not match up, it’s not that God wants us to be perfect, but certainly the direction of our life is that we’re striving to be as real and authentic with our faith as possible, right?

What turns people off is hypocrisy. What causes people to reject the gospel is they see some kind of a different life and what you and I need to strive to do. Now look, some of you parents, you’re gonna make mistakes.

I have made mistakes as a father and we make mistakes, but you got to be honest with your children. And when you fail, don’t be afraid to apologize. When I call you to authenticity, I’m not calling you to perfection.

I’m calling you to be real. And if you said something you shouldn’t have said, if you did something you shouldn’t have done, and if you promised something you never fulfilled, then be real and say, look, I blew it.

And I’m asking you to forgive me and I should have been better. I should have been better. Listen, this is what we understand. Redemption is what the Bible is all about, but be committed to live your life as close to God’s word as possible.

Let me tell you. third way, how to use God’s word effectively, teach the Bible to others. I have had so many people tell me, boy, when I became a teacher, when I began to lead a Bible study group, when I led a prayer group, that’s when I really grew in my knowledge of the Bible.

And I want to challenge you to think that way, and I know some of you will never teach a Bible group, and that’s okay, but I want to challenge you, at least try to teach it to your children and your grandchildren, or maybe somebody that you know, somebody’s asking questions in your life, it can be one-on-one, it can be in a group, or it can be in whatever scenario God gives you, but don’t be afraid to teach the Bible.

The third characteristic is multiplication. Now, in verse 4, we see that there was a great multitude that responded in chapter 17. Verse 12, I already read to you, there was many that believed. I want to tell you that what we’re seeing here is the apostle is multiplying.

Himself, those who want to influence the world for Christ must recognize they cannot do it alone. That’s what we see Paul doing. He’s not doing it alone. And we love that great verse in 2 Timothy 2.2 that says, the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Who are you mentoring? Who are you discipling? Who are you trying to influence? You say, well, I don’t really have a big platform. You don’t need a big platform and you don’t need to be a great influencer on tikki takki.

All you gotta do is be genuine and notice that there are many people that are in need of a mentor. I stand here on the shoulders of others because people took an interest in Mike Sanders as a young boy, as a young man.

And they said, let’s do our best to be a positive influence in their life. So I’ve told you this before, write it down because you were sleeping, you didn’t pay attention. You forgot your notebook. So pull out your Walmart receipt or some of you go to Target, wherever you go and write this down.

You need three relationships in your life. You need an apostle Paul, a mentor. Pray, God, give me a mentor. Get plugged into a Bible study, get plugged into different ministries and build these relationships where you can have mentors.

I asked people, would you be a mentor to me? That’s what I did. I asked people, would you be a mentor to me? And I still have mentors today, but you also need a mentee. You need a Timothy in your life.

You need someone that you can pour your life into, that you can be that discipler, that you can be a positive influence in their life, that you can help them to make great choices and good decisions.

And then thirdly, you need a Barnabas. You need an encourager in your life. I mean. I mean, you walk through life and you get dragged down, you end up in the mud and you get beat up a little bit and you wonder, man, how are we gonna make it?

Man, isn’t it wonderful to have an encourager in your life? When you come to church, don’t be complaining. Don’t complain. I want to challenge you. Don’t find anything that you see to complain about.

Refuse to do it. Say, God didn’t send me here this morning to find fault. He sent me here to bless others. Amen. I want you, you see, you found a lemon. Let’s make some lemonade, amen. Let’s be positive.

Let’s encourage God’s people. Let’s find ways. Well, you know, this didn’t happen. And you know, that didn’t happen. Or that was the most boring sermon I’ve ever heard in my life. I know, I hear you, buddy.

You don’t have to be the one that has to deliver the most boring sermon. You know me? This will be my final point, endurance, and I only have a few thoughts. Now, what we see here is that Paul kept enduring.

We must not allow opposition to stop our witness. The remaining verses show the response of many to the gospel, and it’s because Paul wouldn’t quit. If Paul would have given up in chapter 16, we wouldn’t have chapter 17, and we wouldn’t have chapter 18.

And if somebody would have given up and said, you know what, you know, I told you church that I was a bus kid, and I know you’ve been wondering what’s wrong with me, it’s because I’m a bus kid. I got saved through the bus ministry, but I guarantee you there were times they got up and somebody forgot to put the gas and the fuel, and somebody maybe forgot to warm the bus up or maybe they had to scrape the window to get the ice off.

But they kept enduring and they kept picking up Mike and they kept picking up my brother and my sister. And today, because they wouldn’t give up, we’re all connected to Christ in a local church, serving God, married to Christian families, have beautiful children and spouses.

And all I’m trying to say is that someone down the road wouldn’t give up, and so in order to have a chapter 17, there had to be a chapter 16, and there had to be these people who just kept enduring. And here’s what I want to leave you with, church.

Galatians 6, 9, let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Would you pray with me, church? Last week, we proposed the question, what characterizes a person who changes the world for the gospel?

And we learned that it was beginning with courage, and that’s what we see in the apostles. They were courageous men who were not afraid to stand up and to speak up for the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we also learned this week that courage is to be coupled with the right message.

It’s not enough for us to just be courageous. We’ve got to have the right message, and the message is not politics. The message is not social gospel, but the message is the true gospel that calls every person to repent and to believe in Jesus Christ.

It’s this message that turned Nineveh on its head and caused the king to call for a citywide repentance. And so I pray that today that God will use each of us to help change the world for the truth of the gospel and to bring glory to His name.

I want to encourage you to check us out on our website, hopethhaving.com. And in hopethhaving.com, we have a list of the different TV times and radio times that we are broadcasting. And so if you’d like to keep up, no matter where you’re hearing us, you can keep up with these different times.

And we’re pretty excited because we’re now launched in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and we welcome all of our new listeners there and hope that you’re enjoying and growing as we minister through the Word of God to you.

And this is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.