SEP 11 2022 | Paul’s Second Missionary Journey S1E7 | Liberation

Sea Change Church · SEP 11 2022 | Paul’S 2Nd Missionary Journey | Ep. 7: Liberation
Acts 17:1-8
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah, he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. But other Jews were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.

But when they did not find him, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting, These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here. And Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus. When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.

Then they made Jason and the others postpone and let them go. The word of the Lord. The word of the Lord. The word of the Lord. All right, let's go. If you have your Bibles, turn it to Acts chapter 17. And by the way, up there, if you guys are hearing that fan in the background still, I can turn it off at any point. Turn to Acts chapter 17. We're kind of rounding, we've actually rounded the bend to the final stretch of Paul's second missionary journey.

Paul's second missionary journey ends in Corinth. He takes an 18-month vacation, kind of, working vacation for Paul in Corinth. But on the way there, as you remember, he gets called to Europe. And so he goes through Greece, he goes through Greco-Roman territory. It's now under Roman rule. You heard some of those names that were pronounced there.

And he actually ends up in this city called Thessalonica. In Thessalonica, he ends up going to Berea in the end of the passage. This passage is phenomenal. I mean, this passage has so much meat. We're going to dive into a lot of different things. There were so many different directions to go. I always try to think, okay, what is the Bible saying?

And what is the most practical thing that I can serve up for you on a platter, that I can put on a tee so that you can walk out of here with something to change your life every single week? So we're digging into that right now. We're going to dig into some of this context. Let me just begin reading with verse 1. When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a Jewish synagogue.

Really important stop there. Really important because, remember, as we'll see in just a moment, Paul was called first to go to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. The gospel is expanding. Since Jesus died on the cross, Jesus took it. He started with one man, started with Abraham, made them a people, and his presence, which was taken away after the fall, is beginning to expand in concentric circles throughout the world.

Now it is going not only to the Jews, but it is going to the Gentiles or to the Greeks. We'll see in a moment that there's another concentric circle that if you pay attention, you might see and you might have missed. So he went to the Jewish synagogue, as was his custom, circle custom. I'll talk to you about your customs in a minute. Customs reflect who you are.

Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days, that's on a Saturday, three basically church days, he reasoned them from the Scriptures. So three weeks he was doing that. And then he explaining and proving that Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. This Jesus I'm proclaiming to you as Messiah. Okay, we're going to break this message up in just two quick parts.

So first, we're going to look at some context. We're going to hit some Scriptures. Kind of look what's happening. Pick them apart. And then there's two foci. Now we all know that halfway through this year, summer, I learned the word foci. It is not focuses. It is not foci with AI. If you were here for the series, I've learned it's F-O-C-I, and we have two foci, meaning two things that we're going to look at.

Those basically foci are going to be, number one, that Christianity leads with a salvific message. That's going to be a point today. Christianity leads. Its first step is a salvific message. The first thing it starts with is who Jesus is. It doesn't start with anything else. It starts with that. Are we doing that? And then the next is Christianity, modern Christianity, following Christ, following whatever you want to call it, liberates people.

It liberates people from bondage. We see these concentric circles. The Greeks are being liberated into freedom. People are beginning to be liberated. We'll talk about that. But let's look at the context verse, kind of get you to Thessalonica. I want to put you in the middle of the city. I want you to see it. I want you to smell the spice markets that are happening.

I want you to see the Roman. I was just in a Roman city called Vivalanda that is in southern Scotland, and it was one of the oldest Roman cities up at Hadrian's Wall. I went to Hadrian's Wall, which is amazing, and I walked through there. One of the coolest things, they had 600 pairs of shoes that they found there. 600 pairs of shoes. And they were as nice as anything you would find, seriously, at Nordstrom.

The intricacy, it was unbelievable. So I was looking at shoes and all these things. I want to put you in Thessalonica. It's a Roman city. So the first thing here in first one, Paul and his companions were traveling through an ancient yet changing metropolitan area. Paul and his companions passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and they came to Thessalonica where there was a Jewish synagogue.

First of all, this is a multicultural city. Now, Paul was specific in where he went. Paul didn't just get up in the morning and say, where do you want to go today? Paul actually, he used a one-two punch of strategy and spirituality. So we know a couple weeks ago he wanted to go somewhere, and he prayed, and the Holy Spirit's like, no, I'm going to give you a dream.

And he says, there's a man in Macedonia. I want you to go to Macedonia. And the Holy Spirit is leading. Other times he decides he wants to go somewhere, but remember the Scripture said the Holy Spirit stopped him, or the Spirit of Jesus stopped him. So there's two things happening. One, he's strategically making decisions. The second thing is he's depending on the Spirit to filter his strategic decisions.

Now, one of the things with Paul, he always went, he always tried to go to the most multicultural place, the most political place, and a place that had roads to all other parts of the world, knowing that if he could be influential in the right place at the right time, perhaps the gospel would take spark in all those trade routes. He always went to places where there was trade routes.

There was five major trade routes and a river that were right here near Thessalonica, and all these things were happening. There were spices from India. There were things all the way from China that there was trade on the Silk Road, which came a little bit later in history. But all these things were happening, and Paul went there for a reason. The other thing Paul always did is Paul was very political, but let's just say he wasn't political the way we're political now, right?

Paul was political in that when he went and tried to speak to Herod, remember he gave his life to speak to the Roman emperor. Remember he appealed to Caesar? Well, he didn't just do that because he wanted to go talk about the road conditions on the way to Thessalonica. He wanted to win Caesar to the message of Jesus Christ. You see, when Paul was political, he wasn't political with topics, with bills or different things.

He was trying to get through Congress or the legislature or the Republic for the Romans. He was thinking the best way to do it is find political people and let them know who Jesus is. That was Paul's politics. And so he went to the city of Thessalonica. It was a bustling city. You can imagine all the Roman people that were there. Cicero was in this for a long time.

There was Justinian, all. It was a really vibrant city. The reason I bring that up is this. How strategic are you in wanting to share the message of Jesus? Do you actually think through, I want to go to this place. These are places that matter. These are places that if God made an impact through me sharing the message, could actually change the culture that I live in in that place.

So one, it's strategic. But then also, it's strategy. As George Bush said, strategery, new word that he made up. It's actually a word now in the dictionary. Strategery with spirituality. You actually have a plan. I love that. We're going to talk in a minute about his custom. Paul had customs. And one of his customs was sharing the gospel on a regular basis.

He had a custom. He did it every single week. So the next thing we're going to look at is verse 2. We're still in the context. You're in this city right now. You're looking around. You're seeing the pillars. You're seeing the Romans. You're seeing all the different people from different religions that are selling their spices. You're smelling the smells.

Verse 2. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue. So to the Jews first, remember, and then to the Gentiles. That's the way God decided to do it. And on three Sabbath days in a row, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. I love this custom idea. Customs are so important. Every one of us has customs. You might not call them customs, but you have a custom.

If you are regularly tucking your kids in at night and spending time with them, you have a custom that makes a difference. If you have a date night with your wife, you have a custom. If you are regularly sneaking away to, you know, drink when no one's looking or off to the bar or whatever, you have a custom. You might not call it a custom. But whatever you do on a regular basis is a custom.

And some of those customs help you and some of them don't. I wrote this down. It won't be in your notes today, but I wrote this down. Your customs tell us who you are. Your customs tell why you exist and foretell your ultimate destination. Let me say that again. Your customs speak to who you are. Your customs tell why you exist. And your customs foretell, often foretell your ultimate destination.

I love that. These are the customs. One of my favorite players in the NBA was Kobe. And one of the reasons I like Kobe is because not only did Kobe have talent, Kobe had a work ethic. You know, there's one thing I tell my daughter when it comes to sports. You can make almost any team if you're the hardest worker. You have to have some talent. But you don't have to be the most talented.

Work ethic matters, as was his custom. I was listening to a podcast where Kobe was on it, and he said, I found out that if I were, and I was a little obsessive, I get it. I found out that if I got up at four in the morning, I could get an extra workout in every single day. And if I added that up over a 10-year period, these are all the different workouts I could get.

I think how much more arthritis I'd actually have if I actually did that. But he had this custom. And actually, if you don't know it, Kobe actually ended up having a really deep faith. He was Catholic. He was raised in Italy. And he took communion the day he died. He'd gone to church with his daughter, and they'd had communion in the morning, got on the helicopter before they passed away.

But I will say it was that work ethic combined with talent that actually foretold, when he was young, what his possible future might be. Now, Paul, let's take it back to Paul. Let's take it back to you. When it comes to sharing the gospel, which is a liberating gospel, Acts 17 is Paul sharing the gospel that is a liberating gospel. When it comes to your life, do you have a custom?

Do you have a custom? Do you have customs in your life that are building a momentum towards sharing the gospel and liberating people? My other question is this. Who are you liberating? Who actually are you liberating? Or the only person you're trying to liberate is yourself. Or the only tears you cry are for yourself. Or is there someone somewhere that you care about?

Is there an orphan? Is there a neighbor? Is there someone with an addiction? I've been sober as of last Friday, 34 years. This last Friday, my daughter said, why did you get sober? I said, because I woke up in a gutter in Mexico and didn't know how I had gotten there. I said, it was a good wake-up call. The heart attack beforehand wasn't enough. I needed the gutter experience as well.

Sometimes you need to go even deeper. It's into your own madness. And what I found is this is the first year I haven't posted that on Facebook in a very long time. And I think I will because every time I've posted it, someone has contacted me and said, how did you get sober? I want to get sober. Can you help me? Can you have a call? Every time, I've probably posted it like six, eight, ten times.

Sometimes it's so far behind me now, I don't think about it as much of my story as I used to because it just doesn't even feel like it resonates with me anymore. But nonetheless, it gives me an opportunity to set people free. You see, we've got to make that a priority again, right? Setting people free and liberating people. And so we see Paul doing this.

Verse three, let's keep going. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Cyrus. That's good news. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Cyrus, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks. Now, here's the interesting part, really interesting. Because it says this again at the bottom of the chapter when he goes to Berea. He gets run out of Thessalonica and one paragraph later, he goes to Berea.

And it uses this trifecta again. Now, I don't know why it uses it. And I want to posit to you why I think it does. It says that the Jews believe. And then, you know, the Greeks, a large number of Greeks believe. And then it throws on this other one at the end. And quite a few prominent women. Now, my question is, if they're Greek prominent women, why not just enfold them into, like, the Greeks?

Like, the Jews received the message of Jesus. The Greeks, that means the men and the women. There's a reason why. Let me posit to you this. That God is beginning to liberate in concentric circles throughout history those that have been under the yoke of slavery. Man and woman went under a yoke of slavery because of the curse in the garden. We believe that.

We see that in Genesis. Part of the curse was the enslavement to women to a whole bunch of different things that were curses. You can read that through there. What we begin to see is, all of a sudden, the gospel, and with Jesus, begins to liberate women and validate women. Because what they experienced under the curse, if Jesus forgave us and liberated all the people on the cross, means that he has to start unfolding that.

And so that's why I'm just positing it for you to think. Why did they mention the Jews, the Greeks, and prominent Greek women? And then why does it mention it again? Let me ask this and ask you just to think about this idea because of the liberation. And the reason I'm saying this, the passage, I'm teaching the passage about what I think is happening with women.

But at the end, I'm going to come back and ask you again, who are you liberating? Who do you care about? Who are you trying to bring the gospel to and who are you caring about? When it comes to the gospel, who was the first person to hear that the Messiah was coming actually when the Messiah was coming? I'm not talking about the prophecies and Isaiah and things like that.

Who was the first person it was announced to when it was game day? It was a woman. Her name was Mary. It ended up being his mother. In the birth of, in the ministry of Jesus, when Jesus in John chapter 5 begins speaking to a woman and telling her about new life, speaking to a woman, something that he wasn't allowed to do, that the rabbis weren't allowed to do.

Remember, the disciples were a little perplexed, right? They get back and they're like, oh, he's speaking to a woman. Why is he doing that? Jesus begins to open this up again. When it comes to the first person that it was announced that Jesus had risen from the dead, let me think of who it was again. It was a woman by her name of Mary. Yeah, it was a woman.

Her name was Mary and it was in the garden. It wasn't announced to men. And it was announced in a garden. Right? A little bit interesting. I think that's a little synchronicity happening in that place. When we go to Europe and the gospel for the first time, the first convert in all of Europe, the reason you're sitting here today in a church in America with a Western theology and understanding of the gospel is because of the first convert.

It wasn't a man. It was a woman. Pastor Harry preached about it. Her name was Lydia. We begin to see, even in Ephesians chapter 5, when it speaks about Christian marriage, it says, submit yourselves, under the whole section that says the godly Christian household, submit yourselves to one another. Where it's even asking men, submit yourself in the marriage to one another.

A marriage that does not take into account what each other thinks and make decisions based on that is going to oftentimes struggle. Let me just posit that there's another concentric circle that is being liberated. If you look at slavery, something that was in the Old Testament, you see that becoming, Paul mentions, hey, if you're a slave, that's what's happening, and do your best to love God as a slave.

But Paul never says, hey, go take slaves. He's beginning to liberate it. And by the time of the 17th century, if you have William Wilberforce and Christians, and I believe it's William Pitt, I think I'm getting the first name wrong, in Scotland, it was Christians that liberated, that began to liberate and begin the abolition of slavery throughout Christendom.

The church has been liberating over and over, and it is our job to liberate. Harry made a provocative statement three weeks ago, and I thought it was one of the best sermons ever preached since I've been a pastor here. Fantastic, three weeks ago. I think all the messages that were preached while I was gone, I'm really happy to have such an incredible team.

But one of the things he said, he said that New Testament Christianity is one of the most liberating ideologies, pro-woman ideologies in human history. So he said, that's a provocative statement, right? Because there are some texts we can struggle with. But what I'm saying is, you see a continual liberation as things are happening, and in this passage in particular, you see them mentioned particularly.

Why? Because they made a difference. We'll talk about that in just a little bit. But this is interesting as it leads. Now, the final thing says this. Go to verse 5 if you would. Verse 5 says, but other Jews were jealous. Imagine that in the city. You're there, and you start seeing people. They start rounding up other people and whispering and trying to get, you know, some anxiety that it's happening and beginning to tell lies.

And you see a mob starting to form in that city. So they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace. They formed a mob and started a riot in the city. I think whenever Christianity, and when I use that term, whenever the values of the New Testament, whenever God's values, whenever Christ following, the way of Jesus, and the way of the New Testament believers takes anchor in a society that's never heard it before or is going in the opposite direction, it's going to ruffle some feathers.

Because it is meant to turn a culture upside down, to take things that are called good, that are actually evil and call them evil, to bring liberty and justice, to set the captives free. It's meant to make a change. And I wrote this. I don't think it's in your notes. A Christianity that does not radically define culture is a Christianity neutered of its purpose, its power, and its passion.

Let me say that again. A Christianity that does not radically define culture, redefine culture, is a Christianity neutered of its purpose, its power, and its passion. You know, one of the biggest problems, it's hard to radically redefine a culture when we haven't radically redefined our own lives, wants, desires, hopes, dreams. Jesus goes into the place where the religious people, his father's house, and they had turned it into a marketplace.

And what does he do? He runs in and he begins to turn things upside down. I think sometimes we need to do that in our own hearts, right? There's things that we allow. We need to have that same attitude as we go in to begin to redefine. Now, if you are going to literally make a difference in your life, in your family, in your household, it is going to cause oftentimes some pushback.

And you're going to see that. A Christianity that doesn't affect your household is one that is oftentimes neutered of purpose. It doesn't affect your own life. And it should be changing culture. Seeing that, you know, Joe was up here earlier. I think next week they have their Wave-a-thon, making a difference in communities to work with the orphans.

It's redefining. It's reshuffling the makeup. It has to have a purpose and a power. Let me just say it again. A Christianity that does not radically redefine the culture is a Christianity neutered of its purpose, its power, and its passion. Now, I told you I was going to get to my two foci. And I just wanted to say foci again because it's like focaccia, and I like focaccia, but it's actually foci.

Here they are. The first one's this. You're in the city. I've had you in the city. And now I want to picture yourself sitting at the synagogue now. It's my regular Saturday, and you can get up and speak. And it's my turn to speak. And as we're sitting here looking at the scriptures, and Jesus calling us to liberate, picture yourself there in Thessalonica.

And basically, you can actually picture Paul. And there's two things that he's doing. Number one, he's leading with a salvific message. His first step is always a step to who Jesus is, to tell people what Jesus can offer you, about the beauty of his Jesus and who Jesus is. And the second, he preaches a Christianity that liberates those under the yoke of slavery.

A couple weeks ago, Pastor Harry had a really fantastic analogy in regard to sharing who Jesus is. And if you remember, he had three letters. Does anybody remember what those letters are? Yeah, GPS, that's right. It was one of the most simple but effective ways to remember how to share the gospel. The G stood for God. He says when you're talking to somebody, the first thing you want to talk about is who God is.

It's interesting, in today's society, if you begin to speak about Jesus and following Jesus, people will regularly take the conversation to something else. They don't want to talk about Jesus. Rarely, or most people don't even know anything about Jesus. They even have a conversation. They want to talk about marriage, what's your views on immigration.

It's all this political stuff. Let me tell you what you're about. If you're a Christian, let me remind you. You were about Jesus. You were about his love. You were about his salvation for you. You were about the blood of Jesus. You were about liberation, setting captives free. That's what you are about. And as people get into all these different topics, I would suggest saying, you know, hey, maybe we can talk about that, but let's talk about Jesus.

My daughter asked me to go on a walk last night, which I'm awesome. I got, you know, a 20-year-old daughter who's asked me to go on a walk, and so we go on to a walk. And about halfway through the walk, she says, Dad, is it possible we can stop talking about the things we're talking about? Because it's really annoying. And I was like, ah. Like, she goes, what podcast have you been listening to?

I'm like, ah. Like, we're just going on this walk, and I've got, like, I'm just getting triggered by yard signs, and I'm like, I can't even walk through my neighborhood. Like, you know, and, you know, and all of a sudden I thought, I just want to get back to the basics. I want to get back to the basics and the things I speak to my wife about, the things I speak to you about.

I want to talk about Jesus. I want to lead with God. I want to lead with who Jesus is. Satan wants us distracted on everything else. Paul was political. You know how he was political? I want to see Caesar know Jesus. That's his politics. I want to see Herod know Jesus. That's his politics. Yes, he was very political. But he didn't want to talk about the issues.

There was one issue he wanted to talk about. It was who Jesus was. GPS, God. Then there's a problem. Problem of salvation. We need salvation. You have a problem. You have a problem that we have sin in the world. The only problem is we live in a world that doesn't think it has a problem. And that oftentimes steps into things that are killing them and calls them true.

And so what do we do? And what does Paul do? You wait until someone is needy. You wait until someone is in tribulation. And then you bring them a message. See, the gospel is very provocative to people in need. The gospel is provocative to people in need. I was down on Midway yesterday. It was raining on Friday. It was really nice to have the rain, right?

Wasn't that amazing? It was pouring down there. And I was down on Midway. And there's just a large group of, you know, displaced, broken people down there. But again, I complimented a guy in his shirt. And I was talking to him. And I had been preparing this message. And I thought, you know, when I come back out, I'm just going to ask him if he needs a ride.

He was at the bus stop. He was all wet and the whole thing. And I was going to ask him. I don't know where he's going. I had nowhere to be. And I got out. And he actually wasn't actually sitting there. But I began to think to myself, I want to think like that more. Who are we liberating? And not like this big savior complex. But like who needs help?

Who needs help? People in the world are desperate right now. There's so many people that are desperate. To be in a conversation with somebody and say, let me tell you why God loves you. I want to talk about that. No, I want to tell you why God loves you. Let me tell you about my Jesus. Let me tell you how Jesus has accepted me. Be vigilant about taking the conversation back to who Jesus is.

And begin to edit yourself. I have to edit myself. We're going on staff retreat this week. We leave today. We're going to have a great staff retreat this week. Just for me personally and the things we would talk about, I want to talk about Jesus all week. I don't want to talk about all the things we've got to struggle with or whatever else. I want to talk about Jesus, GPS, and the final one is salvation.

We lead people to a savior. We live in a world, I put in the notes, that claims not to need a savior from problems, but often exalts the problem as their savior. We live in a world that claims not to need a savior from problems, but often exalts the problem as their savior. We lead with everything but Christ. It's interesting. If I were to ask you your opinions on a host of trigger topics, you could probably, like many Christians, give me all your opinions.

You could give me some quotes. You could give me some zingers. You could make fun of a politician. You could make whatever. You could give it all to me. But if I were to ask you, can you give me five verses to logistically, chronologically lead someone through either chronologically or ideologically lead someone to Christ through five scriptures, most believers couldn't get past John 3.16.

They'd give you John 3.16 and that's it. Tapped out. Tapped out. Absolutely just tap out. If you watch UFC, you know what you do? When you're in a chokehold, you just tap out. And why do we tap out? Because we don't know our Bible. We don't know what we're talking about. Paul, when he went here in Thessalonica, he would teach from the scriptures. You know, we have Bibles now.

Remember, there was this thing called the Industrial Revolution and we had a printing press. And like, and there's an internet now and you can have a Bible. You can actually study your Bible. You can actually learn the message of salvation. No, I'm serious. No, I'm not even kidding you. You guys can like learn how to share the scripture with people and actually take them through the scripture and share with them who Jesus is.

It's so powerful. I want to refresh that in my own mind as well. This has got to be on the forefront. It leads. Paul always led. And not only did he have a custom to go somewhere, he was prepared when he got there. Through preparation, being prepared. So that was the first one. The next thing I see is that, and number two is this, is Christianity liberates those under the yoke of slavery.

I was really impressed by this idea of the concentric circle of women being added to that language. It really struck me. Now, this is an American Baptist church. It's one of the few denominations that was part of the suffrage movement in the late 1800s. And women in the American Baptist movement can be pastors, elders. They kind of led with that.

And they actually led because they broke with the other Baptists over the issue of slavery. American Baptists are from the north. And so they believed that, you know, there was equality for slaves and that continued on down the path. And so that is the kind of church you'll find that if you come to my DNA class. We'll tell you all about that that is happening.

But Harry made that statement, if you can put it up again. He said that Christianity is the most pro-woman ideology in all of history. Something close to that. And I began to think about that. I began to think about all those different places. And I began to think of the prominence of women in the scriptures. I began to look at other religions. I began to look at Hinduism.

What does it say about women? I began to look at Buddhism. An interesting thing I found out about Buddhism, if you're a woman, you can't be enlightened. You have to be reincarnated as a man before you can be enlightened. I don't know if you knew that. Because I thought, surely, I mean, Buddhism's got to, I mean, they're chill, right? They just sit around and Buddha out.

You know what I'm saying? Like, surely, they've got to, because they won't have any problematic text. And I get that the scripture has some problematic text that we can speak about. But I thought, surely them. And so I was going through all the different religions. And I thought, well, you know, when I look at where we end up, there is no male.

There is, you know, no female in regard to Christ. We're all children of God, it says in the scriptures. And then how God has used women in scripture and how he's used them through human history. I began to think about what Harry said and said, you know, I think it's true. But surely, modern secular feminism has got to be way more pro-woman than Christianity, right?

So I'm just, you know, if Harry's going to say this stuff, I've got to check it out. I can't let him just say stuff in the pulpit, you know? So I began to look. And I realized that the definition of feminism has changed. It's no longer a woman who believes in women's rights. It's any human. It says a human who believes in human rights. And actually, the push to take away any definition of a woman is in the highest levels of academia in our culture today.

We have people in our government who will not even define what womanhood is. Matter of fact, as you look at it, if you were going to compare the message of Christianity to women to the highest academic levels in modern secular society, you're being erased. I don't know if you know that, but feminism and women are being erased. They're losing definition.

And so as I began to think this and I began to look at what the Scripture offers and what the Scripture's calling is, I began to, something I've always led with and believed in, is seeing the power of women in the church. And so let me just give a little caveat. I'm going to speak to the women right now. Paul's ministry was filled with women. And it says over and over again that it was these prominent women that made a difference in his ministry.

And I have seen so many times where it is the backbone of women who have stood up when men haven't had enough backbone to stand up. That the church has survived so often because of the power and the progressive prayer and thought of women. And I want to say to women here that you have an open door to have a full position in ministry, to step up to the plate, to minister, to have authority here in this church, and to care in this church.

And I want to see what it says here, prominent women. Because Paul begins to, if you read the rest of his salutations, and you read the rest of his greetings and all the things that he does, more and more he keeps, I want to thank this woman. I want to thank that woman. The church would not survive without women. I can't tell you how many men have come up to me and said, dude, my wife, she just makes me tithe.

You should see how much money she makes me tithe. I've never had a woman tell me, my husband, he makes me tithe. I can't tell you how much. It's always the women. It's the women that are supporting, the women that are pushing, the women that are running the ministries. And we're working really hard to have a church with men that stand up, that you can be proud of, that have the character of protectors and provision and honor and humility and care for women and listen and see you and validate you, but also say, hey, if you need a covering and you want us to care for you and there's any issues, we're going to be there.

I had a woman recently said, you know, somebody was stalking me and this whole thing. I said, look, I've got a few brothers, my friend Joe and a few other guys and Harry and a few other guys. You let us know where they are and we'll make sure that doesn't happen anymore. You know what I'm saying? So we got you. You can come here because this is going to be a safe place.

But back to women. The Bible gives women as much as they want. As much as you want. As much spiritual power as you want. As much dominion in the heavens as you want. Answering prayers, making a difference. This matters and I felt that I should call it out today. As we look at this, there's two verses I want to say and I'm going to finish with that one thought.

Verse four. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks. And quite a few prominent women. Verse 12. If you go to Berea when he gets kicked out of the city and he ends up in Berea, it says this in verse 12. As a result, many of them believe because Paul's doing what Paul do, right? Paul going to an influential place, starting with the gospel, bringing the gospel and persuading people.

And it says, as a result, many of them believe. Now, this is a whole different city. Now, you've gotten on the bus. Actually, you've gotten on your camel and you've gone down to Berea now. So, you're no longer in Thessalonica. It says, as did many of them believe, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. It actually inverts it in that passage.

Really, really, really interesting. Let's say as we close, this week, one of the most prominent women in world history died. Queen Elizabeth died, as you know. I was in England last week. She died. I want to say, if you don't know it, she was called by God, God puts all leaders in place, to be the head of the British church. She is like the pope of the English Anglican church.

I don't know if you know that. She is the head of the church. God has made her the head of the church. She had dignity. She had honor. She had grace. I want to say, when it came to being an anchor, she was an anchor through the dissolution of the British Empire. After World War II, the British Empire no longer existed. They began the Commonwealth, whether it be Egypt and India.

It began to break up. And she reigned over that. There was what was going on with her son and Diana. You remember that. You remember all the things that she has gone through. Crisis in Ireland and Northern Ireland. All the things that she has gone through. And through it all, she was like an anchor. Like an anchor. Whatever you say, she was like an anchor.

She had dignity and she had honor. Here's what's so interesting to me. At the age of 25, she became queen. And maybe you've probably heard this this week. She says, at 25, I dedicate my life to serving the Commonwealth of all people. Two days before she died, she swore in her last prime minister. Her first, Winston Churchill. Her last, a woman, Liz Truss.

She swore her in two days before she died. And then she passed it away. I said, you know, it's one thing when you're a 25-year-old to say you're going to do something. It's another thing to do it for 70 years. And as Dave says, amen, for men as well. To say one thing, but then to actually do it. And actually stand up. I want to say what I loved about her.

It was duty. She had a life that said that duty is more important than I want for my life. You know, she didn't want to be queen. She wanted to raise dogs and she wanted to be a horse trainer. Have you seen The Crown? She wanted to train horses and do her thing. But duty called. Father died. Her father's brother, her uncle, abdicated the throne. And it fell upon her.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Do you have a duty? I think we do. We have a duty to even at this moment say I dedicate the rest of my life to leading with the gospel and to liberating others. We have to liberate them with the message of Jesus. We have to care for the poor. We have to care for the broken. And if all hell comes against us and the entire world turns upside down, then so be it.

Bring it. Winston Churchill said there's one thing to fight a battle. Four things you need to know. He says, one, always be in your stirrups. He says, two, have your hand on your sword. That's the word of God for us. He says, three, have your other hand on your reins. And four, be charging towards the enemy. And people are not our enemy. Our enemy is not against flesh and blood.

But there is a battle. And we need to move forward. And we need to take dominion. And we need to set the captives free. Let us do so in the name of Christ. Amen? Let's stand if you would. Amen. I want to bless you. Before I bless you, I want to tell you, if you need to be baptized, you want to be baptized. If you want to know who Jesus is, come forward.

We have a prayer team up here. We're going to pray for you. A lot of people came forward. I said, do not, if you need prayer, don't go home without prayer. There's prayer here. Prayer is powerful. Number two, get involved in a community group. Well, I don't want to hang out with people. I don't like people. Well, learn to like them. There's a community group.

We want everyone in a community group. It's eight weeks. See what eight weeks can give. If you don't like people, we can switch off, change another one. You might love them. So check when our community group's out. That's going to be there. We've got pizza afterwards, which we're super excited about. The other thing is I want to bless you. The Bible says whoever you bless will be blessed.

He said that to Abraham. So isn't that fun? Whoever you choose to bless will be blessed. What a rad thing. So I choose to bless you. But let's bless God to start. Let's extend our hands. One thing Harry said as well is that when we bless God, we minister to him. Let's just minister to God just quickly. Lord Jesus, we minister to you. The God who needs no ministering to, who is completely self-sufficient, loves our praises.

He inhabits the praises. You speak a word of praise to him right now. He will inhabit it. He will ride upon your praises. Oh God, I ask forgiveness. We ask forgiveness where we have failed, where we've got our eyes off the mark, where we care more about school boards or what's going on in our business or our real estate sale or the house we want than we care about telling people about Jesus.

Purify us, Lord God. And now God, I bless these people. I want to bless them with dignity, with courage, with honor, with a fever for evangelism, to edit their lives again and maybe even make a commitment to dedicate their entire lives, God, even if we've made a commitment. Once again, we are saved every day, the scripture says. It is renewed. I pray, God, that we make a commitment as a church, God.

Expand our church. Expand these people's homes as they are our satellite campuses throughout the city. Bless their homes. Bless their marriages. Bless the way they speak. If they've been speaking to their spouse, especially the men, in any way, speaking down to our spouses, in any way to our children, to others, we ask forgiveness for that and let us lead with the love of Christ.

Pray for women who heard the call today, Lord God, not believe the victim mentality of the world, God, but you've given them crowns, sons and daughters of God. You've given them crowns and let them step into that calling, God. We pray, God, that you would just continue to bring us an incredible generation of men and women to change this church and upend this world for the hope of Jesus.

In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. We love you. Go get some pizza.