SEP 25 2016

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · September 25, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happen to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, what is this babbler trying to say? Others remarked, he seems to be advocating foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Aeropagus where they said to him, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears and we would like to know what they mean. All the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking and listening to the latest ideas.

Paul then stood up in a meeting of the Aeropagus and said, people of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walk around and look carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, to an unknown God. So you are ignorant of the very thing that you worship. And this is what I'm going to proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man, he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth. And he marked out the appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image built by human design and skill.

In the past, God overlooked such ignorance. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man that he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. But others said, we want to hear you again on this subject.

At that, Paul left the council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysus, a member of the Aeropagus, and also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Drea? Here you go. Hey, good morning. Good to see everyone today. Hey, did you notice Paul's expertise at leveraging the thoughts, ideas, and culture of the day, and then steeping it with the gospel?

Did you see how good he was at saying, well, your poets say this, or I've seen when I walk around town that you have all of these gods, and that there's this one that doesn't quite have an answer for who that is. Do you see how he's constantly looking at what is happening in the society, and then being able to leverage that to share the final piece of the gospel, to share who Jesus was?

You know, if you've been following in the book of Acts here over the last, I guess, few months, we actually started at the beginning of the year. We're going to do a three-week sermon series coming up starting next week on generosity, and then moving back and finishing the year in the book of Acts, and then moving on next year to some new thoughts.

One thing that is exciting, Josh McDowell will be coming January 7th to the church here, so that'll be exciting. Can you believe it? A D, isn't that amazing? Wow, I know, what? Yeah. So Josh McDowell will be here January 7th. We're excited about that. I think this message today, I've been chewing on it all week, and as I've been thinking about the vision for our church, where is God calling us to go, and how is he calling us to make a dramatic difference, not only in our own individual lives, but to the four corners of the earth?

I don't know about you, but I feel that if we are not setting that as the goal, then I feel like we're just wasting our time. I don't want to spend my life serving the gospel to get to the end to find out that I missed the point, or as they would say in skiing terms in French, it would be off-piste is what they would say. I mean, you got too far off the track and into the woods, and you've lost your way.

Paul was not losing his way. Paul was starting a journey. Remember, he's going to Macedonia. Now, he had somewhere else he wanted to go, and he had sought God, and you can be assured that he had sought God on that, but then the Holy Spirit stopped him twice, it said. Oftentimes, God will stop us, and we'll feel like we're out of God's will. We have a desire.

We feel that God has said something. Jim, would you close those, please? We feel like God has said something to us, and then we go in that direction, and then when that gets ended or when God stops that, then we feel like we're out of God's will. Not the case always. God is directing us along the way, and maybe God has closed some doors for you, but instead he's opening other doors, and the doors that got opened for Paul were doors to Macedonia.

The Scripture even said that there was an open door, and Paul comes back and speaks about the open door to Macedonia. Well, this is a key open door because this door goes to the West, and the West was being built off Greek thought. The West was being built off Roman technology, and that Western civilization that was being built, very interesting when Jesus came, the timing of Jesus coming was phenomenal.

The Romans had set up the entire culture to spread the gospel to the Anglo-Saxons and all the way up to the Celts, and all the way through that when Jesus came, he came at a perfect time. Roads were being built, aqueducts. God had prepared a way for the gospel to move forward. So Paul goes to Macedonia, which is Greece, and begins what it says in your notes.

Let me read this. The gospel was beginning a world tour that would lead more than 2,000 years and change the entire culture of the world. The entire culture of the world, Western thought, has been changed because Paul saying yes and taking one step in the direction of Macedonia. Now, others were going. Other Christians, because of persecution that was happening, were being spread throughout the world.

But Paul, in particular, going and having the ability to leverage Greek thought for the gospel, which is important. So important in our culture today. We look at ideas, and we oftentimes just say, hey, those ideas are against God. I shut that idea down. I don't want to have nothing to do with it. I won't talk about it. You're wrong. Here's a Bible verse, and get out of my face.

Paul did not have that strategy. Paul would come to our culture and look at the arguments of the day, the tweets of the day. He would go on Facebook, and he would look at these arguments and then learn how to share in such a way that would be intriguing, so that people would either say, come back and share with us, or they'd stone him. That actually happened a bunch to him.

You know, Paul was up for a good stoning on occasion. What's interesting is it would take 400 years for this cultural change to fully get indoctrinated into the culture. And whether that was a good thing or not with the Roman church and the Roman government, excuse me, not the Roman church, but the Roman government accepting Christianity would take 400 years.

Paul's idealism or ideology of kingdom change did not revolve around one election, did not revolve around one Caesar. You would see hundreds of years after Paul died, Diocletian would come, and he would persecute the church, perhaps like no other. That was in the same time during this 400-year period, that when God sees history, he doesn't see it as a day.

He sees it as he's working it out, just like he sees your life, to his conclusions. It would be 400 years, but Christians, over and over again, would take the gospel, the message of Jesus, and then they would inculcate it with world change, by caring for the poor, by caring for orphans, by caring for widows. And people saw that these people had a lifestyle that backed up what they said.

Here's what's interesting, that oftentimes we are tempted to just have the lifestyle but never talk about the cross, because it's too offensive. Or we just talk about the cross constantly and throw verses at people, but have no life that really backs up what we say. How do we blend that together like they did, where 400 years later, the gospel is churning to the point where the entire society is changed?

Here's a key point. Christianity, Walter Rauschenbusch, from the early 1900s, said this, and I don't know if it's on the screen. Christianity by nature is revolutionary. Let me say that again. Christianity by its nature is revolutionary. It comes in and it intersects cross-culturally in a way that demands that the society be changed in the name of love, in the name of grace, in the name of kindness, and in the name of Jesus.

It is revolutionary. Let's talk about some of the great revolutionaries of our time. Jesus, an incredible revolutionary, just shook up the entire place where he lived, shook up the religious order, shook up people, offered a gospel to broken people where they had had no hope, where there was a religious intelligentsia, there was a phariseutical culture that said, you cannot enter, there are walls here and you cannot enter this.

And Jesus came and said, come unto me, give your burdens unto me. The broken found peace in Jesus. He was a place that they could go to. He was revolutionary. He was coming and I'll tell you, the people in power do not want to give up power. Just read your history books. It doesn't matter where we are. China, it doesn't matter where we are in the world.

When people have power, even church people, they often don't want to give up power and share power. When Jesus is coming in and saying to the poor that you can come unto me and beginning to give up a social revolution, that upset and caused people to be jealous. Paul in the book of Acts says that over and over again. They were jealous, they were upset, and they did not want to give up their power.

Another revolutionary, Mother Teresa. Incredible revolutionary. Shook up the politics and the caste system. If you go to India, you will know about a caste system that has layers and levels of society and this level. It's the same thing that Jesus had in his culture. And she began to shake it up. Well, if you know, the lowest levels of the caste system go and they are servants of the rich.

And so Mother Teresa, by coming in, was changing that system, trying to abolish a caste system. She was a revolutionary. Revolutionary change because she spoke the message of the cross, but she also followed it with actions. A.W. Tozer, perhaps you've read A.W. Tozer. He has a book, but he says this in his book. Faith should be disruptive. Okay?

Faith should be disrupted. I'm not saying that you're marching, although there might be a time when you do need to march for the poor. And if you look in South America, there was a time, if you look at some of the gospel movements in South America, where the Christians rose up and began to march for the poor, for the broken, for those, the disappearing.

And if you know about the history of disappearance, of people just disappearing and being kidnapped, they marched. But A.W. Tozer said it should be disruptive. And let me talk about the four places where it should be disruptive. The first is in the corner of your heart. If Jesus isn't disrupting your life and making it easier but more difficult, harder to follow, change, then it is not being disruptive enough.

One of the things I put on my Twitter account recently is I don't like or agree with everything Jesus commands me to do. There's a lot of things in the Bible I don't personally agree with, but I still believe they're right. Can we have that option? I don't know if you've ever been allowed that option. But I look at certain things and I'm like, I don't like that.

I wouldn't do it that way. I disagree with that. But the Word of God says it. And I want to be an obedient servant of the King. I want to follow Him. So it has to disrupt your heart. Second of all, it has to disrupt the area in which you live. And so I want to see the culture of La Jolla disrupted. And by that, I mean I want to see less emotional illness in La Jolla.

Paul looked at the different things that were happening in society and he wanted to make a difference in society. And while we do have poor in La Jolla, while you will see the homeless, I think we have the number was 122 homeless people in La Jolla when they did a count or something like that. You probably know some of the prominent ones. There are other, there are other, Big Sean.

There are other, and by the way, if you're fanning yourself, we're going to get fans in here too. So that will be part of our campaign that we'll be talking to you about on the weekend because it is getting warm. But if you look at the homeless, you'll see that is something in La Jolla that matters, but it's not as big of a problem as I think are the emotionally broken in La Jolla.

I want to see those that are emotionally broken with anxiety, depression, fear, I want to see that healed. I want to see we have a culture that health-wise is being broken down with cancer and all the different things that are happening. I want to see that change. I want to see La Jolla, the things that really affect us living in La Jolla changed.

I want it to be disruptive in La Jolla. I want people to know God and to know who Jesus is. Thirdly, the place where you live. Is your neighborhood being disrupted? Yesterday I was walking down the street, and we have a lot of Jewish families in our neighborhood, and I'm reminded the gospel says that the gospel goes first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.

And we have acidic Jews, and he had a great hat on, big, wide, flat, brim hat, super cool, super hipster. And he's rocking down the street, and generally they won't, the Jewish people that live in my neighborhood, and there's a lot of them because they walk to synagogue on Saturday, they generally often won't say hi. I think, I don't know why, but they'll just, indeed, you live in that neighborhood, they often won't say hi.

And so I'm teaching Lily how to skateboard a little bit and to do that, and he walks by with his family, and I go, hey, what's going on? Well, I would have shocked him. He says, hello. I said, how's your Shabbat? You would have thought, seriously, I don't know if anybody has ever asked him how his Shabbat was going that wasn't in the community, okay?

They're dressed in black and the whole deal. He goes, fantastic. And he's got a thick accent, thick accent. So he must be from Israel, I'm thinking. It doesn't must be, but he's there, and he said, fantastic. I said, how was your Shabbat meal? He goes, great, last night. And we have another one tonight, another meal tonight. I said, fantastic, that's awesome.

I talked to him, met him. He said, this is your neighbor, Moe. And I said, Maury? No, Moe. And I said, okay. So met him. It's disruptive. No one says hi to the Jewish people in my neighborhood. Do you live there? And they don't say hi to me. Everyone walks by, and we all do our little thing. I want to disrupt it. Hi, how was your Shabbat? Do you have any recipes?

I need some kosher recipes. Matter of fact, I'm going to ask for a kosher recipe for Thanksgiving. Disruptive. Disruptive. I just skate with my daughter. We'll be surfers. You be Jews. And we'll just do our own little thing. Disruptive. Disrupt the world. Disrupt your neighborhood. That's all it takes to make a change. Here's the main course today. Sharing the message of Jesus in Western world has come full circle.

And understanding Paul's methodology is crucial if we were to create a great millennium of Christ followers. Now, I hesitated on using the word great because you could look at parts of Christian history and say that wasn't so great. Colonialization. Government. Getting into the church. You can see a lot of things. But for the most part, a lot more people know about Jesus because of what God has done through this Macedonian journey.

And I believe that it was great in so many ways, but I do understand it's false. And so if we are going to have that, we have to understand Paul's methodology. Sharing the message of Jesus in the Western world has come full circle. If you were to read T.S. Iliad, one of my favorite quotes, it says, In the end, we shall return, after all of our wanderings, to the place that we have begun.

And then, only then, will we truly know it for the first time. What I mean by, as Christianity started as the underdog, became the champion, became the bully in a lot of ways, is losing its footing and is now closer to where Paul was going to Macedonia in the West than it has ever been. Full circle. And I believe that if you understand how Paul reached out to the Greeks and the Macedonians at that point, you will have a template for how to be just as effective today.

And do you believe that it is possible to have another great awakening? Do you believe it is possible to have another revival? Do you believe that after the period of the 60s, that God moved in in the 70s and 80s, and the youth group movement was born, and Calvary Chapel, and Vineyard, all of these things happened after the 60s, and I wasn't around except for the last year of the 60s.

But if you were around, can you imagine how the people who went to this church, who sat in these pews, looked and said, It's all going to hell in a handbasket. There is no hope. Vietnam, racial tension, Watts riots. Does it look familiar? But in the midst of that, some people believed, and the Holy Spirit began to move, and God came and brought a gospel social revolution.

It began to move. Can it happen again? Of course it can happen again. Let's not give up. Let's change those four corners. Full circle. Here are some things that Paul was experiencing, and I know we haven't gotten to the text yet, but I have to set this up because it is crucial for my message over the weekend and where we're going all of next year. First of all, sexually, the culture that Paul was going to had no sexual boundaries.

If you look at Rome at a time that they had temple prostitution, they actually had laws set up for pedophilia. I don't know if you know that, if you've studied that, of how you could have sexual relationships with children, but how to do it in a way which was not illegal. And if you don't understand that, that was part and an accepted part of culture.

And we have to believe that there is no boundaries because sexuality, outside of commitments, outside of covenants, outside of what God says, has no boundaries. It will always lead to the next thing because we have a law of diminishing returns that is true in our nature. That if your sexual relationship is based on a committed relationship of getting to know a person and the understanding of who they are as a person, that can be fleshed out, and you can continue to have sexuality meet its full destination.

in knowing the other person, the intimacy of knowing a person. But when sexuality is just about sexuality, when it's only about the next fix of sexuality, there will be no end. It will look for the next thing, the next fix, and you'll see it will go on and on. And so if you look at different things that are happening in our culture, you'll see that more things are being added to what is allowed sexually.

Even if you look at the different things in culture, it just does not end. I'll just end at that. I'm sure you have eyes. You can see the culture. The next is, religiously, they were pantheistic. Not only did they worship creation, but they believed that all ways of finding God, whatever God you wanted to serve, worked. Even if those ways intersected or were contrary to one another.

That doesn't make sense. Even if they were contrary to one another, they still agreed with it that you could have that. Actually, that's impossible. You can't say that all things are okay, even if they are contrary to one another. Paul understood this, and he dove into that thought, the idea that there was an absolute truth. The second we see is an adherence to the most modern ideas and ideologies.

In verse 21, we are getting to the text now. Verse 21 says this, All the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. I want to say we live in a culture today where opinion is king and where morality is being defined constantly by a changing consensus. Our morality is being changed regularly because of a public consensus.

What do the most people think? And if the most people think that it's right, then it must be right. The problem is that there's no anchor to that. One of the things about following Christ is you have an anchor. The word of God is an anchor. And the English Standard Version Bible last week just announced that they made their final changes and that that version of the Bible, like the King James Version, will not change again.

And I like that because there is a thought of just constantly updating the Bible to go along with culture. And I had someone say to me, Well, why don't you agree with this? Why won't you allow that? Because shouldn't the Bible change according to the culture? Absolutely not. The way we share about the Bible needs to change. But the Bible is the word of God, and God does not change his mind on certain topics.

And he has a reason in which he does things. And it seems almost politically incorrect to say that an idea that is not progressing is wrong. I ought to believe that there are ideas, there are cultures that have come before us that might know more than we know. And it is a cultural, what they would call it, C.S. Lewis called it cultural snobbery, or chronological snobbery is what he called it, when he said that you believe that all the ideas that you have are the most important ideas of culture of all time.

Paul was in this, and this is where we live today. Do you know, like Paul, how to walk into that? This was Greece. This was Macedonia. You're living it. We've come full circle. And so the question is, how do we change those corners and have a gospel revolution? We're going to look at that today. And the first thing I want to look at is what would the gospel-centered revolution look like if those four corners were dominated by the love of God?

Walter Rauschenbach, again, asked this question. He was from the early 1900s, one of the people who formulated the social gospel. The social gospel was a movement, the late 1800s, that started, and the early 1900s, that started because there was no welfare system. And the Federalists, who later became the Republicans, believed in a thing called social Darwinism.

Social Darwinism, I believe, you cannot believe in evolution and not believe in social Darwinism. Social Darwinism believes that the strongest in society shall survive. So we can do ethnic cleansing, although they wouldn't have said that, on and on, that the cream will rise to the top. And that is a core of evolution. People have come along and said, well, we've evolved past that, so we'll just take out the survival of the fittest.

And so what they've done is taken this argument of evolution, which we want to propose, but say, let's remove that. And so the Federalists and the Republicans, not to get too much into your American history, believed in the survival of the fittest, that there's a working class, there'll always be a working class, they're there to serve the poor. And people like Walter Rauschenbusch came and said, no.

Christians, we have to stop living that way. We have to make a difference and change the social evils of the world and inject Jesus into the society. So they did things like start Sunday school. You know why Sunday school started? Sunday school was to teach people literacy. So that, because they couldn't go to get classes during their work week because they worked such long hours with no unions, they said, come to school on Sunday and we will teach you how to read.

How important is that? We will give you lessons. We will, and they began to change the world. Do you think that that caused problems with the social elite? Of course it did. It was a gospel-centered revolution that looked at the problems of the day and said there's no place for people to have health. And so let's start a thing called what? The YMCA came out of the social gospel movement.

The Salvation Army came out of the social gospel movement. And luckily, and thankfully, not luckily, thankfully, the Salvation Army is held to their principles. But one of the things that happened is that politicians saw that as this started growing, there becomes a way where we can control people and get power. So they began to come alongside many liberal theologians and continue to say, let's serve the poor and we'll make people the heart of what we do.

And so liberal theologians began to take this and they said, we'll no longer do it in the name of Jesus. We'll do it for the reason of people. Does that make sense? And so they extricated, they removed Jesus from the reason that they did it. Modern democratic liberalism comes from the social gospel movement. Read it. But what has happened is the idea is we have removed doing it in the name of Jesus and the reason we do it is for people where your civil liberties and people become the most important part and they become the apex of the puzzle.

So with the Republican Party and the Federalists, we look back and we see that there's this social Darwinism. Let the poor fail. And then we also see the Democratic Party because this is what happens. It's people trying to get things right. But what would it look like if we had a group of people that said, you know what? I want to serve the poor and I want to do it in Jesus' name, the emotionally poor, the mentally poor.

What would it look like to come and make a change, to be a revolutionary? Walter Rauschenbusch was a revolutionary. Now, I think he went too far. But he was a revolutionary. And this is what he said. He said, because the kingdom of God has been dropped as the primary and comprehensive aim of Christianity. And personal salvation has been substituted for it.

Therefore, men seek to save their own souls and are selfishly indifferent to the evangelization and needs of the world. Where it all becomes about you getting saved and we just live on one of the four corners. That corner of your heart. If we get that right, then to hell with everybody else. God, you know, he's working it all out. It's predestined.

It's supposed to happen. I give you all this history lesson. And I've been way too deep into it this entire week. Because I look at some of the things that they did and they changed the entire world. Walter Rauschenbusch and others changed the world. But in the end, it lost God in the process. That it lost Jesus in the process. And I got to say, caring for people and not doing it in the name of Jesus is just a bunch of good works.

And I'm glad for good works. But they actually have no eternal value unless done in the name of Jesus. I want us to change the world. I want you to change the world. I want us to make a difference. To know what's happening in the world. And to have a revolution. To have a gospel-centered revolution. Where the things that we do are making such a huge difference in society.

That people will look here at La Jolla. Look at your life. Look at the corner you live in. And cannot deny that Jesus Christ is Lord. Three things. And then we'll be done. Quickly. First is this. As Christ followers, we must validate. And this is Paul's journey of gospel proclamation. This is how he did it. Okay? Super important points on how Paul accomplished this goal.

Really important for today. Especially living in a Macedonian-like culture. As Christ followers, we must validate the spiritual journeys that others are on. Say that again. Again, as Christ followers, you must validate the spiritual journeys that others are on. I did not walk by Moe and think to myself, He doesn't have it figured out. He does not accept Jesus as Messiah.

He is not trying to follow God. He is not following God. He's Moe with the outfit I don't understand. No. I understand that he is trying to follow God as best he knows it. We'll give you scriptural backing for this in just a moment. The second thing. Equipped Christ followers share from a platform of power. I believe that the social gospel movement lost its power.

It has a lot of influence in the world today. I believe it lost its eternal power. How do we live on both sides of that? That tension. And then finally, evangelization works. Telling people about Jesus works, as we'll see. Let's do the first point. Turn your notes over. Well, maybe you don't turn your notes over. Verse 16. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

Does it distress you? It distresses Carol. So, the question is, where does that distress lead? That's the fork in the road. I'm really upset because of something I saw on Facebook. I'm really ticked off. Where does it lead? Does it lead to a rant? Or does it lead to revival? That's what I want to ask. He was super upset. He was distressed. Why was he distressed?

Because he was losing his foothold of power that it might not go. He's trying to start this new political revolution and it's not going his way. No, because people will end up separated from the Father God for eternity. That's why he was distressed. It always comes back to people. People, not programs. So, he was distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

So, he reasoned in their synagogue. I love that. Reasoning. Let's try reasoning beyond emotion. Try reasoning. With both the Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as the marketplace, day by day, with those who happened to be there. Who did Paul minister to? Whoever was in front of him. Whoever was in front of him. Here's what's so interesting. It says he reasoned.

This is really interesting. Go back to verse 17. So, he reasoned in the synagogue, both with Jews and with God-fearing Greeks. What does that mean? God-fearing Greeks. Those are not Christians. Okay? Let me read you what that means. And I think it's in your notes as well. I think I put it in your notes. God-fearers are considered to be of significant importance to the popularity of the early Christian movement.

These are not Christians. They're just kind of for it. Yeah, you go, boy. Like that kind of thing. Or girl. They represented a group of Gentiles who shared religious ideas with Jews to one degree or another. Just kind of, yeah. Yeah, kind of, yeah. This one God. I like that idea. No, I don't like that. Just kind of figuring it out. But we're kind of following.

Yeah, but... Yeah! You go, boy. Okay? No one got that. However, they were not converts, but a separate Gentile community engaged in Judaic religious ideas, perhaps, and practices. This group of people, Paul would regularly validate them as God followers. It says that they were... The scripture itself says they are God-fearers, but they don't know who Jesus is yet.

He basically realized that this group of people who are open to the gospel... I kind of like God. I believe in God. I'm a spiritual person. You know, I do this. I do that. I have a yoga instructor. I don't know. Whatever the thing is, I kind of like God. Okay? 73% of people in La Jolla, according to the demographics which I've been studying, believe in God.

This is 73%. It gives all the different types of people. 73%. Okay? Some of these are Christians. Some of them are evangelicals. Some of them are yoga instructors. Some of them are... Whatever they are, they just believe in God. Let me just say that Paul validated them. And he didn't walk up and immediately shove the Bible in their face. He said, you're following God.

Let me ask you this question. There's an unknown God here. Who do you think that is? And he asks that question of them. And he starts a dialogue and a conversation. And he's wooing and bringing that conversation to its ultimate conclusion. And it says that conclusion is to tell them that that cross right there matters for eternal salvation. That's the dealio.

And at the same time, he was caring about people in the midst of it and causing social revolution. He was constantly reaching out to women. Again, in this scripture, you see that there are prominent women. It's three chapters in a row. I think it's three chapters or three sermons in a row where it is mentioned women. He's causing social revolution.

Jesus did this with women as well. Where are the places that culture needs to change and embed the gospel into that? I've got to say, when you see somebody who, even if they don't know God, but somebody who is open and warm to the ideas of God, realize that that is a person you want to have a dialogue with. And don't see them as immediately you're wrong.

You know what? Maybe they're in a relationship and God is drawing them forward. Maybe that's you. Maybe you were the one who didn't know God. Didn't know Jesus. Didn't know about the cross. But you were into all types of stuff. But slowly, in the midst of it, God's like, hey, come this way. I want to put this person in your way. Or this person in your way.

And pretty soon, God led you. Of course you're following God. You might not have the final key of understanding, but God is leading those people. And we have to stop thinking, they're wrong. We're completely right, even though we do believe that we have the truth of eternal salvation. Understanding. This is key. This is absolutely key to reaching this culture.

As long as we put on that we are the sheriff and they are the robbers or the bad guys, we are never going to have any influence. And people are going to invalidate you immediately. Have a conversation. Number two. Equipped followers of Christ share from a platform of power. Let me just give you the verse. It speaks for itself. 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary. They have what? Divine power. Okay? Circle that. Divine power. To what? Demolish strongholds. The enemy wants to have strongholds. Strongholds of thought. Strongholds of ideology. Strongholds of power. And we demolish arguments.

That's what Paul is doing here. All these different arguments. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought and make it obedient for Christ. Paul was constantly looking to do this. I was recently speaking with a person who told me they believe in evolution. I said, okay.

Oh, that's, oh, cool. You believe in evolution. Do you believe in ethnic cleansing? No, of course I don't believe in ethnic cleansing. Well, I said, well, you don't believe in evolution. Then, what are we talking about? I said, well, what about survival of the fittest? That's what Paul did. See, he understood the arguments of the day. What I am finding is a lot of people have ideas and no roots.

They got a tree that's blossoming of ideas and desires and wants. But if you go back to the roots, where? Somebody said to me the other day, they said, well, you know, we just, it's just allow this because it's more loving. And I said, I just said this. Where does love come from? What do you mean? It's just loving. It's just loving. I said, why is love better than hate?

It just is. Everyone knows it is. Why? Why? You know what? Hitler, he believed in hate. If he would have cleansed everybody, he could have had a perfect society. And that would have been awesome, wouldn't it? To have a society where everyone gets along and agrees. So maybe hate was better. Why is love? Tell me why love is better than hate. No answer. Okay.

Well, when you can tell me that, then let's have a conversation where you're going to back up your ideas because it's loving. Does that make sense? To just look at arguments of the day and think about what does the Bible say? Because I'm asking you questions. See, the thing is, as a believer, so often we've been just told, like, we have to answer a question.

We have to answer a question. How about we start asking questions? Try that. Just have some really just provocative questions. I have to tell you, questioning is one of the least offensive ways, if you can do it right, to have a dialogue. Well, what do you think about this? Tell me where love comes from. You know, if you look at some of the scientific studies, they say that love is just a brain chemical now.

It's just a brain chemical. That's all it is. Really? So I'm supposed to give my life for love because it's a brain chemical? I don't think so. Look, I'm done. I'm landing the plane. Let me just say this. Is that mind expansion today, soul expansion. I totally get that. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Like in the fifth dimension. I'm super intrigued with how to change the world with the message of the gospel.

As I read about the social gospel revolutionaries and wanting to change and serve the poor and care for those people, I want that. I want that in our world. I want that in our church. But I don't want to lose the power of it that comes from knowing who Jesus is. The power of the gospel. And so I don't know what that looks like. But I got to tell you, that's the journey we're going on.

That's where we're going. And I want to do it socially. I want to do it gender wise. I want to do it racially. I want to look at all those things, all those opportunities God has to bring equality, but equality with an author. Because we can't just do things in the name of love. Love has an author. And the author of love makes love subordinate to the author.

Because he wrote the rest of the things that come with love. And I want people to know who that is. Love has an author. And as a society, I want to look. I believe that we can, a revival can start here on this corner. The more, this week as I've been praying, I believe it. I can believe it can start on your court. I mean, do you believe that? Why else are we here?

I'm just going to go into business otherwise. Like, I think I could do okay in business. I really could. I could make good money. Like, why am I here? I'm here because I want to make a difference in your corner of your heart. That first of all, that you're changed. That God makes, that you know that you're his beloved. You are the beloved of God. And second of all, you can change that and share that message with others.

Amen? Amen. Let's have the worship team come forward. If you would stand. I'm going to close the sermon. Hot in here today. I get it. It's getting hot in here. Shouldn't have done that. Got to know the arguments of the day. Do you want to change the world? I mean, really? I literally, I lay in bed or I take a walk and I think, do I really want to change the world or do I want to be comfortable?

I mean, really? Do I really want to change? Do I really want to have what it takes? And just thinking this week, Adam, if you start this, where could it go? Do you really want to do that? Do you really want to, that could cost a lot. I don't know. Bono said that he constantly struggles with wanting to serve the poor in Africa and how much he enjoys riding in a limo with a martini down Fifth Avenue.

That's the tension, right? Sing away. Sing away. Our Father everlasting, the all-created one, God almighty. Through your Holy Spirit, conceiving Christ the Son, Jesus our Savior. I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection. That we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus.

Our judge and our defender suffered and crucified. Forgiveness is in you. Descended into darkness. You rose in glorious life. Forever seated high. I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection. That we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. I believe in you.

I believe you rose again. I believe in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord. I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection. That we will rise again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. And I believe in a life eternal.

I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the saints' communion. I believe in the saints' communion. And in your holy church. I believe in the resurrection. When Jesus comes again. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the known and of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus.

For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus. For I believe in the name of Jesus.

by the name of Charles Sheldon wrote a book. It was called In His Steps. And the theme of the book is a homeless man walks into a church and it's a really rough time in America. There was no help for the poor at that time. There was sweatshops and child labor and it was a mess. He walks in and he speaks and speaks to the congregation about, hey, what does it matter? I mean, why are you Christians? And then he goes and sits and he's really sick and the pastor took him home for a week and the man ends up dying. But right before he dies, he says, you know, pastor, I believe that what you did is what Jesus would have done. And 73 more times in that book, it says a term that you heard a lot in the nineties and perhaps wore a wristband. It says, what would Jesus do?

And he'd make a difference. And, um, it's really revolutionary. If you expose yourself to this kind of thought, it's going to be disruptive. I apologize if I was disruptive today and I'm tempted not to bring these things up because I know I can grow a church with happy thoughts. I make it really big. It's super easy. You can fill stadiums with happy thoughts. Easy. But looking for a group of people that really want to make a difference and make a change. It bothers me as a white guy that if I go to a store and I walk out and the thing beeps, I can just wave and keep on going and no one stops me.

It's true. I know it bothers me. I don't know what to do about it. I don't have all the answers. I'm not trying to answer every single question here at once. I just really want to love Jesus. And I want a group of people that are willing to just put it on the line and ask, I guess, ask the question, what would Jesus do? So I don't know if I have any conclusions yet. I think you're going to be the ones that make the conclusions. You're going to be the ones that live the life that shape where we go. It can't just be me. It's going to be you making a difference in the world.

At Casa de Manana with the, with the cottons down there and in PB and Crown Point on the UCS, the USD football team with Devin plays at USD going to your game on October 22nd. I can't wait. Surfers, people in retirement community. I don't believe if you lawn bowl, I don't care what you do. UCSD as doctors at UCSD, we're everywhere. Point Loma Nazarene College, the medical community, tutoring kids in the military, you know, living up in San Juan Capistrano. You guys are going to have to write this story, but do you want it? And that's what he challenged his congregation with.

I want to see, I want to see a difference made. And hopefully you want to be a part of a church that makes a difference or else let's just go home. Let's go home. The Chargers game was on, you know, let's just go watch it. You want prayer today? I got a few people that'll come forward. We'll pray for you. If you want to be part of the prayer team, come to the weekend. Don't miss this weekend. We're going to expound on this thought. I'm not going to turn into Jay Guevara. Trust me.

Okay. I struggle with pastors. They get a new idea and then they take the whole church on a different direction. I just want to pray now. I just want to say a few things and pray and move in that direction. I want to see us, what we do together. It's us, right? It's all of us doing it and to see and hear those stories. So ask our prayer team to come forward. We'll let you go.

It's hot. Lord Jesus, put your hands out. I just want to bless the sheep that know your voice. So I bless these people, God, and let this be a, I believe a halcyon call, Lord God, clarion call, Lord God, to these people as we make a difference in the world, blessing and changing people, God. Lord, we need you, Jesus. We need to change this world, God.

We need to change the world. Those of us that are selfish, we deny ourselves. We want to know you. Let the word of God, let this come alive. Let us remember what would Jesus do. Maybe we don't even have a clue when we pray to the Father. So I bless you right now with the love of the Father. I bless you tonight with sweet sleep. I bless you with emotional boundaries that fall in pleasant places. I bless you with a lack, with not having to worry about calamity coming on the other side, another shoe dropping. I bless you with power to demolish strongholds. And I bless you with the love of a father. In the name of the Father, sign on the Holy Spirit. I love you. Let's go do this thing. I hope that made sense.