After being forced to flee Thessalonica due to persecution, Paul moves on to Berea, where he encounters a synagogue of “noble” men and women who receive the Gospel “with eagerness”.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
As we rejoin the Apostle Paul's second missionary journey. He is in the present-day Greek city of Thessaloniki, then known as Thessalonica. Some of the leading Jews in the city became jealous of Paul and the power of his ministry, hired some thugs, and stirred up a mob that demanded the city's leaders force Paul and Silas to leave. If they stayed, they would likely be murdered. And that's why we read in Acts chapter 17, verse ten.
As soon as it was night, the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. This is something that happens multiple times in Paul's ministry. He would never look to leave. He would never be afraid. But brothers and sisters who cared about him would sometimes have to say, Paul, you're loving to be murdered tomorrow if you don't leave tonight, we love you.
We'll catch up later. And there are other people who need to hear the Gospel, so you need to go. And that's the idea here. The church in Thessalonica would go on to take root and grow strong in the Lord. When we reach Acts chapter 20, we'll learn that two men from the Thessalonian church joined Paul to minister for a season.
And when Paul later writes to the Thessalonians, he commends them with these words it's on your outlines. The word of the Lord rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out. They took advantage of their location on the Ignatian way to preach the Gospel, evangelize their region, and grow into a mighty church. Let's go ahead and put our map up on the screen and so you can see that what they did is they sent Paul west around the top left corner there from Thessalonica to Berea, which was about 45 miles or 72 km away. It was a much less important town than Thessalonica and was described by Cicero as being off the beaten track.
Then it says, upon arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. As was Paul's custom when arriving in a new city or town. The people here in Berea were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica since they received the Word with eagerness and examined or asked about the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. We know the message that Paul was preaching in synagogues. Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah.
He has fulfilled the law, suffered and died for our sins, risen in victory over death, and through faith in Him our sins are forgiven and we can be brought into the kingdom of God regardless of our ethnicity. The response that Paul received from the Jews in Berea differed greatly from that of Thessalonica or most places he had preached. Instead of encountering closed-minded men and women who cared more about their traditions and prejudices than the truth, Paul found a synagogue full of open minds who were hungry for truth and seriously devoted to the Scriptures. Accordingly, their legacy, forever in the Word of God, is that they were of noble character. Do not mistake their open-mindedness for naivety or simple-mindedness.
On the contrary, they put Paul's teachings to the test, cross-examining them so to sea against the testimony of the Scriptures. And obviously, when they did, they determined that Paul was indeed preaching the truth. This is a model for how all believers should respond to all preaching and teaching. It should always be put to the test against the Word of God. This is why you will sometimes hear me say something along the lines of "Don't believe anything you hear me say simply because you hear me say it. Get into the Word of God for yourself. Test what I teach against the word of God. Make sure that it's true." The best protection a church can have against false teaching is a congregation that are students of the Scriptures. False teaching is easy to get away with in a church where people don't study the Word for themselves.
It's easy to get away with in a church where the pastor's word is treated as gospel. And that's why you generally find false teaching and false Gospels flourishing in churches that do not have a culture of studying the Scriptures. Gospel City is a church that loves the Word of God, and we're doing all that we can to help each other grow in the knowledge of the Word and know how to study it more deeply, collectively and individually. So, make a note of this. All believers are called to be students of the Scriptures and test what they hear against the Scriptures.
That's God's design for the church. The pastor starts teaching heresy, he gets called out by the people of the church. He won't repent, the church leaves. And I want to point this out. I know there's so many people who lament the number of false teachers that are in the church around the world today.
But equally, we need to lament the number of people who line up to hear what they have to say. Those churches would not exist if there were not thousands and thousands of people who wanted to hear that false teaching, because they prefer that message to the truth. And so the solution is for pastors to be students of the Scriptures, and for men and women who are part of the church to be students of the Scriptures, too, protects the church. All genuine Christians are under the authority of the Scriptures. This is important.
I really want us to notice that Paul, the super apostle, the greatest pastor who ever lived, was not offended, that people didn't blindly believe what he taught. Paul didn't say, "What do you mean you need to investigate further? No, you don't. Do you have any idea who I am? I'm Paul. I'm kind of a big deal. These letters I'm writing to you, they're going to be in the Bible, okay? Do not disrespect me. You don't need to test what I'm teaching. I'm Paul." He doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. On the contrary, Paul rejoiced that they took his teaching seriously enough to search the Scriptures and test it. And I've seen too many churches where a question on a sermon, a question based on Scripture, is received by the pastor with an attitude of how dare you?
How dare you question me? Just notice that is not how Paul responded. Note that it says they received the Word with eagerness. With eagerness. What posture do you take before the Word of God, corporately and privately, do you show up to hear the teaching of the Word with a heart that is prepared and eager?
I've said it many times. I could usually look out and I can pick out the people who are going to be ministered to by the Word, and I can pick out some of the people who aren't. I can see the folks who don't have a Bible, don't have an outline, don't have a pen, and they're just chillin' and they're not expecting to hear from God. They're not expecting that God is going to reveal anything worth writing down to remember and reflect on later.
And then I also see the folks who have their Bible. They have their outline; they have their pen. Some even have an extra notebook, and they're just dialed in. They are expecting God to speak through his word. They are receiving the Word with eagerness.
Lord, I'm hungry for the truth. Speak it to me in Matthew chapter nine, two blind men chase down Jesus and ask him to heal them. And Jesus says to them, do you believe that I can do this? They said to him, yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying, let it be done for you according to your faith.
And their eyes were opened. My observation in my life and in the lives of others is that the measure we are blessed by the teaching of God's Word works in a similar way. What we receive from God's Word is generally proportionate to the faith we exercise by receiving the Word with eagerness, or not. And here's what I can promise you those who come to the Word of God in faith with eagerness will not be disappointed. So, if you need to change our attitude toward the teaching of God's Word, do so repent, and you will begin to experience the rich blessings of God's Word like never before.
Make a note of this those who receive the Word with eagerness will always be ministered to by it. Those who receive the Word with eagerness will always be ministered to by it. I promise. Even if me or BJ don't do a great job one day, if you show up in faith with that attitude, you'll hear from God. You'll be blessed.
That's just the power of the Word. And I want you to know how blessed I consider myself to teach in a church where there are men and women who receive the Word with eagerness. I am deeply grateful for those of you who pray faithfully and consistently for God's presence and power to be upon the preaching ministry of Gospel City. I'm deeply thankful for that. I experienced the blessings of that.
And so, if that's you, thank you so much for doing that. Truly. As Spurgeon said, great preachers are produced by congregations that receive the Word with eagerness. Now, I suggest there are three building blocks for anyone who wants to become a person mighty in the Scriptures, and these are basic, foundational, elemental things. But you might not have had anybody ever tell you this if you say, I want to become a student of the Scriptures, I want to become mighty in the Word, know my way around the Bible, and know the Lord's Word.
Here are three building blocks for that. Number one, study the Word with a clean conscience. With a clean conscience, severely neglected and underrated point Hebrew. If there is sin in our lives that we are aware of but we are refusing to deal with, our study of Scripture is going to be limited. It's not going to be anywhere near as profitable as it could be.
Why? Because we're trying to pretend that we can just ignore our sin and just move on down the road with our relationship with Jesus and becoming more like Jesus. But Jesus doesn't play that game. Jesus says, we're not going anywhere until you deal with this. And so what you'll find is you can just keep taking in facts and information, adding head knowledge, but nothing's actually going to change in here.
You're not actually going to grow. You're not going to become any more like Christ, because God is not into playing games when he says, you need to change this, Jeff. You need to repent of this. You need to go make this thing right. If I just say, I'm not going to do that, let's just move on, god says, no, we're not just going to move on.
Next time you come here, I'm going to be saying the same thing. You can pretend I'm not, but I'm going to be saying it. You can keep reading and adding head knowledge and lie to yourself and pretend that we've just moved on. But nothing is moving on. Paul told believers, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander like newborn infants desire the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught this if you are offering your gift on the altar and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar first. Go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Does it sound like God is okay with us just ignoring an issue and saying, well, we'll just move on? In the meantime, he says, "I don't care if you're at church. Go make it right and come back."
If we know there's something we need to do, something we need to repent of, something we need to make right, we should not think we can set it aside, ignore it, and have God bless our devotional time with Him. We're not fooling God, even though we may be fooling ourselves. Secondly, and write this down, study the Word consistently. Study the word consistently. If you want to become good at anything of importance, you're going to have to work at it consistently.
For the Christian, that means having a plan for how and when you're going to study the Word. Each day, imagine trying to get in shape and saying, I'm going to work out. When are you going to do it? When it happens, it happens. It doesn't just happen.
You're never like, oh, man, I don't know how it happened. I'm just here working out. I just stumbled into this gym and now I'm sweating and giving 110%. Never going to happen. Never, ever going to happen.
Doesn't happen. If you look across the room and just see the dumbbells over there on the side and you're like, thinking about you, you got to actually walk over and put in some work. And the same is true with the Word of God. You got to have a plan so that you can develop a consistent pattern of study in your life. Now, if you can't seem to find the time to get into the Word, but you sincerely want to, and you're serious, I want to challenge you with the words of Job, who said of the scriptures, I have treasured the words from his mouth more than my daily food.
And so here's the challenge. If you can't seem to find time to get into the Word, take a year and make this commitment. When I wake up, I'm not going to eat. I'm not going to go online, I'm not going to look at my phone till I've taken in the Word of God, till I fed my soul, you'll remember to do it. Your stomach will remind you and just say, no matter what, I'm going to wake up.
I'm going to get into the scriptures. And if you do that, you will be astounded by the results. You will not be the same person a year from now that you are today. But if there's no plan, no intentionality, you do not have any reason to expect that you're going to be someone different a year from now. You cannot expect growth with no plan to generate growth.
Thirdly, study the Word to obey the Word. Our brother James exhorts us with these words. Be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. I've said it before, and I'll say it Again. One of the greatest dangers that a church who loves the word of God faces is losing touch with the difference between hearing the Word and doing the Word, falling into the trap of thinking that just because we know something, we must be doing it.
We must be practicing. It not true. Not even close to true. The ultimate goal of the Christian is not to be smarter; it's to be more like Jesus.
We study the scriptures. To be changed, to be sanctified. To be made more like Christ. Remember that God gives revelation to those who respond to it. So, if you want God to continue growing your knowledge and revelation of Him, you must be committed to responding to the knowledge and revelation that he's already given you when He calls you to repent. As we said, do it. When he calls you to obey, do it. You can't just ignore God when he speaks to you clearly and continue growing in him. You'll have head knowledge, but no real wisdom.
You won't actually grow we can't say, well, let God speak to me and reveal some truths to me and then I'll decide if I want to obey or not. That's not how it works. And by the way, that is an unbelievably cavalier and dishonoring attitude to take toward the Almighty God. Speak from heaven to me, God. And I will, Jude.
Really? Really. If we want greater revelation from God, our posture must be I will obey you, Lord, if you reveal anything new to me that requires obedience. I may not know how I'm going to obey, but I want to. I am determined to.
And I believe that by your spirit you will give me the power to obey. And yes, that should be your attitude even before the Lord has revealed what it is - a predetermination to obey Christ. The Christian who desires to be mighty in the Scriptures must study the Word with a clean conscience, consistently. And to obey the Word. And a great way to retain what you learn is to talk about it or share it with someone else.
Teach it to a child in our kids ministry. Teach it to your children. Share it in your home group. Talk about it with a brother or sister in Christ or with your spouse. If home groups are on a break, like, right now, grab coffee with someone or multiple people.
Invite people over for dinner or dessert and talk about the Lord. Some people don't know you can get together without the church's permission. Like you just call up someone else in the church and have coffee with them. There's no form to fill out or anything like that. You can have people over for dinner.
You could open the Bible. I know it's like, wild, but you could just do it. It's a free market economy, baby. That's Right. The Old Testament priest and scribe Ezra is a wonderful example for us.
This is why I have a kid named Ezra. By the way, it's this verse Ezra, 7:10, tells us Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel. He had determined in his heart to study and to obey anything he learned; he would obey. Now, note what it says next in verse twelve. It says consequently underline that word.
Consequently. In other words, because they had listened with open hearts and minds, and because they had tested what Paul had taught against the Scriptures because of those things. Here's the result many of them believed if you test the Gospels against the Old Testament Scriptures with a sincere heart, you will find it to be true. Jesus told the Jewish religious leaders, you pour over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me. He later added, if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.
Speaking of his heavenly Father, Jesus' said, if anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. In other words, if you sincerely desire to know the truth about God and you are willing to respond to that truth, God will make sure you find Him. And following his resurrection, Jesus' used the Old Testament Scriptures to help his disciples understand why he had had to suffer and die. Luke's Gospel tells us Jesus said how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?
Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them for them sorry he interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. If you test the Gospels and all of Scripture against logic, reason, history, and reality, you will find it to be true. If you are sincerely interested in the truth, and if you study Christianity with an open heart and mind, you will end up believing. And I say that with confidence because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And there is, quite simply, no other worldview that comes close to the explanatory power of Christianity.
Christianity answers every significant existential question that exists. Christianity explains where everything that exists came from, why we're here, why there's something instead of nothing. Christianity explains what has gone wrong with the world, why evil exists. Christianity explains the solution to the problem of evil. Christianity explains the meaning of life.
And Christianity explains what the future holds for humanity and how the world ends and what happens next. And Christianity's answers for each of these key existential questions are vastly superior to any other worldview. They align with reality, history, reason, logic, and science. But do not miss this vital lesson from the Bereans. If you want to find the truth.
You will need to do some studying. You will need to do some research. You will need to do some reading. That's right. It might take a little bit of effort to unlock the mysteries of the universe.
How much effort? Come on. It's tragic how often I encounter someone who claims to be interested in truth or spirituality, and yet when I say, listen, just read this one book, this will explain Christianity to you, one of the world's largest religions over a billion people, okay, they're not interested. They claim they want the truth, but they're not even willing to read one book. I think that reading one book and potentially discovering the meaning of life and the nature of true reality is a pretty reasonable trait, I think.
So, when I meet someone who describes themselves as a spiritual seeker, I always ask, in what ways specifically are you seeking? Because the word "seek" is a verb. Most people who describe themselves as seekers are not actually doing anything. They're not studying, they're not researching, they're not reading. They're simply using the term seeker as cover for never reaching a conclusion on anything and therefore never becoming accountable for any meaningful knowledge.
When you know the Gospel, when you've seen the truth, you are now accountable for that knowledge. And most people simply do not want that. There are consequences to learning certain truths about the nature of reality. So if you're a seeker of truth and you happen to be wondering, well, what's that one book that you recommend for people? It's the story of reality by a guy named Greg Koukl.
And if you're here and you're not yet a Christian and you want to read that book, please come find me after the service. I'll gladly hook you up with a free copy. It's only about this thick. Not that thick. This thick.
You can do it. And it's worth reading to unlock the secrets of the nature of true reality. Well, among the many who believed were a number of the prominent Greek Romans as well as Men. And so, these Greek Gentiles were likely God-fearers who were attending the synagogue in Berea to explore Judaism. Verse 13.
But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came to agitate and upset the crowds. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. To be honest. Just as the Jewish religious leaders from Pisidian, Antioch, and Iconium followed Paul to Lystra and stirred up trouble, so too did the Jewish leaders from Thessalonica follow Paul to Berea to stir up trouble there.
They got nothing better to do than make the 45-mile journey for the sole purpose of opposing Paul's gospel preaching. That's what jealousy will do to you. It's irrational. Verse 14. Then the brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul away to go to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed on there.
This is another pattern we see in the Book of Acts - Paul only seems to leave a place when he's being persecuted and when brothers and sisters in the faith tell him that he needs to go, and they beg him to go. It doesn't say that Paul left. It says the brothers and sisters sent him away. We love you. We don't want to see you murdered.
As we said earlier. But Silas and Timothy stick around in Berea for a while to presumably nurture and encourage the new believers in the newly formed church. Apparently, they were not being targeted in quite the same way that Paul was, likely because Paul was the one doing the public preaching. Verse 15. Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens.
Let's throw up our map again. So, the hatred of these Jewish religious leaders toward Paul was so intense that the brothers and sisters in Berea apparently felt that Paul would not be safe anywhere in Macedonia. If he just goes on to the next town, they're just going to follow him and persecute him there. So, they decide to send him all the way south down to Athens, which was about 222 miles, 357 km away. The men who escorted Paul likely did so because the threat against his life was so severe.
They didn't know if the Jews were going to try and put someone on the boat to assassinate Paul. And they just felt we got to be with him and get him safely down to Athens. They might also have said that we want to get some more teaching from Paul. And so as we're going down on this trip to Athens by sea, we can have some more time together and get some teaching from Paul, it says. And after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.
And as the brothers head back to Berea after dropping Paul off, he tells them, "Tell Silas and Timothy to get down here ASAP." Now, like Philippi, Athens was at this time a free city under the Roman Empire. That meant she could essentially govern herself under her own cultural and civil practices while collecting taxes for Rome, maintaining law and order and allegiance to Rome. To call the history of Athens prestigious would be an understatement. In the fifth and fourth centuries BC, she was the greatest city on earth, producing unparalleled sculptors, literature, and philosophy.
She was the hometown of Socrates and his brilliant student Plato, and the adopted home of Plato's student Aristotle, as well as Epicurus and Xeno, the founders of the Epicurean and Stoic schools of philosophy. Athens was the birthplace of the definitive dialect of classical Greek Koine and was considered the foremost city of learning in the world. By Paul's day, Corinth had surpassed Athens as the political and commercial center of Greece. But Athens remained its philosophical and academic center and was therefore still highly esteemed by the Romans. Remember, the Romans built their culture on the Greek Hellenistic culture.
They didn't try to tear it down. They tried to build upon its foundation. That's why all of the gods in Roman mythology are the Greek gods under different names. The myths are exactly the same. It's Greek mythology.
While we don't know much about Paul's upbringing, we know that he possessed Roman citizenship. And so, it's almost certain that Paul's father was a Hellenized Jew. That means a Jew who grew up in a city with Greek culture rather than Hebrew culture, which means Paul would have been familiar with Greek culture, Greek arts, and Greek philosophy. Verse 16. While Paul was waiting for them, while he's waiting for Timothy and Silas in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.
So, Paul doesn't jump into his immediate pattern of ministry, which would have been to head immediately for the city's synagogue. Remember, he doesn't have any of his companions with him at this time. They served as vital assistance to him. He wasn't planning on being in Athens at this time. He'd been forced to flee from Macedonia due to persecution.
And so, Paul takes a few days to settle in, and he's just walking around the city of Athens, taking its spiritual and cultural temperature along with its academic and philosophical prestige, Athens could rightly be considered the center of religion in the empire. Petronius, a Roman writer of the day, sarcastically quipped that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man. So proliferated was the city with shrines, altars, statues, and buildings dedicated to thousands of gods. And as Paul sees all this, as he walks the streets of Athens, his spirit is vexed within him. The phrase translated as deeply distressed in our Bibles is the Greek word "paraxyno."
It means to irritate, to provoke, to arouse, to anger. The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, regularly uses this word to describe God's reaction to idolatry. Because Paul was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, he felt God's righteous anger within himself as he observed one of the world's leading cities filled with men and women made in the image of God to know, worship, serve, and love him. Instead, worship and debase themselves between fault before false gods and demons, giving them the glory and honor that belong to the living and true God. In Two Peter, we are told that Lot was distressed by the depraved behavior of the sexually immoral men and women of Sodom.
It says, for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard. Now, if you're not familiar with the book of Genesis, Lot is not a great dude. He was selfish. He was short-sighted. He chose to live among men and women who hated God because it was the best place to do business.
Lots was not filled with the Holy Spirit, and yet. He knew God. He was a worshipper of Yahweh, kind of. And even Lott's soul was deeply disturbed by the wickedness he observed in the culture around him every day. And I just want to ask you, are you disturbed by the wickedness that you see around you daily in our culture?
Because we are just as pagan as Athens, and we are just as sexually depraved as Sodom and Gomorrah. And if the Holy Spirit is in you, these things should disturb you. They should trouble you. And more than any other issue, the believer's first concern should be for the glory of God. There should be grief over the glory and worship that flows to false gods and demons in our culture.
There should be righteous anger over the wickedness of the culture and its commitment to training children in it. And by the way, when I talk about righteous anger, I'm talking about what Paul experienced, which is an anger that flows from the Spirit within you. And that anger is based out of jealousy for the glory of God that should be directed to him. You're not righteously angry if you look at the culture and your reaction is, oh, the liberals are so stupid. The Democrats are so stupid.
That's not righteous anger. Righteous anger is concerned for the glory of God and is disturbed when it looks at a world that was created to know and love and worship and experience fellowship with God, doing the exact opposite. That's what righteous anger is. That's what Paul was experiencing. We're not supposed to feel comfortable in Babylon.
We're not supposed to feel comfortable in Sodom and Gomorrah, for we are citizens of heaven filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul was disturbed. He was righteously angry. He was provoked. He saw a city of men and women wasting their lives, slaves to sin, and doomed to an eternity apart from Christ.
And so, what does he do? He takes action and he moves into ministry mode, even though he's flying. Solo says in verse 17, so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worship God as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there. Paul returns to his go-to, heading to the city's synagogue on what would have been the Sabbath. The rest of the week, he's heading to the city's marketplace, the famous agora of Athens.
The city's agora was its center for commerce and trade, sharing ideas and settling civil affairs with the city's rulers. When Socrates was alive, it is said that he would hang out in the agora in the marketplace, available every day to discuss ideas and philosophy with anyone willing to converse. And some scholars have suggested that Luke is intentionally framing Paul's actions in the same way by pointing out that essentially like Socrates, Paul went into the agora to begin teaching and discussing the philosophy of the Gospel with anyone willing to engage him. My prayer today is that as we are made more and more like Christ, as we are progressively sanctified by the Holy Spirit, we would have more and more of God's heart. We would feel more and more of what God feels.
We would see more and more with the eyes of Christ, hear with the ears of Christ, and I pray we would be disturbed and righteously angered and vexed by the wickedness of our culture, as Paul was in Athens and Lott was in Sodom. And I pray that, like Paul, we would feel compelled to act. Not to rant on social media, but to act, to pray with urgency for the lost and to pray for boldness, to preach the gospel to those the Lord who has placed in our lives chosen the Lord has placed in our lives who are on course to spend an eternity apart from Christ. It is not righteous anger. It is not a discontent coming from the Lord.
If by experiencing it, you can simply turn your back on those who are headed to hell, the righteous anger of God speaks with clarity and with boldness and prays and intercedes with urgency for those who do not know the Lord. If you are not someone who is regularly in the word of God as part of your daily practice of living, I must urge and exhort you to become someone who is. This is not a spiritual gift. Oh, they've got the spiritual gift of studying. There's no spiritual gift of reading.
We also live in the age that even if you literally can't read, there are apps that can play the Bible for you on your phone. There's no excuse to not be a person of the word. If you get up early and go to work, you can listen to sermons on your way to and from work. It's not hard. It just takes desire and intentionality.
Hear me on this. No genuinely mature man or Romans of God is not also a man or woman of the scriptures. There is no genuinely spiritually mature Christian who is not a student of the scriptures. I don't really know what the Bible says, but it's just always seemed to me that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's not a thing among Christians.
There's no one who's just like lucked out and most of their own thoughts just happen to line up with the Bible. Mature men and women of Christ are men and women of the Scriptures. So, it's very simple. If you want to be a mature man or woman of God, you must be a man or woman of the Scriptures. I'm going to invite the worship team to comes up and I'm going to end with a few verses from Psalm 19 that speak of the word of God.
It says, The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise. The precepts of the Lord are right making the heart glad. The command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up. The fear of the loved is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are reliable and altogether righteous. They are more desirable than gold, than an abundance of pure gold, and sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb. In addition, your servant is warned by them, and in keeping them, there is an abundant reward. Let's pray. Would you bow your head and close your eyes?
Jesus'. Thank you so much for your Word. Thank you for the wisdom that is found in the counsel of Your Word. And thank you just for the privilege of living in a place and in a time where Your Word is so accessible to us, we can open it up whenever we want. And there you are speaking to us from our Word.
Lord, it's our desire as individuals and collectively to be men and women who are mighty in the Scriptures. Not so that we can be smart or know more than anybody else, but that we might be made more like Christ. That as we know You in the Word, we might have a clear picture of who You are trying to make us into, who You are calling us to be, so that as Your Spirit works on us and sanctifies us day by day, we can be people who say, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I see that in your Word.
Do that in me. Make me more like Jesus. Please. Lord, may we be people who open Your Word with a predetermination that we will obey, a predetermination that You are going to speak to us and that everything You speak and everything You do is for our good. Thank you that you're alive.
Thank you that you're active in our lives. Jesus and Father, I pray that as your spirit fills us up as your spirit wells up within us day by day that we would not be comfortable in Babylon. That we would not feel at home in Sodom and Gomorrah that we would be troubled by all that is wrong with the world and that from that discontent we would pray with greater urgency and sincerity than ever before. Lord, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That's what we long for.
Lord, protect us from being desensitized by the culture that we live in. Protect our conscience, lord, do not let us grow dull to Your Spirit and Your voice. And, Lord, may our righteous discontent spur us to pray for those who are lost, for those who are given over to sin, for those who are given over willingly, for those who have been deceived. Lord, may Your heart in us fill us with an urgency to pray and to intercede and to beg for boldness that we might speak and preach the truth faithfully. Lord, so we ask now, even now, Lord, would you fill us with Your Spirit would you fill us with boldness loved?
Would you allow the James and faces of those you have put in our lives who do not know you to stay with us, Lord, to be on our minds and on our hearts daily? That we might pray for them? Because we know each of us is only part of the Kingdom because someone was praying for us; because someone was not okay that we were not part of the kingdom. And so, Jesus, give us that heart. Give us Your heart for those who do not know you.
Give us our urgency, Jesus. Fill us with your spirit. Anoint us with your boldness. We pray, Lord. May our will be done in our lives.
Jesus, we love you. It's in your precious name we pray. Amen.