Worship - Sunday, March 20

Oh, my soul, worship His holy name. Sing like never before. Oh, my soul, I'll worship Your holy name. Bless the Lord, oh, my soul, oh, my soul. Worship His holy name. Sing like never before. Oh, my soul, I'll worship Your holy name. Yes, I will worship Your holy name. Lord, I'll worship Your holy name. Amen.

"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is He." "Sing a new song to Him who sits on heaven's mercy seat." "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is He." "Sing a new song to Him who sits on heaven's mercy seat." "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." "With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything, and I will adore You." "I adore You." "Clothed in rainbows are a living color. Lashes and lightning, foes of thunder." Blessing the dawn of strength and glory and power be to You the only wise King. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything and I will adore You.

Filled with wonder, o'er struck wonder, at the mention of Your name. Jesus, Your name is power, breath and living water, such a marvelous mystery. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything, and I will adore You. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything, and I will adore You. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is He. Oh, Lord my God.

I want you to realize that there is a nice community that is a quality that people turn back to the fair side. You can do the wrong part. I do the wrong part. I do the wrong part. I do the wrong part. Thank you. Thank you. Hold on. He'll freeze it down.

Oh, Jesus said, "I'm going to take you right out there." I can't let you know this before you go. Yeah, I think so. You are. You look good. You look good, man. Hey. How are you? Good to do that. Really good, really good. Yeah. A whole lot better than I was.

I'm short to call them. I'm going to start just calling you every day, and start your head again. Hey, how are you doing? Oh, hey, they're going to go to my office. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

You're welcome to just shout out the fire exit here. We don't care. I'm just kidding. We don't care. Good morning, everybody. It's great to see everybody today. We're going to get started in our time of worship, and we're going to be doing warfare things today. And so I've been reading this book by Dane Ortlund called "How Does God Change Us?" I really like Dane Ortlund. He writes really small, easy to read books, big things that are hard to understand. He breaks down really well. So I definitely recommend him. But this book's called "How Does God Change Us?" and there's a section in here about pain and about struggling with sin, and I just wanted to read this last little section that he wrote on that. He entitled it "Fighting is Winning." It says, "Are you struggling with sin today? The struggle itself reflects life. If we were not regenerate, we simply wouldn't care.

The longing for Christ, the frustration at our falls, the desire to be fully yielded to God, these are the cries of life, even if immature life. God will not let you go. He will be sure to love you on into heaven. In the meantime, he's teaching you not to give up. Your very efforts to fight your sin distressed Satan. "Fighting is winning." I wrote in a January 1942 letter, and with this is how we'll close the chapter. I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious, provided, self-offended, petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience, etc. doesn't get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall, of course, be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home, but the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes are airing in the cupboard.

The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present to us. It is the very sign of his presence. And so, I just wanted to share those words as we talk about spiritual warfare today, or as Brandon's going to talk about spiritual warfare today. And so, we're going to go ahead and stand and read our Scriptures together today out of Colossians, the first chapter during 13 and 14. So, let's go ahead and stand, and we'll read those together. And it starts, "He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Thank you that we're able to gather together today.

We thank you for those that we haven't seen in so long that are able to be here. And we thank you for those that are watching online. We thank you for the promises that you give us and how you are always with us and you never give up on us. And thank you for the reminders that as long as we keep fighting, we're winning. No matter how often we feel like we're failing, we're still winning. Thank you for your love and protection for us. Thank you for the opportunity to be delivered from the darkness and to be in your kingdom with you. Thank you for your redemption and your forgiveness, God. Be with our service today and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right. As we get started, we're going to be singing "Are God Saves?"

Maybe we won't. Here we go. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come. We are gathered together. To lift up your name. To call on our Savior. To fall on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering. As your saints bow down. As your people sing. We will rise with you. Lifted on your wings. And the world will see that. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope. In your name. Morning turns to songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come. We are gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will see you.

The world will see that our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope in your name. Morning turns to songs of joy. To songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. Hear the joyful sound of our offering. As your saints bow down. As your people sing. We will rise with you. Lift it on your wings. And the world will see that. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope. In your name. Morning turns. To songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. All right. You can keep standing if you'd like, or you can sit down if you want. We're going to be moving into our prayer and share time next. So if you're watching online, there'll be a slide up with a number to text. If you have any prayer requests or anything you'd like to share with us here, we will do that. And then we're going to be muted here during that time. So just stick with us during that. And then when we get back, we will move into the rest of our service today. So we're going to be singing next, "The Battle Belongs."

When all I see is the battle, you see my victory. When all I see is the mountain, you see a mountain moved. And as I walk through this shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now, for I am safe with you. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And if you are for me, who can be against me? For Jesus, there's nothing impossible for you. When all I see are the ashes, you see the beauty. When all I see is a cross, God, you see the empty tomb. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you.

Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. In the shadow, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow. You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. So when I fight, I'll fall on my knees with my hands lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you.

Good morning. I want to thank you for joining us this Sunday morning. This is our prayer and share time, and here at the church we mute our service for those who don't necessarily want their prayer requests shared online. But what I'd like to do with you this morning is share with you some Scripture and then pray with you. And so I'm going to be reading from Philippians, the fourth chapter. Paul says this. He'll say, "Rejoice in the Lord always." And again, I will say, "Rejoice." Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the good that you've done in our lives. We thank you for how you have helped us and encouraged us and strengthened us and protected us. I ask for those this morning who are struggling and hurting and uncertain and fearful. I ask for your comfort and your peace that you would hold them up during difficult times. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your church. We thank you for your people and how they help us and encourage us. We thank you most of all for Jesus and the good news of the gospel. You have saved us from our sins. Help us to be an encouragement to one another and help us to depend on you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If there is a specific way that we can pray for you, we would love to be able to do that. You can comment here on the live stream or send us a message, or you can send us a text message at 540-686-1981. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Thanks, Russell. Since Neil is here today, we are going to do his favorite song, because Dee reminded me what his favorite song was. I remember when Neil first got sick, and Dee was updating every once in a while on Facebook, one of the things she had said about how, I think it was when he was intubated, that he wouldn't be able to talk for a while. I said to Brandon, "What's Neil going to do if he can't talk?" I didn't mean it in a rude way. I meant like, Neil is such a big presence in our congregation, and he's so welcoming, and he's one of those people that can talk about anything and make you feel like he's listening to what you're saying, and all this stuff. So it is really good to have Neil here, and I think, not just Neil, but so many people in our church,

we are a small church, but every single one of us here can relate to what this song says in our lives, and you know, big things, little things. All of us here have had big events for at least two years. Anyway, we're going to sing this together, and then we're going to move into our time of communion.

How great the chasm that lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. Then through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished, is written, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken. I am forgiven. The King of kings calls me his own. Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim.

Declared the grave has no claim on me. Then came the morning that sealed the promise your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me. Declared the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Oh God, you are my living hope. In Malachi, the fourth chapter, as it begins, there is a picture of contrast of the day of the Lord. What happens when God comes? In the first verse of Malachi 4,

is a picture for those who do not believe, and it is terrifying. It starts off by saying, "The day is coming, burning like an oven." And then the contrast shifts in the second verse, and it says this, "For you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings, and you shall go out leaping like calves from a stall." And I love that picture, especially now that we're coming into springtime, and we can occasionally see it around us. On the way to my dad's, there is a flock of sheep. They've just started having lambs, and if you drive by at the right time, and the lambs are full of energy, and they're sort of bouncing around the field, just full of life. And the picture for God's people is, that's our hope, right?

That we, in Jesus, who Malachi is speaking of, ultimately have this joy that just overflows out of us. And as I think about that, we live in a world that, in so many ways, I think is lacking in joy. It's filled with fear. It's filled with uncertainty. We're not sure what's going to happen in so many different ways. And so, how do we live in light of this truth that we have this joy that just overflows out of us, but then we look at the world around us, and we just see struggles and hurts and difficulties. In Colossians, the first chapter, Paul will talk about Jesus. And I think the answer to that question, how do we live in the midst of uncertain times, is found in Jesus. So I'm going to read to you a section of Colossians, and then we will partake together of the Lord's Supper.

It says this of Jesus, "He is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, everything, he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him reconciled to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." And then he turns the attention to us, how this impacts us, and he says, "And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which has been proclaimed in all of creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister." And what Paul will say as we look at Jesus, we see our hope, the one who has reconciled us, who has made peace, not just through his life, but through his death, his burial, and his resurrection, who has reconciled those of us who were enemies of God. And then he calls the church to continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel. One of the ways for us to not shift from the hope of the gospel is to preach it to ourselves.

Martin Luther once said that it is the most important doctrine in all of Christianity, and it's important for Christians to know this doctrine well and to beat it into our heads continually. One of the ways we remember the gospel, the good news that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again for our victory, is through this meal. When we partake, we are proclaiming the gospel, not just to those who observe us partaking, but we're proclaiming to ourselves that Jesus is our living hope. So let's pray, and then we'll partake together. Father in heaven, I thank you that we have hope. I thank you that you have sent your Son. We thank you that he has made peace through the cross. We thank you that he has conquered the grave, that we don't have to fear Satan, sin, hell, and death.

And so I ask that you would encourage us in the good news of the gospel, that we would find our hope in you rather than in ourselves, that we would take this moment to focus our eyes on what truly matters. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus, with the disciples, will take the bread, and he'll say, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Let's partake together. And then he will take the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." And then he will say, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

This morning's reading is from Acts 19, and one of my favorite stories as a child from the book of Acts. "And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and evil spirits came out of them." Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists understood to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I abjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims." Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?" And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house, naked and wounded. And this became

known to all the residents of Ephesus, both the Jews and the Greeks, and fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. And many of those who were now believers came and confessed and divulged their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic, arts, brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and grew mightily. This is the word of the Lord. All right, let's pray and dive right into it. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. We thank you for your church, and we thank you that you have brought us to this place. I just ask this morning as we consider these events in Ephesus that you would encourage us, that you would convict us,

that you would help us to see your power and your greatness and your strength, that your church would see that in the midst of difficulty and struggle and sometimes evil opposition, that we are not outnumbered, that we are not under strength, but that you are greater than anything that we face. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So it's been said, and maybe you've said it or heard it, that imitation is like the sincerest form of flattery. And it makes sense because if you seek to imitate something, to become like it, you're saying, "That is so good, I want to sort of model my life upon it." And I was looking through some old pictures this past week. There's one of my favorite pictures I love of me and Evelyn, and we were walking into a restaurant over here. This was probably like seven, probably six or seven years ago.

And there we are, and we're like wearing the same outfit, like same kind of coat, same kind of hat, you know, walking in there. And it's like she just wanted to be like that, right? And I look at that, and that's heartwarming to me. But what we find is there are often other motives for imitation besides saying, "This is great, and I want to be like it." So sometimes people motivate and imitate for profit. I remember in high school, at the end of our senior year in our school, we went on a mission trip. And so we raised money all year, and we flew out on our mission trip, and we stopped at this little market. And my buddy and I were walking through this market, and sure enough, there's Rolexes for like seven dollars.

And I was like, "This is amazing." Like, "I'm going to get a Rolex." And then I was great until a day later, and my wrist turned green, right? And then the watch stopped working like another day later, right? So, imitation, simply to gather profit. And so what we find this morning in our text, you can divide it into sort of three sections, right? And in the middle section, one that Brent referred to as one of his favorite stories growing up, we find a group who seeks to imitate the work in the church. Not because they love the church, they care about the message of the church, but because they care about themselves. And they're seeking to profit from the church, either through financial means, by using the fame of the church to boost their demon-casting-out business,

or because they want to be more notorious, which also increases their business. And what's interesting is this passage in Acts is so very similar to another story in the Bible. In 1 Kings 18, God's people have been chasing after idols, specifically Baal and Ashtoreth. And so the prophet Elijah comes, and he issues a challenge to the king of Israel. Send your prophets to the top of the mountain. I'll go to the top of the mountain. We each bring a bull. We sacrifice the bull. Whichever God sends down fire from heaven will be the one true God. And so there are 850 pagan prophets and one prophet of God. And he says, "You know what? You can go first." And so they build their altar. They put their cow on the altar. And then they begin to pray to their God, and it doesn't work, so they get louder and louder.

And they get louder and louder, and they get more intense and more intense. And Elijah's kind of sitting back on the side, kind of making fun. "Your God must be on a trip. He can't hear you." My favorite, he'll say, and sometimes it's translated a little differently, but the actual Hebrew means maybe he's in the bathroom, right? God's run to the bathroom, and he can't hear you. And so eventually they give up, and Elijah comes and very simply builds an altar, puts his bull on top of the altar, but then he does something strange. They douse the altar with water, not just soaking it so it's not going to burn, but they dig a trench around it, and they fill that with water as well. And then Elijah simply kneels down and prays, and God sends fire from heaven

that doesn't just consume the sacrifice, but it consumes everything. And in that moment what you find is a very similar picture to what is happening in the middle of our text this morning, right? Elijah is completely outnumbered, and in the church in Ephesus you find that they are outnumbered. A town of 200,000 to 250,000 people, a massive city by ancient standards, and a little church. You find that the false religion is extremely complex, but the Gospel is simple enough to be understood. False religion gets no results, but the power of God is striking and startling. And just like in 1 Kings 18, there's a bit of humor interjected into how this all works. And so while we find that the center of this text is sort of about the imitation of true religion, the text as a whole, all three parts, are about God sort of drawing a line in the sand in regards to false belief.

And what God is going to do in this text is powerfully demonstrate His strength and His power and bring hope and transformation to this city. And as we come to it, sometimes these kind of texts for us can be a bit of a struggle, right? You've got this opening part about these really remarkable miracles. You have this second part about the supernatural forces of evil, demons and evil spirits. And for us, it can seem maybe a little strange. And so one of our tendencies sometimes is to become dismissive. And I don't necessarily mean dismissive about the truth of this, but dismissive about how it applies to us today. Well, that doesn't really happen. I've never maybe encountered a demon-possessed person, so this isn't really... This is something for the first century. It doesn't really apply to me. We can become very dismissive.

And we'll come back to that in just a minute. The second response sometimes we come to with these sort of supernatural things, whether it's miracles or whether it is this idea of spiritual warfare, is we can almost become over-enamored, especially with the spiritual warfare picture of it. And we begin to sort of become maybe unhealthily fascinated with these concepts. And so we sort of tend to go to two extremes: one where we just sort of ignore it all, and the other where it sort of all consumes us to the point of missing the point of these kind of texts. So one of the things I want to address and I want us to maybe think about in regards to our life is the question we so many times have about these things, like the miracles and the demons.

Do these kind of things happen today? One of the things I will say is that God, specifically in the case of miracles, is able to do what He wants, right? The psalmist says God is in the heaven and He does as He pleases. What you find biblically is that God works in each situation according to what is the need. For example, these events would seem strange to us, Paul with the handkerchiefs and people taking them and healing people. It happens two other places in the Bible, once by Jesus with the hem of His garment, and then once in a similar manner as Peter's shadow in Acts chapter 5 passes around people. It's not sort of a normal thing. God uses this in specific, special situations. Not to say that He can't or He won't, but what you find is that God works in the best way according to the situation,

according to what you need, and according to what the church needs. Just like when we parent our children, right? All our children are different, and what works for one child may be different for another child. And so, God works in our lives in different ways, depending on what we need. And so, when God does this remarkable miracle in Ephesus, He's doing it because there is a deep need here in the church. And so, one of the things we, I think, so often neglect when we ask ourselves about these things is, "What do I need?" So many times, what we need and what we want are two different things. The other thing that I think is important to ask ourselves is, "Am I trying to do this in my own strength? Or am I seeking to depend upon the power of God?"

The other thing, especially when it comes to spiritual warfare, because we may say, "I don't know that I've seen spiritual warfare." The question I would ask you, "Are you doing anything that Satan needs to oppose?" Because if you're not doing anything that needs to be opposed, he has no reason to oppose you. It's like our two dogs, Dodger. Kaiser is great because he stays right next to you the whole time you're outside. In fact, he just wants to go back inside, right? Dodger, on the other hand, looks out the front door and sees the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey and roadkill to roll in, and he just wants to go out and roam through the neighborhood. So when we take Kaiser out, he doesn't have to be on a leash, right? Because he doesn't have to be opposed.

Dodger, on the other hand, every time he walks out that front door, is on a leash because he needs it. If the church is not doing what Jesus called us to do, which is assaulting the gates of hell, there is no reason for Satan to oppose us. And I think one of the reasons the church maybe doesn't see spiritual warfare as much is because we're not doing anything that needs to be opposed by the powers of evil. And so just thinking about these events in this way begins to convict our hearts a little bit. Am I seeking the strength of God and the things that he has called me to do? Are we actually being obedient to what he has called us to do? What you find biblically is that these kind of things are very real, and God is very much in control.

Let me read to you from Ephesians chapter 6. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." And what you find is that forces of evil are real, but God is stronger. Let's take a look at these very quickly, these three scenes in which we see the triumph of God's power. The first thing that we see is that God is revealing his power to the city of Ephesus, and God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul. Now, Luke is very clear that this is not Paul doing the miracles, but that God is doing the miracles and using Paul as an instrument.

And I like what he says because he says extraordinary miracles, right? Isn't a miracle by definition extraordinary? That's like saying, you know, the past history, right? It seems a little redundant because the history by definition is in the past. And so, a miracle by definition is extraordinary. So, Luke is saying that what he's doing is he's emphasizing how remarkable these things are. Here's the miracle. So, that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin... ...and their diseases left them, and evil spirits came out of them. And so, the words here for handkerchiefs and aprons, there's sort of two different things. One is that the handkerchiefs could either be, you know, like we would think of as a towel or a handkerchief, and you're working, and Paul was a tent maker working, and you get really sweaty because it's hot.

And you wipe the sweat off your head, and you go back to work, and you wipe the sweat off your head, and then you put the handkerchief down, and somebody comes and steals it and starts touching sick people with it. The other picture is of a sweatband that you wear around your head to keep sweat dripping in your eyes, and you take it off, and somebody goes over and snags it and starts rubbing it on sick people. The idea of aprons would be a similar thing, a towel wrapped around your waist, and as you're working, and you're working with this leather, and your hands get sweaty, and you wipe it on this towel, and then somebody steals it and goes over and rubs it on somebody's head, and the demons come out, and they get better.

And we look at it and say, "That's a little weird." If somebody comes to me with a sweaty handkerchief, and is like, "Hey, I'm going to rub this on you, and your kidneys are going to be great again," I'm going to be like, "Hmm, I don't know about that," right? It's a little weird, and it's a lot gross. Why does God choose to do this? God takes something small, dirty, used to try sweat in the midst of labor, and He uses that small, dirty thing to proclaim the greatness of His power. Right? It's not about those items. It's about how God is so powerful, and you can use a sweatband off your head in this powerful way. That's how great God's power is. And these miracles, they're a direct confrontation with the beliefs of the Ephesians,

because the Ephesians believed that if you were going to worship a God, it had to be big, and it had to be grand, and you had to earn that. And so they bailed the temple to Athena or Diana, depending on if you're Greek or Roman, four times bigger than the Parthenon in Athens. One of the wonders of the ancient world. Beautiful, wealthy, and it does nothing. But here, a sweaty handkerchief is casting out demons to sick. God is intentionally inviting a confrontation with the forces of evil in Ephesus. They meet these itinerant, meaning they travel around. Jewish exorcists, they walk around and they will take some money to cast out an evil spirit, whether there's an evil spirit or not. Likely these guys never came in for a quote. It's like, "Oh no, there's not an evil spirit here."

It's always yes, right? Because they want to cast it out, and they want to make some money. And so they began to do this, seeing that Jesus is powerful. I adjure you, or I command you, by the Jesus who Paul proclaims. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. Now this guy is already shady, right? Luke says he's a Jewish high priest. Now we have the high priestly records, and we know that there was never a Jewish high priest in Jerusalem named Sceva. So one of three things likely is happening here. This guy is maybe distantly related to the high priestly family, so he just takes the title for himself. There's another option is that he's sort of taken Jewish religion and pagan belief and put it together into sort of his own system of religious belief

and then called himself a high priest in the church of Sceva. Or there's a possibility he's just making it up because it's a great marketing slogan. "Jewish high priest comes in and casts out your evil spirit." Regardless of which option, this guy is a shady dude, right? And so this guy has seven sons. They go to cast out the spirit, the evil spirit answers them, "Jesus I know, Paul I recognize, but who are you?" And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them, overpowered them, so they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. Fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. This story, it's remarkable. First of all, what you see is they're imitating what has been happening in the church,

but not in a good way, right? So we have people in our family who really, deeply love Dr. Pepper. So I like to buy Dr. Thunder when they come over. And it's like, "Oh, you got Dr. Pepper?" "Oh yeah, here's your Dr. Pepper." "Well, this is not Dr. Pepper." "Did Dr. Thunder actually go to medical school?" "Is he a real doctor?" And so that's what they're doing. They're like coming in, and they're trying to imitate the real thing, and the simple fact is it's not just going to work. And in fact, it's a common thing in false religion. And one commentator was talking about how they found all of these different magic scrolls, the same kind that get burned later in Ephesus. And they would have these spells where they would just pick names that they thought were powerful.

One of the spells was like this: "I abjure you by Jesus, God of the Hebrews." Another one will say, "Hail God of Abraham! Hail God of Isaac! Hail God of Jacob! Jesus Christus! Holy Spirit! Son of the Father!" And that's what they would do. They would just say these things without any sorrow. Names of gods, or names that they thought were important, or names filled with power, and just sort of say them, and that's what these guys are doing. And then Luke writes this encounter in a way to be intentionally humorous. They say, "By the Jesus that Paul proclaims," and the demon responds with, "Well, pretty familiar with Jesus. Heard of Paul. I respect Paul. But I have no idea who you are." That's when you know this whole scenario is going south. And then a fight ensues.

It says he mastered them, overpowered, and they ran out of the house, right, naked and bleeding. That's how you know you've really lost a fight. Like, when you don't just get beaten up, but the pants literally get beaten off of you, right? And when it says they were naked and wounded, right, this is not a wound of the physical body, right? If you're a man and you lose a fight this badly, this is a wound of the soul, right? They're going to need some serious counseling after this has happened. And Luke writes it this way. He's intentionally making us see the ridiculousness of what they're trying to claim, right? To help us see that these guys are literally a joke when compared to the power of God. But I think there's a lesson in this for us as Christians and for the church.

And that is that we don't treat God like a good luck charm. We don't treat God like a good luck charm. Or we just kind of do things on our own and hope that, because I have my lucky rabbit's foot, things will go well, right? What you find is that the picture in this text is that God's power is poured out upon those who love Him and follow Him and worship Him. And you can't imitate that. You can't make it sort of seem like it's true when it's not. It's all about the fact that God is the one who brings true change in our lives. And so one of the things I think that we can learn from this sort of humorous account is to call the church to examine our attitude toward God. Examine how we view Him and see Him. Do we see Him as holy and powerful and strong and the one who enables and strengthens and gives His power to the church for the good of the nations?

Or do we, like these sons of Sceva, say, "Well, we believe in Jesus who Paul proclaims." Or do we know the Jesus that Paul proclaims? So God is at work in Ephesus. He's prepared. He's equipped. And now He intentionally, through these miracles with Paul, has brought about this confrontation so that He can bring people to repentance. This became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. Fear fell upon all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. And many of those who were believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together, burned them in the sight of all, and they counted the value of them to be 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. God is at work in Ephesus, both inside the church and outside the church.

Outside the church, Jews and Greeks have now heard about Jesus. Inside the church, there are those who have been maybe similar to these sons of Sceva, who are sort of one foot in and one foot out. And they come and they say, "We can't sort of meddle around in both sides, but we are all in for Jesus." And the name of Jesus goes through the town and goes through the church. And in this you see what repentance really looks like. You see, repentance is more than just being sorry. Our dogs know nothing of repentance. So one day this week we had Rachel and I were eating dinner. The kids had already eaten. And so I ate my dinner and she was busy. She came and sat down to eat hers. So she jumped up and then came back and everything was gone.

And there's Kaiser going, "I don't know what happened," right? Just like right off, like most of the time our dogs don't go on the tail, but this time he was like, "They're sorry. I really like chicken and I really like french fries and I'm going to have yours," right? Now he acted contrite for a minute, but I'll tell you what. If that chicken was back on the table, you know what he would do again immediately, right? It's like, "Oh, there it is," right? Yeah, sorry for a minute, but I'm going to do the same thing over again. Real repentance is not just simply saying, "Oh, I feel bad because I have done something wrong." True repentance is just an attitude, right? It's an action. It's a belief. It's a way of living. It's a turning around, going in the opposite direction. And notice how these Ephesians demonstrate their repentance, right?

They say, "Hey, we've not been following Jesus." They stop doing it, and they burn their books. And I think about this because that's a lot of money. We don't...50,000 pieces of silver, that's hard for us to translate. On the low end, that's like $5 million, maybe a little more, depending on the price of silver this week. It's a lot of money. Wouldn't the temptation be, "Well, I can sell to somebody else," right? Maybe I'll hold on to them in case I need to sell them later, right? It's a shame to get rid of all of this. But notice that their repentance, it's not halfway, right? They say, "This is where we stand. It's with Jesus. He's our power and our strength." And they get rid of all the things that are distracting them, right? They're not just dabbling with Christianity. They're not holding on to what they used to be.

They're not justifying their behavior anymore. You see, this text also calls us to repentance. Maybe not burning books, but what is it that we have been sort of half in and half out on? What is it that you and I have sort of said, "Well, I'm going to hold on to that for a rainy day." And what Paul says, what Jesus has, what the Ephesian church calls us to, is that we follow Jesus with our whole heart, even when it's uncertain, even when it's difficult. I love this picture at the very end, verse 20. "So the word of the Lord continued to increase, and prevailed mightily." The clear picture here is the one thing that works in the church is Jesus, right? Not our strength, not our power, not our plans, but Jesus. The word of God is what prevails mightily.

It is ultimately about fixing our eyes on him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word, for your church, for your people. Help us as we look at this story that maybe seems distant to us because we haven't maybe experienced these kind of things. But help us to see your power and how great it is compared to all the other things that we could hope in. And help us with those things that we hope in more than you, that we would set them aside and fix our eyes on you. That our strength would be in you and not in ourselves. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing. I rest my soul on Jesus when the mountains shake. I put my trust in Jesus the moment I awake. And when my soul is lost at sea, He will be my rock.

Revision be in Christ alone. This grace is all we've got. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. So I upon His shoulders safely brought this far. Helper of my helpless soul. The King of broken hearts. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me all. By the grace of God. You are the passion of my life, Lord Jesus. You are the song within my soul. My strength, my hope, my all in all is You. Jesus, You. When breath grows still and night draws near, I will not be afraid. I know the plans He has for me. Don't finish at my grave.

His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. I want to thank you all for joining us this morning. We are glad you're here. Whether you're here in person or online, we are thankful for your being here. We will be back Wednesday night, moving through the end of 1 Thessalonians, talking about the return of Jesus and learning about that. That's 7 o'clock here at the church. Last week, one of the things we had talked about and asked for were some volunteers to help with some painting downstairs. We've had several people offer to do that. We've got, I think they may have picked out or gotten close to picking out a paint color this morning. So we're going to work on getting all that stuff together so we can

begin that project if you're interested in helping. We're not doing it on a specific day, because everybody's schedule is different. But when we get everything together and talk to you and figure out a time that works for you, if you're willing to help with that. And we're very thankful for everybody who has volunteered to help with that. I'm going to go ahead and have a word of prayer. We'll read a Scripture and then we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, I thank you so much for the good that you have brought into our lives. We thank you for your grace. We thank you that there is hope after this life. I thank you so much for your people. We thank you for the encouragement that we find in one another as we see you working in our lives. We thank you for these moments to sing and to pray,

to gather around the table together as a family, and to open your word. We thank you so much for all of these things. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul writes this in Romans, the 15th chapter: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost God, Son, and Holy Ghost God, Son, Holy Ghost God, Son, Holy Ghost God, Son, Holy Ghost

God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Son of God. Amen. Amen. Amen.