Worship - Sunday, March 27
2022-03-27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urK-uyV4lyQ

... Thank you. - Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The end of the day is a very good day. Thank you. I like it. I like it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Let's give him a minute. it. Huh? Oh, yeah. Flick the light. Okay, good morning. I think we're going to get started. We have a couple announcements to start with this morning. The first one is particularly for those that are watching online. Brandon has updated the live stream page on the church website so if you are watching off the website when you scroll down you will see now a link for the digital bulletin which has the songs and the lyrics and everything if you're needing that and also the announcements that we have in our church email as well and then they have links for alternate ways to watch online if you keep scrolling down you will see an option to email us your prayer requests with different slots for your name email address and

how we can be praying for you and additionally there's another section there to sign up for our weekly newsletter and that's just we just send you that once a week or we just send additional information about closings or major updates about services we don't try to junk up your email too much and and then if if another option on there is also there's an area for online giving if you would like to do that it's down and to the right of the page so it's just a little update so that you don't have to go to 20 different pages and do 20 different things you can just do everything you want to do right there while you're watching online another one we want to say thanks to Erica because She came in this week and decorated everything and climbed the ladder a lot and only almost

fell off a couple of times, but everything looks great. She's getting us updated for spring, so we're super thankful for that and her taking time out of her schedule. An additional reminder that Brandon's kidney transplant was about a month ago, and he's on a lot of the immunosuppressant medicines, so no hugs, handshakes, or holy kisses for a while. And then lastly, if you haven't grabbed one, there's a stack of notebooks on the back table there and pens. About a year and a half ago, we started doing our prayer and share time together, just another way for us to connect with each other and know what to specifically pray for each other. And so these notebooks are for you to have, to take with you, to bring on Sundays. They have a free pen. Everybody loves free pens.

And we encourage you to grab one of those so that during this time when people are sharing what they would like us to pray together about, we can write those down. It's a really good, simple tool to have. I'm really good at forgetting everything, so writing everything down is really good for me. And I think you'll be surprised at how encouraged you are, not just by praying for those within our church, but to know that those in our church are praying for you. I think we've had many examples of that encouragement. And I know me personally, I'm encouraged by all the prayers that I don't even know people pray for me. And I think being married to Brandon, I need all the prayers I can get. But I would say specifically pray for Brandon because he accidentally shaved his beard off this week and he's dealing with that.

So, but it's coming back. So, and then one last big announcement, we have a new five-year-old, Isabel, had a birthday this week. So we want to sing happy birthday to Isabel, if that's cool. And anyone that can sing really well should just start that, or we'll just start. You ready? Happy birthday to you, woo! Happy birthday to you, woo! Happy birthday dear Isabel, happy birthday to you, yay!

job turning five so all right we're going to get started today in our time of worship and we're going to be uh reading together out of Psalm 65 so let's go ahead and stand and uh the verses will be up on the screen and we're going to be reading Psalm 65 verses 5 through 8 together

and it begins by awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness oh God of our salvation the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas the one who by his strength established the mountains being girded with might who stills the roaring of the seas the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much that we get to gather together today and to worship you and to just remember your awesome deeds and your gifts of righteousness and salvation for us. We thank you for those that are watching online and that community there,

and we hope that they are encouraged by our service here today. We thank you so much for all the good things that you've given us, and thank you for those that have helped us in the church, and we thank you for those that pray for each other here in our congregation, and we thank you for Isabel and her birthday. We thank you for joy in the morning and joy in the evening. Help us today as we worship you and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, our first Song this morning we're going to be doing is This is Amazing Grace.

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness, whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the King of glory, the King above all kings.

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder Who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder The King of glory, the King above all kings This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory, the King above all kings.

Rules the nations with truth and justice Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance The King of glory, the King above all kings This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me Worthy is the Lamb we're slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave Worthy is the Lamb who was slain Worthy is the King who conquered the grave This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me all right we're going to be moving into our prayer and share time next if you're watching

online there will be a slide up with a phone number to text if you would like to send your prayer requests that way we will receive those sooner than we would an email prayer request if you have something immediate you'd like for us to pray for go ahead and text that number and then we will be muted here, but I believe Brandon recorded a video that we'll be playing during that time here. So just stick around, and then we'll be back after we're done having our time here together. And with that, we're going to be singing our next song, Give Thanks.

Give thanks with a grateful heart Give thanks to the Holy One Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son Gives thanks with a grateful heart Gives thanks to the Holy One Gives thanks because He's given Jesus Christ And now, let the weak say I am strong Let the poor say I am rich Because of what the Lord has done for us And now let the weak say I am strong Let the poor say I am rich Because of what the Lord has done for us Gives thanks with a grateful heart Gives thanks to the Holy One Gives thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son Give thanks with a grateful heart Give thanks to the Holy One Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son And now, let the weak say I am strong

Let the poor say I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us. And now, let the weak say I am strong Let the poor say I am rich Because of what the Lord has done For us gives thanks

All right, you may be seated. Okay, so Russell isn't here, so I'm going to talk a lot. Welcome to our prayer and share time. A little different online. For the people who don't want their requests shared online, We mute the service that is in person, and I spend a little bit of time with you. So if you have anything that we can pray for you about, just send us a message or leave a comment, or you can head over to our website, collegeparkcc.com. There's a link there to share your prayer requests with us, and we'd love to be praying for you. I'd like to share with you just a little bit from Charles Spurgeon, and then pray with you this morning. So he's writing based on the 119th Psalm, verse 49, that says, Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.

And Spurgeon will say this. Whatever your particular need may be, you will find some promise in the Bible related to it. Are you faint and feeble because your way is rough and you are weary? Here is the promise. He gives power to the faint. When you read such a promise, take it back to the great promiser and ask him to fulfill his own word. Are you seeking for Christ, thirsting for closer communion with him? This promise shines like a star upon you. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Take that promise to the throne continually and do not plead anything else, but go to God over and over again with this. Lord, you have said it. Do as you have said. Are you distressed because of the sin and burdened with the heavy load of your iniquities?

Listen to these words. I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, thank you for the promises of your word. And we thank you that you don't just make promises, but that you are the one who keeps the promises. And so in those times of difficulty, when our way seems like it's all uphill and it's always a struggle and we're surrounded by grief and worry, may you encourage us with the promises of your word and may we hold on to those promises and may we bring them to you in prayer. I pray for those who are watching with us this morning. I ask that you would be at work in their lives to strengthen them, encourage them and help them in all the different ways that they need. We thank you that you are a good and loving Father. It's through your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's move into the time of communion. And we're going to be singing What a Beautiful Name.

You were the word of the beginning, one with God the Lord most high. You're in glory in creation, now revealed in you our Christ. What a beautiful name it is, what a beautiful name it is The name of Jesus Christ, my King What a beautiful name it is, nothing compares to this What a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus

You didn't want heaven without us So Jesus, you brought heaven down My sin was great, your love was greater What could separate us now? What a wonderful name it is, what a wonderful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ my King. What a wonderful name it is, nothing compares to this, what a wonderful name it is, the name of Jesus.

Death could not hold you, the veil tore before you, your silence, the boast of sin and grave. The heavens are rolling, the praise of your glory, for you are raised to life again. You have no rival, you have no equal. Now and forever, God will reign. Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory. Yours is the name above all names. What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a powerful name it is, nothing can stand against, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus.

Generally, when we think about names or we're choosing a name, our thoughts generally run more toward, do I like this name? How does this name sound? Or if you're a parent, what can people spell with the initials of my child's name? I have to be careful with that as well. But biblically, when we come to the idea of names, names were more than just something used to identify one person from another. Biblically, names were a description. They sometimes described the hope that was for a person. So, for example, Noah's dad, when he names Noah, he names him in the hopes that he will bring rest to mankind. Probably did not turn out the way that he had ultimately envisioned that name, but that was his hope. Sometimes names were a description of physical characteristics. Sometimes names were a picture of what would happen in the future.

But names were more than just an identifier. It was a description. It had something a little more deep to it. And so throughout Scripture, you find God being identified in all different kinds of names. The reason for that is because one simple description doesn't fit. Perhaps one of the interesting ones, or most interesting ones, or at least for me, one of the most comforting ones, occurs in Genesis, the 16th chapter. And you may be familiar with this story. If not, I'll kind of summarize it for you. Abraham and Sarah have desperately wanted a child. That has not happened at this point yet, despite God promising. And so rather than wait for God, they sort of rush ahead with this plan for Abraham to have a child with her servant Hagar. Hagar has a child. Sarah becomes jealous.

There is all this chaos in the house of Abraham. Sarah eventually convinces Abraham to send Hagar essentially out in the wilderness, which essentially was a way of getting rid of her without actually having to get rid of her because she's in the middle of the desert. There's no water. She is alone. And Genesis 16 sort of pictures that scenario and what is happening. And so she finds herself in the wilderness. There is no water. God comes and speaks to her, makes her a promise. And this is what she says in response to God in verse 13 of Genesis, the 16th chapter. She said, so she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are a God of seeing. For she said, truly here I have seen him who looks after me. Therefore the well was called Bir Lahay Roy, and it lies between Kedesh and Bered. And what

she calls God is the God who sees me. That's the name that she gives to God, that God is the one who sees this seemingly unimportant, broken, struggling, fearful servant in the midst of the wilderness. And she calls the well that God gives her to drink from and to refresh her, these Hebrew words, the word literally means the well of the one who sees me. And isn't that a wonderful thought that God sees us, right? The greatness of God who created, who is eternal, who is bigger than we can imagine, He sees us. And He doesn't just simply see us, but that He loves us, He cares for us, and ultimately He comes and He saves us. So we remember as we partake of this meal, this Lord's Supper, we remember that God sees and God saves

and then we'll partake together. Father in Heaven, thank you for the examples throughout Scripture of you seeing the small and the insignificant the broken and the hurting help us to see and help just as you have seen and helped us we thank you for the good news of the gospel i asked this morning that you would help us to see clearly your love for us we ask that you bless this bread and this cup that we would be a people who proclaim your son until he comes again it's in his name we pray amen you would take the bread with me as Jesus says when he takes the bread at the last supper and passes it to the disciples and says, this is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also, he took the cup after supper 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'll remind the disciples and us as well that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So if you would turn with me to Acts, the 19th chapter, if you want to sort of follow along. Normally at this point we will read sort of a big chunk of Scripture. We're going to kind of read bits of this as we move through it this morning. We're going to pick up here in just a minute in verse 21. Paul's time in Ephesus is sort of drawing to a close, and so things are sort of wrapping up.

We're going to see a little bit more of that in the coming weeks, but what happens here is sort of some excitement in a theater. The theater in Ephesus sat about 25,000 people, and Luke records all of these events, and one of the things that we learn from how Luke records these is that Luke knew what he was talking about. And so when you look through, this is sort of more of a historical account than necessarily sort of a theological account. You find that all of the details about the town of Ephesus, from the fact that they deeply practiced magic, that they made these shrines, that they sort of sold and passed out, that even the names of the Asiarchs or the clerk or the mayor of town, which in Greek, the Grammatusi, uses all of the correct words,

all of the correct information. One of the reasons why that's important is because in Luke's day, you didn't have Google, you didn't have Wikipedia, you didn't have a way to research something without going there. And so the fact that throughout his entire two letters, Luke and Acts, that Luke gets all of these sort of nitpicky details right, encourages us with the truth of his account. Now Luke's purpose in recording this is sort of a byproduct of that as we see the truth, But the purpose of Luke recording this is, in essence, he's writing sort of a history and a defense of Christianity. And one of the things that he is showing is that Christianity is not a threat to the Roman Empire. That it's never been that Paul, in all of his riots and all of these problems, has never been convicted of anything by a Roman official.

In fact, in this case, it's the exact opposite. The people who are causing the commotion and throwing the riots are the ones who are at fault. And the Roman officials will look at Paul and they will say, look, he's the innocent, you guys are ultimately the problem. And so we're going to take a look at this account of sort of this riot or this difficulty at the theater here in Ephesus. So let's go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we'll dive into it. Father in heaven, thank you for the good news of the gospel. This morning as we look through these verses and we see some of the things that are happening in Ephesus, I ask that you would point us and direct the news of the gospel. That we would see that there is good news.

That that good news changes and transforms. That even when we don't want to hear it, the good news of the gospel confronts us. And that in the brokenness of this world where everything wears out and falls apart, the one thing that lasts is you. So direct us to you this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So Paul, in the beginning of the book of Romans, starts like this in verse 16. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And Paul's very beginning of his words to the Romans, as he starts, he says,

the gospel is the power of God for salvation. Now, the gospel simply means good news. When we hear people talk about it, oftentimes we use gospel to describe music, or we might use it to say it's the truth. Well, it's the gospel truth. The gospel, throughout the New Testament, simply means good news. And when Paul will unpack the gospel for the Corinthians, he'll say this. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to Scripture, was buried, And on the third day, he was raised in accordance with Scripture.

And so Paul will start by telling the church the gospel is not something you grow out of. It's not just something for new Christians, but it's something that the church holds on to and clings to. And then he describes the gospel so very simply. And he starts by saying it's of first importance. If you think about all of the things that the Apostle Paul knows and has experienced, and all of the information that is in his head, Old Testament, all about Jesus, all the places he's been, out of all of the information the Apostle Paul has, he says, the most important thing I can tell you is that Jesus died for your sins according to Scripture, was buried, and on the third day, he was raised in accordance with Scripture. He says, this is the good news,

that Jesus comes for broken, sinful people, he dies in their place, He is buried, and he rises again, ultimately triumphing over Satan, sin, and death. And the gospel is what separates Christianity from every other system of belief in the world. Because Christianity offers good news. Everything else in this world will give you good advice. Here's how you can do something. Here's how you can be better. Here's how you can improve. Here's how you can fix the problems in your life. And the gospel says that Jesus has done it, right? That's the difference between news and advice. Advice tells you what you need to do. News tells you what's already been done. And the gospel comes with good news. I'll illustrate it like this. Several years ago, Rachel was out of contacts and then her glasses broke all at once.

And we were in the middle of some kind of crisis, which those kind of things always happen when there's a crisis. It never happens when your schedule's free and your bank account's full. It's always in those moments where everything just seems like it's falling apart. It's always the straw that sort of breaks the camel's back. And so we started calling around for glasses appointments. Nobody had one. And we remembered we had a friend of a friend who worked at an eye doctor. And so we called her and said, we don't have any appointments. She said, let me make some calls. Calls back and says, you have an appointment here, like tomorrow. So Rachel went, and she went to her eye doctor appointment, and as she got done, she went to sort of settle up at the desk, and then he says, oh, it's already been paid for, right?

That's good news, right? It's, how much do I owe? That's advice, but to get there and have somebody say, hey, it's all taken care of on your behalf, that's good news. And that's what the gospel tells us. Everything else in the world will say, here's the big list for you. The gospel says, it is finished. God has saved you, and what we find is that the gospel will transform our lives. The gospel will confront our sin, and the gospel ultimately is the only thing that lasts. So I want you to see in our text this morning, we get a glimpse of how the gospel transforms. We've all experienced transformation. Sometimes it's a good transformation. Sometimes it's a bad transformation. Earlier this week, I was getting ready to leave for somewhere, and I said, oh, I've got to trim up my beard a little bit.

I was so tired. Reached in my drawer, grabbed my beard trimmer, and just started trimming my beard. And then I looked in the mirror and realized the little guard that's normally on my beard trimmer is gone. And at that point, I have half a beard, and I'm going, Rachel, it's an emergency. It's like, what do I do? Do I just leave it, hope nobody notices, right? You know, we've got to go to the doctor so I can just wear a mask. Maybe nobody will notice. Anyway, it was a remarkable transformation, so much so that Luke, when he sees me for the first time, goes, you're not dad without a beard. And then he spent like the next two days trying to find my beard because he was convinced that it was lost, right? We've all seen those transformations.

In fact, we really like sometimes watching transformations, right? We watch these shows about old houses where you go in and everything's falling apart, and then at the end, before the reveal, they'll say, let's remind you of what it looked like, right? Then you go back and see all the terrible things, and it flashes in to the new kitchen and the new bathroom and the new living room, and we see that transformation, and we say, that's amazing, right? We like watching transformation. In these verses, we get a glimpse of gospel transformation. Let's pick up in verse 21. Now, after these events, Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus,

he himself stayed in Asia for a while. And so the first thing we see in this is sort of Paul's missionary plans, right? Here's what I want to do, here's what I plan to do. But in those plans, we get a glimpse of the transformation that has occurred in Paul's life. Do you remember where Paul started? Where we first meet Paul, he's named Saul, and he's sitting with an angry mob outside the city of Jerusalem, And they are throwing rocks at a Christian until that guy dies. Acts 7.58 says, They cast him out of Stephen into the city and stoned him, laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Just a few verses later in Acts chapter 8, But Saul was ravaging the church. And entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

And now look where Paul is. He says, first of all, he wants to go into the world to hear the gospel. He says, here's my plan. I'm going to go to Greece. I'm going to go to Jerusalem. And then he says, I must see Rome. Now, this is not sort of us saying something is amazing where it's like, well, you have to go see that, right? You see a really good movie, and you tell your friend who has the same taste in movies. You've got to see that. It's not a seeing of interest or entertainment or I'd love to see the Roman architecture. Paul is saying, I must go to Rome because he wants to share the gospel with the capital of the Roman Empire. His goal now is not to drag Christians into jail, but rather to tell people about Jesus.

It's like when we get really excited about something we care about and we can't wait to share it. So for me, that's dogs. Like every time I meet a new dog, I'm taking pictures of the dog. And then I text it to my friends and say, hey, look at the dog I just met. And they say, oh, that's an amazing dog, right? Paul is so excited by the gospel. It's captured, not just his mission and his plan, but it's captured his affections. And he says, I want everyone to hear the gospel. And he's going to tell Romans that I'm just stopping in Rome and I'm going all the way to Spain, right? I'm going to the other end of Europe. He's been transformed by the gospel. More than that, he deeply cares about the church, right?

This church in Jerusalem that he sought to destroy, The reason he's going to Jerusalem is because there's no food in Jerusalem. And he's going to go around to all of these churches that we've seen in this missionary journey. And he's going to take up an offering in each one. And he's going to take up to Jerusalem so that these struggling Christians can buy food. He has gone from persecuting the church to now collecting money so that the church can eat. We also get a glimpse of how the church has been transformed. If you remember where we were last week, the church repents of all of the things that they have been worshiping and putting their hope in other than God, and they will bring their magic arts books, and they're going to burn them in the sight of all.

They counted the value of them, found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver, somewhere at least $5 million, maybe up into, some estimate, maybe even up into the billions, depending on what size the pieces of silver were. And the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. When the church sees God's power, when the church repents, when they put their undivided trust in Him, and when they live like He has called them to live, the Word of God increases mightily. And so we've seen a transformation in Paul and in the church, and now we get a glimpse of the transformation in Ephesus. Starting in verse 23. About that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. It's what people would call the church. You'll find that reference throughout Acts. They refer to them as the way.

I remember Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. And so the name, not that the Christians took for themselves, but that the world was giving to the church, they think they're the way. A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business. These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, Men, you know from this business we have built our wealth. And you see in here, not only in Ephesus, but almost in all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods, and there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing.

that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship. If you remember, Ephesus is a center to this God Artemis. They have built a temple there with 127 columns that are 60 feet tall, 6 feet thick in gold. It's one of the wonders of the ancient world. And in fact, they were so intent on this temple lasting that they built it not on the solid rock of the city, but they build it on sort of marshy ground intentionally so that when earthquakes would come, right, the foundations kind of move with the earthquakes rather than the whole thing just cracking and falling down. It was a beautiful temple, and it brought all kinds of tourism and business. And look at what these guys who sort of set up outside, right?

Last year, we had a wedding in Ohio on the way back. We took a little family side trip, not really side trip, but a little extra bit of a journey and took the kids to Niagara Falls. It had been a long time since I'd been there. And you walk in, and it's right, you have the falls, which are nice, but then there's all of these tourist things, right? You've got all these shops where you can buy postcards and mugs. There's not just like one little gift shop. There's like gift shops everywhere you look. It's just wall-to-wall gift shops for this attraction. And what would happen in Ephesus is all of these craftsmen got their living from selling things to people who came to visit this temple. In this case, specifically, this guy Demetrius is involved in making little sort of silver shrines,

little copies of the goddess Artemis that people could take home with them and pray to in their house. And what has happened? Because the church has been a church, because they have repented and their hope is in Jesus, business has started to drop off. You see, the church has been so effective that it has impacted the economy of Ephesus. You find that even things that maybe don't seem like they would be impacted by the gospel are impacted by the gospel. And so what you find in this sort of loss of business is the gospel isn't just transforming, but it's confronting the city of Ephesus. Now, I don't know about you, but oftentimes I'm not a big fan of confrontation. We always like to sort of find an easy way through those difficult situations, maybe not having to deal with it, avoid it.

And we see confrontation sometimes as a bad thing. And sometimes confrontation, especially for the sake of confrontation, is a bad thing. But there are times when confrontation is incredibly loving. One of the things that sort of burned into my memory is there was a little boy who lived down the street, and he was out riding his tricycle one day, dead center in the middle of the road. And over the little hill right here comes a UPS truck, and he comes to the top of the hill and sees a little boy on his tricycle in the middle of the road, and he just stops. And that little boy looks at that UPS truck, and then he just goes, bro, and starts pedaling as fast as he can head on at the UPS. He's probably like three years old.

I'm going, where are his parents, right? It's not unloving for a parent who sees their kid playing chicken with a UPS truck in the middle of the road to have a confrontation with that child, right? That, in fact, is the loving thing. To not confront your child is incredibly unloving. And so there are times where confrontation is not unloving, but rather loving. And the key for us, I think, is to know when it is a good time to confront and when it is not. What you find is that God confronts his people in different ways. Sometimes it's very blatant. If you remember Jesus and the Pharisees, what will Jesus say? He'll say, you bunch of snakes. Or he'll say, you children of the devil. Jesus confronts sometimes very boldly. But then there's other times he confronts very gently.

Remember the woman at the well who he speaks to? And he confronts her about her sin, but he does so in a way that gets her attention, shows her that she is loved, so much so that she goes into the town and she says, hey, come see this guy who knows everything that I have ever done. God sometimes confronts us bluntly, sometimes gently, but it's always according to what we need, right? He doesn't confront for the sake of confrontation, but for our need. And what we find in Ephesus is God confronts through the truth of Paul's message. He confronts through the lives of God's people as business begins to drop off. But notice how he and the church doesn't confront. Because this is a place where we struggle, right? The church isn't confronting these idol makers

with an angry mob, or with an angry sign, or with an angry political message. They're confronting simply through living their lives Christians as Christians. And I think many of us today get this a little backwards when it comes to confronting culture. Many of us take the picture of the mob that confronts the Christians, and we use that as a model rather than looking at how the church confronted the idols. Listen to how the angry mob confronts. Now, some cried one thing, some another. This is after they rile up the mob, they head to the theater, for the assembly was in confusion. Most them to not even know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the

crowd, but they recognized he was a Jew. And for about two hours, they all called out with one voice, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And so you got this mob and they're chanting, what do we want? And they think, oh, when do we want it? We're not sure, right? We just know that we're mad and we're going to shout about it. And so many times when Christians confront, this is the model we choose. Why are we mad? I don't know, but we're going to shout about it. See in this is that how the church should confront. We're not very good at this. I remember in college, there was a store that went into our little college town and it was an adult store and it wasn't like out on the outskirts or, you know, in a field somewhere. It was like dead center in the middle of town. And so

everybody is upset about this. And so, you know, the churches had protested and boycotted, which I don't know why you need to boycott something you weren't supposed to go to anyway, but, you know, that's what they were doing. Anyway, so the one church said, you know, we're going to pray for this store, but not in a good way. We're going to pray sort of an imprecatory, angry prayer. And every time you drive by, pray that bad things will happen to them. And they got bumper stickers made up for all of their cars that said, you know, we do the drive-by. And underneath is the name of the church and it's so you got all these cars driving around with bumper stickers on i'm saying we do the drive-by and it's like well this seems like an unseen right because there was no way to know

what they're talking about and they were confronting not in a i think a biblical way but in a way that like this crowd and it's such a such a temptation for us to confront like that listen to what Peter says about how we're called to confront even if you should suffer for righteousness sake you will be blessed. Have no fear of them or be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense for anyone who asks you for the reason for hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Notice what he says. He says, you don't change. You're not wishy-washy. You honor Christ in your

hearts, you make a defense, you do so with gentleness and respect. And that's what the church in Ephesus says, and we know that because in verse 37, for you have brought these men here who are neither sacraments nor blasphemers of our goddess. You get the impression that the church simply lived for God, spoke the truth, and it had an impact on their world. And so what you find is the Gospel confronts and changes. And you and I live in an argumentative, very angry world. We all have opinions. We all like to oftentimes express them loudly. But do we behave differently because of the Gospel? In verse 24, it says this, a man named Demith who made silver shrines of Artemis brought no little business to the craftsmen. The Gospel changes lives. It confronts the idolatry in our life.

And third, I want you to see the gospel brings us a lasting hope. So these shrines, little silver figures of the goddess, what's interesting about them is in Ephesus they found the wooden ones. They found some made of stone. They've never found any of these silver shrines. Nobody doubts historically that they existed. In fact, everybody says, yeah, they obviously existed. We have all kinds of historical accounts about silver shrines of the goddess Artemis. What happened to those silver shrines? What happened is that when people came and they invaded and took over the city or you ran out of money, you took your little silver shrine, what did you do? You melt it down and you sell it for the silver that's within it. And at the end of the day, this riot in town that fills a theater of 25,000 people

and they're shouting and screaming about Artemis. At the end of the day, the very thing they were worried about is not selling enough silver shrines, what did it matter? Because here we are, thousands of years later, and there's none of them, right? Because they all got sold. They all got melted down and used to buy groceries or support your travels or help start a business. They're gone. And one of the things we see is the lasting power of the gospel. Jesus will say this. He'll say in Matthew chapter 6, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where will your heart be

as well. You see, in the Gospel we have something that can't be stolen, can't be shaken, can't be melted down, can't be taken away. We have a hope that lasts and lasts for eternity. And what we find is the gospel changes, it transforms, it confronts us, not with the purpose of just making us angry, but to bring us to this hope that lasts for eternity. Let's have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for grace. Thank you for the hope that you have given us. Help us as we consider how to live in a broken world, A world filled with all kinds of different things that we all seek to worship. We just ask that you would focus our eyes on you. That you would help us through our lives to proclaim the good news of the gospel.

That we would be gentle and respectful. That we would be unwavering in our love for you. Thank you for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing Blessed Assurance. We're going to sing the first verse and the third verse. Let's go ahead and be standing.

God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest I am my Savior, I'm happy and blessed Watching, awaiting, looking above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.

I want to thank you for joining us this morning. We're thankful for those of you who are joining us online as well this morning. Just a couple of announcements before we wrap up this morning. First of all, we're back here Wednesday night, walking through sort of the end of 1 Thessalonians. That's sort of what's happening next. Also, we're very thankful. Rachel mentioned this. We're thankful for Erica and the work she did getting us ready for Easter. that's coming up here in just a couple weeks. So Palm Sunday is Sunday, April 10th. And so we're excited to sort of see how Jesus begins his last week in Jerusalem with the triumphal entry. I think we're going to be looking at that Sunday. There's a song that the children sing. They're kind of in the middle of the temple. Pharisees get mad because they're loud in church. And Jesus

says, they kind of got a point. So that's where we're going to be for Palm Sunday. And then Good Friday, April 15th, 7 p.m. We gather on that Friday to sort of remember the death of Jesus together, and then we gather Sunday, April 17th, to celebrate the resurrection. And one of the reasons Easter is such a big deal for the church is because it's a celebration of the gospel. We have the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, who is the cornerstone of the church. This is the good news that we share to the world. And so we are excited to celebrate that as well. Also, one of the things we wanted to mention, we'll send this out in the email as well. One of the things we've been looking for is a way to help or sort of give you an opportunity

to help on the situation that has been happening in the Ukraine. There's a lot of big organizations helping, and one of the things that we found out from Erica this week is there's, I guess, a group of people making sleeping bags, and we'll have some pictures of that as well. I've got them on my phone. I can show them to you if you want. It's kind of really interesting. There's a lot of people who are struggling, right? You're sleeping in a parking garage. It's cold, and so they're making sleeping bags and just passing them out so that people can be warm and have a little bit of shelter and a little bit of them for about $20 a piece, which if you've tried to buy like a nice sleeping bag recently, that's a good thing.

So we'd like to put together a little bit to help support that couple ways. Is Stu and Erica for some of the details. You can, if you want to give through the church, you can put in the offering, you can either make a note or, you know, give us a, you know, give us some indication what that's for. If you'd like to do it online, if you'd like to give online, there's actually a drop box that pulls down just as Ukraine, and that'll set those for those funds. So we'd like to, over the next couple weeks or so, help with that. And so we'll put some posts probably on Facebook and in our email as well, just to sort of let you know. So if you have any questions, I can talk to you about that, or Stu and Erica can help

answer some of those questions. I think it's a good way to help. I just kept thinking about where it talks in John about how, you know, if you see your brother hungry or thirsty, you see people who need shelter. One of the things that Christians seek to do as we bring the gospel is to bring help for those who are hurting and who are in need. And additionally, I would add that you keep in prayer the people in countries who are struggling and hurting. I would pray that the church in these situations would be there and be present and be helping and comforting in the midst of these things and be a voice for goodness and for truth. So we're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer. And then we'll, Evelyn, are you wanting to read? And Evelyn's going to read our

closing verse, and then we're going to sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace and for hope. Help us as we seek to live for you in this world, that we would be like your son, that we would share the good news about the hope that we have been given. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Behold, the eyes of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord to use our help and our shield. Our heart is glad of him because we trust in his holy name. Set your steadfast love, O Lord, upon us, even as we hope in him. This is the word of the Lord. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.