Freedom Follows Following: The Call for More
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Sermon Notes
Paul wasn’t driven by wanting more out of life, he was driven by wanting more people to have life!
John 3:16,17
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Motivation for More = Love
More = World & Whoever
1. More Spiritual Eyes & Less “Self” Eyes
Acts 17:16
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
Anger is an emotion that has “me/self” as the focus. In this case, “distress” had the condition of “others” as the focus. Paul saw the people of Athens as being in spiritual danger.
Our purpose is to be a powerful witness without boundaries but unless we are distressed by all of the “false worship” = self-dependence, self-importance, self- sufficiency etc. around us we will just settle into a self-preserving, self-satisfying life that this busting at the seams, world class becoming city has to offer us. If we are just looking out for our own life we won’t see the dead around us who need life! We need more spiritual eyes and less self eyes.
2. More Spiritual Boldness & Less Self Fear
Acts 17:17
So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
To reason means to “proclaim but with room for discourse.”
3. More Spiritual Wisdom & Less Self-Sensitivity
Acts 17:18-23
18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
4. More Spiritual Power & Less Self-Help Philosophy
Acts 17:24-31
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:32-34
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
1 Corinthians 9:19-27 (Message)
19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! 24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. 26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.
For Acts 2:47 to be re-lived (“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”) we need MORE!
More Spiritual Eyes
More Spiritual Boldness
More Spiritual Wisdom
More Spiritual Power