Go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter 19. And we will pick up in verse 21 today covering a lot of text today. But I’m going to meet you there in just a moment. But as I get started, I wanted to read to you some words from Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount. And so as you turn to Acts chapter 19, just listen to these words that Jesus spoke.
He said in Matthew chapter 5, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16)
In today’s text that we will look at in the book of Acts, we will see the beauty that comes from the church being the salt and light that Jesus was talking about on the earth. But in the same vein we also see the hostility and the opposition that can arise from the church being salt and light on the earth. While salt can season and while light can lead, salt also stings the wounds of idolatry, and light exposes the darkness that doesn’t desire to be exposed. Therefore, to be salt and light in the world is not only see the glorious fruit of worship and surrender as we saw last week in Ephesus. But undoubtedly Satan will keep pace with effective gospel growth.
Where revival breaks out, Satan will always try to break in. And we saw revival breaking out in the streets of Ephesus last week. And today we’re going to see Satan trying to break in and thwart everything that Christ was doing. We’ve seen a lot of opposition in the book of Acts, haven’t we? The Word of the Lord continues to prevail mightily, Christ continues to build His church, Satan continues to oppose. And through opposition the church just keeps getting stronger. But the enemy, he will not oppose that which is not a threat.
So as you experience opposition and discouragement and hostility and backlash in your personal pursuit of righteousness, take heart that the Spirit of God will lead you through. Here’s the truth this morning as we’ve been studying through Acts, it should be an encouragement to you that to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, is to see the Word of God do the work of God through the Spirit of God in the people of God as we are the salt and light on the earth. And all of this is so evident in Acts chapter 19 as Satan tries to thwart Paul’s plan to move the gospel forward, to stir up church unity and strengthen the churches. And chaos ensues, the Spirit delivers, and God does miraculous things to strengthen believers and His church.
The big idea of this text today is this- the fruit of idolatry is foolishness but the fruit of following Christ always leads to life. The fruit of idolatry is foolishness every time. Foolish confusion. But the way of Christ, the fruit of following Christ, will always lead to life. Now I want you to get your eyes on a copy of Acts chapter 19, and we’re going to read verses 21-41. I know it’s a lot of text, but let’s just get the truth and let’s get the storyline of what’s happening in the book of Acts. Doctor Luke devotes a lot of time to it. So starting 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.
About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost 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 that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”
When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not 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 when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.
Verse 39. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. (Acts 19:21-41)
Now there is a lot going on in Acts chapter 19. Anybody in here a souvenir type person? Anyone in here a souvenir person? Yeah? Raise your hand. So you’ve got souvenirs? So you travel places if you’re going through airports, there are all kinds of souvenirs. You collect some things that are good for your shelf or things that just remind you of where you’ve been.
I’ve got some souvenirs that I pulled together. This is a lion carved in Liberia that I got there. Love that. And I got this baseball. This is a souvenir from Wrigley Field. I was there when the Cubs played the Pittsburgh Pirates. No, I did not buy this. I caught this in an actual game. And so I think that this a pretty cool souvenir. I was in Texas recently and I got some…Yeah, you Texans have your own form of idolatry. We’ll talk about it today. I got the Alamo and got this keychain for my daughters and got my son this “Don’t Mess with Texas”; this is for his pennies. So redeeming one broken thing at a time.
And souvenirs are great, right? So the entire riot that we are talking about today, this entire riot or moment of mass confusion all seemingly stems around a man and his souvenir shop at the temple of Artemis. Demetrius was a man who hung out around the massive ornate temple. I told you it was four times greater than the Parthenon, very ornate, very beautiful. And this man hung out. He was a silversmith who had a very successful business selling silver replicas of the shrine of the goddess of the hunt.
So verse 24 tells us that he received a lot of business from seeing these little silver replica shrines. And you could go visit as a family to the temple, the goddess of the hunt, and I’m sure you bought those and you put it on your shelf in your home or something like that. Why does Luke take so much time to tell us about this moment of confusion caused by this man and his souvenir shop? I think there are three reasons that Luke stops and tells us about this mass moment of confusion.
First, it’s because we saw that the Spirit of God and the Word of God were prevailing mightily in verse 20 that we looked at last week. So as we already stated, where revival is breaking out, Satan will undoubtedly try to break in. And now in verse 21 and 22 we see that Paul had very intentional plans to continue his missionary journey. He wanted to make it to Rome. He wanted to take the gospel to different places. And you know that every time you have a plan, if you even have a plan just to go and get some rest or to have some soulcare, Satan is trying to throw off your plan. Amen? You see that in your life. It stinks whenever things go wrong.
And now number three. This is the most important part of why Luke is showing us what’s going on in Acts chapter 19. Because Luke is showing us when the gospel is on the loose, it reveals the foolishness of our idolatry, it threatens the social norms of a godless community, and it has the power to eradicate godless enterprise. Here this man was selling shrines to a false fake god. And the gospel was threatening his business.
Now the first point that I’ll give to you today is this- you can protect your idols, but you will reap foolish confusion. You can protect your idols, but you will reap foolish confusion. As Demetrius begins to speak in verse 25-27, it reveals his idolatrous heart. Look again at verse 25 in the text. It says, He gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, “Men, you know that this business is where we have our wealth.” Key word there, wealth.
Verse 26. And you see and hear that not in Ephesus but almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned many people away saying that gods made with hands are not gods. What an offensive thing that Paul could be saying in the city of Ephesus. Your gods that you carved for yourself, they’re not actually gods. They can’t help you with anything.
Verse 27. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing.
So the silversmith Demetrius, he gives four reasons why Paul’s message is a threat in the community of Ephesus. First, this is going to keep us growing our wealth. This is going to keep me from lining my pockets as I sell these silver temples in this town. Two, this is going to put all of us out of business. He gathered other people of like trades and said, This is going to put us out of business.
Number three, it’s detrimental to our city’s temple and our center of commerce. So a lot of commerce, a lot of business taking place at this temple. All of those things go back to their wealth. And then number four, this is undermining the magnificence of our goddess Artemis. So the real truth, as it always does, comes out as Demetrius begins to speak. He tries to disguise his actions as defending his religion or his goddess, but in reality he was less concerned with his goddess and more concerned with this right here. And he was actually way less concerned with this and so much more concerned with this, what he could fill his pockets with.
And so often money becomes an idol in our lives. Money becomes a god in our lives. And we try to disguise it with religion. We try to disguise it with all the different idols that we can think up. And really at the root of the problem is the thing that is filling our pockets or you go to any other idol that you want to protecting your life. It is worthless and it is foolish and you will reap the foolish confusion of holding onto your idols and trying to disguise it as religion or trying to disguise it as good.
And I’m telling you right now, if you want to serve money it will be a cruel master in your life. Francis Bacon, he said this: “Money is like muck. It’s no good unless you spread it around. Because everything that this life affords is temporary, and just like our lives it is all but a vapor. It is here today and it is gone tomorrow. So when we get caught up serving and exalting that which was never meant to be worshiped, it breeds foolish confusion in our lives.”
I want to just go over some of the words that you see in this massive riot that took place, ok? Verse 28 says they were enraged. Demetrius stirs up some trouble and then the whole town gets enraged over what has said. Verse 28 and 34 says, They cried out for two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
I hope that you could worship Jesus for two hours. If we were just here singing a song over and over again, could you do that? Could you get that pumped up and fired up about your Savior and Lord? These people were so fired up about the fake god Artemis that they cried out for two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.”
Verse 29 says that the city was filled with confusion. Verse 32. Some cried out one thing, some another. They had no idea what they were even arguing over. They dragged people. They rushed together. And it caused enough chaos for the town clerk to come and to threaten them with court and imprisonment for rioting.
Now look at verse 35. And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?
That was what they kept in the temple of Artemis, a stone that fell from the sky. It was most likely a meteor that came from the skies. They thought it was the sacred stone from their goddess, and so they kept it in that temple. And everyone would come and everyone would go. Aren’t you glad that your God didn’t send you a rock? I’m so glad about that.
Our God, the God of glory, the Creator God, He sent His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. And the Son of God who came from heaven from our God, the only God, the God of glory, He is a glorious Master and He is a Wonderful Counselor. He is a Prince of Peace. Rather than chaos, Jesus brings an abundant life and the riches of an inheritance with glory for all who will call upon His name and call Him Lord.
But it it just fascinating to me. Amen? It’s just fascinating to me to see the foolishness of these people’s idolatry. Artemis had never done anything for them. And yet they stood in allegiance and shouted of her greatness.
Have you ever seen the play Hamilton? You’ve seen that? Alexander Hamilton says this famous line: “If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.” And here these people are. They didn’t know what god they stood for. They were concerned about themselves. They were believing anything that they heard. They were shouting all different kinds of things. They stood for absolutely nothing.
Perhaps a better quote was what one theologian said. Listen to this. “You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship. And these Ephesians that day, these Ephesians in this city, they had become like what they worshiped. They were dumber than a box of rocks because that’s all that they had was a box of a rock sitting on a hill.
And they became angry because the money always runs out and the money never satisfies. And Demetrius, that’s all he cared about. And he tried to disguise it as religion, and yet he just cared about what he could fill his pockets with that day. And so it will be with our idols. We will become like that which we elevate, that which we protect, that which we give our attention to and glory to, that which we worship.
I want you to listen to what Psalm 115:2-8 says. It’s on the screen. But it says this: Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens and he does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak, eyes, but do not see. They have ears but do not hear, noses, but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel. They have feet but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat. Pretty worthless. But look at verse 8. Those who make them become like them, and so do all who trust in them.
This exact description is true for the Ephesians as they rioted in the streets that day, and this exact description is true for us as we set up idols in our own hearts. Do you have idols? Do you know what your idols are in your life? If you could trace all of your character deficiencies, I think you could trace it back to an idol in your heart, something that you are protecting that is not worth your time protecting. Something that you have replaced Jesus Christ on the throne of your heart with.
Everyone in this room would probably say, “I worship God. I don’t worship idols. And yet so often we get thrown off day to day protecting things, admiring things, holding things with value, that have no value compared to the God of glory. And if you’re not careful, it can take precedence over the King of glory.
John Calvin said that our hearts are like an idol factory. You wake up everyday and it just starts churning out idols. Listen, here are some idols I want to challenge you with. If you worship your identity, you will never feel like you measure up and your pride will take you over as you constantly think about yourself. Isn’t it so true that we can get so wrapped up in our identity, how we look, how we dress, what others think about us? And so we go through life trying to impress people, and we think about ourselves constantly and it can take us over.
Here’s another one. If you worship your job, your life will be consumed with doing rather than being. You will continually elevate what you do rather than who you are in Christ. What has Christ said that you are? And yet so often we spend our life and our days consumed by what we do or who we can become. You will become an unsatisfied achiever rather than trusting Jesus to be the achiever that you need.
And I’ll tell you what, I have that unsatisfied achiever thing going on in me sometimes. I can be so caught up in like, I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to accomplish this. I’ve got to push this forward. And it can throw me out of whack and it can cause me to get grumpy, and it can cause me to complain. Because I’m trying to achieve something rather than remembering what Jesus has already achieved in this world.
And it can be a healthy thing to be an unsatisfied achiever in what Christ has called you to only if you are relying every single day on what has already been done at the cross. Because when you have your heart and your focus anchored in Jesus as the achiever, oh my goodness, it sets everything into motion and you begin to realize that He will carry you through. He will give you the strength to accomplish all that you need to accomplish. He will provide for you in ways that you could have never imagined.
If you worship entertainment, you will become entitled and miss the great blessings that this life affords. I think that this is so easy for our next generation. My wife and I have been talking about this even with our own kids that it can be so easy to worship the next thing, the next big thing. And we’re complaining about how are we going to get to the next big thing when we’re in the big thing right now and we’re missing the blessings of the big thing because we have fear of missing out on the next thing. And that creates entitlement in our lives, and that is idolatry.
Here’s another one. If you worship sex you’ll end up looking for it in all the wrong places. And you will absolutely wreck your life. You will wreck your testimony, you will wreck your ministry, you will wreck your relationship and you will wreck your marriage if you worship the wonderful, glorious, good gift that God has given us in sex rather than enjoy it within the parameters of the Giver. Brokenness and heartache will follow you all the days of your life on this earth.
If you worship your family. Families are a great thing, aren’t they? What a great thing to protect. We’re celebrating it even today. This is a heavy message on Mother’s Day. I’m just realizing. But if you worship your family you will spend yourself trying to be their god, their sustainer, their provider and their strong tower and you will undoubtedly disappoint. You will prioritize things that are less important than God and His Word so that you can satisfy the desires of your family, and only God is meant to do that in their lives.
But it can be easy to get caught up. We could go on and on identifying idols. I don’t know what your idol would be. Maybe it’s just your downtime at the end of the day. Maybe it’s just your tv time as you want to watch the NBA finals. Maybe it’s just your scrolling on your phone time at the end of the day. Maybe it’s just having a clean space and having a house that’s decluttered and kind of put together. All of those things can become idols in our lives. And we as people are notorious for worshiping the gifts rather than the Giver.
And those who make idols and trust in idols become like their idols, and we must see the foolish confusion that our idolatry affords. The chaos in Ephesus that day may resemble the chaos in your life because you’ve become like one of your idols that we’ve talked about today. And Scripture commands you to do this- cast down your idols.
Psalm 96 says that the gods of the peoples, they are worthless idols. The Ten Commandments God said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Lord, forgive us for when we prop something up as so valuable, as so glorious and good, that we protect it rather than looking to You, rather than glorifying You. And as Paul said in Athens, God commands all people everywhere to repent.
And just as I said last week, your surrender is your first step toward walking in real and true freedom. Your rioting and your fighting and your self-preservation will only prove to be a waste of time, a massive confusion and pointless effort to protect that which will never satisfy. And that’s exactly what was happening as the scene ends in verse 40 and 41.
Look at what it says as the town clerk brings it to a close. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.
All that just so that he could calm them down, tell them they’re going to go to court, and dismiss the assembly. All of that commotion was nothing but a big waste of time because idolatry only stirs up foolish confusion in our lives. And that first step of surrender, you saw it last week as the Ephesians brought all of their sin, their magic books, into the streets. And they burned them as if they had no value compared to the power of Jesus Christ, because nothing has power, nothing is worth our time besides Jesus. And so we have to lock onto Jesus Christ. We have to follow Jesus Christ. We have to allow His work and His life to transform us, and all of those things will fall into place as we look to Jesus.
SPLIT HERE
Now I want to contrast with you. We’re going to keep going into chapter 20 for just a moment, because I want you to see the fruit of following Christ. So we see the foolishness of the fruit that idolatry affords, but point number two is this. You can advance the gospel and reap the benefits that come from knowing Christ. You can either protect your idols and you’ll reap foolishness, or you can advance the gospel and reap the benefits that come from knowing Christ.
It’s funny to me that Paul and his team, they’re barely even a factor in that entire confusing riot in Ephesus. It’s kind of like us as believers when we watch the news. Do you watch the news with spiritual lenses? And don’t you just see the foolishness when the whole world argues and fights and defends that which makes no sense? That’s going on so much in our culture right now every single day.
And here we are in church today, people from all different walks of life finding common ground, finding encouragement, finding joy at the foot of the cross. And while the world is raging, we are in here singing songs of joy to a Savior who can save us. We are in here celebrating new life and babies that have been born. We are praying together and holding up parents together and celebrating with those who celebrate and mourning with those who mourn. Because we have something that the world knows nothing about, and they desperately need. It is the hope of following Jesus Christ.
And advancing the gospel message and partaking in the unity of the gathered Body, that’s all Paul was trying to do as Acts chapter 19 carried on. This was his plan before the riot, and then once the riot ceases he just continues to do exactly what he does. Can we read in verse 20, or chapter 20 verses 1-12 and we’ll just kind of focus there for the rest of our time?
After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. Some of you need to stop falling asleep right now. We’re not done yet.
And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. That’s traumatic.
Verse 10. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted. (Acts 20:1-12)
A lot going on in our text today. But Paul, he rarely seems deterred by the opposing moments in his life. The opposition comes and the opposition goes. But Paul’s allegiance to Christ spurs him onward in the power of the Spirit. And I just want you to take note. We took note of all of the bad fruit that came from protecting Demetrius and the idols. I want you to see the incredible, beautiful fruit that the gospel affords in this section of Scripture; fruit seen in verses 1-12.
Verse 2 says that his church plants received encouragement. That is a beautiful thing. All of the churches that Paul had planted, they were receiving encouragement. They were being built up. Maybe they were discouraged. And Paul comes and he is able to give them encouragement in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Verse 3. Paul penned Romans and 1 Corinthians in those three months. It says that he was there for three months. Well during those three months Paul wrote the book of Romans, which is one of the most important books in all of the Bible. It helps us with the doctrines of grace. It helps us stare into the depths and majesty of our God. It helps us with spiritual gifts. And he wrote the letter to the 1 Corinthians.
So while Paul was in this short section of Scripture, which seems like a transition in the book of Acts, God was breathing out words that we read today and that help us follow Christ today.
Verses 4-6, gospel representatives and unity from every city and church were there. And so all those names I read, they were specific people that Paul had left charge to at these churches, and they were there waiting for him. Verses 4-6, each church collected an offering for the church in Jerusalem. So if you read in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, read places in Romans where Paul talks about this part of his journey, he had commissioned all of these churches to collect an offering. He didn’t want to get there and ask for money. He wanted them to have already set it aside as they gather together on the first day of the week and they give their tithes and offerings for the mission and the ministry of the people of God.
And then he was taking that, getting that to Jerusalem where there were a bunch of poor Christians and they needed help. And so the people of God are being a blessing to the people of God. Talk about a contrast between believers and Demetrius. Demetrius’s god was money so he rioted, but the believer’s God is the Giver of all good things. So we can cheerfully give away what we have been given.
Verse 7, the people of God gathered on the first day of the week. That’s the first mention that we gather on the first day of the week, Sunday, because Jesus came out of the grave. And so every Sunday we get together and this is important and it is a rehearsal for the heavenly places that God is preparing for us.
Verse 7 and 8, the hunger for the Word was so great that it went on all night. Verse 8, a young man was raised from the dead. No big deal. So Eutychus, his name means “lucky.” It was probably hot on that third floor, you know, lamps burning. He’s sitting on the windowsill. Paul begins to speak. He didn’t speak all night because he was long-winded. There was just such hunger. There was just such a desire to hear the Word of God. And as he preached, Eutychus, lucky, falls from the third story window. That is the most traumatic thing I think that could ever happen at a worship service. And yet Paul just goes down, comes back, and they eat dinner together. I mean, it’s crazy. And yet Paul is not deterred by the opposition, and he’s got some Holy Spirit power going on because we see at the end of the text that “lucky” was lucky and he walks away saved and not dead. And the church broke bread and fellowship together.
Verse 13 and 16, Paul continues to advance the gospel and take his encouragement to Jerusalem. Now which fruit would you rather bear? There’s so much going on. What fruit would you rather bear? The fruit of idolatry was confusion and chaos, but the fruit of the gospel is just insurmountable. And I hope that you see that in these short twelve verses. The fruit of the gospel brought encouragement and unity and doctrine and generosity and fellowship. And it even has power over death.
And you might not fall out of a third-story window and be brought back to physical life, but you can guarantee that when you breathe your last on this planet, if you have the gospel of Jesus Christ in you, death cannot beat you. Death cannot hold you. Death has no sting over you because Jesus Christ came out of the grave. And you will stand before Him face to face and worship Him for eternity because of Jesus Christ in your life. It is incredible. You need the fruit of the gospel radiating in your life because it’s abundant and it is life everlasting and it restores us to the God of glory. And the gospel doesn’t simply declare us righteous, but it makes us the righteousness of Christ.
That’s what the gospel does. It makes you. It reforms you. It remakes you. It transforms you into the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And so as the band comes out, I’m going to challenge you with this third point. And I just want to give it to you in a question. You will bear the fruit of what you live for, so what fruit are you bearing? You saw fruit in these texts today. You saw the fruit of Demetrius as he protected his idols. You saw the fruit that came from Paul just living his life for the glory of God.
And there are two very distinct different things being produced. Here’s maybe another way to ask the question. You will become what you behold, so what are you becoming? The fruit of idolatry will always be foolishness, but the fruit of following Christ will not only lead to life, it will change your life. It will remake your life. It will turn you truly into a little Christ as you stare with awe and admiration and wonder at Jesus. His Spirit will help you to take on His character. And your life will bear the fruit of following Christ and you will become more like Jesus.
But for Jesus to be all that you behold, it will take so much less of you, so much less of you, so much less of me. And none of us have arrived. And so we have to repent just as Paul encouraged every city that he went into. Why was he so quick to talk about repentance? Because we have to turn away from all that this world has to offer. And we identify the ungodly fruit in our life and we attach it to the source of idolatry. And we have to crush it, we have to behead it, otherwise we will become just like it.
And I’ve just been convicted by it all week; came up here convicted. And I’m preaching to myself this morning. And I want to encourage you to identify the idolatry in your life. Identify the things in your life that have no value. Identify the things in your life that you need to cast down and you need to crush. It’s your first step to this life of abundance that we talk about. And you see the gospel on display in Acts chapter 19 and 20.
We have to pick apart all of these narratives and stories or you could just breeze through it and wonder why they’re there. But they’re there to show you the way to life. They’re there to show you the gospel, that the God of glory has not left you on your own. He has sent His one and only Son, not a rock from the sky. He has sent life change into the world.
He has sent something into the world that can radically redeem your soul and that can show you the deepest, darkest secrets of your heart. And so stop protecting them. We have to bring them out into the light. We have to. And even this week, you know, I’ve just had moments where the Lord has challenged me in my prayer, in my faith, that I would pray bolder prayers, that I would believe that He truly can shape me.
It can be easy when you’ve done church all your life or when you open the Bible a lot or when you read the Bible a lot, to think that you’ve arrived at times. And we have definitely not arrived. And as I look around this room, we are so blessed as Gospel City church to have this many people come inside of our walls every single week. And we are so blessed to have the joy that radiates in this place as we worship.
But I definitely know that no one in this room has arrived. And I know you carry burdens with you Monday through Friday, and when you come here this stirs up your soul and it reorients you. But can I just invite you to cast down your idols? Can I ask you to name your idols, to call out your idols, to bring your sin into the light? We want awakening in this place. We want the Spirit of God to be on fire in this place. Not a band, not a sermon; we want the Spirit of God transforming our souls every single time that we gather. And the only way to do it is to look to Jesus and to have so much less of ourselves.
So come on. Stand to your feet with me. The band is going to sign a song that we’ve been singing. If more of you means less of me, take everything. I don’t know about you, but I have sung that song a lot. And you mean that. And then when the Lord starts taking things from you, it starts to hurt right? And you start to grasp for it and you try to keep your fingers around it. And you’ve got to pry it. Don’t sing it if you don’t mean it.
But if the Spirit of God even prompts you a little bit to get on your knees, to come forward during this song and just to lay on your face. That’s why we lay on our face. That’s what prostrate worship is. The word worship, one of the words in the Greek is proskuneo. We lay down before the Lord. and when we stare at the majesty and the admiration and the awe of our Savior, we get to become like Him. And yet so often when we’re worshiping, when we’re singing things like that, we’re actually thinking about something else. We’re looking toward lesser gods.
Come and cast it down today. Even if the Spirit prompts you a little bit to get on your knees, do it. Don’t say no. Follow Him. I’m going to get on my knees over here and seek the Lord during this ogng. The power of the gospels in this song. I would love for you to do the same. Let’s worship Him. Come on.
