Revival Starts With A Remnant

- Well, good morning, Brave Church. Would you help me welcome all our campuses that are worshiping with us today? (audience applauding) So good to be with all of you. As you know, we started a capital campaign last year called Taking Ground, and we've spent a lot of time talking about it. We promise you we do quarterly updates. So today I'm gonna have our elder chair, Kelly Hacker, come forward and share a little bit about where we are and what we can do. Kelly's a good friend of mine. We were in a cadre together long before he was on our elder team and elder chair, but would you welcome him up this morning so he can share with you a little bit about what God is doing? (audience applauding) Thanks, brother. - All right, thank you, Pastor Jeff. Good morning, Brave Church. Every time I've had an opportunity and the privilege to stand in front of you and speak, I always wanna take a moment just to stop and first just say thank you for your tremendous faithfulness and your tremendous generosity to the Lord through Brave Church. As elders, it just never ceases to amaze us how generous this church really is.

And so on behalf of all of us, I just wanna start by saying thank you. As Jeff mentioned, last fall, we launched our Taking Ground capital campaign and as Jeff also mentioned, we committed to you at that time that we would provide regular updates on the campaign. And so you should consider this the first of what will be ongoing quarterly updates on the progress of the campaign. And so to help facilitate with that update, I'd like to draw your attention to some slides that we will show on the screen. So to date, we have received commitments totaling $17.3 million. So yeah, we praise the Lord for that. (audience applauding) So you may recall that our original goal was $35 million so we're about halfway there. So for those of you who have not had an opportunity yet to join in the campaign, I would just ask that you prayerfully consider a pledge that would be meaningful to you and your family, particularly if you now call Brave your church home. There is, it's never too late to join the campaign and we would just be so delighted if you would join us in what the Lord is doing here through Brave Church in this capital campaign. I'm pleased to report that we have already received over one third of those initial commitments or $6.1 million and we have already begun

to put some of those gifts to good use. Through the end of March, we have invested roughly $2.6 million in some of those key initiatives that we identified and communicated to you last fall. Notably, we have now completed the classroom upgrade and expansion at Brave Academy. Yeah. (audience applauding) So we need to fill it up. So we can now accommodate a significantly larger enrollment over at Brave Academy. So I would encourage all of you to visit Brave Academy and prayerfully consider enrolling your children. The Lord is doing some incredible things over there. I'm certain under close examination, you'll be very impressed with what we're doing over there. If you have any questions, see us in the lobby or visit the Brave Academy website if you'd like to learn more. So please check that out. Then, while not tangible just yet, so there's nothing to see, but we've already made some investments to significantly upgrade this LED wall behind me. And along with that, do some pretty significant modifications to the stage area. I think what that's gonna do is dramatically improve the viewing experience for everybody here in the sanctuary at Englewood,

regardless of where you sit. And I'm talking to you folks on each of the ends now. So you're gonna see that relatively soon. The other thing those upgrades will provide is it will ultimately allow us to project Pastor Jeff back here to Englewood when he preaches live from time to time at Westminster and other future campuses. So that will be exciting as well. So over the course of the next couple months, all that will become very real and tangible, but I'm certain that when you see that finished, you will see a very dramatic difference here within the sanctuary at Englewood. And then as we committed last fall in the campaign, we've continued to pay down debt over the last six months, and we've continued to invest behind our prison campus expansion. The Lord, as Jeff has mentioned in several occasions, continues to open doors in prisons for us, and our team just keeps charging through those doors. So looking forward to the balance of 26, we have prioritized further kingdom investments, including some long overdue building upgrades here at Englewood, which will include carpet and paint in the sanctuary, the lobby, and then really throughout the entire building. And importantly, (audience cheering and applauding) So we're still working through the plan of how to manage through that logistically,

but you can expect that we'll start that sometime early summer, bring it to completion over a matter of several weeks. While we do that, we'll probably leverage the brave academy site, the south building, for those of you who've been with us for a while, told services over there. So in advance, I would just ask for your prayers, and probably for a lot of your grace, as we try to put together a plan to seamlessly execute that during that remodel process. Then I'm also very excited to announce several key investments for our campus at Westminster. So we'll also be upgrading the LED wall there at Westminster and making some other modifications. So they too will have a much more improved viewing experience there within Westminster. We're also gonna be resurfacing the parking lot at Westminster, and our folks up there know how badly it's needed. And then finally, we're gonna be increasing the capacity of our parking there. So we'll be expanding the parking lot. We already own some vacant property, so we'll be completing that as well. That has been a key unlock to continue to foster growth within our Westminster campus. So we're really excited to make those investments for our brothers and sisters at Westminster. We will also continue to pay down debt, and of course that's a good thing on its own right,

but doing so will allow us to strengthen our balance sheet, and then that will provide additional capacity for us to expand our campus footprint, including prison campus footprint, when opportunities arise. You should know, Jeff's talked about this repeatedly. Campus expansion, including prison campus expansion, continues to be a priority, but we will continue to be very thoughtful and patient, but we wanna be able to act opportunistically, so we're gonna put our balance sheet in a good position so that we can act when we need to. And then finally, we will continue to support Paul Simpson in our global outreach with church plantings throughout Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. And Jeff will be talking about this more in the coming months, but there's really a lot of exciting things happening now and about to happen with Pastor Jeff Ministries. So you should know that we will continue to invest in media to reach everyone we possibly can throughout the United States and throughout the world with the truth of the gospel. So I know that was a very quick update, but I hope that gives you a pretty good idea of where we are today and where we're going in the short term. If you indulge me, I just had a couple more quick comments. We have already completed our 2025 Brave Church financial audit with a clean opinion. I might add thank you to TJ and the finance

and accounting staff who do such an incredible job here, managing and stewarding our resources. That audit report will be, if it's not already, will be posted to our website here in the next few days. So prove that if you would like and ask us any questions. And if you have any questions about the taking ground campaign, ask us any question, any time, today we will have a table out in the lobby both here at Englewood and at Westminster. So stop by if you have any questions. And of course, you can always visit the website at takingground.net. So hopefully that was helpful to you this morning. I appreciate your attention and I will turn it back to Pastor Jeff. (audience applauding) - Thanks brother, appreciate you. I can tell you this from working with a lot of elders over the years, our stewarding elders are doing a phenomenal job of making sure that we're stewarding the resources that are being brought to the Lord in a way that's honoring both to God and to man. And so continue to pray for them, continue to lift this campaign up in prayer and we're gonna trust that the Lord's gonna do it to expand campuses and reach more people for His glory. Amen. Would you pray with me as we get ready to hear God's living an active word this morning.

Our Father in heaven, we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you praise for who you are. And Lord, we thank you that we can gather as your body today to worship your name, to seek your faith and prayer, to hear your living an active word so that we can specifically know what you're saying to each one of us and respond accordingly. Because Lord, we as a people believe every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that as you who are speaking, so our prayer this morning is speak Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, speak directly to you who will believe what He tells you and who will by faith, put into practice what He shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Revival always starts with a remnant. When revival happens, it always starts with a remnant. it always starts with a small group. And when we talk about revival, if you've been a Christian for more than five years, or you've been a Christian like I have for over 35 years, you've heard the word revival and it gets used so much, almost ad nauseam, that you begin to think, I don't know if we're ever gonna see it. I mean, I hear about it, but I don't really experience it, or I read about it in the book of Acts,

but I'm not really seeing it in my life. And if that's really true, then how come we're not seeing it? As a matter of fact, in our culture, it's more common to see former houses of worship and places where the Lord gathered as people turned into restaurants or stores or worship nightclubs. And we've seen more of that in our culture sometimes than we've seen the planting of new churches that are spurring up and helping people grow. So when someone talks about revival or revival starting with a remnant, there's something in this is like, yeah, right, I've heard all this before, I'm prepared to hear this. Let's move on to the next topic, 'cause it's probably not gonna happen in my lifetime. I have news for you. Our God is the same God yesterday, today and forever. Everything that God is able to do, He's always been able to do. And if God does not move in your lifetime, it is not a result of God not willing to. It's a result of you not wanting Him to. It doesn't take large numbers to change things. I happen to be out in our nation's capital this week. I was in the capital building, and I was being taught by a guy named Tim Barton, who is a founding father's historian, like his dad, David, and I've listened to these guys talk before and they talk about the founding fathers,

like you would talk about your family, like they know them, like they grew up with them, super educated. And I was asking a question, and he asked me a question back. He said, Pastor Jeff, he said, what percentage of the colonies do you think wanted to fight in the American Revolution? Like, what percent of colonists at the time said, yeah, we need to take on Britain. And I said, I don't know, probably like 80%, or something like that. And he said of that 80%, how many do you think fought? And I'm like, I don't know, probably not as many, maybe 60. He goes, would you be surprised to know that only 15 to 30% of the colonies actually wanted to war against Britain and only 7 to 10% of the men fought? I was shocked. And I started thinking in my heart, it only takes a remnant. We so often wait for every church to come on board and every church member to be ready and once we're all set up and once we're ready to go, hey God, you move, God doesn't work like that. He's just looking for a few that can do it. And you know who you are. I mean, when I was growing up, we used to go to this thing called the movies. It was a movie theater. You didn't get it on your phone

or anything like that at your house. You went to the movie theater, we'd go, we'd go there, and I'm thankful for all the military branches of service. And I'm thankful for all the men and women that serve in our country. But there's one branch that's always done the best in advertising, the Marines. Because I knew you were gonna say that. Because every time I would see a Marine commercial, there would be a storm coming and the Marines would be charging towards it. Every time there was trouble approaching, the Marines were like, we got this. And it was only just a few guys running and I thought they had the coolest uniforms and all that stuff. And then at the end, they would say, they didn't say they were looking for everybody. You know who they said they were looking for? The few, the proud, the Marines. And even as a kid, I'm like, if I go in the military, I'm doing that. (audience laughs) 'Cause I'm one of those, right? That's who God's looking for. He's not looking for the masses. He's looking for those whose hearts are rightly related to him. He's looking for the white. He's no respecter of age.

You can be 10 years old. He's not looking for a specific personality. You can be an introvert. He's not looking for specific gift mixes. You can have whatever gift mix. He's looking for the one whose heart is fully devoted to him. And if he can collect a few of those together, he'll pour his spirit out in a way that the world has never seen before. So today, I wanted to talk to the few. I want to talk to those of you who wanted to hear the Lord about how it is that God can bring revival through me. And to do that today, we're gonna be in Acts chapter 17 and in Acts chapter 17, we're picking up where we left off, where Paul had just been in Philippi and had been thrown into prison and the gates were opened and the jailer was gonna kill himself, but Paul shouted out, said, no, don't kill yourself. We're all here. Paul led him to the Lord, let his whole family to the Lord. And then he was released and he made the Romans come get him and release him. Then he went to that small church in Philippi and then went on his way. And this is where our story picks up in Acts chapter 17. It says, now, when they had traveled through him, Empiphilus and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of Jews.

And according to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and giving evidence to you, is the Christ." So here's the first of four ways that I want you to see how God can spark revival with just a few. And revival starts with a remnant when Christ is proclaimed clearly. When Christ is proclaimed clearly, notice what He does. When Paul goes there, he goes to the synagogue. That was his normal custom. The reason he didn't do it in Philippi is there probably weren't ten Jews. There probably wasn't a synagogue there. And so he went down by the river. He went to a prayer meeting to get things started. But here he goes. He goes to the synagogue and for three Sabbaths, so for three straight weeks on Saturday, he's teaching them and explaining to them who Jesus is. And then he says this, and the anniversary, "This Jesus, who I am proclaiming to you, is the Christ." What's he saying? "The Jesus I'm telling you about is the only way to salvation. This Jesus I'm telling you about is the only one that can save you from your sins. This Jesus that I'm telling you about is the only one that can save you from the wrath of God that is to come." And he started explaining all this from the Scriptures, but he made Jesus so clear. One of the reasons that we don't see people respond to Christ as frequently as we'd like is we're not clear enough. We sometimes round off the edges of what truth is so we can make it more quote unquote "palatable." The gospel wasn't designed to be palatable. The gospel was designed to be truthful.

And when the truth of the gospel gets shared, there's only one of two things that people can do with it. They can accept it, respond to Christ, and come to Him, or reject it. But the reason that so many people here and don't go either way is because Christ hasn't clearly been proclaimed. Now I'm talking to a majority of you that aren't called to be quote unquote "preachers." That's fine. But in your daily witness of who Christ is, are you explaining who Jesus is clearly? He's not like anyone else. He's not like any other God. When I'm talking about Jesus, I'm talking about the eternal Son of God. I'm talking about the second person of the Trinity who's always existed. There was never a time that the second person of the Trinity didn't exist. When you hear "Let There Be" in Genesis, that's Jesus speaking and the Holy Spirit responding to Him. He's always been 2,000 years ago. He put on human flesh, he was born of a virgin because he had to be. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. If he would have been conceived by a man and a woman, he would have been conceived in sin, couldn't do that. So he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary's belly, in her womb, and he comes out now, forevermore, he's the God-man. Jesus is not the brother of the devil, and he's the good brother, and the devil's the bad brother. Jesus is not a created being. He's always been here, 2,000 years ago, put on flesh. He came to this world to do for you what you couldn't do. He fulfilled the law, and everything that the Father required, everything God required, Jesus Christ did. And prior to leaving this earth, he said he was the way, the truth, and the life, and

there is no one who comes to the Father except through Him. Here's what his claims were. I'm God, I'm exclusive, all other religions are wrong, I'm the only one you can follow, I'm the only one that can save you from the wrath of God, I'm the only one that can do that. And to demonstrate he was telling the truth, he told people he would die, and three days later rise again. And guess what he did? He died, and when he died, he died in your place as a substitutionary atonement for your sin. You deserved, and what you earned from the wrath of God, he himself took on a cross for six hours, and he died. He took all of our sin away, and then validating that he was indeed the true son of God and was who he said he was, he rose from the dead. We as Christians do not believe we're going to some spiritual heaven. We believe in the resurrection of the dead. In heaven, for those of us who are born again, we'll have bodies, we'll have eyes, we'll have hands. They'll be awesome, I mean they'll be incredible, I think I'm going to look like Thor or something in heaven. They're not going to spoil parish or faith, but we believe in the resurrection of the body that this body that I'm in now, it's not just going away, it's going to be resurrected, put back together without sin, perfect in every single way, maybe with hair, I don't know. God hasn't told me that yet, but if you don't recognize me, that's what happened. But Christ needs to be proclaimed clearly, and when we think about how we do men... and oftentimes we think about ministry. We as Americans like to think strategy first, and there's a place for strategy, that's okay. But strategy doesn't lead the day. Christ does.

If you wanna be fruitful in your ministry, clearly explain who Jesus is. Use the word of God to explain who Jesus is. Depend upon prayer so that God can communicate through you who Jesus is, and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work. If those things are primary in your life, fruit will happen, right? And so often we don't do that. We wanna start all these other things, and like listen, I'm good with the new screens we're gonna get. You'll be impressed. Some of you guys want new chairs I've heard, and that's great. But that's not what we're about. We're about proclaiming Christ. We want you to know Jesus, we want you to know who He is, right? And so we wanna proclaim Christ clearly. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2-2, "For I determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ in Him crucified." Now you're not talking about some village idiot or some moron. He was the most well-trained guy of the day. He had lots he could talk about. He was an expert in a lot of things. And he said, "But I didn't tell you anything. "I just told you about Jesus in Him crucified, "and Him resurrected." He says in 1 Corinthians 15-3 and 4, "For I delivered to you as of first importance "what I also received that Christ died for our sins

"according to the Scriptures, "and that He was buried and that He rose "according to the Scriptures." What is Paul's central message of everything he's talking about? It's the death burial and resurrection of Jesus. Everything else comes from there. Paul doesn't give Ted talks. Paul's not wanting you to like him. Paul's not wanting you to think that he's smart. Paul wants you to know Jesus and to listen to him and do what Jesus says. And any faithful perclaimer of the word and any faithful servant of Christ will want people to clearly hear who Jesus is. And when people hear who Jesus clearly is, one of two things, thank you. I never knew that. Friends, I grew up in a Lutheran grade school going to church my entire life. Now, I'm not saying the gospel wasn't shared. I'm saying I never heard it. I just didn't hear it. What I heard was I'm pretty good and God's really good and I'm going to heaven 'cause I'm better than most of my friends. And I go to church more than they do and I go to a Lutheran grade school and I'm doubly covered. And then when I heard the gospel, at first I was so mad 'cause I was 18 years old

and I'm like, if that's true, then I'm going to hell. And that means everybody hasn't told me the truth. And then it changed really fast. And I was like, but I want this. And when I trusted Christ, I knew everything in me changed. When I read the word, the word started reading me. Everything changed. Do you know what I'm saying? And that's what people need. They need a clear picture of Christ. If we don't tell people the whole truth, they can't make a decision. They can't respond accordingly. If you just tell people, hey, I believe in Jesus, you should believe in Jesus too. Hey, I go to a church that's kind of cool. You should go to a kind of cool church too. Hey, we sing songs, you should sing songs too. Are you good with that? Yeah, that sounds good. Okay, cool. Do you want to get baptized? Yeah, that sounds good. I'll do that. That's not the gospel. The gospel is this. If you don't repent and trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you will face his judgment and wrath in hell forever and ever, amen.

And there's no getting out of it. And Jesus Christ loved you enough. He came and died so you'd never have to experience that. And he rose from the dead to validate that he's God's one and only son and could overcome death. And he's the only one who's ever overcome death. So if you want to overcome death, you better place your faith and trust in him alone. That's the gospel. What are you going to do with that? 'Cause that's telling you that every other world religions falls. That's telling you to all the good people you know that serve other gods are wrong. That tells you that everybody that's not on Christ's road is on the road to hell. And that's not palatable. It's just truthful, amen? I mean, so often we have this idea where we, if you were contact lenses or you wear glasses and you have a smudge on any of them, you can't see very clearly. The problem is not what the doctor prescribed. The problem is you have to clean them off. And when you clean them off, then you can see clearly. We need to let the word of God speak clearly so people can hear. People need to know what they're signing up for. Jesus said, anyone who wants to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

Is that what you're signing? Well, I didn't want to sign up for that. I was just signing up for that free fire insurance card that you told me about. So I wouldn't go to hell. I don't want anything to do with Jesus. 'Cause we don't tell them the whole truth. Christ wants to be the Lord of your life. That's the truth. And the question is, is he Lord or is he just one of many others in your life? Is he Lord or is he nothing in your life? 'Cause you will stand before him and you will give an account for him. on this side of heaven matters. It's kind of like this. So often we're just wanting people just to accept Christ and just accept Christ. So we don't tell them what they're accepting, but you're not like that. I mean, if your doctor said you're sick and you went to the pharmacy and the pharmacist gave you a bottle and on the bottle it said, take this, you'll feel better. But it didn't tell you what drug it was and it didn't tell you how much to take. You would be like, what in the world is this? Like, what am I taking? How much do I take? When do I take it?

I mean, what is this thing? You'd want clarity on it. You wouldn't just swallow it in the same way. People need clarity on Christ so they know what they're aligning their life with. And friends, we need to be clear on this. Some of you when you study, some of you when you're in your car, some of you when you're walking around your house, you like background music. You like all different kinds of background music. And background music's good. Sometimes you have them in your earbuds. You just have background music. So you can do other things while you're listening to music. It serves a purpose. But that's different than a fire alarm, isn't it? A fire alarm is not something that's fun to have in the background. A fire alarm is on the front. Within the last month, I had a fire alarm in my house go off in the middle of the night. It was piercing. It was loud. It was awful. And as I got out of bed, I was trying to figure out what floor it was on. And the closer I got, it was in the basement.

The closer I got, the more piercing, the more loud it became. When I climbed the step ladder to undo it, the more piercing and loud it became. It was so annoying and it kept coming back on that I took it out to the garage, put it in my truck, shut my truck door, shut the garage door, went back to bed 'cause I'm like, I don't wanna hear this thing again. Like it's annoying. Now, all these people in the first service were telling me your batteries were probably out. Hey, thanks for all the advice. I appreciate it. My point is the gospel's not background music. To most people, they think it is. The gospel is a fire alarm. The gospel apprehends your soul and says, "Are you living for Christ or are you not?" I mean, Peter at Pentecost didn't say, "Hey, let's just explore spirituality together, y'all." He said, "This Jesus, whom you crucified, God raised up, you're responsible for his death." Right? I mean, that's the gospel. And here's what I would say. Revival doesn't begin with better programs. It begins with a clearer Christ. It begins with a clearer Christ. I mean, when we first started our church, people would ask me questions like this.

Like, what's your target audience? Who you trying to reach? And my response was simple. And we don't have any people, so anybody with a heartbeat would be great. We'd love to get them here. Like, I don't care who they are. I don't care what they do. Just bring them in. Now, as we've grown as a church, and somebody said, well, who are you targeting? I can be really clear on who we're targeting. I'm targeting people that wanna go all in with Jesus. That's who I'm speaking to. If you're brand new to church, we've never been here before. You don't even know what I'm talking about. You are so welcome here. We're so glad you're here. We'd love to introduce you to Jesus and let you walk with Jesus to the full. Have you been seasoned for 50 years? I want you to walk more closely to Jesus than you've ever walked. That's who I'm preaching to. If you don't wanna walk with Jesus, my hope is that my message is upset you greatly. I'm not here to tickle your ears. I'm here to get you to walk with the resurrected living Christ

that you're gonna meet. Amen. (congregation applauding) And if I can just say this, I mean, I am irritated beyond belief at our culture and the number or percentage of pastors that don't believe this word is true. And even some that say they do, if they really did, they would actually teach all of it without apology. Right, you know it's true if you own it. Not if you say it. (congregation applauding) I just wish more and more people said, "No, that's just the word." The word actually changes. The word is Jesus incarnate. So I'm gonna preach the word and let the Holy Spirit do the work. We don't need more programs. We need to clear a Christ. People need to hear the word. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Isaiah four, six. Revival starts when Christ is proclaimed clearly. Let me give you a second one. Revival starts when scripture is received humbly. Now it's gonna happen here in verse five after they preach the gospel. Verse four says, and some were persuaded

and they joined Paul and Silas, along with the large number of the God-fearing Greeks and the number of the leading women. So there were some, some Greeks, some Jews, some of the leading women, how we were in, but notice verse five. Here's how you know Jesus was proclaimed clearly. But the Jews becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar and attacking the house of Jason. They were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities shouting, "These men who have upset the world have come here also." So what happens? hey, Jesus is getting in the way of our religion. And Jesus always gets in the way of other people's religion. If you proclaim that it's the resurrected Jesus Christ and nothing else matters, there's gonna be some people to get upset. And so they did what a lot of people do when they get upset. They went and hired somebody out to go get 'em. So they went and found these wicked men in the marketplace. Well, what are wicked men in the marketplace? Men that have nothing better to do than bother people in the marketplace. People that don't have jobs,

people that are doing their own thing. People that are living to go after other people. That's what they were doing. And so they go to this guy's house, Jason, where Paul was apparently staying and they go to drag Paul out, but Paul wasn't there. So they take Jason and some of the brothers down to the authorities and here's what they're saying. These men that have thrown the whole world into confusion have now come here. Here's what they're saying. They're ruining our city. Their values don't match our values. They're serving another king. We don't want 'em here. So they drag 'em all out. So notice this, Paul's the preacher. Jason only housed him, but Jason's gonna pay a massive price because of his relationship with Paul. I mean, Jason's not like, I don't know, man, I'm just watching it online. I don't, I mean, he's with him. And so he has to go to the magistrates and notice what claims they make. It's the same thing they said in Philippi that these people are upsetting the whole world and throwing our city into confusion. So they came and they said, these men have come here also and Jason welcomed them. And they all at contrary to the decrees of Caesar

saying there is another king, Jesus. Here's the claim they didn't like. Religion, no problem. But you're claiming there's an authority higher than any earthly authority that you're giving your allegiance to and we don't like that. Nobody has a problem if you say you love God. Even some people don't have a problem if you say you love Jesus. As long as he's not the authority in your life and you expect to live under that authority and have others live under that authority too. If Jesus is your authority, you're living under his authority and you expect other people to live under his authority, expect problems, expect problems. So they're dragging Jason down to the authorities and they're saying they're saying there's another king that's even bigger than Caesar. Can you believe that? Yeah, I believe it's Jesus. He created Caesar, right? And so what happens? They stirred up the crowd in the city authorities who heard these things. And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released him. So what did Jason have to do? He had to put money down, he had to sign. Hey, we won't take this thing any further

just so that they can get Paul out of town, right? I mean, he's living for the Lord by housing somebody who's speaking on Christ's behalf. And the Holy Spirit says that's so important. I'm gonna put that in the scripture so that you can know that if you're not a preacher, support those who faithfully preach the word. That's what he was doing, amen? So in those verse 10, the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. That's 50 miles away. And when they arrived, what do they do? What do you think they're gonna do? Are they gonna lament the way they were mistreated in Thessalonica? Are they gonna call a small group and sob together? Are they gonna just pray? No, notice what they do. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. So let's go do the work here. We're arriving, we need to go proclaim Christ clearly here, we're in Berea now. New city, same mission. So they go in and it talks about the Bereans. It says, now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica. And here's why, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily

to see whether these things were so. Noble-minded means they were open to receiving the scriptures and they were hungry to receive the scriptures. And can I give you a promise from Jesus when you're hungry to receive the scriptures in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five verse six, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Who's God looking for? He's looking for people that hear the word, read the word, hear the word, proclaim like, I want this. I want it to take ownership in me. I wanna hear what God has to say. I wanna do what God wants me to do. I wanna do it God's way no matter what the cost is. I want the word, let me devour it, let me consume it. And the reality is, every time the word is read or every time the word is proclaimed, there's really four different types of soil. The Bible makes clear. Some have hard hearts, they don't wanna hear anything. They're just dragged here, they're angry, they're not listening anything. Satan comes and says, I'll take that word. Some have a rocky patch where they got some decent soil, and when it hits there, it springs up for a while, but when trials and tribulations come, they're like,

I didn't sign up for this, I'm out. Some, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth are the weedy soil that choke it and make it unfruitful. However, when the word of God falls on a receptive heart, it always produces a yield of 30, 60, or even 100 full. It means anytime there's somebody hungry for the word and said, God, I want what the word says, work it in my life, put it into practice, always 30, 60, or 100 full. The problem is not the word of God, Problem is the receiving of the person. Receptivity, that's what I'm trying to say. The receptivity of the heart, that's the problem, right? And so, when you hear the word, your attitude on how you receive it changes everything. That's why some can hear a message and people can hear all the same message and some can say, I got nothing out of that. And some can say, that was really good and then fall away later. And some can be like, it was good, but man, I'm more concerned about all my other idols in my life. But then there's some that hear it like, that changed me and that changed me and I'm different now because the word of God penetrated my heart and God's doing it work in my life, right? Here's the remnant God's looking for. He's looking for those who will talk about Christ

clearly and hunger for him and hunger for his word and receive it humbly. When you receive the word humbly, it means this, when I go into this book, whether I'm studying it on my own or whether I'm preparing for a message or whether I'm proclaiming it, whether you're hearing it, however you're doing, Lord, you have something in this book you want me to hear today. I wanna hear what you have for me to hear today and whatever it is, I wanna by faith believe it and put it into practice so I can grow. When you start approaching the word like that and Lord, even the things that bother me 'cause there'll be plenty that do 'cause it will go against the grain of your life. Even the things that bother me, Lord, I want what you want. And why? Because 2 Timothy 3, 16 says all scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for training and righteousness to the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Even at the end of James 1, 21, he says, in humility, receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls. For some people that say that they love the Bible, they view the Bible as a window to other people. So they read the Bible and they read it like this. Yeah, Lord, you need to really help my spouse see what they need to be. And my kids, I can tell you that they're not being

as obedient as they should teach them how to be obedient. And oh, by the way, at work, my boss, he's just, yeah, he's definitely not that. He needs to be more forgiving and loving. He needs to be more generous with his time and money. I see that and oh yeah, my neighbors. Yeah, they need to get their life together. They're pretty immoral. I mean, we read it like a window for other people. But if you read it, the Bible, the way it's intended, you'll read it like a mirror. And when you read it, you'll say, Lord, how can I become a better spouse and how can I become a better dad? And Lord, what are the immoralities in my life? And what are you trying to wash away? And what am I not hearing that you're trying to tell me? And Lord, speak to me about me, 'cause I know there's so much to change. You read the word like a mirror. You won't have time to worry about other people. 'Cause there's enough in our own lives that God's dealing with. And then when you do deal with other people, you'll have the grace to take the speck out of their eye because God's been taking the plank out of yours. Amen? And when scripture is received humbly, that's when things begin to happen. You know, one of the good kings,

and there weren't very many, for Judah, there were only about six. In the Old Testament, it was King Josiah. He came to the throne at the age of eight, I believe. And when he came to the throne at the age of eight, he never really heard the law. He was a good king, but he really didn't know it 'cause his father and his grandfather were horrible and evil. But at the age of 26, he heard the law of God for the first time because they found the book of the law that they hadn't had before, and they brought it in and he heard the word of the Lord being read at the age of 26. And here's what he said. In 2 Kings 22, 11, when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then he called his commanders, and in verse 13, he said this, "Go inquire of the Lord for me "and the people of all Judah concerning the words "of this book that has been found for great "is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us "because our fathers have not listened "to the words of this book to do according "to all that is written concerning us." So he hears the law and he's so contrite and sorrowful, he rips his garments, he tells all of his authoritative leaders, go find out what we need to do because as I'm listening to this, we haven't done this, our fathers haven't done this, God's wrath is great, he hates what we're doing, what do we need to do?

And he gets word from the word, what he needs to do, and he starts tearing down all the idols in the culture. He starts ripping down the ash or a pulse. He starts making sure they only worship the true God. He is the king, is telling everybody, "We will serve the Lord and serve him only." He's the only one we're gonna serve, and he continued to do that for the rest of his kingship. That's what happens when the word of God gets ahold of your heart. When the word of God gets ahold of your heart and you're hungry for it, the Lord has a way of showing you the grievousness of your sin, and at the same time, showing you his incredible mercy that he has for you in a way that no human being can. God will show you, search me and try me, O Lord, see if there's any offensive way in me, leave me in the way of everlasting. And if you read the Bible as a mirror, this book will read you. When I got saved, like I said, I went to a Lutheran grade school and church my whole life, I read the Bible, I memorized Scripture, I knew things. But when I got saved and the Holy Spirit was in my life, I remember reading the first book I ever read in the New Testament after I got saved was a book of James. I read it about 20 minutes. And it was like, I understand all of this. I've never seen any of this stuff in my life. I had passages of it memorized. I didn't know what it meant. I did know what it meant after I got saved.

It all started to make sense. If you're born again, you have the Spirit of God on the inside to teach you the truth. If you're born again, you have the Spirit of God on the inside, then the Word of God is being taught to know how to respond. The people of Berea, 50 miles away, they're different than the Thessalonians. The Thessalonians heard it. Some received it. Some didn't. The Bereans were saying, man, we got to check this thing out. Is this really true? Now when Paul's reasoning from the Scriptures understand, he hasn't written first Thessalonians yet because he just left Thessalonica last night. I mean, there's no New Testament he's reading for. He's going through the Old Testament Scriptures proving that Jesus is the Christ. And they're all saying, we hear you. We hear you. We want to see it for ourselves. Is this where it is? And therefore, many of them believed along with a great number of prominent Greek women and men. But notice this. He's teaching so clearly that these causing problems, because notice verse 13, but when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the Word of God had been proclaimed by Paul and Berea also. Those Jews that were stirring up trouble, 50 miles away back in Thessalonica, they heard that this same Paul was preaching the same word in Berea. And they're troubled that he's 50 miles away doing what he was doing. So what do they do? So they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. I mean, 50 miles is not like 50 miles today.

Some of you drove 50 miles to get here. I get that. You can do it less than an hour, right? 50 miles by foot. You're talking two to three days. So these guys are hearing, hey, Paul's preaching in Berea, all right? I'm taking a vacation. I'm taking PTO. We're going over to Berea because we're going to stop this. I mean, people get agitated when all you do is preach the true unadulterated Word of God. All you do is tell people about who Jesus is. So they came there and stirred up the crowds, then immediately, this is the second time it was immediately, verse 10, he immediately sent him to Berea away from Thessalonica. Now then immediately, the brethren sent Paul out as far as the sea, and Silas and Timothy remain there. Silas and Timothy stay in Berea, Paul's getting sent out to sea. That's another 50 miles away, and notice where he ends up. Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. It was easier to get to Athens by sea, going around by foot, would have been 180 to 200 miles, going by sea was a little bit quicker, but it's a pretty big journey. And all why? Because people were receiving the Word of God in humility. Friends, I'm here to tell you, I don't care if you're young or if you're old, but the secret of growing with Christ is to humbly receive the Word of God. When you say God, I want what you want, and I want to hear what you're saying, and even if I don't understand it, that's what I want to put it into practice. I want to make a difference for you. I want to know what you have for my life.

I want to know what your plan, just receive the Word of God in humility. He will lead you, guide you, and show you. He'll be on the right path where you need to go. Revival starts when Christ is proclaimed clearly when the Scriptures receive humbly. Let me give you a third one. Revival starts when idolatry is confronted boldly, when idolatry is confronted boldly. Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, so he's waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him, and while he was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So you see in the city, you've seen all these idols set up, and it's not like, okay, I guess this town worships some different things and different gods. He's agitated on the inside, and here's why he's agitated because he knows that because these people don't believe in the resurrected Jesus, that all the people he's looking at in the city are going to spend a Christless eternity in hell, and he's bothered by that. And I just say, if you can look around our city and you're not bothered by the non-Christians you see, then you do not understand the fullness of the gospel. I mean, if you can see the people who don't serve the living Christ and you're like, yeah, they're fine, you don't understand the gospel. If God gave a picture on our screens of what it looks like when somebody dies apart from Christ, it would scare you to death. It would terrify you, because if the Bible's true, which it is, it means when people have not responded to the goodness of Christ, guess what happens? Immediately they'll hear these words, "Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. They'll be thrown into hell with a weight, the final judgment, Revelation 20, where all the books will be opened, their name will not be read, and then they'll be cast into the lake of fire." now they'll have a resurrected body too that won't be able to Bad day. And if you really believe that and you know that that's true and you can see people or

hang out with people that aren't going the direction you are and that doesn't grieve your soul, you don't understand the fullness of what's going on. Paul was agitated. He's bothered. He's grieved. He's looking at all these people in Athens that live in this great town and he's like, they don't get it. So he was reasoning in the synagogue verse 17 with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be present and also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Now just real quick, without getting into tons of details at no time, the Epicureans, I mean, if you're not Epicureans, their whole thing was like comfort and pleasure. Have you ever been around people whose main goals in life are just comfort and pleasure? Like you've ever been to America before, it's Epicurean, it's comfort and pleasure. And then the Stoics were more about discipline and control. These were people that were like, hey, let's live a disciplined life, let's live a controlled life, let's do the things we can do, let's not worry about everybody else on the outside. Neither of them believed in a resurrection of the dead. Neither of them. And so they're conversing with Paul and some were saying this, what would this idol-babbler wish to say? Others were saying he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. So what's going on? Paul's talking to everybody and when he's talking to him, he's not asking them where their favorite fabric store is or where he can get a new sport coat or anything like that. He's talking to them about Jesus Christ who was resurrected and how they need to put their faith in him. And people were like, what in the world is this babbler talking?

We never heard about a God-man that died and rose from the dead. We don't even understand what he's saying. What was he doing? He was pointing out the idolatry in their culture. He was pointing out that their allegiance was given to something and someone else. And so they took him in verse 19 and brought him to the Ariapagos saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming for you are bringing some strange things to our ears, so we want to know what these things mean." I love this verse 21. It says, "Now the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new." So this group of people, this was the marketplace where people sat down and just shared ideas back and forth. And all they cared about was, what do you think? What do you think? Everybody just shared their ideas. It was kind of like modern day Twitter or X. Everybody just kind of talks. Nobody accomplishes anything. They just talk to back and forth and give their opinions. That's what it was. And they lived in the culture where it was very normative to have somebody stand up on a platform and say, "Here's what I think," and then step down and somebody else would step up and say, "Well, here's what I think," and respond to that. That's all they did all day long. So they bring Paul, who's the foremost missionary theologian in the history of the church to come and share what he wants to share. And he starts confronting their idolatry boldly. So notice what happens. Many call this the Sermon on Mars Hill.

Mars was the God of War for the Romans. Ares was the God of War for the Greeks. So Ariapagos, that's where you get the Greek side of it, Mars Hill. You can go there today. If you go to Greece, you can stand right there where Paul was proclaiming this. So keep in mind, Paul's not talking to Jews. He's not talking to Christians. He's talking to pagan people who have been worshiping other gods. And he's trying to get their attention so he can tell them about Jesus. So here's how he starts. It's brilliant. So Paul stood in the midst of the Ariapagos and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects." He's affirming them. It's good. It's obvious you're worshipers. It's obvious because I've seen all the idols that you worship. It's pretty obvious you're a religious culture. And then he says this, "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with the inscription to an unknown God." So Paul says, "As I was going through and I was seeing all your different idols and the God of war and the God of this and the God of that and all these different things, I noticed one that said to an unknown God." And that triggered him. And that's where he's going to make entrance into Jesus. He goes, "Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God you say you don't know? I know. I'm going to tell you about that God." So he's making his way where the people are thinking so that he can bring Jesus into that

conversation. He's brilliant. He's masterful. And it's the Holy Spirit obviously working through him. And where does he start off? Like every good story of the Bible starts with creation. The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all people, life, and breath and all things. Always start with creation. People always wonder, "Well, I don't think there was any creator." Well, there is a creator and he created everything. He did it in six literal days. I mean, Genesis 1 tells us exactly what he did, doesn't give us enough information to know before it all began, God is, and in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and here's how He did it in six literal days. I mean, the Bible tells us all that. And the reason that we ask questions about is there a God and why is there a God and how do I know if there's a God? It's because you were created by Him. And so Paul starts there and he said, "God is so big that He's not created by anybody, therefore He can't be served by anybody as if He could live in a temple when He's greater than the whole universe that He created." So he continues in verse 26, and he said, "And He made from one man every nation a mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times the boundaries of their habitation." So here's what Paul says, "From one man, from Adam, everybody came." Adam is your ancestor. From Adam, and Eve came everybody.

Now I remember talking to a friend of mine who was a neighbor one time, and I was trying to share the gospel with him. He said, "Wait a second." So you really believe that everybody on the earth came from just two people. He said, "Yes." He goes, "That is the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life." And I said, "You believe that nothing bumped into nothing and created everything?" I said, "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life." I mean, Paul's telling him this is how it happened. It happened that way because this is what God said happened. And notice how he positions it. He positions at any point at the times and the places for which you should live. Why were you born on the day of your birth? Because that's when God wanted you to enter the world. Why were you born? Where are you born? Why would you have the parents at you? Because that's what God designed for you, for you to make the best of. I mean, God's in control of all things. That's where Paul is starting. He's starting with the God who is in charge of everything. And he says, "The reason for this," verse 27, "is that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." Before you become born again, you picture God being distant. Like he's in heaven sitting on a throne, or maybe he's somewhere out there, or maybe he cares, maybe he doesn't. We don't know. But Paul's like, "That's not God. God created you so that you would search for him, that you would look for him as though you would say, "If there's really a God, I want to know him."

And then he tells the truth, but the reality is he's not far from each one of us. Why? Because God's everywhere. Like there's nowhere you're going to go where God is not. His presence is everywhere. Like there's no place in the whole universe that God isn't sovereign over. And when you come to Christ, you realize he's been walking with me all along. He's been trying to get my attention all along. He's right here with me. Yes, Jesus is in heaven, physically, positionally as born again believers were with him. But his Holy Spirit indwells me. He's with me every single place. I go, there's nowhere that I go that God is not. Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you're right there with me. Right? I mean, that's our God. He's not distant, he's present, he's active, he's involved in every relationship, every conversation, every word that comes out of your mouth, he's involved in it all, amen? And Paul says he's not far from each of us, for in him we live and move and exist. He's telling him the only reason you're still alive is because God's keeping you alive. If God chose not to keep your heart beating, you'd be dead. If God chose not to give you oxygen, you wouldn't breathe. I mean, the only reason you're here is because God's the one in whom you live and move and exist. And he says even as some of your own poets have said, for we also are his children. Paul's not saying every single person on the planet is a child of God. We know that children of God are those who have been born again, those who place their faith and trust in Jesus. He's saying even your poets, like the ones that don't believe what I'm saying, believe that we're all children, you realize that to be children, we need to be created by someone

that can create us and that's why he goes on to say, being the children of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of a man. In other words, if we're children of God, you've got to concede that gold didn't make you, that wood didn't make you, that stone didn't make you, you know that's true, right? I mean, even your own poets say that, that's the point that he's trying to make. And he keeps going and he says that, therefore, having overlooked these times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere repent. But before we get there, I just want to say this, idolatry has to be confronted boldly. I mean, 1 John 5, 21 says, "Little children guard yourself from idols." Romans 1 says that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. Now idols can be subtle because in Colorado, as I walk around and see, I don't find many people bowing to statues. But I do see people bow to screens, approval, image. You've got to be careful with idols. It's not what you have. Do those things have you. It's not, can you play a sport and not make it an idol? Yes. Can you play a sport and have it be an idol? Absolutely. Can you own a car and have it not be an idol? Yes. Can you own vehicles and let them be idols? Absolutely. It's not what you have. It's what has you. Like what has your full allegiance? Does Jesus get more time than the things that I just mentioned or not? Are you listening to Jesus about what he wants and being obedient to him more than you're following the things of this world or not? Anything can creep in and be an idol, but it doesn't have to be. Money can be an idol, but it doesn't have to be. Having money does not make you greedy or making an idol, but if money has you, it doesn't matter whether you have a little or a lot. It's an idol. For some poor people that don't have any, money is an idol. For some rich people, it's not an idol. For some rich people, it's an idol. For some poor people, it's not an idol. I trust, so it doesn't matter who you are or what it is. It's asking yourself the question, is there anything in me that's causing my foundation to rot? It's kind of like a boat. A boat can take in water for a little while, but if it keeps on taking in water, eventually it's going to sink. I mean, when you buy a new house, they'll tell you this. You need to get a carbon

monoxide detector in many homes. And if you ask them, "Why do I need that?" they'll say this, because carbon monoxide's a type of gas. You can't smell it. You can't taste it. You can't see it, but if it's there, you're going to die before you know any better. So you need to have that detected. Idols are the same way, because in our culture, we celebrate idolatry like crazy. We have heroes. We have all these people. It doesn't mean you can't have role models or people that you look up to in the Lord. That's totally fine. But if it's like, "Man, I got to meet him. I got to sign this. I got to get her to do this. I got to get this." People mean everything to me. Oh, she means everything. That's idolatry. Anything that gets put on the throne, because Jesus wants to be the Lord of all. So the question becomes, "Is there anything in our life that's hindering Jesus from being on the throne of my heart?" That becomes the question. And so you got to realize, like even when Elijah was talking to the prophets of Baal and talking to people, he was asking, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions?" Like you can't have it both ways. You can't have Jesus as the Lord of your life and have other things or people on that same throne. He won't have it. He wants to be on the throne alone. And only you know whether he is and only the Holy Spirit can show you that. But what you see is revival always comes after confrontation and not before. That's why if you're in the Word and you're hearing the Word and the Word of God is being preached, there's times the Lord will agitate you about something. And you'll think, "Well, that's not that big of a deal." But he's agitating you about it because he can see that it's going to become a big deal. And our typical fleshy response, and I'm only speaking from massive experiences, "Oh, I can handle this." That's not a big deal for me. I mean, it may be for somebody else, but I got... I mean, that's what our flesh always does. We make excuses for all the things that God is showing us as to why we can do it better than other humans, even though nobody's ever been able to do it. And so when you hear the Word of God and God's showing you something, like, "I need you to stop that. I need you to change the way you do this. I need you to start doing that differently. I need you to spend more time over here. I need you to do that than here would be my solid advice. Do it." Like, not later, but now. When idolatry is confronted boldly, that's when revival starts. And one of the reasons we don't see revival starting in our country is we're totally fine with everybody serving every other God and Jesus. And it shouldn't be that way. It should be Jesus only. Amen? And this is where we get to the final one, and this may be the most important one, and this is where I'll end. Revival starts when repentance is demanded urgently.

When repentance is demanded urgently. Did you hear what I read in verse 30? Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, this is the apostle Paul preaching. God is now declaring two men that all people everywhere should repent. Who are all people? That's everybody. That's me and you. Where is everywhere? That's anywhere you go. What should they do? They should repent. What does it mean to repent? It means to turn from your idols, to turn from your sin, to turn from yourself, to turn from the devil, and turn back towards Jesus. You must repent. I mean, John the Baptist's first sermon. Repent for the kingdom of God is near. Jesus' first sermon. Repent for the kingdom of God is near. all men everywhere to do what? Repent. Now some people say, "Well, that's a work and it's not really salvific." No, it's not because this is what the Bible teaches. I'm just telling you what the Bible teaches. Paul's telling people to repent. He's telling you to repent, and here's why you need to repent. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 says it this way, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death." Repentance leads to deliverance. It leads to salvation. You're sorry. I didn't want to be there. I know I deserve punishment. I know I deserve hell. I don't want that. I want to turn, and then I want to trust Christ. Repentance is necessary because if you falsely have believed the gospel that you can stay living in all of your sin, not repent of it, not care about Jesus, continue being a moral, continue doing all your sin, but you pray to prayer and you trust in Jesus, you are grossly mistaken. You are just absolutely grossly mistaken. And if that's true, then Jesus needs to come back and he owes a rich young ruler a massive apology. Because the rich young ruler said, "I've kept all these since I was a kid. I'm a pretty good guy." And Jesus said, "One thing you lack, go sell everything you have, give to the poor, then your reward will be great with me." And he goes away sad. And when he walks away sad, because money was his idol, Jesus said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven." Who are the rich? If you live in America, you're part of it. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. What was he saying? You can't get yourself saved. It's only through repentance and faith if that can happen. Repentance has to happen. And I will say this about repentance. Repentance is not intellectual, it's directional. I mean, if I'm going, say, I'm going to drive to Casserock and I change my mind, which is what repentance means. I change my mind. I'm changing

my mind because I want to go to Westminster. I'm getting on I-25 going in an entirely different direction. You know I've repented because there's fruit in my life to say I'm not going that way anymore. Repentance is not saying I'm sorry. Being sorrowful just leads to death. Repentance is I don't want to be in this anymore and I'm going to start walking with Christ the way he wants me to walk in a new direction. Amen? Repentance is not living with someone that's not your spouse or sleeping with somebody that's not your spouse and saying I'm sorry I probably shouldn't do that. That is not repentance. Repentance is never doing it again. Repentance is moving out today. That's repentance. Repentance is not, yeah, I probably shouldn't have got drunk last night. Repentance is, Lord, I never want to do it again. Help me. Repentance is not, I want to treat my wife better and I'm sorry I haven't treated her well. Repentance is treating her better. Repentance is a change where there is no repentance. There's really no trust of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I know people will talk to me and say, hey Pastor Jeff, Acts 16, it said just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. And I'm like, cool. Lord means he's got the throne all by himself and he's not going to share it with your sin. The whole book of John, not the word repentance and the whole book of John, but 97 times the word pastuo faith is mentioned in every single time. It's mentioned as a verb. Believe. If you really believe in Jesus, you're going in a new direction. If you really believe in Jesus, you're living a different way. If you really believe in Jesus, he's the Lord of your life. So I'm fine with that. But to believe in Jesus truly means repentance has happened. It's two sides of the same coin. I'm repenting and trusting Christ all at the same time. I'm done with my sin. I'm done with my idols. I'm going to Jesus. That's what I want. Amen? And it's demanded. This is how we preach. I mean, if a house is on fire, we don't say, hey, take your time. You might want to get out soon. We tell people to get out now. One of the reasons people don't change when they come to church is they think that church is no more than a TED talk to take your bad behavior and work on it. If you could work on it, then Jesus Christ died for nothing. How about you just repent and tell the Lord, I was wrong. I can't change myself, but you can change me. I want to walk with you. Show me how. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. And think about it. I mean, when you drive down the street, there's green lights, yellow lights and red lights and green lights mean go and yellow means maybe go a little faster. And red means stop. But really, a yellow light is a warning that something's about to change. Red light is it's changed. The gospel is not a yellow light preparing

you for something. The gospel is a red light saying change now. Change now. I mean, it's a U-turn. It's turning around. It's when Jonah preaches and tells people to turn, turn now, turn now. And some of you, you've turned to Christ. You've turned from your sin. You've turned to Christ. But here's a question for you. If you're born again, are you living your life to the full all the way Jesus wants you to. who I am and with all the influence that you've given me," I steward at that the best I possibly could in every way to make you get the most glory. If the answer is no in any category, that's an area you need to repent of. Say, "Lord, I'm not giving you the best here. I'm not doing the best here. Lord, change me." Repentance isn't just for the lost person coming to Christ, it's an ongoing process of those of us who know Christ, so we can continue to be sanctified by Him, because if I'm not repenting, then here's what I'm saying, non-verbally, "I used to be that, but now I'm perfect." And I got this, and there's not one Christian that can say that. Repentance is an ongoing process for us. So revival is still possible, but it starts here right now and it starts with you. God doesn't need every single one of you to respond. He wants you to, but He doesn't need all of us, but He's looking for the few, the ones who are listening to Him, the ones who are saying, "If you can use me, I want you. I'll proclaim Christ clearly, I'll receive His word in humility, I'll confront idolatry that I see in the culture and speak on it, and Lord, where I'm not right, I'll repent and I'll do it right now." And when you do that, it gives the Lord a chance to do some absolutely amazing things. He says we should repent because He's fixed today in which He will judge in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men, raising Him from the dead. It gives me a hard time all the time, like why do you only believe in Jesus? Because He's the only one that's going to judge the world. He's the only one that's overcome death.

He's the one you're going to meet. That's why. How can you say Islam's wrong? Because they don't believe that. How can you say Mormonism's wrong? Because they don't believe that. Like, I believe the Bible. I'm banking my entire eternity on it. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some begin to sneer, but others said, "We'll hear you again concerning this," so Paul went out of their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius, the Aropagite, and the woman named Demarius and others with him. So what happened? Here's what happened. Some believed, some didn't. Some said I'd like to hear more on this. Some are going to come back and hear him again, but what was Paul doing? He was proclaiming Christ clearly to those who wanted to receive it humbly. He was exposing the idols boldly, and he was demanding repentance urgently. That's what I'm doing for you today. I'm giving you a gift. I'm not going to have you stand to your feet. I'm not going to have you wave a hand at me. I'm not going to have you do anything. I'm going to let you respond to the Lord anyway that you want to respond to the Lord, but if you're here and you've never trusted Christ, you've never repented of your sins, make today your day. And if you have trustages and you're 100% sure, I know that I'm in Christ, but there's an area in your life that he's shown you today that you're not walking in the fullness of him, then I'm asking you, he's asking you, would you repent of that today?

Don't try to go out of here and fix it. The beauty of the gospel is this. You can't fix what's broken, but Jesus can. He will take what's broken, messed up and hurting, and He will put it all back together in His timing. So I'm just going to invite you to stand and Father, we're just going to take a few minutes here. Lord, just do some work on our hearts. Though we all come from different places, Lord, there are some of us who are super encouraged or some of us who are super frustrated right now, but if you're here today and you never trusted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, here's how you can pray. Lord, I repent of my sins. Lord, I know that if you met me today and sent me to hell, I know I totally deserve it, but I don't want that. I want to turn from that and I want to trust you and your death on the cross to save me from my sins. I believe you rose, forgive me, come into my life and change me. And if you're a born again believer here and you know that you know that you know that you're saved, but there's an area in your life that's off that God's putting His finger on that His Holy Spirit is showing you, saying, "You never let me in this area. You never let me lead this. You're still in control. I want all of this." Don't change. Just repent. Just say, "Lord, you got it. I'll give you everything I have in that area. You just got to show me what to do, I'll do it." And Lord, would you raise up a few that become an army that's first changed in Denver? In Colorado and all around the world for your glory?

Not because we're talented or good or able, but because you are an awesome God. Lord, you are holy, you're righteous, you're good. We give you all the praise, all the glory and all the honor. It's in Jesus' name we pray and all God's people say, "Amen, could we give God praise for His word today?" (applause)