ACTS 19:18-20
Notes
Transcript
BURN THE SHIPS
BURN THE SHIPS
Pray
The was 1519 and the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes.
Left Spin with 600 men on route to Mexico.
They were in search of gold that had been protected for 600 years.
They took 11 ships on this 4 months trip.
As they reach the shores Hernan Cortes says to his team burn the ships!
They had lived in these ships for 4 months.
If you want to go home we must win and take the ships of our enemies.
There was no other choice but to win or die trying.
Many times the ships in our life get in the way of following Jesus.
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Lets take Paul for an example and the life he lead.
Paul was trying to protect what was right and these people of the way were doing it all wrong.
They followed this man named Jesus.
In fact Paul was so good at persecution that he help spread the gospel with the early church in the book of Acts.
We find that he was apart of the first martyr for Christ. (Stephen)
So what change in Paul?
There was some ships that had to be burned!
The road to Damascus.
Paul burned the ships of his past and future for Jesus.
Paul would say it like this in the book of Philippians.
8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
18 And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, 19 while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.
We are coming in to this event toward the end so what has happened before this?
Paul was doing the very things we talked about last week.
WORSHIP = LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD
MINISTER= LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
EVANGELIZE= GO, THEREFORE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES
FELLOWSHIP= BAPTIZING THEM
TEACHING THEM TO OBEY= DISCIPLESHIP
Paul started at the synagogue for three months.
This was not getting through to the leaders so Paul found a school house to teach in for two years.
Paul had a little church plant in a school.
It is said that Paul would teach form 11:00am to 4:00pm everyday but the sabbath.
5 hours a day 6 days a week for 2 years.
That is 2,880 hours poured into the Ephesians.
Was this effective?
Acts 19:10 “10 This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.”
What was he teach that was so effective? The death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
The gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful.
18 And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, 19 while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.
Why did they burn their valuable books?
Why didn’t they just sell them?
The estimated value is between $1 to $5 million dollars today.
Jesus was more valuable to them and they knew they could never go back to a point where He wasn’t the most important thing in their life.
Are their ships in your life you need to burn today?
THE SHIP OF PAST
Sometime we let our past stop us from following Jesus.
Talk about Sam
Hebrews 8:12 “12 For I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins.”
If GOD HIMSELF can forgive you I think you can too!
THE SHIP OF DOUBT
I’m not good enough.
Moses and the burning bush
THE SHIP OF FUTURE
Will you give your future to the LORD.
Paul gave up everything to follow the LORD.
What ship will you burn today?
