Loving the Lost
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Take your Bibles and turn with me to .
What is an idol?
An idol is anything that you love and serve more than Jesus Christ. It does not have to be a little statue or shrine, it does not have to be in a Pagan temple. An idol anything you love and serve more than you love and serve Jesus Christ.
All of us deal idolatry, I know we may not think that we do, but we do. all of us struggle at times with loving certain things at times more than we love the Lord.
It can be money, people, ministry, it can be business, posessions, jobs, various relationships. Everyone in this room whether you know it or not struggles with idolatry.
When I started reading this week, I thought this is us, this is me, this is America. Paul had been in Thessolonica he had been run outta town He went to Barea got run outta town, He goes to Athens this was a place even in Biblical times that people would go to vacation.
Even today the place is magnificent, the buildings that remain, of the former vity are amazing. The Parthenon, the beautiful buildings you can only imagine what is was like in Pauls day when it was in its prime.
Everybody else came to admire the buildings and the architecture and the temples but when Paul went he saw it for what it was, he saw it was a place where demonic things were being worshipped.
Interesting that the first two of the 10 commandments deal with idolatry. Why is it we love to put things in Gods place, we love to love and serve things instead of God. So Paul decides you know what I aint here as a trourist, I am here as a preacher, I am not on vacation from ministry.
If you really love the Lord your always doing ministry. So he said I’m just gonna tell em about Jesus and guess what people got saved, it was not because he out talked them our out taught them, but it was because he outloved everybody else.
Now adays, the main thing you have to do to share the gospel today especially with people who are smart and intellectual is you have to love them. You have to pray for them and love them, and when they see that love, when they see that you are genuinely caring about them many times they open up to you, and to the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Let’s talk tonight about loving the lost.
I hear these people saying I need a burden for the lost, well while your praying for that burden pray for that burden, pray for a love for lost people.
Just pray that you’ll love em.
How many of you have friends who they are not living for the Lord? Do you love them?
Do you love them enough to do what Paul does here?
Acts 17:16-
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.
And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?
“For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.”
(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
“For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is 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;
and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
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;
for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
“Being then 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 man.
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.”
So Paul went out of their midst.
But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Let’s talk a little bit about loving the lost.
When you love the lost you
See Lostness
See Lostness
You just see it.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
Acts 17:16
He observed the city full of idols, he saw lostness.
He had been run out of barea because of the persecution of the Jews, He was forced to leave quickly leaving behind Silas and their helper timothy, and they had sent him away to Athens. He said listen you tell Timothy and silas to come on were going to Athens now.
While Paul was wating on them he decided he would tour athens, he just said I’ll take a tour. I guess he got on a tour bus and just rode around. Naw he was walking around and as he was walking around everyone would say ooo look at that theres Zeus ooo theres Athena and Paul says “oh man” He is totally reacting differently, He sees the idolatry all around him and it overwhelms him.
He does not see beautiful buildings he sees pagan temples. He sees temples that are not just harmless centers of culture, he sees temples that are the center of deminc worship. He even writes about that to the next city he will go to which was Corinth.
He says
No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to participate with demons! You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
1 Corinthians 10:20-21
When the world looked at Athens they saw culture, when Paul looked at Athens he saw corruption, when the world looked at Athens hthey saw philosophy, when Paul looked at Athens he saw Paganism at its worst.
They were drowning in a sea of idolatry and Paul could see that these people were not as smart as they thought they were they were blind to the things of God and they were lost he saw their lostness.
Where did Paul get those kind of eyes?
Where do you get spiritual eyes?
You get spiritual eyes from Jesus, Jesus saw things that even His disciples did not see. We read about one day when Jesus and the disciples were in the temple area and they saw the same thing Jesus saw but they did not see it the way Jesus saw it.
He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. “I tell you the truth,” He said. “This poor widow has put in more than all of them. For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
As some were talking about the temple complex, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, He said, “These things that you see—the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down!”
Luke 21:1-
Do you see that Jesus saw everything differently?
Oh Lord look at all those wealthy people putting in all of that money oh in the offering thats so wonderful!
Jesus said did you see the little lady who gave the two pennies she gave more than everybody.. do what? Yeah its not how much you give its how much you have left over after you give.
It’s not whats on the paycheck, it’s whats in the account after you give.
She gave more than anybody, she gave all she had to live on, He saw things differently did he not?
He didn’t commend the big givers he commended the most sacrificial giver.
Then they are looking at these beautiful buildings and they say oh Jesus lookat these beautiful buildings whoa Lord this is awesome!
He said well, its not gonna be too awesome, you see all these stones they are going to be laying in a heap, whats he talking about? In 40 years the Romans armies would come in a level Jerusalem. Because God was sick and tired of people worshipping on the outside and living like the devil on the inside.
Jesus knew it was coming, He said all these things were going to be destroyed, God is not after buildings He is after redeemed humanity.
I wanna ask you, do you see lostness?
It’s all around us its amazing.
Do we love cottonwood enough to share the gospel with them? do we see the things that people around here love and worship more than they do the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do we really see lostness? has God given you spiritual eyes?
Do we see people in poverty here or do we just drive by?
Do you see that young man and young woman because they dont have enough moeny to buy a car?
Do you see that highschool dropout and you say well your just lazy or do you see a kid who didn’t have a parent to teach him how to read and he got behind in school and people made fun of him and he quit school and now he is out there in drugs and things he shouldn’t be doing.
But do you see him for what he was back when he was a little child?
Do you see people who buy up houses shacks and rent them out at unbelievable amounts to poor people and they dont take care of them, and they are trapped in a system that doesnt work.
Whether we see it or not God sees it.
Do you see lostness, lonley older people who took care of their kids and now their kids wont take care of them?
They are in a nursing home.
Do you see hurting people, do you see lostness idolatry?
Ask God to give you eyes for lost people, ask God to give you eyes so that you dont just see your little comfort zone, you dont see the beauty of Athens and your little perfect world, but you see the ugly of Cottonwood and the lostness and it breaks your heart.
You wanna love lost people?
It starts with your eyes?
What are you looking at? Quit looking at your bank accounts and start looking at the lostness of Houston county.
GIVE ME YOUR EYES FOR JUST ONE SECOND
GIVE ME YOUR EYES SO I CAN SEE
EVERYTHING THAT IVE BEEN MISSING
GIVE ME YOUR LOVE FOR HUMANITY
GIVE ME A HEART FOR THE BROKEN HEARTED THE ONES WHO ARE FAR BEYOND MY REACH
GIVE ME YOUR EYES SO I CAN SEE
Sense Lostness
Sense Lostness
You feel that lostness
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was troubled within him when he saw that the city was full of idols.
Acts 17:16
He was being troubled or provoked, it means irritated, becoming troubled.
He sensed their lostness, He sensed the pain of their separation from God He sensed even though they were wealthy he sensed their hopelessness, He sensed day in a day out even though they were so brilliant they were ignorant aabout God and if you dont know God you dont have true knowledge.
It burnded him, He saw their lostness and it burdened him.
How many of you know
There was once a preacher named EV HILL
“I had this guy in my church he was cheating on his wife and he wouldn’t stop so we sent some of the deacons over there to beat him up.”
“Thats my kind of guy”
“He saw this other friend of his and he said what is it with you you are a fantatic about soul winning?”
I wanna read to you what Jack Hiles his friend said
“One night I was awakened by this peircing scream from my sister, I ran upstairs into her bedroom. She was sweating in histerics I shook her I couldnt get her attention, I had to slap her to get her awake, I said whats wrong?
You had a dream? She said no no dream, He said you had a nightmare, she said no no nightmare, no it was real jack it was real.
What was real?
Jack I just got back from Hell, after a few miles of glitter and lights I saw all that decieves mankind, it was nothing but desolation, it was bummed out. It was hopeless, you walk toward the gates of Hell jack knowing that youll never again be free, I got to the gates of Hell and there was a keeper there and he said stop!
I stood outside of Hell Jack, I saw people whose faces were twisted their tongues were thick their eyes were bulging, thier hands were split, blood was dropping evrywhere.
I said sir please let some air in, and the keeper said there is no air in Hell, then I said kind dir let them have a drink of water, he said there is no water in Hell.
I said if thats true then let them die, He said there is no death in Hell.
She said my God how long will they suffer? He said forever and forever, and forever because there are no exits from Hell.
Just as I turned to leave Jack, I saw our daddy, Jack daddy is in Hell. Daddy is in Hell.
Jack Hiles looked at EV Hill and said you wanna know why I am a fanatic?
My daddy is in Hell and I dont want anybody’s daddy to go to Hell?
What is that?
Thats someone not only seeing lostness but sensing it. Should we not be broken over people who dont have Jesus?
Should that not grab hold of your soul sir, Should you not be alot more concerned about that than politics, or whatever is going on in your world?
Should we not be concerned about the people around us, does it not come to you that people are on their way to Hell?
Paul didnt just see it, He sensed it.
He said I have got to do everything in my power to keep people out of Hell.
When you love lost people you see lostness, you sense lostness but theres one more thing
Speak to lostness
Speak to lostness
You can’t be silent you gotta try to talk some sense into them. you gotta share with them, you cannot keep silent.
3 things about speaking to lostness
Engage the lost
you gotta be proactive you cant wait for them to come to you, you gotta go to them, you’ve got to engage them.
So Paul just goes out there and engages them.
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
Gentiles Jews were walking into their synagogues He says ok and he just wals out to the street corner and just starts talking to people about Jesus.
He is one of those guys that you might find a little bit fanatical, that was the aposlte Paul but he saw seomthing and he sensed something and it made him speak.
He ahd to tell them about Jesus He engaged them.
He went to them and suddenly the phiosophers heard him talking and look what happened
And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Two polar opposite philosophies about life and they come together against Paul and they say
IDDLE BABBLER- SEED PICKER
What it meant was this they thought he was just someone who picked up scraps of knowledge here and there and gave out whatever was there.
They said this is the most random thing we have ever heard.
STRANGE DIETIES- Jesus and the resurrection from the dead
he is not watering down the message, He is giving them the truth it must have intrigued them because the big wigs wanted to here about it, because they took him to the areopagus.
What is that?
They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you’re speaking of?
ARIES THE GOD OF WAR PAGAOS the hill of aries, and its called mars hill, becuase the romans called aries mars.
For what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these ideas mean.”
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect.
now think about this this is the highest respected people in town which was the most intelligent town in all of the ancient world.
Your talking about the elite of the elite they have more degrees than a thermometer. Paul just steps right up there man he aint worried about any of it.
He tells them the gospel.
Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect.
For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed:
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
I know somethign you dont know!
He engaged them, he didnt wait on them to come to him he stood on the street corners he would have never made it to the areopagus if he hadnt humbled himself and been on the street corner.
you cath that?
God said if your willing to speak for me on the street corner I’ll take you to the highest place in all of Athens! if your not willing to go next door, dont look for God to use you in bigger ways.
But if you’ll witness to anybody God will give you opportunities in front of people who you never thought you would have the privelage to speak the love of God to.
God will give you opportunities if you will be a soul winner.
Engage people, but he didnt just engage them he
2. Explained it to them
He took time to tell them about the creator of the universe
The God who made the world and everything in it —He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands.
THERES A CREATOR OUT THERE WHO MADE EVERYTHING!
EPICUREANS YOUR WRONG THE WROLD DIDNT JUST HAPPEN YOU STOICS ARE WRONG IT DIDNT COME OUT OF SOME BIG BANG THERE IS ONE GOD WHO CREATED EVERYTHING FOR HIS PURPOSES.
eLet’s just start right there
Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.
God doesnt depend on us we depend on God, God provides for us we dont provide anything for God.
Thats exactly opposite of thier pagan religions.
From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.
Now that doesnt mean, that God determines everything like hitler and the nazis and what they did but he does determine they become a nation.
and the bounderis of their nations, History is his story.
He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
A quotation from a poet named oratus, a poet from the town that Paul came from.
Acts
Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
God is not an idol made of stone, God is not an idol made of gold or silver God did not come from man, man came from God.
We still need to explain these things to lost people
“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,
If they ought to they can.
he commands all people to repent’
God does not make you repent he gives that choice to you,
because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”