God Spoke - Week 2

Hello! My name is Harrison and I am the youth pastor here at the Quarry Church. Hows everyone doing today? Anyone do anything fun outside now that the weather is nice? You middle schoolers better be getting pumped because we are about to have a blast on the wolf river trip! Make sure you get signed up as soon as possible, last person who signs up has to go down the final waterfall without a raft. Jk, I might just do that for fun but you don’t have to. Anyways, I’m super happy that all of you are here. If you are new, I’d love to meet you and get you connected into a small group. Small Groups are where we talk about the message and grow together in relationships and I’d love to get you connected. Today, we are entering into our second week of our series, God spoke!

First things first, I want to do a little mental exercise with you guys. How many of you got coaches here in the room? We got a few right. ___ what sport do you play? When your _____ coach tells you to do something, what do you do? You do it right! What about teachers? If a teacher tells you to come sit at the front of the room what do you do? You do it. If the teacher says give me your phone and I’ll give it back to you by the end of class what do you do? I mean do they still ask that today? Well in my day, because I’m old as dust, your teacher asks you for your phone you give it! There was this one time in math class, I had a teacher that was the craziest teacher I have ever met. Anyways your gonna see why in a sec, but we were learning about the Trig-function circle. O gosh, is anyone learning this right now. Bless your soul, you’ll do better than I did.

Anyways, this crazy teacher had like the worst idea, or the greatest idea depending on your perspective, but the worst idea in the world to help us learn this confusing circle thing. You know what the idea was, draw the trig function circle on the bottom of a metal trash can lid and chuck it at kids when they got the right answer. I kid you not. This teacher, every time a student got an answer right, he would whip this metal trash can lid across the room like captain America. My table, the failing math table, happened to be all the way at the back of the class and somehow, we actually got a right answer. So we’re sitting at the back of the class, 30 feet away, and mr fish winds up like he’s in a marvel movie and literally lasers this thing at my head. The whole table ducks, and this flying saucer slams against the back wall. To this day, I will never understand if that was the greatest teaching moment of all time or the worst. Anyways, mr. fish was crazy. But heres a question for all of you, why did people listen to Mr. Fish? Think about it, why do we listen to our teachers even the crazy ones, why do we listen to parents? Why do we listen to coaches? We listen to them because we recognize two things.

They make the rules

I do what I’m told to do

Open up your bible to Acts 17:22. First one there scream out your favorite hot lunch meal. If your new here, your more than welcome to download the bible app! That way you can follow along with us today on your phone! Here we go, Acts 17:22-23 this is the apostle Paul one of his most famous preachers of all time. Anyone know how many books of the bible he wrote? 13. He wrote 13 books in the bible and was known for telling everyone about Jesus. We look here at Acts 17, one of his most famous sermons:

Acts 17:22–23 (ESV)

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

Men of Athens, I perceived that in every way you are very religious.

So let me give you some background context. Who knows where Athens is? Yeah it’s in Greece! Does anyone know what Athens is famous for? Ya’ll learn about socrates yet in school? What about Plato? Aristotle? One of the things Athens is known for is being the hight of human thought. A lot of really smart people came out of Athens. So these people that Paul is talking to, they are like some of the smartest people in the world. They were called:

Epicureans Philosophers - Purpose of life was to avoid pain, no afterlife, materialist, God might exist but he doesn’t care for us

And they were called:

Stoic Philosophers - Purpose of life is to be indifferent to pain or pleasure, the universe is God

Now someone say:

The Myth of Neutrality - Two options in life 1) Worship Jesus Alone 2) Worship anything else

Say it with me, 1,2,3 - The myth of neutrality. This is the Lie that people are neutral to Jesus. Everyone worships something in life. You either worship Jesus or you worship something else that isn’t Jesus. You’re either an apple or an orange. A pencil or a pen. A pig or a hippo. A cat or a dog. Theres ain’t no cat-dog hybrid. You’re either worshiping Jesus, or worshiping something else. Theres nothing in between. And Paul is talking to these Greek Philosophers saying, you worship all of these things, you’re very religious, but guess what lemme tell you about the Jesus that you should be worshiping. Acts 17:23-25

Acts 17:23–25 (ESV)

...this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

God is Owner and Creator

The lie the Greeks philosophers believed was that God didn’t create the universe. They didn’t believe in a God that created and owned everything. But clearly Paul is saying that God created everything. Paul also points out, if God created everything, he doesn’t need anything.

God is Self-Sufficient - Doesn’t need help existing

On the other hand, I need a lot of help existing. Ask my wife Natalie, hey Nat, when was the last time I made a nice dinner. Exactly, like if it wasn’t for Natalie I’d be dead. Jk, I make a mean scrambled egg. But seriously, can a person function on their own? Can a persons brain work without God? No! God doesn’t need us, but we need him. Lets keep reading: Acts 17: 26-28

Acts 17:26–28 (ESV)

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Hold up. This is where it gets real.

....they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.....

God is NOT FAR FROM US - He makes himself known

God, believe it or not, is not far off in the distance. Actually, he’s really close. God is what you call a broadcaster. Someone say Broadcaster. God broadcasts himself throughout the Universe. Atheist say, if God is real, why doesn’t he just tell me he’s real. Why doesn’t he just show me a sign. You know why he wont show us signs, it’s because he’s already showing himself all over the universe. Romans 1

Romans 1 (ESV)

(Men by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.) For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them..... So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God.....

Anyone ever try to push a beach ball under the water? What happens? The ball always comes back to the surface. How do you keep a beach ball under water? You got to keep your hand there and continue pushing it under water! The person who doesn’t believe in God is like a person who says beach balls aren’t real while they hold a beach ball under water. It’s like someone who says, if God is real, why doesn’t he show himself to me? It’s like, yo, he keeps showing himself to you, you just keep trying to shove him back into the water. If you would let go, and let the truth rise to the surface, you would realize you’ve known all along that God is real.

Paul even says,

even some of your own poets say, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

It isn’t a secret that God exists, even your own famous poets know that their is a God. Acts 17:29-34

Acts 17:29–34 (ESV)

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed....

Ignorance is not an excuse. God commands all people to repent because the Jesus that rose from the dead is coming back to judge everyone. And it’s our Job to go and tell people that God ain’t that far, stop pushing the beach ball under water and recognize that Jesus rose from the dead.

Remember that story I said in the beginning. I said that teachers make the rules, I do what I’m told to do. In the same way, God makes the rules, we don’t then get a pass for suppressing the truth of Jesus. Could you imagine if you were in math class, your teachers like turn in your homework and your like, I need you to prove to me your actually a real teacher. Give me your teachers license and show me the paper work. The lie that people will say is that, if I just had some more evidence, I would believe in Jesus. But the bible says in Luke 16:31

Luke 16:31 (ESV)

‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

Literally, the bible says that people can see Jesus rise from the dead and we’re still not gonna be convinced. No matter the evidence you show someone, people will not be convinced that Jesus is God unless God actually does a work in their heart. No matter how much evidence, people will still mock you for being Christian and deny the fact that God has made himself known. The only way someone can come to faith in Christ is not by knowing a bunch of things or by having enough evidence, It’s by God giving someone a new heart. Has God given you a new heart, or are we still pushing the truth down and acting like Jesus isn’t real. Jesus rose from the dead, God spoke, we don’t get to decide whats true and isn’t. God is truth, and he calls us to repent and turn to him. Let’s pray.