- Good morning church. So good to see all of you here this morning, that's amazingly awesome. I invite you to turn your Bibles this morning to Acts 17, find in your Bibles Acts 17. Last week, Pastor Roy began a new series entitled Kingdom People in Today's World. And Pastor Roy did a great job of encouraging us that kingdom people are engaged in the governmental process in the country in which they live. He encouraged and exhorted us to vote with a biblical worldview. I hope all of you have or will be voting in this election cycle. Another aspect of the kingdom people that we're gonna see this morning is that kingdom people talk about Jesus, from Acts 17. And when we think about kingdom people talking about Jesus, we tend to think of the idea that we all talk about that which is important to us, that what you love, that what you delight in, you find yourself talking about. If you like the Vikings, you talk about the Vikings. You like the Packers, you talk about the Packers, right? We all tend to talk about and enjoy talking about what we love. Well, hopefully if you're a Christ follower, your love for the Lord Jesus inclines your heart to talk about Him and we're gonna talk about what that looks like this morning. Our first question I want us to consider is how can we talk about Jesus in a culture with people who are increasingly far from God? We're gonna talk about that. How does that work? Another important question is, what's at stake? Well, the Bible says what's at stake is people's eternity. Where they will spend eternity is what's at stake. Their response to the person of the Lord Jesus is the determining factor of what's at stake, eternity. What's the issue? Well Jesus Himself defines the issue in John 14:6 when he said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, but through me, no one will go to the Father but through me", Jesus said. The exclusivity of the gospel, the fact that there is one way to have eternal life and to know the true and living God for all eternity, is really the issue in our culture today. Our culture doesn't like that, it's pluralistic. It believes there's many ways to God, whoever he or she might be. Well, as you saw this morning in Acts 17, the passage that Doug read to us, Paul's day is similar and different than our day. And I just wanna highlight that as we get into this passage. In Paul's day we would call it a pre-Christian culture. The Christian message, the message of the gospel has not been brought yet to the vast majority of the people living in that day. And we noted in this passage, Paul notes that in verse 17 and 18, there were the Epicureans and the Stoics and there were also these religious leaders that he was engaging conversation in the synagogues. The Epicureans of that day, they were the people who lived for pleasure. They did not believe in judgment. They did not believe in life after death. They did not ultimately believe there's a God. They were more atheistic or agnostic in their thinking about a God, but they will live by the model eat, drink and be merry, because at the end that's all there is. The Stoics on the other hand, they did believe in God. It was more of a pantheistic view of God, that God is in all things, He is present in everything. Not necessarily a personal God in the way that the scriptures defines Him. And they lived for virtue, they were the ones who believe that the way to live is to basically live a virtuous life. The serenity prayer would be kind of their motto. Well, in Paul's day, there was also the religious legalists, the Jews who believed in a God, one God, Jehovah, and yet they sought to approach God or to know God or to find God through religious works, works righteousness, doing the law, obeying certain traditions and Paul engaged them on a continual basis with the truth of Christ. Well, what about our day? Someone has rightly said that we're living probably more and more progressively in a postchristian culture. My wife this last week asked me, "So what does it mean that we're living maybe in a more and more of a postchristian culture?" Well, it basically means that we're as a culture more and more moved past Christ as the foundation and the central point of life, of worldview thinking. We're moving as a culture past that. In that sense we're more postchristian and in that sense, certain authors have described us as a country and our culture in these three ways. First of all, as a moralistic therapeutic deism, that more and more people in our culture believe that the purpose of life is to be moral, be kind of good, be therapeutic, be happy and believe that there's a God in some way, in some form, a deistic thinking of God. And if there is a God, His sole purpose is to make you happy, His sole job is to show up when you need Him to show up. Progressively more and more people think about God that way. A second characteristic of our day and age is it's non tolerant, now they encourage us to be tolerant of everything except two things, absolute truth and biblical morality. We're to be tolerant of all things, but do not believe that there is such a thing as absolute truth defined by the Christian scriptures. Second of all, biblical morality, concerning marriage, sexuality, the value of life. Tolerate all things, but those things that we don't tolerate if you have a certain viewpoint on them. The third characteristic of our day and age in a progressive way, not all people are this way, but more and more people are becoming like this, is they're inoculated against biblical Christianity. When you get an inoculation, when you get, you basically become resistant to the disease, you get a little bit of it, but not enough to catch the thing. And so progressively more and more people today, as I talk with, they go, you know, "I tried Christianity, I tried Jesus and it didn't work, it didn't stick and it's not my thing. I know what it's all about." You know, many times they don't really know what true biblical Christianity is all about, but in their mind they think they do and therefore they've moved past it and they become inoculated, resistant to the truth of Christ. So in that context of today, how are we as kingdom people to be those who talk about Jesus? That's what we're gonna look at. Well, as we begin this, I wanna just highlight three things from the apostle Paul. Kind of at a high level and in an introductory way. First of all, wisdom is needed. When we think about living as a kingdom person who is talking about Jesus with people who are close to Jesus and people who are far away from Jesus, we need wisdom. Ephesians 5:15 and 16, the apostle Paul says, "Look carefully then how you walk," or live, "not as unwise but wise. Making the most use of the time, because the days are evil." And so I pray, Father give me wisdom, make me sensitive to what is happening around me in my life, my neighbors, my coworkers, my friends, my family members who may or may not know Jesus, help me be sensitive, be wise in the conversations that I, and the way I live with them. Second of all, Colossians 4, Paul tells us that time is limited, so I need wisdom and I need to recognize that time is limited. Colossians 4:5, "Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." So the time is limited. We live in a neighborhood, four years ago when we moved in we had all these new neighbors and then we got to know all of them and now four years later, six households in our immediate neighborhood have moved. That tells you maybe they're not liking us, I don't know what the deal is. But we have six new neighbors and one of the things that the Father has impressed upon my heart in a good way, so I got six new neighbors, which is awesome. The negative ways that those six neighbors who moved out of our neighborhood, I probably will never see again. The time is limited. Well, I'll talk to Joe later. I don't have an opportunity to talk about, talk about Jesus with Joe now because he no longer lives with me or near me. Thirdly, integrity and delivery matter. The way I live and the way I talk about Jesus is huge. 1 Peter 3, we read, "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy", set apart Jesus in your life, the new American standard says, "always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you". Am I being the kind of person that people would ask me, "Kevin, I know you know Jesus, why do you know Him? Tell me, oh, I want to become more and more that person that makes people want to know what is at the core of my life. And yet when I do that, I need to "do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ", I love that phrase, not reviled because I'm a jerk as a neighbor or a coworker, but they revile me because I love Jesus and they find that offensive. If that were to happen, if that happens I should realize that I am not being shamed. God is not being shamed. Integrity and delivery matter. Well, we're gonna be looking at three things this morning. Paul's motive in talking about Jesus, his manner in talking about Jesus with others and his method. His motive, his manner or how he went about it, and then finally his method. When we think about Paul's motive, the first thing I want us to realize is that Paul never recovered from experiencing Jesus in his life, he never recovered. When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, when Jesus said to Saul, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" and Paul said like, "Who are you?" And Jesus says, "I am Jesus, the One." Paul never recovered from that at a core level. I'm sure there were some moments that he got over, but he, his experience of the Lord Jesus lived through him all of the days of his life. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul gives us a glimpse into his heart, into his life, when he says in verses 1 through 10 in 2 Corinthians 12, he says that in times of suffering, and I've suffered, I've been beaten, I've been shipwrecked, I've- One of those times of suffering, years ago, there was this guy, he doesn't say him, but it was him. There was this guy who got translated into Jesus's presence, whether it was a vision or personally embodied or went into Jesus' presence, I don't know, doesn't matter. And he's talking about himself and so he basically says, "I have experienced things that has wrecked my life in a good way that I have never recovered from. I have never lost the sight of seeing Jesus in all of his glory, hearing his voice, walking with him, knowing him." Now you and I, we may not have visions and translations and maybe even dreams like that. But if you're a Christ follower, hopefully you've experienced Jesus deeply in your heart and you don't recover from that. That's at the core of Paul's motive. When he would talk about Jesus, that was the core foundation from which it came. I've experienced Jesus and He is real. Now three words that I would, or phrases that I would put with that experience is first of all, he lived loved. He lived loved, the Father's love for him, Jesus' love for him, and so we read in 2 Corinthians 5, "For the love of Christ, Christ's love for me constrains me, it controls me, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." So he lived loved. He lived from the Father's love. Second of all, he lived to obey Jesus, Acts 20:24. Paul says, "I did not consider my life of any account as dear to myself." It's not about me, my life, my visions, my desires my dreams in a real core sense is not important to me. I do not consider my life if any account is dear to myself, he said in Acts 20:24, "in order that, so that I may finish my course and the ministry that the Lord Jesus has given to me namely, to solemnly testify the gospel of the grace of God." Paul realized that as a follower of Jesus, as all of us have the opportunity to realize that we live in obedience to Jesus as we find ourselves just naturally talking about Him, making His gospel known to those around us. Thirdly, he sought to love people. This was not foundational, this was not the core, this was not the primary reason. I think Paul's primary reason for talking about Jesus was his love for Christ and his desire to obey Christ. But he did love people. He was changed by the Father's love. Now in Romans 9:1-5, in verse two Paul says, "I have unceasing grief, I have sadness deep in my heart when I think about Jewish people who do not know God through faith in Christ, it grieves my heart to know that they're going to spend eternity away from God because they don't know the savior." And then he says in verse three, "If it were possible, if it even made a difference and it's not, almost a hypothetical situation, if I could go to hell so they could go to heaven, I would be willing to make that switch. Man, that convicts me. There's very few people honestly that I would be able to say that and think that about. How long did I have that thought about my neighbors? Oh, I wish that was true about my coworkers or some friends or family members who are still outside of Christ that I would be so compelled out of love for them, that I would take the risk and the gamble to talk about Jesus in real natural and win some ways with them as the Father gives opportunity. Well, what about Paul's manner? The manner in which he spoke. Again, three simple verses. The first one is Romans 1:16, Paul was gospel-centered, when he would would talk about Jesus, it was always gospel-centered, "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel", the good news that Jesus Christ came in the flesh as the son of God, went to the cross dying for sinners sin, my sin, your sin was buried proving that He had died, that the Father raised Him from the dead on the third day in a physical, glorified body so that He would offer eternal salvation, forgiveness of sins, new life to any who would repent of sin and put their trust in Christ, that is the gospel. Paul says, "I live for the gospel. I want to present and share the gospel and the gospel is what informs all aspects of my life. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith." He was gospel-centered. Second of all, he was Christ centered. Now how many of you guys were at the men's retreat yesterday? Few, I see a few hands, okay. Well, at the men's retreat yesterday there was a point in which we kiddingly made a comment. It was an awesome morning. And there was a kiddingly comment that was made about what is the answer? Well, the Sunday school answer is Jesus, Jesus is the answer, right. And we kind of chuckled and laughed about that. Yeah, that's yeah, yeah Jesus, you know, to ask little kids what's the answer, Jesus, right. And, but as we were talking about that and I've used that phrase many times, I was just strucken in my heart that the most important thing in the world who He is the answer, there's some sense of levity that I would use Him as in that way, it's like no, He is the answer. Paul believed in the Christ-centeredness of all of life, he says in Colossians 1 "...riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Christ has come to live within the heart of every true believer and in the heart of our lives, He is the source of glory today and for eternity. And so "Him," Paul says in verse 28, we proclaim, "we proclaim Jesus and warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone complete or mature in Christ. And for this I toil, struggling with all His energy and might which He powerfully works within me." Paul was Christ-centered. It was about Jesus, it wasn't about him. It wasn't about his favorite football team or his favorite sports team or his favorite whatever, his favorite food, it was not about any of those things, for ultimately it was for Paul was about the Lord Jesus. He is the answer. And I've been convicted, I hopefully I'll never use that phrase in a negative way again. Thirdly, Paul's manner was God-confident, he was confident. 1 Corinthians 3, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants", Paul says I planted, Apollos would add to the truth of the gospel in the sense of watering with his life or giving reason for it whether he would plant or he would water, it's nothing, but God is the one who causes the growth. He was confident in God to change the human heart. All right, let's get to Acts 17. And the remaining moments that we have, the method of Paul. I love this passage where Paul clearly says how to talk about Jesus to people who are far away from God. Three overarching thoughts, number one, he built relational bridges, right? So these three truths come from this passage. He built relational bridges, we'll see that, that encouraged people to trust Jesus. Second of all, he adapted his method to his audience, never his message. The gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I just declared to you was unchanged, he always presented Jesus crucified and raised from the dead. Never changed it, but he would change in the way in which he would talk about that, how it had come to that point. Sometimes that point would be at the beginning, sometimes it'd be at the ending. So he adapted his method, never his message. Lastly, he persuasively shared his story. If you're a follower of Jesus, you have a faith story. You have a story of grace of the Father working in your life, don't ever negate that, don't ever dismiss that, it's huge. Your story may not be flamboyant and crazily cool, you know, and supernatural supposedly, but it is God's story in your heart and your life. And so the Father wants us to use our story. Paul did a great job of sharing his story, always pointing people to Jesus, inviting them to believe. So what about the passage that there in Acts 17 right there. First of all, there's a set-up. There's basically he shares truth and then the third thing he gives us the solution. In the set-up, in verse 16, it says that he was provoked in his spirit, he looked around Athens, walked through the city, saw all these idols. And it says he was provoked in his spirit. The word provoke means anger and grieved. He was angry not at people, He was angry at the blindness and the unbelief that the people had because of spiritual forces of darkness in this world that deceives people to believe in lies. That is what provoked the apostle Paul. If he was angry at any one, it was at Satan who is at the foundation, at the core of the blindness in the world in which we live. Paul speaks about that in 2 Corinthians 4:4, the God of this world has blinded the hearts of unbelieving people, but he was also grieved in his heart because he loved the people. And as he walked around, he got to know the people, that love for people kicked in and the thought that the Father gave me from verse 16 is this, he was invested in the lives of those people. The father did a work in Paul's heart before Paul opens his mouth. Before Paul opens his mouth to speak the Father in heaven had worked in his heart, that he was able to see the people as the Father saw the people. He saw the idolatry, the way the Father sees it, not the way that humans would see it. He's going to speak into that, but he was invested because the Father had done an internal work before he ever spoke. Verse 17, he was strategic right? He would, again as he always did, chapter 17 of Acts begins with Paul going in the city, a couple of cities to the synagogues, he would go to the synagogues and he would reason from the Old Testament scriptures. Chapter and verse, the Old Testament says the Messiah will be like this, Jesus is the Messiah. The scriptures say this, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus fulfilled that, and he would reason from the scriptures to lead religious Jewish people to faith in Christ. But he also went to the marketplace it says, right? And in the marketplace, he, his method was different. He didn't reason from scripture, says we'll see, he speaks truth, but doesn't give quote chapter and verse. Verse 18, he's open-hearted. The Epicureans are there, the Stoics are there, the philosophers are there, there's religious people there, there are people who don't believe in anything about anything are there. And he has a conversation, he's just open-hearted, all we're game. You breathe, you're human, you're game, all right. And that's just, I think how Paul lived, he just thought everyone was an opportunity for him to live as a witness, to be a witness to. And when he did that, he pointed them to Jesus. In verse 18, it talks about he appointed them to Jesus and to his resurrection. Well, that caused a stir verses 19 to 21. And that stir leads to Paul being transformed, transferred into the Areopagus, Mars Hill and then King James. So Paul is on Mars Hill, it's both a location and a body of people who made judicial decisions. So the Areopagus was that place, Mars Hill. And so Paul is now before them and starting in verse 22, he begins his conversation, making it somewhat of a formal presentation, a formal defense of who he was pronouncing to be this God, the Lord Jesus. And he begins by basically commending them. "I noticed guys that you guys are really religious" in verse 22, what a great way to start the conversation. He builds this bridge of, "You're spiritual, hey, me too, let's talk", you get that? Paul did not begin by saying, "You guys are a bunch of heathens deserving hell, you're gonna, God's gonna judge you, you're condemned, you're no good, you're losers', you're you know. That's not how he begins. He begins as a father winning the hearts of his children, of these people and so he says, "Man, you guys are religious, so am I, let's talk shall we?" He goes on in verse 23 says, you know "I've learned some things about you, I walked around and I see you have all these idols." And there's this one idol, this one alter that says to an unknown God, now historically and archeologically they have found many idols that have that inscription in Greek to an unknown God. And as Doug mentioned it and as he read the scripture they were probably hedging their bet a little bit, but I think it was more than that. And I think Paul spoke to that more. And the more is this, when any human being worships anyone or anything other than Yahweh God, their life is empty at a real core, deep level. And there is a sense as I worship this, whether it's a stone idol or whether it's my own praise or my own possessions or my own pleasure, whatever the form of my idol is, whenever I worship anything and anyone that is not the true God, it leaves the worshiper empty and wanting more. That I think is what Paul speaks into. There's an emptiness. There's a reality that you're not having. And you know that, so you have this thing called an unknown God, let me tell you who He is. So we see him sharing the truth, in verses 24 to 28 he basically goes through truth about who God, who this God is, he confidently shares the Bible that never quotes a verse. They wouldn't care, if it's Jewish audience, absolutely. These are pagans, these are heathens. These are people that don't know scriptures. They don't care about scriptures, but he shares truth about who God is in a way that they would receive, this unknown, unknowable God is knowable. And so he launches in verse 24, "God, you don't know." I almost kind of see Paul just kinda just softening his voice and he goes "This God that you don't know, He's a creator, He made all things and He's the Lord, this God that you don't know, He's Lord of heaven and earth, He's the boss, He's in control." Verse 25, "He is all sufficient." You know, you tend to think of God as someone who needs to be served and worshiped and you give things to Him, you create Him and you make Him and you put Him on a pedestal and you put ribbons and food and one of the approaches that we had when we served in Mongolia in 2010 to 2012 we had every winter, we got to go to Thailand, to unthaw. And in Thailand there's like idols, like physical idols everywhere and the people were constantly bringing their vegetables, their bananas and their oranges and their stuff, worshiping these things. And Paul says probably to the Athenians, "You don't need to do that, that's not who God is. He is not served by human hands because He is really the life giver. You don't give Him life, He gave you life", the end of verse 25 and then verse 26, "And he made from one man", so he's talking Genesis, didn't quote Genesis but "from one man, Adam, every nation, He has made of mankind to live on the face of the earth. Having determined a lot at periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places." Quotes in his mind passages from Isaiah. Isaiah speaks those words but he doesn't tell them that's where these coming because he's declaring truth in a way that the people receive, He is the determiner, He created us. And then verse 27, at the end of verse 27, he said that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him, that phrase feel their way toward Him is the Greek word that means to grope in darkness, to grope. So like a blind person. If I was blind, I would, I would grope, right. I'd try to find my way, the edge of the stage. I think it was, you know right, you're groping. And it was a word that showed that the spiritual blindness, the insensitivity of the hearts to true spirituality. It's not really a compliment. I mean, he says, you know, "You guys are looking for God, but you're not going to find Him because of the spiritual blindness of your heart." But at the end of verse 27 he says, "yet He is actually not far from me", yet. So he uses a sharp scalpel. I mean, he's got them on the surgical table as a surgeon, spiritual surgeon and he's got a sharp scalpel. You know, you think of God as being the one who, who was created by us and He needs to be served. That's not who He is. He is the creator, He gave life, not the other way around. And so he uses as a sharp scalpel, rather than a sledgehammer of condemnation and judgment, sharply cuts into there and then he says yet, then he quotes two times their own poets and philosophers. Verse 28, "In him we live and move and have our being." That's a quote, it's not a scriptural passage, it's from their own writing. "And even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring". He builds this amazing bridge. He quotes their poets, building this bridge, like yeah, I just kinda cut deeply, 'cause God is not who you think he is. Yeah, you think of God, you even talk about God as being, that we are the offspring of God. And so logically what he's saying is this, "If we are the offspring of God, which you say that we are, if God is a stone, what should we be? Stones. If you think of God as an idol in a form of some stone or rock or tree and if he begets and we are his offspring like begets like, and so we would be a stone or a tree, but we're people. And so he gently comes to verse 29 and he reveals their bad thinking, their stinky thinking. Man, I still have stinky thinking. I have bad thinking, you have bad thinking. The problem is we don't know where it is. So the Father, through the word of God has to show us our stinky thinking, right? And Paul was doing that. He's using the scriptures to reveal their stinky thinking. "God, if we're of God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or some image in the form of art and imagination. I mean just a sharp scalpel. And then he gets right to the point in verses 30 and 31, where he talks about God's mercy. God's mercy is that and it's a hard phrase to understand. God has overlooked the times of ignorance. It's a tough phrase because some people have wrongly thought it means to say that God has ignored the sinfulness of mankind all the way up from the time of Adam to the time of Jesus and everybody is okay, and everybody has eternal life. That's not what he's talking about. God is still holds all people accountable to the knowledge of God like Romans 1 says through natural revelation we know there's a creator, He's a divine being. So it's not like God is excusing or not holding them accountable in judgment because of our, because of our sin. But there's some sentiment until the time of Jesus there was this ignorance of the human heart that God has like overlooked, He's aware of. But then at the end, the middle of verse 30 says, "And now, but now God commands all people everywhere to repent", Paul finally gets to that place. Repent, repent repent. He didn't begin there. He could have gone, "Areopagus of Athens, repent." He didn't begin there, but it would've got him nowhere. He didn't bring judgment, criticism, condemnation at the beginning, he sought to build those bridges of relationship, of dialogue, of conversation, of mutual understanding, bridge those gaps and then help the people take them along from that side of the bridge of air and unbelief to this side of truth and a potential possible faith in Christ. He was masterful at doing that. I want to become more masterful in the same way. And then in verse 31, why do you need to repent? Because God's judgment is real. And Jesus' resurrection is real. God will judge by one man and his name is Jesus. And this Jesus that I'm proclaiming to you, he is Messiah and he has been raised from the dead. So how do people respond to that? Three-fold. Some, probably the Epicureans who said, "There's no such thing as God, God is not-", you know. Resurrection, there's no such thing as life after death. There's no judgment. They mocked him, "This babbler." They're probably the Epicureans you know, earlier in the passage, "This babbler is foolish, he's stupid." Well, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 that the Greeks in general believed the message of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is utter foolishness and no wisdom in it. And we see that response. Well, but some, maybe the Stoics they're like, "Hey, interesting thoughts. Yeah, okay, we believe there's a God. Not sure who he is and maybe cycles of life", they're kind of more into reincarnation and resurrection, that's PO- "Yeah, let's talk more." And then there was a third group who believed, verse 34, not very many, not very many. There's been all kinds of conjecture as to maybe why that was, why that was the case. Many people who are far away from God in the first presentation usually don't come to faith in Christ. Don't come to know him in a personal way. There's takes many, many presentations many, many sharings, many, many evidences, many, many giving of witnesses by many Christ followers to their hearts before they would open their heart to Jesus before they would believe. So three simple thoughts at the end. Number one, I want to be a bridge builder. A father invites us as kingdom people to be bridge builders. Oh, that I would be a bridge builder. And I gave you some ideas how to do this, learn the names. So I'm in the process. I've got six new neighbors, six new families. And I've got a chart on our kitchen counter. I'm writing down their names, things about them. And then my next point is that we're praying for them. So in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your family, friends, wherever people are we have the opportunity to be a bridge builder. I want to be a bridge builder to anyone and everyone as a clerk at Aldi, when I, wherever it is. Every person is a potential possible conversation to talk about Jesus with. So make a list of qualities that you appreciate them. We live in a neighborhood where everybody loves dogs, Pam and I, it's no secret, we don't love dogs. We don't have a dog, we don't really like dogs, dogs do things to our lawn that we don't like. And it's kind of a lasting thing as people get to know us. "Oh, you guys don't like dogs." "No, we really don't like, I mean, it's okay, you have a dog and just keep him on a leash, you know?" And so we've got to find things that we appreciate about people, it's an amazing thing. Adjust your attitude, right. Adjust your attitude, find so and so, they're really cool and good at this. So I put that mental note, put it down, qualities that I appreciate. Give time, give time by asking and Pam does this so well. "Tell me about", so we'll run walks. "So, hey Joe or Sue, tell me about that-". And she stops, engages in conversations. She doesn't tell, she asks questions. He engages and starts a conversation or a potential relationship. Have a block party or a gathering, serve in practical ways. One of my neighbors down the street, about three houses down, he was power washing his house, you know, right. And it was two and a half stories. So it's like whoa, he didn't have a ladder. I have a ladder like right into my backyard. So I grabbed my ladder, walked over to Jeff, say, "Hey, can you use this thing?" "Absolutely!" Led to a fun little conversation. Kind of his heart is a little bit more open to mine. So serving in practical ways, be a bridge builder. Second of all, pray for divine appointments. God is the, God is at work. If God is at work and He is in the hearts of individuals, I need to ask him to engage me with Him in the way that He wants me to be engaged with Him. I believe that every person in my life is a potential, I'm to be a witness to all people. I'm not necessarily the one to share the gospel or to evangelize them, but I'm to be a witness to all people, to just a few I will talk about Jesus with, all right. And so one of the things I pray for divine appointments. Just last week at a conference down in Des Moines, the 911, this woman encouraged people to come make a telephone call to God, every day, a 911, at nine o'clock either in the morning or at night, pray for one person for one minute. Or you could do a 411, it'd be like four o'clock in the morning or four o'clock in the afternoon. Pray for one person, for one minute, asking the Father to give you divine appointments with that individual. Prayers of blessings is always a good thing to go. Relational bridges, finding those connecting points. I built a thing over my patio and I, one of my neighbors was doing the same thing. And so it gave us a reason to have conversation. I went over into, "Hey, good work, come help me. You're great at this, I'm kind of not so good." Relational bridges. Lastly, stay in my lane. It's the Father's love. It's the cross of Jesus. His grace, it's the Holy Spirit who alone can change a human heart, my only job is to be a witness and to talk about Jesus as the Father gives opportunity with people, I got to stay in my lane. It has taken the pressure off, I don't- The only way people are gonna follow Christ and to have real change in their life that we might all desire them to have happens through the cross, happens through Christ, right? You want your neighbor to maybe change their political viewpoint? It's going to happen through the cross, right? If you want your neighbor to not like dogs, and I won't go there and like, you find something about anyone that you don't, you want them to come closer, it's going to be through the cross. And so we have the opportunity to stay in our lane. Father, you do the spiritual work. You bring the transformation. You bring the conviction, the new life. I just will do my part. And so we want to be kingdom people who find it normal to talk about Jesus with people, whether they're close or far away from God. And so Father, to that end, we come to You acknowledging that sometimes I'm not in a place in my heart to even want to talk about You with someone or even to want to live Your life before them, because my eyes are on myself. And so, as Paul said, in 2 Corinthians 5, Father help me to realize that I have died to self. And now Lord Jesus, You're alive in me so that Your desires and Your passions would be revealed through, through our lives. Lead us to repentance, Father, may we be, may I be more and more of a repentant person every day yielding myself, surrendering myself, Lord Jesus to Your rule and control and life in and through me. Father, I pray that You would do that as You, as Your people here at Rockpoint. That we would find ourselves as kingdom people wanting to talk about the most important person in all time and that's You, Lord Jesus. You are sweet, You are amazing, You are awesome in all of your ways. The fact that You love me is centered in the fact that You died for me and rose again for me is simply mind-blowing, thank you. Father, help us as Your people never to get over having experienced You in our lives. And when we do get over You, help us to get back to that first love of Yourself, in Your name we ask it. Amen.