All right, let's get to it. Uh, eleven o'clock has become, I think, our smallest service, but the most energetic one, too. So, yeah, there we go. Let's get after it. Which means I'm setting you up. I'm going to need at least three amens from somebody. You can divvy it out. But let's meet our quota. Uh, we are in a study of the book of Ephesians. So go ahead and grab your Bibles and turn to the book of acts. So we started a couple weeks ago, and we looked at the first two verses in the book of Ephesians, and then we called a time out. So let's go back. Let's go back to the book of acts and, and have a better understanding of the ministry that's happening in Ephesus and actually through Ephesus, because Ephesus was kind of a a launching center for ministry all throughout Asia Minor. In fact, in these two years where Paul's ministering in Ephesus, most likely the seven churches that we read about in the Book of Revelation were planted during that time. We just see an amazing, uh, work of powerful ministry there. And I think it's going to be helpful. I'm, I'm eager to get back in the book of Ephesians. Hopefully you are too. But, but I think it's going to be helpful as we come across different things that Paul addresses with them to know a little bit more about, okay, how did this ministry get started? What were some of the things happening there that can help us bring clarity to some verses that we look at? Uh, so acts nineteen is where we're going to be. And we got a text that's we got magic handkerchiefs, demonic possession, a fistfight, public nudity, and a book burning. So it's going to be a fun one. We're going to just buckle up. Uh, so some wild stuff happening in this, this story, this text that we're looking at, but, but some really powerful stuff too. So buckle up and curl toes. Um, because we're going to get after it. And, and when we look at this powerful work of ministry, um, hopefully it stirs in us. I want that. We want that. We want to see God do what only God can do. So as we look at this, I think it's a little bit like it's not a formula like do this, do this, and then you'll get this. But it's kind of like watching film. All right. How did that happen? What did God do amongst them and what could we learn from that? Uh, and as we, we saw last week, Apollos came in preaching, uh, a good message that needed improvement. And he got corrected by, uh, Priscilla and Aquila that traveled with Paul. Um, and then they kind of moved him on to go to Corinth. Uh, and then Paul shows up and this is the beginning of his third missionary journey. And he sees these people. He identifies as disciples, but they were, uh, more disciples of John the Baptist and the message of repentance. And you see a group of people that, uh, turned from sin, but not necessarily to Jesus. And Paul shows up and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ and ministry just explodes. Um, however, today we're going to look at maybe the other ditch where we're going to see people who, through the ministry of Paul, put their faith in Jesus Christ and turn to Jesus, but maybe not from sin. And what we need to understand is a powerful gospel ministry involves both turning from sin and to Jesus. In fact, there are some people in this room that probably what you're dealing with is you're just you're trying to sin less, you're trying to be a better person, and you're trying to turn from sin. But maybe you're not really turning to Jesus. But I would guess for a lot of us in here, we'd say, no, I have turned to Jesus. I've embraced the gospel, but you haven't turned from sin. And there's some duplicity in your life, some trying to have it both ways. And what we need to understand is there is a power in a gospel ministry that involves both the turning from sin and to Jesus. But maybe this idea of confessing and repenting is a bit of a lost practice in the church. Like actually naming a sin and confessing it and renouncing it. Like it's not something that is practiced as much. We just kind of going to go through the church motions and, and we tend not to make this connection because confessing sin is admitting failure, right? And failure, that's not what we're supposed to do. And you don't want to admit failure and kind of confess your, your, your, your shortcomings and your, your sin. But yet, what if that was also key to a powerful ministry like the power of God coming through unexpected ways? So let's turn to acts nineteen. Um, and again, let me give you some context as we get into this. Paul set up shop. He was preaching the gospel boldly, persuasively, resiliently as people mocked him got so bad he moved locations. But he's like, I ain't stopping. And for two years he continues to preach the gospel. And Luke, the author of acts here, gives us this big picture of like, Paul was faithfully preaching the gospel for two years, and now we're going to zoom in on a particular situation that shows us the powerful ministry that was happening. So, uh, acts nineteen, verse eleven. You guys ready? Alright, that doesn't count as one of your amens, but here we go. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and evil spirits came out of them. So this is both awesome and weird now weird on several levels and we'll get to those. But but the first one, like you see the power of God being moved, like people are getting healed. This is pretty incredible, but also weird. If you can imagine living in first century Ephesus and you have a friend and he's sick and he's like, no problem, I got you. Here's a rag. I know a guy that sweated on it. That's kind of an odd thing, but, but what you have going on is both proclamation and confirmation. So the gospel is being proclaimed by Paul. But also this miraculous work by the hands of Paul is kind of confirming his message. And it's not about the miracles, but the message and the miracles. Confirm the message. Support them. It's the same in the ministry of Jesus Christ that he was doing miracles so that they would know that he's the Christ like it supported his message. However, sometimes power confirms and supports the message. Like the guy I was like, I was blind. I'm see, I don't know, I'm with him. right? That helped. I'm with that guy. Or sometimes it can seem like the miraculous just distracts from the message. Like we just want you to feed us again. Just multiply more loaves and fishes and kind of entertain us. And notice how verse twelve ends. It gets weirder. And their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. And some of you are like, all right, evil spirits, demonic possession. Let's go. Like you're leaning in, I want to talk about this. And some of you are like, this is why are we even talking about this in the modern world that like demons, like it's just weird. Now, I don't want to shock anybody, but we believe in God. We believe in the spiritual world. We believe in the things the Bible teaches about angels and demons. And this is a situation in the text where we come across that. So we're going to address it and we'll get into that. But but first off, let me tell you this, evil spirits are no match for a powerful gospel preaching ministry. And that's what Paul was doing. He was powerfully, boldly, persuasively, resiliently proclaiming the gospel. Hear me now, okay? The most effective spiritual warfare is an obsession with Jesus, not an obsession with demons. The most effective spiritual warfare is an obsession with Jesus, not an obsession with demons. But exorcism is pretty flashy, right? You make movies about that stuff. Terrible movies, that bad theology. But but people want to be entertained by this. It's like the spiritual world in Scripture is it's easy to be captivated by that. I mean, there's so many things because we don't get like this complete explanation and outline, but you get several windows and it's like angels and demons and angel armies and angels that look like half animal, half human. And they got cherubim and seraphim and guarding the throne. And then you got a mountain full of chariots of fire, like all kinds of weird little windows. And you're trying to make sense of it. It's easy to be captivated by it, but when the priorities are off, the power is gone. And what you see here is you see some people get more excited about exorcism than the gospel. Look what happens. Verse thirteen. This is wild. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists, itinerant, just like traveling. So this was their job. They traveled around itinerant Jewish exorcists, undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skiva were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them, Jesus, I know, and Paul I recognize. But who are you? Not off to a good start. Hey, this is what happens next. And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Now, I don't know how many of you in here have ever been in a fistfight before, but if you enter the fight clothed and leave the fight naked, you lost. Okay? Unless it's a marital fight, then maybe it's. Everybody's winning there. Well, this is like wild. Like what has happened? Like, are you kidding me? Like this wild display of like, it starts off saying, God's doing some extraordinary miracles. So right off the bat, it's like powerful ministry, but then powerful ministry kind of runs into this spiritual world that also has a display of power and they kind of collide and Some weird stuff happens now. We believe in the spiritual world. And to us, reading this though, sounds like what? I don't know what to make of this. Maybe like I've never experienced it, I don't, I don't know. But to the first century audience, they'd be like, yeah, I get it. That's normal. That's a practice. In fact, this isn't Matthew twelve. Jesus is accused because part of Jesus ministry was casting out demons, but the Pharisees accused him of casting out demons by the power of the devil, which he's like, well, that's a bad strategy. Like a house divided is not going to go well. And he said, if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, which just means like Lord of the flies, but it's a reference to Satan. If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? So the only reason I bring this to our attention is he's like, yeah, this exorcism stuff, it's not like I'm doing it. Your sons do it. It's how you got travelers like that do this. It's a common practice. In fact, Josephus is a renowned kind of, uh, ancient Jewish historian. And he talks about, um, dealing with a demon that needs to be drawn out through the nostrils, through the odor of a special root. That's odd. Or another ancient Jewish writings. Talk about how you got to burn the heart and liver of a miraculously caught fish in the ashes of incense. So this is like defense against the dark arts class. And like Jewish like, how do you deal with this, like commonality of evil spirits and like the kind of plague us and like, what are we supposed to do? And these traveling Jewish exorcists look upon this and be like, I got some better professional practices. I don't have to get them miraculously caught fish. This Jesus name just seems to work. Well, why don't I try that? Like this is going to be good for my business didn't go well, but some, some people can look at us today and have some criticism of churches for not doing enough addressing of demons, because clearly it was a part of Jesus's ministry, and clearly it was a part of Paul's ministry. So why isn't more of a part of our ministry? Why don't why don't we deal with this more often? I think that's an understandable question that can come up. And listen, let me just tell this evil spirits are not a back then thing. Amen. And they're not an over there thing. They're they're a real thing. So what does this teach us? Like what's what's the point? Because it's easy just to see the account and then jump to some conclusions. But what's, what's the text telling us? How should we deal with this? Should Christians be concerned about evil spirits? Should you be concerned about evil spirits? Are you. Is that something you even ever think about? Once you're a Christian. Do you need to stop worrying about evil spirits? These are raised some questions. And listen, I don't think a Christian can be possessed by a demon. I think when you have the Holy Spirit taking up residence, that place is occupied and you're not going to be possessed by a demon. However, the Bible clearly warns Christians about the reality of evil spirits. In fact, uh, we'll get to this as we get deeper into the book of Ephesians. This is Ephesians chapter six. It says, and he's talking to Christians, giving them instructions. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of who the devil is saying about Christians stand up to schemes and schemes like game plans, a strategy of attack. It's like you need to be ready for that, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil or evil spirits in the heavenly places. So you gotta suit up. You gotta be ready for like, this is a reality. And you could, you can understand. Okay, Paul writing that to Ephesians, understanding what we're looking at today is like, oh, I know what you're talking about this. You've experienced it. You've seen this. Or in Ephesians chapter four, he does this command to Christians, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Why? Because it's bad, it's wrong and give no opportunity to who he's like, yeah, behind your ongoing practice of sin with an unwillingness to confess. There are some spiritual realities going on there that you need to be aware, aware of. In fact, here's an interesting look at this. If you go to first Corinthians ten, Paul's addressing church members that are still dealing with idol worship in their culture, and he's calling them away from this, but but he's explaining it. He says, what do I imply then that food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No, it's not not real. It's a statue. It's a piece of metal. It's a piece of wood. It's it's a carving. No, I'm not implying it's anything. However, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to who? Demons and not to God. I do not want you to be. What? Participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Now, what is meant by the cup of the Lord and the table of the Lord? Communion, the Lord's Supper. And it's really important to understand this talk in the context of what he's saying, what he's saying. Listen, there is something behind what you're doing. There is a. There is a demonic activity behind your sinful activity. So behind your idol worship specifically are demonic activity. Behind evil practices are evil spirits, right? Do you think we just wrestle against flesh and blood? No, it's not just a physical thing. It's also a spiritual thing. And behind those physical things are spiritual realities. He's warning them. And the warning is don't participate. Coin on us is the word he uses. And perhaps you're familiar with the word koinonia is our word fellowship, partnership, collaboration. So he's saying, listen, if there's schemes and like, this is the devil's game plan that he's going to, you know, draw people away this way and you engage and participate in his schemes or his game plan, you're kind of in partnership there. You're collaborating in evil things. And he's saying, don't do that. So Paul's warning about a duplicity in their living that connects them with demonic activity. So what's the solution? Well, you got to you got to catch a fish miraculously take out his no. He's like, no, he didn't give these spells. What what's what's the solution that he gives if you continue on. We saw it even in that text where he's talking about the cup of the Lord and the table of the Lord. But if you keep reading in the very next chapter, he says this, instructing them about taking communion. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judge ourselves truly, we would not be judged. There's this challenge of like, listen guys, here's what he's saying. Have you gotten yourself involved with stuff you should not be involved in? You started to participate in things that have kind of opened the door for you, or collaboration with evil spirits. So here's what you need to do. Take communion. Or more specifically, take it right. Because they weren't doing it right. And this is what he's critiquing. You ought to examine yourself. You ought to judge yourself. What does that involve? Confession and repentance. Confession and repentance is an act of spiritual warfare, and we do it every week if we do it right. If we do it right, it's an act of spiritual warfare. Spiritual protection of examining ourselves and confessing sin and repenting of sin and naming sin and renouncing sin like a weekly ongoing practice to kind of divulge those, uh, ways we've drifted into duplicity. Confess and repent. But the concern is, or at least for them, you're not doing it right. In fact, in the section, he's like, it'd be better if you didn't even show up. You're messing this up so much. But here's what you've gotten yourself into. Evil stuff. So here's how you get yourself out of evil stuff. Confess and repent and turn back to Jesus Christ. Because hear me now. Where there is confession and repentance, exorcism is unnecessary because the power of Jesus Christ breaks the chains of any demonic opposition turned to him. And when there's no confession and repentance, exorcism is ineffective, like Jesus warns. Like, what are you going to clean house? You're going to come back with seven more like the house is empty because you might have turned from sin, but you didn't turn to Jesus. But there's power in turning from sin and to Jesus. And some of you are just weirded out by this conversation. But let me just kind of for five of you that are really leaning in here. Exorcism is an issue of authority, not ritual. It's an it's an issue of authority, not ritual. It's not. Well, you need to say the reason you still have a problem is because you didn't say this and you didn't say it in this way this many times. And you should hold this. When you say that, it's like, no, it's an issue of authority, not ritual. And who's the authority been given to Christ? And even the demons obey him. Right? It's a turning to Jesus. But the authority of Jesus is not some magic word detached from an abiding and belonging to Jesus. You don't just throw around Jesus like one Jesus name. And in Jesus name and in Jesus name. No. That's what they were doing. And how did that go? Like, did you notice how he said it? I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaimed. He doesn't even associate himself with Jesus. He's like, well, Paul's Jesus. Let me try that. Like, as if the name of Jesus is just some rabbit's foot or some incantation. Let me just kind of throw Jesus name around there. But how'd that go for them? Not well, because the power of Jesus is connected to devotion to Jesus. Paul was about the gospel. He proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the evil spirits were subject to him. These Jewish exorcists were about themselves, their career, their advancement, their glory. And they tried to use the name of Jesus as some incantation for their own progress. And they got beat naked. Are you trying to use Jesus for your own glory. Jesus, just help me in my situation. Help me advance my career. Bless my relationship. Bless my dreams. I'm telling you, there's no power in that and you'll get frustrated at Jesus like he doesn't work right. Said the right things. I used the right name, but Paul laid his life down for the glory of Jesus, and his life was about Jesus. And that was powerful. See, what we see in this text is a contrast. There's a contrast being made between genuine devotion to Jesus and artificial devotion to Jesus. You have a genuine devotion to Jesus and Paul, and miraculous things were happening, and you got this artificial devotion by these itinerant Jewish exorcists, and they're getting whooped. And there's this contrast between genuine devotion and artificial devotion. And it's not just a contrast between those. It's an invitation into genuine devotion to Jesus. It's an enticement out of a duplicity. Living, you know, like living and trying to have your feet in both worlds. It's like it doesn't work that way. In fact, here's what happens. Look at verse seventeen. And this this event with the seven sons of Skiva became known to all the residents of Ephesus. So. So word got around. You get beat naked. That's going to make the paper, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all. And the name of Jesus and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled, was magnified, was made much of. Now, did you notice the difference? There's a contrast between using the name of Jesus and extolling the name of Jesus. Kind of just throwing the name of Jesus around, worshiping the name of Jesus. So the seven sons of Skiva tried to use the name of Jesus, but they didn't magnify the name of Jesus. Another contrast. But this is the beginning of revival. Fear of the Lord fell upon them, and then they worshiped. You fear the Lord? Like what this did was like, hey, the Lord is a big deal. You better. You better check yourself. Because if the Lord is not a big deal, then offending him is not a big deal. And loyalty to him is not a big deal. And worship is not a big deal. But this stoked up revival. They saw how powerful God is and they're worshiped. Followed. Look what happened. Verse eighteen. Also, many of those who are now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And the number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them, and found. It came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. It's a lot of books. Now, why was that the result? Because I'm reading this story and I'm asking, well, technically, the demons won the fight. So why didn't people turn to demons? I mean, they were the ones that displayed power. So why did people turn to the Lord and not to demons? Well, here's what's happening here. One A false religion gets humiliated like this. A Jewish exorcism practice of kind of these incantations and just kind of manipulating the name of Jesus gets humiliated. And guys, false religions should be humiliated. It is helpful when stupid things are shown to be stupid and they got humiliated. Two. The spiritual reality was verified. This stuff is real. Like you can't ignore this. Don't just kind of brush it under the rug. Like, this is a real reality in our world. And three, the message and ministry of Christ. And Paul was verified. Jesus, I know, and Paul I've heard of, but who are you? And they had to deal with the reality of something that doesn't work. Something that's real and scary and something that's powerful. What are you going to do? And what this did was it confronted the duplicity of the Christians in Ephesus. Do you know what I mean by that? Were you kind of like, look at verse eighteen. We might miss this. He says, also, many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. It's not okay because this happened. A lot of people now became believers. It's no because this happened. People who were believers are ready because of the ministry of Paul came confessing and divulging their practices. See the difference? Like these. These were believers that were caught in a duplicity of their living. And that got exposed. And when they saw the real power of God against the false power of their spiritual world, they had to make a decision. They were brought to a crossroads like, okay, what are we going to do? Because these two areas that we kind of have both our life and collided, and one was shown to be more powerful. How do we handle this situation? And it brought them right to like a fork in the road and one direction. It's Broad and easy and popular, and one is narrow and hard and unpopular, but it leads to life. See, for them, they had to deal with. I can't have it both ways. When I witness the power of God and what I'm called to imagine it this way. You're living in the first century in Ephesus, and Paul comes to your town and he preaches the gospel. Now you've grown up in a pagan culture. You've got pagan relatives. You probably have past pagan habits and practices. But Paul preaches the gospel and you're like, I want that. I believe that, Paul, I'm in. When do we meet? And we meet and we celebrate the Lord's Supper. And we're part of this church community, and I'm engaged in that. But after witnessing this, I gotta, I gotta confess. See, my work causes me to travel. And sometimes when I go to Corinth, I got a cousin there and we still engage in temple prostitution. I haven't told anybody that. Or. Paul, I'm so sorry, but I have four kids and they're sick and and I've been praying. I, I, I prayed, but, but also I went to my closet and pulled out one of my old magic arts books. And I tried some of those things too, because what can't hurt and I'm still engaged in that or Paul, I know, I'm like, I'm engaged in the church and I believe all those things, but my business has not been going well. And I got an uncle in town and he's kind of really into this stuff. And he told me to burn this and seven times a day and hang it in my window. And I thought, that can't hurt. So I did some of that too. And there's this duplicity of living going on. And you wonder, what might that look like for us? See, I've embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I come to church and I'm a part of church, and I serve and I'm all in. But you don't know my internet history, and I travel for work. And sometimes when I go to work out of town, I engage in things that I shouldn't engage in as well. Or I come to Sunday mornings and I'm all excited and I worship and my hands are raised. But if you saw me on Saturday night, it wouldn't be right. And there's this conviction and the text is warning against this half hearted embracing of Jesus. It's warning of a lukewarmness. You're neither hot nor cold. You're little hot and you're a little cold. But when you put those together, what happens? You're lukewarm, and God wants to spit that out of his mouth because you're trying to have both. You're trying to be hot on Sundays. When you're cold on Saturday, you're trying to live in both worlds. Is that you? This is James says this. He says, you adulterous people. That's an interesting name calling, because adultery is when you sleep with somebody that's not your spouse. But he's using it in a spiritual sense, saying you worship something that's not your God. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And I love how James starts this. Do you not know? Maybe you don't know. Like maybe you've grown up in this pagan world and like you didn't know. You didn't know. You can't have both. Nobody's ever told you that. Nobody's ever challenged you. Those things you just. You think you can just add Jesus onto your pagan life that you're operating in a way that you don't know. But now you know. That's what Jesus said. Now you know you can't have both. Either you're going to love the one or hate the other. Like you can't be a friend of the world and a friend of God. Like you're either going to love the one or hate the other. And you're, you want to just kind of. This is what James is doing. I just want to destroy any thinking that you can have both. I want to destroy any kind of thinking that the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ is permission and license to sin. So then what do you do? Because maybe there's some conviction. Maybe when I talk about duplicity, you're like, something comes to your mind and there's, there's conviction. What do I do? Well, what did they do? They had a good old fashioned book burning. Fifty thousand pieces of silver worth of idolatry and magic arts books that they just brought and burned. Now, I don't know how many of you grew up in like a really strict Christian home, particularly through the eighties, and you had youth group meetings where you had to burn all your secular music, you had to take out your AC DC album or your Tupac album, and you had to burn it. And you know what? It's really easy to like, look back at that and be like, how legalistic, how judgmental, like how weird, how like messed up is that? But I say this, I like their sensitivity to sin better than our callousness to sin. And in the name of Christian freedom, we're like, I can listen to whatever I want to listen to. I don't care if it's celebrating debauchery like the beats hot, you know. Well, I don't, I don't I can read whatever I want to read. I can watch whatever I want to watch. I can do whatever I want to do, like freedom in Christ. I don't like that disposition. Like it's not freedom in Christ to watch Love Island. That's not Christian freedom. That's Christian stupidity. Do you not know what's behind that? Do you not know what's attached to that? Is that nothing? Or is that a scheme of the devil that's connected to evil spirits? Listen, has there been anything that your fear of the Lord, your or of God has caused you to renounce? Not. Yeah, it's not good. It's not healthy for me. I shouldn't do it. But but because God is holy, I don't do that. I don't go there. I don't watch that. I don't listen to that and wear that. I don't engage in that. And don't miss this. Repentance is costly. It's costly. Why do you think we get this number? Why are they counting that they have a very specific fifty zero zero zero pieces of silver? Somebody came up after the first service and told me what that equates to today. It's a lot of money. I don't I got lost with numbers, but he's like fifty thousand pieces of silver. Why did they put that in the text? Repentance is costly. Socially, financially, practically some. Sometimes what gets in our way is not that I don't think it's wrong. I just don't like the inconvenience of repentance. Right. I'm guessing that there's not a lot of people in here that have magic art books, maybe some Torah cards burn them. Okay. But I bet everybody in here has got a smartphone. And maybe on your smartphone, it's really easy for you to look at stuff you shouldn't look at. But you just can't get rid of it. I mean, you wouldn't go to a flip phone. I mean, you need your maps, right? You got like, that would be so inconvenient. Or maybe for some of you, it's just like, I just love some social drinking. That's fine. It's just your social. Social drinking always turns into drunken debauchery. But yet you can't just say, like, I shouldn't do that anymore. Maybe you're in a relationship. And that relationship undermines the things of God, but yet you can't get out of it like you know it. But but it's too costly to let go of it. or you have a social media account and every time you're on social media, you just get pulled into envy and coveting and gossip, and it's just not good. But you can't imagine life disconnected on social media. I mean, you wouldn't throw that in the fire. And repentance is costly. But you know what cost more? Not repenting. Guys, our duplicity is a bigger deal than we think. At best, it robs us of intimacy with God and power in ministry. And at worst, it deceives you thinking you're really a child of God when you're not. But repentance is also enticing. You get this compelling invitation to repent. Because here's the irony of the story. They talk about the seven sons of Skiva. They wanted power, right? These are the ones that wanted power and yet they were shown to be weak. They got beat naked. And yet the ones who showed themselves to be weak saying I failed. I engaged in stuff I shouldn't have. I, I've, I've sinned. Those were the ones who shown to have power. Look how it ends. Verse twenty. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail. What? Mightily. There was this outflow of power of God through their weakness, through their confession and repentance of their own failures came the power of God. That's awesome, because every one of us can do that. We might not be very talented. Can we be repentant? Can we take sin seriously? Because where there's a healthy fear of the Lord, like a big view of God, right? Because if God's not big, offending him's not a big deal. If God's not big, worshiping him's not a big deal. But if God's big. Then there's a greater sensitivity to sin. And if there's a greater sensitivity to sin, there's a greater practice of confession and repentance. And if there's a greater practice of confession and repentance, there's a greater advancement of the gospel because repentance is evangelistic. Christian repentance is because it's a turning from sin and to Jesus. And when we do that, we show a watching world. I prefer Jesus. He's a better Lord. He's a better satisfier of my soul. I'm walking away from this and I'm walking to him. I want Jesus, and I don't want these things. And we create a contrast. There's there's a clear difference between the way God followers live and, and the rest of the world lives. Listen, God doesn't work through perfect people. He works through repentant people. He doesn't work through perfect people. He works through Repentant people. But here's here's an odd question that comes to my mind when I read this story. You got this public bonfire happening where people are bringing all their magic art books and idol stuff and burning it. Here's what I want to know. Who went first? Who went first? Who is the person that's like, I gotta come clean. And then the floodgates open of repentance. Because when it says that fifty thousand pieces of silver worth of idolatry was burned. You know what that tells us? Not only was it prevalent in their culture, it was prevalent in their church. As church people burning stuff worth that much. But but when everybody's doing it, it doesn't seem that bad until somebody says, no, not me. It is bad. It is a big deal. I'm thinking, what for? For them, it's like Paul. Everybody's got a magic arts book. Everybody kind of does this. Everybody's got an uncle into it. Everybody's still like, that's common. What is it for us, Jake? Everybody does that. Everybody watches that. Everybody dresses like that. Everybody talks like that. Everybody goes there like, chill out. And who's going to be the somebody? It's like, I'm not chilling out anymore. It's not okay. But it's not just wrong. It's keeping me from God. It's keeping us from an outflow of powerful ministry that God's Word might prevail mightily. What? I mean, what would happen if we started taking our own sin more seriously if we confronted our own duplicity? That I'm kind of living in both worlds, and I know what to say to the right people at the right times, and I can fit in here and I can fit in there. What might happen? With the word of the Lord continue to increase and prevail mightily. That'd be awesome. And you know what? Church. Confession and repentance doesn't have to be scary because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The cross is already outed. All of us. Everybody in this room knows you're a sinner. You're not surprising anybody. And we can come to Christ with all our junk, all our failures, and what are we told? He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from All unrighteousness. His grace is sufficient. Go to him. So we're going to we're going to practice some spiritual warfare right now as a church. We're going to take communion. We're going to do it the right way. We need to do it in a way that involves examining ourselves, judging ourselves, confessing and repenting, naming sins, renouncing them. So a lot of times as a church, we do this all together and it kind of represents our unity, uh, in the gospel. But this morning, I want to give you time to examine yourself. What are sins in your life right now? Where is duplicity living in your life? Where are you trying to have it both ways? Name it. And here's a sweet. You name your failures as you remember Christ's sacrifice. What's it telling us? I still love you. My grace is sufficient for you. My blood covers that. What a sweet time to remember our failures. So confess them, renounce them. And when you're ready, take communion as a declaration of. I don't want artificial devotion. I want radical devotion. I don't want duplicity in my life. I want single, whole hearted, passionate zeal for the Lord. And then sing like saved people. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would indeed help us take you seriously. Take Your Holiness seriously. And in light of that, we would be people who take our sin seriously. And in light of that would be people who take your grace seriously. And in response to that would be people that take our holiness seriously and our devotion seriously. And in light of that, you would take our joy seriously and you would fill us. You would be the satisfier of our soul. As we continue to choose you and not this world, we would be met with your faithfulness that you do give a peace that transcends all understanding. That you do supply comfort in dark times that you do. Fill us with your joy, that our joy may be full. I pray that you would make us a church of repentance, and our repentance would be evangelistic to our community as they see that we prefer you over anything this world has to offer. Pray this in your name. Amen.