[Day 1] The Chu’ch: Together We Stand — The Issues at Ephesus, Part 3

21 Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”

22 And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

23 About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.

24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

25 These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.

26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

28 When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

29 So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel.

30 But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him.

31 And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

32 Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

33 Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd.

34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

35 And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?

36 Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.

37 For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.

38 If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

39 But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly.

40 For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.”

41 And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

IDOLATRY

Idolatry is making a “good” thing “ultimate”.  God created everything and everything he created he deemed to be “good.”  Genesis 1.  Any created thing that you put before God, is idolatry and it can be as subtle as valuing your education too much to having a heroin addiction.  Anything can become an idol when we put it before the One who should be worshipped.  Human beings are, by nature, worshippers, who will worship something – Creator or created.  We have to worship.  Romans 1:25.

We see from the text that Paul declares idols to be only “God’s made by hands”.  That is, idols promise the world, take everything from you, and give you nothing in return. Idolatry is often linked with where we spend our time, talent, and our treasure and taking our idols from us often leads to violence. Acts 19:29.  The people of Ephesus were willing to drag innocent folk around and shout for two hours in praise of a non-existent god called Artemis.  It is rumored that almost 20,000 people were probably in the amphitheater at the time.  Also, notice how the idolatry of the people of Ephesus, was big business for other people to profit from.   Acts 19:25.  Kind of like how Paris Hilton, Lil Wayne and reality TV generate so much money, because people follow their every move, consume anything that they produce, where anything that they wear, and hang on to anything that they say.

Forms of Idolatry:

Celebrities: Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Beyonce, etc.

Sometimes people begin to follow and model themselves and their thinking after these stars.  For me Tupac, Jay-Z, and Nas were the ones who most shaped my thinking.  They were my preachers who spoke into my life and whose lyrics I can still quote verbatim today.  Man, when I was in high school, I would shave my head bald and wear those locs that R. Kelly used to wear.

Ideas: Democracy, Capitalism, Materialism.  Whole world systems are built on these and other ideas.  When we trust into any of these -isms, we can then put money or democracy over the living God.  The economy right now is proof that even capitalism and the free market can fail you and that the only person worth putting absolute trust in is not Greenspan or Bernanke, but Jesus.

Relationships:  There are people who base their identity on their romantic relationships.  Some folk compromise their values and themselves to be with the one they “love.”

Vocational Idols:  We can be so driven to meet our career goals that we forsake everything including our own life and family to meet them.

Religious Idols:  Pastors, teachers, leaders, can become more a god to look to for everything, instead of a man who is being used by God to preach the Word of God.  Do you leave your church service or just don’t come, if your favorite Pastor is not preaching?  You may have an idol problem.

Families:  Sons, daughters, parents,  family code.  Some times people make their children or the ultimate thing going on in their life, even over God.  The children of these child-worshippers become rotten with God-like egos.   Some folk make their parents the object of their worship, seeking approval from them well into adulthood.

Things:  television, internet. (Facebook and Twitter can be mad addictive.)

Food:  Some of us eat when we are depressed, eat when we are tired, eat because it taste good,  and eat when we are having a bad day.  Sounds like worship doesn’t it?

Idols can be vocational, cultural, religious, spiritual, relational, and physical.  Anything that you make ultimate is an idol.

What can we do:

• Recognize that these idols are created and not the Creator.  Romans 1:25

• Recognize that idols promise the world, take all you have, and give nothing in return, leaving you empty.

• Recognize that you are a worshipper and that you have illegitimate things that you worship outside of God.  1 John 1:8

• Recognize that you must replace idol worship with God worship?

• Recognize and believe that you can recover from idol worship?  I John 1:9

• To determine idolatry in your life, answer these questions:

• • Where do you run to for comfort?
  • Whom do you go get counsel from?
  • Where do you spend your leisure money?
  • What do you feel like you can’t live without?
  • What do you prioritize in your life? 

We are all susceptible to idolatry.  Smash those idols and worship Jesus. 

[Day 1] The Chu’ch: Together We Stand — The Issues at Ephesus, Part 2

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12  so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13    Then some of the 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.” 14   Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15    But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16         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 that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a 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. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily^[1]  ACTS 19:11-20 

  

Negative Spirituality

Ephesus was dealing with a lot of negative spirituality.  God uses Paul to do miracles and cast out demons.  Sometimes just by having handkerchiefs touch him and be distributed, people would be made whole.  Now 7 guys whose daddy was a Jewish priest see the miracles that are happening through Paul and say let’s try to use the name that Paul was using and cast out a demon. 

Ephesus at the time was known for its use of magic and witchcraft.  Folk would try to manipulate situations through the spirit realm to try to get what they wanted.  So if I wanted a certain girl, I would chant some magic name hoping that the spirit that I called up would help me get the girl.  Lots of weird stuff, but no different than the “name it, and claim it”, wiccan,  “law of confession,” and “the law of attraction” stuff we have today.   

Needless to say, these guys were unsuccessful and ended up getting exorcised themselves.  They were thrown out of the house, naked and ashamed.  The people were so amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit vs. the power of their magic that they brought all their magic books and burnt them.  The amount of books burned that day amounted to 50,000 days of wages.

So what is negative spirituality?  How do I know I fall into this category?  You might be practicing negative spirituality if:

• You say, “I am not religious, I’m spiritual.”

• You dabble in self-help books like “The Secret” and “The Law of Attraction.”

• You mess around with astrological signs, witchcraft, psychics, tarot cards, palm reading, and ouiji boards.

• You approach your relationship with God as you would a Genie.  “If I pray a certain way or tithe a certain amount, God you are obligated to bless me.”

• You think that their other ways to reach God.

• “You believe in a higher power, but not sure of his name”.  There are other powers in the world, they just happen to be demonic and not good for proper worship. Lol.

• “All roads lead to heaven.”  Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life.  Broad is the gate that leads to destruction. 

• You are overly superstitious.  You sleep with a bible under you bed.  You wear a cross for good luck.  Kinfolk, trust in the one who was on the cross and is now risen.  Wearing a cross for good luck is like wearing an electric chair around your neck in this day and age. 

Advice:  Like the Ephesian believers in Jesus, cut anything that you see on the list above from your life totally and completely.  None of these things are from God and none of them bring Him any glory.  And many of these things are harmful to your own spiritual health.  Trust in Jesus completely for your salvation and YOUR SAFETY and you will be okay!  Jesus has crushed sin and satan, once and for all.  Colossians 2:15.

[Day 1] The Chu’ch: Together We Stand — The Issues at Ephesus, Part 1

 

 

 

Because of the length of this post I divided it into three posts.  What follows is a part of Acts 19 and one of the issues that the people in Ephesus struggled with.  The next two posts will deal with Negative Spirituality and Idolatry.

 

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all. Acts 19: 1-7

 

Religious but No Understanding of the Gospel

 

     These guys Paul met in Ephesus were religious, but something about these guys tipped Paul off to ask the question, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”  Said another way: “Do you have God living inside of you?”  The Bible declares that they were disciples.  Disciples of what?  Disciples of whom?  They clearly were religious.  They acted the right way.  They said the right religious words.  “Paul, I’m blessed and highly favored.”  They knew the right scriptures to quote.  They even knew how to behave religiously.  But something that Paul perceived, caused him to say, “Yall look very religious and all, but have you ever met the living God?”

 

Then, Paul asks them, what were you baptized into?  They said, “John’s baptism.”  So,these folk had no idea about whom John was pointing to.  They thought John was the one.  Paul tells them, “No, John was not just preaching get right with God.  Repent.”  That’s religion.  “John was also pointing to the The Savior Jesus and wanted people to trust Him to save us from our sins.”  The religious disciples knew  that sin was bad and that they needed to repent, but they did not understand the second part of the message which is to “believe in Jesus.”  Mark 1:15.  We need somebody to save us from our sins.

 

What are some signs that you may have not have heard or understood the good news?  Here are a few:

 

• Some folk don’t have a clear understanding of the Gospel.  For instance, when you hear the word Gospel, you instantly think of music.
• You know God, but you know him like you know Kobe Bryant.  You have seen him at work, but you have no personal relationship with him.  You believe sin is wrong, but you’ve never trusted in Jesus to save you and heal you from your sins. 
• You are religious, but have no relationship with a living God.
• You have all the rules down, but don’t know the joy of living a free life in Christ.
• You believe that you have to do things in order to be accepted by God.  For instance, I go to church on Sunday, right after doing something bad on Saturday, because I feel guilty will help me feel better.
• You go to church, but you feel no connection to God. 
• You are trying to get into heaven by being a good person.

 

If any of these are you, please take some time to ask God for help to see and understand the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ.  Find a Christian pastor/teacher who can help you to understand the message of the gospel.  It is life and its liberating!  I have a couple of blog posts on the gospel here and here.    Definitely check, here!  Also, I will be more than happy to rap with you about your questions.  You can either post them here or email me at pngwolo@gmail.com.

Was Tupac Right about the Church?

Be careful about the profane language in this video, you may be offended.  Nonetheless, I wanted to pose the question:  Is Tupac right about the church of today?  I am curious to know your thoughts…

THE CHU’CH: TOGETHER WE STAND

Who or what is the church and does it serve a purpose?

 

Many people don’t know.  In some colorful words, Tupac Shakur in an interview, asks some hard questions of the church. (Check it out on youtube!). “If the church took half the money it made and gave it to the community, we would be okay.”  “If they took half the buildings they use to praise God and gave it to [people] who need God, we’d be alright…”  Is Tupac right?

The latest statistics point to the fact that America is two generations away from organized religion.  Many folk don’t consider themselves a member of any local congregation.  “They want Jesus but they don’t want nothing to do with his people.”  Although there are some noticeably bad examples, people have the wrong idea about what, or more precisely, who, the chu’ch is and and its purpose.

 

But Paul, lets us know that the chu’ch isn’t a building made of brick and mortar, or a great worship experience, or just another name for organized religion, but that its the community of believers in Jesus; past, present, and future; bonded by Blood, empowered by God, to live abundant lives and change the world — not separate but together, in love and complete unity.  The chu’ch stands together in the face of tremendous opposition from the sin, Satan, and his demons, and comes out victorious through its leader, JESUS.

 Join us these next 11 weeks, as we study God’s plan for our lives together and how Jesus equips us with power to change the world.  CHU’CH!

 

BE CAREFUL — THERE IS PROFANE LANGUAGE USED IN THE VIDEO BELOW!

I’m Under New Management — Romans 8:12-15

 

1-01 I’m Under New Management

This message was preached March 24, 2009, at the Unity Baptist Church in Killeen, Texas.  The text from which the message was exposited from has been a blessing in my life.  I encourage you to read the book of Romans for yourself.  Somewhere towards the end of the message, the Holy Spirit just took over and just touched all of us, including the preacher, in a supernatural way.  My prayer is that it will challenge you, the believer, to live according to your God-ordained position and to yield to the power of the Spirit that is within you, resulting in the abundant life.

 

Dont Waste your Life Commercial

LeCrae and ‘em are at it again. This one is so funny, but it is so true. Hip-hop music today has limited subject matter. What do you think?

Loving the Homeless

The Good Hope Baptist Church Young Adult Ministry, otherwise known as the City, went out as representatives of Jesus to the homeless community.  The people in the ministry are some of God’s greatest servants and I love them for their spirit and hard work.  Here is the testimony of one of the organizers of Loving the Homeless, Shalonda Hurd:

On Saturday, April 25, 2009, The City (Good Hope Young Adult Ministry) hit the streets of downtown Houston to feed the homeless.  We were joined by young adults from Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church & The Fountain of Praise.  In total, about 50 people participated. Through food and monetary donations from the Good Hope family, we were able to distribute 150 sack lunches that day and will be distributing 100 more in June.  Included in each sack lunch was a typed insert, designed to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our goal was to feed souls that day, as well as their physical bodies.  We talked and prayed with many of the homeless people we met and attempted to meet other physical needs, when possible.  We believe God was glorified, as multiple people gave their lives to Christ that day.

Though we set out to be a blessing that day, we ending up being blessed in the process.  many of the people we encountered shared stories and experiences that really put life and God’s blessings in perspective.  They had a great spirit of gratitude for the church’s generosity.  Though we provided them with a meal that would feed their mouths for a day, they provided us with an experience that we’ll carry with us for a lifetime.  We all returned to the church that day feeling extremely blessed to have experienced it all and ready for the next go around

 

Our behavior and our commitment to those that are need is a sure indicator to God about where our hearts are.  Matthew 25:31-46.  Pictures are forthcoming.

True Worship

Worship is an active response to God revealing himself to us whereby we declare his worth! Isaiah 6:1-5. In other words, without an encounter with God, there can be no true worship. So, meditate on all the ways that He has revealed himself to you and came through for you. Now worship him by giving your very best this week! Work and study as if you are performing for an audience of One.

iamsecond.com

I like this site!  It’s got a lot of celebrities, preachers, and normal folk expounding on why they are second check it out you might like it.  Tony Evans video on race was especially thought provoking.  www.iamsecond.com