Summer in the Cities

Okay. So each month, we, do something called the mix. It's where we mix up the talk with songs we try to do sort of bite size chunks, and then have songs in between. And as my mic gone, Yep. No, it hasn't.

And so that's what that's what we we we try to do. Let me just start with with a couple of illustrations. You've heard of passive smoking, and some of you young ones may not have heard of it because the law changed a few years ago. But passive smoking is it's pretty obvious to get. You don't have to smoke if someone is smoking around you.

You pick up all the toxins, and you can get lung cancer by someone else smoking around you. And the laws changed, because this was such a problem in our country so that you can't smoke in enclosed public spaces. So it used to be, you go to a restaurant and there would be smoke there. And, now you can't. It's dangerous.

Passive smoking is dangerous. You don't have to be a smoker to pick it up. Passive breathing is dangerous, so that's probably not the right term. But you can just breathe in around, around the area pollutants. You don't even know there's a lot of lead.

You don't know you're breathing it. I used to live in Tasmania, and Tasmania has, the 1 of it's 1 of the places that has the cleanest air in the world. It is so clean, so fresh. We were there for for about 3 years. When I came back to chessington and started riding my bike around chessington, for a good month, I felt sick all the time because I could smell the lead, I could smell the fumes.

After a month, I can't smell it any I've got used to it. That's what happens. We breathe in these pollutions. They're very dangerous. That's very dangerous.

Pastive smoking, just breathing in. This is dangerous stuff. But there's something I think that's even more dangerous, and that is passive thinking. Passive smoking will kill your body, but passive thinking can actually just kill you and actually for eternity, actually. You don't have to think You can pretend to think, but you don't have to think because everybody is just pumping out like the smoke.

What you're meant to think. So you'll learn slogans and cliches and phrases you'll pick up It sounds like you think and they're your own, but it's what everybody tells you on the various medias that you're looking at. Passage thinking. You'll find that you become outraged quite a lot of the time about things, because you've been told to be outraged. But you'll largely do nothing about the things that you're outraged about.

It's a sort of bland, passive thinking. It's very, very dangerous just to be influenced by people around. Have a look at this, this video. It's a couple of minutes long, but It's interesting. Yeah, passive, passive thinking, becomes, passive behavior in a sense.

So you're thinking about even the behavior you're doing. And as he said at the end, following the social norms, everybody does it. So I do it. Everybody thinks this. So I think this.

Everybody says these slogans, about various things, whether they're strong moral issues or things about god. So that's what I think. That's what I do. Now, we've been, looking at Paul's missionaries journeys in the book of acts, book of acts is in the Bible, and it tells about the spread of the of the the good news of the lord Jesus Christ. And we've been looking particularly at Paul's journeys throughout Europe and Asia minor.

And he's been traveling around with this good news of the lord Jesus Christ. Into areas, remember that have never heard it before, that have never heard it before. And, last time, we arrived in Ephasis. You'll see efficacy. You probably won't see it.

It's right in the middle. Oh, you can. It's right in the middle, Ephasis. And he's journeyed around on this on this last missionary journey that we're looking at. He's been to big cities, big important cities.

In the Roman Empire, like Corinth and thessalonica and Athens and Filipi, and now he's in ephesus. And we saw last week some of, last, last month, some of the things that happened in effort Ephasis. What we're gonna see this time is we're gonna see a group of people that have just breathed in the thinking, of the day the culture of the day, what they've been brought up to think rather than really thinking themselves. And what we'll see is them shouting out slogans and cliches to defend themselves against proper thinking. They're just going to do the social norm.

And we'll see how Paul deals with that fortress that is up that says, I don't want to think about what you're saying. We'll see help all deals with it, and we'll see some people be free be set free in their thinking to think about the good news that Paul is saying, and then we'll see persecution come. So the cultural norm will be we don't like what set these people free, and therefore we're going to shout. And, have a go at them. So let's move it into Ephasis.

We're entering Ephasis And if you enter Ephasis, you're gonna notice a number of things. This is a very, very important city. It's the most important city in Asia Minor. Which we saw on that map, it was called, the mother city of Asia Minor. That's that's how important it was.

It's Crossroads, there's, trading routes. So it's good for commerce and trading and business. It's a seaport as well. And, it was good for all of that trading from various other countries and so forth. It was full of rich and powerful people.

It was a very beautiful place to live because you could set up your business there if you wanted to set up a business if it was Amazon or something like that, that's where you would go. You'd go to Ephasis, set up your warehouse and your business there, If it's Facebook, they'd really have a, a place there because it had all these trade routes and all of that sort of stuff. But it was also a beautiful place to live. It was in a valley by the coast. There were, 250000 people lived there.

This is a major city. It's up there with Rome and Athens and those sort of cities. So this is a major city for those days. It's about twice as many people that live in Kingstonborough. So it's a really major important city, lots of people.

It had a library there, which was the third largest library in the ancient world. So they saw themselves thinkers and readers, and, they saw themselves that it was full of religion, all kinds of religion, superstition, and lots of commerce and lots of money, people being charged all kinds of things. We walk into Ephasis, important town, rich, beautiful, powerful, big business, religion, superstition, and dominating ephesus is this. This is artemis' temple or the temple of Diana. Sometimes she's called artemis, sometimes she's called Anna.

She's a goddess, and this dominated everything in ephesus. Absolutely. This was 1 of the 7 wonders of the world. So it was seen as 1 of the most beautiful things. And this, some who the bells?

I know the bells went you went to, Athens, and you saw the parthenon, This was better. Yeah? Cause this was 4 times the size of the parthenon, and you saw how big the parthenon 4 times the side of the path, none, 1 of the 7 wonders of the world, and it dominated everything this religion. You couldn't think you couldn't breathe without breathing in artemis. In fact, they believe that her image and we'll see this in a reading in a minute had fallen down from heaven itself.

Yeah. And, let's have a look at it. Here's here's a model of it. Now if you look carefully, those who are in the know, then know that it's pretty obvious. She's a fertility goddess.

And, And what goes along with fertility, is birth and sex, and there was a whole lot of sex trade going on. So this was a center of sex trade. So there were women that were being made and and actually young boys that were being made in the sex trade and money was made from them in order to worship her, so they said. So if you wanted to get along in life, you had to breathe in artemis, you had to think immoral. You had to live that way as she dominated the city.

There were lots of rituals and secret mysteries In fact, if you read the letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, the people that lived in ephesus, the Christians that lived there, he deals with the word mis 3 a lot because there were secret magic spells that only certain people had sorcerers, and they could sell you the magic spell for a big price. In fact, the temple that we were looking at, that was the Citibank. So you've got religion and commerce and money and business and trade, the Citibank. That was the Citibank. And also her image, artemis's image was on every silver coin, and they just use silver coins.

So you couldn't not breathe in artemis. Okay? So that's what I'm trying to show you. Ephesus, passive thinking, breathing in, yeah, the culture, which was the religion, and it was supported by small and big business. That's what's going on.

Now the question is, how does the church or how does Paul the apostle on behalf of the church, break through this fortress. You see, everybody's thinking artemis, everybody. Everybody's affected by it. As you'll see in a minute, even the Jews that would try to be separated from this cult were deeply affected by it. So it's very interesting.

All religions seem to be affected by this breathing in artemis. Yeah? You you really really you would you could blaspheme artemis. And the whole country, if you said anything against artemis, the whole con or the whole of it, ethicists would would go mad, and then you would have to go into hiding, and then try and, you know, get out of the country and live in another country. That's the sort of thing that was going on here.

So how does Paul? How is he gonna break through into this thinking closed minded. They've sucked it all in, and they're not really thinking properly. And they're just doing what all the social norms. Do how are you gonna break in?

How are you gonna make people different? Well, I'll tell you what he does. He just does very simple thing. He, gets a wrecking ball in. You'll be very careful when you type in wrecking ball for, for some reason.

But he gets, a wrecking ball. This is a thing that just he's on a big crane and it smashes through the fortress. And he does that by just simply preaching the gospel, and he keeps preaching the gospel, the simple message that Jesus is the truth, Jesus is the savior, god has sent him to come into the world to rescue us. That simple message, he keeps banging on about it, and that breaks through. He started we saw this last month by going to this lecture hall of Taranas, listen to, what it says then.

So we're now in acts chapter 19 and have a listen to what it says. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for 3 months. The synagogue is where the Jews met, so he goes to the Jews first, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of god, but some of them became obstinate They refused to believe and publicly maligned the way. The way is what Christians were originally called the way. Yeah.

So Paul left them. He took his disciples with him, those that had come to believe, and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Taranas. This went on for 2 years so that all the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province Vasha heard the word of the lord. That's a picture of the library, by the way, but, the hall of Taranas, well, it could well have been that building next next to it. People aren't aren't quite sure about that.

Or some people think that it might have been in in the library. There's all kinds of things. So that's what is now as a as a ruins. But do you see what Paul is doing? What is he doing?

He doesn't come with another religion or other religious experiences really, he comes, and where it says arguing persuasively, that means reasoning, persuading, trying to get them to think Look at the evidence, see who Jesus is, and look at the evidence that Jesus brings in the experience of a Christian. Someone who becomes a Christian. So Christianity is not a is not a a non thinking faith. It's thinking Here are the truths. These truths will set you free.

They'll liberate you. You will have experience when you understand the truths. Yes. But that's what he comes with. And some in the synagogue refused to think they were obstinate, they're gonna keep on what they've been brought up with and not think.

And so he goes to this place next door to the synagogue the hall of tyrannus. 1 Greek manuscript, the Bible was originally written in Greek, says that he taught from 11 AM to 4 PM every day in the Hall of Taranas. 11 AM to 4 PM was the siesta, because it was so hot that people would work up to 11, take 11 to 4 off, as a break, to eat, You know? We're not in England anymore. We don't work way through our lunch break.

But we're in Turkey. This is where Turkey is now, and there's a lunch break. So here's Paul, who would have been working as a tentmaker up until 11, hired the Hall 11 till 4 the lunch break with Siesta and talk about the lord Jesus Christ. It's fantastic. And so much so we hear in verse 10 at the end there This went on for 2 years.

He did it for 2 years every day from 11 to 4 after he had done his tent making and then went back to his tent making. Gio Zellessey was for the truth. He did it without charging, without making any money out of it, He supported himself. Do you see that? And it says in verse 10, this went on for 2 years so that all the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the lord.

I that's my dream that everyone in, in Kingstonborough would hear the word of the lord. Paul did extraordinary miracles, or rather god did extraordinary miracles through Paul. Notice it's god through Paul. He wasn't claiming anything special, and he wasn't making money out of it and all the miracles were done in the open, not secret and hidden. So that's how he begins to break through.

We're gonna sing us off. Please sit down. So who's gonna break the power of sin and darkness? He comes with that message Jesus. And, as we saw before he goes to the lecture hall of Tarannas and does all of that work there for 2 years, he started off in the in the Jewish synagogue.

Now while some of the While some of the Jews in the synagogue hardened their hearts and, would not listen, and they were saying we're not gonna listen to your reasoning and your Suasion, we're gonna stick with that which we were brought up with. While some did that, it made him go to the Hall of Terenas, there were others and we're introduced to these this group, the 7 sons of Skiva. It's quite interesting. There's a bloke. He's a chief priest, and he has 7 sons.

And they're influenced. They're Jews. They're the son of the high priest or the chief priest, and and he, and their influence by artemis. They've breathed in artemis because they're into, exorcism, into magic and they're into secret powers. And, they've heard about Jesus from Paul, but what they've done is just added Jesus to their religion and to their ways of doing things.

So they've not thought, they've just thought, I'll just add Jesus on They've not done any hard thinking about who Jesus is and what Paul has been saying. They hadn't understood the good news or they didn't want it. They just added him on. And so we're introduced to these 7 sons of Skiva. There they are.

Look at them. A brutish looking lot. And this is what the Bible says. This is acts 19. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed.

They would say in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out. 7 sons of Skiva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. See what's going on? Now in sorcery, you've got to understand with this whole Artimaeus influence, was that there were secret formulas and secret powers. And if you knew a name of a higher power, then secretly, you could say that name to the lesser power and the lesser power would have to obey you.

That's the sort of thing that's going on here, and you could make big money out of it, because there's commerce going on here. So here is even the Jewish synagogue that were supposed to be different in their thinking, actually breathing in the artemis cult and doing that sort of stuff. That's going on here. Now we've got to get it that Christianity isn't a magic. It's not a magic thing.

It's, it doesn't have magic scrolls, and a magic book or anything like that or magic formulas. It doesn't have slogans and things that special men up the front sort of say out as sort of like incantations or magic or stuff like that. It's not about people with power that make money out of those that don't quite have as much power. It's not that. Christianity is not that.

We saw that Paul argues and reasons daily in the hall of tyrannus. It's a thinking faith. It's looking at truth and it's knowing that if you get to the truth, that truth will set you free. It's not about secret religion hidden away behind curtains or hidden away behind people with special clothing on that say magic to you in a language that you can't understand. That's not Christianity, and it's done for money.

That isn't Christianity. And so this is showing us this when we go into a world that has got passive thinking with people that are shouting slogans at us. The way to do it is to go in with truth and show the truth of the lord Jesus Christ. So look what happened to the 7 sons of Skiva. It's brilliant.

1 day, the evil spirit answered them. I mean, that gave him a shock for a start. They were doing this for money. Jesus, I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you? Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all and gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

I just love that. The Bible is the best stories, isn't it? They're running around naked? Yeah? Here they are with their special clothing and special incantations and special powers and taking money off poorer people.

For their religion and for their their own pocket. And now they're just shown to be fake. They're naked and got anything. You know, it's not only just shameful and humiliating on them naked and bleeding, but they're just shown up. They're exposed.

That's what naked means. They're exposed. They're frauds. They're absolute frauds. It's very interesting in looking up some details about ephesus online.

I I got, to, a modern tourist site that takes you around the ruins of Ephasis, because it's in ruins now. And I read this thing. It was just outstanding. This 1 comment on 1 of these sort of trip advisory things that goes. And this is what the bloke said.

And I it just shows you what Ephasis was like and still is like. This is what he says. Look, this is this is up to date. You can buy clothing hats recommended for the tour if it's hot and sunny, soft drinks, and various souvenirs. Don't bother with the supposedly authentic old coins, they're neither authentic nor old.

So it's still getting on. Yeah. It's fake stuff. And then I love this. In this location, you'll see 1 of my favorite signs in the world.

Genuine fake watches. Now, you think about that If it's a genuine fake watch, doesn't make it real? I don't know. I'm confused, but at least the vendors being honest, genuine fake watches. Yeah.

It's brilliant. So the fakery is still going on in this whole area of Enturits go around and buy these fake things. And, They've got no real power, you see. They have no real power over evil, and this event shows them up They only come out with words and slogans, and they're even using Jesus' name as a slogan. As a word, as an add on to what they believe, and it doesn't work, and they get a beating for it.

But here's the genu whoops. Here's the genuine. This is what genuinely happens when thinking, when the word of god breaks into a mind and a heart, and it genuinely changes people. Look, when this became known to the Jews and the Greek living in ephesus. They were all seized with fear.

There's a real fear going on. There's a real power here in this thinking message of the of the lord Jesus Christ in this truth. And, and the name of the lord Jesus was held in high honor many of those who believed now came openly and confessed, what they had done, a number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. It's an extraordinary event. See, Christianity isn't an add on.

It's completely different. And if we're gonna reach a nation, we don't come and say, let's pick up what the culture is saying and try to be as compromising as possible, and he he doesn't do that. He just preaches the truth, and it brings something new and different and a whole new way of thinking that is liberating because the truth will set you free. It's very interesting. Look what happens.

When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50000 Drak Mars. I don't know why our translation just puts Drax Mars in because it should put silver coins because it's a whole silver thing going on in this passage, but it's 50000 silver coins. How much is that? It's like millions of pounds. In this way, the word of the lord spread widely and group.

You see they're liberated. All of this religion cost them their hard earned wages All a time paying. Am I right? Can I get cleansed this way? Can I find salvation this way?

Am I gonna be right with god this way? There is constant pressure from the world to conform, to fit in. Have I got face for Facebook? Do I have the right pictures for my Instagram? Am I the 1 that that is not gonna stand out and look weird and look, am I gonna fit in?

And I've gotta pay. I've gotta buy. I've gotta look. I've gotta buy the right clothing. Have the right stuff constantly, the influences upon me to try to save myself to make myself redeem or redeemable or even like so I can get the ticks and all of that sort of stuff and the likes.

Now they're liberated. They chuck the books away. They found a truth that changes them. We were looking last year at the reformation. When the reformation happened in Europe, and the magic tricks of the Roman Catholic church, and they were selling the indulgences and saying if you buy this, then you'll be free.

You know, and then when the reformation came and people saw the lord Jesus and that we're saved by faith in what Jesus has done and not what I do, then all those indulgences were thrown away. And that's what happens here. And then I love this sentence. Look at this sentence. In this way, the word of the lord spread widely and grew in power.

Now that's real power. Not manipulative power, not selling power, but the free gospel was changing people all over. And it's wonderful because they he had faith in the power of the good news to change people and bring good news into them. You see, When you go back here, and they sold their, where it says they they sold their, They sold their sorcery books, and then they sold them for that amount of money, 50000 silver coins You could say, well, why didn't they, you know, why didn't they, so why didn't they sell them? They burnt them rather than sell them.

Why didn't they sell them and give them money to the gospel work? But, you know, they're so free. They didn't even think of that. Burn the things because these are horrible. These are kept us captive.

You see that? Now the next slide, we see a little interval in this passage, and I'm not gonna deal with it, but Paul, because this has happened in ephesus, He says, white. We've got to keep our eyes on other parts of the world, and he sends his mates off to go and preach the gospel. You see that? Go and smash down some other cities and smash down some other false thinking with the truth of the lord Jesus Christ.

Okay. We'll sing again. And then after this, Abri is gonna come and lead us in our in our prayers. We're gonna sing this song in tenderness. He sought me.

This is the lord Jesus seeking out people in Ephasis, and here today, let's stand to sing. Back to Ephasis, when the gospel has that much effect on people, then big business, does not like it, because they wanna keep people not thinking, carrying on so that they can make money. So we suddenly face opposition. Let me read, verse 23, about that time, there arose a great disturbance about the way. So the way that's the name for Christians, a silv a Silver Smith, named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of artemis brought in a lot of business for the craftsman there.

He called them together along with the workers in related trades and said, you know my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led a trade, large numbers of people here in Ephasis, and in practically the whole province of Asia. Now, do you see what he's worried about right at the beginning? Yeah? There's no he's not worried about truth.

He's not worried about arguing truth. His big thing is big business. It's business. Now the trouble is the person on the street who's just walking along doesn't quite understand that very often we don't realize that actually it's big business that is manipulating us so that we buy their goods, so that we think the way they want us to they want they want us to think. And that's what's going.

The driving force effect behind Demetrius' argument is money is power is business, is trade. It's not truth. It's not truth. And you need to understand this as young people. The driving force often behind behind this world, in education, and in Facebook, and Twitter and Instagram and all of the other things.

Big thing is to get you to influence you is big business. And, it slips out accidentally sometimes. You've only got to if you read up what happened with Facebook and what's the bloke's name? Zuckerberg. And, how it's all this is all just to bring people together so we can have happy friendships.

And suddenly, you understand that, no, they're selling all of the details about your life to make big money. And then he has to come up and try and hide that, and then he gets find and and all it's it's all all of this. There's big business involved that's manipulating us to not think, even though they claim that we are thinking and making relationships. Big business. Let's carry on with his talk.

By the way, this this is a a picture of of 1 of the real, artamuses, the the Silver Smith made. A little it's a little tiny item. It's about that. You can see it in the British Museum, just to show that these things were true. This comes from the exact date that Paul was there.

I find it quite moving when I look at that in the British Museum because I think Paul Paul might have seen that 1. He might have held this up and said this isn't a god. He might well have touched this 1, but anyway, there it is. It's in a little case. And this is what, Demetrius keeps saying.

This is his sermon to the people. This is his slogan. He says. Listen to what he says. He says.

He's saying that Paul is saying this. Paul says that gods made by human hands are not gods at all. Oh, how could they be gods? Do you see that? Paul was holding up this little thing, about that size, saying These can't be gods because they're made by humans.

How could they be gods? And Demetrius just comes out and says, this is a shock, isn't it? He's saying that gods made by human hands are not well, how could they be gods? So he's not thinking there's no reasoning going on here. He's just trying to, and you'll see what he does.

There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, power money, but also that the temple, and here he goes, of the great goddess artemis will be discredited. And the goddess herself, who is worshiped through the province of Asia, and the world will be robbed of her divine majesty. Well, she's made up anyway. Anyway, there we go, you know, the this is what he's doing. See what he's doing.

He's trying to work a crowd, to get them to stand up. Then he goes on and the crowd are getting a bit stroppy now. When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting greatest artemis of the ephesians greatest artemis of the ephesians. There's no thinking. There's no reasoning.

There's just this influence of big power and money and they start just shouting out slogans, and they go bonkers on it. Look. Now Paul wanted to please appear before the crowd. We're told. I love that.

He wants to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. I think they were quite wise. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater. So they start shouting these slogans. Paul, you gotta love him for it, thinks, okay?

That's a big crowd there. They go to this, it says theater there, but it's, an amphithe an amphitheater. There it is. That's it. It's still there.

That holds 25000 people. Yeah? That's how they know that there were 250000 around, by the way, because you have 10 percent of anyway, so that holds 25000 people. Well, I don't know whether that was full, but I could imagine it was full. It was full of people, and they're all shouting.

Great is, artemis of the Ephesians. And you see what, Demetrius has done. He's got them worked up. He's worked the crowd for his own benefit. And then it goes on.

I mean, just look at this. The assembly was in confusion, so they're all there in the amphitheatre, maybe 25000 of them. Some of them are shouting 1 thing, some another, Most of the people did not even know why they were there. Yeah? The Jews in the crowd pushed poor old Alexander, whoever he is to the front, and they shouted instructions to him.

He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people, but when they real that he was a Jew, they all shouted out in Unison for about 2 hours. Grey is artemis of the Ephesians. So you've got this confused crowd, all worked up. Well, what's going on? What's going on?

Blake is almost okay. We'll shout that out. And it's just slogans. There's no thinking. There's just a mob sort of sense.

This is right. No one's able to actually give any reasons or proper defense or proper thinking. It's a craziness that goes on. It goes on and it says, the city clerk, Paul bloke, whoever he was, quietened the crowd and said, fellow ephesians. This is after 2 hours.

I guess they're worn hot. You know, their voice, it must be hot. Their voices are gone. Fellow Ephesians, he must have waited until, you know, okay, there's a bit of a lull. Fellow Ephesians, doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephasis is the guardian of the temple of great artemis and her image, which fell from heaven, Doesn't everybody know that?

Of course they know it. Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, There's no proof of this. There's no evidence of this. There's just slogans, facts are undeniable, You ought to calm down and, do nothing rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess.

If then, demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody the courts are open, and there are protocols. In other words, go back and do this legally. Come on. Just calm down. We're getting to big it goes on to say, if if we do this.

So that's what happened at Ephasis. You see what happens when truth comes people take some and add it on to their already belief systems without thinking. Or they just shout slogans against it, even though they've seen lives changed. And good news brought. Now we'll have a think about that in just a moment.

We're gonna sing another song, so let's stand and sing. When trials come no longer fear. Let's stand and sing this song together. Please sit down. Last section, won't take too long.

Some lessons to learn. Now remember that the temple of artemis that was so powerful that was influencing so many people that we've seen was the the the breath of the day, the pollution that touched everybody, and it was so powerful. That temple was a seventh 1 1 of the 7 wonders of the world. It was powerful then, but here is a picture of it now. That is it.

It's 1 column. Yeah. It's only 1 column, and that column's been re stuck on. And there's a bird sitting on the top of it, and there's a really bad sign saying this is what's left of 1 of the seventh wonders of the world. Yeah?

See, when we live in something, it feels like such powers are against us, but they're pathetic They turn into a column that someone stuck up and put a horrible sign there saying this was the attempt of artemis, 1 of the 7 wonders of the world. It's extraordinary. We're living in a day where there's just massive influences on us. You know, we're being made to do things out of social norm to say things, to believe things, to believe slogans that just aren't true or real or justifiable, or if you dug a little bit deeper, what on earth do you mean by this? You know?

Like, there is no gender, and they're with genderless and all this nonsense that's being taught us. You just start digging. You start asking and people go mad and they're angry. And it seems so powerful, and the whole media is against us on this. Well, we must be like Paul and just think now what we do is get the him ball out.

Keep preaching the truth. Keep preaching the truth because it won't be long before all of that is seen through. All of that will fall down, and all you can do is get column and saying, they used to believe this. Yeah? Or someone will grab 1 of the little silver things of artemis and stick it in a in the British Museum in the center of London and say, oh, that that's what they used to follow.

That was a god. Look at it. We've got it in a box now. Yeah. So don't worry.

Keep going with the Christian message. See, a lot of people seem to say Oh, no. When there are these massive influences around, we need to compromise. They probably wouldn't use those words, but we need to dumb down our message. We need to incorporate something of what that is saying.

No. No. No. Just teach about Jesus the truth. And you'll find in the end that will change people's lives radically wonderfully and that in the end is a powerful witness to the world.

Even this little church here is powerful witness that lives have been changed, that we live for something different, that we're in the family of god, and not just on some pretend fake family that surround. Radically different, But the other thing that's interesting, the Silver Smiths were angry at the Christians and, people that were because they didn't go to their own trinkets. Did you notice that? Because if they'd said, okay, look, we're not following artemis, but we'll we'll make our own silver trinkets, sort of Christian trinkets. Then the silver's been said, okay, fair enough.

We'll go with the flow. Let's make little silver christian y things for them to wear, yeah, or to take around. Remember taking a Muslim friend a few years ago, is that he was from Kingston Uni, and I got to know him really well. And he wanted to go into a Christian bookshop, and I took him into a Christian bookshop. And I noticed just through his eyes, how embarrassing it was, because it was just full of trinkets, Christian little idols and trinkets.

It was amazing. And he turned to me and said, do you christians take your bible seriously, and I said, well, it doesn't look like it, does it? And we went out. So we don't do that? Do we?

We're radically different. It's not that idols and things that we wear. It's our lives that changed. But we are changed for something else. We live in a world where people will attack us with slogan and we need to be real and live different lives.

This was a picture that I found, that I loved, that I had to slot in here somehow, because I really liked it. This is, atheism. What atheism is telling us is that Christianity holds our brain, our thinking back, particularly the cross. The cross of Jesus, stops us thinking. And that little flight thing there is atheism with a key to release us into freedom.

It sounds good. And atheism has many slogans against Christianity, but test it, ask it questions I'm formulating a talk. I can't wait to do it in my mind because I heard a phrase in a sermon the other day, which went like this, what have we done? What have we done? And I've I couldn't get that out of my head.

What have we done? And I want to ask the question. What has atheism done? What has it done? It's not set anyone free.

It is horrific what it's done. We've got all kinds of issues that we never had until atheism became dominant in its slogans and thinking. And that claims to be a thinking religion. Well, I'm meeting students, at Kingston University. So is Tom, on Fresh's fair, that just say, oh, I don't believe in god.

I'm an atheist, and it's a slogan. When you push them, they don't know what they're talking about. Or the the the latest 1 is, I believe in science, Is what do you mean you believe in science? What what what can I just ask you some questions on that? I had 1 girl saying, well, I'm only a first year.

I don't know much. But I believe in science. Well, how can you believe in science if you don't know much about science? What science are you doing? And, you know, she's got an a level in biology or something.

And that made her an atheist. It's just nonsense. It's slogans. It sounds good. It sounds powerful.

It sounds freeing. There is no god over us no dominant power. But when you know the god of the Bible who's a lover, god so loved the world, and you know love and something bigger than yourself to live for. When you get rid of god, you have a small, tiny, little world that shackles us to our own thinking, our own experience. Nothing bigger than me.

Nothing bigger than my experience. When you know god, you know someone bigger and grander and more loving, and more creative and more wonderful. So these slogans that people bring, we need to challenge them, we need to think There are always people that are gonna say no. They're always bring opposition. They're always hate us.

That's gonna happen in the world, but let's put up with that. Let's keep going. Let's not shut up like Paul didn't. Let's keep going. And if we have a love for Christ, If love for Christ is in our heart and how he set us free and paid the price for us, then our thinking will be different.

Our behavior will be different. If our behavior isn't different, you've not got your thinking right. If we're still living for the world, and acting like the world. We don't know this Jesus, and our passions will be right to release the message to other people. And that's why we're doing a min ministry fair.

That's why we want people to come and see what we could do because we can use our efforts and our gifts about this big message that liberates people from slogans and unthinking and just mindlessly following the social norms that don't bring happiness, but are bringing loneliness and mental health issues all over the place. So let's be big with going. Our last song, but I've run out of time for us, I think, to sing it. Apologies for that. Let me just read it.

Our last song would have been this. We won't sing it. Can it come up? As you go, may you know the love of Christ how deep and long and high and wide. We go with the love of Christ in us, to the gospel, come to the ministry fair, see what we could do, see whether we could do more in order to take this message out to a world that is so influenced by that which is untrue and false.

Father god help us now. To do just that, in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit, amen.