Made For Him

This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at christkingum.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. From Acts 17, 16 to 34, while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols, so he reasoned in the synagogues with the Jews in the God-fearing Greeks, as well as the marketplace day by day, with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicureans and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, what is the Babler trying to say? Others remarked he seems to be advocating foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus in the resurrection. When they took him and brought him to meet the arrow pagus, where they said to him, may we know what his new teaching is and what he is presenting. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. All the Athenians and the foreigners who live there spent their time doing nothing but talking about the listening and latest ideas. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the arrow pagus and said, men of Athens, I see you every way you are very religious. For I have walked around and looked carefully at your object and worship. I even found an altar of this description to an unknown god. Now what you worship is something unknown, I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of Heaven and earth, and does not live in the temples built by hands. He is not served by human hands as if he needed anything because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, and they shook and habit the whole earth. And he determined the time set for them in exact places where they should live. God did not do this so that men could seek him or perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of our of your own poets have said, we are is offering. Therefore, since we are God's offering, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone and imagine made by man's design skills. In the past God overlooks such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set the day when he will judge the world injustice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof for all men by raising him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, we want to hear you again on this subject. At that Paul of the council, a few men became followers of Paul and believed among the diocese, the people of Arabagas, also women named Demarius, a number of them. Will you pray with me? Follow me. Thank you for the reading of your word. We thank you for the reminders God and for the special revelation that it is to come and reveal to us. You, your presence, your power, your living word, the historical, redemptive plan that you are working out through time. And that continues even today as your spirit has been poured out on your church. So you can come now by your spirit and minister to us. God, would you be our teacher here this morning? And would you draw our hearts to you? And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, good morning. I'm Scott Puckett. I'm the pastor here at Christ's freedom church. Would be happy to be new here, or some of our guests. And we get lucky. I heard we got some folks from perimeter churches. Is that right? All right. Atlanta joy. That's my home church. Why grew up? So, were you guys there before 1986? No, so you had no idea who I am. Yeah. Great church, great ministry. So welcome to you guys, especially as well, too, this morning. You know, we have an interesting thing by what we just finished up a sermon series on sharing the story. So if you're wondering where that's going, it's still available online. You can check with that and catch up on anything you might have missed when I encourage you to do that. But as we do some different topics here as we prepare for the fall, one of the topics that came up this morning was this concept that I'll talk more about being made for him. But before we really get into that fully here, let me just ask you to think about something for a second. What is it about our culture, especially, I think, that if there is a hole that you have this insatiable desire to fill it? Now, assuming it's not like a golf hole that you're hoping to fill that, too, right, in a different way. But we have this thing that if there is a hole that we must fill it for some reason. For example, I have a hole in my shower wall, the master bathroom, and some of you know that's been there for quite a long time now, as we're continuing to contemplate how we're going to fix that. The problem is we don't want to just fix that we want to do the hole reconstruction thing on the shower there. But I have this ongoing desire. Every time I hear the water, when I turn it on, hit the plastic in the morning before I get in the shower, like, oh man, I've got to fill that hole. There are other holes that are even bigger than that that we want to fill. Here's one right here. This is the Monticello Dam in California. Let me get out of the way. All right. Well, good luck filling that one, right? But what an amazing thing. People drive just to see that one. Here's a sink hole in Guatemala. I get the picture to go. Can't help me Kevin. There we go. Now, sink holes, we know a little bit about that here, right, in Central Florida. You do want to fill those. You see something like that, and that's not a good thing there as well. Also, here's another one here. There we go. There we go. This is the great blue hole up the coast and Belize. Amazing. One more, Kevin. Right here. This is a diamond mine in Russia. Incredible. Some of the most famous holes that I could find around the globe here. But none of these holes even compare to the size of this one.

Inside of each of us, there's a hole. There's a god-sized shape hole. I want to present to you this morning. You probably have heard that concept here before. And I know that might seem smaller, but this one is of eternal magnitude. And I want to present to you this morning or remind you if it's a case that only an eternal god can fill it. Part of the reason why I'm choosing this topic here this morning, or coming this way here, is that I had a chance to have one of my kids race. He's actually a little across campus weekend. But a couple weeks ago, he came back and said, dead. It's like when we were all created, you know, to serve God. And there's, you know, we try to do other things and make it happen. But unless we're doing that, nothing else quite fills that. I'm like, yeah, you're right, son. It's great when you hear your kids come to realizations that are profound. And that was a profound one for him to see and kind of stumble across and have this aha moment. But as much as that's an aha moment for him, and maybe it has been for you at one point, those are moments that we can often easily forget. And perhaps you haven't even come to that kind of aha moment. But it's one that people have been thinking about for a little since life begin. It's been really good questions about that. And part of the reason why is Isaiah 64-8 says this, we are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand. God is working, God is shaping us. So why are we all born with this feeling? Why are we born with this feeling that something is missing in life? Why are we born with the sensation that life can't deliver in all of the world promises? Even those that have supposedly arrived, whether it's financially or with fame and fortune, seem to still have this sense of, that wasn't it. Wasn't quite what I needed. And then there's some hole in our life that we can never seem to fill. Then you try to satisfy these questions. Some try to deny the existence of the hole. And perhaps you fall in that camp this morning. People have too much time in their hands to think about things. Maybe. Some try to find just the right thing to fill it, which is what I think most of us are in the category of doing. What can I step in there? What can I do to fill up that hole in some way, shape, or form? So the emptiness doesn't feel so great. And I think some sadly give up and just try to do life and live without it. And try to hope that the feeling goes away. Our hope that they can mask it with lots of activities and hobbies and things to fill up your spare time. And by the way, you can't sleep at night and you're having trouble. You got medication you can take. Get yourself to sleep fast. Get your mind off of that. But the truth in the reality is, the nagging realization, isn't it? That we seem to be lacking or looking for something more than what this life has to offer. Well, many of the people have been talking about this as I've already mentioned throughout time and many of the people in the scriptures have as well too. Solomon, next slide. Solomon, writing sometime between 9.30 and 5.86 B.C. or about that time period, writes in Ecclesiastes 3. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men that they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. The apostle John, sometime in 33 to 36 AD, writes in John chapter 7, he says, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He believes in me as a scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. If this he spoke of the Spirit, then those who believed in him were to receive. That word for innermost being in the Greek is colloice. It's translated innermost being, but it also could be translated whole or empty space. The apostle Paul writes a little bit later. Next slide you got there. Thanks, Kevin. Romans 120. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men or that excuse is eternal power. His divine nature has been clearly seen. We can go post-biblical times to the period of St. Augustine. Next slide. St. Augustine in four centuries, sometime writes, you have made for us, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you. Then even further down, Blaze Pascal, the great French mathematician, philosopher, physicist of the 17th century, he says this, what else does this craving and this helplessness proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace. This he tries and vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there, that are not there, the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help since this infinite of this can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object, in other words, by God himself. And even more recent, the late 20th century, professor in theologian, C.S. Lewis, he says it pretty plainly, if I discover within myself a desire, which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Next slide. We've all sensed it, right? Maybe on a sleepless night, maybe standing on top of a mountain top, maybe holding the hand of a loved one your death, maybe gazing at a star-filled sky, maybe after receiving bad news from a doctor report, maybe looking at the detail of the newborn baby's fingernail. What makes up this whole, this void, this empty shape in each of us, is a question that if we're honest, each of us is probed with, each of us is plagued with. So I want to give you a couple ideas to think about here this morning as we unpackage it. And just a reminder to our 3rd through 5th graders who are in the service for the summer. If you fill out that little sermon outline form, there is some candy waiting for you at the end. In fact, Mrs. Irbyans can help me with that, right Mrs. Irbyans? Thank you. The game is in the back. Come see her and share one thing about what you learned from the service is morning. But make sure you get this filled in. So we're about to start that process there. And that's just for a 3rd through 5th graders, just to clarify, Brett. Okay? All right. The first thing I want you to take home here today is the shape of fear. That's part of this hole. That you might say is the wallpaper or could be the wallpaper inside this massive hole or void that we all feel. We all know and experience fear, don't we? You know, some interesting things I looked as I studied a little bit this week. Psychologists have recognized more than 400 distinct phobias. More than 400. So if you're fearful of some things, you're in good company. There's at least a 400 classification. And some of these are very old classic fears like acrophobia, which is the fear of heights. We can all kind of relate to that maybe a little bit. And there's some that are more contemporary fears like one I learned. Nomephobia, which is the fear of being without your cell phone or losing signal. Right? Some of your laughing nervously because I felt that before. Even historical fearless leaders were not immune. Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Mussolini and Hitler all shared a lurophobia, which is the fear of next slide. Cats. Seriously. Some of you might share that fear as well. Some are much more serious like mysaphobia, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, which is the fear of germs. People actually are socially paralyzed with this fear you might have seen or might know somebody. They came to you out in public or if they do out in public, they have to be very careful because it drives some crazy. It's a really real fear for them. And some are very, really quite ridiculous like antithetia, antithetia, phobia, which is the fear that somewhere somehow, next slide, a duck is watching you. I didn't make that up. Some of you students this morning maybe starting to experience, see if I can pronounce this, Daita Kess laugh. Dida, dida is, it's a Greek word. I'm going to Dita Scalene, nephobia, which is the fear of going to school. Some of you starting to fear that again in mid-July. And believe it or not, do you know there's even the phobia, which is the fear of having phobia. Fear, fear. What is it about fear? Next slide. You know, there is now scientific research to support the idea that fears may be memories pass down through generations of DNA. Did you know that? Half-lack? Was that what I heard there? Pass down through DNA. And I want to propose that if you could trace the heavy ability to, I bet you could trace it back to the very first man, the very first woman back in the garden of Eden. Wasn't it fear? That God maybe was holding out on something when He said, don't eat. I hadn't experienced that fear before until they were put, the idea was put in their head that God was holding back from them in some way. And there was the fear of, when this and out. And then quickly came the fear of shame, the fear of nakedness, the fear of exposure, the fear of impurity. Many of our ultimate fears are surrounded by the questions, deep questions, deep questions of how life, about meaning, about truth, about eternal realities. I mean, think about it for a second, who hasn't pondered questions like this? What was there at the beginning? And who was there at the beginning if there was a beginning? Was there a Creator God? If so, who is He? What's He like? Can He be known? Does He know me? If He knows me, does He even care? Is He good? Is there an end to life? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Who will be there at the end? Will I be there at the end? Will I see loved ones? Will I see God? What will the next life be like? What will I do for all eternity if there is the next life? These are questions about eternity, and note that the lack of answers can quickly create fertile ground for fear to grow, in which it does. Even in the first century, they had the same kinds of questions, and Paul knew that. That's what Paul was writing about here. Paul was coming in, and he was entering into Athens, this great center place for thought at the time. All the greatest thinkers supposedly were there. All those who were asking the deep questions were there. Remember, we read in the text, they set around, they talked about the latest ideas, because they desired, I think, to fill that void, to fill that hole with something. Something that would give them eternal purpose, something that would put their feet down on something solid they could stand on. Every one of us answers these questions one way or another about eternity. We may have different answers, we may have foggy answers, we may even say we don't know, and try to leave it at that. But no doubt the God-shaped hole we all share leads to a commonly shared questions about eternity, which results in fears, fears that drape the walls of the hole and the void inside each of us. But the shape of fear is not the only thing, fortunately, that shapes the hole inside and the void we feel. Something else is surprisingly there that we hold in common as a human race. Next slide, this is number two, the shape of hope, the shape of hope. Ironically, in the midst of shared fear, we were all born with shared hopes. As children, the basic hopes they start with, that they can be just barely beginning to even understand. The hope to be loved, the hope to be held, the hope to be fed, the hope to be rocked to sleep perhaps at night, or book ran to them. And as we grow those hopes grow as well too, and they might become something even more bigger, or more transcendent, to be a princess, to be a famous athlete, to be a mom one day yourself, or a dad one day yourself, being artists, to be a scholar, to be a doctor, a dancer, to be an author. And all along the way, we also have growing hopes of eternal things as well, don't we? It doesn't matter whether you're an atheist, a Muslim, a secular humanist, a Christian, a Buddhist, a Mormon, an agnostic, a Hindu, an Orthodox Jew, a Unitarian, a Jehovah's Witness, a Sikh, you have shared hopes related to eternity. Next slide. I don't agree with this, but it gives a great insight. Robert Brault, journalist writer, he writes, man is the only animal who enjoys the consolation of believing in a next life, all other animals enjoy the consolation of not worrying about it. I think he's got truth there, I just want to call his animals. But in that really true in some ways, why is it that we above all other animals seem to be the only creatures around that are worried about a next life? Because let me tell you, you were made for him. There are through 5th graders, that would be a really key point that you might want to write down. We were made for him. All I'm packing said a little bit more is to go along. We all share similar fears, and by the way, we all share similar hopes. We all have a hope for peace beyond the grave. Do you know that even the atheist takes peace, takes great hope in believing that there is no God to be held accountable to after you die? Don't think for a second that an atheist is not counting on some kind of hope, some kind of peace, for after he or she does. The fiest takes peace in believing that there is a God to be held accountable to afterwards. Therefore, they work hard to know him or to please him, right? The agnostic takes peace in believing that if there is a God, we're not really sure, but hopefully he won't care what I think. So you can fit yourself in any big category you want or break it down to some smaller category, but every single person, all 7 billion of us alive now, and everyone who's lived before, all is working and it has some kind of place where they come to peace. But what's going to happen after they die? No, the issue is right, we can't all be right. There is a God after there is a God that we will meet after death or there isn't. For those that believe in life after the grave, there is hope that we will endure beyond the grave for all of those who believe believe in a God. That we will see lost loved ones that our lives do have lasting significance. That there is really such a thing as love that transcends space and time and it's not just a chemical reaction that happens in your brain. There is something beyond that that we won't be left alone, that there is purpose in the pain and suffering that life after death will get better. If you believe in a life after death, almost everybody believes that life will get better somehow after you die. What's that? It's a shape of hope and nobody had to teach you that. It's built within us as real as the shape of fear, the shape of hope, as image bearers made in the image of God. Those about to die will often say, I'm ready to go and why are they usually ready to go? And I've been there with some of those people literally in their last breath because they believe they're going somewhere better. I've been there with Jesus Christ, I believe they are too. A loved one dies, people usually will say stuff like, I'm glad they're suffering over. Why do they say that? Because the suffering is over and they're going somewhere better. It's the hope. There's a prevailing optimistic hopeful perspective when looking at eternity. It is the shape of hope that surrounds the whole or the boy that we all know is there. We take the time to acknowledge it. Paul found himself around people who were finding eternal hope in religion and philosophy. That's what was happening here. Let me go back to our text and read from verse 16. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks as well as the marketplace day by day with those who happen to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, what is this babeler trying to say? Others remarked he seems to be advocating foreign gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus in the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to the meeting of the Eropagus where they said to him, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears and we want to know what they mean. All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Paul, instead of the meaning of the Eropagus and said, many of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. Next slide. You see Athens, first century Athens, I've already kind of mentioned it was a great intellectual and cultural center of the world at the time. All kinds of hope seekers were there. First, there was the religious Jews in the synagogues and Godfiring Greeks were there. Paul mentions that. The writer of Acts here, Luke comes and mentions that there. These are people that are either Jewish followers of Yahweh or Greek converted. Those who are Greek converted to following Yahweh but they were not aware of Jesus Christ at this point. They are there. They are worshiping and the fact that they are worshiping this far away from Jerusalem means that they are very devout. There are long ways away from the temple but yet they are still faithfully seeking him. But the shape of hope is as strong as it is there, they are unaware that Jesus Christ and Messiah has come. So Paul is enlightening them. Second, we find that they are religious non-Jews. It says the city was full of idols. So there were many religious people worshiping things that were not worshiping Yahweh, they got to the Bible at the time. The Parthenon there was dedicated to the goddess of Athenia. You can see it there in the picture. Idols statues were at the acropolis. Idols were in the marketplace. The shape of hope is strong here. But they did not know Jesus Christ. We are also told in this text that there was philosophical systems that were going on there. Other places people were hoping to find answers to their eternal fears that were given the eternal hopes. One of the things was epicurean philosophy. Epicurean philosophy taught that the goal in life was to find pleasure in a life without pain. That was the main objective. And Paul is confronting that there. There was stoic philosophy. He mentioned stoic philosophers. They taught that reasoning and living in harmony with nature was the main thing. And Paul was addressing that at the time. But they did not know that Jesus Christ and Messiah had come. Next slide. If this wasn't enough, Paul found an additional altar. Verse 23 says, As I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God. Here's a picture what it may have looked like. An altar made to make sure no God, no other God had been overlooked accidentally or no other God would be slided. Just in case we got this one. So that all the gods that potentially are out there could be appeased. It's a shape of hope. And every single one of us has it. But they did not know Jesus Christ. You know, Friedrich Nietzsche is known for lots of things. But he said this. Hope in reality is worst of all evils because it prolongs the torment of man. Which is why he works so hard to suppress the shape of hope in his own whole and void. He was the one who's better known for this statement. God is dead. You know, he's right, though. Hope is the worst of all evils if there is no hope. He's right on the money. If there is no hope, it certainly could be the worst of all evils. To pretend that there is. But let me tell you this morning. Hope is alive and well. You know, ironically, in this great city of seeking the divine, and by the way, there was no place in the planet that had more people seeking the divine, the one true God had been grossly overlooked. Next slide. Theodore Suschiesel. For a family said, sometimes the questions are clear. Next slide. Theodore Suschiesel. For a family said, sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. And the answer is more simple than anybody wanted to realize. And it's number three, the shape of God. The shape of God. Let me pick up in verse 23 reading. Now, what you worship is something unknown, Paul said. I'm going to proclaim to you the God who made the world. And everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth. And it's not live in temples built by hands. Which, by the way, friends, see, that's a pretty provocative statement when you're there with the Acropolis and the Parthenon. And he's not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. There's businesses, people making idols. Saying, well, I hope he's served by human hands. That's what I do. You got to put yourself in the context here. Verse 26. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the time set for them in the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. Some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone and image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooks such ignorance. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. What does Paul see? Paul sees the shape of fear and the people there in Athens. Paul sees the shape of hope. It's all over the place of the people in Athens. And both are waiting to be filled by the only thing that can fill them. The shape of God. So Paul tells them about the one who they are looking for. Verse 24 he says, he does not live in temples built by hands. Or not anymore. He is not needed to be served by human hands. He says in verse 25. Verse 27, he is not far from each of us. Verse 28, he actually quotes their poets. Next slide. Paul quotes the Cretan poet Epiminides who lived around 600 BC, who taught that in Zeus you live and move and have your being. Why is he quote that? Because he knows that they are quite familiar with him. And in the day of big questions of life, in that time they were about life, motion and being. And Paul says that it's not in Zeus, but it's in the creator God of the Bible, who came and walked on earth, who died and who rose again. Next slide. Paul quotes Clemphasis who lived around 331 to 233 BC, who taught that we are Zeus's offspring. And Paul teaches them that we are in fact God's offspring, revealed in his son, who is the creator. Paul's point in our point today, by the way, is that we were made for him. We were made by him and therefore were made for him. Sin and the fall has broken our relationship with our creator and our understanding of him has broken his well too, as the people in Athens quite clearly display. Next slide. Therefore God had the sin his son to rescue us. Rescue us from our fears. Rescue us to a living hope. See, Jesus is the only one that comes and ultimately satisfies the ultimate fears as one that can bring the ultimate hope. They were looking for, they were longing for it. Next slide, verse 20. This has come from Hebrews chapter 1. The writer of Hebrews writes and he says very profoundly, in the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through him whom he made the universe. The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. In the next slide, Luke writes, or Peter is writing in Acts 4, says, salvation has found to no one else where there is no other name under heaven to which men must be saved, or by which we must be saved. Paul goes further to say, quote, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. He says that to the people there in Athens. And by the way, if you haven't already put it together, it's very intolerant thing to say, isn't it? That among all these idols, among all these religious views, philosophical views, even Jewish views there that were lacking the understanding of Jesus as the Messiah, there are all those things that are there. People that were kind of sort of close and people that weren't even close at all. And perhaps some people even around there that didn't believe any of this stuff. They're all there. And he very intolerantly tells them that he commands of people everywhere to repent. And it's not an invitation. It's a command. To be rescued from our fears, to be rescued to a living hope. It comes in response to the command the living God that we repent. So it's more than an invitation. It's not just an invitation, though. God will judge through Jesus Christ. The proof, next slide, is in the resurrection. That's why Nietzsche proclaimed and taught God is dead. If he could prove and he could convince him... I think he was trying to convince point. Anybody else who's trying to convince himself that God is really dead. And there could be... And if there was no way there was a resurrection of Jesus the Son of God, then he could settle the hope. There is none. Remember he says the worst of all evils. And you could just start dealing with the fears best he could. But if Jesus is God and creator and if Jesus did rise again, then he has the right to call all creation to his service and honor, doesn't he? And he must be the only thing that could fill the hole, that could fill the void. As our creator, as our rescuer, as our Lord and King. In conclusion this morning, the end of the discussion for the Apostle Paul was with his appeal to the resurrection. Verse 31 of our passage, he says, for he has said a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he appointed. He has given proof to this to all men by raising him from the dead. You realize there is really a reason that none of us fear the judgment of King George III of England. He was pretty upset with us, by the way, if you recall. A fatal Hitler of Germany was not real fond of us either. Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Osama bin Laden. Because they are all still dead. There is a reason why you shouldn't follow the teachings of Buddha or the teachings of Muhammad. Because they are all still dead. Jesus Christ is alive. And he will return to judge next slide. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 14 for this very reason Christ died and returned to life. So that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You then, why do you judge your brother? Why do you look down on your brother? If we will, we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written as surely as I live as the Lord every knee will bow before me. Every tongue will confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of Himself to God. It is interesting the response with the Athenians had. Next slide. Verse 32. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, it says some of them sneered but others said we want to hear you again on this subject. This says at that Paul left the counsel and a few men became followers of Paul and believed. Some sneered, some wanted to hear more, and some believed. And let me tell you, that has always been the case in the response to Jesus Christ. Some will sneer and say, Gosh, that's that's so exclusive. It's bigoted. It's unloving. I don't want to serve a God like that. Some will ponder and want to hear more. Again, the people in Athenian and Athens, they are like, they love just thinking about new ideas. And it's so easy even for us today. Just to wonder ponder about it and think about it and come, hm. And then a few will believe, or some will believe. Just like then, just like now. So I just want to ask you today, what's your response? Some of you know that you're not a follower of Jesus Christ. Will you choose to follow Him today? Some of you follow Him already, but will you choose to be renewed in your faith and commitment today? I've been reminded of His Word. If you truly believe you're made for Him, here's where we're going to get a little personal. How could your view of success? How would your view of success and life change? If you really believe you're made for Him? Would you look at money differently? Would your view of sex change? Would your passion for God's Word change? Would you look at other people who were made for Him also? Would you look at them differently? Would you talk to people differently? Would your habits and lifestyles be impacted by it? Would your hobbies look a little different? Would you think about different things lying in bed at night when you can't sleep? Would your parenting take on a different light or different tone? Would you be totally reoriented? Would each day be lived with a different set of priorities? Would God become your favorite thing about eternity? Don't buy the lie that you were made for this world. Don't buy the lie that you need to prove the worth of your existence in this world. Don't buy the lie that you need to etch your name and history somehow to find worth and significance. Don't buy the lie that living for your own personal dreams could possibly be more fulfilling than living for God's plans for your life. Don't ever be afraid to give up what you want to receive. Don't ever be afraid to give up what you want to receive what God wants for you. Let me say that again. Don't ever be afraid to give up what you want to receive what God wants for you. Those of your parents that you know is true, especially with your young kids. They'll say they want something, they want something, they want something, you're like, no, no, hold on. That's something better for you. No, no, no. I want this toy. I want this toy. I want this toy to hold on. Next week's Christmas. Trust me. Gosh, a parent has infinite wisdom, right? Compared to that child. How much more do you think your Heavenly Father's wisdom compares to yours? When you white-knuckle want to hold on to what you want rather than to trust Him? To believe what He says you need. It will be good for you. His hands are molding you into the ultimate purpose to be a God glorify. Which is God glorify. Which is why you're made. Which is your purpose. You were made for Him. Don't forget that. Let's pray. God just asks now that you would come and remind us a fresh, exactly how to apply the writings God in your word this morning. That how your Spirit would come and convict us in regards to unbelief, in regards to petty sins, or habitual sins, in regards to selfishness, pride, whatever you might be doing. God's word to come to your table is where we come looking and trusting the forgiveness and the work of Christ. We remind us of our great need for it. And how you'd given a great provision by cleansing us of the guilt of sin through believing in Jesus Christ. And the breaking of the power of sin through believing in your resurrection. So God, would you come? Would you minister to us this morning? Would you meet us? Would you draw hearts to you? And God, would you make us excited to trust you knowing that we were made for you and to live for you as we lead for this morning? I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.