October 2, 2009

• Three Kinds of Worship by Pastor Lafayette Scales

  Pastor Lafayette Scales visited our church.  He is from Rhema Christian Center, Columbus Ohio.  As always when he comes, the message is spectacular, and the following teaching was a real blessing to me!  I kept it in one piece for the message could not be easily divided into two posts.

  Acts 17:16  Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

  In Chapter 13 of Acts, Paul and Barnabas were released and sent to minister to the Gentiles and Jews.  They were at the church in Antioch which was a Holy Spirit filled, gifted and multicultural church.  Paul and Barnabas separated and Paul and Silas traveled together teaching and preaching.

  Paul and Silas go to Thessalonica and begin to teach and preach and a riot breaks out.  They send them away to Berea.

   Acts 17:10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

  Paul has praise for the Bereans for they tested the Word spoken to them to see if it was true.

  Acts 17:11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

  The Jews from Thessalonica found out that Paul was teaching in Berea and came to cause trouble.  Paul left Berea and went to Athens.

  Acts 17:13-15 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

  The city of Athens has been around from ancient times and was very pagan when Paul visited the city.

  Acts 17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

  Paul’s spirit was provoked when he saw the condition of the city.  When has our spirit been provoked?  We won’t change anything unless we notice what is provoking our spirit. We are not to coexist with evil, but to transform evil and transform lives.

  Acts 17:17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

  First he went to the synagogue.  When our spirit sees wickedness reign we need to go to church.  He asked them how could they have let this evil go on.  Paul regularly went to the synagogue.  We need to go and worship so that God can infill us.  But Paul didn’t stay at the church.  He took the influence that God placed in him into the market place daily. 

  We go to work daily and go out into the market place.  It is in our daily lives in the marketplace that we can influence others and share our resources of wisdom and knowledge.  If we are successful in life, it is because God wants us to use that success for the church and also for reaching others in the market place.

  Acts 17:18-21 Then^c]’> wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, (31) undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving,^{jessicamoore1}