 Right. Good morning everyone. Okay, so we've been talking about many aspects. Last week we spoke about how we can connect with people, asking important questions, and then inviting them to receive the gospel and praying for them. So today we'll move into chapter 8. I want to get into chapter 8, Understand and Reason. This is a very, very important chapter and I believe that when we minister to people, we must minister by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also with understanding. We must also be able to reason and understand when we're ministering to people. Now the mistake that we make sometimes is, yes, we depend on the Holy Spirit, that's very good, but we switch off when it comes to being practical. Sometimes you say, okay, only the spiritual is important, but no, we must also be practical, meaning we must understand and reason with people when you're ministering the gospel. Now we're going to look at this example from Acts 17. Now in Acts 17, let me give you a background. What's happened is Paul has finished his first missionary journey. He's come back. He's launched his second missionary journey. He's gone into Asia Minor. He's gone into Europe. Now his second missionary journey, he plants churches in different places. So it's given there, right? Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth and Ephesus. So that's Asia Minor and Europe. So wherever he went in his second missionary journey, he was able to plant churches. He was able to understand their background. He was able to reason with them and many people accepted Christ, right? So we look at what happened here in Acts 17. So Paul has taken Timothy. He's gone to Corinth and in Corinth, he meets Aquila and Priscilla, right? And if you do the whole study on the book of Acts, you will understand it so beautifully how the Apostle Paul chose people and he used them in the churches that he planted, right? So in Acts 17, he goes into Athens. Now Athens is in Greece and in Greece, it's known to be an intellectual capital. Everyone know what's intellectual? Intellectual means people who are very learned, right? So you got Socrates, Plato, all these learned people, right? So they're all about, you tell me why, right? Reason, give me a reason, those kind of people, right? It was not, okay, you pray for them and they will believe no. They needed a reason. So Paul has gone to Athens. Now, what is the culture of Athens at that time? Now, if we look at right now, what is the culture of India? Cultures have changed over time, right? 20 years back and what we're doing now, the culture has changed. Yes or no, right? And so every place, the culture changes, but what was the culture in Athens at that time, right? There was a Greek goddess named Athena. Now, Athens had philosophers like I mentioned here, Socrates, Plato, Domesthetnes and Aristotle. Now, these were the greatest minds. These were people who were very, very learned, intellectually very great, right? Now, this Athens was a place of science, art, philosophy and there were two kinds of belief systems there, right? First one was the Epicurean. See, if you see your notes, you see that Epicurean, right? And the second one was Stoicism, right? So let's just open to Acts chapter 17. So you get a better picture there. Acts 17 verse 16. I'll read a couple of verses just for us to get an understanding here, right? I'll read 16 through 18. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace, day by day. Those who happen to be there, a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers begin to dispute with him. Some of them ask, what is this babbler trying to say? So it's mentioned there, right? Two people. What are they? One, Epicurean and Stoics. Now, who are these people? What are their belief systems? Let's look at that. The Epicureans follow the teaching of Epicurus and believe that everything happened in this world by chance. I've born by chance. I got married by chance. I had children by chance. And I'm working by chance and finally I will die. That's also by chance, right? And death is the end of all. They believe that God's were remote from this world and they did not care. Which means what? God is somewhere else. We are just here. We will live. We will die. So God is God. I am here. I will die. And that's the end of the story. Okay. And they believe that pleasure was the end of all means for men. That means God is there. I am here. I've born by chance. I'm living by chance. One day I will die. So in this life, live a life of pleasure. Enjoy the things of the world. Enjoy everything that is there around us because nothing matters. That was one belief. Okay. The Epicureans believe that. Then there was the second group of people which was Stoics. Stoics was founded by Zeno and Stoics believed that everything was God and that God was a fiery spirit. Right. And what gave men life was a little spark from that fiery spirit that happened and it happened by the will of God. That every so often the world is disintegrated and then it starts all over again. Right. So you see these two beliefs. One is the Epicurean which says that God does not care. He is God. We are here. If we just enjoy the things of this world and we will die. That's fine. That's the end. But the Stoics believe that everything is from God. God is one fiery spirit and a spark of that fire came and we came into being. And eventually when we die we will join back that spark. Okay. So these are the two belief systems. Now Paul is going there and what is he doing? He's preaching about Jesus. He's saying there was a man named Jesus. He came. He died in this world. He lived. He was crucified. He died for us since but he rose again from the dead. He's giving the gospel and the worst there in verse 18. It says, what is this babbler trying to say? So this is a new understanding. We have the Jews, few Jews. You have the Stoics. You have the Epicurean. What is this? Now the Jews will say, okay, we are waiting for the Messiah. This fellow is talking something. Forget him. The Epicureans and the Stoics, they are Greeks. What is he trying to say? They're not able to understand. This is some new understanding but they were interested to know what it was. Why? Because the Greeks were people who were intellectual. They want to know what is he trying to say? What is this whole thing of one man came into this world. He came as God. He died. It does not make sense. Now there were two reactions to this. Some of them said, this fellow is mad. Better not listen to him. Let's get rid of him. Let's kill him. Another group of people said, this is some interesting philosophy. So you come and you teach us in there. There's a place called a Gora. It's a marketplace. I wish I could project how a Gora looks. A Gora is basically, it's the center of the city. And you have people who have all kinds of the learned people. They will come and discuss things. They will discuss new ideas, new strategies. This is a place where law was implemented. So people had any problem with each other? Yes. Basically like that. But it was called an Agora, but it was also a marketplace. So there was selling of materials, selling of goods there. So it was a place where everyone, if you wanted to know some new ideas, go and sit in the Agora. Now the Agora is also called Mazhil. That's why they call this the Great Mazhil Sermon. So Paul goes there and he begins to preach the gospel. So they say, Paul, whoever you are, your philosophy, something new you're telling us, you come tomorrow to this Agora and you share more about this new philosophy you're talking about. Now what does Paul do? He goes there and he does two things. He understands their culture, one, and he reasons with them. Everyone say this, understand and reason. So Paul did. So we'll read on what he did. Paul then stood up, verse 22. He goes to Aeropagus and 22. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Aeropagus and said, men of Athens, I walk around and I see that you're very religious. Now what is the first thing Paul is doing? Does he say, okay, all you Greeks, you don't know what you're doing. You're following some stars and you're believing in some God. No, he says he begins to understand them. He puts himself in their shoes and he says, I see that you're all religious. Because when I walk around, I see so many gods. There was a saying that in Athens, if you walk around, you'll see more gods and goddesses than people. Every corner, there's a god or a goddess. So what does it show? They're religious people. So Paul is saying, I see that you're religious. But there's something that you're worshipping is not the true God. But he starts by understanding them. He's saying, you're religious people. He catches their attention. What does he go on to say there? I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship. I even found an altar with the inscription to an unknown God. Now, what you worship as things unknown, I am going to proclaim to you. What did Paul do? He's taking what they have and he's presenting the gospel to them. Now, he reasoned with the people in the Jews and the synagogues and with the Gentile worshippers in this marketplace. Now, Epicurans and Stoics, both of them disagreed with the gospel. They did not accept the gospel. They could not understand it. Now, Paul goes there and he says, without condemning, he appreciates them for their inclination towards God. He said, see, I see that you all are religious people. So that's very good. So what is the important point for each one of us is to recognize where people are at their spiritual quest. Many people are searching, but are they searching for the right thing? You will meet people who are searching for peace. You will meet people who are searching for true meaning in life, for purpose, for direction. You may have some, maybe you meet with somebody and they'll say, hey, I don't know what is life all about. What should I do in life? Just work hard, earn money, get married, have children and then one day die. What's the purpose? What am I going to do with that? In the end, we are not taking anything. So there are people who have suicidal. I don't want to live. I see only people who are broken or people in my own life. I see that everyone are enjoying, but for me, it's nothing. I feel empty. I'm no family. So you'll find different people in different seasons of their life. Very important is to recognize, put yourself in their shoes. If somebody is going through depression, don't say why are you depressed. So many things are there. Be happy, enjoy life. Don't say that they are going through their own problem. So we must recognize that first. Put yourself in their shoes. And Paul did that. He went and he said, I see that you all are religious. He put himself in their shoes. Now, what will happen? If you go on, they said they were listening intently to what Apostle Paul was saying. Their years were turned to them and goes on. He then addresses their ignorance, which they have admitted in the inscription to an unknown God. Use something they relate to and understand and use that as a starting point. Now, what did Apostle Paul do? He said, see, one, I see all are religious. He puts himself in their shoes. Two, he uses their own point of starting a conversation. He says, I see that you have a temple there and it says to an unknown God. So now what you don't know, what you have called unknown, let me share with you. So what's he doing? He's first understood them. Now he's begun to reason with them. He said, okay, let me tell you who this God is. You put unknown God by your ignorance. You don't know, but I will tell you. He's beginning to reason with them. You see how powerful that is? Understanding the people and then begin to reason with them. Now, for example, I'm just going to use this example, right? There was this one time, if a Muslim person from Islamic faith comes to you, what is the thing that you and I can do? What's the first thing that we can do? Talk about the way they pray. Okay, what else? Okay, very good. What else? If it's somebody from Islamic... So you have a starting point. What is the starting point? What is the relation between a Christian and a Muslim? What is something that is common? The first five books, the penitentiary? Yeah. So you have a starting point of reference. Okay, two, if you're ministering to a Jehovah witness, somebody comes and say, I'm Jehovah witness, what are you going to start off with? What is your starting point? Father God? Okay, so how are you going to talk about it? What can you bring out? You also pray to the Father? Okay. Sorry? Believe in the same God. Okay. So if I was there, I would bring out the attributes of Jehovah first. First, I would understand this person. Oh, you're believing in Jehovah? So I begin to talk about his attributes. He is Jehovah Jairat, Jehovah Rafa. Jehovah Shalom. And I ask him, him or her, I ask, do you have peace in your heart? Do you find healing in your body? He says, no, not yet. So how is this Jehovah working in your life? How do you know that he's got up there? But how do you know he's ministering to you? He ministered to Moses. He ministered to Abraham. But how is he ministering to you? And slowly bring out the whole aspect of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now, it's not going to be easy, but you have a starting reference point. Yes? Third, if you're speaking to a person from a Hindu faith, what is the starting reference point that you can bring about? Worship. Okay. What else? Come on. Some of you were from that faith. Sorry? No. First thing I have to understand, I can't ask questions first. So asking questions is part of it. But now I'm trying to understand them and then reason. Okay, religious. Anything else? If you're ministering to a person from a Hindu faith, come on. That's the word I was looking for. Very good. Okay, so no, more importantly, I wanted that word effort works. They have a lot of works. Yeah, so yeah, so the main word I was looking for was works. So if you look at the Hindu faith, it's more about works. If I do this, then God is pleased. If I do this, then God is pleased. Maybe God will not allow me to, you know, go through this pain and trouble because I have done this or maybe if I do this. So it's a lot of works. So you can start off from that point. How much can we do that pleases God? How do we know God is pleased with the works that we are doing? What is the baseline? In some places, you know, killing a child is wrong. In some places, it's all right. But so what's the baseline? How to tell which is good? What is right? What is wrong? There's no baseline. So with different religious backgrounds, always understand them and use something as a starting point of reference, which is common. Apostle Paul did that. He didn't question. He didn't say you're doing the wrong things. You know, if you do this, you'll go to hell. You know, if you do this, you'll bring a curse upon yourself. He didn't do all that. He said, hey, you're a religious. But let me show you what it is that you have mentioned to an unknown God. Let me tell you what it is, right? Third one, he goes on to say verse 28, 17 verse 28. For in him, we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. This is powerful. I can just picture this, right? Apostle Paul has, you know, met with the people in Athens and they said, you come tomorrow and preach in the marketplace, in the Agora. Do you think he would have gone home and just sat around doing nothing, just looking here and there? I feel that he would have gone and read about the culture. And he's using their point of reference, their own writers, their own poets to bring about a truth, right? So what does he say here? As your own poets have said, we are his offspring. Now, see, Paul is telling the Greeks, see, I'm not saying your own poet is saying, we are his offspring, we are his children. So that means we are not born out of chance. We are his children. Your poet is saying, I'm not saying. Two, the Stoics are saying, we are, you know, we just come through a fire, the main fire and from that fire a spark and we've come into being. But your poet is saying, we are offspring. So what is happening now? If I am a Greek, I'm from Greece and I am a Stoic or an Epicurean, I'm thinking, oh, our own prophet, our own poet has said this. Our own poet has said, we are his offspring. Then I have to read about it. Then I have to understand it. Now, remember that in Athens, many people had many philosophies, many ideas. But the general regular congregation, people in the, people in living in the city, they just accepted everything. Whatever said, they've accepted. Whether they've done research or no, that is secondary. But okay, he's telling, so okay, good, accepted. Paul is, he's educating his own people, the people that are saying, your own poets, your own people have said, we are his offspring. So we are not come from the sun, from a fireball, nor have we come here by chance. We are his offspring. Right? So he let them know that the apostle Paul let them know that he's made an effort to let, to get to know them. Right? To get to know their belief system, to get to know their culture, to know their backgrounds. Now, if you and I, for example, are to minister to maybe a Mormon or a Jehovah's witness or a Muslim or a, or a Hindu, we must do our homework. Right? So if you have a friend who's a Muslim, what, what must you do? You have a point of reference, but you must read about what they believe in. What does their book say? What is their general teaching? So there's a bit of a homework that we must do. Right? Now, this may not sound like fun because you feel like sometimes, you know, Holy Spirit, you only minister to them and they become believers. That is nice. But there are some peoples like the, some people like people in Greece, who say you want to want a reason. What is the reason for me to believe in Jesus? Why should I believe? Right? Why should I let go of what I'm believing and believe in Jesus? So there must be some kind of reasoning. Right? And so if you're sharing, I want to encourage you, be prepared. Right? Be prepared both ways to the person from the other faith and in your faith. Be prepared to minister to them. Why? People will ask you. One, I was in, I think it was, what do you saw? I was there and we finished a worship session there. And then we were going into the sessions and one, one new believer, he asked me a simple question. Why do we worship? He's just become a believer, maybe a week old. He joined the short term Bible call is there. And he asked me, why do we worship in song? Simple question. Right? Well, what is the answer because we don't have any other thing to do? Because we know how to play guitar and keyboard. What is the answer? Because I know how to sing. What is the answer? Why do we worship? Okay. Okay. He's worthy. Yeah. He's commanded us to worship. Simple. He's told us worship him. Because he's worthy of worship. Three, it's not about our gift and talents. It's very less about that. That is given just to help us. I don't need a guitar. I don't need a keyboard. I don't need to sing in tune to worship God. Right? So if you feel that you don't know how to play an instrument, you don't know how to sing. Worship is not about that. Worship is about worshiping him in spirit and in truth. Right? So it's more about, it's not about, you know, just doing things just because I'm doing it. Right? It's about understanding why we are doing it. So we must be willing to give answers. Imagine, you know, when I was in Bible college, when we used to go to, when I was in Bible college, I used to lead at worship at the locations, either north, southeast, sometimes at central. And they would come and sometimes, you know, that time we were about 400 odd people, I think, 350, 400 people in church, especially at central. So after leading the worship at central, they will come and ask me, how does God minister to you during worship? How did God give you this word? Or how did God, how did you, you know, do this song? What was going through your mind? They'll ask you. What are you going to say? No, I just made a list of five songs. We practiced for two hours and we went and sang the songs. I was sharing in the second year today. There were times when, you know, 2014, 15, when I used to read at central, I used to read almost two, three Sundays because there were very few worship leaders during those times. So two Sundays would be central, some of the Sundays at the locations. And there's, we used to practice, we used to rehearse, right? So two hours of rehearsal. We had a full band, very tight set, right? So we'll finish a tight set. And many times I walked off the stage. I knew the set was really good, musically very tight. If you listen to it, it's wonderful. Everything, the guitars, the keyboards, the vocals, everything was perfect. But I walked out of that stage many times feeling empty. God, why am I feeling this way? Many times the Lord has ministered to me saying, because you prayed, I mean, you practiced and rehearsed for two hours. Very good. But you prayed only for half an hour. Rehearsal is important. Two hours is good. But you prayed only for over half an hour. Everyone came and said, oh brother, very nice worship. But in my heart, I was, God, something is wrong. I listened to the recording. Everything is nice. But my heart is still dry. I said, God, why am I feeling this way? Because I've done something out of just doing it. There was no, the root of it was not out of the spirit. You get what I'm saying, right? Many times, especially as pastors, and each one of you will get an opportunity to lead worship, preach. And over the years, it becomes a habit, right? You tell me, okay, preach for the next one hour. We can pick up a topic and preach. Is it out of the spirit? Right? So Paul here, he's helping us to understand that even as we reason with people, even as we understand, we must do our homework. We must spend time in prayer. We must ask God for wisdom. Right? Prayer is the basis of our ministry. Yes? See, we can depend on our gifts and our talents, but it will only take us to some place. Right? It is only prayer and character that can keep us there. How long can we depend on our gifts and talents? There will come somebody else better than us. What we'll do? Right? Imagine you're the, you know, you're the best worship leader in the church. And you know, okay, I'm the main worship leader, but suddenly somebody else will come. He plays all the instruments. What will you do? Oh God, now what am I going to do? That means what? Our identity, our strength is in our talents. It's supposed to be in God. Our identity is supposed to be in Christ. Right? And out of that flows everything else. Right? So whether people come who are much better than you, good. But what God has for you is for you. Right? I always used to tell, you know, 2011, 12, when I started leading at Central, I used to think, oh man, these guys are so good, very good musicians. And I didn't know this whole number system. They will say, okay, play four, play three. I'd be wondering, what is three? What is four? You know, you got the MD saying, MD is the music director. He tells everyone on the stage what to play. Right? Not always, but he directs the whole, he says, okay, play the three minor. Let's go to six, stay on the bridge. And you have to do the right thing. There's a click happening. And it's, I thought to myself, hey, these guys are so much better than me. I'm not supposed to be here leading the people in worship. But one thing I realized that if you don't depend on your gifts and talents, if God has something for you, nobody can take it away from you. Nobody. Nobody can say, no, you don't do this. If it's yours, it's yours. If it's God has it for you, it is yours. Nobody can take it. 2010, I was sitting in Central, looking there, I said, God, one day I want to lead worship. How many gods are new? Four gods. But when you depend on God and you trust God and God says, you can do it, you can do it. But why do you want to do it is the main reason. Yes? Do you want to do it because people say, hey, very good, nice worship. Or do you want to do it to glorify God? Right? And here, the Apostle Paul, he's sharing, he's just bringing out this whole understanding, not for his own gain. Not that people say, oh, Apostle Paul, you're greater than anyone else. His point was to bring people to Christ. That was his main intention. If you read going on, he says, he brings out the gospel. Verse 24, he says, before that he says, I'm going to reveal who this proclaim, who this God is. And then he begins to share the gospel. The God who made the world was 24 and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human beings or human hands. And he is not served by hands as if needed anything because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. See, the God that we are worshiping is not a God who can stay in your small temple. And he's not a God who needs your hands to do anything. He's the God who gave you life, who gave us life. He's proclaiming the gospel. Verse 26, from one man, he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. So powerful. So he's trying to make these two people the stoics and the Epicurans believe. Some of them said we are by chance. Some of them just here, but he's saying no. He created them. He's sticking to the point. He created each one of them and from one man, he made a nation and gives men life and the breath and everything else. He's talking about, you know, he's trying to relate to the fire becoming a spark. He's saying, no, he gave life. He gave breath to the people. Now the people are, you know, their minds are opening. It's a God who created me to be in this place, to be in Athens and to be here to listen to this message and he created breath in my life and that's why I'm living. Things are opening up, right? Then he goes on. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him though he's not far from each one of us. Again, you see the words he's using. What does the Epicuran believe? God is somewhere else far away. We are here, but here he's saying he did this and God is not far from us. He's touching the main points. He's hitting the nail on the head. Sharp points, right? Exactly what they believe. He's trying to bring out a defense for them, right? Therefore, since we are all gods of springs, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone or an image made by God's, by man's design or skill. In the past, God overlooked 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 a powerful way of bringing the gospel. If we just read this, without understanding the beliefs of Stoic, Stoicism and Epicurion, this will just be another passage, right? But when we understand the two belief system and how Paul is trying to relate the gospel to them, it's so powerful, right? He goes on, when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. Sneered means some of them said, what are you talking about? Man is born by chance, man will die by chance, and that's the end of it. We don't believe in resurrection. This is a new ideology. This is a new philosophy. Some of them sneered, which means they said, this is rubbish. This is nonsense. Probably they would have walked off. But some of them said, we want to hear you again on this subject. And at that, Paul left the council. Look at this verse. This is so exciting. Verse 34, He became followers of Paul and believed. Everyone say a few men. He shared the whole gospel. No, you don't have to repeat that. He shares the whole gospel. A few men believed Paul and that is where the church was planted. What does it say here? Became followers of Paul and believed them. Among them was Dionysus, a member of the Arropegas. And also a woman named Demaris and a number of others. A member of the council. Maybe he was a lawyer, or maybe he was somebody who was a judge. In the council of the Arropegas, there may have been hundreds of people, but the gospel touched him. He believed Paul. He believed in Jesus and he and another woman named Demaris and a number of others accepted Christ. How? No praying for anointing, no praying for healing, no praying for deliverance. He didn't go near them. Nothing. What did Paul do? He understood them and he reasoned with them. And that is how the church was planted. When you look later on, the church in Athens and Corinth and then later on the people, he goes into Corinth and starts there also. The churches in Asia Minor were thriving. These are the churches which began to flow in the gifts of the spirit. Prophecy, prophesying, word of knowledge, gift of healing, all started off with a simple, probably 10, 20 minute message that the Apostle gave. Now, what are the challenges we face? Somebody may come and say, hey, I'm gay. I'm a homosexual. But I still believe in Jesus. What are you going to say? How are you going to minister to them? Some may say, hey, I believe in Jesus, but I also believe in other gods. All gods are one. That's the most famous saying. All gods are one. How are you going to defend them? All gods are one. You be happy, I'm happy. If you don't give persecution, I won't give persecution. That's not what it is. We must be willing to give a defense in the right way. Understand them. What is the outcome? Some mocked. Some wanted to hear more and some believed in a highly religious and intellectual place. Paul was able to start a church. So, can we translate that? Can we be people? You'll have people in highly knowledgeable, highly intellectual people. Sometimes we stop. We think, oh, no, they are they know everything in computers. It's good for them. Or they may know everything in business. Very intellectual scientists. Doesn't matter. What did Paul do? Paul didn't bring up all their you know, all their achievements. He said, this is what y'all are and I understand where you're coming from. But let me tell you what I understood. Paul also was an intellectual. But he didn't put up his intellectual in a way that people were, you know, enticed or attracted to his intellectualism. They were attracted to Jesus. Paul said, the Bible says they believed in Paul and they believed what his message. What was his message? The Gospel. And so even we, when we get opportunities, you may be just going out. You may see somebody you know, who looks like a very big intellectual or a big businessman. Don't feel ashamed. Don't feel, oh, maybe I'll go to the slum only. You know, there's youth who don't know anything. I can go and talk to them. No. God has called us to understand and reason with everyone. Whether intellectual, whether the rich, whether the poor, everyone, me the Gospel. Is that okay? Right? So don't stop yourself. Now you may go back to your hometowns and you probably serving in the church. Don't feel, okay, this is a rich man or he's a politician, so I can't share with them. You share, but share with understanding and reasoning. Right? Again, very important. Do your homework. Don't just go and share. Spend time and prayer. Ask God to give you wisdom, to give you the right words. Right? The Holy Spirit gives the right word. He's the spirit of wisdom. Give you the right words at the right time. Prepare yourself. You see, Apostle Paul did that. Right? He prepared himself. Additional insights on how Paul ministered. He preached Christ and the work that he did on the cross to understand reason, but to remember reasoning alone cannot do it. We must depend on the work of the Holy Spirit. Science, wonders and miracles. Right? So your reason good, but that alone will not help. If they become believers, like what happened to these few people, good. But follow that up with the work of the Holy Spirit. You know, expect science, wonders and miracles and it's wonderful that the church in Asia minor, all churches in Asia minor are flowing in the gifts of the Spirit. Dutch and Ephesus, Philippi, Dutch and Corinth, they're all flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So we see that Paul didn't use reasoning as the basis of everything. Yes, he reasoned, but he also taught them on the work of the Holy Spirit. But he depended on the Holy Spirit. Another important point is do not get into meaningless arguments and debates. There will be times when people will try to argue and then there will be no meaning. They just go on but this is that, this is that. Avoid it. Can always stop and then say, hey, let's meet another time and discuss more on this. Right? So points to remember here while ministering to a Hindu the existence of sin and evil, we discussed this. You can talk about karma reincarnation leaves man as a victim of relentless cause and effect forgiveness contrasted with karma and reincarnation. So everything is no concept of total and free forgiveness. So this is one option where we can just tell them, hey, it's not about our works. Nothing that we do is going to please God, but it's only through what Jesus did for us. Christ contrasted with many avatars right? So you can look I want to encourage you to read this book Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zakariya. It's a wonderful book. Talks about Jesus, the uniqueness of who Jesus is. So you can bring out the uniqueness of Jesus, right? His his sinless, he's perfect he's one, he's sufficient. He's he's the one who did the perfect work for the salvation of entire human race and then there's nothing more. There's no one else who did miracles like he did. There's no one else who is resurrected from the dead. Nobody there's no human proof. Even if people are resurrected, they died again, but Jesus is resurrected. He lives forever right? And we can see the contrast there. Then we see that a loving God seeking a personal relationship contrasted with self effort. No other religion provides a personal relationship. All other religions, it's about God God is here, Father God is here and you are here there's a separation and we are trying to reach God but here in the message of the cross Jesus, God is trying to reach man and he does reach man right? And while speaking to a Muslim very important Muslims are unsure about their salvation. They say if God wills I will see him in paradise. I'll be there in heaven. If God wills, there's no assurance, but we have a wonderful assurance so you can bring out that aspect. Bring out or establish genuine friendship with people and three things that people would normally question whether Christ is Lord, whether he died on the cross, whether he rose from the dead. Now these are points that we must come up with reasons and good scriptures to minister to them. Talking about sin forgiveness the fatherhood of God and Christian life so there's many things that we can do now even as we get these opportunities make sure the opportunities that you get you use it the right way. Now initially there will be times when you feel oh I should have said this, I should have said that but I didn't. That's alright but continue to grow in this way of ministering to people for example you're in the pastoral calling you've got church or you're a leader in the church and people from other faiths come to church as a leader you must be willing to minister to them you must reason with them as I said you may be even a worship leader they'll come and ask you must be willing to reason willing to understand trust in God's word and focus them on the truth lead them to the truth and the truth will set them free give them time understand them reason with them that okay yes right so whenever you get opportunities just do that and I want to encourage you keep reading the book of Acts because he goes on from here to Corinth and he then goes on to Thessalonica and he begins to minister in different ways in these different places but in all these places a church was established and without these churches without these epistles there's so much that we would miss out right yes sorry no it's not here it's in the next chapter yeah yeah okay so thank you everyone for joining let's just close the word of prayer and then we close Father we want to thank you for this wonderful time Lord just to get together and learn your word and we thank you for this wonderful epistle Lord of even as we are learning and what the apostle Paul did of God I pray that you will enable each one of us to understand and reason and to minister with two people of God help us to be anointed and Lord to trust in you trust in your word and we pray God that you will empower us to do everything that you have called us to do fill us with your Holy Spirit of God and may your name be glorified in each of our lives we thank you for this wonderful opportunity you've given us Lord to serve you help us to serve you faithfully diligently to give you all the praise and glory in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you everyone God bless have a great week ahead I'll see you next week