 Chapter 19, we'll pick up at verse 21. We're going to go to the end of the chapter today. We'll begin at verse 21. I'll read verses 21, 22, get into our introduction and move into our study. Acts 19, verse 21. When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus. But he himself stayed in Asia for a time. I want to spend some time in my introduction looking at what Luke just wrote when he said, Paul purposed in the spirit. Paul purposed in the spirit. And so I'm going to give you a brief study concerning that. And I begin by saying ministry, all ministry is to be led by God's Holy Spirit. As we've been going through the book of Acts, we've seen how the Holy Spirit led the early church. We have seen how the early church had the discipline of being in the Word of God. And we saw how they had the discipline of prayer. And through the Word of God and through prayer, we've also been seeing how the Holy Spirit led them. In Acts chapter 16, for example, verses six and seven, it said, now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, notice they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Misia, they tried to go into Bethany, but the Spirit did not permit them. And so this gives to us insight into the work of the Spirit because they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit and not permitted by the Holy Spirit to go into certain areas. So we know from looking at those passages and what we're looking at tonight, the ministries to be accomplished by the guidance of the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Now in Romans chapter eight, verse 14, Paul said, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, as many as are led by the Spirit of God. And so it is the result of seeking the Lord and it's the results of looking at the Bible for examples, this ministry of the Spirit. It is not, ministry is not to be performed and this is important, hopefully this will make sense. It is not to be performed through the guidance of the plans or strategies of man. Our sin nature and our selfish ambition can actually quench what God wants to do. In Jeremiah 10, 23, we read, oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. There are a lot of people who wanna do ministry in their own flesh by their own will, by their own desires, by their own ambitions and all of that. And ministry that is gonna be blessed by God is not to be performed in that fashion. So what do you do? Well, you pray. It's through prayer and Bible reading and all that various ways and ideas are formed in our minds and what we do is we begin to say, I'd like to do this, I wonder if the Lord's in this and so you submit your plans to the Lord and you ask him for guidance. A Proverbs 16 verse nine says we can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps. And so what we do is we get into the word of God and we see what God had done and we say, well, Lord, it looks to me as if you do this kind of thing and you pray and you say, Lord, do you wanna do something like that now and the Holy Spirit has a way of guiding you and working in you. And that's how the Holy Spirit begins to lead you. Somebody says, well, how can we be guided by the spirit of God? How can that happen? Well, somebody said the spirit of God was sent by Jesus to strengthen and guide the true disciples of Christ and all who are born of this spirit are led and guided by him and none can pretend to be the children of God who are not thus guided. And so when you're born again, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. You begin to read the word of God, you go to church, you are taught, you learn to pray and you begin to look at the area that you live in or the area you desire to serve in and then you begin to ask the Lord, what would you have me to do? You did not place me into the body of Christ so that I can just grow fat and do nothing. What do you want me to do? What would you accomplish through me? And that comes through just reading the word in prayer, it comes through being taught, it comes through having fellowship and all. And so we want to be led by the spirit. To be led by the spirit includes fellowship with God, it includes intimacy with his word, it includes understanding, learning to understand the ways of the Lord. Those things come through teaching and reading, it comes through praying and meditating on his word and it comes through obeying him. It also comes from the unity amongst the leadership as they together are seeking the Lord. Remember in Acts 13 verses two and three, how it says, they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and solve for the work to which I have called them, then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent him away. And so it comes through being in the word, it comes through being into teaching, it comes through having a unity of spirit, it comes through having accountability, it comes from being self-disciplined, it comes through seeking the Lord, asking God, what would you have me to do? And that's how the Lord works. That's how the Lord does his work. You know, I was asking the Lord today, what example can I give concerning that? Because on the one hand, you know, as a pastor of this fellowship, I can honestly say this, every major thing that we've ever done that I can look back and see God blessed came through prayer, it came through seeking God, it came through waiting on Him, it came through so many basic things that I've been sharing with you right now, that's how it happened. And so I was thinking, you know, one example maybe that I can use is how we ended up here in the city of Chino. You know, because let's face it, Hawaiians aren't waking up today saying, man, I got to get to Chino for vacation. That's probably not happening today, but I don't know, maybe it is. I actually said that, I've said that more than once, and we had some Hawaiians who were visiting us, and they said, no, no, we wanted to be here today, but that's because they were crazy. But how did we end up here in Chino? And I wanna share a little bit with you to try and make this practical. Again, verse 21, when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit. That's an important thing that I wanna look at. So how did we end up here in Chino? How can we give a practical example of this? We actually began as a Bible study in Pomona that moved into the city of Ontario, and we'd been using a school for our Sunday morning services. And the principle of that particular school didn't want us there. So they began to make it difficult for us to remain in that school. They went on a demerit system. We used the children's classrooms and we rented them, and the teachers were given orders to look for anything out of order, anything that may have been disturbed or disrupted, and then to mark it down so that they could begin to log all of our infractions. And we've always had very servant-oriented people serving here in this ministry, and so they would actually clean the rooms up better than when they first occupied them. That was our people. I loved them for it. I'd love them to this day for that. They were very much that way, and they couldn't find many demerits. And so the next thing they did is they told us, you can't park your cars on our field anymore. So they had us parking in another lot across the street from the school, and this is when we were on Euclid. Euclid is a very busy street, most of you know, and traffic there goes 45 to 50 miles an hour if they feel like obeying the traffic laws. And several of our people over the course of the entire summer, many of them almost got hit by cars as they were walking across the street, bringing their children to go to church. So they were making it very difficult for us. And then at the end of the summer, they had said, we're gonna reseed our field and all. So that's why we don't want your cars parked there. At the end of the summer when they were supposed to reseed it, which is interesting, you never reseed to turn the summer. They never did reseed that lot. And so they became very obvious that they didn't want us there anymore. And so we began to seek the Lord. We said, well, Father, it seems that you've closed the door for us here in this location. So we began to pray and we began to seek the Lord for a new place. God, what would you do? And some property came up for sale that was on Maple Street there in the city of Ontario. It was a small piece of property, three and a half acres. It had a 9,000, a little less than 10,000 square foot building on it. It was a former preschool. And so we began to look into that property and we began to speak to the owner of the property and make a long story very short. Again, we're praying and seeking the Lord. And we say, God, can we have this place? Would you have us to have it? But we came up short. We didn't have enough money to purchase the property. The property was $780,000. And so we needed $180,000. I looked in my wallet. It wasn't there. And so we started thinking, what should we do? Perhaps the Lord is in this. Well, let me make this very long story into a shorter story. I am a person and have to say it like this. I don't like to ask people for anything. I just don't. But the spirit of the Lord began to speak to my heart and I kept resisting. And the spirit was saying, you should probably talk to Pastor Chuck. And I said, no, no, I will not do that. And I started wrestling because that sense was very real and it was going on for several days. You need to go speak to Pastor Chuck. So I was coming home. It was a Thursday, Thursday evening. And the spirit of God was wrestling with me. And I still remember coming into the house and going into the dining area. And the lights were off and Marie was in the kitchen where a good woman should be. And making noise with those pots. And pans and as I was in the dining room, I still remember this. I remember putting my head down and in the dark and just really down and Marie came walking from the kitchen and she said, what's wrong? And I said, the spirit of God is telling me to call to speak to Chuck and I don't want to. And so Marie said to me, whatever God says you need to do, she walks out and I said, oh, oh, the woman you gave me. And so I contacted a couple of my staff members. We went to Calvary Coastal Mason on a Thursday night. And I was wrestling with the Lord all the way and I told my two staff guys, I don't want to be doing this. We pulled into the parking lot. The Bible study was already over. We walked into the foyer and as I was standing there, the place was empty and a pastor named Romain, some of you may remember his name, Pastor Romain, Pastor Chuck's hatchet man came walking into the foyer and he says, what do you guys want? He was very polite and I said, I'm David Rosales. I'm pastor of Calvary, Ontario and these are two of my assistants and he looks at me and he says, I pity you. That was what he said. I said, thank you, I pity me too. He said, well, what do you want? I said, I came to see Chuck. I'd like to see Pastor Chuck. You just don't do that. The Bible study is over. The place was empty and I'm standing in the foyer and I want to talk to Chuck. He said, and what if he won't talk to you? It's a good question. I said, that's fine. I'm good with that. If he can see us, fine. If he can't, I'm good with that. He said, wait here. So he goes from the foyer to the back. Several minutes later, he walks back and he says, Chuck will talk to you. I said, great, thank you. So we go into the office, we're waiting. Pastor finally calls us in and how can I help you? And I said, listen, we have found some property, but we don't have the money for it. We're short $180,000. And Chuck looks at me and he says, that's nothing. And I looked at him and I said, to you, to you, but we don't have it. We don't have it. I said, Pastor, let me tell you something. The school that we are renting from, if I went to their board, would probably give to us alone. I said, but I don't want them to say that they have made Calvary Chapel rich. I don't want to say that. I said, so I came to you, to ask you. And Pastor looked at me and he said, let me think about it. A couple of days later or so, we got a phone call and we got the property because Pastor Chuck, since the Holy Spirit, moving him. And that was wonderful. So we stayed in that property for a while. Now that's in Ontario. But in 1990, we had outgrown the property. We were doing triple services. Legally with seat 427, we had 475 in there. And we had overflow. And so we had to start renting Ontario High School. It wasn't working. And so somebody in our fellowship approached me and said, there's a church for sale in Chino, this property here. And you ought to look into it. So we contacted the people who owned this property and said, we'd like to talk to you about the sale of your property. So we came and we met with the people who were occupying this church in Chino. And as I'm speaking to them and their pastor, the pastor says, you know, we weren't planning on selling this property, but maybe the spirit is telling us to. I said, well, maybe he is. Maybe he's telling you to give it to us. No, I didn't say that. Are you listening? Sinner man. So long story made short, they were very secretive, didn't want to give to us any information, no documents of any sort. I thought, well, the Lord is closed in the door. Did this, we'll leave it alone. So we stayed where we were. So that was around 89 and right around 90. I was in a meeting in Santa Ana and I encountered a friend of mine. His name is Dennis Davenport. He's the pastor of Calvary Chapel High Desert. And as I was speaking to Dennis, I asked him how things were going and his church had just purchased five acres of land. And I said, well, how large is your sanctuary? He says, we're gonna make 1,000 seats. Well, I started thinking, well, the Lord, we had about 2,000 members at that time and well, maybe what I'm thinking of is too small because the Ontario property, I came before the church and I said, we're going to build on this property. I thought that was our only option. So I told the church that. I said, we're gonna build on this property. We're gonna build a 1,000 square foot sanctuary. We purchased some property across the street from where we were at that time for parking. I said, and that's what we're going to do. And I remember when I shared with the church that it was dead silent. There was no response. And our church was real loud at that time. They would let you know if they agreed. It was quiet. So I said, you're so carnal. No, I said, well, maybe it's just the idea of moving from Ontario to China and this and that didn't think much of it because we had to do something. We'd outgrown the property and so now I'm speaking to Dennis and Dennis is sharing this with me and I start driving from Santa Ana back to Ontario and in the time that from I was leaving Santa Ana till I drove into the parking lot in Ontario, I still remember rolling into that parking lot convinced that we are not to buy, we're not to build on that property in Ontario. All of this was coming through not just prayer but agonizing prayer. God, what are you gonna do? Lord, what do you want to do? Not this, let's see. It was agonizing, seeking God, looking for guidance. We rolled in, I rolled in, I went into the office as I came into the office, one of my assistants approached me and said, Pastor Chuck just called you and wants to talk to you. So I went and called my pastor and he said, David, he said, there's a piece of property in Chino that is for sale. He said, they called me and asked but I told them they ought to talk to you. And so I said, what property would that be? It was this place here. And so one of my guys gave a call, we began once again to negotiate and it was $3 million to buy this property. So I went out to the church on a Sunday morning and I said, listen, this is what the Lord seems to be doing. And it's like a little over $3 million but I'll just stay at $3 million. And the church got all like, $3 million. I said, that's a lot of money. There's no doubt about that. If it was just you paying for it. If it was you alone, yeah. If you've got $3 million and you can buy that property, talk to me after church, but most of us, that's a large sum. So I wanted to help him to understand how possible it was for us to get this property. And so I said, listen, we've got 2,000 adults and if you divide 3 million by 2,000, the result is 1,500. If you divide 1,500 by 52, the answer is $28.85 a week. If we as a church were to think in terms of leaking by that cash, if we gave $28 a week as a church, that's when we had 2,000 members, I said, it's in the realm of possibility. Now the reason I did that wasn't to take a special offering or to convince people to give and I wasn't strong arming them. I was trying to see, help them to see, this is a community, we work together, it's not one person. That's all I was trying to do and so I shared that and I get a phone call from a dear friend of mine, Odin Fong, who was over the outreach fellowships and he says, Dave, I've got to ask you a question. I said, what is that? He says, are you telling people how much money to give so you can buy a piece of property? And I started laughing. I said, Odin, of course not. I said, all I'm trying to do is help them to see that it's possible. And so I don't mention those things and I'm not doing it now, by the way. That's just the facts, that's what happened as we got this place. And so I learned to just kind of just, just share what the Lord had held and just move on. And so never brought it up again, never tried to, in any way, we didn't even receive offerings at that time. We just had boxes in the back and the people gave to the Lord as they would. And so we ended up here. That's how we ended up here. I can multiply stories of how the Holy Spirit guides you. How he says, this is what you're to do. I can tell you that there are times that you learn by doing. I can tell you that you don't always hear him very clearly, that you step out in faith and you take one step and then you kind of wait for a moment. Perhaps the Lord's not in this and then he clarifies that he is and then you take another step. And we've been doing that here in this church for 36 years. That's how we started in a house. That's how we went to a small church. That's how we ended up in a school. That's how we ended up in another school. That's how we purchased our first piece of property. That's how we got Ontario High School. And that's how we came here. You seek the Lord. You ask him to guide you. You trust him. You step out. And then the Lord does his work. It's not just a ministry principle, of course, for purchasing properties. That was just an illustration just for that purpose, is to say, look, this is how he works with us. But that's what you do in life. That's what you do in life. You get into the word and you say, God, what do you want to do today? What do you want to do through me today? And then you open yourself up to that. You talk to friends. And you say, you know what, it seems to me that the Lord wants to do certain things. And your friend will say, you know what? Have you thought about, and then you work together and you go out and you see what the Lord can do. If you were to look back at when you first got saved, just look back at that. When you first got saved, and then how long you've been saved and all that he has done up to this point, you're gonna start discovering that he's been leading you all along. One step after another. One thing after another. And you look back and you say, look at all that he's accomplished just because he wanted to. And just because we were open to hearing him. Paul purposed in the Spirit. He sought the Lord. He asked God for direction and the Spirit of God led him. And so that's how we begin to learn how the Spirit leads us. Now, as we look at this moving on, in verse 21, he went to Macedonia, which is Andachea, which is northern and southern Greece. And he desires to go to Rome. And so, verse 22. So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time. So he continues his ministry and prepared for more ministry by sending two assistants. And they were to prepare the church in Corinth for Paul's visit. Now, Paul didn't want to appear harsh to the Corinthian church. And so he sent them there to prepare them. You can see this in 1 Corinthians 417, where he says, for this reason I have sent to you, Timothy, my son, who my love, who is faithful in the Lord, he will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. And so he speaks of Timothy and he speaks of Erastus. Now, Erastus may have been the city treasurer of the city of Corinth. In verses 23 through 28, about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. He called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship. Now, when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out saying, greatest Diana of the Ephesians. So notice with me and we'll look at this for a moment. There's a great commotion about notice, the way. The way I mentioned to you, the way is how Christianity was originally referred to. And the phrase, the way to describe Christianity in the book of Acts is used something like six times. You see it in chapter nine, verse two, chapter 19, verse nine and verse 23, chapter 24, verse 14, as well as verse 22 in here. And it is, and I wanna develop this with you for me for a minute, it is the way, it isn't a way. Now that's really important and I'll take a moment to share with you about that. You are followers of the way. Jesus Christ didn't say he was one of the ways. He didn't say that. He didn't say, well, you know, there are various ways to God, all roads lead to God. Jesus never said that. There's a certain truth to the fact that all religions lead to God. There's a certain truth to that, meaning that everybody will stand before him. But there's only one way that God gave to man to have relationship with God and that comes through Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life. So he is not a way, he is the way. And that's why he's referred to as the way and they were followers of the way, not one of the ways, one of the many ways, it is the way. You see, Jesus's message is exclusive and the Lord calls us to hold fast to him completely. Christianity is not one of life's choices that give to you opportunity in the future to make another choice. When you come to Christ, you come completely and fully to him. You commit yourself to him completely in a way that if you had fallen off of a ship into the water and someone is trying to reach you to pull you out to save you, you don't leave half of your body in the water, especially if there's a shark waiting. You want to get completely out of the water and you want to get into the ship completely. You don't want the ship to drag you halfway to shore for another 2,000 miles. You want to get out and you want to be saved. You don't want to be in this anymore. You want to be out of it. And when you got saved, that's what happened. A lot of people don't understand that today though. Have you noticed that? A lot of people don't. A lot of people think that Christianity or being a Christian is just one of the many things that I add to the hat or the lifestyle that I've chosen to live. Jesus never gave us that option. Pick up your cross daily and follow me, he said. You have to love me more than you love your mom, your dad, your wife, everybody else. You make me your number one in your chief love in life. I'm not giving you options to follow me and Mouda and someday when Muhammad shows on the scene and you can follow him, it's all, no. Jesus never said that. See, that's what gets us in trouble. If you and I, if we were just religious, if we were just trying to be nice people, you'd be awarded. They would like you. But when you say no, I'm sorry. The reason that I am what I am is because Jesus Christ, he took me out of the Myrie clay and he planted my feet solidly on solid ground and I'm born again now. I'm saved, my life has transformed. I'm a born again Christian. You're a what? You're an evangelical fundamentalist. You ignorant hillbilly. You know, and that's how people think, that's a fact. That's how they look at us. And that's true and you know that. You know what? Keep your Christianity to yourself. Don't be so serious about it. You've gone overboard. You're kind of crazy, aren't you? You remind me of those crazy fanatic Muslims and all of that. And you've heard it, I've heard it. Those who don't know the Lord get greatly offended. I understand to a degree the climate today and our culture and all how everything's okay. But the fact is we're not followers of some way. We are followers of the way. And according to Titus chapter two, verses 11 and 12, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. In 2 Corinthians in chapter six verses 17 and 18, Paul said, therefore, come out from among them, be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you. You shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Come out of one thing and come to me. That's what scripture says and that's what we are. And so the followers of the way were those who were following Jesus Christ and his exclusive message. And so they're getting upset, they're getting uptight about this because these followers of the way have shown up and now they're creating some tension for these people. Well, it says in verse 24, a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. And so he called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, you know, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but throughout almost all Asia, this fall has persuaded, noticed and turned away many people saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. And so he's very offended and very upset. He goes on in verse 27. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship. Diana, Diana was the Ephesian goddess of nature. She was the goddess of fertility. She was also the goddess of the hunt as well as animals. She was represented by an idol with 20 breasts. It must have been tough to buy a bra. Representing her as the goddess of childbirth. Her temple in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was her chief shrine. I've been to Ephesus more than once. And they still have figurines that were dug up by archeologists or those profession, those who were digging around Ephesus and they sell them to you. They can sell them to you if you're into antiquities or you can buy replicas of these multilegues. They were multi-breasted goddesses. So they were worshiping her because she was the quote unquote goddess of childbirth. She was the goddess of fertility. And so when they worshiped her, her worship consisted of animal sacrifices as well as temple prostitution because she was a goddess of fertility. And so she had prostitutes who would service the worshipers. This Demetrius was one who sold silver shrines. A shrine is a portable sacred dwelling place. It's been called the mobile home for the gods. And the pilgrims would buy them and they would carry these shrines home or they would bury them in graves, assuring themselves of Diana's constant presence in life as well as death. So these shrines were a symbol. They were regarded as a dwelling place. They could also be regarded as like a deity because the idols became recipients of adoration, not for themselves alone, but for the deity that they housed and represented. And so people would venerate these idols. The Bible makes it very clear in the book of Exodus that idolatry is forbidden. In Exodus 21 through five, it says, God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. God forbids the practice of idolatry. And so Paul had been preaching and was saying the truth. He said in verse 26, they are not gods which are made with hands. Well, Demetrius had called these people together. They were workers of similar occupation. And he was basically saying, we are losing our wealth. What he's doing is exploiting the religious sentiment of people because they actually made themselves wealthy because of people's superstition. So his real religious sentiment seems to be non-existent. His real concern was our pocket books have been touched. He says in verse 26, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that they are not gods which are made by hands. It's interesting and I'll say this quickly. Demetrius apparently understood what Paul was saying. Paul was saying idols are not gods. That's what he's saying. Idles are not gods. It seems that Demetrius at least on the surface is understanding what he's saying. One of the things, and I'll say this fairly briefly about idolatry that you might find interesting is in matters of worship, you ultimately become like what you worship. Do you realize that? You actually become like what you worship. The one that impacts you is the one that you begin to structure your life after. In the Jewish religion, I'll give you this example, they had what are called, what we would today refer to as mentors. Jesus was a rabbi and what Jesus would do is he would have people who followed after him. And as they followed after Jesus, they were intending to learn his message. They wanted to learn how he presented his message. They wanted to learn methodologies of ministry and they would follow and attach themselves to a rabbi and then ultimately the goal of that rabbi was to reproduce himself in his follower that was mentoring. You see this in Matthew 10 verses 24 and 25. Jesus said, a disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. He went on to say it is enough for a disciple that he'd be like his teacher and a servant, like his master. And so that's what Jesus is referring to there is the fact that the rabbis would mentor their people. Listen, I've been in Israel, I'll give you an example. I was with Pastor Chuck Smith in Israel. We were at the Western Wall. And when you're at the Western Wall, there's like a barrier and if you're gonna go in there, you have to go in through a certain area and they'll give you a hat if you don't have one and you can approach it, you can go in. But sometimes you might just stand outside looking at those who are putting their prayer requests into the rock. There are areas that you'll just slide a prayer request in and you see people praying. And I was standing next to Chuck because I was watching these Jewish young men and some of them were standing with feet together and they were bowing forward. It was like they were doing sit-up standing up. That's how fast they were going. And I'm watching them and they're doing this. Then I look over here and they're going side to side. Some are going side to side. And I'm watching this and I turned to Pastor Chuck and I said, this was the first time I was ever in Israel, I said to Chuck, what are they doing, Chuck? He said they learned to pray from their rabbi. And the rabbi instructed and taught them to worship the Lord their God with all their strength. So as they're standing there and they're praying and moving, he said, some rabbis taught them it's better to move back and forth, others side to side. And you'll see a variety. That's what Jesus is speaking about because they would learn their religious practice by watching their rabbi. And Jesus was saying when the person was fully discipled that he would be like his master. And then from that point, they were to go out and disciple others themselves. And that's what Second Timothy chapter two, verse two speaks about when Paul is saying that the things that you've learned entrust them to faithful men who will entrust it to faithful men. And that's how it works, you see? And so whatever it is that you worship and whatever is your desire, you're gonna model yourself after. When you become a Christian, then you begin to want to be like him. And so that's where the word Christlikeness comes in. That's where the word godly comes in. That's where the word holy comes in. It's because you're like Christ, you're a godly person, you walk in holiness. You see, those are the things that are earmarks. But on the other hand, listen to what Psalm 115 says. Verses four through eight. Their idols are silver and gold. The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses they have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle. Feet they have, but they do not walk. Nor do they mutter through their throat. Then he says, those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them. Isn't that powerful? It is powerful. Those who make them are like them. What are you saying? You have eyes, but you don't see. You have ears, but you don't hear. You have a nose, but you don't have sense of smell. You have a mouth, but you can't speak. You got feet, but you can't walk. You got to have hands, but you can't feel. Why? Because you've been worshiping a lifeless idol that did not bring you to faith in the true and the living God. And so when Paul was going through these Gentile lands, he would say it, these are not gods that are made with human hands, which is absolutely true. Well, Demetrius was like one of his idols. He had no spiritual eyes and no spiritual ears. He wouldn't hear the gospel. He couldn't see Jesus. He refused to do so. He was in spiritual bondage and he was resisting the message. Well, as this is taking place, verse 28. Now, when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Some therefore cried one thing and another and some another, the assembly was confused and most of them didn't know why they had come together. And so there's a riot that is taking place here. They're filled with wrath, they're crying out, great is Diana of the Ephesians. There's this angry uproar and they're crying without ceasing and this angry response is something that Paul has been encountering in his ministry. Remember in chapter 13, verse 50, how it speaks of Paul and Barnabas being persecuted in Pasidian Antioch or chapter 14, verses five and six, how a violent attempt was made against Paul in Iconium and in Acts 14, 19, how he got stoned in Lystra. In chapter 16, we saw Paul cast a demon out of a fortune telling young woman and the anger that erupted and how that the crowd had seized Paul and Silas, beaten them and put them in jail. It's becoming very common. So the whole city here, according to verse 29, is filled with confusion. And what they do is they rush into the theater. So the temple was by the theater. The uproar had attracted attention and the numbers were growing and they were angry and they rushed into this theater and won a court. So again, the temple was next to the theater, that theater, I've been in that theater, the theater has been reconstructed. It seats 25,000 people. That's how huge this theater was. It is used today for concerts as well as plays and things like that. So as all of this uproar is taking place, they take Gaius and Aristarchus and they drag them into that theater. Well, when Paul sees this, this shows you the courage of the apostle Paul and his shepherd's heart. He wants to go and rescue them. He sees that they're going to be taken and possibly greatly harmed and so he wants to get them out of danger. He had this attitude of laying down his life and that's what he was about to do and he's willing to do it. But according to verse 31, some of the officials of Asia who were his friends pled with him and said, don't do that. They respected Paul apparently and they respected his courage and they're working and saying, please don't do that. Now what's interesting to me, and this is so true and I'll talk for a moment about this, in verse 32, some therefore cried one thing, some another. The assembly was confused. Look at this line. Most of them did not know why they had come together. It's kind of like a church service. Sometimes I see these men on the street interviews. I don't know if you guys ever see them where they'll ask questions. You're here really upset, you're protesting. Yeah. What are you so mad at? A lot of them will just kind of, and they'll say some mindless thing. It happens all the time. So what do you protest, what are you angry about? Well, this is almost a funny thing. And some said, one of the commentators said, this is insight into the humor of Luke. Most of them didn't know why they had come together. And that's true. You know, people will follow somebody if that person seems to be confident. Have you seen that? They will, if that person seems to be confident, they follow him. In 1975, ancient history, ready, here's the story. I was in Austria with a friend of mine named Nick. Nicky and I backpacked through Europe for three months. And we were in Austria. It was late at night and we were in a train station. And there was a long line of people who were waiting to board the train. And then there was a car that was right next to it, a train car next to it, but the lights weren't on in that car. The lights were on in the car that people had lined up to get into. And we were way back in the line, my friend Nicky and I. Nicky had just gotten his master's degree out of Pepperdine University. And he's a psychology major. So he said, follow me. So I did. What he did is he just stepped out of line. I'm telling you, it's a long line. He steps out of line and goes and makes a new line. He just stands in front of this empty car. And I stood behind him. The people in this line started looking around and they got out of line and got behind us. So we got this whole big line and this line over here lost at least half of the people, at least half. Then Nicky says, follow me. And we go walking back and got in the line. And all these, in that cruel, it's so cruel. And all these people stayed in that line and then a conductor came up and told them in German, you can't get into that car. We're not using it. Then they all, speaking cuss words in German. And they got behind us. I laughed so hard. And Nicky told me that. He said, Dave, he says, it's been demonstrated study after study, that if you act confidently, he said, people will line up right behind you even if you don't know where you're going. That's true. When you see that here, that's what's taking place. They're all upset and they're all uptight and they're confused. Most of them don't even know why they've come together. But whatever it is, it's time for a riot. In verse 33, they drew Alexander out of the multitude. The Jews putting him forward. Alexander motioned with his hand, wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. When the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus. Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet. Do nothing rashly. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open. And there are pro-consuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly for we are in danger of being called in question for today's uproar. There being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. So the city clerk quiets down this crowd. He begins, notice, everybody knows how devoted we are to Diana, calm down. This one appears, by the way, to be more fair-minded and even tolerant of Christians. He says in verse 37, you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples. In other words, why are you reacting so violently? They've done nothing other than disagree verbally with your beliefs. They aren't robbing your temples nor are they speaking directly against Diana. It's interesting how he says your goddess, by the way, did you notice that? Not our goddess. And he goes on to say, listen, if you have a case, bring it before the judges. Deal with it in that way because we are in danger of being called into question for today's uproar. One of the things I like about this, and we'll close with this, two things. One, is the point that he's making then is a point that could be made today. Because what's taking place then takes place in a variety of places today. We see it often in college campuses when somebody who has an opposing view wants to come and have opportunity to present a different view than many times, and we've seen it in colleges in New York and colleges in California, like Berkeley and all, where the students refuse to listen to what's being said. They don't wanna hear it. And that attitude that we have today is a similar attitude that was in existence then. He hasn't attacked you. He isn't robbing your temple, and he hasn't specifically said anything negative about Diana. Why are you so upset and you don't wanna hear an opposing view? And we're seeing more and more of that today. But the second thing that I like about him is what he's doing took wisdom. In Proverbs 15, verse one, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. One of the things that you learn from this man's approach is the soft answer. If there's anything that we ought to be careful not to be, is we ought to be careful not to be belligerent and pugnacious. There's hardly anything as unattractive as an angry Christian. Hardly anything. I think there are times for us, by the way, to have a righteous anger. Of course, there are things that ought to provoke us and say within ourselves, this is wrong and it must change. I'm not saying that we should placidly and quietly just accept everything. No, I'm not saying that. But at the same time, I think we'd all agree that there's hardly anything as unattractive as a bullying Christian who is obnoxiously, arrogantly having to make their point. It's just very unattractive. I get Facebook posts and comments quite often. I was just referred to as the pastor of the church of Lyre de Silla, because I'm a liar. I thought that was funny. But you're a liar to see in. You're stealing money from people. Stop stealing from my friends. Get a job. Paul had a job. How do you deal with those things? Do you want to fight everybody who insults you? Do you want to argue and make your case? Or do you smile at them and ask God to kill them? No, why? What do you do? When I received a call and the person who called me said, you know, this was posted about you. Have you read it? I said, yeah, yeah. I'm so angry about this. I laughed. I said, you know, on the surface I laughed not because the person isn't to be pitied, should be pitied, of course, with compassion, but what are you gonna do every time somebody says something about you? You're gonna fight them? You're gonna argue with them? You're gonna prove your point? You're gonna say, you're gonna tell them, I'll love you and I'll kill you at the same time? How's that work? How's that work? So a long time ago, I realized that either you fight your own battles, and there are times, by the way, when I think we need to give a defense. We'll see that with Paul. Your attitudes, everything. But under most circumstances, either you fight your own battle or you hand the battle over to the Lord because the battle is the Lord's. If you're innocent, that's all you need to know. That's all you need to know. I didn't do that. I didn't say that. There will always be people who will believe the worst about you. They want to. They will believe it. What are you gonna do? Fight them all, argue with them all. What are you gonna do? There have been times when people have said things that were unkind or unfair or untrue. And I will say, well, you've got your facts wrong. But I asked the Lord a long time ago, teach me to guard my heart against being angry at people. Help me not to be vindictive and angry because there's hardly anything less attractive than an angry Christian. And there's hardly anything as unattractive as an angry pastor. So Lord, teach me to have a kind word. A soft answer turns away wrath. Grievous words stir up anger. Teach me to have a quiet heart, a soft answer because that can actually produce glory because the wrath of man does not produce the glory of God just doesn't. So let us be careful with this and learn from this man. It's not that he was a Christian. It's obvious that he wasn't unfair also. And he did the right thing, quieted down that crowd and it ended.