Unbreakable Joy: Paul's Power-Packed Preaching

Monday, January 12, 2009

Paul's Power-Packed Preaching

Check out this excerpt from one of Paul's powerful messages and consider what he is doing with these words. The verses below fall in the middle of the sermon (of which the notes range from verse 22-31). Note the subject and substance of this message.

Acts 17:24-25
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

In these two brief verses Paul packs in (at least) 10 things about God that I can see on the surface of the text:

1) The God (not a god, or some god, or any god, but "The God")
2)___who made the world
3)___and everything in it,
4)_____being Lord of heaven and earth,
5)_________does not live in temples made by man,

6) nor is he served by human hands,
7)___as though he needed anything,
8)______since he himself gives to all mankind life
9)_________and breath
10)________and everything.

The rest of the sermon reveals additional things about God as well as the responsibility of mankind to seek Him and to repent. It is interesting to consider the God-centeredness of Paul's message and the not-so-God-centeredness of so many messages / sudo-sermons which permeate our culture.

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Noteworthy Quotes:

Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly so worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.

- Augustine

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.
- George Mueller

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.
- Blaise Pascal

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
- C. S. Lewis

He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.
- Augustine

The men of this world are children. Offer a child an apple or a bank note, and he will doubtless choose the apple.
- John Newton

In the end the heart longs not for any of God's good gifts, but for God Himself. To see Him and know Him and be in His presence is the soul's final feast. Beyond this there is no quest. Words fail. We call it pleasure, joy, delight. But these are weak pointers to the unspeakable experience.
- John Piper

God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Him, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

- C.S. Lewis

It is well that we accept the hard truth now: The man who would know God must give time to Him. He must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance. He must give himself to meditation and prayer hours on end. So did the saints of old, the glorious company of the apostles, the Godly fellowship of the prophets and the believing members of the holy church in all generations. And so must we if we would follow in their train.
- A.W. Tozer

If God contains the fullness of all good things in Himself like an inexhaustible fountain, nothing beyond him is to be sought by those who strike after the highest good and all the elements of happiness.
- John Calvin

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
- John Piper

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
- Jim Elliot

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
- C.S. Lewis

A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, a spiritual man is hard on himself and easy on others.

- A. W. Tozer

God glorifies Himself toward the creature in two ways; by appearing to their understanding, and in communicating Himself to thief hearts and their rejoicing in and delighting in Him, and enjoying manifestations He makes of Himself. God is Glorified not only by His glories being seen, but by it’s being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that he might communicate and the creature receive His glory, and that it might be received both by the mind and the heart. He that testifies His idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.
- Jonathan Edwards