Standing Out from the Mob

[00:00:00] All right, let's get our Bible turned to the Book of Acts, chapter 19. [00:00:05] Acts, chapter 19. [00:00:08] Lord willing, we will finish up Acts chapter 19 today, and then we will be in chapter 20, which was the, you might say, the home stretch of the Book of Acts, chapter 19. We will begin reading in verse number 21. [00:00:31] Acts 19, verse 21. [00:00:36] The Bible says this, after these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Acaiah to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. And he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus. But he himself stayed in Asia for a season. [00:01:04] At the same time, there arose no small stir about that way, for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsman, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, ye see in here that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands, so that not only this, our craft is in danger to be said at naught, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth. [00:01:57] And when they heard these things, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered them not, suffered him not. Rather, verse 31. And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him, that he would not adventure himself into the theater. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. [00:02:40] And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defense unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of 2 hours cried out, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter. Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these men which are neither robbers of churches nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies. Let them implead one another. But if ye inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly, for we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar. [00:03:49] There being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. Let's pray together. Our Lord, thank you again for the time to look at your word, to gather together as the people of God. Lord, we look to your word with expectation, with desire, Lord, that your word would really work us over, Lord, and give us the things that we need, and that it would be the effectual working of your power in us. [00:04:19] And, Lord, no matter what. Whether we. No matter what the subject is that we look at this morning from your word. I pray that it would not leave us the same way in which we came. [00:04:30] Lord, we pray that you would speak to us and that you would give us instruction and help us to learn more about you and about your ways. [00:04:41] And, Lord, I pray that you would help each one of our hearts to be inclined to what you have said in the scriptures. And, Lord, help me to say the right things with the right intent, motive, and attitude and tone to your people that they might be strengthened and helped, Lord. And so, Lord, I pray your truth would be evident and clear this morning, for we commit this time to you. In Jesus name. Amen. [00:05:06] This is one of only two examples of persecution up to this point, at least two examples of persecution that came upon Paul from non jewish people up to this point in the book of Acts. That's very interesting, because, of course, Paul everywhere, he. The. They were hounding him, they were nagging him, bothering him, oppressing him. But it was almost always his own people, the jewish people, who had set themselves against the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, we know that Paul was stoned at Lystra, but that was, I believe, one of the cases in which there was persecution. [00:05:50] But this is not generally the common with Paul's ministry, that the non jewish people. Now you might ask, why do you point out that they're Jews and non Jews? Because, remember, Paul himself was the Jew of the Jew, the Hebrew. Of the Hebrews, he was a pharisee. He was one who was in that faith and in that religion with all of his heart. And he turned from that, not from the scripture, but turned from the form of religion to Christ. Once he understood that Jesus, who Jesus was. And as a result, wherever he went, the Jews, there was always a group of Jews that believed in Christ and saw from the scripture that Christ was, that Jesus was the Christ. And then there were always a group of Jews that followed him around and persecuted him as well. That's why I bring that up. [00:06:40] And so this event here did not come of the Jews. In fact, the Jews were almost victims. You see Alexander being mentioned in verse number 33. So I'll get more into that in just a minute. But this man, Demetrius, comes up in verse 24. Demetrius, he was a silversmith. Now, if you're not familiar with what a smith is, an iron smith, a copper smith, is someone who works in that metal to make implements of that metal. In this case, he was making. Demetrius was a silversmith who, his business, his wealth was built upon the industry of making basically idols. And from what we read in history, these were not like large idols like you might imagine, like in temples in many places in the world. As it's also true in Cambodia, they would make little representations of the big idol. Like, for instance, if you went into a buddhist temple, begota, and you went into the main temple where the idol was housed and set up, you would see, of course, the big one, it's 1015 20ft tall or whatever. But then you would also see people around their neck wearing little Buddhas. And those are made of different things. And in Thailand they like to put them. How many of you have been to, has anybody been to Thailand here? Okay, except my family. [00:08:10] Yeah, brother Stewart's been to Thailand. But in Thailand, the taxis, they love to put little Buddhas inside the taxis on the dash. So instead of having a bobblehead, they have a little Buddha. [00:08:21] But these people were into making that. And when you make little things that everybody wears around their necks, some people say that this riot, that the theater in which they went would hold 25,000 people. [00:08:36] 25,000. I don't know how many people were in this riot. I imagine it was a lot of people. But imagine if you made a little silver God that people hang around their neck and you sold it for, I don't know, $150 a pop, 25,000 of them. That's a lot of money. I mean, you could make a living doing that. That's exactly what they did. [00:09:01] Now, in two Timothy, chapter four, verse 14 and 15, say this Alexander the Coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou? Where Paul speaking to Timothy be thou wear also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. What's interesting is you have Demetrius the silversmith, and you have Alexander the coppersmith, both of whom are opponents of the gospel. And I'm starting to see a pattern here. People that work with metal, especially more valuable metal, are the same ones who are causing Paul trouble. [00:09:40] Could it be that it's all related to the fact of what they were making? [00:09:46] But anyway, let's go back to verse number 24. The end of the verse says that he brought Demetrius. That is, brought no small gain unto the craftsman. [00:09:59] Verse 25 says, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth. So in verse 24, you have no small gain. Verse 25, our wealth. Verse 27 says this and that. Not only this, our craft is in danger. [00:10:20] Notice that. Now, as you look at this riot, what is the source of this riot? In other words, Demetrius, he goes to the craftsman. Demetrius makes an observation about maybe his sales. He's looking at his p. L. From the previous quarter, and he noticed the trend line's kind of going down. [00:10:43] And Demetrius is like, all right, something's got to be done here. [00:10:48] And he blames Paul. And the truth is, Paul was probably to blame. [00:10:53] And so he goes to the craftsman, as they might say, the craftsman's guild, and he talks to them, and he says, hey, look, this is the problem. [00:11:01] Paul's the problem here. [00:11:04] Verse 28. [00:11:06] And when they heard these things, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And then verse 20. So that's verse 28 is the craftsman. Verse 29 it says, and the whole city was filled with confusion. So this problem kind of starts to ripple out. [00:11:22] But I want to ask you a question. What was the original motive? [00:11:30] Money. [00:11:36] Demetrius got the craftsmen together. Demetrius is causing this problem. [00:11:42] Demetrius all the way down to verse 28. Demetrius and the craftsman. Now, to be honest with you, you see an ugly character in Demetrius, because what you see in Demetrius is this man is just a. He's just. He's just a covetous, wicked man. He is concerned with his. With his money, and that has his only concern. You see the craftsman in verse 27. He talks about our craft, that is, our wealth, as well as the great goddess Diana. Then you get down to verse number 29 and the multitude. That is all. The citizens of Ephesus, they don't say anything about money at all. All they're talking about is Diana. [00:12:22] There's a progression there. [00:12:25] Did you know in the scripture there is a strong connection? And I'm not just talking about here, but in many places in the Bible, made between lucre, money, and religion. [00:12:40] How many of you have observed this connection in our world today? [00:12:45] A connection between money and religion? Money and religion. And so I say this, looking at Demetrius and having read the story, it's no wonder that these men of this craftsman's guild, as it might be called, it's no wonder that these men were so devoted to Diana and her worship. [00:13:07] That's not remarkable. After all, their wealth is connected to their worship, right? Of course they're devoted to Diana. They're being enriched by the worship of Diana. And of course they're going to be evangelists for Diana, because more and more people that worship Diana, it means a higher and higher line on their profit and loss sheet. [00:13:34] Now, here's what I want you to understand, and the principle that I'm pointing out here is something that exists in every religion, okay? The connection between money, the love of money, and religion. It is there. It is there. Now I'm going to say something. Hear me out. [00:13:56] The only place where that is not found is in Bible Christianity. [00:14:04] Notice I make a distinction, because Christianity is rife with this kind of stuff, too, is it not? [00:14:10] Bible Christianity? Here's what I mean. [00:14:14] What animated the religious fervor, the excitement of Demetrius and the craftsman, what animated them and what urged them on was not the truth of Diana. This goddess, what animated and motivated all of that was money, was greenbacks. [00:14:40] It was to such a degree that the line between religion and finances was indiscernible. [00:14:51] Of course, he would say, if you ask Demetrius, you say, why do you do what you do with Diana? Well, Diana's great. She's wonderful. But there was a component of money kind of under the surface that was motivating everything and just mark it down. Listen, I don't care. I don't care if you're talking about religions in general. I don't care if you're talking about non religious people. I don't care if you're talking about a person that comes to this church. I don't care if you're talking about a missionary. I don't care who you're talking about. If money is motivating that person, especially, of course, money motivates all of you. All of us. Money motivates us to some degree, does it not, with our mean. You don't work at Dr. Humanick's office for fun, do you? [00:15:38] Money motivates us in the way to provide for our family. But in matters of faith, wherever money is a motivator, there's wickedness in tow. Wherever money is a motivator, there's wickedness in tow. And that includes, that's everybody. And sometimes I meet missionary. We're having a missions conference. I've been a missionary. I know what that's like. And oftentimes money drives missionaries. They're trying to get in the more sport, more sport and more sport. And it's always kind of veiled as we're just trying to do the will of God. But hold on. Wherever money is the motivator and only God knows the motives here, there's bad stuff in its wake. This is a scriptural know. In Cambodia, when we were missionaries, we saw there were entire industries that had been established to support the various budhist and animus practices. I mean, there were people that made incense and there were people that made, of course, the idols. There were people that sold fruit in certain ways so that it could be an offering given to various spirits or taken to the temple. There were people that created flowers for that purpose. There were people who sold fruit. There were people who took pigs and roasted pigs for the chinese aspects of the cambodian society. When they did offerings for their ancestors, there were people who built stupas for their ancestors ashes. And there's on and on and on. There was all kinds of industries that were established upon the faith of Buddhism. Of course, they're going to be fervent Buddhists. [00:17:19] Their wallet demands it. [00:17:23] Now, if you would hold your place here and look at job chapter one, there is a listen. Now, if you're familiar with the scripture, you know that the Lord Jesus called money. How did he refer to money? Unrighteous mammon. It's also called what? Filthy lucre. How many of you have money in your pocket? [00:17:49] Okay, some of you don't have pockets and some of you don't carry cash like me, but I don't have any cash. [00:17:56] It is not a sin to have money. Okay, let's just clear the air. It's not a sin to have money. [00:18:01] We're not preaching a vowel of poverty or anything like that. But there is a reason why our Lord called it unrighteous mammon and filthy lucre because it is often dirty. [00:18:14] And we all must be very careful in our handling of money to make sure that we keep it just perfectly in the middle of the will of God and not let it ever be a motivation for us in the matters of our walk with God. [00:18:31] Job one, verse nine. Look at what it says. This is the devil coming around. I want to show you something the devil recognized. Job one, verse nine. Then Satan, he goes to God now to get permission to touch Job's life. Verse nine says, then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth job fear God for not? In other words, the devil, knowing mankind, very clearly says this. [00:18:59] Do people serve God for nothing, or is there a benefit? [00:19:06] That's an interesting observation, is it not? [00:19:10] Verse ten says, hast not thou made in hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the works of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. So what's the devil implying? The devil's implying. The reason job is devoted to God is because of the prophet. [00:19:28] This is no different than Demetrius, is it not? And in fact, this is an interesting observation of the devil that would apply to Demetrius. The reason why Demetrius is so dedicated to Diana of the Ephesians is because look at all the money he's making from it. This is a legitimate observation. [00:19:48] Verse eleven says this. The devil says, but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. Let me ask you a question. Did Job do that? [00:20:02] Even after the Lord allowed every material thing, he had to vanish, even his own health, and even having been subjected to the temptation by his own wife to curse God? Who do you think was behind that temptation to put those words in her mouth? Her, no doubt she herself was in anguish over the loss of her children, right? But that temptation did not come of her own heart. No, it was put there by the devil as a wager, part of his wager. [00:20:35] But Job never cursed God. [00:20:39] Even though everything he had, every profit he had was taken away, all of his substance was gone. You know what that demonstrates about Job? What does it demonstrate? That job's devotion to God was real. [00:20:51] It was sincere. Because when it was put to the test and that suspective motive was tried, it was found to be pure and right in the sight of God. [00:21:03] Now listen to these verses here. [00:21:05] Titus one, verse eleven, says this, speaking of false teachers whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. Job one, verse eleven, or jude, rather, verse eleven, woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balam for reward, and perished in the gang, saying of Corey two Peter 215 listen to this, which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balam, the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. You think of Balam. You know the things that Balam did. He was willing to serve God as long as it profited him. [00:21:48] Now set that now this truth about mankind, that they are devoted to their faith as long as it profits them. [00:22:00] This is what's being set forth. [00:22:03] Put it in contrast to what our Lord said. [00:22:07] He told his disciples that they would suffer great material loss. He told them that they would lose their material wealth for his sake, yet they would remain faithful because their wealth was not tied up in their devotion. Their devotion to God was sincere, just as job. [00:22:35] Their devotion to God was independent of their money and was based upon nothing but the truth of the claims of Christ. [00:22:48] Jesus said in Luke 14, verse 33, he says, so likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. I'll be honest with you. That's a hard verse to wrestle with. I'll be honest with you. Trying to interpret the Bible, that is not an easy verse to completely wrap my head around. [00:23:11] You know, the disciples, when Jesus called them, they forsook everything they had and fled, even their trade, their craft. They forsook it. [00:23:19] When Paul turned to Christ, as we've already mentioned, when Paul turned to Christ, he lost everything he said in Philippians. All of those things that were gained to him, he counted, but lost. He lost it all. And many believers take great loss by becoming Christians and following the Lord holy. [00:23:40] So this is a truth that is observed by the devil. That is pointed out in scripture. And you know what? American Christianity, American Christianity has a problem. Here's what it is. And I'm an american Christian just like you are. [00:24:03] We think that if I love and serve the Lord, he will bless me materially. [00:24:11] That's what we think. And we think, therefore, if God's not blessing me materially, I must not be loving and serving the Lord. I just want to say that's not a biblical concept. And you know what? That should not be our motivation, you see, because if that's what's behind our motivation to serve God is the way it benefits us in some material way like that. If that's what's behind it, the minute that is touched and starts to dwindle, is the minute that we start to withdraw from the Lord. [00:24:42] It's just a small step away from serving the Lord for money. [00:24:47] And I know, like, probably nobody in this room is going to be making money off of Christianity. I understand that. [00:24:54] But the Lord does tell us in scripture to be very careful of money. To be very careful of money, to use it wisely for the use of money is by itself a test of our faithfulness in many other areas. [00:25:11] So we see Demetrius back in acts 19. [00:25:15] He is whipping up a frenzy, but he's doing it for money. [00:25:21] He was a covetous man, and he was willing to say and do anything to preserve his money. [00:25:35] Now let's go down to verse number 20, verse number 28. The Bible says, and when they heard these things, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Eristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions and travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered them not, and certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him, that he would not adventure himself into the theater. And some cried one thing, and some therefore cried one thing and some another. For the assembly, listen to this. Was confused, and the more part knew, that's the majority knew not wherefore they were come together. In other words, 25,000 people, let's say, were in this theater. And half of them, 12,500 people, had no idea why they were there. Does that strike you as OD? [00:26:32] This is what I call the mob mentality mob. Think. [00:26:39] Now think about this mob. Okay? You have three groups of people here. Now you have Demetrius, you have the craftsman with Demetrius, and then you have the crowd. All right? Now, the crowd does not have a money motive, but what the crowd doesn't understand is they are being manipulated by Demetrius. That's what's happening. Demetrius is behind the scenes pulling the puppet strings, manipulating the crowd, and playing on their religious pride. Now, I'm going somewhere with this. Just hang tight. [00:27:19] The mob itself was actually ignorant of what's going on. The majority of them didn't even know why they were there. And then all of a sudden, maybe one of Demetrius's friends is crying out, says, great is the Ephesians. And they hear it, and they're mean. I like. [00:27:36] And before you know it, the whole crowd's chanting it. For two solid hours, the mob was simply following one another, right? They heard somebody say it, and then they say, and then this person says it. Really? [00:27:49] The fact that the whole crowd is chanting doesn't mean that they're all in love with Diana of the Ephesians. They're just following one another like sheep. This is mobthink. [00:27:59] It's driven purely by passion, by pride, rather than by the truth. Because as we saw already, Demetrius wasn't so much concerned with Diana. We have that inside information as he was concerned with his money. And he was going to use the worship of Diana to make sure he maintained his income. And if he had to promote Diana to do it, then he's going to promote Diana to do it. But his heart is not really affected toward Diana in particular. [00:28:27] The mob was being manipulated. They were just following one another. And I want to tell you something about a mob. A mob is basically a bunch of cowards. [00:28:40] Basically a bunch of cowards, because they're all doing what everybody else is doing. And so there's a level of safety in that. If I'm doing what everybody else is doing, then I'm okay, because I'm not the odball. I'm not the OD one out. And so nobody's going to criticize, nobody's going to say anything because I fit in. [00:29:01] See, the mob mentality is a cowardly mentality. [00:29:06] Now, I want to draw your attention to another story. [00:29:11] Look at mark 15. [00:29:14] Mark, chapter 15. [00:29:24] Mark, chapter 15. [00:29:27] I want to show you another mob, especially at this time of year. [00:29:33] It's the mob that was crying out after the arrest of Jesus. [00:29:38] Mark, chapter 15, verse number, verse number nine. Bible says this, but Pilate answered them, saying, will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered them for envy. But the chief priests, notice what it says, moved the people that he should release Barabbas unto them. [00:30:09] And Pilate answered and said unto them, what will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, crucify him. The mob is crying this. [00:30:23] Why is the mob crying this? No. Don't give us Barabbas. No. [00:30:29] Or don't give us Jesus. Give us Barabbas, rather. [00:30:34] Why were they doing that? You know why? Because they were being manipulated. [00:30:38] And there was nobody in that mob that was a thinking person enough and had the fortitude and the courage to say, wait, Jesus has done nothing wrong. [00:30:56] The mob just rushed into it in a fit of passion, demanding that Christ be put to death. Here's what you understand about a mob. I'm going somewhere with this. I promise. Here's what you understand about a mob. What is a mob? What is a multitude made up of? I think we talked about this either on Wednesday or last Sunday. A multitude is made up of a bunch of individuals. But when you get in a mob setting, it's sort of like the social media. [00:31:21] In social media, you hide behind a screen. And so you feel that you can speak unkindly and wickedly with impunity because nobody knows you, right? That's the way it goes. And you think you can just lay it out there and you could say whatever you want, and you don't have to see the effect of your words upon people. And that's not right. That's not right. A Christian is to, as we learned in Sunday school, is to speak graciously, not because of the effect, but because it's right. Right. And that goes for social media. But in the same way, that's the way a mob is, is a mob. They rush to do things altogether, and they think because they're all doing it together, it's not that big of a deal. [00:32:10] They think that what you have is you have a bunch of individuals who feel safe with one another in that, so much so that they're willing to do outlandish things together. And so you have the wicked human nature being brought together into a huge mass, and it just gets uglier and uglier. [00:32:32] A lot of people are unwilling to do things individually. I'm talking about sinful things as individuals. But with the group, they're willing to, because there's safety. [00:32:45] This group is an example of. [00:32:48] See, did you ever see anybody in the scripture who was standing on the street corner as Jesus passed, say, crucify him. Crucify him. No, you never saw that. They did it together. [00:32:59] Look at Luke. [00:33:00] Luke, chapter 23. [00:33:03] Luke, chapter 23. [00:33:19] Luke 23, verse 50. [00:33:28] Luke 23, verse 50. And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor. Now, what does it mean? He was a counselor? That means he was a member of the council that tried and condemned our Lord after he was arrested. That's what that means. [00:33:50] And he was a good man and a just the same, had not consented to the council and deed of them. [00:33:59] He was a verimathea, the city of the Jews, who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. Now, we also know that after Jesus died, this is what this is saying. Verse 52. He went to Pilate, and by himself alone, was bold enough to go up to Pilate, who is a very important official at this time and ask for the body of Jesus that had been hanging on the cross, dead. [00:34:26] Why is that remarkable? [00:34:28] Because actually Joseph was a part of the group that condemned Christ, part of the mob. [00:34:35] But Joseph was a man who was willing to stand out from the mob. [00:34:43] Listen to this verse from Exodus, verse, chapter 23, verse two, says this, thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to rest judgment. I want to make a statement. We'll be done. [00:35:07] You see this mob mentality where everybody is doing one thing right? The flow of people is all their opinions, their minds, their emotions are all in one direction. And many times those people don't know why they're doing what they're doing. And now I'm talking about the world in general. They don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They're just doing it because everybody else is doing it. You ask, why are you doing it? You're like, why do you dye your hair that color? I don't know. That's just what everybody does. Why do you pierce that? I don't know what everybody. It's just nobody knows why in the world they're doing anything. Nobody stops and thinks they're just in a flow, like a river. They're just all going the same direction. And here's what we know from the scripture, just like Demetrius is they're all being manipulated, and they have no idea they're all being manipulated. I'm talking about this world. [00:35:54] And so you meet so few souls that are willing to stand and say, why? [00:36:02] Amen. [00:36:05] Let me explain something to you. [00:36:09] Do you want to live for God? Yes. [00:36:12] Do you want to walk with God? Do you want to serve God? [00:36:17] I'm going to give you a promise. [00:36:20] If you and I are unwilling to be the odball the od one out of the multitude who stops and asks questions, who stops and wonders, why are we doing this? [00:36:37] If you and I are unwilling to endure the ridicule and the shame and the attention that comes from standing outside of the crowd against the grain, we will never serve God. [00:36:57] You will never live for God. You will never serve God until you're willing to be the OD one, because the flow of people is going in one direction, just like this mob. They're going in one direction. And look at Paul himself in our story in acts 19, what is Paul getting ready to do? He was stopped. From doing what? He was going to go into the theater with 25,000 people chanting, greatest dying of the Ephesians, who all believe that he's the problem. He was going to go listen now by himself into the theater. He was willing to do that. He did not care what the multitude thought. He didn't care what other people didn't believe. He didn't care what they thought about Diana. He didn't care what they thought about him. He was willing, Paul was a man who was willing to stand alone to do what he believed God wanted him to do. [00:37:49] You know what? That truth rings out to our day. [00:37:54] If we are only going to serve God when the multitude serves God, if we're only going to live for God in the way that it is prescribed other people, and we're just going to follow everybody else, I'm telling you, you got to remember, the crowd is being manipulated. And if you just follow the crowd, you also are going to be manipulated. [00:38:14] We need, this world needs people that in the midst of the flow of that river, there's somebody standing in the middle of the river saying, what are we doing? [00:38:28] Why are we doing it? [00:38:31] I'm not going that way if it's not right. [00:38:37] But there are so few people that are willing to do that. We all want the comfort of having the praise and the pats on the back by everyone else that we're not willing to be the odball. You can't live for God without being an odball. I'm just telling you that right now. You're not going to fit in with everybody. When you follow God with all your heart, you're just not going to. You might as well look. You mark it down. There's a certain shame that comes with being a sold out, dedicated child of God who's living for God. There's a certain shame that comes with that. You're going to be weird. You're going to talk different. You're going to act different. There's things you're not going to do, things you are going to do, and everybody's going to notice, and everybody's going to be like, why is this guy, this guy is weird. She dresses different, he acts different. They listen to weird stuff. That's all going to happen. You know why? Because the Lord has so appointed. The crowd is all going one direction. You're like, oh, well, hold on. [00:39:28] Why? [00:39:30] Is this what God wants us to do? Oh, yeah, that's fine. [00:39:35] Hold on. [00:39:40] Luke 622 says this, blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. [00:39:56] In John nine, there was a blind man who had been healed. [00:40:02] His parents were interviewed to find out how that had happened. You remember that? [00:40:07] Says this. His parents said this. [00:40:11] By what means he now seeth? We know not. Or who hath opened his eyes, we know not. Ask he is of age. Ask him, for he shall speak of himself. You know why they said that? [00:40:21] Because they wanted to stay in the crowd. So they would not say, jesus did it. It was that simple. They would not say, jesus did it. [00:40:30] They weren't willing to stand up against the crowd and say, well, I don't know, but Jesus did it. But the blind man who had been healed, he said this. [00:40:38] In John nine. Let me. Let me turn there real quick. You don't have to turn there if you don't want to. But in John nine, verse number, verse 27, he answered them. I have told you already, and you did not hear. Wherefore would you hear it again? Will ye also be his disciples? [00:41:08] The blind man says, jesus did it. [00:41:11] You know what they did? They threw him out. [00:41:16] They threw him out. [00:41:18] I'm convinced. No, it's not just a matter of me being convinced. I have observed a scriptural truth. [00:41:26] One thing that hinders a lot of people living for God and giving God a blank check. Lord, this is my life. Every part of it is yours to decide what I do and don't do. One thing that hinders a lot of people with that offer is fear of being ostracized, fear of being the odball. Fear of being separated from the company, fear of man. [00:41:59] The multitude's all going in one direction, and if I don't do that, they'll think it weird of me. Look, they're all drinking. If I don't hold a beer, they'll think it's weird. [00:42:11] Well, they all have certain things on their phone. If I don't have that, they'll think it's weird. [00:42:17] Well, they're all doing this. If I don't do it, they'll think it's weird. Who cares? Amen. [00:42:23] What about what the Lord thinks? What about what the Lord thinks? The multitude. [00:42:30] The Lord says, thou shalt not. That's singular. Thou singular. Thou shalt not follow multitude to do evil. I don't care if the whole world does it. [00:42:41] No child of God should stand by and go along with it. [00:42:46] It comes along with standing with our Lord. You remember when our Lord was at that trial and after that trial with the council, and then he was taken before Pilate and he's standing there, behold the man. You remember in John, right? Behold the man. And they cried out, crucify him. We know they were being manipulated. They were being told what to say by those manipulators, right? And they just did. Just, they just followed right along. They just did whatever they were told. They did it. Nobody stood up and said, hold on. I saw Jesus heal people. Nobody did it. [00:43:19] Jesus was standing by himself. [00:43:23] You know what? In that example, the Lord calls us to, if necessary, stand alone. [00:43:32] To love him, to live for him, to serve him without regard to what other people might do or not do. [00:43:43] Let's pray.