Acts 19:20-41 | Antagonism and Aseity 

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Slides:

Our God has no need or lack—only fullness and grace for our every need.

Let’s seek to be purposed in the Spirit.

An idol is anything more important to you than God- absorbing your heart and imagination more than Him. It is a "counterfeit god" if you look to it for meaning, security, or value- essentially anything you feel you must have to make life worth living. 

Jeremiah 10:3-5 

For the customs of the peoples are delusion; Because it is wood cut from the forest, The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. "They decorate [it] with silver and with gold; They fasten it with nails and with hammers So that it will not totter. "Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good."

1- When the culture comes against the Gospel, it is because the Gospel is making a difference.

2- When the culture comes against the Gospel, the Gospel will prevail.

Aseity:

self-existence—receiving life and identity from no one else—being eternally sufficient and not dependent on anything.

Exodus 3:13-14 

Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'

Acts 17:24-25 

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all [people] life and breath and all things…

John 5:26

For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself…

Ephesians 2:4-10 

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Comparison is where idols go to die.

Jeremiah 2:13 

"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.

Isaiah 42:1-3

"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one [in whom] My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 "He will not cry out or raise [His voice,] Nor make His voice heard in the street. 3 "A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.

Our God has no need or lack—only fullness and grace for our every need.