My Biggest Warning To Christians (EP 189)

What's going on guys welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver podcast I'm Bryce and today by the title of the episode you can tell this is my biggest warning to the American Church this is my biggest warning to you guys and what I believe that in this passage of scripture that we're going to talk about is so important and so if you have your Bible so I want you to turn to Acts chapter 17 I pray that you are all doing well I'm feeling excited and feeling good now I want to address Acts 17 because I believe that this passage is very applicable to the 21st century and this is the beauty of scriptures we have this transcendent piece of literature that has impacted generations before us is impacting a generation now and will continue to impact generations after us so this thing doesn't have to change or adapt to society rather we should change and understand how God has originally designed us to be now in this passage we see what's going on in the chapter 17 Paul is going to Thessalonica then he's going to Berea then he's going to Athens okay so Paul is preaching in Athens to the Epicureans and the Stoic philosophers and these guys are like yo you got to talk to the Aeropagus now I think this is so important so what's going on is Paul has now been to a city which is Athens who he saw a city full of idols so he goes to Athens and there's a bunch of false gods there and he's talking to the Epicureans and the Stoic philosophers now the Epicureans and the Stoics were slightly different you see the Epicureans they wanted to solely pursue pleasure and we'll get back to that the Epicureans were so focused on pleasure now the Stoics on the other hand they were deeply moral sincere people they had moral dignity they wanted everyone to be a quote-unquote good moral person but they believed that God was everything and God was in everything and so it's so fascinating and now we get to hear where they tell him they're like yo you got to go to the Aeropagus and so Paul goes to the Aeropagus and he begins to preach this message in verse 22 so Paul standing in the midst of the Aeropagus said men of Athens I perceive that in every way you are very religious for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship I also found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God what therefore you worship as unknown this I proclaimed to you let's stop right there so Paul is acknowledging that these guys are quote-unquote religious people let's stop right there I think we got a lot of religious people in America but we don't have lovers of Jesus we got a lot of people that are worshiping a whole lot of other things that want to be a good moral person or maybe they're pursuing pleasure like the Epicurean we got a whole lot of religious people but not enough laid down lovers for Jesus people that want intimate relationship with Jesus so is that fascinating you know so many times we hear oh I'm not religious I'm not religious I'm not this and look again like Christianity is a religion religion means to bind yourself with someone so yes I want to bind myself with Christ yes I am a Christian by religion but there is this aspect of relationship that comes with Jesus and he says look like there's no there's like you guys are religious people we guys are following the wrong thing you know it's fascinating because even when we read in Proverbs I think it's chapter seven or eight and it talks about the seductive woman the adulterous sexual immorality that imagery the lady was like I went to the temple and I did sacrifices today you know in that passage and it's implying okay you know there's people that claim to be religious but they're not following Jesus and so that's important but he says look I found an altar to this particular god that they named the unknown god that you guys are worshiping and he said what therefore you worship as unknown this I proclaim to you and this is what he says 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 so let's stop right there so now Paul is saying look this god that you guys have as the unknown god as an option over here is an altar this guy let me put some definition to him the reason why you guys have him labeled an unknown god is because what these guys would do the all the idols they were built is they're trying to conceptualize and confine god into an image so that they can tangibly go oh that's god that's god that's god and Paul is like no no no god is far bigger than what you can creatively imagine god to be and I think that sometimes unintentionally we put god in a box we think oh god doesn't heal today or go oh no god wouldn't do that or we say oh that's not loving how do we know what the definition you see what I'm saying like it's it's god is love god is truth god has always existed he has never been created rather he has always existed and all things created have come from him and so this god that we worship in Christianity is far bigger than we conceptualize it's like look you guys are trying so hard to fit god into this box or into this idol but you guys have an altar to an unknown god let me tell you who he is and so that's what he's describing he's saying Yahweh this god or in their terms the unknown god which would be Yahweh has created all things and then he says he doesn't live in temples made by man meaning you can't conceptualize him nor he is served by human hands and so he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life breath and everything meaning not only is it that they are doing an injustice by trying to form god into some sort of image that they can worship but rather they're saying this unknown god that they so worship actually gives life to everything breath to everything purpose to everything and then it says and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek god and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him yet he is actually not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring so he is now quoting not scripture he's quoting some of the philosophers at that time because they would understand because there was truth in these statements that he could use to compel in a way that they could understand verse 29 being then god's offspring we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone and the image formed by the art and imagination man again he's saying you can't form god into an image you can't confine him to an image the times of ignorance god overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world and righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead and then it says when they heard some of it said that they'll they'll read about it some of them gave their life to Jesus and other others of them mocked them what is the point i'm getting to on this Athens was a very wealthy and flourishing city Athens was a very successful city Athens had a lot of intellectuals in there but what is the common denominator in Athens at the time period is that it was a godless city what do you mean there were gods everywhere they were worshiping things and they were religious people no no no no no the true god they were a godless city and my big warning to america is that we are living in a time where we're worshiping ai or celebrities or people or money or status or all of these things rather than jesus and we claim Christianity as a label or a tag but we don't fully follow him the bible says in revelation three do not be lukewarm in your faith neither cold nor hot for i will vomit you out of my mouth you know we talk about lukewarmness as if it's a thing but really what the bible is saying is lukewarmness is a deception of the devil to make people think that they're right with god just by doing enough or thinking that they can get enough of jesus where they're holy in his eyes and get enough of the world where they can feel fine lukewarmness really doesn't exist satan owns the fence of lukewarmness so either you love jesus or you don't and if you're lukewarm you're really of the devil and so we live in america right now where a lot of people claim lukewarmness or they worship other things and i think we're worshiping other things in this unknown god and the unknown god would be jesus christ we're not worshiping him we're turning to other things rather than jesus himself why is that why are we turning there and to my jen z listeners out there why are we turning to other things than jesus when you know the things that you're turning to are letting you down and the reason why i'm being so hard on that to my jen z ears is because we have access to so many things so quickly in such a big amount because of the internet because of our phones because of devices and so we have known very quickly that our vices aren't filling us and our vices aren't helping us so if we know that why do we keep turning back to them rather than jesus why do we keep worshiping the other idols rather than god himself because we think for some reason that we can find hope in them a little side note according to act 17 let's talk about the stoics because everyone wants to be a good person everyone wants to be a moral good person again he is fighting the current to the stoics by saying you can't be a moral good person if you don't have a standard to get the morality from and our standard is ya wei himself therefore if you have no standard and you want to be a quote-unquote good person then actually your life has no purpose and meaningless and rather there is no moral standard at all but feelings and feelings fluctuate so my question to you across the screen right now or or whether you're watching or listening is what are you living for what are you worshiping don't be like the epicureans and the stoics of the people in Athens who are distracted by wealth who are distracted by things who are distracted by materialistic idols and things like that you know like our idols today aren't necessarily you know like a statue that we image like a golden calf you know there are religions that still do that but but still our version of idol worship in america is not bowing down to a golden calf our version of idol worship is bowing down to the media bowing down to celebrities bowing down to things bowing down to money bowing down to food bowing down to sex bowing down to all these things and you know what i'm really scared of you know what i'm really scared for americans it is so hard to hear god in america because we are distracted by a lullaby of entertainment we're distracted by a lullaby of lies i got so convicted by two things there's a a documentary on the underground church of iran called sheep among wolves it's on youtube it's free and this lady who could be beaten raped and murdered for her faith said that after a certain amount of time that they would move back to the states and retire in california so they get done her and her husband moved to the states and in less than five years they moved back to iran where she could be beaten raped and murdered for her faith because she said it was unbearable to live in america and that makes me go wow that's interesting because we're we're a country of a freedom of religion you know so shouldn't it be easier to worship jesus and she said no it was harder because she said that phrase america is being rocked to sleep by a lullaby of entertainment and that shocked me to the core years ago and then recently i've become friends with a with a guy named charles who's from nyrobi kinnia and we were sitting down one night while we were on our tour bus doing our our live podcast tour and he said you know brice it is so hard to hear god in america and i was like wow that's interesting and he said yeah there's so much noise here so much noise everyone's so distracted whereas when i'm back in africa i can hear god so clearly and i don't think that's a coincidence if the devil can't make you sin he'll make you busy in act 17 he's making all the people of Athens the epicureans in the stoics busy with idols busy with knowledge busy being a good person busy with things distraction and that's my warning we're being distracted that satan doesn't have to necessarily reveal himself all the time in these demonic manifestations to americans rather he's sly he's cunning he knows that the best way to get americans to fall away from christianity is to actually distract them overwhelm them give them too many vices give them too many things give them vices that aren't inherently bad like i've had to come to know and this is something that i'm i'm having a hard time with but i've had to come to do this i don't have social media on my phone because social media has just not been a good thing for my heart not even just from a heart thing from a practical thing like being distracted by social media and wasting so much time scrolling rather than being intentional with friends my wife loved one's family being intentional with jesus because we're distracted and here's the nasty thing about deception is you don't know you're being deceived when you're being deceived so let me tell you something right now if you're watching or listening to this you are being deceived right now if you think you can find satisfaction in the phone in the pills in the sex in the money in the status in the instagram followers you're being deceived and that's the nastiest thing about deception is deception is sly deception is seduction deception is attractive deception you don't know you're being deceived when you're being deceived and so there may be many there may be many of you listening to this who are being deceived and you have no idea but there's hope look at the message that paul leet listens that it gives to them at the end of the passage he says this sorry let me flip there he says this the times of ignorance god vers 30 the times of ignorance got overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world and righteousness by a man whom he has appointed right now we are living in a gracious time because you may be being you may be deceived right now and there there is hope for you still because we are living in a time of grace where god hasn't returned yet and so you and i have the opportunity to repent for the ways that we've turned against him repent for the ways that we have we have slapped him in the face that we spit on and we have time to repent and turn from our ways out of love saying oh god i love you your way is better i'm trusting that you have my intentions on your heart that you are thinking of me in a high manner that you want to take care of me and so yes i'm repenting out of love turning away from the things that i've once done and running towards you we have time to repent because it says in verse 31 he is fixed today there will be a day where you take your last breath there will be a day where you stand before an all-knowing god and you can't blame shift your mistakes because your actions words and thoughts will testify against yourself therefore you and i have the opportunity right now to acknowledge maybe we are being deceived maybe america is being distracted by the devil we're being distracted by vices and we need to repent turn from that follow jesus and say god i'm sorry forgive me i'm turning and leaving that behind because if we do not in this life of grace in this breath of grace then you and i will be held accountable for every word action and thought therefore you and i can't run away anymore then what what's that going to be like on judgment day standing before god and then going oh now i want to get right with him because i can tangibly see him i mean what do we see in the gospel of luke with the story of the rich man lazarus when lazarus says like go warn my family about this and he says no no no for they have the prophets god has made himself very clear to the globe but let me tell you something god has made him very himself very clear especially through america from the beginning we founded this country on judaeo christian values god has made himself very clear through this country and we have zero excuse zero excuse and so my hope and my prayer for whoever is watching and listening to this is that if you are being deceived then you can repent and turn and follow jesus wholeheartedly let me pray for us lord jesus we thank you god we love you we pray Psalm 139 lord would you search our hearts or reveal to us the areas of our life that are causing us to sin god would you give us the strength and math chapter six for the strength of your spirit to cut it off lord jesus we want you we repent from any ungodliness any deception god would you root out things in our lives that are causing us to be distracted and lord we rebuke the devil in jesus name lord we love you we thank you it's in your name we pray amen