Lagrange First Church of God: Recent Episodes
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David was not where he was supposed to be! In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.
Our enemy loves Isolation and boredom - gives him room to work
1.) Be Alert & Watchful - Engagement Point - Don’t get sleepy / Bored / Lazy - Our Enemy uses these things against us - 1 Peter 5:8 2.) Bounce Your Eyes - Muscle Reflex - Train yourself to look away - Matthew 6:22 3.) Starve The Sumo - Don’t feed the addictive habit - Starve it! The best way to do this… is to… 4.) Confess IT!!! - James 5:16
Out of Naomi’s brokenness, and through her lineage by marriage, her journey with Ruth allowed her daughter-in-law to find and marry Boaz. They have a child. They named him Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. El Shaddai - means God is always Ample, always Adequate, He is always Enough.
“God is working during the waiting” God told Abraham a promise. This Abrahamic covenant promised a great nation and blessings. However, Sara was barren. They tried and tried to have children. They kept believing, hoping, and praying. Month after month. Year after year. Nothing… No child. No nation. Many of us feel this way sometimes. We ask questions like: ”God what are you doing?” “How long must I wait” “God, do you hear me?” If God were to meet every expectation, then he wouldn’t be EXCEEDING them!
We have to go to the beginning of the Journey; Where this all starts. The Triune God created the universe and IT WAS GOOD. God created man, and out of a man he created woman. Man is in charge of the Garden and naming the animals. Eve and Adam both fall into temptation - sin enters the world. The world you and I live in is not the world as God created it to be. Both are sentenced to death / and a hard walk into the unknown.
Amen … “So be it!” (It’s not a “period” to the end a prayer, but rather submission to His will) This is the end of our Prayer series. We will be highlighting 1 more topic of prayer: Forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not … FORGETTING Forgiveness is not … FAIR Forgiveness is giving others, what God gave us, in Christ .
It takes FAITH to Forgive
Fasting is feasting on God. Jesus said if you fast without the motive to impress others, your fasting in secret will be rewarded in secret by the Father. In the secret place, God is there. Your Father in heaven is your reward. This is the great overarching purpose in all our fasting—it is a means through which we draw near to God and he rewards us with the knowledge of his presence.
Now we know the importance of prayer and the power of prayer… so why is prayer hard? It is spiritual warfare, and the enemy will use anything and everything to distract us from walking in spiritual power.
It is our desire to plan the future. Dreaming about the future (finances, retirement, relationships, etc.) can give us “hope that drives us.” However, too much future thinking can rob us of what God is doing in our lives today. Moreover, it is Jesus that is our hope, not our future plans that guide us.
We have discussed “Immanuel,” (God with us is better than Ben with us), we are called to have a desire to LISTEN to God, instead of just hearing Him, and we have learned we must have our FOCUS on Him, and not “go through the motions,” then the next thing we will talk about is how God has given us all talents: Lagrange First Church of God has been Talents by God.”
The prophet Isaiah speaks to Judah about how they had taken their focus off The Lord. He describes their condition as a people and their unawareness of this separation. God tells them how meaningless their religious actions have become. And after God has exploited their corrupt state, then he tells them what to do- he draws their focus back to loving people and loving God.
A Contrast between Saul’s lack of desire to listen to the Lord, Elijah’s desire to hear the Lord. We often run away from things and can’t hear the Lord.
Just because Christmas is over, does not mean Jesus ceases to be Immanuel. This series will be about understanding God is with us- Emmanuel.
Paul rejoiced at the gift he received from the Philippians, but he told them he didn’t need that gift. He learned true contentment wasn’t in materials, or places, or people, true contentment is in Jesus.
During the Christmas Season, we don’t want to miss the ability to have true contentment in Jesus, and not in the “Holiday Bustle.”
“Rejoice in the Lord" This can sound like traditional Christmas things we do not like to do- eat a certain food (Fruitcake), Hallmark Movies, Christmas Music, going to a certain family member's house… But when you take it away, you realize how much you appreciated that tradition. We do not want disciples of Jesus to ever be without a Spirit of rejoicing at Christmas. After all, He is the “Reason for the Season”
Loneliness can be one of the hardest things we battle as people. We are meant to be in community with others, especially in the Body of Christ. In this passage, Paul reminds the Philippians that while he isn’t there to teach them how to grow in the Lord, They are not alone! God works with them, to help prepare them for His good purpose.
“Home for the Holidays,” is often one of those comfort traditions we aspire for during the Holidays. However, the past 2 years have often redefined “Home,” for many of us. Just like we say, “a house is not a home,” and “home is where the heart is,” those comfort statements don’t always bring Joy. Joy is what we want in the holidays, and we can have that when we understand the difference between Rejoicing in Jesus, and celebrating Christmas.
- Almost anytime God is moving in our lives, he’s going to ask us to take a step of faith.
- God Blesses our Obedience
- Attitude of Gratitude - Count our blessings
You don’t find your identity in what you do. You learn about others to win them. You don’t go against your conscience.
God’s ways are not our ways. We hear it, and we know it... But we have trouble seeing God’s potential for our lives. When Peter didn’t believe they could catch fish, Jesus responded with a “That's not how I see it!” He told Peter to go back out there and try again, and they brought in such a haul Peter realized he was standing in the presence of the power of God.
We hear the phrase, “the Devil is in the Details,” all the time, and it is usually after we have forgotten to pay attention to detail and we are having a problem, our plans have fallen apart, or looking back at a mistake. Or, we can say it hesitantly, when we want to move forward quickly, without paying attention to details.
In a world of comparison, we can get caught up in comparing ourselves to who we follow and believe we have some type of superiority, a “Smarty Pants” mentality” over them (i.e. if you don’t like the president then you are stupid and I am smarter than you). We elevate people to levels they can never live up to, instead, we should realize that it is the message of the Gospel. When we remember the power of that message, and how God chooses fools to share it, then we remember everyone is on the same playing field.
- Point out that insecurity on Saul’s part caused him bitterness and to lose peace with David.
- A song ruined their relationships.
Jesus was rejected by his family but he went on to create a bigger family and we are a part of that today (church). Small places can create more community
Jesus never had a Hallmark Moment when we attempted to do ministry in his hometown. As a matter of fact, after we hear him give one of his first sermons in the synagogue, He is literally run out of town! He speaks to the hearts of the people’s sins, and they hate it so much they try to throw him off a cliff. People don’t like to hear their sins from someone they grew up with.
The woman at the well reminds us that in a small town our sin doesn’t have to define us. We can lead even if others think we have a “bad reputation.” The woman at the well was, by all means, a sinner, but once she realized who Jesus was, she was not going to allow her “Bad Reputation” to keep her from bringing others to Jesus!
In #RuralLife we are often seen as “closed-minded.” However, We see in the Church of Berea an openness to the Gospel Paul was preaching. This would have been a new type of teaching to hear that Jesus was the Christ / Messiah. And for #RuralLife churches to thrive they must be open-minded not to a new Gospel, but new ways.
When we think of small towns THE WORLD often thinks that people are simple, possibly stupid because we lack progressive trends. However, God works through small people and small towns.
What are we known for as people and as the church? How do people identify us? Is it by a program, our social media, our music… and how does that make others feel? Remember we have haters. If we are people of Truth, they will know us by the Fruit of the Spirit… but some think they know Jesus, and they don’t they can to Jesus stuff, but without ever knowing He is the Lord. If we want to thrive another 100 years, then we need to make sure we are living 100 with Jesus as the Lord of our lives.
The familiar story of Abraham’s call to sacrifice Isaac. We want to focus on how we are called to give the Lord (Jehovah Jireh- The LORD provides) 100, even when we don’t know “How does this work?” Abraham was blessed by God for providing in his 110 faith even when it didn’t all workout, and it’s important to note Abraham blessed God being “Jehovah Jireh,” - The Lord who provides!
Every day we wake up we face battles: Physical, Mental, AND Spiritual. One of the greatest strategies Satan has had over humanity is his ability to take the battlefield to the physical and mental- wars we believe we can win on our own. while keeping us blind to the Spiritual battles because he knows that he can not defeat the Lord of Hosts (The Lord of Armies) We choose our battles wisely when we allow The Lord of Hosts (God of armies) to fight for us. This is a battle of faith. As Christians, our victories come from faith in God and His promises.
How people act in the Lord’s Presence. David is contested with his wife Michal. David is Worshiping with all His heart in God’s Presence, while Michal is watching. She never goes into His presence, she just stands and watches- which leads to her bitterness and cure.
We have all experienced unwanted Guests in our life that Treat Themselves to the important spaces of your life. And they tear you down.
We tend to have “Super Stars,” I’m our local church. Everyone knows who they are- even new people can discern it pretty quickly. And because of their boldness and willingness to serve, we reside to be the “B Squad.”
God is a God of movement but oftentimes we get stuck - stuck in ourselves, stuck in a moment, stuck in a memory, stuck in fear, stuck in our routines, stuck in hurt, habit, or hang up, stuck in a relationship, stuck in the past, stuck in tradition, stuck in rejection and when we are stuck we become stagnant - we stop moving. We can become too comfortable in being stuck (PEOPLE LIKE TO STAY MISERABLE) and we are willing to settle for less than God has for us. Being stuck makes us feel overwhelmed and instead of moving forward in faith and fully trusting God, we stand still we panic, we react in fear.
If we are in Christ, we are never really stuck. Christ gives us a way of escape. He is our escape.
God is a God of movement but oftentimes we get stuck - stuck in ourselves, stuck in a moment, stuck in a memory, stuck in fear, stuck in our routines, stuck in hurt, habit, or hang up, stuck in a relationship, stuck in the past, stuck in tradition, stuck in rejection and when we are stuck we become stagnant - we stop moving. We can become too comfortable in being stuck (PEOPLE LIKE TO STAY MISERABLE) and we are willing to settle for less than God has for us. Being stuck makes us feel overwhelmed and instead of moving forward in faith and fully trusting God, we stand still we panic, we react in fear.
If we are in Christ, we are never really stuck. Christ gives us a way of escape. He is our escape.
There are many of us that have taken Steps of Faith because someone went first. But then when that person stopped moving we stopped moving. We often allow the voice of people to have greater weight than God’s direction. Whether it’s in our sinful life, or the Spiritual life we put too much faith in others. Community of people is good to help give us guidance, but ultimately it’s our personal relationship with Jesus that should give us direction.
All of us “can’t stay here,” in our day-to-day Spiritual lives, and we know that. However, most of us often don’t know where to start, what to do, or how to do it. As we look at the life of Jeremiah we see God call such a young child to do such big things. The process Jeremiah goes through with God is a fight, and then practice, and then release. "We can’t stay the same.”
You can’t stay where you are at. Where are you in the gathering (Hebrews 10:24-25)? How are you functioning in the body (1 Corinthians 12:7-13)? How are you doing in your love (John 15:9-13)? You need to take a step forward - maybe for you, that is re-gathering...The Solution for us to take one step forward in faith to go forward. (Hebrews 11:1 / Galatians 2:20 / 1 Corinthians 15:58)
There is the Law of God (The Law of the Spirit of Life) that convicts our Spirit, and there is a Law of Sin (Old Testament) that the world, people, and religion can hold over us. In this story we see The Pharisees using the Law that produces sin and leads to death. But with Jesus, we see a new Law (John 13:34), a Law that gives life. IN both cases the woman is guilty of sin. She is condemned by her sin. A Law that reflects God’s love meets the woman (us) in our condemnation, and, A Law that should make us want to live a life that pleases God because He loved us so much in our sin he sent His son to us to free us from our sin.
We have the freedom to break the cultural rules in order to get to Jesus and through our boldness Jesus gives us a new identity.
Some people don’t know what S.W.A.G. is: S.W.A.G. is free Stuff We All Get.
As we end this series we want to look at a few free S.W.A.G. opportunities we get as beliefs and help people reframe the mindset that what they get for free they should give away for free.
We all need to realize when Jesus calls to us he is saying you can do it - I see something in you! He calls out our potential. I am here with you. Don’t be afraid. I got you!
We are free to try in Christ and we may fail but it’s never too late to call out to Jesus to save us.
Sometimes we have doubts and fears because of our circumstances but Jesus is right there to pick us up.
Jesus revealed himself to Saul in his sin. Freedom from your past - (Saul was a murderer Freedom in Christ humbles us/submission. When we submit we receive divine direction. Saul was radically changed and obedient. God will get you in your sin BUT you don’t have to go this low to experience freedom in Christ - you don’t have to get smacked in the face.
We were told on resurrection day that we were saved. What were we saved from? Our sin.
There is no more condemnation. We are sprung to life. We aren’t just saved to go to heaven but also to be free to live a life of freedom on this earth.
How do we take the good from before Christ into our future with God?
The Pharisees had a little too much religion and held on a little too tight to their past.
Confusion is not a place most of us like to be. And death can certainly cause confusion in our life. We often ask “why,” struggle to find our identity, possibly have regrets about decisions we made in the past, and live in anxiety about the future we planned. And all these had to be emotions the disciples would have felt when they saw Jesus crucified. However, things had to have gotten even more confusing when Jesus resurrected from the tomb. But this is the best type of confusion they could have experienced, as it opened their hearts to who Jesus truly was. If most people can embrace the confusion they live in every day as a possibility and not a problem, then we could see God do the immeasurably more we all want to see.
We all have expectations. We have expectations in our families, jobs, restaurants, Amazon, sports teams, etc. Expectations become the source of our unhealthy emotions (anger, sadness, anxiety) when our expectations become “Truth,” But, our expectations are subjective to our personal preferences. These become even more dangerous when our expectations collide with God’s expectations. When Jesus enters the temple on what we refer to as Palm Sunday we see how the people have an expectation of who they want Jesus to be, but Jesus will collide with their expectations within a week by not providing the freedom the people desired.
Collisions can be funny when watching blooper videos on Social Media, but when we collide with others in our life it can be hard, hurtful, and can even leave a scar. What can be even worse is when we collide with family members within the Body of Christ. The Bible does not hide its warts. Throughout the New Testament, we see several collisions within the church family. However, we can’t just use that as an excuse to collide with each other, and then turn a blind eye to the collision. In the book of Acts, we see the early church collide with a major “change,” when a Gentile named Cornelius is changed by the Holy Spirit. It was a Collision with their FAMILY TRADITIONS. It was a Collision Peter had to work through, and it was a COllision The other church leaders worked though. But when they were willing to collide, they were able to come together, embrace change, and we are now part of the family.
We are all called to go forward and collide with people who do not know the Good News of Jesus. However, sometimes we get stuck behind the walls of the people we hang out with. When we collide with the fullness of God, we will be convicted to repent and then go collide with those who are in captivity by their walls of sin.
This is a new series to testify to the power of our mission- Putting Light in Dark Places. We don’t want people to confuse our actions, or even elevate our mission as the Holy Scriptures. The Light we speak of is Jesus- God in the Flesh, who brought the light into the world for everyone- not just the nation of Israel such in the Old Testament. God came into the world to put His light (Jesus) in you, so you can overcome the light in dark places of your life, whatever those Dark places may be.
This message revolves around how if we are to be known by our love, it can’t be focused on what we traditionally think love is. We cannot push God’s word further than it was meant for, often we say if we love something it means we have to speak out against the things that are opposite of it. Today’s society has us drawing into camps or sides. We have to be outraged by the other side otherwise we look like we agree with it. We get ourselves in trouble because we are adding fruits of the flesh to what the Holy Spirit has provided us in fruits of the Spirit. We have to choose between being known by our outrage or our love.
To end this sermon series, Psalm 1 embraces many of the habits we discussed and how to live a successful life that is obedient to God. The ultimate goal habit is for us to focus on God and His word. By doing that we will produce fruit for others to feed on.
There are a million hard things we have to do in life. Our natural tendencies are to overthink, avoid, or only do it halfway. And these are just worldly things! How much harder must it be for us to do the hard Spiritual things for a God we can not see? Jesus, God in the flesh, struggled as well. We don’t talk about it often, and it can be hard for us to think about, or even grasp. However, being fully God and fully man, there was a struggle within him right before he went to the cross. He struggled with his destiny and being obedient. BUT… He did it! Jesus did the hardest thing anyone could ever have to do. So, why should we feel shame when we are faced with doing hard spiritual things? We shouldn’t, but we should do them if they are what God has commanded us to do. And when we are obedient to do these hard things, the power of the Holy Spirit will allow us to be more than conquerors.
When we think of many things that would make us happy in life, most are no more effective than sugar- including religion. We get our “fix of happiness,” for one moment, and then it goes away. True happiness comes from Jesus, in both our wants and needs - our brokenness.
We as followers of Christ need to be aware of those we allow to have influence in our lives. We have control and get to pick those people (friends) who would best for us - we know our weaknesses. Our friends should push us closer to Christ: purpose partners. A friend is different from a brother or an associate. We need to be aware that if we aren’t intentional in positioning the right people in the right places in our lives that we have the chance to be led astray. Jesus picked the people that sat around his table; each all had their weaknesses but Jesus still chose to love and serve them despite that. Are we being the kind friend Jesus was and wants us to be?
We want people to develop the habit of Fasting. However, we want people to understand that fasting should come from an internal hunger for change, and not an external desire to bend or manipulate God’s will.
We need to turn our prayers from one request to a conversation with God that helps us see God move, understand the importance of praying together, and allowing the transformation of our souls to come out of conversations with God.
Without a doubt when we look on television, our friends, family, or on FB everyone is trying to sell us something, In exchange for our money, they tell us the lie that what they are selling us will fulfill a whole in our heart that God can’t. And every time we believe that lie… we rob God. In the old Testament, the prophet Malachi tells the people they are robbing God, and to TEST HIM. Giving is a good habit, but in the sermon on the mount, Jesus tells us just how to test him. In our giving.
It’s a new year, which means we are making commitments to stop doing something. But we have true freedom when we start by making our commitment to living as if Christ were the Lord of our lives.
We all have crazy cousins that do weird things. JTB looked the part and played the part, but he was able to not just foretell the future- God used John The Baptist to create the pathway. And as we go into a new year we have an opportunity to get on the Path.
While often not discussed, Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, he was his step-father. The Holy Spirit was the Baby momma. But, Joseph raised Jesus just as his son, even as his step Father.
Ruth and Boaz were a biracial couple, this is a blending. Sometimes we forget Joseph is a “Step-Father,” to Jesus. God is the Father, Joseph is the Step Father. Christmas can be hard on blended families. We can learn from Joseph.
Everyone has a family member who causes division. Rehoboam literally divided the nation of Israel.
“Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” “This the season to be Jolly” - So why am I not. Now is the season where we should be Jolly, but often it is our family that steals our Jolly. That's why we have “Friendsgivings.” Families because of stress. And we can allow this to be a problem, or take the opportunity of the season, to pack our “JOLLY,” by giving the gift of Christ. Jesus was the promised Gift from God. Our family should be the most fertile ground to talk about Jesus during the holiday season.
We must be aware of the effects the church can experience of becoming disengaged. We become disengaged when we forget the love of God in our life.
We can do all the right things, for the wrong reasons. And if we do not remember the right reasons, all the things we do will feel wrong, and thus become wrong.
Our goal is to be a church that does reward just memorizing a bunch of Bible verses. Our desire is for each one of us to always be Building in our knowledge of the Bible. We want to be a church community that is always building DISCIPLES THAT ARE ALWAYS SHINING BRIGHTER INTO OTHERS.
Continuing on how we get engaged in the Body we will pick up on Recognize and we will move to CONNECT.
Once we RECOGNIZE who HE is we who KNOW who we are in HIM and we can RESPOND by following HIM and RECOGNIZING the value in others.
We all know what it feels like to be incomplete. Something just isn’t right. Sometimes we know what it is- We could feel complete without a spouse, a job that gives us purpose, a task for the day. And sometimes we don’t know we are incomplete, but we don’t know what it is. In our sermon series ‘Engage,” we want to focus in on the idea that we need each other to be “functioning parts of the body,” if we are to be complete- we MUST realize we are needed by others to fully engage in the church for the Body of Christ to be complete.
Kick off to Sermon series called “I’m Engaged.” Being engaged is something almost all people either want to do, have been, or remember when we were engaged and look back at that time with fondness because we have disengaged. It generally is a time when we were in a special type of love with each other where we always enjoy being together, and there is little to no fighting that can’t be overcome. In this series we are going to discuss being engaged with God, our faith and His Church. Then we will discuss how we can get engaged; recognize, connect, build, release.
All of us have questioned God at some point in our life. But Peter made questioning Jesus a regular practice. God can handle our questions, are we willing to accept the answers?
Your reality can change in a heartbeat depending on how you choose to look and respond to what's been thrown at you at any given moment. The key to responding to challenges is to be conscious of your perception because if you’re not, someone else will create it for you. In our text, God challenges his disciples' perception of how they will feed the crowd.
Gideon is one of the most well known warriors in the Bible. But he didn’t just get up one day and become the champion of Israel. Gideon had a small view of himself, his surroundings and of God. Gideon had to change the way he saw himself, and start seeing himself as God saw him.
Israel is ready for a restart, they have been restored in their physical and Spiritual resolve to fulfill their part of the contact God made with them in the LAW. We need to see our church, and the Capital C Church, come about to the same restoration “revival” our word needs.
Agitators want to make you (bark) respond, but they want to make you respond in a negative way. They aren’t the people who want to bring about true change so how do we respond to their threats, accusations, and obstructions. We need to always turn to God in life Adjustments, Word, and Prayer.
What are you truly devoted to? Most of us live without a ture devotion, we have at best a “passion with distraction.” When we find our passion get;s distracted- we see such few results that bring about true change?
Evil thrives on keeping or stuck in the process of the word by complicating our decision making. Too many people rarely consult God or ask for wisdom from his Holy Spirit when regarding how we should respond when problems arise. Because we forget to ask for His help, we often stay “stuck.” We can free ourselves from being stuck when we seek God on how we are to make decisions, and not respond to problems.”
IN a destroyed society, we need to reframe how Christians should be takers of God’s favor as we get on the business of rebuilding our city, our County, our state and Beyond.
All too often we believe if we know God’s call for us, then life will be easier. However, that is not always true. The Israelites clearly knew their responsibility was to rebuild the temple, and yet they still had distractions.
The Israelites had constant distractions by the people around them, and they did it over a long period of time, and those who were distracting them finally were able to derail their call.
But God graciously sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to preach and encourage them to get back up and get on mission.
All too often, whether we know it or not, we have a tendency to blame all our problems on other people- we blame teachers for our children’s bad behavior, we expect pastors to “feed us.” Or we put things that are OUR responsibility and expectations on other people. The Israelites took responsibility for rebuilding the temple on themselves… not on the priest.
It doesn’t matter who is in the White House, God uses His people to rebuild the broken cities God has given the local churches. Ezra 1:1-11
How a father's love plays an important role in all of our lives. Especially the love of our HEAVENLY father.
“What Number is Today:” You have to fight IN war, and you have to fight FOR peace, either way, you must choose your battle.
Make it Count: War comes fast, peace comes slow.
All people are born with the inability to talk, based on our parents, surroundings, culture, and beliefs determine how our phrases, accents, and dialects. No language is superior to others. What does matter is ALWAYS learning to speak in a way that is relevant to the season of life you are in to make your words count. - What Number is Today: Continue to speak in ways that are relevant
There are times in our life when we try, we try, and we try- but we just don’t know when! This could be in our: “What Number is Today”.
No one liked the idea of Chaos, especially when it involves “Killing and Death,” However, we can stop the cycle of death and destruction when we choose to not live the same as the world.
God wants everyone one of our days, our hours, and our minutes devoted to Him. He wants us to be a light in the dark world, he wants to use us, and give you joy in the process. He wants every day to count! But let’s stop and be motivated not by the fear that our life is short, and we could die any day. Let’s be motivated by the love God showed us by his death, burial, and resurrection.
Tragedy can be the BEST INVESTMENT BROKER OF YOUR LIFE! Solomon tells us that our name is to “smell good,” and that the day of death is better than the day of birth. He then goes on to tell us that it is wise to be in the house of the morning.
God works all things for good. While things are not looking good for us (economy, jobless rate, death tolls, infections) God can even redeem COVID 19. What we forget is that God works all things for good for those who are called according to His will and purpose. God redeemed COVID 19, but on Easter we remember His resurrection and overcame the greatest sickness of all, sin. Not only do we celebrate that redemption, but we celebrate that He has called us within our doubt, to go help people grow in their doubts to be his disciples that make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Jesus went into Jerusalem, the place he would be killed, that didn't recognize him, despite his critics, and despite his disciples not really believing in how he truly was. He didn't make excused to stop, he did it anyway.
When God is working for some, those who are nominal and religious without faith are going to be continually overwhelmed. The only way we can overcome the evil that keeps us from having victory in Jesus is to do the right thing and LET GO of all things that keep us from seeing Him.
Paul had been going city to city, but "on his way", to Ephesus he noticed some people hadn't received the Holy Spirit. Instead of devaluing them and moving on, he saw potential in them and did something about it. WE need to see value in small opportunities, AS much as big ones!