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Jan 18, 2026

Living the Gospel in a Watching World | The Gospel, The Kingdom, The World

Living the Gospel in a Watching World | The Gospel, The Kingdom, The World

Passage: Acts 17:16-31

Speaker: Chip Paul

Series: The Gospel, The Kingdom, The World

Category: Sunday Sermons

In a culture full of curiosity, distraction, and uncertainty, Christians are being watched more than ever. Acts 17 shows us how Paul entered a spiritually confused city and brought clarity—not through shame, but through bold truth and gospel love. This message invites us to consider how we’ve been handpicked and placed on purpose to proclaim a proven gospel. The world doesn’t need more information. It needs transformation. And the gospel still changes lives when we’re bold enough to share it.

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Living the Gospel in a Watching World 

 

January 18, 2026

Acts 17:21
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Athens didn’t need more ; they needed .

1. Compelled

PRINCIPLE: The Gospel starts with a heart.

Acts 17:16
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

Paul didn’t start with a sermon. He started with a .

If the Gospel hasn’t stirred your heart, it won’t move your .

We don’t speak up because we’re . We speak up because love won’t let us .

“A gospel that does not change the heart will never change the world.”
— Charles Spurgeon

2. Hand-Picked

PRINCIPLE: God positions ordinary people in places for Gospel advancement.

Acts 17:22
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.

Paul affirms their before correcting their .

People don’t need to be shamed into truth; they need to be toward it.

John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last — and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

God chooses the heart first, comes second.

3. Inentionally Sent

PRINCIPLE: God sends us to proclaim the Gospel so it may enter the world .

Acts 17:23
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

Paul doesn’t water down truth; he it.

Truth that can’t be can’t be received.

We don’t edit the Gospel; we it.

4. PRoven

PRINCIPLE: The Gospel a response.

Acts 17:30–31
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

The resurrection isn’t an to the Gospel. It is the !

Compelled by love

Hand-picked on purpose

Intentionally sent into the world

Proven through Jesus

The church doesn’t gather to the world; we gather to be back into it with the Gospel!

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