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ACTS 14:8-l8

"TURN TO THE LIVING GOD"

Intro: The preaching at Lystra.

I. MAN INSTINCTIVELY BELIEVES IN GOD.
        A. Animals often demonstrate instinctive capacities.
                1. Unlearned abilities or knowledge evidently passed
                        through the coded genes.
                2. The ability of the golden plover to find Hawaii from its birthplace in the
                   Aleutians.
        B. Man also demonstrates instinctive capacities. 
                1. The newborn child knows to nurse.
                2. To believe in God is as natural as breathing.
                        a. You must be trained not to believe.
                3. The worship of God is a universal characteristic of man.
        C. Nature bears witness of the existence of God.
                1. The heavens declare His vastness and glory. 
                2. The vast multitude of complex life forms testify to His infinite
                        knowledge and wisdom. 
        D. There are two kinds of Gods
                1. Those who were created by man.
                2. The true and living God that created man.
                3. The God of creation or the god of your own creation.
        E. The people of Lystra worshipped Zeus or Jupiter.
                1. They believed him to be the son of Cronus and Rhea.
                2. He and his brothers overthrew their father and the Titans and Zeus  became
                   the Chief God.
                3. Through numerous affairs with goddesses and mortal women, he
                        gave birth to most of the gods. Apollo, Hermes, Artemis, Fates.
                4. What a contrast to the holy and pure living God.

II. THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS IS VANITY, WORTHLESS AND EMPTY. "WE  PREACH THAT YOU SHOULD TURN
    FROM THESE VANITIES."
        A. There are always those who seek to promote their concepts of God, and  often create
           a wide devoted following.
                1. Gurus espousing the beliefs of Hinduism.
                2. Communists espousing the gods of materialism.
                3. Preachers saying that god is a good self image.
        B. There are those ultra-liberals who say that it is good to believe in something,  it
           doesn't matter what it is.
                1.                family believed in something.
        C. The prophet Isaiah pointed to the folly of idol worship.
                1. A man takes the branch of a tree.
                        a. Part of it is burned in oven to roast his food.
                        b. Another part in fireplace to keep him warm.
                        c. The rest of it he carves into an idol, then bows to it and  
                           worships it. You are my god. 
        D. David said the idols of the heathen are vain.
                1. He warns that those who worship them become like them.
                2. Dead, stupid, dull, insensate.
        E. These people of Lystra worshipping a god with uncontrolled lusts and  passions said
           that every  man should have a mistress for pleasure, a  concubine for        
           gratification and a wife to bear his legitimate children.

III. TURN TO THE LIVING GOD.
        A. Drink all you can of emptiness, it will never fill you.
                1. Your life will never be fulfilling until you are serving the true and 
                   living  God.
        B. Only a living God can give life, hope.