Saturday, July 29, 2023

Scripture Central – Lani & John Hilton III – 3 Lessons from Book of Acts (40:34) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikiM9k6zS6k 

ACTS 16-21 1) what do we really worship? 2) powerful female disciples of Christ 3) burning books (and ships) 4) feeding the flock

--Ephesians 3:19 Know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God

--Colossians 3:1-3, 5 If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is…not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and and your life is hidden with Christ in God….Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed which (which is idolatry)

--Call from Paul to focus first on Jesus not things

--Counterfeit God is anything we get our self-satisfaction or sense of value from

--if happiness rooted in things rather than Jesus & God

--Acts 16:13:15 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was … a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household (She’s the head of household? Owner of her own business?) were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

--Acts 16:40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.

--Lydia brave to have Christian’s meeting in her house after Paul & Silas thrown into prison, same thing could happen to her; were they there to pray for Paul & Silas or to encourage & teach one another because of all the opposition? Lydia had home to host a group of people and a heart big enough to love and support those new converts, Lydia good example to let Lord open her heart and do what is needed to build testimony and faith in her community

--Woman named Priscilla, also called Prisca in Acts 18:2, she & her husband Aquila lived in Corinth & had Paul stay & he worked with them 18 months, when Paul left Corinth for Ephesus…Priscilla & Aquila went with him, when Paul left Ephesus to teach elsewhere, Priscilla & Aquila stayed in Ephesus to build up the church, a missionary named Apollos came to Ephesus, he was a good teacher but didn’t have all the gospel of Jesus Christ details quite right…

--Acts 18:26 When Priscilla and Aquila heard [Apollos], they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately

--Priscilla isn’t on sidelines but preaching, they give all they have to building up Church of Jesus Christ

 --Romans 16:5 Greet… the church in their house (this couple opens their home & hosting church meetings)

--Lydia and Priscilla are doing great works, in Thessalonica Paul met more female disciples of Jesus, in Athens woman named Damaris who worshipped idols, he teaches her about the one true God & she totally left teachings of her culture to join church,  

--Acts 16-20 group of women converts in Philippi, Athens, Thessalonica & Berea and 3 named women converts: Lydia in Philippi, Damaris in Athens and Priscilla in Corinth, many unnamed women converts in early Christian church

--in Acts 21 Paul travels back to Jerusalem via Tyre gathering disciples and their wives and children were with them, Paul stops with Philip who has 4 unmarried daughters who were known to prophecy, in coming chapter we will read about Paul’s sister whose son helps Paul escape, in Romans we read about Phoebe who helped many people including Paul, Romans 16:6 Mary of Rome who works hard for saints, Romans 16:12 Tryphena, Tryphosa and Persis work very hard for Lord, Romans 16:13 Mother of Rufus who is mother figure to Paul and others, Romans 16:7, 15 Sister of Nerus, Julia and Junia who are fellow saints Paul sends greetings to, 1 Corinthians 1:11 Chloe who offers her home, leader in church, Philippians 4:2-3 Euodia and Syntyche who labor at Paul’s side, 2 Timothy 4:21 Claudia who is believer, 2 Timothy 1:5 Lois and Eunice who taught faith to children, only Priscilla is mentioned as having husband, others not married?

--Whether married or not, we all can make difference in building the Church

--Timothy called to be Paul’s helper, how did this happen—his father Greek who did not believe in Jesus but his mom Jewish

--2 Timothy 1:15 I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith [REAL FAITH] that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and am persuaded is in thee also

--Remind us countless female disciples who further the work of the Lord in their own home, teaching the gospel to children and grandchildren

--in 1979 Spencer W Kimball made profound prophecy about impact covenant-keeping women would have on future of Lord’s church: Much of major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that women of the church are seen as distinct and different in happy ways from the women of the world.

--Pres Nelson: My dear sisters, you who are our vital associated during this winding up scene, the day Pres Kimball foresaw is today. You are the women he foresaw. Your virtue, light, love, knowledge, courage, character, faith and righteous lives will draw women of the world along with their families to the Church in unprecedented numbers.

            Pres Nelson continued with list of attributes righteous women need today…Early Christian [New Testament] women exemplified these traits…this list not all-inclusive. There are many more women we could list…

            Pres Nelson: We need women who know how to make important things happen by their faith (Tryphosa and Tryphena) and who are courageous defenders of morality and families in a sin-sick world (Mary of Rome). We need women who are devoted to shepherding God’s children along the covenant path toward exaltation (Lydia), women who know how to receive personal revelation (Damaris)…We need women who can detect deception in all of its forms (Julia and Junia). We need women who know how to access the power that God makes available to covenant keepers (Euodia and Syntyche) and who express their beliefs with confidence and charity (Claudia, Phebe, Chloe). We need women who have the courage and vision of our Mother Eve (Rufus’ mother and Persis).

--during Spanish conquest of Aztec empire, Cortez burnt his ships so they had no other goal than conquering, historically many other cultures did the same, sometimes burning the ship gave people motivation they needed to move forward. Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s buried their weapons deep in ground to never use them again, similar story happened while Paul was in Ephesus, Paul preached gospel to group of people who practiced magical arts, something like witchcraft, many of those people believed Paul’s words and decided to metaphorically speaking burn the ship

--Acts 19:19-20 They collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books was calculated, it was found to come to 50 thousand silver coins. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

--John Hilton III preparing to give talk on Alma 27—the converts of Ammon who were “Perfectly Honest”, first he thought he’d take this part out to fit his life and then he thought, I should be changing my life to fit the scriptures so he metaphorically speaking burned the ship

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