We're going to be reading tonight in Acts chapter 17, starting in verse number 16. The title of my message is marshill.com. Starting in verse 16, it says, Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Other some, he seemed as to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these strange things mean, or what these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. And Proverbs 17, 24 says, Wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. Father God, Lord, I thank you for this day, God. Thank you for this church, Lord, and these believers, God, that you've gathered here, God, to hear your word preached, Lord. I pray you'd be with me as I speak tonight, God, that you'd be with my lips, keep them from error, Father. Help me not to say anything that's untrue, God. And Lord, I pray that you'd give us the words that we need to hear tonight, Father. Help me to I preach to myself, Lord, as well as to the congregation, God. And Lord, I just pray that you would bless this time of fellowship, God, and bless our evening in Jesus' name. Amen. So Paul is in the city of Athens alone. He's waiting for Timothy and Silas. He just left Berea where he had been found by some angry Jews from Thessalonica who were upset by his preaching Jesus Christ there. And when they heard that he was at Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble for him. And it says that he had to leave immediately and left Timothy and Silas behind. So he sent word to them with the people that brought him to Athens, because that's how people used to text each other back then. He sent word to tell them to come and meet him there in Athens as quick as they could. Now, it doesn't say for sure how he got to Athens. It says they sent him away to go, as it were, to the sea, and they conducted Paul, or they that conducted Paul, brought him to Athens. So they may have taken a short journey to the coast and then sailed to Athens, or they may have walked or rode all the way there. But in either case, it was a significant journey. It's a couple of hundred miles, straight line distance. So it would have taken a few days at least for his message to get back to Silas and Timothy. And then they would have to make their way there. So Paul was going to be in Athens for a while. He did some sightseeing while he was there, looking around at the city, kind of like a tourist would today, perhaps. Athens is a very popular destination. There's lots of things to see there. There are several Greek and Roman ruins and various states of preservation, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, theaters and odiums and temples to several different gods and goddesses, Athena, Zeus, and Hephaestus, to name a few. Of course, in Paul's day, these places were not ruins, but they were very much alive and full of activity. People going about their daily lives would attend at these temples, worshiping those gods, which, of course, Paul knew to be idols. I guess he had seen all he wanted to see of Athens, and he decided to find something better to do. So it said that while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with them that met with him. So he started arguing. That's what it means to dispute something. He's probably arguing against everything he found in Athens. It says he disputed with the Jews in the synagogue and the devout persons, probably Jews, but that could also be people devoted to their idols that he met in the market where he also disputed with people. He was going to try and make converts wherever he could while he waited there for Silas and Timothy because Paul doesn't like to waste time. Now Athens was a hub of philosophy at the time. Philosophy is man's attempt to understand things through his own reason. It comes from the Greek philo, meaning love, and sophia, which is the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom. So philosophy means love of wisdom. So Paul was meeting up with a few philosophers who were intrigued by what Paul had to say, because it was something that they hadn't heard before. It says, Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? Others some, He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Who are these Epicureans and these Stoics? BibleResources.info says, The best way to achieve happiness and pleasure, therefore, was to submit to these laws of nature, live simply and virtuously without burdening oneself with worldly cares, and do everything to avoid physical pain. Though they figured the gods did exist somewhere far away, religion was not important. Theirs was a practical search for happiness. The Stoics, on the other hand, believed that God was everywhere, in nature, in the universe, and in man, and therefore to live in harmony with the universe one should strive toward godly perfection of character and of submission to the divine will. This was achieved through virtuous living and self-control. Man conquered the world by conquering himself. Evil happened when man allowed passions to control him. whereas the Epicureans believed pleasure and happiness were the ultimate end. For the Stoics, virtue, wisdom, and goodness toward every living thing enabled the individual to reach perfect union with this pantheistic or universal presence that governed all. These different philosophies were kind of opposed, like competing schools of psychology. They have their own ideas of how man can achieve happiness, but they both agree that achieving happiness should be what motivates the actions of men. Probably neither of them were very successful at achieving the ultimate happiness. So when they hear Paul speaking things that they hadn't heard before, they are interested in hearing them, maybe to see if they can be incorporated into their philosophies to make them more happy. Verse 19 says, And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean. Areopagus is two things. First, it's the name of a place there in Athens. It translates to Mars Hill. Ares is the Greek name for the god of war. Mars is the Roman name, Areopagus. It's also told here in Webster's that it's... But afterward, we moved to the Royal Portico, an open square where the judges sat in the open air, enclosed by a cord. Their sessions were in the night, that they might not be diverted by objects of sight or influenced by the presence and action of the speakers. By a law of Solon, no person could be a member of this tribunal until he had been archon or chief magistrate. This court took cognizance of high crimes and piety and immorality and watched over the laws and the public treasury. So some think that Paul may have been taken before this tribunal to be tried somewhat. Now, I think that this is referring to the place, the actual rock called Mars Hill and not the tribunal. Wikipedia says that at the time of Paul's preaching on Mars Hill, the Areopagus would have actually been meeting in a different location than where it began and got its name from. Probably the Mars Hill setting was just used as a place for these philosophical meanderings. So verse 21 says, for all the Athenians and strangers which were there at Mars Hill spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. These people were very busy listening to each other talk about things that they hoped would enlighten them or at least entertain them for a while. That doesn't sound like any kind of court proceedings I've ever heard of. It sounds like a place to hang out and have conversations. But there was at least one member of the Areopagus that heard Paul there. and believed. So maybe Paul had been called before this tribunal to be heard and perhaps convicted as some kind of religious criminal, who knows? But Paul took the opportunity to preach a sermon to those people that had gathered there to hear some new thing. In verse 22, we're going to go ahead and continue reading. It says, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription. to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all things. and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." These men, these philosophers and seekers of truth, got to hear from Paul the gospel truth, that God was nearer to them than they ever knew, and that he had extended an invitation to all men to repent of their vain idols, and come to him and know the truth, and that there was a coming day of judgment, when Jesus, who had been raised from the dead, returns. But most of them didn't receive this truth. Verse 32 said, And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. They didn't take Paul seriously, probably because they had already become set in their beliefs, and those beliefs didn't leave any room for a resurrection and a day of judgment. But they at least got to while away some time, hearing something novel to them that day. They probably excused Paul from the speaker's podium and invited the next person up who was waiting to speak. Paul didn't stay to listen. It says, so Paul departed from among them. So this was not a fruitless exchange. Even at this meeting of philosophical lollygaggers, Paul was able to convince a few people. Dionysius the Areopagite was a member of the Areopagus, so at least one was present, and he became a Christian after hearing Paul speak that day. But Paul didn't stay there in Athens. Going back to Mars Hill day after day, he moved on to Corinth. These people in Athens seemed very familiar to me. This gathering together in one place, hoping to hear something new or have something new to say to those who are listening. It kind of reminds me of myself and millions of other people who are living on the Internet and social media. According to an article I found on Statista.com, it says, as of 2025, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 141 minutes per day, down from 143 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent online on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just 2 hours and 16 minutes. That's the average time that all people who use the Internet spend every day on social media. Some people spend much less time. Some spend much more time. That's how averages work. Compared to that, the average number of times that adults in the U.S. read the Bible per year as of 2021 on Statista as well, it says that a combined 42% said that they never read the Bible, or less than once a year. 42%. 8% read it once or twice a year. 8% said three or four times a year. 8% said once a month. 9% said once a week. 14% said four or more times a week. And 11% said every day. That's probably more than I would have thought, 11%. But it's obvious that Americans spend a lot more time on social media than they do reading the Bible. Even people that read the Bible every day are probably spending more time on social media than they do reading the Bible. Proverbs 17, 24, we read before, said, I'm not saying that a person has to spend two and a half hours a day reading the Bible. Although if you did that, I don't think it would hurt you in the least, but two and a half hours is a lot of time to be spent on anything every day. And if you're spending that much time online and social media, you should at least be aware of it. I think that a lot of people spend time, a lot of time, without realizing how much time they lose to things like Facebook and X or YouTube. which may not even be considered social media by a lot of people who responded to these polls. They may be spending just as much time watching videos as they do scrolling through their feeds on other social sites. I know sometimes I'm doing both at the same time. Call it multitasking. People may use social media for lots of different reasons. It's a way to stay connected with people that you may not see very often, family or friends. That's probably why a lot of people originally joined sites like Facebook. You add them to your friends list and then when you log in, you see their posts in your feed. Oh look, Uncle Ted got that wart removed. Give that a thumbs up because I didn't like looking at it at Thanksgiving dinner. Scroll down a little bit. Mom reposted a news article about a cheating scandal in a local baking contest. Who knows that that kind of stuff goes on. I'll like that one. After a while, you'll start seeing ads for wart remover and baking products. Nowadays, a lot of people swear that their phones are listening in on their conversations and sending data back to Facebook and Google, and that they see ads targeted to them based on things that they haven't searched for or talked about online. Those companies say they don't do that, but a lot of people are skeptical. I know Christy says that her phone listens to her. But the fact is, social media sites like Facebook are collecting data on its users constantly. profiling their habits, what they like, what they post, what they read, what they scroll past. And what they are able to get from that is a very good idea of what kinds of things interest them. And then they use that information, not just for advertising, but to try to keep you on their site for as long as possible by showing you more and more things that they think you would like to see. It's called the algorithm. They don't just show you the things that your friends say or pictures they post. They recommend things. from other users that they think match your interests. They need people to be looking at their content so that they can show them the advertisements that pay their bills. So they are constantly trying to match new content to your profile. They will even ask you if it's a good post for you, if it's relevant, or if you think it's a good recommendation. And you can mark things that you aren't interested in, and it will show you less things like that, all to try and maximize the amount of time that you will spend using their site. So it's very easy to lose track of the amount of time that you spend scrolling through some of these posts as you just get lost in the feed of information that they are presenting you with. A lot of people admit that they are using social media to kill time. Five of the most popular reasons people said that they use social media was to stay up to date with news and current events, Find funny or entertaining content, fill up spare time, and then stay in touch with what my friends are doing or share photos or videos with others. People are spending their spare time on social media. Social media just turns into endless entertainment with very little true value. It is true that many people are turning to social media for their news instead of reading a newspaper or watching nightly news shows like people used to. So they feel like they need to keep reading their ex-feed in case something big happens. They want to be informed as soon as possible. That way they can repost it and comment on it and hopefully some people will like their comment and repost it. But the way the internet works is much different than the way news used to get to us. Now we can hear about all the bad things that are happening anywhere in the world instantly, and that isn't necessarily a good thing. Ecclesiastes 1, Solomon said, I, the preacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. The term doom-scrolling came about in 2020 during the COVID-19 disaster when a lot of people were locked in their houses and had little else to do but scroll through the article after article of bad news on the internet. Wikipedia says that doom-scrolling or doom-surfing is the act of spending an excessive amount of time reading large quantities of news, particularly negative news, on the web and social media. The concept was coined around 2020, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveys and studies suggest doomscrolling is predominant among youth. It can be considered a form of internet addiction disorder. In 2019, a study by the National Academy of Sciences found that doomscrolling can be linked to a decline in mental and physical health. Numerous reasons for doomscrolling have been cited, including negativity, bias, fear of missing out, increased anxiety, and attempts at gaining control over uncertainty. It says that social media companies play a significant role in the perpetuation of doomscrolling by leveraging algorithms designed to maximize user engagement. These algorithms prioritize content that is emotionally stimulating, often favoring negative news and sensationalized headlines, to keep users scrolling. The business models of most social media platforms rely heavily on user engagement, which means that the longer people stay on their platforms, the more advertisements they see and the more data is collected on their behavior. This creates a cycle where emotionally charged content, often involving negative or anxiety-inducing information, is repeatedly pushed to users, encouraging them to keep scrolling and consuming more content. Despite the well-documented negative effects of doomscrolling on mental health, social media companies are incentivized to maintain user engagement through these methods, making it challenging for individuals to break free from the habit. News media has understood for decades that negative news was more likely to capture attention than good news or neutral fact stories. They had a phrase that they would say. It said, if it bleeds, it leads. If there was some horrific thing that had happened, that was going to be the top story on every news show, the headline in the newspapers, because that would capture more interest than what happened in the local city council meeting that week, even though the city council meeting probably had more effect on your life. But if 75% of what you read online is bad news, you're liable to start getting depressed. Start thinking that everything is bad. The whole world is just a dumpster fire. You see people like that online. People who actually think that climate change is going to end life as we know it if we don't stop using fossil fuels. They've been programmed by the content that they consume to believe this, and now they're showing up in YouTube shorts, throwing soup at paintings and art museums, and gluing their hands to the pavement in the middle of busy roads. Young people are especially prone to depression from social media. Not just from doomscrolling, but also just comparing themselves to other people that they see online. Teens can become dissatisfied with their looks, their bodies, develop eating disorders, all because they are seeing the world through a social media influencer's Snapchat-filtered Instagram feed. There's a lot of good reasons not to spend any time on social media. And maybe that's the best way to approach things like Facebook and whatever other social sites people are using today. New ones are always popping up. Blue Sky is the latest one I know of, a place for liberals who were triggered when Elon Musk bought Twitter and started to let conservatives say things that they didn't like to hear. Maybe just staying off of these platforms would be the best thing for everyone. But I realize that that probably isn't going to happen. The internet and social media is where most people get their information these days for almost everything. Local groups for buying and selling are very useful for places like here in the Ozarks where everything is spread out and it's not easy to just go hit garage sales on a Saturday like you can in a big city. People use social media to find out when businesses are going to be closed or running specials or when council meetings are happening or what time church is moving to on Sunday. It's 10 o'clock now, don't forget. So social media is a tool for many people that's probably not likely to change anytime soon. 1 Corinthians 7, 29 says, The time that we have is given to us by God, and it isn't so that we can just waste it all on things that have no importance. Just like the servants in the parable of the talents had to give an account to their Lord of what they did with the talents that they were given, we are going to have to explain why we didn't make good use of the time that God gave us. Jesus himself reminds us in John 11 that there are only 12 hours in a day. By our reckoning of time today, you probably spend 14 hours a day awake. Some people need less sleep, but eight to 10 hours is pretty normal. You spend time working if you have a regular job, maybe eight hours a day. So that leaves you maybe six hours to do everything else that you have to do. Your prayers, your Bible reading, time you spend with your friends and your family, eating your necessary food, and anything else that you need to do. How much of that time would you want to say that you devoted to just endlessly scrolling down the pages of your socials looking for some new thing? The Bible tells us that those people at Mars Hill spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. But they never learned the truth about God, and most of them didn't recognize it when they heard it. They mocked the resurrection. 2 Peter 3 says, They're saying this all over the internet. People mocking the Lord, mocking the resurrection, scoffing at the Day of Judgment, and just doing whatever they feel like doing, and putting videos of it on YouTube and TikTok. But there's also believers out there. Through the years, a lot of the people that we've come to know and love as brothers and sisters have come to us through the internet. They may not all still be here today, but I think that of all the folks left in our small congregation, myself and my family are the only ones who didn't come to this church after finding it online. So God has used the internet. I know we're not the only ones. Lots of people have had to turn to the internet to find good churches. where they can fellowship with like-minded believers. And I know God can still use the internet. I hope that some people that listen to our sermons online are blessed by them. If you are, wherever you listen, leave a comment and let us know that you're a real person, not some AI that's learning how to mimic my voice. But let's all realize how short the time is that we have left. Let's use the tools that we have for godly purposes, but not allow them to use us to dominate our time and fill our minds with worldliness, because there's enough worldliness all around us. You don't have to fear that you're going to miss out on something wonderful if you put down your phone. You could set limits on how much time you spend online unnecessarily and redeem some of that time for God I found a study online that Crossway found it would take an average reader about 74 hours and 28 minutes to read the entire Bible. That's 56 hours and 44 minutes in the Old Testament and 17 hours and 44 minutes in the New Testament. That sounds like a lot of time. But at that rate, you could read the whole Bible in a year if you spent about 12 minutes a day. If you spent 24 minutes a day, you could read the Bible twice in a year. You could split it up, read 12 to 15 minutes in the morning, then read again in the evening. If you're already reading 30 minutes a day, that's great. Read a little more. You can't read too much Bible. Remember that wisdom is before him that hath understanding. Reading the Word of God will give you wisdom and understanding. If you think you don't have time to read the Bible for 25 or 30 minutes a day, I bet you could make time if you put that phone down for just a little while. As I said, I'm preaching to myself. I know how much time I spend online, and it's not something I'm proud of, but I want to make a a start to try to limit the time that I spend doom scrolling and spend a little more time in the word, more time praying, and more time doing things for God before he comes back, amen? Amen. Father God, Lord, I thank you, God, for all the things that you've done for us, God. Thank you for preserving your word for us, God, that we can read it, Lord, we can hold it in our hand, and we can know what you want us to do, God, know your will for us, know what you did for us, how you sent your son Jesus to die for us, God, and we thank you, Father, for the free gift of salvation through simple faith in what he did, God. Lord, I pray you would help us, Lord, not to waste time. God, it's so easy with all the distractions that the world has, God, to just spend time doing nothing all day long and feel like you did something. But when you're done, you can't point to anything that you accomplished, Lord. It's a shame, God, that so many people fall into this trap, Lord. Lord, I pray you would just help us, God, to mind the time that we spend online, God, and that we would use the time that you've given us, God, to do something for you. Father, help us to know your word better, to get it in us, Lord, and God, just give us an unction, I guess is the word, Lord, to do the things that you want us to do, God. Give us that urge, Lord, to serve you. Father, I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.