There’s a sacrament in shaking the dust off your feet.

Steve Brown:
There’s a sacrament in shaking the dust off your feet. Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re sick of guilt and manipulation. And if you’re looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of Biblical truth, you’ve come to the right place. This is Key Life with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible open it to the 13th chapter of the book of Acts. And we’re looking at the sermon of the apostle Paul in the synagogue at Antioch. And it’s an amazing sermon. And we saw that he starts by setting out a history. A history of God’s people. Don’t ever forget your history, your heritage, don’t ever forget your forefathers and your foremothers, because in those places, God was preparing for this very incident and Paul and this very instant for us. God prepares before he acts. And so, the apostle Paul, in this sermon, lays out what God had done in the past, the promises he had made, the way God had called his people. And we saw yesterday, how two parallel themes of human history came together in the first century. And Jesus of Nazareth was born at that very time. We saw yesterday that if Jesus had been born 60 years later, you never would have heard his name or 60 years before, you never would have heard of this name, because at that very time, there was a common language, a common road system, a common coinage, common thought forms that made it possible for the gospel of Jesus Christ to spread into the entire world. Now, let’s continue and see what followed after the apostle Paul’s sermon. He, has been very clear on what the gospel, the repercussions of rejecting it, and at the 42nd verse of the 13th chapter of Acts, Luke writes.

And they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them, and urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly saying, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turned to the Gentiles. For the Lord has commanded us saying, ‘I’ve set you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.'”

So, what’s going on here? Let me tell you what’s going on here. Matthew 10:12 through 15 is going on here. Are you familiar with that passage? That’s where Jesus says to his disciples when he sends them out, he tells them that when they go to a place and they’re not received, they should shake the dust off their feet and go to somewhere else. And that’s what the apostle Paul is doing here. And it’s important that you see that the gospel was rejected, not by the people, but by the leaders of the people. Leadership is very, very important. And leaders, Paul or James says in the book of James will be held to a higher standard than others. And this is one of the reasons, because you take God’s chosen people and cause them to miss the best news that was ever spoken in the history of the world. And that’s what the leaders do. There are those who are anti-Semites, who liked to say the Jews redacted Jesus, and therefore they’re under a curse. The blood of Christ is not a curse, in any place that I know, it’s a blessing. And so, the leaders led them apart. But the thing I want you to see is that Paul shook the dust off his feet. You have some friends with whom you’ve shared the gospel a thousand times, and they’ve rejected it a thousand times? This principle works here. There are people who really want to hear. There are people who are open to this message. There are people who rejoice to know that they’re forgiven and that they’re going to live forever. And if you spend your time, speaking to those who don’t like you, who will reject you, who don’t like the message, who will not listen, who will never have anything to do with the Christian faith. Stop it. Just say, look, if you ever have questions or you want to talk about this, some other time, I’ve got some answers for you, but right now you don’t give a rip. And since you don’t care, I’m going to go to somebody who does care. And then do what Jesus said, shake the dust off your feet and go somewhere else. For heaven’s sake, go somewhere else. It’s a sacrament. The sacrament of shaking the dust off your feet. Our time is limited, the gospel is true. And we are called to take it to people who are open to that particular message. And so, there comes a time, no matter how much you love the person, no matter how much you want to see them come into the kingdom, to be in heaven with you. There comes a time when you say, that’s it. I’m not going to talk about this anymore, unless you ask me. I’m going to go to somebody who cares. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. Today we resumed our examination, our discovery of the truth found in Paul’s sermon. And what happened after that sermon. More good stuff from Acts 13 tomorrow. Don’t miss that. So, we know we should pray, but sometimes, it’s hard. If you thought you were alone in feeling that, you are not. That’s why I want to tell you about a CD called the Tenacity in Prayer. This is a conversation between Steve and our friend, Pete Alwinson based on Steve’s book called Approaching God. Take a listen to part of that. Then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer. Here’s Steve and Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
The most important conversations you have today, are with God. And tomorrow, and the next day, this week, you’re going to be talking with your boss, with your coworkers, with your spouse, with your kids. I’d like to have those transcripts as well as to what you say with your kids. You’re going to have all, you’re going to talk with a future boss. You’re going to talk with an investor. You’re going to talk with a client, but the most important conversations you will have this week, the most crucial, are with God. And so, we’re talking about prayer and that’s been the big idea of it. And here’s why, here’s why, let me prove to you why those conversations with God are the most important, because number one, you need power in your life. And number two, God is the only one with the power in your life to actually help you. Oh yeah. He’s also the only one that will listen to you in toto, in complete. Who would ever sit down and listen to everything I had to say, you barely get through a morning, on Sunday. Who would ever listen to all of the drivel that I bring, all the stuff, God will cause he’s my Father because of Jesus. But I’ve learned to pray because Jesus did it. He commanded it. And I’ve seen so many answers to prayer. Now, let’s get an expert, Steve Brown is here. He’s going to help me talk about prayer. And, it’s privileged Steve to have you here to talk about prayer. Approaching God is Steve’s book. You can’t get it in our bookstore today because it’s already sold out, but we’ll get some others or you can get it at Key Life, but you start out in the introduction and you say this.

I have a theory. Unbelievers don’t pray because they’re afraid that God might be there. Believers don’t pray because they’re afraid that he might not be.

Explain that.

Steve Brown:
Well, you know, if you’re not, if you’re not a believer, we’re glad you’re here, but it’s hard. I feel sorry for you. I mean, you’ve gotta be careful, the movies you go to, and the people that are friends. You can’t just read any book, you know, you’ve gotta be careful about the books you read, cause they’ll start you thinking. And funerals have gotta be terrible. I mean, you can’t get away from the corpse man, that makes you think. And, but one thing that you have, cause you want to be autonomous and I get that, I do too, sometimes. And if you get, if you pray and God shows you’re in trouble, I mean, all of a sudden it comes to an end. And so, you’re afraid to pray cause you God might show and the rest of us who are religious, we’re afraid to pray because we’re afraid he may not. And, you think you’ve got it bad, Pete and I, we make our living. I mean, what if we find out there’s no God. And so, it’s easier for us to do religious stuff, and if we can just stay busy doing religious stuff and hope there’s a God, then we can get by, but if we find out there isn’t one, there’s the meaninglessness and the emptiness and the homelessness and the loss of a job. So, religious people don’t break because they’re afraid God might not show. Well, Pete and I’ve checked. Okay.

Pete Alwinson:
He’s there.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, he’s really there.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, your first point there was illustrated when we went to London and there was that pagan lady who the missionaries prayed for, I think I told you guys about this. They prayed for her. And she said, I don’t believe in God and said she wanted a baby and they prayed for her and she got pregnant with twins. So, that fits the same thing. Now, she doesn’t know what to do with that, but you’re absolutely right. I mean, you’re, you know, for us we’re as pastors and religious types.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
We’re, we’re, we’re good. We’re good with activity and busy-ness, especially as evangelicals, as Bible believers, teaching the Bible, preaching the Bible, you know, doing the religious stuff is easier than prayer.

Matthew Porter:
If you ever find yourself reluctant to pray, afraid to pray or just don’t know what to say, then get your copy of this CD right now, by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also drop an email to [email protected] to ask for that CD. By mail, send your request to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

If you’re in Canada, mail us at

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Just ask for the CD called the Tenacity in Prayer. And finally, if you’re able, would you partner in the work of Key Life through your giving? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or join the growing number of folks who simply text Key Life to 28950. That’s Key Life, one word, two words. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.