Paul's ministry in Athens illustrates how to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world but not be of the world. Paul arrived in Athens, a city of great learning. The citizens of this city knew many things, but they did not know Christ. Paul began to experience their culture, but he continued to value God above anything that he experienced or learned in Athens.

Proverbs 25:27. A consumption economy has lost sight of God. A consumption economy has no time for God because it is too busy maximizing how much it can consume in food, clothing, housing, energy, hard goods, communications and entertainment. In a consumption society, material goods and fashion replace religion and the spiritual things of God.

Exodus 32:23. Whenever we stray from God's purpose in our lives, most of us can come up with a good excuse to justify our actions. The number one excuse is for us to blame it on other people. This is what Aaron did in the Bible when he was confronted by Moses concerning the Golden Calf. Moses questioned Aaron on why he had led the Israelites into sin with the worship of the Golden Calf.

Colossians 3:5. The definition of lust includes idolizing anything above God. When you commit sex out of marriage, you are in lust. You are putting the sex act above God. When you are willing to do anything for a new car, you are in lust. You are putting the car above God. When you hate or envy someone because they have more money than you, you are in lust.

1 Samuel 15:23. Even when God does good things for us, our sin nature will rebel. This happened with Saul, Israel's first king. As time past while Saul was king, he became full of himself thinking he knew better than God and God's prophet, Samuel. He overtly disobeyed God's word that Samuel had given him.