Philip Acts in Obedience, Traditions
First B Jackson
2013-08-11

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Well, y'all know that we are in a study of acts. We're going through just every Sunday morning. It's really nice as a young pastor to know where you're gonna go next Sunday.

To know that the next passage is the next passage and it's so great to see that God's divinely super intense. That's what he does. This message this week when the gospel spreads through Philip, God's willing servant into black Africa. Crossing cultural balance happens to be coincidental happening at the same time as our ladies group going over to Kenya. I was thinking about this we've had to vote a while back and we figured out what a quorum took because we figured out how many members we had.

You know one tenth of our membership basically went to Africa this morning. Isn't that cool? That's pretty neat. They were acting in obedience. This is kinda...

This sermon today, I think that it's the natural flow of the text. I don't think there's any doubt about it. I hope to be able to show that. But to act in obedience is the way that God uses human agency. He wants to be known.

He wants to be loved. He wants to be served. But human agency, what gets in the way a lot of times is our heart, our obedience. So let's walk through this passage together, and I'm gonna try to point out some things that I think the text really zeros in on well. And I have a few stories along the way too.

So Philip acts in obedience. It's acts eight twenty six through 40. If you look back to verse 25, 26 makes sense a little better. 25 says something about Peter and John after they had been in Samaria. They had been in the middle of this revival that's going on in Samaria when they went back towards Jerusalem.

It says, they preached the gospel in all the towns of Samaria as they went. It was an as you go type of evangelism. So as they're walking back through what just a few years earlier would have been seen as an enemy territory because they were the half breed Samaritans. But as John and Peter are walking back through it says they're preaching the gospel in each of the towns as they went back towards Jerusalem. And then our first verse of this text this week says, but as for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, go south down a desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.

Just so you know, I should've probably put a map up there. Just so you know, Samaria is North of Jerusalem. So this was no small feat when a messenger or an angel of the Lord said to him, go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. This was going out of his way. He had to go all the way back through Jerusalem and then down towards Africa.

I wanna point something else out in the text. Angel in that... In the Greek is. That's what that squiggly lines up there. That's what that means.

An ambulance. And angolos is not just angel. It means messenger. Now did... Was this an angel, a divine thing like you're used to seeing on greeting cards with wings and with the halo and the whole deal?

Maybe. But the word for sure means messenger. And since it says an angel or a messenger of the Lord, we can know he's carrying God's message. An angel is someone who carries God's message. Does that make sense?

Are you with me still? Are you with me? So the word means angel and messenger. I bring that up because I think this was an angel. I think it was an actual angel like you're thinking of angel.

But if we just leave it right there, we're tempted to think I only have to act if I get this divine visit from an angel with a halo in the wings, and it scares me to death in the middle of the night. So I want you to take it for this. Anyone who carries God's message is an ungodly, messenger of the Lord. As per Philip, a messenger of the Lord said to him, go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. So we started out.

I want you to look at that a little. I did it in pink this morning. Paschal is not here. Paschal is my seven year old who is on the plane to Africa right now. I did this in pink.

The go that it says right there that literally what the angel said or the messenger of the Lord said to him is rise up and go. And then the very next sentence says, and having risen up, he went. It's that simple. So we could stop right there. It'd be a really short sermon.

It's thirty more minutes before twelve. But godly instruction was given, in this case, by an angel of the Lord, messenger of the Lord. Godly instruction was given, go south, get up and go, and he got up and went. That's what it says. So it was followed by immediate obedience.

I said, fill it back and obedience, but I didn't put that immediately in there. The media comes in when you see the text. Get up and go. Got up and went. I love that.

We're not gonna stop right there, of course. But miss Meg, I have introduced y'all to miss Meg, but it's been over a year, so I'm gonna re reintroduce you. Miss Meg was high school kindergarten and first grade teacher at a little school, little Christian school in South Carolina. It was kind of a pre pre school deal. And miss bag is sort of a skinny hippie, and she's a delight.

She's just always wearing a smile, and she is just overflowing with the love of the Lord and everything that comes out of her mouth is pretty much it's much building people up. In fact, the first verse that she taught took Pascal's class and Pascal's class at that time was Pascal and seven little girls. There were no boys in the class. And miss May is so incredibly sweet and all these seven sweet little pink wearing girls were in there and miss May's mantra, not really a mantra, but she said it so often you think it was, was this. I will look at them right away and with a happy heart.

She said that over and over and over again to them to instill that in them that when there is godly direction in our life, that that's the response. That's what it should be. When your parents or when godly instruction comes your way, I will obey right away and with a happy heart. The way she said it, they didn't wanna do it. It's because she loved them.

They loved her. So miss Meg's mantra will come to play from time to time. You might hear, I will obey right away and with a happy heart. And this morning at 05:00 in the morning when we were getting up and getting those gals to I brought it up this morning. We both passed away and time now.

All of a right away, after the happy heart, we will be left behind. So what happens next in the text? It says, get up and go, got up and went. And he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandike, the queen of Ethiopia. If you look into the history of Africa, the kind of a...

Some of your translations may say canvas, like they just translate the term canvas literally as canvas, the the name canvas. That's what we use there. And that's fine. But it's probably in the office. The queen of Ethiopia, that's an applause right that describes what kind of care Candace is.

The queen of Ethiopia. In Ethiopia was the area South Of The Upper Nile in Egypt. Was pretty much everything left in Africa from there down to the bottom. Ethiopia would include the country of Ethiopia, but also Sudan and Kenya and Somalia and a lot of those other ones in that area. So this was a pretty big deal.

This... They felt the same way as Egypt did that the pharaohs were divine and so the actual king was too holy to do anything. So he hands off to the first lady, the khanda king, the queen of Ethiopia. The treasurer of Ethiopia would have been a very, very powerful guy. He would have been someone of quite a status.

And we see the word eunuch there and if you know what a eunuch is, it seems so bizarre in today's world, but a eunuch at that time for a courtier was a way of ensuring that they did not have anything but business on their mind. That makes sense? This guy cared about the treasury, and he was not caring about a whole lot of other things. But he had gone to Jerusalem to worship. This is really, really interesting too that he had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning.

So we can say that this guy culturally, as far as Philip is concerned, he's very different. Philip is a Greek speaking Hellenistic Jew, Christian. This guy had gone to Jerusalem to worship. So most likely, he was a... Either a Jewish convert or proselyte.

He was a god fearer is what the New Testament would call him. And he had made a pilgrimage of quite a distance to go to Jerusalem, and he was now returning. I think it's safe to call him a seeker. He was seeking God. He was going in search.

He went into worship. That's what he was doing. God fearing man. But most likely, black Africa, culturally, hoity hoity comes to mind. Well well-to-do.

We see later on that he has a a chariot, and so probably pretty decked out Cadillac type thing. Culturally, very different from Philip. So the eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, seeking God, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage or chariot or ox cart, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah, which he probably picked up in Jerusalem. That would make sense.

Now the Holy Spirit said to Philip, go over and walk along beside the carriage. Now what's that? I mentioned it in the first verse. The messenger of the Lord said, get up and go, and he got up and went. So what's this?

The spirit, the Holy Spirit says to him, get over beside that chair and catch up. So he's like, catch up with that chair. What's that? Godly instruction. And this time, it's from the Holy Spirit.

Now that's living within Philip. Philip is a Christian. He has the Holy Spirit living in his heart. Was it an audible voice from heaven? Was it in the form of a dove?

Uh-uh. But we know that it was the Holy Spirit. That's what the text says. The Holy Spirit said, catch up with the spirit. So what do you think Philip will do?

I wouldn't be preaching on it if he wasn't gonna do the right thing. Okay. It's a positive example. Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. So what did he do?

Obey. He obeyed. He ran over. He obeyed. How?

Immediately. Immediately and unquestioningly. When I mentioned all those cultural differences about this black African eunuch, you know, from way, way far away. Rich guy, most likely. Mention all that stuff.

Philip very easily could have said to the spirit. He could have quenched the spirit and said, I don't know anything about Ethiopia. I don't know what's about black folks. Not gonna go away. He's a rich guy.

He's obviously dripping with, you know, riches. This is... I'm not... No. That's not cool.

He didn't know that the guy had been to Jerusalem. He didn't know what for. Didn't know anything about it. But when he obeyed immediately and unquestioningly, he heard the guy reading the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. So obedience was required before he figured out why.

Does that make sense? There's... It kinda reminds you of Abraham, leave the land which you know and go to a place that I'll show you. God didn't tell him what he was gonna do before he got there. Maybe I'll do road trip story.

This is just a reminder. Sometimes these things are just notes for me. Okay? I told you about this man, but I will pay right away with a happy heart. My road trip story...

Do you all know what the RAs are? Any Southern Baptist in here? The RAs are the royal ambassadors. It's kind of like the Christian version of the Boy Scouts, a little Southern Baptist version of Boy Scouts. And we went from time to time on camping trips or hiking trips and that sort of thing.

We went to the North Georgia Mountains. They would not even be called Buttes here. But we went on a trout fishing trip when I was about 11, maybe 12. And we went and we fished and fished and fished for the first day after it rained and rained and rained for the first night. And we didn't catch a single fish.

Nobody did. Not one person. And then one of us crossing the log fell in and it became a swimming trip and everybody had fun. Everybody upstream from us was still fishing. Everybody downstream had muddy water for the rest of our weekend.

When we were on the way home from this trip, we had a pickup truck that had broken down one time. They replaced an axle. With a huge deal. They did that three hours. Amazing prop...

Providence there. We had a pickup truck, a '79 Buick, and another car, and all of us were in these vehicles going home. We stopped at a gas station, a restroom, And when I came out of the restroom, there was no pickup truck and there was no '79 Buick. You know, the other car was in the big. And no cell phones.

I didn't consider a cell phone at that point. What in the world am I gonna do? I'm stuck here the lobby or wherever. Toledo doors, near Toledo doors. And as I was thinking, what do I do?

I I caught a vision of that '79 Buick that I was supposed to be in on the other side of an intersection and they had left me. All of them had left me. And they were sitting there and the light had just turned and I I remember this in slow motion. The light had just turned from red to green and they were starting to go. When I saw them, I took off running as fast as I could.

I was barefoot. And I took off running as fast as I could just heading for that Buick. That's all I was looking for. And I saw my dad was in the passenger seat. I saw his arm out the window, and he turned his head kinda slowly, and he saw me, and he said...

He did not scream, he said, stop. And I was running full bore and I just hit the brakes like this. I can remember it being like that and stopping and as soon as I did, a truck went past and it would have killed me. And I don't wanna be that, but it would have killed me because a big transfer truck going through a green light just down the road. But because I was a immediately and unquestionably, I knew that it left me.

Well, they weren't in the right. They left me. But if I had not stopped, and my dad always brings that up. I brought it up in the first service because there are lots of little kids in there. Sometimes you just gotta do it.

Let him explain later. Just do it. When God gets you a message, however he gets you a message, just do it. Figure out why later. But if he says it, you know it's him.

By all means, just do it. So the Holy Spirit said to Philip, go. Walk along beside the carriage. So Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. And Philip asked, do you understand what you're reading?

Now the first two points up here were about obedience and immediate obedience when God directs. But when he actually gets up alongside the thing, he hears what's going on. He's in the moment now. The instruction here is not listed. There wasn't the spirit of God necessarily or, you know, an angel that was whispering in his ear.

Ask him about what he's reading. You know, do you understand what I'm saying? He's not getting specific divine instruction at this point. Holy Spirit lives within our lives, and he has gifted us individually, and he expects for us to use the gifts that he's given. The question came from Philip.

It was a spontaneous response, and this is why Philip was now functioning out of the resources that God had gifted him with. He knew the Bible. He understood it. He'd been under Peter's teaching. He'd been under the apostles teaching.

He'd given himself into that fellowship. He was one of the deacons that were serving the church and he knew his Bible. He knew it well. So, for someone who had been a convert out of Judaism, a Hellenistic Jew, would he have known about Isaiah 53? That's what we'll see.

It gets to be. Yeah. He would have known that. So when he hears it, he recognizes what it is, and he starts to ask the guy a question. Do you understand what you're reading?

And the response is great because of manners thought, how can I unless someone instructs me? Isn't that a great way to be? We could turn a completely different sermon right here. To be teachable is a huge blessing. To think that you would answer that way instead of saying, well, I am the treasurer of the connotation of Ethiopia.

And, of course, I understand exactly what I'm reading. I'm sure that there's a little bit of... Well, it doesn't mean exactly that. You know? No.

He didn't say that. He said, how can I understand it unless somebody instructs me? And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. He was getting a sense that Philip knew what was going on. Was this a divine appointment?

Absolutely. God called Philip out of a revival in Samaria where he's one of the leaders. Did it make sense? You remember speaking, it didn't make much sense. He left the field to go do this.

One little thing. And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with it. And so Philip hops on board. Isn't that great? Have you ever found yourself in a position like that where you just said yes to Jesus, you just said yes to the instruction?

I know y'all have. There are probably a thousand stories, and I'm looking around and seeing a lot of you that have these kind of stories. I'm gonna tell you Trevor's story. Trevor is a good buddy of mine. I've got a bunch of these too where you find yourself in a position and you go, how in the world am I sitting here with the governor and I'm the one that people ask me questions too?

Or how is it that I'm right here next to this person in the airport and they're the only person that can make this decision and I'm the only person... You know what I'm saying? It's it's like it's divine orchestration, and God does that all the time. He makes divine appointments. Trevor's story is this.

Trevor is, grows up in Florida, and he, grew up on the beach. He was a surfer. His parents did not care much what he did and he hung out most of the time. He hung out. He smoked pot a lot.

That's what he did. That's what Trevor was primarily said would have been characterized as a pothead or stoner. And he also just kind of hung out and did surfing mainly. He became a Christian because somebody invited, hey, come go with us to youth group, go with us to church, whatever. And so he went, He heard about Jesus.

It clicked for him. It made perfect sense. It answered all the questions about the problem of evil. It answered all the questions, and God showed himself to Trevor right there. Bam.

He's now a Christian, a believer. And just a couple of weeks later, there was a mission trip that believe in from that church, and they were going to a Muslim country, which is pretty hardcore. You know, after having been in lots of different places in the world, being dropped into a tribal Muslim area, it's it's a... It's pretty hard for it. And so that's what Trevor found himself doing.

Somebody could not end up not being able to go on the trip. Already bought the ticket. They changed the name Trevor's now two week old Christian in a Muslim country on the mission field. So the missionaries there have been trying to contact or to get a seat with the tribal chiefs of this area. And the tribal chiefs would get together and they would have a a gathering in the evenings and it's folk Islam.

It's not pure Islam. They've folk Islam and they would get together and they'd smoke the peace pipe, smoke the hookah. And as they're together and they're smoking the hookah, this is how they make packs and trees and this is how people are welcomed into the fellowship. This is how people get their foot in the door. And so this was this trip.

So the missionary comes to us and comes to the group that travels with 15 or 20 people, and they said, we have been trying to get in with these tribal chiefs for years, and we've never made any headway whatsoever. But they say something about y'all's group is intriguing to them. We would like for them to come meet with us, but Ben was this other guy on the trip, and they said, Ben, the basket one of our leaders would go and sit down with him and smoke a hoover. And Ben would have been a Christian his whole life, you know, since he was a little kid and he could not imagine going to smoke a pot with these guys. He just could not do it.

Went So and he smokes the peace pipe. He doesn't speak their language, but the missionary does. So the missionary goes doesn't interpret. This missionary gets his foot in the door because beside this out of God's command, but led by the spirit, led by the messenger of the Lord, and the passage of scripture that the guy had been reading was this. It was typical at the time to always read aloud.

So for him to hear it, it would not been an unusual thing. People always read aloud at the time. And this reminds me of a joke. Where I'm from, the definition of an intellectual is someone who can read without moving their lips. So, you know, passage of scripture was this, he was led like a sheep to the slaughter.

And as the land is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth? And for those of you who know the Bible, know your old testament, know the prophets especially, you'll recognize that that that's a quote from Isaiah 53, but it's a little weird. It's a bastardized version of the original, but it's a Septuagint version, the Greek version, which is the one Philip would have been familiar with.

Right? He knows it. And it's Isaiah 53. If you are a worshiper, a seer, and you're headed towards or away from Jerusalem, read in Isaiah 53, what answer would you have gotten at the temple about what Isaiah 53 mean? They did not know what to do with Isaiah 53.

That was one of those that's like, we ask God when we get there. We can't figure this one out. What they expected of the Messiah was not to be a sufferer, not to be one who was bruised for our inequities or for our stripes or took our stripes so that we could be healed. That's not what they were expecting. In first century Judaism, they were expecting for the Messiah to be a political, governmental overthrower, somebody who would set them free from Rome, not set them free from their sin, not take their punishment for them, not take the beating and die, especially dying on a Roman cross.

That never would have entered their mind in Jerusalem. Now this guy's a worshiper from Ethiopia, and he goes up. And when he's coming back, this is what he's reading. So the eunuch asked Philip to fill the teachable, humble spirit. He says, tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?

That's a good honest question. So beginning with this same scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus. Isn't that great? Do you see what's happening in media obedience, immediate obedience, and then God's got him in a place where he can use the gifts that he's given him, and Philip knows what it's all about is the good news about Jesus. He could have.

Well, what do you do when somebody act... Is asking you about God? You just... You meet them where they are, wherever it is that they are. Smoking the hook is a little far for me.

But for Trevor, it was right. You meet them where they are. Beginning with this same scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus. And why would he do that? Why would he not go back and say, well, Isaiah, there are several different postulations as to how Isaiah...

Some people think it was just one man, some think it was two, some think it was three. No. You don't do that. You start with the scripture and point them to where the scripture is pointing. It's pointing towards Jesus.

People have speaking places. People are stuck at different places in their religious walk. And if you are a Christian, you're probably able to help get them unstuck from what you understand about scripture. Philip began with that same scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. And why did he do that?

Because that gospel, good news about Jesus, the good news about Jesus is the power unto salvation for all to believe. It matters more than anything else. It makes a difference when nothing else does. So as they go along, they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, there's the water. Why can't I be baptized?

And this presupposes that when Philip did the leading to Christ that the eunuch accepted. It presupposes that because he is saying, look, there's some water. He knows that the step is first to accept Christ, receive the Holy Spirit, you know, repent and be baptized. So this verse points towards that. It kind of infers it.

But 37, if you look at your Bible right now, if you see a lot of your bibles with their modern translations, we'll skip from verse 36 to 38. The King James will not. It'll have a verse 37 in there, and there are a lot of different versions along the way. They'll have marginal notes, and 37 will be in there. And what does 37 say?

Something to this effect. If you believe in Jesus as the Christ, you can. And he says, I do. I believe Jesus is the Christ. That clarifies for us that, yes, this guy actually accepted Jesus.

Because 36 to 38 said, look, there's water. Why can't I be baptized? 38 says, hey, stop the chair. Let's go do this thing. So the brief discussion about 37.

I always try to hit textual issues head on because if you're reading along and you go from 36 to 38 in your Bible, you're wondering who stole 37. Right? Typically, most modern translations of the Bible go with what they consider to be the better manuscripts or the older manuscripts. Depends on who you are as to whether that's actually the case or not, but some do leave out verse 37. And since we want to...

There's no theological... No huge theological hint or point in the Bible that has any textual problem with it. But this one just clarifies for us, yes, he did accept Jesus. It was probably an additional note. You know how I've been preaching up here right now?

I go verse to verse and then I kinda interject things within the verse 37, maybe maybe a scribble interjection where they said, oh, and he accepted Jesus just to keep you up with the story. Okay? So verse 38 says, and he ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. So Philip believed that the man believed, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away.

When I mentioned this week to several people what the passage would be, we all know we're in Acts and we're going sequentially. When I mentioned it was Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, three of them said, oh, that part about being snatched away. It's always just been intriguing to me. What exactly? Because he's just carried away.

That's weird. Supernatural snatched away. Snatched away. So I went back and thought I would do some work study on that. So this is the word right there.

This is this is that one word. It is her potson. Her potson is, if you just want to the Aristakia pindictive third person singular. Doesn't that help you? It actually does help some of us.

It's the third singular. So one somebody, in this case, God, snatched him away. And the word means to violently rip away from or to snatch. Jesus uses a similar word when he talks about it and the strong man comes to take away, to to steal away stuff, to pull stuff away from him. So I know that helps y'all.

Eric said, I've been doing good third person. With our thoughts of enemies forcefully carry away, so it does mean it's nice. Does this answer the question of whether it's supernatural or not? I read one commentator this week that that said, I don't like to read into things miracles where they don't need to be because I like to read the miracles where they are and not have to have any question about it. Does that make sense?

Probably not. Forcefully carried away, it could have been that he was just rent from the situation before he was ready to go. That's the human humanistic sort of way of looking at it. I tend to go that God snatched him away from it, picked him up and carried him away supernaturally because the next verse after this, when it came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. Let me get to this.

Well, let me come back to that. I tend to believe that that it is the latter, but it could be the one. Common short term missions question. This is from somebody most of you know that Tanya and I lived in Mexico and Latin America for seven years. And while we were there, we hosted work teams from The US mainly in building school for the deaf.

Every single week we got these three questions in very forms. It's like the coffee at the bar jay or whatever those questions are that y'all get every single night. How did we do? The men's teams, oh my goodness, on Monday afternoon after the first day of work, the men's teams would come by and every single one of them would come up to me and say, how do do? I mean, in relation to other groups to come down.

I know we get down what you wanna get down. How do we do? They wanted to see how they measured up against other groups that have been down. How do we do? Ladies didn't care.

The whole time I was there, I never had a lady ask me that question that way. How do we how do we do a construction? They didn't ever ask, but they did say this. What will they think when we get home? What's the...

What's impressions is gonna leave behind? We came here, spent lots of money, get here, all that sort of stuff. There's a big rig roll. And now when we leave, what's what's gonna happen? What are they gonna think?

Did we really make a difference? We all long to know those sort of things, and I can guarantee you that there are 19 ladies that when they leave eleven days from now, Africa, they're gonna feel like they're being snatched away from the situation. When Philip is riding in this guy's chariot and becoming friends with him and getting to be related to him, especially after he baptizes the guy, he baptizes and brings him up. And as soon as he brings him up, bam, he's gone. The divine appointment for a specific period of time.

But this is what's interesting. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch never saw him again. That's one of those questions is what are we gonna think when we leave? What if we leave? We don't ever...

We're not ever gonna see him again. That's one of those things that... But he went on his way rejoicing. Isn't that great? That is what's happening when you're immediately obedient, when you're immediately and unquestioningly obedient, and you're working out of your giftedness.

God will put you in the right place at the right time, and he has gifted you to do the right thing. And what comes out of that is whether you see them again or not is that they go on their way with joy. Having heard from who? A messenger of the Lord. If you're carrying the gospel, the eunuch never saw him again, but my own employee rejoicing.

And this is funny to me. This is another reason why I think that it was a supernatural snatching away because meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north. Basically, when he comes to his senses, he finds himself further north than they. Check out the signs. This looks like, yeah, it's a Zubis.

A Zubis, Greek name. Philip, Greek name. Back into a near culture, even though it wasn't his town, he's removed from that weirdness, that cultural difference with Ethiopian. But what did he do? He kept on doing it.

He preached the good news there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea. And if you keep on reading the book of acts, and we're gonna do that together, if you keep on reading chapter 21 verse eight says, and when Paul's traveling companions arrived at Caesarea, they spent the night at Philip's house. So he kept on preaching the good news everywhere he went until he came to Caesarea, and then he kept on doing it there too. And he was hospitable to guests as they came in. So when he finds himself further down the road, if you look at that word I was talking about, it's to get carried away.

I've heard a couple of people say that, I'm getting a little carried away for sending the church to do a vacation Bible school. It's only four days long. I believe that God has divine appointments for those ladies over there. And when he brings them back, they will have been changed too. So I would ask if you would please continue to remember them in prayer.

I think we're closing in on the end of this. What we know Philip is that he was a short term missionary, immediately obedient to godly instruction. And I think it's interesting that God gifted and then used those gifts. He gave them boldness. Who would have gone to Samaria?

Even persecuted in Jerusalem, who would have thought to go to Samaria? Philip did, and he did with boldness. He used his intellect, his curiosity when he pulls up beside that guy. He couldn't help but ask, what is it you're reading there? And he'd understand it.

His willingness, and then later on, we'll see his hospitality. So what? God still instructs through his messengers, not just angels, not just angels. He still does that too. God instructs through his spirit.

Through those of us who are Christians, God can use his spirit to impress upon you what you should be doing. And he can and does use the gifts that he gives. But where it comes down to us and our human will and our choice and our volition is we need to be obedient to what it is that God's directing us to do. And we need to do it immediately, like miss Mayer says, right away and with a happy heart. It's amazing what God can do when you trust him for the results.

You're obedient. He's directing. It's amazing what he can do. So all the while, trust him to bring an increase that you never saw him again, but he will one day. Right?

He will one day. We'll see that unit again. If we believe the same belief, one spirit, one baptism, and one church. Jesus is building it. He's still doing it today.

It's growing like crazy in China. It's growing like crazy in Africa. It's growing here. That... You don't get a lot of press about it, but the church is still growing.

Jesus' church will not be overcome. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. We should be crashing the gates. I think that's it. Hallelujah.

That's it. If I could, I'm gonna do... For the invitation today, if you would just open yourself to God's leading, and if you're hearing a a message from it, would you please act on it? I would ask if there, is anybody here that's stuck. You're stuck.

You're not a believer. You're not a Christian, but you're stuck on something, whether it's the problem of evil or something else. You've got this specific set of verses that just throw you for a loop, and you cannot get past it. Would you please tell somebody before you leave today? Explain this to me.

Have a teachable spirit and just say, how can I unless someone instructs me? There are lots of folks who are willing to do that here. I'm looking at a whole lot of you right now. You can come talk to me. I'll put you in touch with one of them, or I'll try to answer the best I can myself.

So musicians, we're gonna come over, we're gonna sing Hallelujah. Hymn one eighty nine. That's you too, Scott. Amen. God, we do give you praise.

We're thankful for you and thank you for your divine instruction, God. Please give us the wherewithal and the faith to just do it. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen.