Philip Wants the Ball
First B Jackson
2025-01-19

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

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I think so.

Yeah. Yeah. Mean, if you'd like to just kinda stand up. How about this? How about you

Alright. Well, good morning, everybody. How are we doing? I'm so glad to see you. So glad to see you.

Here's a good word. Would you stand and join us in song? Good word from first John three to lead us in a worship. It's see what great love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, adopted into the family of God simply by faith through grace. Could you join us in singing his mercy's more?

Sea without bottom ocean. Our sins, they are many. Mercy the one. Praise the Lord. Lives.

To the the cross we stood beneath the debt we could never our sins they are many his mercy

Good morning. Can you hear me now? Hey. Alright. So, we have few announcements.

I'll get through those because I love this part of the service. Y'all know that. Teton Valley, Idaho Fellowship is meeting in Teton Valley, Idaho on the second Friday of each month. They have one in January. They'll be having one the second Friday in February.

For details, contact Emily Anderson. If you don't know who that is, you're about to. So, I'll introduce her a little better in just a minute. There's a study on Nehemiah rebuilding together. That's Jackson Hole Women's Community Bible Study that is meeting at Gateway Church.

10AM to noon on Wednesday started last week and that's happened. If you want to register, you can but you can also just show up jhwomen'sbiblestudy.com is the place for more information. There's a connect hour next week, January 26. It's a potluck. Please do bring a dish to share, but there is also a congregational meeting that's happening the same time at the same time in between services.

But not everybody stays for the congregational meeting. So if you come, bring a dish to share, and then y'all can go share. We'll finish the business of the church that needs to be done, recognizing some volunteers, discussing and voting on the budget between services next week. There is a men's snowmobile retreat that's coming up. Yeah.

Hear it whistling and joyous celebration about that. February 21 through the twenty third, Old Faithful Christian Ranch. It's a $100 per adult and 75 for boys. Richard Largie is in charge of that, and that's his phone number if you wanna know more information. That's a fun trip.

Up in Island Park, Old Faithful Christian Ranch. It's a glorious place, and they do a really, really good job setting us up on the go. This is a new slide on me. Take first be in the Bible with you. If you would, we have been going through the Bible for...

How long has it been, Brad? This is our fourth year. This is our fourth year. And we've been through the whole New Testament and big parts of the Old Testament. We're gonna try to finish the Bible this year.

We are. We are finishing the Bible this year. Okay. It's good. You can sign up for our normal first be in the Bible daily emails on the website at firstbejackson.org.

And now there's a covenant ceremony. We've got a a few new members coming in, and you know who you are? The Meltons and the Andersons. If I get you all to come forward. I see a row in the back and a couple in the middle.

And this is exciting. So I I already asked the Meltons if they wanted to say anything ahead of time, and they said no, but I'm gonna now give the Andersons a chance. Andersons and the Hougies. Excuse me. How about I let you introduce yourselves, I'll catch the mic on the other end of the line.

How about that? Can we do that?

I'm Linda Melton.

And Dennis Melton.

I'm Erin Haugy, formerly Anderson.

I'm Zach Haugy.

Chat. And I'm Denise Anderson.

I'm Chad Anderson.

I'm Evelyn Rose Anderson. I'm Callon Anderson. Emily Anderson.

And Alex Anderson. And

none of these folks are a surprise to any of you who've been coming for a while because all of them have been coming for a while. But they have gone into the discovery class and have talked through joining in church membership and so we do sort of a covenant ceremony and what I'm asking of you, the congregation, is that you would kind of affirm and bring them in into the level that you're able that you would together live life seeking after Christ in obedience. So, can I ask all of you at one time? Have you personally trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior savior and believe that he died for your sins and rose from the dead? Yes.

Alright. Do you believe that God has led you to join first b as an evidence of your desire to grow in the grace of Christ and in your love and service for his glory? Do you recognize the authority of scripture in your life and endeavor to live by its teachings and express God's purpose in all of our lives for worship, for fellowship, for Christ likeness, for service, and outreach. Do you? Yes.

Amen. Well, as members together in the body of Christ, will y'all endeavor with them to open your hearts to ministry? This is kind of reflexive. It goes both ways here. Both serving others as well as receiving ministry from them.

Will y'all do that? Yes. Will y'all do that? Yes. Amen.

Will you endeavor to grow in faithfulness to one another as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ? Will y'all do that? Yes. Will y'all do that? Yes.

I'm so thankful for this. I love y'all and I appreciate you. I want to pray for you but would you in the connect hour or anytime really, just grab hold of em and just let em know you love em. That would be great and also, we have a baptism in just a minute but Imma pray for y'all Lord, as we're going through Acts, lord, I'm so excited to see your spirit move in the book of Acts, in the pages of scripture but it's so exciting exciting for us when we don't just see it in scripture, but we see it that you are adding daily to the number of those who are being saved and those who are coming in to be a part of the church, to be a part of the ministry and mission and commission of the church. So, God, I pray for the Meltons and the Andersons, for the Hougies, for the kids that they grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

I thank you for Denise specifically having studied counseling for so long and being a certified chaplain and working with people and the Bible to bring lives into accord with its teachings. In Jesus' name, I ask a blessing on each of them and this congregation, and we thank thank you, Lord, for the work that you're doing. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna invite Ernesto Valenzuela. I wanna invite up Ernesto Valenzuela. He and his family are here. They actually live down in Freedom, Wyoming.

And Ernesto came by a couple of weeks ago to the church office. He was here for something else, but but Nick knows a couple of words of Spanish. One of is hola. Yeah. He got him.

Hooked him right there. He hooked him right there. And so he was kinda in search of a Bible, and he is a believer and has been a believer for some time. But Ernesto said he just feels that God has been moving in him to be obedient and to walk in his way. And so he comes as a candidate for baptism day.

Is there anything you wanna say before we get in that war? He said, today dies, one version of me. And is reborn another in Christ Jesus.

Physical, mentally, spiritual, mentally.

Physical. Physical, mentally, and spiritually. Under the power and the wisdom of the evangel or the gospel. Amen. He does believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

Would you like? Yes. He wants to live his life. Following after him.

Would you pray with me? God almighty so grateful for this day. Thank you God for life and the spirit, for joy, and for peace, that you are the light of the world. That if we follow you, we don't have to walk in darkness because we'll have the light that leads to eternal life. Thank you God for your glorious presence with us right now.

God, for our future hope, and that is certainty. You're the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in you will live even though they die. God, these are the promises that we hold on to, that we sing about this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.

I love you, Lord, and for your mercy never fails me.

And God, we wanna pause to say thank you for your goodness toward us, abounding in steadfast love and mercy, slow to anger. Thank you, God, for your character, for your nature, for your love and care that you're the good shepherd. God, as we hear your voice and you are speaking to us, you're speaking to us through the word, you're speaking to us through spirit, through your saints, through one another, would you give us ears to hear, God, a heart that understands. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite our ushers to come on forward. And we're gonna sing another song of God's love and forgiveness from Psalm 86. Psalm 86, it says, Lord, you're forgiving and good. You're abounding and steadfast love to all who call on you.

Before we sing Ray, may I ask you to pray?

God, I'm so thankful to be here this morning. So thankful to see you at work. So thankful to see people that are listening to what it is that you're saying, Lord. I I pray that we would be a part of the advance of the gospel in this area. I pray that we would be a part of teaching folks to obey all that you have commanded us.

And, Lord, the way that we do that is by by doing what you've commanded us. So I pray, Lord, that you would that you would illuminate your word and that you would advance your good gospel. We pray that all of the financial resources that pass through this church are going from believers towards those who will be. We pray lord for your blessing to be upon the advance of the gospel. The good news that Jesus Christ is the savior, Messiah, the one, the only.

In Jesus name, we pray in Jesus name. We gather in Jesus name. We sing praises. Lord, I pray that you would be doing your will and your way here among us and through us throughout this week and this coming year in Jesus name. Amen.

I'm nervous for some reason. Can we just pray for a second? There's a lot going on, Lord. Lord, I pray that you'd center my my mind on your word and my heart, on your people. And, Lord, I pray that you would call me down.

In Jesus' name, amen. So here we are at Acts 26. Acts eight twenty six through 40. And the message today is on Philip and the Ethiopian official. I got two different thoughts before I really get started.

This week, because of this sermon, I thought, you know what? We need to fill the baptistry. And I didn't have anybody that was gonna be baptized. I just, so I called Carl and I said, Carl, I'm preaching on Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch. I'll give you a spoiler alert.

The last line is basically, here's water, what hinders you from being baptized. And I said, I feel like we need to fill it. And so he said, alright. We'll fill it. No problem.

I put it on my, you know, alarms and get the baptistry full. And I had several notes to follow-up with Nick. Hey, so call these people and talk to these folks. This guy stopped in. And so I...

Carl, will you fill the baptistry? And then an hour later, I'm talking to Ernesto and he says, I'm just feeling motivated. I feel like God is saying. And, you know, it wasn't an audible voice to him. It wasn't an audible voice to me, but it was an impression that God was making that that this is this is what needs to happen.

And so with that said, I got one other thought. This week, I went to two different basketball games. I don't do that every single week. I love to play basketball for a long time till I had a skiing injury. And then, kind of laid off a basketball for seventeen years before I got it fixed.

And in those intervening seventeen years, I got too fat to play basketball. So, I look more like a football player now, but I love to play basketball. I love to block shots, and I want the ball. If I'm gonna play ball, I want the ball. Right?

And it's not that I'm a ball hog. I don't... I'm not a ball hog. I play center usually. And, you know, if somebody comes in the lane, that's mine.

If I'm on defense and you come in the lane, I'm sorry. That paint, that box, it's to let you know. That's mine. And so they're called fouls to give for a reason you get five of them. Right?

I love basketball. I love it. On defense, on defense, I want the ball. And so if you go up with a shot, I'm gonna come down with that shot if I can. The injury wouldn't allow me to block shots.

Might as well quell basketball. Right? Well, if you are playing like you want the ball, people will pass you the ball. And you wanna have everybody on the team wants the ball. Not that everybody on the team is a ball hog.

Don't get me wrong. That's a that's a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing when there's one guy that wants the ball and everybody else is just kinda standing And I'll tell you what, if you're running plays in basketball, if you're running plays, the plays are to open up opportunity for somebody to score. Right? Somebody to cross over that line in football or for somebody to actually make a basket in basketball.

I want the ball. And I think that in this passage right here, Philip wants the ball. He wants the ball. It starts off... Oh, before I start that, there are three thoughts, I guess, before I start.

Last last week, I mentioned Simon Magus and Simon Magus, Simon the magician who tried to pay for the privilege of laying hands on people and bestowing them the Holy Spirit. And I cast some aspersions on his character a little bit from what the text said, but it says he believed and was baptized. That's what it says. And I don't wanna say, no, he wasn't. I just want you to question from his actions what it looks like.

And honestly, I don't even care what you do with Simon Magus. I want you from your actions to see what it looks like. Is this the salvation that has happened? And Peter's rebuking me because I need rebuking or is it something that I thought I understood it and I'm really not all in. Really, I don't want the ball.

Does that make sense? I really don't want this to come down to me. But it does for every one of us come down to us. There is a judgment. And at the end, it's it's it's hard to say, oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I believed and was baptized and that was it. If there is change, there will be change.

There will be transformation. So I don't wanna say Simon Magus is not gonna be there when we get there. Okay? I kinda said that last week, but I don't know. I felt bad about it after I left.

So that's an admission. Here we go. This is the way the sermon ended last week. After testifying and preaching, so testimony is when a witness tells what they have seen in their own life, in their own experience. Experience.

After After testifying testifying and and preaching, preaching, proclaiming the word of God in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. Now they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the good news and then straight from there we go to Philip. As for Philip, okay, Philip remember? He was the evangelist that was having such a heyday in Samaria and the church was growing like crazy and lots of people were coming into the faith. And so, as for Philip, if you're wondering what happened to Philip, an angel, which means messenger, a messenger or an angel of the Lord said to him, go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.

Okay. An angel, messenger of the Lord said to him, go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. He has his assignment. What do you think Philip's gonna do? So he started out.

I love the immediacy of action that when the message hits him, go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza, he started out. Now he's in the middle of a revival in Samaria. Things are going great. Samaria is probably 45 miles, 40 foot forty fifty miles from Jerusalem, somewhere in there. 35 to 50 miles depending on who you ask.

And so he's up there at the very top of the screen. He's gotta get to Jerusalem before he ever gets to go on the road south towards Gaza. 55, 60 miles. It's like driving... Like walking, excuse me, not driving.

It's like walking from here to Afton or the other side of Afton heading towards Grover. Think about that. That was the message he received and it doesn't say and he packed or he thought about it or he prayed about it. He received a message and he started out and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia. That's a weird meeting.

Ethiopia today, we know Ethiopia is that country on the map. That's the kind of socio or that's the that's the boundaries right now of modern Ethiopia. That's their flag. And that... It's landlocked.

It's barely landlocked, but it's not a rich country. We would not think of it as a rich country. Most people my age remember it from the famine that kinda inspired live aid. Right? It's a it's a very very poor country, but that was not the way it was two thousand years ago.

Ancient Ethiopia was at least this big and probably more like that. And some people say it goes all the way down to the horn of Africa. All... I mean, not the horn, the bottom of Africa. So ancient Ethiopia was very, very wealthy, very well established.

And so, Philip meets this treasurer of Ethiopia and he's a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake. The Kandake. It's not Candace. If you're looking in some of your translations, you'll say, and he was a ruler of great authority under queen Candace. Well, the Kandake is the name that they give in Ethiopia of the queen of Ethiopia.

And there have been historians who said, oh, Kandake is no way. Actually, kind of patriarchal historians would say, no, that's not true. But the truth is, Kandakees ruled Ethiopia, and Kush, might be called Kush in some places, between two sixty BC and three twenty AD or CE. So that's five hundred years, and there were lots of them. Female rulers, it was not uncommon to have a female ruler.

They did have some kings during that time too, but the Kandake is the name for the queen. And some of them ruled as co regents along with the king, but many of them did not. Some of them stood alone and they... There was one of them. From twenty AD to fifty AD, which is our time frame for today.

We're at about 33, no later than thirty four AD. Amin... Aminatorre was one of those Kandekes. This is probably the Kandeke that the Ethiopian eunuch was the treasurer for. Okay?

This is pretty cool stuff. And if you think, I don't know anything about that. Is there any history outside the Bible that says this? Yes, there is. Amenatore.

That is a picture of her thrashing her enemies over here on the left. Showing her great wealth in the middle, and this is a pyramid to Amenatore in Meroe, I think. I don't really know how to pronounce that. I'm from Georgia. I don't think it matters.

She ruled together with her son, Nathakamani, for some time, but Meroe is right there. It's in modern day Sudan. I'm trying to connect the pages scripture to actual today. The earth we live on. Right?

So Meroe is in what would now be Sudan. There's ancient Ethiopia at its smaller side estimation. Now the eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and you think, why in the world would an Ethiopian eunuch be going to Jerusalem? That's a long way to go from South Of Egypt quite some distance actually, all the way up to Jerusalem seems like a ridiculous journey. It would have taken normal...

Normally, it would have taken seven days to get there. So a week at going top speed in a chariot, like not walking. But the queen of Sheba had made that trip a thousand years before, and it's quite possible, though we do not know it, it's quite possible that some of what the queen of Sheba saw when she went to visit Solomon and test his wisdom, that she had shared that wisdom. And it had grown and hit pockets of receptivity, and that's why this eunuch was going up to Jerusalem in the first place. Now the eunuch, it says he went to Jerusalem to worship.

That's why he went, and he was now returning. So on his way home from this great, I'm sure, convention, he was seated in his carriage and he was reading aloud. Now, reading aloud. I said last week about the prejudice state to state. The definition of an intellectual in Mississippi, do you all know it?

Oh, I shouldn't say this. I was gonna say Alabama, but I see three Alabamans here right now. It's the ability to read without moving your lips. I'm sorry. No.

Seated in the carriage. It was normal back in that day for people to read out loud. That's the way people read. They read aloud. And so, seated in his carriage, this eunuch was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

Now, the Holy Spirit said to Philip, a messenger said, get going and he got going. And now, the Holy Spirit says to Philip, go over, walk along beside that carriage. And so Philip ran over. Do you see the immediacy of that? Like, he saw the carriage and he caught up with it and he heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah.

Can you imagine? Like, we... These... We're brothers. Edmond O'Meal, we are brothers, Ernesto and I.

We sat and talked for a good long while yesterday, but it was like sitting in this chariot. There were places where he would bring up a scripture and I would start from right there, and I'd bring up a scripture and he'd start from right there. Philip ran over, he heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. And Philip asked, do you understand what you're reading? Do you get it?

Do you get it? And honestly, that's not condescending. He's he's hearing the guy reading and it's a... Well, let's just do it. He didn't presume.

He asked him. Ephesians said, yeah man, it's wonderful. It's the greatest thing I've read. This is the suffering servant passage. No.

He didn't say that. Philip asked him, do you understand what you're reading? Philip didn't presume that he did, but the man replied, well, how can I? Unless somebody instructs me. This, you know, he might have taken that scroll with him, but chances are he got the scroll while he was there.

Actually, when Ernesto came in, he came in to get a Bible. Amen. He left here with the Bible. How can I, unless somebody instructs me? This is a posture of humility.

He didn't say, yeah, of course, I get it. I know everything. I'm the treasurer of Ethiopia. Who do you think you are? No.

He said, well, how can I? Unless somebody instructs me. Show me. He invited him. He urged Philip to come up into the carriage because Philip's running alongside the carriage.

Why don't you get up here? It's more comfortable up here. He gets up in the carriage and sits with him. And the passage of scripture that he had been reading was this. And notice all the pronouns in here.

It doesn't say specifically. It's a prophecy from seven hundred years before Jesus is born. From seven hundred and something years before he's crucified and it says, and he was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And just as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and he received no justice.

Who can speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth? That's the passage that the guy was reading. Now, that's a softball for somebody who is an evangelist and Philip is an evangelist. But he's reading this and Philip hears it. Do you understand what you're reading?

No. How could I unless somebody instructs me? Let's reason together. Let's sit down in this carriage together. And this is the Septuagint version of this and that's what the text was based on.

That's just in Greek. Actually, are three or four people in here probably reading it right now going, that's the Septuagint. It's Isaiah fifty three seven and eight. It is one of the suffering servant passages. It is about...

Well, let's let the text say. He was oppressed. He was treated harshly, yet he never said a word. This is the new living translation of this. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream, but he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. That is the passage that the that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading. How can I understand unless somebody explains it? Now the eunuch asked Philip, tell me, was the prophet talking about himself?

Because everybody feels like they've been dejected. Everybody feels like they haven't had a say. Everybody feels like they've cut down. Tell me, was this prophet talking about himself or was he talking about someone else? And it says, so beginning from that very scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus.

This is a prophecy that happened seven hundred years before and what he's talking about is Jesus who died in the city you just visited. Did you hear about him while you were there? And he started from that place and he explained to him the gospel, the evangel, the euangelion, the good news about Jesus. Now, as they rode along, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, look, there's some water.

Why can't I be baptized? Now, if you're reading in any of the modern translations of the Bible, it'll go from verse 36 immediately to 38. I'm gonna switch to the New King James here for a second. New King James says, now as they went down this desert road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?

Now, it goes immediately to 38 in the New Living, in the New American Standard, in most of the revised standard, new revised standard, all those versions. It's because of the same thing we've talked about about five times in the last year. There's a textual tradition where the Textus Receptus is a reliable a reliable textual tradition. And then, there are a couple of others, Codex Sinaiticus and a couple of other codices that did not have verse 37. So the modern translations usually footnote it.

Here it is. 37 in the New King James says, then Philip said to him, if you believe with all your heart, you may. I actually asked him in Spanish. Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus is the son of God? Because it matters.

What you do with Jesus is the thing that matters. So do you believe that Jesus is the son of God? If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. That is all that he required of him before he ordered the carriage to stop.

They went down into the water and Philip baptized him. That's it. There's no watch care for six months. There's not a confirmation class. There's not even a discovery class that meets in the pastor's office between church.

There's nothing. If you believe that Jesus is the son of God, he died for your sins, then that makes you a candidate for baptism. It just does. So Philip baptized him. Now, when they came up out of the water, and actually I could go into it because, you know, I grew up Baptist.

They went down into the water and they came up out of the water. Okay? That's what it says. Baptized actually means to dip under whatever liquid. So that's what it means.

The plainest sense of the word is what it means. That's why we do believers baptism. When someone believes that Christ is who he says he was, then baptism is a symbol for being buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. This one doesn't seem to require any obedience.

I don't understand it. Both of the other ones, a messenger of the Lord said, go do this and he went and did it. Holy Spirit said, do this and he went and did it. And it was immediate both times. So So the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away before he knew what was going on.

The eunuch never saw him again, but he went on his way rejoicing. How many times do we see that in the New Testament? When Jesus heals somebody, when somebody comes to faith and it says and they went on their way rejoicing or they went on their way praising God. This is what happened to the eunuch. Whether Philip was with him or not anymore, didn't matter.

He still got in his heart. Jesus Christ. He's got the scripture he's carrying with him and he carries it back. And you know, the religion of the area at the time around thirty three AD was like... It was not Muslim.

Don't even get that ever close. That's way later. It was primitive religion, primitive sort of like the Egyptian gods. There were gods, capricious gods that were over whatever, and they needed to constantly be appeased. This guy takes back with him Christianity following the way of Jesus.

He has the old testament and he has the wherewithal to travel. And in 300, Christianity will be the religion of the area. Now, we don't know how many other proponents were there that still were following after that Judaism that was from Solomon's day. But this eunuch never saw Philip again, but went on his way rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus.

Azotus is modern day Ashdod, and it is between Gaza and Tel Aviv. And he found himself there. So from Jerusalem, he was pretty far south down towards Gaza when this conversation was over. And he snatched up and I don't know, walking on a cloud, not sure. So happy for what had he just been a part of.

He wants the ball. He just saw God score. Right? He finds himself at Ashdod and it says, and he preached the good news there. And in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.

Caesarea Maritime is up from there another, I don't know, 80 miles, 70 miles maybe. And so he's preaching his way all the way up there. Now, it's interesting to me how Acts ties everything together because Luke in his second volume is trying to be as clear as he possibly can be about the origins and the early church. And I mentioned this last week. We'll get to it when we get to chapter 21.

But when there's a we passage where Luke and Paul are traveling together and it says, the next day we went on to Caesarea and we stayed at the home of Philip the evangelist. And I interrogated that guy and I got all this information from him. So quite possibly the reason we have Philip the evangelist is because he's the one that Luke got to talk to. And he understood the way because Luke told... I mean, he he told Luke the way.

So we went on to says, re estate at the home of Philip the Baptist. One of those seven guys who've been chosen to distribute food, he had four unmarried daughters and they had the gift of prophecy. Now, I'm gonna get to this. This is the great commission. I mean, it's a Baptist church.

Y'all knew when you came in. Great commission's coming up at some point. Right? I I I like to see in scripture something that relates to our daily life. I love it when there are place names.

I love it when there are time markers because they will be proven true. God has told us what he's told us. He's got a message for us. And if you are a believer in Jesus, then this great commission is for you. If you are a believer in Jesus, if you are someone who's following Jesus, then this says, go because you are.

All authority has been given to me. This is the lead off. Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth and so because I have the authority, I'm telling all of y'all who believe in me, y'all go and make disciples of all the nations. I love it when we get to cross a nation, a boundary, a cultural boundary, whatever. I love it to see that that happens and it's by design.

God's the one who separated the languages. If they ever get unmuddied, it's something that he's doing. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations. Be baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and be teaching them to follow all that I've commanded you. And as I said earlier, the way we teach people to follow all that I...

He's commanded us is that we ourselves would be following all that he has commanded us. And behold, he says, I'm with you even to the very end of the age. I wanna put one more note on that. The go sounds really like emphatic and it is. But it also is a participle.

Technical grammar nerd here. As you are going. As you are going about your normal life. Philip was minding his own business, but he heard a message from a messenger. Sorry.

That's what I am right now. The messenger said, go and do this and he went and did it. He heard from the Holy Spirit. It was an impression upon him. You need to go do this and he went and did it.

This says, as you're going be doing this and so, I want you to think about that. Do you want the ball? Do you want to carry the evangel? Do you want for God to connect that to someone's heart? Do you want for someone to be moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of marvelous light?

If you do, take him seriously. When when he says, go, go. Oh, by the way, I changed in more baptism clothes. Does anybody wanna be baptized? If you are a believer in Jesus, it is a step of obedience and that is what it is.

And I don't have to have you under watch care. If you believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the God, the son of God, then you are a candidate for baptism. Are you? Would you? I'm ready.

The band will play. We'll find you some clothes. I've got a whole bunch of them downstairs. I'm bigger than almost all of y'all. Alright.

Come on back up, Carl, and let's play. Is there anything else we're supposed to do today? I think that's it. Okay. Alright.

Would you stand with us? We're going to close with this song. Great things.

Is high, oh God. You have done great. And you've been faithful through every storm. And you'll be faithful through river mode. You have done great things.

And I know you do it again for your promise is yes and amen you will do great things

God you do great

I'll close with the great commission. Y'all, as you are going, be doing this, be making disciples of all of the nations we're surrounded by. We're surrounded by. Here in Jackson, I'm meeting with a Turkish guy this afternoon. We have a Mexican brother