Acts 8:26-40 | A Bigger Mission

Drake Daniels continues a series on the book of Acts.

Transcript

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Hope you guys are doing well. Hey, if you guys do have your Bible and you want to be proactive, you can go ahead and open them up to Acts chapter 8. Like Zach said, this is our last kind of sermon as we've been walking through the book of Acts for the past few months before we take a break for the summer. And so Acts chapter eight is where you should be. And uh hey, I'll just show you guys my cards early this morning. Here's where we're going. Here's kind of the big idea for this morning is that Jesus, uh, he doesn't just forgive us of our sins, but he actually invites us into a mission bigger than ourselves. Okay, I'll say it again that Jesus, he doesn't just forgive us of our sins, but he actually invites us into a mission much bigger than ourselves. And it reminds me, uh, a few years ago I came across this story of the infamous Larry Walters. Okay, then the story goes uh that Larry one day, uh don't ask me why, but he went to a um convenience store, a an Army Navy surplus store uh where he bought 75 used weather balloons. And what he did was he tied those balloons to uh his lawn chair that he then had in the back of his pickup truck, and with all of his friends around, he wanted his friends to untie the rope for him because he was hoping, his uh friends would later say, just to gain a slightly uh new angle of his neighborhood and get a new perspective in life, as we all do. Um in fact, here's a this is a true story. Here's a picture of him right there. Um and with him on this journey, he actually he only took a few things with him. He took a peanut butter sandwich, don't know why there was no jelly, but a peanut butter sandwich, um, a six-pack of soda, and a fully loaded BB gun. And uh fast forward two and a half hours later, and um the Los Angeles International Airport reported an unidentified flying object 16,000 feet in the air. Okay, so lawn chair Larry was now three uh three miles into the sky and over a hundred miles from his original launch site. Uh and in case uh in case it wasn't clear, yeah, his intention had been to kind of just lazily saunter up uh and use the BB gun to shoot down the balloons to keep him at a respectable height. Um but his friends had said that as soon as they released him from the back of his pickup truck, he shot out of that thing like a cannon and he panicked, and he did the only thing he knew how to do when he panicked, and that was to crack open the six-pack of very non-soda. Um but after you know a few hours, uh the SWAT team through some maneuvers that only SWAT team people can do, they were able to get him back on the ground and back conscious because he had uh gone unconscious, and they got him back on the ground, and I love it because there were some reporters there um on the ground, and they asked him the most obvious question in the world was Larry, why did you do it? And I love how Larry responded. He just said, I was just bored. I was tired of just sitting around all the time. That's what Larry said, and hold on, because the segue is a little bit bumpy, but I think that there are some people in the room who might feel pretty similar to Larry. Okay, they're bored, they're tired of just sitting around all the time, and maybe not like physically, just like in my life I'm bored, but spiritually more so. Where if we're not careful, Christianity can slowly drift into this kind of really lame hobby that we do just on Sundays and some religious events that we attend on the weekend, just because of the fact that we live in Texas, right? Like, of course I'm a Christian, I live in Texas, but if we really think about Christianity and who Jesus is and what he's called us to do, really that that doesn't impact the overall mission and vision of our lives. And I'm just here to remind us this morning that God has so much more for us than that, right? Because what we've seen all throughout the book of Acts and what we're gonna see again today is that God, He wants to accomplish His eternal plans through His everyday, ordinary people. Okay, and I think that some of us can uh either just like lose sight of that from the distractions of the world and we can begin to slowly um like drift into this area where we lose sight of that and we begin to live for a lot smaller missions, a lot smaller ambitions in life. Or what what else can happen, what I've seen just talking to people, is that we believe, even though we've been hammering this idea home over and over again in our series of acts, is that we just believe that, no, if if God wants to accomplish his eternal plans, he's gonna select the varsity Christians in order to do that. Like he doesn't want somebody like me, only the people who get paid to do this whole Christian thing. Right? But but that's not true. And what I want us to remind us is that the call to follow Jesus and the call to participate in the Great Commission has always been woven together. Okay, even if we just look at some of the heroes, the giants of the faith, we think about God's call to Abraham in Genesis 12, and in the same conversation, God calls Abraham and then says, Hey, I'm gonna use you to bless the nations, be on mission. Or you think about Jesus and the disciples in the same conversation, he draws the disciples to himself, and then he immediately says, Hey, I want you guys to become fishers of men. Or the last thing that Jesus would call to anybody who would call themselves a follower of Jesus is the Great Commission to go and make disciples. That is what we are here for. Not just to be saved and then to sit around, but actually to be saved and to be sent out. Okay, I've heard it said that God is like a spiritual cyclone, okay, which resonates with me as a uh Iowa State grad myself, okay, roll clones. Um, but what what they mean when it's God is a spiritual cyclone is that he draws you in to immediately push you back out on a mission towards the world, right? Like following Jesus always includes being sent out by Jesus. Okay, that's why even if you've been to King's Church, you've seen some of our baptism services, you know that we ask two people uh the same questions while they're in the tank. Have you placed your faith in Jesus is the first one, which nobody's responded no. That would be so awkward if they responded no in the tank. It's like, well, I don't know what to do here. But have you placed your faith in Jesus? And then two, are you willing to go wherever God calls you to go and do whatever God tells you to do? And here's one of the main reasons that we do that is that we want everyone to see the person getting baptized and us, we want everyone to see that involvement in missions, it's not something that you like graduate into. Involvement in being sent out, it's not something that you have to learn or that you have to do. No, it is on the initial call to actually follow Jesus. God put on the original call to follow him. And so that's what we're going to see once again today is God accomplishing his eternal plans through his everyday, ordinary people on mission. And we're going to see that because we get a pretty unique story with our boy Philip. Okay, we were introduced to Philip uh a few weeks ago back in Acts chapter six, where we basically see uh that Philip along with Stephen are kind of like the bread distribution boys, the servants, the deacons almost of the early church. But all of a sudden, when persecution comes into the church, you see uh the church begin to scatter and go to different places, except the apostles, which I thought was interesting, right? It's it's the the normal everyday Christians who are scattered about, and all of a sudden Philip is in a place where he starts preaching in the cities that he's going to, and it says, Great joy came into the city because of the gospel of Jesus. And so we're seeing this place where wherever Philip's going, revival is happening. And that's where we left Philip off, but we see him again in Acts chapter 8, verse 26. Should be up on the screens as well, but it says this Acts 8, verse 26. An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and go south, which every text and said, Amen. Uh, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. And so he got up and went. Okay, so Philip he's seeing his like gifting of preaching, go to work, revival is happening, people are coming to faith, and all of a sudden, this angel of the Lord shows up to him with an invitation. Okay, we don't know if this was a physical appearance, a vision, if this was just an impression on the heart. We don't know. We just know that an angel of the Lord comes to him with an invitation. And what's the invitation? Is it a new city that he should go to? Is it a mission conference he's supposed to speak at? Is it a is it a promotion of some sort? No. The Spirit says, hey, go to this desert place, okay? Which one wasn't specific, but two wasn't even close, okay? At least, bare minimum, this was going to be about 60 miles away, and it's not really a place that's popping. Okay, this says a desert road, so don't just think, yes, and in some ways it's kind of like West Texas, just nothing going on, you know? But in a lot of other ways, it's it's implying that it's also deserted, okay? Nothing is really going on here. And so basically, this angel of the Lord comes and he's asking Philip to go from this gospel orchard where he's seeing a ton of fruit to this dry desert. That's the invitation on the table. And and I don't know what you would say in this moment, but if I'm Philip, I'd be like, God, are you sure? Like, are you totally sure this is what you want me to do? Like, I don't know if you can see this, God, but um, there's kind of a revival breaking out here. I'm sort of a big deal. I'm like the keynote speaker. So are you sure you want me to leave this place to go to this desert? But Philip doesn't do that. It just says he what? It says he got up and went. Okay, and here's what's interesting is that in many ways, God never tells Philip exactly where he's going. He doesn't say exactly what he's going to be doing or even how long he's going to be there. The Spirit just says, go and he goes. Okay, it reminds me of the famous scene in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 6, the prophet is standing before God and he sees this incredible vision of God in the throne room, all of his uh magnificence and holiness and everything. And then you see God speak and he says, Hey, who will go for us? Who's gonna take this message and uh this message to the people? And what was Isaiah's response? He just says, Here I am, Lord, send me. You see, for both Philip and Isaiah, what was their posture? Is that neither of them they didn't know the exact assignment, they didn't know how long they were gonna be there, they didn't even know if they were going to have success. But here was their posture. God, I'm willing to say yes, I'm willing to go even when I don't know the details. God, I'm willing to go wherever you would call me to go. I'm just gonna step out in faith. I'm gonna take the next step, I'm gonna step out in faith, and I'm just gonna trust you with what's next. And so I think the first question that we need to all wrestle with this morning is does that describe you? Okay, are you willing to go wherever God may have you go even when you don't know the details? Are you willing to take that next step of faith even when the details are sort of fuzzy still? Does it describe you? Okay, because Philip he got to see some amazing things happen because of his yes on the table. We'll keep going. The next verse. He had come to worship in Jerusalem and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. Okay, so this is our this is our second main character of the day, and we don't know his name, but we do surprisingly know a decent amount about him. And there's two words that I need to emphasize that that we can all uh see because they're gonna be crucial, okay? And one is that he's a foreigner, and two is that he's a eunuch. Okay, we're gonna see why those are crucial here in a second, but the first it says that he is an Ethiopian man, okay? He's from uh the area of Ethiopia, okay? He's a foreigner, he is a non-Jew, and it says that he uh it implies that he is a significant, he is an influential foreigner. Okay, it says that he is the high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. And so here's what we can gather about this Ethiopian eunuch is that this man is powerful, this man is wealthy, and this man has resources. Okay, he's basically the CFO of the entire kingdom of Ethiopia, and his direct report on the org chart is the queen, okay, the boss lady herself. So he has a seat at the table and he's been entrusted with a significant amount of resources. Okay, and so he's a foreigner, but we also see that the most common characteristic that we see over and over about this guy is that he is a eunuch. Okay, a eunuch. It's where we get our word unicorn from. I'm just kidding, it's not. Um but to be a eunuch means that you've been castrated, okay, no longer able to have kids. If you need any more any more help, you can ask Zach after service. But again, a foreigner and a eunuch, and yet, if that's who this man is, here's what this man was, here's what he came to do. Okay, see, if there's another thing we know about this man is that he is on this road heading back from Jerusalem. And then we we at least have to pause and ask the question: why is this Ethiopian man in Jerusalem? See, most likely, uh if we're looking at the distance, this was at least about a thousand, if not a 1,500 mile journey. And back then, with no cars or anything uh by foot with the chariot, this is going to take at least two months in one direction. Okay, that's a long journey, day after day, going through these deserts to reach Jerusalem. And so, what does this tell us? Is that this man, this Ethiopian man who is rich, powerful, castrated, but a foreigner, what it implies is that he is most likely the most spiritually hungry person that we've met so far in the book of Acts. Okay, he has traveled hundreds, thousands of miles over the course of months because he had the money and he had the power, but as we all know, those can't satisfy the human heart. Okay, and so he's been going on this journey. He's trying to find the answer to things that he doesn't know. He's even reading the scroll of Isaiah to try and figure out some information about maybe this God who can satisfy me. And so we see this Ethiopian man, I mean, he has sincerity, he has this spiritual curiosity to lead him to all these places, and yet he still doesn't have Jesus. Okay, one of the most tragic things I think about this story is that he is leaving Jerusalem. Okay, he's leaving Jerusalem, and what do we know about Jerusalem at this point? As there are literally, it is like the white hot epicenter of Christianity. Okay, thousands upon thousands of people are coming to faith in Jesus, revival is breaking out, things are going amazing, and yet at least we can imply that nobody has told him about Jesus. He's still trying to figure this out as he's leaving Jerusalem, and we see from the text that he could not worship. I don't know if you caught that phrase, but it said that he came to Jerusalem, he had come to worship. All right, it's implying that he couldn't. And the question is, why? Like, why couldn't he worship? And this was pointed out to me uh this past week, but first century historians uh would say that as this Ethiopian man, as he approached Jerusalem after this incredibly long journey, immediately he would have tried to go to the temple to figure out who is this God, like is this gonna be the God for me? Can he actually satisfy all these questions? And he's going to the temple to try and figure this out. And immediately upon trying to get into the temple, he would have been met with a series of do not enter signs. He would have been met with the first one that he would have seen is a sign that said, No foreigner may enter. Okay, this foreigner, again, this foreigner who had traveled this entire distance because he had somehow heard about a God who loves the sojourner, is now met with signs that say, No foreigner allowed. And then historians would have told us that if this eunuch somehow was like, No, I've traveled all this way, I'm gonna get past this first barrier of entry, this this first sign, the next sign that he would have come encounter with was a sign that said, No blind, no lame, no crippled, and no eunuch may enter this temple. Okay, so he's a foreigner and he's a eunuch, and so certain people, certain religious systems had said that he was disqualified from worship. Okay, in fact, this guy is about the last guy that you would expect to ever come to faith in Jesus. Luke is almost like intentionally stacking the deck against this dude to show us that he is like the least likely convert imaginable, and I just have to imagine that maybe some of you in the room feel like that. Where you may be walking in this morning, and we don't have a do-not-enter sign at King's Church, we never will, but maybe you feel like in your heart you've been moving past some do not enter type of barriers as you're coming in here. Maybe because of past shame and guilt and sin in your own life, or maybe you're thinking about the community that you are involved in, or the family that you're coming from, and you're wondering, does God even want anything to do with me? But while the story of the Ethiopians' pursuit of God may have felt derailed, probably at this moment, we actually see that it was really God who was pursuing after this man. And see, and one thing that we know is nobody is outside the reach of God's grace. It's not even a category for Jesus. You see, God sent Philip away from the place where thousands upon thousands of people are coming to faith, and he's taking him to a deserted place. You know why? Because the heart of the father is for the one that's lost. Okay, he leaves the 99 for the one, and maybe, maybe some of you feel like you're the Ethiopian eunuch, but maybe some of you are feeling that this morning, where you feel like, man, yeah, 99 out of a hundred feels great until yours is the one that's lost. Right? So maybe you in this morning, like this morning, you're feeling like you you're remembering, oh yeah, like I have a prodigal son or daughter that has left the faith. Or maybe you're thinking about a parent who you so desperately want to come to know Jesus, or you're thinking about a friend or a coworker who you've been consistently sharing the gospel with and inviting to church. And again, 99 out of a hundred sounds great until yours is the one that's lost. But we are about to see the amazing thing about the story is we're about to see the lengths that God is willing to go to get the one. Okay, verse 29 says this. The Spirit told Philip, Go and join that chariot. And when Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you're reading? And he said, How can I, unless someone guides me? And so he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Okay, and so the chariot is moving down the road. I've never pictured this as I've read this before, but the chariot's moving down the road, and Philip runs up to it. One, out of probably a joyful obedience uh to the Lord, who said, Go and join that chariot. But two, probably because he has to run to keep up with this chariot as these guys are carrying this Ethiopian eunuch in this chariot back to Ethiopia. Uh, and yet Philip he just comes up and I love it because what Philip doesn't know, like we understand the context that he's stepping into at this point. We know a lot about this uh Ethiopian man. Philip doesn't. He has no idea who he's about to talk to. And so Philip, he's just running beside this chariot, hearing this dude talk out loud, because that would have been a normal thing to do. You wouldn't have read to yourself, you would have been talking out loud. So he's reading the scroll of Isaiah, and Philip just says, Hey man, do you understand what you're under what you're reading? Do you understand like what's going on there? And I love that, right? Like Philip, he doesn't he doesn't have any context for what he's stepping into, but I love it. He doesn't just start with a like a sermon, he just starts with a question. Okay, and and I love that because he's not trying to like be weird in this moment, okay? He he isn't trying to be cute and telling people about his faith. And I think that's critical even for us. Like, you don't have to try and be cute as you're trying to tell people and enter into conversations about Jesus. Like, like Philip, he doesn't run beside this chariot and be like, man, dude, it's so hot out in this desert. You know, the only thing that's hotter? Hellfire. You know, like he's not weird about it. He just he opens up with a question. And and guess what, guys? We can all we can all do that. We can all open up with questions. Okay, I was I was at uh the gym, North Lakes, shout out to my four people that go there. I was at North Lakes Gym um a few weeks ago, and I was just working out, and all of a sudden there was um this guy um doing his own thing over there, and he was like uh one of those guys that was like uh excessively loud while he was working out, just like every single time a weight would go up, just like grunting like crazy. People were taking off their headphones, like, what is this guy doing? And and in my heart, I was like, This guy is so annoying. Like, are you serious? Like, what's going on? And I just remember uh like honestly, I felt like God was just convicting me in that moment. Like, why do you think, why are you thinking about this guy like this? And because the whole week before, I just praying, God, would you open up um some opportunities for me to share the gospel? And then would you give me courage to step out uh into that place and actually take a genuine interest in the people around me? And so I just remember the Lord convicting me in that moment, and then you know, a few minutes later, I actually run into him. He's leaving, I was just getting water, and and so I just bumped into him and and I just said, dude, like man, you were you're working out really hard. I thought that was a better uh way to phrase it than, dude, you've got to chill while you're lifting. Um, but I was like, man, you were you were like working out really hard. How long have you been lifting? Like, like what's your story there? And you know, he tells me that he's wanting to get in shape for a variety of reasons, and then he's asking me some questions about my story, and we're just engaging at that level. And all of a sudden he he just starts asking me questions about my life, and he finds out that I'm involved in a church, and uh, then all of a sudden, like without me even trying to get into those conversations, he's just telling me how you know he felt like he's been ostracized by the church because of his political views, and he doesn't know how he'd feel if he stepped into a church anymore. And so we were able to navigate that conversation. And again, that wasn't like me even trying to get into a spiritual conversation in that moment. I just wanted to take a genuine interest in this person. I think that's the the point that I want us to see is that I just realized by being interested in his life, he started to open up things to me. Okay, and so look, like like for all of us, like we don't have to have all the answers. I just think that if you step into some spaces and say, God, would you create some opportunities for me to share the gospel and give me boldness to step into those opportunities and then just take a genuine interest in the people around you, I think you'd be surprised at the doors God is willing to open to have some deep and profound conversations, just by starting off with the question. All right, and that's what that's where Philip finds himself, and Philip gets a pretty unique opportunity because the guy, the passage that this guy was reading is in verse 32, where it says, Now the scripture passage he was reading was this he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shear, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, the most layup question of all time I ask you, who is this prophet saying this about himself or someone else? Philip had to have a big smile on his face when he heard that, okay? And maybe you're asking the question that the Ethiopian eunuch was asking in this moment is Who is that like talking about? And Philip gets to tell this man. And sit in the chariot with the man and just walk through the scripture telling him how, hey, this was written over 800 years ago by the prophet Isaiah, and it was filled just a few months ago by this man named Jesus. And Philip just gets to walk through this amazing text and say, man, this like suffering servant, this idea of the suffering servant Jesus, he was rejected so that you could be welcomed. And he just gets to walk through through him with that in that moment. And what I love is that if we think about it, I mean, this Ethiopian eunuch, he knows, and this would have been personal to him because he knows what it's like to know rejection. Right? He he knows exclusion, and now he's reading and hearing about a savior who was rejected too. Okay, a savior who was humiliated, the perfect one who took on our shame and our guilt and our sin, so that by faith in him we could be made right with God. And so he's thinking probably in this moment, in this chariot, as Philip's describing this, hey, the religious systems of the day, they may reject me, but the God of the Bible won't. Alright, and so and so Philip he proceeds to lay out the gospel, the good news of Jesus. In fact, verse 35, it tells us exactly that's exactly what he did. Verse 35, Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that scripture. Okay, or I love the way that the ESV uh translation says it, it just says that Philip opened his mouth to tell him about the good news of Jesus. And so, guys, if we want to participate in this mission, like how can I, I know I'm I'm I know I'm Jesus, he didn't just forgive me of my sins, but now he's calling me into something bigger. How do I actually step into that space? Well, if you want to share the gospel, you have to open up your mouth. Okay, the phrase like uh share the gospel and when necessary, use words. It looks great on Instagram. It's just terrible theology, okay? Like if there, if there are no words, there is no gospel. Okay, Romans 10 says that how can someone believe unless they hear, unless someone tells them about it, okay? So we can we can display the gospel with our actions. And I hope that King Church is a people who do that. I hope that when people think about King's Church, they say, man, they actually live out the gospel. They display it. But I'll tell you is that we will never actually declare the gospel while our mouths are shut. We have to actually open up our mouths to declare the gospel because that is how people will actually be made right with God. And so the big idea, even from this section, the big idea is at some point, like Philip, you're actually gonna have to open up your mouth and tell people the gospel. Okay, look, and I'm all for relationship evangelism. I'm I'm all about it, okay? Like build relationships with people before and as uh you're sharing the gospel with them, but we can't hide behind the fact that if you always have a relationship, but you never have evangelism, that's called just being nice. Okay, and at some point, Jesus, he's gotta come up. And that's hard. It's hard to enter into those waters, even for people who are especially well-versed with evangelism. Okay, I think about Billy Graham. Okay, many many of you guys know Billy Graham from like uh selling out these you know stadiums and leading revivals and all these types of things. And I just remember hearing a story about Billy Graham about how uh when he was in London one time, he got he got a call saying, Hey, the Prime Minister Winston Churchill would like to meet with you. And so Billy got nervous. He was like, oh my gosh, and he starts pacing back and forth. He's like, What in the world do you say to a prime minister? Meanwhile, he found out later that the Winston Churchill was in his office pacing back and forth. He's like, What do I say to an evangelist? You know? But Billy walked into this office and he just remembers learning from some of the mistakes that he has made, entering into spiritual conversations. And he walks into the office and he just says, You know what? I'm not gonna pretend like I'm equal with this guy. I'm not gonna pretend like I know about as much about politics. I'm not gonna be someone I'm not. I am a minister of the message of Jesus Christ, and that's all I am. I'm a I'm a messenger of Jesus. And so he walked into uh the room where he was meeting with Winston Churchill, and he just said, I just wanted to be aware and sensitive to what this man was going through. And so he walks in, and there were newspapers all over Winston Churchill's descent, and and Churchill just asked, uh he said to Billy, Hey, like all these newspapers are is filled with death and disease and war. And then he looked at Billy and he said, Billy, do you have any hope in the world? And and Billy said, Yeah, I do. And Churchill said, Well, I'm a man without hope, and I don't know where to go. And Billy said that in that moment he had the he had a choice, he had the opportunity, the door was open for him, but in that moment, he could have just said, Man, I get that. I'll I'll pray for you. And he, or he could have said, Hey, you know what? I've been in those type of situations before. I understand what you're going through. But he said, Man, if I want to have an actual eternal impact for the kingdom, I'm actually gonna have to open up my mouth and get to Jesus. And so Billy looks at one of the most powerful men in the world, and he just says, Hey, when when you say that you're without hope, do you mean politically or do you mean your own soul? And Winston Churchill said, My own soul. In fact, I think about it a lot. And so Billy said, Hey, can't, sir, can can I just share with you what I've been saying to all these people and all these stadiums around the world? And he said, Yeah, I'd like that a lot. And then Billy got the opportunity to actually open up the Bible and share with him the good news of the grace available in Jesus Christ. And he got to step into that space and told them all about it. And so, look, guys, I don't know what doors may open for you. I doubt it's with a prime minister. Okay, so I don't know what doors may open for you, but at some point, man, you you keep praying for those types of conversations, you you keep praying for doors open, God will open them and he's gonna give you the boldness to step into them, and then we just have to see are we actually gonna open up our mouths to speak about a savior who's changed our life? You see, all of us are called to do the work of evangelism. That's what Paul told to Timothy, that all of us are evangelists in some way. And sure, there's gonna be some people who are uniquely wired for evangelism, but all of us are called to participate in this great mission of God called the Great Commission and go and make disciples. Okay, there's a verse in our network of churches, it's on the it's on the back wall that we we quote often. It's just Luke 10 2, which just says that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And so I think another way to say that, because I think so many of us actually, we've heard that so often, it can kind of just yes, yes, Luke 10 2, all that kind of stuff. Here's another way I think that we can say Luke 10 2 that maybe will land a little bit different, is that our ears are open but our mouths are shut. The ears in the harvest are open, but our mouths are shut, okay? Hearts are soft, but Christians are silent. Right? Or there are more people willing to respond to the gospel than there are people willing to share the gospel. And so, I mean, just think about it. Like, what if in your neighborhoods, your your co-workers, your friends, your family, your classmates, the grocery stores that you're going to, and the coffee shops that you attend, guys, you gotta hear this. What if you are already where God wanted you to go? What if you are already where God has intentionally placed you? In fact, Acts 17, I would say, explicitly says that he has determined the boundary lines of where we live. And what if we just had to open up our eyes and our hearts and went, man, I bet Jesus wants me to share the gospel with someone here today. Now, I bet that there are other future followers of Jesus all around me. You see, so much of uh evangelism, I don't think it's additional, I just think it's intentional. Okay, I don't think that we need to add 17 different things to our schedules in order to make it happen. I just think that we need to be intentional with where we are and the places that God has put us. Okay, and so if there's kind of a bow to the sermon to tie it together, here's one of the things that I think that we need to see is that all throughout this, it's really God who's been moving. Yes, the the emphasis right here is on Philip and the Ethiopian man, but really it's God who has been moving. It's it's God who has been preparing the heart of Philip to share the gospel, and it's God who's been preparing the heart of the eunuch to actually hear and respond to the gospel. I see, I think that we can look at the story and be amazed and think, man, that would be awesome. Like, can God just like teleport me to a place and like have me share the gospel with somebody right there who's reading like John 3.16? Like, I think I can do that, something like that. But I think if we just see like the miracle that is this story, we'd forget sort of like all the other things that had to happen in both of these guys' lives to lead up to this moment. I mean, think about the small little miracles that we we have seen. I mean, again, this guy is from Ethiopia. Okay, this is what scholars would have said would have been like the ends of the earth at the time, and yet somehow, some way, somebody had told him about the God of Israel who can actually love the sojourner, love the foreigner, that God can actually make a way to satisfy your heart. Someone had to have told him about that. If he's at the end of the earth, that doesn't just happen. And so there was somebody involved in that. I mean, this guy is reading the Bible. Okay, he's reading the scroll of Isaiah, which would have been so rare to have had back then. And so this guy certainly maybe he's wealthy enough to have just bought it, but somebody else could have given this uh Bible to him, somebody else could have been like, hey man, I think that you should read this scroll here. Let me let me show you where you can purchase it. Uh see, all throughout, there were seeds that were being planted, and God was using people and situations to reach this guy long before Philip ever arrived on the scene. And so I think one of the realities that we need to see is that evangelism, man, it's a team sport. Evangelism is a team sport. Some people are going to water, some people are going to plant, and some people are going to be lucky enough to actually see the harvest. And Philip gets this moment here in Acts chapter 8, but man, there are a whole lot of people behind the scenes that God was using in certain situations to get Philip and to get this Ethiopian eunuch at a place where they would actually share the gospel and respond to the gospel. And so I think even just for us, King's Church here in Ditton, like if we want to see fruit in Denton, man, it is a team sport. Okay, we are all on the field together. There are no sidelines at King's Church. We are all on the field, we're all playing a part in this. And so all the the call to us is just to be faithful, what God has entrusted us to, and then actually leave the results up to God. Which is exactly what Philip did, and he got to see fruit right away because look at verse 36. It says, And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way, rejoicing. But Philip found himself in Azutus, and he passed through the pre he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. So as I don't know, uh what a way to be baptized. Okay, get dunked, and then all of a sudden the guy who baptized you is no longer there. Um so honestly, I don't totally know what happens uh in this moment, and to my knowledge, this has yet to happen at a King's Church baptism. But man, wouldn't it be cool if it did? Make the news. Um But I thought this was uh interesting. One of the guys that I disciple pointed out this week is that uh, hey, like as we're reading the story, it just says that uh Philip began to teach him all that the all about Jesus and went through the scriptures. And just from this and how this story ended, I imagine that the last thing that Philip was telling this Ethiopian eunuch was all about the Great Commission. And we see that because of two things. One, right away, we see that this Ethiopian eunuch is like, man, what's stopping me from being baptized? And because the the Great Commission, right? Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So he sees that aspect. So baptism, but then also the other part of the Great Commission is go and make disciples. Make disciples who make disciples who baptize people who uh who make disciples and baptize more people, all this stuff. And church historians will say that this man went back to Ethiopia, and because of his influence and power and testimony, it became the epicenter of Christianity in East Africa. Okay, he was baptized right here, and then he went back to the place that God had him. Acts 17, the boundary lines and dwelling places that he was. He went back to the place that God had called him, and he shared the gospel with people, and it became another epicenter of Christianity. And see, here's what Luke is helping us understand is that there is nothing natural about this encounter between Philip and this Ethiopian eunuch. This was a supernatural, divine appointment that certainly Philip got to uh go and share the gospel, but this was God's doing. Like that God was the one who had orchestrated all of this. God has come for this man, that he had prepared Philip to share the gospel, he had prepared the Ethiopian eunuch to hear the gospel, and the amazing thing is God is still doing that today. Okay, and I believe that as God prepares your heart to share the gospel, as we leave here today, knowing that we are lights sent out into the world, as God prepares your heart to share the gospel, I believe he's already preparing people in your workplaces, at the coffee shop that you go to, in the grocery stores, at the playground, at the water park, wherever it is, I believe that he is preparing hearts to respond to the gospel. The question is, are you willing to step into those spaces? Are you willing to do it? Are you willing to realize, man, there is so much more of a bigger mission for me than just to be saved and then to sit, but actually to be saved and sent out in my neighborhoods, maybe on a church plant like OU. Like where where could that be? God has saved us to be sent out. Does that describe you? Can you see it in your own life? And man, that's what I'm hoping for. That's what I'm praying for for King's Church. And to that end, let me pray for us. Lord, I'm thankful for Acts chapter 8. I'm thankful for your word. I'm thankful for the fruit that we have seen. And I'm thankful that honestly, so much of my life I can see my story feels very similar to the Ethiopian eunuch and the fact that it just felt like such a divine appointment. The people that you have placed in my own life to share the gospel with me, where I felt like I was on a search for you. And Lord, you met me in some places, and so I don't know if that's happening to anybody in the room. I don't know what might be stirring in some people's hearts. But Lord, I pray that people would see that you're the only one who can satisfy. And then Lord, I do pray for the people of King's Church who would say, Yes, Jesus has saved me. I pray that this would just be another opportunity that in the distractions of the world that we could pause and take a moment and see you have such a much bigger mission for us. That's why we're not just saved and we go up to heaven, but we're saved to to stay here and be a light here. And so, Lord, I pray that you would prepare our own hearts to participate in the greatest mission that's ever been given. I pray that we wouldn't be bored and settle for this like really lame hobby of Christianity where we just come and and just sit and not actually do anything with the greatest news in the entire world. The gospel is only good news if it gets there on time. And so, Lord, I do pray. Would you prepare our hearts to share the gospel? I pray for for Didn't Lord. We know that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So, Lord, would you raise up people to go to share the gospel to be a light? And Lord, you be glorified in us doing that. Would you prepare conversations even this week? In your name we pray. Amen.