SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people go enjoy and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you come to church, and I don't know how you came today.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you may have come in today and you're like, hey, I'm not real good at this.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay, relax.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, I haven't been to church since last Easter.
SPEAKER_01: Relax.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain the whole Bible to you in about 30 seconds.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing that God said to the first people, Adam and Eve, was, You're free.
SPEAKER_01: To eat of any tree in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: They screwed it up.
SPEAKER_01: Because freedom's a hard thing to handle.
SPEAKER_01: When you doubt the person that gave it to you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to restore us to the freedom we were created to live in.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says in John 8, you'll know the truth, the truth will set you free.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if the Son has set you free, you're free indeed.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here today and you think this is religion, you're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: This is relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the byproducts of relationship is freedom.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's what it's all about.
SPEAKER_01: So let me voice a prayer, and then we're gonna we want God to kind of help us uh get more freed up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now some of you hear that, and you're like, easy pastor, easy.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Don't easy me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying to you, you don't need to be afraid of what you were created for.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, thanks for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It sets us free.
SPEAKER_01: God, you don't want us to live in religious bondage.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want us to waste our lives caring about things that you don't care about, and you sure don't want us to waste our lives saying things that you never said.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, we don't want to misrepresent you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, speak loud and clear today so we can hear, we can get better at something that we were created to experience.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You could have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Acts chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: And while you're getting your Bible with your other uh while you're opening your Bible with your other hand, I want you to reach in your pocket or purse and pull out some paper form of currency.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it could be a one or a five or a twenty or a hundred if you got that tucked away somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: A Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, I want you to pull it out like right now, pull it out.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, butch, you pull it out too.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: Uncross your arms.
SPEAKER_01: Even the cool people, John, ask Christopher some money.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there you go.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, women are coming going to their husband, give me some money.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Don't give it back after you get it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I want you to pull it out.
SPEAKER_01: This is called contextualization.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you a context, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So actually lean over, pull that bill folded out, unfold it.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you are so tight that George Washington blinks the light when you open up your bill fold.
SPEAKER_01: What's happening?
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, expose George's and why.
SPEAKER_01: Pull out anything you want.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what currency it is.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you got it, hold it up in the air.
SPEAKER_01: Hold it up.
SPEAKER_01: Now bring it to me.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: I sound like TV preachers, didn't I?
SPEAKER_01: Bring it to me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh do me a favor.
SPEAKER_01: If you look on the right side, just to the right of the president, down towards the bottom, it says Secretary of the Treasury.
SPEAKER_01: And then it's got a signature of somebody that you can't read their writing, can you?
SPEAKER_01: Like mine is a guy named Jack Lou.
SPEAKER_01: His penmanship is so bad, President Obama told him you need to practice writing your name.
SPEAKER_01: This is not good.
SPEAKER_01: Now, at this point, you're probably wondering, why do we have money out?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, see, you look at your friends, kind of going, see, these churches are all about getting your money.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want your money.
SPEAKER_01: I want your understanding today.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna read in just a minute in the book of Acts, a guy named Philip, just an ordinary guy, named Philip, has a conversation with the Secretary of the Treasury of the nation of Ethiopia.
SPEAKER_01: Now, y'all are kind of like, uh, okay, I don't work with that guy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh here's why I tell you that.
SPEAKER_01: And you can put your money up.
SPEAKER_01: Uh here's why I tell you that.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes we get around powerful people and we think about them in terms of what they can do for us instead of what the gospel can do for them.
SPEAKER_01: And so look at me.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of this whole thing is God want, we're in a series.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, we're in a series called Better.
SPEAKER_01: Just better.
SPEAKER_01: And we're beginning the new year, spending a couple months looking at things we want to get better at.
SPEAKER_01: And today we're gonna talk about getting better at spiritual conversations.
SPEAKER_01: Getting better at spiritual conversations because we live in a country that says, well, there's two things people don't like to talk about religion and yes, some of you, some of you watch Fox News.
SPEAKER_01: Religion and politics.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: People are like, I don't want to.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm choking on the hypocrisy of that because just this past week, over two million people marched through the streets of our city in the name of politics.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them even made signs.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them hoisted their kids on their shoulders and marched down the streets.
SPEAKER_01: And so, if they're so brazen as to do that, I think we should just kind of step up and engage in this cultural dialogue with people.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say getting better at spiritual conversations, I'm not talking about arguing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about Roe v.
SPEAKER_01: Wade, I'm not talking about he's not my president.
SPEAKER_01: Bigger and better than that.
SPEAKER_01: And so much, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: God so believes that you can do that, and not only that, that people are gonna walk away happier that the conversation happened than they were before you came.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible believes.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible calls us to.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Now the angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
SPEAKER_01: This is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: And as he rose and he went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, a eunuch is somebody that forsakes marriage and they take on a life of celibacy to dedicate themselves to a cause.
SPEAKER_01: And so this guy has dedicated himself to be in service to Candace, the queen of Ethiopia.
SPEAKER_01: And says, So this is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: He rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who's in charge of all of her treasure.
SPEAKER_01: He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot.
SPEAKER_01: And so Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and he asked, Do you understand what you're reading?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, How can I, unless someone guides me?
SPEAKER_01: And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
SPEAKER_01: Now the passage of Scripture that he was reading was this: like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shear is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
SPEAKER_01: Who can describe his generation?
SPEAKER_01: For his life was taken away from the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does the prophet say this?
SPEAKER_01: About himself or about someone else?
SPEAKER_01: And then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, underline those four words, beginning with this scripture.
SPEAKER_01: He told him the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here's water.
SPEAKER_01: What prevents me from being baptized?
SPEAKER_01: And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water.
SPEAKER_01: Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
SPEAKER_01: And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more.
SPEAKER_01: And he went on his way rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: Just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that last part?
SPEAKER_01: And he went on his way rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: It's possible to have spiritual conversations with people that are not conflictual, they're actually helpful.
SPEAKER_01: And people walk away and they're glad that they happened.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that you and I, that God's not has called us and equipped us to have those kind of conversations.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to talk to us this morning about getting better at that.
SPEAKER_01: There's five things from the passage I want you to see that'll help us get better at having those kind of conversations.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is simply this we need a sense of belonging.
SPEAKER_01: We need a sense of belonging.
SPEAKER_01: And by that I mean we need a sense that our life is a part of what God's doing here in this world.
SPEAKER_01: We started reading in Acts chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: But if you have a Bible, flip back to Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: I want to show you something.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start about Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the book of Acts is basically what happens after Jesus finishes mission here on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He ascends back to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He lists the Holy Spirit comes to be with God's people to lead us into the truth.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Acts is about how the church got started and how Christianity spreads.
SPEAKER_01: And so, but way back in Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 6, this is what it says.
SPEAKER_01: It says, So when they'd come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_01: Now this is the disciples and Jesus, they're having this conversation.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, It's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father is fixed by his own authority.
SPEAKER_01: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria until the end of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's something that happens that I don't have time to preach, but I want to just point to.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this again: they want knowledge or information.
SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_01: Is this gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Hey, that's not for you to know.
SPEAKER_01: Don't become some religious egghead who kind of has everything figured out and you're the Bible answer man.
SPEAKER_01: You I gotta ask yourself, would I rather have information or would I rather have power?
SPEAKER_01: Would I rather have information?
SPEAKER_01: Because the disciples want information.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Hey, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the consequence of that.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You'll have spiritual conversations with people, not just in Jerusalem, but in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Now, where we started in Acts chapter 8, if you uh we started in verse 26, but if you go back to the very start of the chapter, look what happens.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 1, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered uh throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God told them, hey, Jesus said, You're gonna be my witnesses, you're gonna have these kind of conversations in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, already here in seven chapters later, Acts chapter eight, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: God says, Hey, it's coming true.
SPEAKER_01: You're leaving Jerusalem, you're going to Judea, Samaria.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you look down in Acts chapter 8, verse 4, right above verse 4, there's a caption.
SPEAKER_01: It says basically Philip preaches, and where does he preach?
SPEAKER_01: What does it say?
SPEAKER_01: Samaria.
SPEAKER_01: He has it.
SPEAKER_01: So what God said.
SPEAKER_01: See, Philip has this sense of, oh, I'm I'm getting to experience what Jesus said, I get to experience.
SPEAKER_01: I have this sense that there's you ever have this sense that there's more to this whole thing than what you're experiencing?
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to watch late-night TV preachers that use words like destiny and breaking through to the next level.
SPEAKER_01: You need to just submit yourself to what God has already said and say to God consistently, I want to be a part of what you're doing in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Philip had that, because if not, here's what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to always think the next thing is going to be it.
SPEAKER_01: The next promotion, the next house, the next SUV up the vehicle food chain.
SPEAKER_01: Then you're going to think, okay, well, when our kids get married, my kids get married.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, when we have grandkids, you get grandkids.
SPEAKER_01: They're cute in the beginning, and then they come to your house, and it looks like a bomb went off.
SPEAKER_01: And you have this thought that goes through your head every once in a while that says this.
SPEAKER_01: Is this all I'm doing is just waiting to die?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you live disconnected from a bigger purpose than just a paycheck, it will eat a hole in you every day of the week.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say we get better at these, how do we get better?
SPEAKER_01: The first thing is we have this sense of belonging.
SPEAKER_01: Philip had this.
SPEAKER_01: He had this sense that you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Hey, you're going to receive power, not just information, but power.
SPEAKER_01: And this is gonna this is gonna empower you to have spiritual conversations, not just in religious places like the church, like Jerusalem, but Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I beating you over the head with this?
SPEAKER_01: Because Philip, Acts chapter 8, he has this conversation with the Samaritan where we jump in, he's having a conversation with a guy from Ethiopia, the uttermost parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He is getting to experience what Jesus talked about.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, would you like to fill your life with synced up with God's purposes?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you feel like it's synced up?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you feel like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I go to work, I make a paycheck, got a pretty good gig, it's not hard, I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: Money's kind of piling up, my my my money market.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Donald Trump's got the thing over 20,000.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: If you're not careful, look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: You can succeed at everything you prefer and fail at the one thing that God requires.
SPEAKER_01: And that's that you and I be people who know how to have these kind of conversations.
SPEAKER_01: So it helps us get better, number one, is this sense of belonging.
SPEAKER_01: Number two is to be we need to be tuned in to what God is saying.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Now the angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
SPEAKER_01: This is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Bible says, go to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, there's two roads that go from Jerusalem to Gaza.
SPEAKER_01: How does Philip know which one to go?
SPEAKER_01: Because if he goes to the wrong one, he misses this guy altogether.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, have you ever had the experience of knowing that you sense God wanted you to do something and you did it?
SPEAKER_01: You just you just kind of like, yeah, I think God's leading me to do this and you did it, and you're like, yes, that was God.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody ever had that experience?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Now let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: Did that feeling come because this angel, this person with big wings on their back and this luminous glow about them, come in your bedroom and say, This is what you're going to do now.
SPEAKER_01: Get ready.
SPEAKER_01: No, you had this sense.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible calls it walking in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: When I say that you need to have a, you need to be tuned into what God is saying.
SPEAKER_01: I had this conversation uh with my children one time.
SPEAKER_01: I used to have it a lot with my oldest because she would always get in my truck and start pushing buttons on my radio.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Don't ever touch a white man's radio.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Oh, Dad, you're killing my jam.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna kill something else if you don't stop that.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said one time out loud, hey, you know, radios used to have knobs.
SPEAKER_01: And she was like, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, and she said, How'd you find anything?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You had to take your thumb and index finger, and very delicately you had to tune that bad boy in to where you got because just because the big little orange indicator thing was was real like fat and thick, and you could just one little nanomove and be, oh, that's too far.
SPEAKER_01: But you had to just dial it in to where you just right there.
SPEAKER_01: Anne had five little buttons, and you could pull the buttons forward, pull them out, and then push them in, and that locked in your presets.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So when you get in here and start pushing buttons, I flash back to those days.
SPEAKER_01: And and you you just didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Ann used to cars did not come with FM radio in them.
SPEAKER_01: And she was like, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yes, serious XM satellite radio hasn't been here forever.
SPEAKER_01: What did y'all listen to?
SPEAKER_01: Automatic for the people.
SPEAKER_01: Music is free.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, so you just had to listen to the commercials and everything?
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why am I telling you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when I say, hey, you need to be tuned into what God is saying, I'm saying to you, uh, let me tell you this, and I'll give you two pictures because we fall into one of these categories, these pictures, okay?
SPEAKER_01: When I'm saying you gotta be tuned in, the Bible calls it walking in the Spirit, being synced up with what God.
SPEAKER_01: You should get up every morning and make sure.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know you're tuned in to what God is saying?
SPEAKER_01: Because what we usually do is we don't tune in, we just play the songs we like to listen to, and then we hope God likes what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you two pictures of what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: When I talk about being synced up and tuned in.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, uh, before I do that, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know this is what God's saying?
SPEAKER_01: There's two roads.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know which one?
SPEAKER_01: There's four ways God speaks, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Traditionally and typically speaking, there's four areas and ways that God speaks to us.
SPEAKER_01: Let me listen for you.
SPEAKER_01: His word, prayer, spiritual authority, and circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say those again.
SPEAKER_01: His word, that's where God speaks the loudest.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks through prayer, he speaks through spiritual authority.
SPEAKER_01: That's pastors, teachers, youth pastors, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: Your mom and dad, uh, and then circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Now put a put a put a little star by circumstances, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because uh let me say this the spirit of God never tells the people of God to do anything that violates the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of God never tells the people of God to do anything that violates the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: I had a friend of mine that called me one night, loud music in the background, and I said, Man, are you like at a club or something?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, and I quote, no, no, I was driving down Highway 59, and the Holy Spirit told me to come in the Colorado Club and witness to some of these women.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: I I I thought I did not hear what I just heard.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, the Colorado Club is a fabric-free environment.
SPEAKER_01: I say it like that with your kids in the room.
SPEAKER_01: And so I heard blurred music in the background, and I said, Come again.
SPEAKER_01: What did you say?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to bear down in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bear down on your neck if you don't get out of there.
SPEAKER_01: You're in the Colorado Club.
SPEAKER_01: The strip club Bob 59.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, the Lord told me to cut.
SPEAKER_01: No, Bob, he did not tell you to come in here.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all remember Bob, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's that Bob, Ronnie.
SPEAKER_01: That Bob.
SPEAKER_01: I love me some Bob.
SPEAKER_01: Bob, Bob was always about, I was just like, Bob, you're in the Colorado club.
SPEAKER_01: What's your name?
SPEAKER_01: Destiny.
SPEAKER_01: I'm better name's Destiny.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You need to pray for destiny.
SPEAKER_01: You need to pray for me because I'm gonna drag come down there and drag you out of there and beat you half to death, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Get out of there.
SPEAKER_01: Now why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the spirit of God doesn't tell men to go witness to strippers in a strip club.
SPEAKER_01: See how easy your flesh always wants to make it about you.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, so but to my friend's credit, he walked out and got in the parking lot and he said, You know, I just need you to pray for me now.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm not mad at you, but come on.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I say put a star by circumstance, because the Spirit of God never tells the people of God to do anything that violates the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: To be tuned in to what God is saying prepares you to be a part of what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: To be tuned in to what God is saying prepares you, like Philip, to be a part of what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you two pictures.
SPEAKER_01: I have a dog at home.
SPEAKER_01: It's supposed to be a Manchester Schnauzer.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it's got in it.
SPEAKER_01: It's got some other stuff in it.
SPEAKER_01: That dog, because I live right over here.
SPEAKER_01: There's people in my neighborhood, they have dogs, and they apparently have them trained and stuff because when they walk, they have a little harness on them and they have a little strap around their muzzle, and it's all nice and everything.
SPEAKER_01: And their dog, I mean, their dogs don't walk, their dogs prance.
SPEAKER_01: It's just like ride beside them.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're never out of sync with them.
SPEAKER_01: They stop, they don't have to say anything.
SPEAKER_01: The dog just stops.
SPEAKER_01: They start walking, the dog gets up and walks.
SPEAKER_01: My dog, you open the front door, and from the time you open the front door to the time you get back, he chokes himself.
SPEAKER_01: He just runs to the end of the he runs up and down the fence.
SPEAKER_01: He runs in the road.
SPEAKER_01: So if you see me dragging that dog out of the road and going, get him on the sidewalk, they know you can't train that dog.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole time it's like, one lady said, You shouldn't abuse that dog.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing anything.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just holding him on.
SPEAKER_01: That dog just, and then we get him on the other side, like three blocks away.
SPEAKER_01: The dog says, Still in the grass.
SPEAKER_01: I need some sick of it.
SPEAKER_01: I can't walk anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, because you're fat.
SPEAKER_01: You eat everything.
SPEAKER_01: You're fat.
SPEAKER_01: Get up.
SPEAKER_01: That dog can't walk.
SPEAKER_01: The dog's got like leukemia.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you sound like Jabba the Hutt.
SPEAKER_01: Get up and walk.
SPEAKER_01: And so I have to pick the dog up and carry it back.
SPEAKER_01: A dog can walk maybe two blocks.
SPEAKER_01: I passed a lady that's got the golden retriever.
SPEAKER_01: It's hair is better than my wife's hair.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, do you like, do you get a flat iron out of it?
SPEAKER_01: And my wife's got beautiful hair.
SPEAKER_01: But it means it's like flat ironed, it's glowing with this magnetic sheen coming off of it.
SPEAKER_01: And that dog just walks right beside him.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm carrying the dog going, can't you be that way?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you feel bad?
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, maybe when we get back, you can give me a treat.
SPEAKER_01: What have you done to deserve a treat?
SPEAKER_01: Now, why am I telling you this?
SPEAKER_01: Because those are two pictures, and everybody in this room falls on one of those two pictures in the way you relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible even talks about it.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 32.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't be like the horse and mule that requires bit and bridle, or it will not stay close to you.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, here's why you need to you see in Philip that this man was kind of tuned into what God was saying.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, go down to the road.
SPEAKER_01: Philip knew exactly what road.
SPEAKER_01: There's two options.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't like, uh, which one's it gonna be?
SPEAKER_01: He knew exactly, hey, this is where the spirit is leading me today.
SPEAKER_01: And also notice this mark this in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It says right there, this and the latter part at the very end of verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: This is a desert place.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads you to places other people aren't going.
SPEAKER_01: You can't look around and see what everybody else is doing and take that as a sign of what God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, just because it's hard, just because it's desolate, just because it's it's dank, doesn't mean that God's not saying, hey, I'm calling you to this.
SPEAKER_01: So see, we get better because we how do we get better?
SPEAKER_01: We need to be tuned in to what God is saying.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, we need to never assume.
SPEAKER_01: We need to never assume.
SPEAKER_01: How do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this guy.
SPEAKER_01: Latter part of verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, verse 27, Philip rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to the way the Bible describes this man.
SPEAKER_01: An Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of her treasure.
SPEAKER_01: He had come to Jerusalem to worship.
SPEAKER_01: He was returning, seated in a chariot, and he was reading from the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Now stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: What does the Bible tell us about this man so far?
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, by the way, Ethiopia in the Bible times is not where it is right now.
SPEAKER_01: It's not because that's like 1,593 miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think this guy was committed, but he ain't gonna ride 1500 miles in Chariot.
SPEAKER_01: It was a little over 100 miles.
SPEAKER_01: It was Nubia, or the country of the region called Cush in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Still a long way.
SPEAKER_01: He makes a pilgrimage.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Bible says that he's devout, he's sacrificial, he goes to church, he reads the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know that he's reading the scroll of Isaiah?
SPEAKER_01: Because back then people read out loud.
SPEAKER_01: And so Philip hears him.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, huh.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what else does the Bible tell us about him?
SPEAKER_01: They didn't have a relationship with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, why do you tell us that?
SPEAKER_01: Because it happens every Sunday right here in this room.
SPEAKER_01: There's people that come to this church.
SPEAKER_01: You're serious, you're committed, you come, you read the Bible, you sing the songs.
SPEAKER_01: In the last over, some guy got so excited, oh, that song, Death Was Arrested.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of it, he just yelled out, Hallelujah! And all the Baptists in the room were like, whoa, easy, what, what?
SPEAKER_01: He's being talked about right now at lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Can you believe that guy blurted that out?
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna have to call him down.
SPEAKER_01: I think the preacher's gonna have to see him.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give him 20 to shout it out again next week.
SPEAKER_01: Living things up around here.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why am I telling you all this?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you just look on the surface, this guy is sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: He's been to worship, he knows the songs, he reads the Bible, but he doesn't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And that may be you here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: You may be sitting here right now, kind of going ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
SPEAKER_01: That's me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just here because it gets my wife off my back for six days.
SPEAKER_01: This is so much better than that.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, did anybody feel what just happened?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And you're safe.
SPEAKER_01: You're safe.
SPEAKER_01: No one's gonna single you out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, don't waste your life just kind of going through the motions, kind of like, hey, I'm reading, I'm singing songs, I'm here, aren't I?
SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to listen for the next few minutes and just ask yourself, hey, what's God saying to me?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the fourth thing we do to get better at spiritual conversations.
SPEAKER_01: We need to ask good questions.
SPEAKER_01: Philip asked this guy.
SPEAKER_01: He goes over and joined the chariot.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and he asked, Do you understand what you're reading?
SPEAKER_01: What's profound about that?
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand what you're reading?
SPEAKER_01: That's all he does.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: This man comes to faith in Jesus because Philip, who's tuned in to what God is doing and what God is saying, his life is connected with what God's doing here in the world.
SPEAKER_01: He just asked a simple question.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand what you're reading?
SPEAKER_01: By the way, Jesus asks questions.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 4, he says to a woman at a well, he says, Hey, could you give me a drink of water?
SPEAKER_01: That conversation ends.
SPEAKER_01: She leaves her bucket, runs into the town, and says to everybody, Come meet a man who told me everything I've ever done.
SPEAKER_01: Could this be the Messiah?
SPEAKER_01: And the townspeople came and they listened to Jesus, and then after a couple days, they looked at her and they said, We no longer believe just because of you.
SPEAKER_01: We have heard ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: All started with one well-placed question.
SPEAKER_01: Would you give me a drink of water?
SPEAKER_01: People always trying to pin Jesus down, and he just asked a question.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to get better at spiritual conversations, you've got to learn to ask questions.
SPEAKER_01: Not just questions, but but but questions that kind of draw people in.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you uh about four or five good questions to ask.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is this what do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh it's the uh the discipline I'm talking about is called apologetics.
SPEAKER_01: It's defending the Christian faith, which I'll teach a class in the fall on Wednesday nights on Christian apologetics.
SPEAKER_01: But uh all this week, I I've been hearing that great theologian Pat Benatar in my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I even asked Clyde in the band, can you cover that on Sunday morning?
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pat Benatar is a lady back in 1980, had a rock band, but she had a great song.
SPEAKER_01: And a line in the song said this.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'll start with the chorus with the verse.
SPEAKER_01: He says, She says, You're a real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts like the one in me.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see how you do it.
SPEAKER_01: Put up your dukes and let's get down to it.
SPEAKER_01: And the chorus says, Hit me with your best shot.
SPEAKER_01: Hit me with your best shot.
SPEAKER_01: Fire away.
SPEAKER_01: Right here in our city, having a conversation with a guy, and he said, Hey, don't you think it's kind of hateful to impose your opinions on everybody?
SPEAKER_01: What do you say?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I I what do you mean by hate?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, you understand what hate is.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I understand what hate is, but if I really believe there's a heaven and there's a hell and Jesus is the only way you get to heaven, I think it would be hateful not to tell you about that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I don't know if I even believe in that.
SPEAKER_01: So we've gone from being hateful to I believe in the afterlife.
SPEAKER_01: I said, so do you believe that people live after they die?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that can be verified.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, in the Bible, in the book of Job, chapter 14, about verse 14, Job asks that question.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if a man dies, will he live again?
SPEAKER_01: I said, you know in the Bible it gives us pictures of the afterlife?
SPEAKER_01: No, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Do you read the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Not really.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You seem to be very defensive.
SPEAKER_01: Have you had a bad experience with religious people?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Yes.
SPEAKER_01: I said, when?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, all of them.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Do you think this is gonna be a bad experience?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but it's kind of frustrating.
SPEAKER_01: I said, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I just remember I just asked for clarification about what you mean when you said what you said.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another question.
SPEAKER_01: How did you come to that conclusion?
SPEAKER_01: I don't take responsibility for defending or defining what people say.
SPEAKER_01: I just push back on them.
SPEAKER_01: I learned it from a guy named Greg Coco.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, how did you come to that conclusion?
SPEAKER_01: Like one person said to me one time, uh, and and I quote, Well, I think in the end everyone's gonna get in.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I think I know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, everyone goes to heaven, so you're a universalist.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not gonna say that.
SPEAKER_01: I just think that a loving God is not gonna send anybody to hell.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone's gonna get in in the end.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're all got our shortcomings or hang-ups and whatever, but in the end, everyone's gonna get in.
SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, let's just suppose for a second that that's true.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, let's put this over here.
SPEAKER_01: Then over here, I need you to explain to me why Jesus has to come.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because most people haven't thought about, and by the way, when I say most people, that includes us.
SPEAKER_01: Haven't thought about what we believe and why.
SPEAKER_01: I said, if everybody gets in, then Jesus is the most unnecessary person who's ever lived.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you are.
SPEAKER_01: Because according to what the Bible teaches, Jesus is necessary.
SPEAKER_01: He himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, now, you got me confused.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that didn't take long.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy kind of smiled, and I said, Again, this isn't a contest.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, my name's Neil.
SPEAKER_01: I remember your name.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't gotta yell at me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you another question.
SPEAKER_01: Is this something that you live by?
SPEAKER_01: And nine times out of ten, the response is, Well, I mean, I'll try.
SPEAKER_01: Does that mean you don't always live up to your standard?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Now, people accuse people in the church all the time.
SPEAKER_01: They say, church is full of hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: So I asked this person, so does that make you a hypocrite?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I'm not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Well, neither am I.
SPEAKER_01: And matter of fact, apart from Jesus, you have to be perfect to get in.
SPEAKER_01: And what you just said was, I'm not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: So what that says to me, there's no way you can get to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, that's just your opinion.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm just extrapolating, extrapolating your logic.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another question.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever wonder if there's more than what you currently believe?
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever wonder?
SPEAKER_01: Like I had a guy say to me, he goes, I just believe there's aliens, and I believe that we're gonna discover their life on other planets, it's gonna make the Bible and everything the Bible says obsolete.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, welcome to Austin.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Is is here's my question.
SPEAKER_01: You're talking about a future discovery.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, that's right.
SPEAKER_01: I think scientific, we're gonna, we're gonna, you know, scientifically we're going to advance to a point that these old ways of thinking are gonna be shared.
SPEAKER_01: I said, but the Bible says of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, of the Trinitarian God, uh, that before the He existed before the very foundation of the world was laid.
SPEAKER_01: So before there were galaxies, there was God.
SPEAKER_01: And how can we discover something in those galaxies that's gonna neutralize and cancel out God?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I hadn't thought about it.
SPEAKER_01: I just think you might want to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another question, last question.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what are the consequences if you're wrong?
SPEAKER_01: What are the consequences if you're wrong?
SPEAKER_01: Now, I've had people tell me, you know, I I don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: I I one guy said, I just believe that when when we die, we die.
SPEAKER_01: We go on the ground, we rot, and it's over.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, what are the consequences if you're wrong?
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, I believe that the way you live on earth matters.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and it's form informed by a relationship with Christ, which you could have.
SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I just, you know, and I said, so let's just say you die and you go on the ground, we rot, we're a banquet for the worms, quote you, and but if you're wrong, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, uh, I go to a bad place, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, But I'm not trying to scare you.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to think about here, what's the consequence of what you believe?
SPEAKER_01: Because Christianity doesn't just speak to how we live in this life, it informs what we do in the next.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a Muslim one time, and they said, Well, you know, I'm gonna do my best and to be devout, and at the end I'm gonna walk across this bridge over the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: And if I've done enough, Allah's gonna let me across, and if not, he's gonna knock me in the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, as I sit here right now, I have certainty.
SPEAKER_01: And this person said, What'd you say?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of arrogant, don't you think?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, the Bible says in 1 John chapter 5, he says, These things have I written unto you, so you may know that you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: How certain are you as you sit in these chairs right now and breathe this air that you have eternal life?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says you could know.
SPEAKER_01: This person said to me, No way.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Way and I said, I'm not disrespecting your religion or you or your prophet or your book or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying I have certainty.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't depend on my behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes my behavior is not what it should be.
SPEAKER_01: You can relate, amen.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen some of you drive.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing.
SPEAKER_01: We need to ask good questions.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing we need to do to get better at spiritual conversations is we need to be gospel fluent.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: Remember how you underline four words?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was uh was this.
SPEAKER_01: It's from Isaiah 52.
SPEAKER_01: Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, like a lamb before its shear is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
SPEAKER_01: Who can describe his generation?
SPEAKER_01: For his life is taken away from the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does the prophet say this?
SPEAKER_01: About himself or about someone else?
SPEAKER_01: And then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: When I say beginning with this scripture, gospel fluency, look at me, beloved, is we gotta be able to pick up the dialogue wherever people leave it off.
SPEAKER_01: You can't have memorized canned responses to everything.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Bill, have you come to your point in your life, you know for sure if you died tonight, you'd go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And if you did die, Bill, and you stood before God and God said, Why shall I let you into heaven?
SPEAKER_01: What would you tell him?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, beloved, if we preach that salvation is by grace through faith, not book not works, don't ask a works-based question.
SPEAKER_01: You're contradicting yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Think a little bit, Christians.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Philip, I had a professor that used to walk around and you'd have your Bible on your desk, and he would just flip through it, Brandon.
SPEAKER_01: He'd just put his finger down and say, Preach me the gospel from right there.
SPEAKER_01: And you had to look down and read whatever it was.
SPEAKER_01: And right there it just says, If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?
SPEAKER_01: And the priest answered and says, It does become unclean.
SPEAKER_01: And he would just say, Preach me the gospel, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: And Brandon, we would stumble and fumble over ourselves, and he would go, You don't know the gospel story, son.
SPEAKER_01: You know four or five verses that you interject into every conversation like a spiritual cough drop.
SPEAKER_01: And we would try to defend ourselves and he'd go, You're mad right now.
SPEAKER_01: You should be mad at yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be mad at me.
SPEAKER_01: I know the whole story.
SPEAKER_01: You know a few lines of the story.
SPEAKER_01: Who's more compelling?
SPEAKER_01: And he'd just walk off.
SPEAKER_01: He told us the first day of class, he said, You're gonna love me or hate me, and I don't care either way.
SPEAKER_01: And about the first half of the semester, it was hate.
SPEAKER_01: And then we started realizing we don't know the whole story.
SPEAKER_01: So we started reading the Bible and he'd flip it open, and I'd lay mine out, like, come on, big boy.
SPEAKER_01: Call on me today.
SPEAKER_01: And he'd come to me and he'd stop and he'd go, Are you in ministry, son?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01: And he'd flip to the book of Leviticus and put his finger down.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd be like, Well, I hadn't read that far yet.
SPEAKER_01: He said to me one day in class, the law drives us to the gospel, young man.
SPEAKER_01: Your personality can't get us there.
SPEAKER_01: I was like the witch and the wizard of Oz.
SPEAKER_01: What a world! What a world.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: That man changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm better at spiritual conversations because he just wore me out in love.
SPEAKER_01: He would look at us and say, Are you more mad at me?
SPEAKER_01: Are you more mad at yourself?
SPEAKER_01: Because being mad at me will just make you sin.
SPEAKER_01: Being mad at yourself will transform your life.
SPEAKER_01: To your tents, O Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Go loathe your insufficiency, boys.
SPEAKER_01: And we were like, And he would just smile, walk away.
SPEAKER_01: It was like a clown on fire.
SPEAKER_01: You were like, being gospel fluent.
SPEAKER_01: But you know why I love that man so much?
SPEAKER_01: Because one day I'm in Austin, Texas, and I park my truck and I get out.
SPEAKER_01: There's a parking lot going to eat at a restaurant.
SPEAKER_01: There's a parking lot that's two-tiered like this, the high part and the low part go down these stairs, and I get out and I walk, and there's a dumpster over there, and there's a guy with a dumpster smoke, and clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit says, go over and talk to him.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was like, rock and roll.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I didn't have a track or planned presentation with me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, all right, I think I'm dialed in.
SPEAKER_01: I said, hey man, I'm not from Austin.
SPEAKER_01: True story.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not from Austin.
SPEAKER_01: But if I was in town on a Sunday and I was looking to go to a church, where would you recommend I go?
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, you're asking the wrong dude.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not in a church.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm I'm pretty jacked up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I smoke and I drink.
SPEAKER_01: I like to go to clubs and pick up women.
SPEAKER_01: I said, that's how I put my that's how I met my first wife.
SPEAKER_01: I get it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so we're, by the way, I'm still married to one woman.
SPEAKER_01: And so we start a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, So do you sound like you didn't go to church much?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I don't really have much use for church.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You got any spiritual beliefs that govern your life?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Oh man, I'm not a good person.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm like a bad, I'm like I smoke and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I smoke and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I smoke.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Here, let me hold a cigarette.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm not gonna put it out here.
SPEAKER_01: Let me, I'll smoke it while you talk.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Because I told him, I said, How pastor, a church in Sugarland, Texas, land of all the sweet people.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to me, Are you gonna get in trouble for that?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm doing this because I want you to walk away.
SPEAKER_01: If you remember anything, I don't want you to think you go to hell because you smoke.
SPEAKER_01: This is a bad habit, and it may give you lung cancer.
SPEAKER_01: And you can't blame God when you die, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And it's expensive.
SPEAKER_01: I said, but you're gonna have to walk away and go, this man talked to me about Jesus with my cigarette in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: So go ahead, keep talking.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, I've only got three left and I get paid tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't throw that out.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I ain't gonna hurt your cigarette.
SPEAKER_01: Relax, man.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're under the age of 18, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not endorsing smoking.
SPEAKER_01: You think I got a body like this smoking?
SPEAKER_01: Kidding yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said, hey, I have some friends here in this city that are on staff at a church and they're real authentic people.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Would you, if I gave you the name of the church, would you be interested in that?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Well, I guess, I mean, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You don't have to go.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, No, I'd be cool.
SPEAKER_01: So I told him a little bit about the church.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, ask for my friend.
SPEAKER_01: Here's his name.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna call him when I go in this restaurant and tell him to look for you, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So you can look for him.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01: I said, All right, that's all I got.
SPEAKER_01: Here's your cigarette back.
SPEAKER_01: I turned to walk away.
SPEAKER_01: I got about 10 steps away.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: I turned around.
SPEAKER_01: He walks up to me and hugs me.
SPEAKER_01: This week I'm in my office.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading over this because I knew I was gonna preach from this passage.
SPEAKER_01: And I got to this part here.
SPEAKER_01: And it said, the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: It's possible.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say God created you to have spiritual conversations with people where when they walk away, they rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: They're just glad that it happened.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that Philip was so gospel fluent that he just started, it says the text says he opened his mouth and beginning with the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, beloved, look, Philip opened his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta open your mouth sometime.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just write it on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01: You can't put it on a bumper stick on the back of your Buick and go, hey, check me out.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta open your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: What comes out when you open your mouth and do people find it enjoyable?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he, beginning with this scripture, he told them the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What's the good news about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Four things that I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he's the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about a rabbi or moral teacher or a good example.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, his death on the cross was purposeful.
SPEAKER_01: His death on the cross was purposeful.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That means that him dying was, hey, I should be there.
SPEAKER_01: His death on the cross was in my place for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: He was a substitution for me.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_01: I, your pastor, deserve to die for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't have to because Jesus already has.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing, here's why it's the good news about Jesus: his death was consequential.
SPEAKER_01: Because it made available something that wasn't available before.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't, hey, I'm going to clean you up now, don't get dirty.
SPEAKER_01: It was, I'm going to take out your heart of stone and give your heart of flesh and put my spirit in you, and I'm going to move you to follow my decrees.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you can sing.
SPEAKER_01: We're free.
SPEAKER_01: Free.
SPEAKER_01: Forever we're free.
SPEAKER_01: Come join the song of all the redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, it means this this forgiveness is experienced only in a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Right here in our city, I had a conversation with a 20-something-year-old young lady.
SPEAKER_01: And she said to me, You mean to tell me that I cannot have forgiveness apart from a relationship with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you could get forgiveness from God without submitting to a relationship with Jesus, then why would we all not just cherry pick forgiveness and keep on sinning?
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus says in Luke's gospel in chapter 6, he says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say?
SPEAKER_01: You want to call Jesus Lord, Lord, and not do what he says because you know you need to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, you don't need to just be forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you that God didn't make you just to forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: God made you to know you in relationship.
SPEAKER_01: God always wants deeper things from the relationship than we're willing to settle for.
SPEAKER_01: We're willing to settle for going out here and doing our best and screwing it up and coming back and saying, Oh God, I need forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna try harder, screw it up, mess it up.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, I need forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know you.
SPEAKER_01: And in your knowledge of me and my knowledge of you, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Sin loses its power over you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it like this in Romans 6.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you know?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Or excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, what shall we say?
SPEAKER_01: Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?
SPEAKER_01: God forbid.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
SPEAKER_01: See, a relationship with Jesus is a new life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the same habits with more effort on top.
SPEAKER_01: If you hear anything this morning, hear this and I'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't come just to forgive you, He came to know you.
SPEAKER_01: He always wants the deeper part of the relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: What we like to do is we like to teach the Bible and we like to give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what this time is for.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll just take about a minute, Cloud just play.
SPEAKER_01: And you just ask yourself hey, what had my name on it today?
SPEAKER_01: What what what what what was it when I heard it?
SPEAKER_01: I was like, whoa, yeah, I gotta think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Religion establishes a system whereby which you can feel forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ came to make available a relationship where you can be known, accepted, loved, forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a sense that your life, that the daily living, the in-and-out choices of your life every day are connected with what God's doing in the world?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you have you just feel like, hey, I'm making money and then I'm gonna die and I hope, you know, whatever?
SPEAKER_01: When you get up, do you sense that you're dialed in to God's voice in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Can you hear what the Spirit of God is saying?
SPEAKER_01: Are you fluent in the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Father, today what we see in Acts 8 is a man that just was good at having spiritual conversations.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't want that to shame us or embarrass us or make us feel guilty or insufficient.
SPEAKER_01: We want that to motivate us to get better.
SPEAKER_01: We want that to motivate us to be thinking people.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have three responses to all 29 questions we're gonna get asked this week.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we pray for gospel fluency, which means we need to be men and women of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We need to see the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: And when we talk to people, we can just bring, we can just kind of hold up a picture, a portion of the picture so they can see it.
SPEAKER_01: Not to overwhelm them, but to invite them into it.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, the gospel came to us on its way to somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: And so because of that, we've got to get better at having the conversation that prepares them to respond to it.
SPEAKER_01: That's our prayer today, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience, we ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: When everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_01: When you came in, you're handed a worship folder on the far right side that has a little tear-off portion.
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you have a chance to fill that out, you just tear it off and drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_01: That's also where we receive our offerings of today's the day you practice obedience or generosity.
SPEAKER_01: That's where you'd do that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you heard anything that made you curious or you're like, hey, I got some stuff going on.
SPEAKER_01: I'd love for somebody to pray with me, myself and some of our pastors and elders to be available down from.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sister, I hear you.
SPEAKER_01: We're down from it to pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you'd like, if you have a question, if you'd like to be prayed for, we'd love to meet you.
SPEAKER_01: So just come up and introduce yourself, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: God so believes that you can do this that he requires it of you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, get better at it.
SPEAKER_01: And get out of here and go do what you were created for.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.