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Open it up to Acts. We're going to look at chapter 8 tonight. And if you don't have a Bible, remember there are Bibles there in front of you. Probably see one kind of spread out around. And if you don't own a Bible, take it with you. And if you own a Bible, don't take it with you because we want to add to your American collection of Bibles that get stuck around your house. If you're like us, you have way too many Bibles, right? But take one if you need one, okay? That's what it's there for. I apologize in advance if I sound funky or if I like start hacking in the middle of this talk at some point. Last, I guess it was uh a week from this past Thursday now, um, I had the sinus surgery, and some of you guys were aware of that. And so it kind of like they take the inside of your nasal cavity out. I know Amy's had it here, and and then and uh fix it and then put it back in, and it's just a weird deal. So um still recovering from that, but um feeling a ton better than last week. And if you were here last week, you probably saw me. I was like pale and just kind of sitting there and trying to listen to Harley and come on, all right, be done, please. I gotta go home. And so I felt bad. I was not his best uh supporter last week sitting there on the front row. But um anyway, um excited though about what God is teaching us. You did a great job, Harley. Um, looking at Acts 6 last week, where the inevitable happens, um, the church starts to form, and what happens? Conflict. Uh people, you get people together and you start uh doing what people do, and we as people we we create conflict, we we have messes. Um and so last week we looked at how um in the book of Acts the people were starting to get their feet under them, God was doing some awesome things, the church was growing, and then this group of widows, and for you know, for the right reason or whatever, it doesn't matter, the bottom line is they had a need and it wasn't being met, and so they said, Hey, like, we're not getting taken care of, we need we have some needs, and so they had to step up and deal with that conflict. They did it in a mature way, they did it in a godly way, they did it in a biblical way, a gracious way, and as a result, uh the church moved forward rather than getting sidetracked and in the ditch over something silly. And so it could go on and on about that. And if you're reading along with us, which by the way, again, if you're new, um you'll notice on the right side of your guide, there's a reading plan. I encourage you to read because we're not teaching every passage that we're reading through, and so you'll miss some of the cool stories that are in the book of Acts. It's a great book, it's it's a narrative, and so you're just reading the stories of what Luke is writing and describing in the early church. Um, and so this week I was really challenged by reading through Acts 7, uh, which is a story of Stephen, who was one of those men appointed to meet the needs. He was a man full of the Holy Spirit. He was a man who had a great reputation, and it says he was wise, but he also was a gifted communicator. And so he stands up and he starts communicating the gospel, and they're like, Hey, you need to stop talking about that. And he just, man, he just proclaims this message. It's amazing if you read it. He goes through the Old Testament, he gives them the entire history. I mean, he's talking to people who understand uh all of the scripture and Old Testament, but he gives them a history lesson, you know, which I think they're like sitting there going, like, Well, you're telling us about the Old Testament? Come on, bro. And so he goes through the Old Testament, walks them through, and talks about how that they've rejected God's message over and over and over, ultimately how they rejected the Holy Spirit. And they decide on the spot, like, dude, you're we're done listening to you, and they stone him. And uh they kill him, and just a sad deal. He's the first Christian martyr uh that we we find. And uh and at that point, it we pick up in chapter 8, and it says this um verse 1 of chapter 8. It's a terrible way to start a chapter, but this is what it says. Saul agreed with putting him to death. Alright, chapter 1, or chapter uh 8, verse 1. That's it. Saul agreed with putting him to death. And so, for those of you maybe that are new to the Bible, um, Saul is the later apostle Paul. His name is changed, and he ends up writing over half the New Testament. Pretty incredible transformation to go from the one who agrees, because in the story we just saw about Stephen being stoned, the coats of those who stoned Stephen are being laid at the feet of Saul, this persecutor, who was a leader amongst the religious people, and which indicates that he would he was probably the leader of the group that was persecuting Stephen and uh stoning him on the spot. And so Luke brings Saul up because later we're gonna find in just a chapter, we're gonna find Saul's story of his own conversion and how he went from persecutor to follower of Jesus, okay? And so it's a pretty phenomenal transformation that happens because here he is basically as a murderer or condoning this murder. Um, but it goes on to say in chapter 8, let me just read this to us. It says, Saul agreed with putting him to death. On that day, a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered. Now note that word scattered, okay? We're gonna come back to that. Throughout the land of Judea and Samaria, devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. Saul, however, was ravaging the church. And that word ravaging there, literally in the in the Greek language, is a word that um is used for like a hog that is just rooting up a field and just destroying it. So, like we live in Texas, and we know we like we have these nasty feral hogs around here. Uh, maybe you've seen them, maybe you don't. I'm I know I'm kind of an undercover redneck, and so I've I've actually hunted these things before. And uh, and so they are terrible, man. The farmers hate them because they just destroy stuff. I mean, I've I've seen where they just have gone through a crop and destroyed a whole crop and they just run through the fences, and it's a mess. And Paul and I are gonna go take care of some of them some point in the future. So we gotta we gotta make sure and get that trip planned. But um but here's the deal like he's describing Paul as a persecutor as if he's like this just hog that's just going wild. You ever heard that hog wild uh tur term before? Again, if if you're like me and you grew up in the country, probably so. Matt Matt here knows what I'm talking about. Uh we connect, brother. Um and so this hog hog kind of imagery is just ravaging the church. And it goes on to say that he would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison. What a crazy story, like to see what they're doing is they're persecuting the church. All because they believe in Jesus, all because they're they are proclaiming the message that Jesus Christ didn't stay dead, but that he rose again and that he is the Savior, that he is the Messiah. They are dragging them out of their houses and throwing them in jail. This week I had um I try to keep up with what's going on in China and East Asia because I've spent some time going um to China and had the opportunity to work with some leaders over there in the house church movement and working on college campuses. And when um I was reading this article this week that was saying that this persecution, kind of something similar to what we're seeing here, is actually on the rise in China. They just installed a new uh leadership there, and when I was there, they were kind of going through that process, and there was a lot of questions about whether they were gonna be hard on the church or they were gonna help the church. Um nobody really felt like they were gonna help the church, but uh they thought maybe they'll have a softer policy, a softer stance towards the church, and come to find out it's actually the opposite. They've got a very aggressive plan to eradicate the house church movement. Uh they want to go in and take these house churches and they're making them change their name to house gathering, and they're trying to get them to start using language that the government can control and keep them from sharing the gospel. And so I know, again, I uh my brothers and sisters in China, I'm praying for them because I saw that statistically, percentage-wise, the the uh amount of believers that are being persecuted is on the rise. And we need to pray for them. We need to pray for them. Whether you believe um in Jesus and whether you believe in the Bible or not, like it's wrong that a government is oppressing a group of people for what they believe, right? And they're not doing anything to overthrow the government, they're not doing anything to hurt anyone, they're just teaching the message of Jesus. But that's the kind of uh polarity that comes when we teach the gospel to a group of people who want to stay in control. It just drives people to get um concerned about their grip on their leadership. And so it's it's a wild um experience that we see going on in China, and it just reminds me of what's going on here in this passage. It's not a new thing, right? They were standing up for the sake of the gospel, and they're being ravaged by these leaders. But notice this, it goes on in verse 4. So those who were scattered went on their way. There's that word scattered again. They went on their way preaching the message of good news. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds paid attention with one mind to what Philip said as they heard and saw the signs that he was performing. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice, and this is a little freaky, okay? Let's be honest. This is a little bit weird, something I haven't really seen. Okay, for unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed, meaning that they had demonic spirits in them, and they were coming out of them, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. This is not the first time we've seen healing going on, signs and wonders in the book of Acts. But here they are. These signs and wonders that there's people being healed from uh from their perils from being paralyzed or being lame. And then I love this verse. If you have your Bible, underline this verse, okay? It's okay to write in your Bible. It's even okay to write in the Bibles that you can use out there, all right? God won't won't smite you, all right? But just underline this verse. It says this in verse 8. So there was great joy in that city. Listen, that that description of what God was doing there, that the gospel was transforming lives, and that God literally brought great joy to the city because of the witness of the saints, the witness of the believers that were there. Specifically Philip, who goes and proclaims the message of the gospel to this group of people. I love that phrase because that's what I'm praying for for Austin, Texas. That's what I'm praying for my neighborhood. That's what I'm praying for my street, is that great joy would come because they experienced the grace and the love and the power of a God who has saved us and has rescued us and who has redeemed us and restored us and is restoring us and will ultimately restore all things. And so I just I want that, I want that badly. Anyone else in that camp? Anybody else there with me? And so I see that. I'm like, that's what a great description. And what a great prayer to pray that we would see that kind of move of God amongst the people of God that would then bring people who are far from God to life in Christ. That's what it's about to me. Okay? But here's what I want us to do tonight. I want us to talk a little bit about this idea of missionary, because Philip is actually recorded as the first official missionary for the church. Up until this point, they've been in Jerusalem, they've been hanging out, doing this amazing work that God's called them to, because remember, let me give you a quick snapshot where we've been. Um, Acts 1, Jesus says, Okay, I'm gonna be leaving, and when I leave, I want you to go and I want you to wait for me. And the Holy Spirit's gonna come. That is God with us now, God in us, okay? The part of the Trinity, he is equally God, okay, um, in the form of the Holy Spirit. He's gonna come, he's gonna empower you to be what? To be my witnesses, right? To be my witnesses, to go and tell others that I am alive and that I am the rescuer, I am the savior of the world, okay? And so to go be my witnesses, I'm gonna empower you to do that. So they go and pray, they wait, Holy Spirit comes, comes in the form of these tongues of fire. If you saw the um the uh graphic up here, you notice there's a little tongue of fire there. It's because the Holy Spirit, I mean, actually, we could we could give the book of Acts another name. Um, some people will call it the Acts of the Apostles, but one of the names that would be equally applicable would be the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Because we see the Holy Spirit initiating a gospel work and gospel movement over and over and over throughout the book. Okay? So the Holy Spirit comes in the form of these tongues of fire, this rushing wind into this room, which you can only imagine how crazy that had to be. You're praying, and all of a sudden this wind rushes in, roaring, and then there's these tongues of fire that land on each person that's there praying. And they go out and they begin to proclaim the gospel, right? And they speak in languages that they couldn't have spoken without the power of God, without the ability that God gives them supernaturally to communicate this gospel message. And so here they are, they're doing this, um, and then first we see 3,000, then we see 5,000, so that's you know, at least 8,000 people come to faith, and we we know that there's others that are coming to faith, but then the leaderships, uh the religious leaders that are the Jewish leaders, they're not excited about this. They start to kind of get upset and frustrated, and they they come down on them, they they try to um imprison them, but they just kind of slap their hands, say don't do this. But it's intensifying until we get to this point where now all of a sudden the persecution breaks out. Okay, and they're and they're trying to stop them from preaching altogether, and so uh we've got back to this point of ravaging. But now we've got Philip, who is a missionary. A missionary, um has have any of you ever um have ever gone on a mission trip? I I'm pretty positive. I know some of you have. Mission trip? Okay. Have any of you ever lived overseas or gone somewhere to another place as a missionary for a long time? Uh like when you think about that word missionary, anybody experienced that? They've done that? Okay. Uh we'll we'll count Harley, we'll say he's a missionary to the U.S., right? Um, but but how long can you be there before you're like no longer? Okay, anyway. Um, but yeah, we we we we know this idea of missionary. When I was growing up, I mean again, just being honest about my roots, I grew up around church, and I remember going to these little camps when I was a kid, and they would bring these missionaries in uh from like Tanzania and different countries around the world, and and uh like just let me be just be honest, they were they were kind of just dorky. Um like they were just these dorky dudes that they would get up and and like show these slideshows and talk about the foods they ate and and all these different things, and um and so that's the way I always viewed the word missionary, fought of the word missionary. Um but let me give us a definition, a working definition for the word missionary, as the Bible I think defines it and gives us um insight into. Uh if you're if you're following along in the notes, a person sent by God to tell others about him. This is a really basic elementary definition that really encompasses what we see a missionary is, is someone who is sent. And that's the real emphasis here is that they're sent by who? By God. By God to do what? To tell others about him. Okay? Just a baseline definition. So Philip here is one of the first missionaries recorded in the text, and he is going to tell others about who God is and what he's done. He's going to be that witness that Acts 1, 8 calls us to be. Right? And what's awesome is that I read to you as he is going to do that, that he is accomplishing the work that Christ said they would accomplish was to be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts. And so in the chapter 8, by the end of this chapter, we've already seen this happen. We've already seen them be witnesses, the believers be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts. And you'll you'll see how in just a sec. So here's the thing. When we think about Philip as a missionary, um, and and we see him in this text, we see him going to a group of people to be a witness. But it's important that we understand that if you are a believer in Jesus, if you have put your trust and your faith in Christ to be your Savior, to save you, you are a missionary. In fact, C. H. Spurgeon said this. He said, Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. You know, the reality is that some of us are just bad missionaries. I mean, there have been times in my life when I have been a terrible missionary, but I can't avoid the fact that because I know Jesus Christ, I have been sent to be a missionary, to live on mission with him, to tell others about him. Now, sometimes my life points others more to me than it does to Jesus. In fact, Harley said earlier, our mission statement is to be a family of Christ followers, pointing people to life in him. Sometimes I feel like the way I live my life is I want people to know my needs and come take care of me and meet my needs and make sure that they that I get recognition or attention. But what Christ has called us to as followers of him is to point people to life in him. Because there is life in him, isn't there? He's called us to point people to life in Jesus. And so every one of us here that proclaim Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are a missionary. We may be distracted right now, we may be struggling right now, we may be afraid right now, we may be scared out of our minds to talk to anybody about Jesus, but we are a missionary. Because we are sent. And let me explain why. Because when Jesus was telling his disciples to go into all the world, the end of his life, he said, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, that command wasn't just for his disciples then and there, it's for us here and now. And when in John 21, 20, 21, Jesus said, It's just as the Father has sent me, now I send you, that wasn't just for then and there, it's for here and now. That we are sent ones to go and to tell others about who Christ is and what he has done. So as a missionary, there's three things I want us to see tonight from this passage. We're going to move through them quickly, but hang with me. We're going to move through this quickly that we see from this particular passage about Philip as the first missionary. Okay? First, this is this as a missionary, our mission requires sacrifice. As a missionary, our mission requires sacrifice. Now, in the text we see this specifically because they were being persecuted. Physically, they were sacrificing for the sake of the gospel. They were physically putting themselves in harm's way for the sake of the gospel. Now, I love the language that's there, even though it's hard to read about our brothers and sisters in Christ being persecuted. It says that as they were persecuted, what happened? They we said emphasize this word twice. They scattered. That's right, they scattered. You see, sometimes hardships are the best way to get the gospel to spread. I've said this to you a couple times, but I think that one of the reasons why the gospel is spreading at such a rapid rate in countries where they're not as comfortable as we are in the U.S. is because you know they're not as tied to their stuff, they're not as tall, tied to their things, and that pressure, even governments that come and try to oppress and keep them from believing the gospel or believing and practicing their faith, actually, it's like have you ever have you ever um have you ever seen what happens when you try to put a grease fire out with water? Okay, so kids in the room, and for that matter, adults in the room, if you ever have a grease fire in your house, do not pour water on it, right? Because what happens? It spreads. I mean, it it spreads, it just goes crazy. In fact, I know a man, he was a uh a bus driver for us, and and his wife, she had a fire, a grease fire in their house while they were gone. He was with us, and she threw water on the fire, and it went all over their kitchen and burned most of their house down. Terrible situation, right? I I see that image in my brain when I see what happened when when when people try to keep the gospel from spreading. We see this in the book of Acts. They tried to keep the gospel suppressed, they tried to shut it down, they tried to kill off all of the leaders and anyone who said that they believed in Jesus, and guess what happens? It got bigger, it grew, it spread. Now, that is only by the power and the grace of God through his Holy Spirit. But what's amazing is that you cannot stop God. You cannot stop his movement. In fact, we're here today because these men and these women were faithful to continue to proclaim the gospel even under persecution. And if that's a that's not an apologetic for believing in who Jesus is and following Jesus, I don't know what is. I mean, let's think about this. Would you die for something you didn't believe in? Would you put your life on the line? Would you say, I am willing to be burned at the stake, I'm willing to be nailed to a cross, as some of the disciples were. Are you would you be willing to die, to give up your very life for something that you didn't think was true? And yet all these early followers who had been with Jesus, both pre-death on the cross and post-resurrection from the grave, they believed so much so that they were willing to put their lives on the line for it. That that to me is an indicator that we can have trust and confidence, right? In the gospel and in the message of the Bible. And so if you struggle to believe that, or if you've doubted the Bible before, I mean, to me, that's just one indicator. And we get to see today the fruit, again, of these people who resisted the temptation just to quit, to stop preaching, stop proclaiming the message, but they just pressed in, they pressed on because they said it was worth it. And they knew this message was true. They knew who Christ was real. So the mission requires sacrifice. Now I don't want to be a broken record, but I know that coming to South Austin to start Redemption City Church, some families had to sacrifice. They had to sacrifice financially, they had to sacrifice relationally, they had to sacrifice. Even physically, because it's tiring to move. Anybody else hate moving? I hate moving. My wife was volunteering us to go help her sister move. This weekend they come down. I'm like, what are you saying? I was like trying, you know, don't say that. I hate moving, you know. Although I will say I can move other people's stuff. I'm pretty, I'm okay with that. But I'm pretty positive that when you wake up in hell, I mean, if you wake up or go to sleep, I don't really know. But anyway, but if you when you wake up in hell, you're gonna wake up to a moving truck, okay? I'm pretty positive because that is that it is moving, it's just, oh, it's a terrible thing. And but listen, um, sacrifices are normative Christian behavior when you believe that Christ has given the ultimate sacrifice. Let me say that again. Sacrificing is normative behavior. That means it's not, it shouldn't be the exception to the rule. It should be normal because we understand that this life is temporary, that our comfort is fleeting, that our glory and accolades and anything that we have, our money that we can make, no matter how big our house gets, no matter how much stuff we accumulate, it's not gonna last, is it? But our relationship with Christ lasts forever. In fact, I tell my kids all the time, and I hope that it gets ingrained into them over and over and over, especially fighting against the cultural values and views. I remind them all the time that there's only two things that are gonna last according to Scripture that are here in this earth now. God's word and God's people. It's the only two things the Bible teaches us that will last: God's word and God's people. Okay? Everything else is gonna be gone, isn't it? So I say that because the sacrifices that we may feel, the the burn that we may feel, and we may sacrifice a reputation. Um I think some of my neighbors, they look at me and they think we're weird. I think they think we're crazy sometimes. I think they're like, what in the world is wrong with that dude? First off, they think we're crazy because we have five kids, but that's a whole nother ballgame, right? Um but then they they look at us and they're like, you know, like what why why is it why are they here? Why did they move here? They moved here to do what? Who does that? You know? But that should be normative. I'm not undermining or uh, you know, trying to minimize those who moved. I mean, Harley and Liz making the move from Houston, uprooting their lives there to come and join us in the work we're doing here. I praise God every day for that. But I know that when we understand the power of the cross and the lostness of the world around us, that people who do not know Christ are going to spend eternity separated from him, it drives us to say, like, whatever it takes, whatever it takes, God, we'll do it. And that's what you see here is that Philip, who's proclaiming the gospel here and has great success, later Philip was martyred. All these disciples who are proclaiming the gospel message and they they speak it out, later they were martyred. So the mission requires sacrifice. But not only does the mission require sacrifice, the message that we get to proclaim, the message as a missionary, is good news. It's good news. Now notice how many times through this chapter, we haven't read the whole chapter yet. Honestly, it would take us a while, and this week, hopefully you'll follow us in the read with us in the reading plan because you get to read this whole uh chapter and think about it and marinate on it and just process more of what's there. But notice this is what it says. In uh verse 4, first off, so those who were scattered went on their way preaching the message of the good news. You heard that that phrase before? It's where we get the word gospel, that the gospel is the Engelon, the good news. The good news of what? The good news that though we were rebellious to a holy, righteous God who we then deserved his justice, his wrath on our sin, he mercifully, graciously reached out to us in the person and work of Jesus, dying for us in our place, paying our debt so that we can be with him forever. I mean, that's good news. Here's the thing the message that we proclaim is not, hey, get your act together. The message that we proclaim when we go to our neighbors, we go to our friends, we go to our coworkers is not, hey, listen, you really need to start acting better. You need to follow, you know, you need to follow the laws that are in the Bible. You see, the Bible is not a list of things to do. It's about a person, Jesus Christ, who has saved us, the rescuer. Not only that, but the message that we preach is not moralism, right? It's not a message of moralism. It's not, it's not a message of fix yourself. It's a message of you can't fix yourself. It's a message of you are doomed and you are separated from God and you will spend eternity separated from him, and you will you will face the punishment that you deserve, that I deserve, that we deserve, if we are not rescued by our Savior. And that's good news. You see, the problem with the gospel that we preach in the United States a lot of times is we don't talk about the first half. We don't talk about the fact that God created a perfect world and we messed it up. And now we deserve death. One of my friends posted something about, he's like today on his account, he was saying something about, you know, I really struggle sometimes with life until I remember that all I really deserve is death. And it gives us perspective. But the good news is, but God, who is rich in mercy, rescues us, redeems us, restores us. And the message as a missionary, as sent ones, is a message of good news. It's a message of hope. It's a message of life, it's a message of transformation. It's a message that our God loves and he saves. And that's why here tonight, there's not one of us in this room that's any better than anyone else. Because we're all in the same boat. Without God, we are all doomed for destruction. It doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter what language you speak, it doesn't matter what tribe and tongue, it doesn't matter any of that stuff. What matters is that we are a broken humanity that needs a savior to rescue us. And so as a missionary, our message is one of good news in every single culture. In a couple weeks, we get to pack up and go to Mexico with a group of folks from here. I'm excited about going down there. The girls are dancing back there in the back as they celebrate, to go and share the gospel, to share the good news. And Jose Maria Morelos and some of the villages that are around that area, nine of the villages that we'll be interacting with don't have a church there. They don't have a gospel-preaching church in that village. And so we're gonna go, we're gonna go door to door and meet people and say, listen, have you ever heard of the story of Jesus Christ? Because God created you, we rebelled, but then Christ came to rescue us and to restore. And if we trust in him, we can have life. And so I can't wait to see people in that culture come to faith in the gospel because we get to go and a witness to share the gospel, the good news that Christ is alive. In the text, it goes on to say there in verse 12, listen to this. But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, gives us more clarity about what that means, that there's a new kingdom. Our kingdom is one that we make it all about us and we try to dominate and do our thing. It's about our will be done. But Jesus said, No, it's about God's kingdom coming and God's will be done. And that's when we're going to find most satisfaction and most joy and most hope and most peace is when it's his kingdom coming in our lives. Jesus came and he rescued us from our kingdom. Our little silly kingdoms that we set up that we think are so great, and then we we see they just collapse so quickly. They're gone. So we see that our message is good news. It is a message of hope. It is a message of redemption and restoration. And that to me, guys, is good news. And listen, if I personally ever stop believing it's good news, I can guarantee I'm not gonna tell anybody about it. And so that's why regularly I have to ask God to recapture my heart, to rekindle in me an awareness of the good news that it is, to remind me of where I was before he came. Let's go to the playground. Third thing, not only is our does our mission require sacrifice and our message good news, but our method. The last part of this chapter is verse uh 26. It says this. Okay? This is the desert road, which I kind of think is ironic in a sense that here's Philip, the first missionary, and he's going where God wants him to go, and it's called the desert road. Anybody else think that's kind of humorous? I think about how many missionaries I know that have followed God, and then they kind of get there like, okay, God, like I feel like I'm in the desert here. Like, what happened? You know, you left me. I felt you calling me. I was all excited, and you're moving your direction, and then now it's like, where are you? You deserted me, you know. There's something that's humorous in that to me, and yet it's so real. But notice this, verse 27. So he got up and went. So he got up and he went. Here's what I want you to notice. The method as a missionary is simple, though we try to complicate it. It's simple. It's to hear from God. Hear from God, do what he says, and trust him with the results. To hear from God, do what he says, and trust him with the results. So in our story, it's a cool story. We just got to talk through it really quickly. It's a lot of fun. You note, here's the angel speaking to Philip. He gets up and he goes, and he and he does exactly what Christ called him to. Okay. And there was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, and his high official. This is verse 27, if you're following along with me. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, and a high official of Candace, the queen of Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. And he'd come to worship in Jerusalem, and he was sitting in his chariot on the way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. The spirit told Philip, notice that again, the spirit told Philip, go and join that chariot. And when Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. And he said, Do you understand what you're reading? How can I, he said, unless someone guides me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. So here's what's going on. You know, here's this guy, Philip, this eunuch, and he's in his chariot going along, doing his thing, and he's reading the scripture. And God first tells Philip where to go, and then he says, Go get up and talk to this guy, and he does. And he ends up having a conversation because this man is reading from the book of Isaiah, reading a scroll. And it just so happens that the text he's reading, which goes on to say here in verse 32, is a scripture specifically prophesying about Jesus. It's talking about the person and work of Jesus. And of course, Philip's like, Do you understand what this is about? And he's like, No, how can I without somebody to guide me through it? And so then Philip begins to tell him the good news. This is verse 35, proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that scripture. And what's awesome is that it says he believes the message, he puts his trust in Christ, right? And he wants to be baptized, like right there, on the spot. This is what happens every time you share the gospel, right? You see somebody, you share the gospel, and they're like, hey, let's go get baptized right now. I believe. Right? That's how it works. I've never seen this, okay? Um I have seen people in other contexts besides the United States come to faith relatively quickly, but I have not seen something that quite that amazing. But here's the thing if Philip hadn't listened and heard God's voice, he wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time with the right person, right? And because he listened, because he heard what God said, then he knew he was supposed to go. He knew he was supposed to go and talk to this man. And because he was obedient, and he didn't freak out and worry about what this guy was going to think about him, he didn't, he didn't, you know, freak out and say, okay, God, like, you know, what if he rejects me? You know, what if he what if he doesn't like me? Um, what if he kicks me out of his chariot and runs over me? You know, he didn't say any of that. He just said, okay, God, I'll go talk to him. He does, and Philip gets to see one of the coolest stories of transformation, like on the spot, life change. The guy receives Jesus, puts his faith in him, and then wants to be baptized. And he gets to go down to the river and baptize him right there. Now listen, I'm not telling you that if you listen to God every time you're going to see people come to faith like that. But I am saying that if we don't learn how to listen to God, do what he says, and trust him with the results, we're gonna miss out. The most effective missionaries are the missionaries that are tuned in to what the Holy Spirit is saying. And let me tell you something. It is hard. It is culturally very difficult for us to tune in to what the Holy Spirit is saying. And for some of you, you're like, what do you mean the Holy Spirit likes saying stuff? Like, that's kind of weird, freaky, like what are you talking about? Listen, as a believer in Christ, as a believer and follower of Jesus, like the Holy Spirit, let me just reiterate, lives inside of us, and he is speaking to us, he is saying things to us. And if we will listen and obey, we will get to see incredible transformation. If we will listen and obey, here's the problem: most of the time, we are trying to do it our way. We're trying to do it in our timing, we're trying to do it in a methodology that seems to fit us. And all I'm telling you is that God is a God of supernatural transformation. And if we can tune in and hear what he has to say to us, we will get to experience situations and circumstances that like we had no idea what God was doing. But he was working long before we got there. You know, one of the prayers we prayed this morning as we were meeting together as a group preparing for this trip to go to Mexico, was God, would you prepare the hearts? Have you ever prayed that prayer before? Would you prepare the hearts of those that are that are in Mexico right now, before we ever get there? Would you stir them? Would you do something? Would you cause them to want you, to be open to you, to be ready to listen and hear the gospel? We pray that prayer because we believe the Holy Spirit's there. We don't take God to them. God's there, isn't he? Because God's everywhere. But we get to go join God in his work there and hopefully be the messengers who open our mouth, declare the gospel because it is a word that has to be proclaimed, and then to see God change because we trust him with the results. We trust him with the life change, we trust him with the transformation, because I can't save anyone, you can't save anyone. And as a missionary, again, whether we're good or bad missionary, if we can't learn to hear and to obey and to trust God, we're going to struggle. We're going to struggle. But here's the deal. In reality, Jesus Christ, he was the first and the greatest missionary. Listen, if we don't, if we don't see this tonight, I think we miss it all. I I know I said Philip was the first missionary recorded in Scripture, but let's be honest, actually, Jesus Christ was the first missionary because he's the one who stepped down, sacrificed comfort, sacrificed his position, he humbled himself, as it says in scripture, even to the point of death on the cross. Why? To pursue a relationship with us, ultimately give up his life, his rights, so we could have life, so we could have forgiveness, we could have salvation. He came, he pursued, he did that. He sacrificed, he proclaimed a message of good news that his kingdom is a kingdom that is a forever kingdom, that his kingdom is a kingdom that's more about external, more than more than just external behavior modification. It's about an internal transformation that brings true love and joy and peace and hope and life. And that he was one, as we mo we see this over and over. We don't have time to go look at it tonight. But he heard what the father said. It says many, many times he got up early in the morning and he went out and prayed. You know, Jesus had to get up and spend time with his father. He heard what God said as he was going through his day. It says, you know, he would do what the father told him. And as a result of that, God used, the father used the Son to proclaim the message of the gospel. And many people's lives were transformed and changed. People were healed. People were forever transformed because of the gospel, because of the truth. And listen, tonight, I said it earlier, but I'll say it again. Whatever sacrifice we feel like we have to take on to be a missionary, it hales in comparison to the sacrifices that Christ has made in order to give us life and hope and salvation.