[SPEAKER_00]: We are in Acts chapter 8, so if you have your Bibles, open up to Acts chapter 8, we're gonna be in verse 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to give this a quick recap, though, just for those of us that maybe were out of town or have missed a couple weeks, whatever the case may be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to kind of bring us up to speed as to where we were picking up today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for one, the book of Acts, that's in the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: So after Jesus was born, his ministry on earth, where we're at currently is Jesus already was resurrected in the gospels.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... he ascends into heaven so he spent his forty days on earth uh... and then ascends into heaven you have the disciples the apostles now uh... being gifted with the holy spirit we're gonna talk more about that kind of as we go today uh... but uh... we start to see like the miracle signs happening at pentacost they were talking in tongues there was healing there was all these like crazy miracle things that were happening and that was the start of the early christian church
[SPEAKER_00]: So we see that established, we see Jerusalem just like kind of revived there and all these people that were starting to turn to Jesus there.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see Stephen who was martyred for his faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went before the Sanhedrin and he was tried and he was stone, he was killed and all the mean while which I love the story of Stephen because as you read that it was total chaos.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk about how they're like gnashing their teeth, angry, screaming, pulling them out, dragging him, stoning him and his prayer was still for these people doing this to him and just that example of the peace beyond understanding, like in the one of the most chaotic scenes ever to have that heart of peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we go through the book of Acts, we're going to continue to see just these crazy miracles that are happening that are nothing other than the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're really diving into that.
[SPEAKER_00]: we see that Stephen was killed and then we see a great persecution happen largely by the part of Saul which little sneak peek into next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be talking about Saul next week and that's one of my favorite chapters in Acts because it's just again just the power of Jesus and the gospel and how it changes lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I encourage you, I'm glad that you're here this week for sure this week is great but also
[SPEAKER_00]: next week really be here because I love that that axe chapter 9 is just so good and then we see the great awakening in Samaria so Samaria was a place where the Jewish people did not like the Samaritans and the Samaritans and care for the Jewish people well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus starts to move in Samaria.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel is spread there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit moves and we see a bunch people turning to Christ in Samaria.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of bringing us up to where we have been.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about Simon the sorcerer last week and a little bit about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we talked a lot about the Holy Spirit and how Simon the Sorcerer tried to buy from the apostles.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, hey, give me that gifting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give you my money so that I can lay hands on people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they may receive the Holy Spirit and we talked about the Holy Spirit is not a possession.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like sometimes we get really good at realizing, okay, God the Father, and then God the Son Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we treat the Holy Spirit almost as like an accessory.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to see today.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is our advocate here alive in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to talk about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about how we see different encounters with the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit is with us in us and upon us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those are different interactions that we have
[SPEAKER_00]: with the Holy Spirit with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we'll talk about today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, we're going to be looking at the Ethiopian Unic.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an Ethiopian Unic.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really need much more description than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that he has this conviction that I believe is the Holy Spirit with him, convicting him to turn to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then in us, when we accept Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acts 2 chapter, I'm sorry, Acts 2 verse 38 and 39 says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: This promise is for you and your children and all who are far off.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, that's us that are far off, which I love that we are reference in here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says, for all whom the Lord are God will call.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we have Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit given to us in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we do see that there is a difference with the Holy Spirit being upon us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's he empowering to do his work.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus was with his disciples, after he was resurrected, and he appeared to them, back when they were still scared, and they were locked into a room.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, they had locked the room, locked the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: He appears and says, peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: he talks to him and he says that he breathed on them and he said receive the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was one event that happened and then right before he ascended so you know 40 days later he says wait in Jerusalem because I'm going to be sending another and advocate the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's like breathing the Holy Spirit on them, says receive it, but now we're seeing something different happen and something different take place.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we see there are different interactions with the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when the disciples receive the Holy Spirit upon them, that was at Pentecost, and that's when they started talking in tongues, healings, all that different stuff, that was the empowerment.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna start with John 14, verse 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, if you love me and keep my commands,
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will ask the father, he will give you another advocate, I want you guys to remember that, another advocate to help you and to be with you forever, the spirit of truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you've known him for he lives in you and I will be in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will not leave you as orphans.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will come to you before long.
[SPEAKER_00]: The world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I live, you also will live.
[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, you will realize that I am in my father and you are in me and I am in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one who loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love them and show myself to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Judas, not Judas is scary, it said, but Lord, why do you intend to show us yourself and not to the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: My father will love them and will come to them and make our home with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: These words you hear are not my own, they belong to my father who sent me.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of this I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name will teach you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All things will remind you of everything I have said to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace, I leave with you and peace I give to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do not give as the world gives, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we see that Jesus is referring to another advocate.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus is described as our advocate.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word for advocate here is a Greek word, Paracletos, which actually means advocate or helper and often referred to in a court setting.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you think about it, Satan is biblically referred to as the accuser.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we have Satan who's saying, hey, Sam's over here, he messed up, going before God saying, you know, Sam did this, I demand blood, I demand payment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have Jesus, our advocate, saying, Father, your honor, yes, Sam did do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Bible does say that the punishment and the wages of sin is death.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I paid that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's been paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Sam messed up, but it's paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Punishment was done.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you cannot punish him because I took that on.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is what Jesus is doing for us, and He is saying that He is our advocate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is our advocate, but it says that we have another advocate, the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is who we have dwelling within us in these empowerment to do these things here on Earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want us to understand and not underestimate that we have the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to talk more about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But with that said, that is our recap.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to pray and we're going to get into our study this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, dear Heavenly Father Lord, we just thank you for today, Lord, we just thank you for your goodness and your grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we just pray that you forgive us of our mistakes, forgive us of our sins, Lord, pray that we can just have a clean heart before you this morning, that we will have good soil to hear Lord, I just pray that these will be your words, not mind Lord, you fill this place with your Holy Spirit and it will be upon us, Lord, we just thank you for this time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just pray for Nick and Amber that they can enjoy their time and have a safe trip back, and we just praise you and all things and Jesus name amen Okay, so axe chapter eight
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things you guys are gonna see is Axe gets pretty crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some like pretty wild stuff that happens in the book of Axe.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna see one of those things today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're there, Axe chapter eight, we're gonna start in verse 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, an angel of the Lord said to fill up, go to the south road, sorry, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I want to point out is it starts with an angel of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, something that I just think is interesting, we have an angel appear to fill up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Biblically, we see a lot of times, what do we see when an angel usually appears to someone?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not be afraid, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually it's like, do not be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because it's this big thing, it's just using this big moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we don't know if that still happened here, it doesn't say specifically if that angel had said that first.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know kind of what the exact circumstances, but we do know that an angel did appear to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And typically we do see it's specified.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna read you this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we don't know if Philip knew it was an angel at the time, or if this was something that was revealed later, because we do see in Hebrews, chapter 13, verses 1 through 2, it says, keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by doing so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, some of us have entertained angels unaware.
[SPEAKER_00]: in other words, meaning angels can have the appearance of like shining brightly and it's like do not be afraid, but then this is saying that some of us have entertained angels and not even known.
[SPEAKER_00]: So can an angel appear just like somebody else?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what it's telling us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would pretty sure I would know if I was talking to some big bright light thing Like yeah, this guy's kind of weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got this weird glow and like all this stuff like something just off about this guy I don't know maybe a moisturizer or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know but I would know these things So I would think yeah, this is telling us that angels can change their appearance
[SPEAKER_00]: side note, just a little side note, I do believe again Matthew 18 verse 10 says, see that you do not despise one of these little ones for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my father in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that kids have angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the things that we don't think about is that we are in a spiritual war all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are constantly in spiritual warfare.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the principalities of the spiritual world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there is a lot of stuff going on that we don't always see, but I do believe that you know, if we are open and not saying that everyone is an angel, but you may have entertained angels unaware.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also believe that angels can minister to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, Jesus, after he was in the desert for those 40 days, as soon as that was over, it said, angels went and minister to him, they went to aid him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Hebrews 1, verse 14 also says, are not angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I want us to understand though, and not mistake, is that angels are not the Holy Spirit, and that angels are not God.
[SPEAKER_00]: that is what we need to understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also a verse that talks about testing the spirits because it's not going to contradict what the Bible says because the other thing is that fallen angels, demons, are also angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think, again, this is my first opinions.
[SPEAKER_00]: reference.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that, again, some of the stuff we've seen in Egyptian culture, things like that, was a result of probably some magical dark practice, probably given by some fallen angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my opinion.
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, all this to say, fill up encounters in Angel, and I think, again,
[SPEAKER_00]: Daniel gets a vision doesn't understand it and he's disturbed by it and he's fasting, he's praying, if anyone's ever heard of the Daniel fast, it was like 21 days said that he denied himself basically anything like deodorant, essentially this dude was rank, stunk for like 21 days, everyone's like can you get your vision or something yet dude because you're smelling.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it says 21 days, he's eating just like vegetables and smells terrible and it says that I'm like the 21st day that this angel appears to him and says that I've been trying to get to this message, but your prayers is what sent me aid because I was resisted by the Prince of Persia.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's not talking about a physical prince like, oh, fighting, but it's talking about a demonic present was preventing this angel from delivering the message to Daniel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see all these instances of spiritual warfare, which that's a really crazy Daniel 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go read it because like other people can't see the angel, but they can feel that what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about that next week too with chapter nine, but anyways, some crazy stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And lastly,
[SPEAKER_00]: Just going to be a sneak preview before I go my next one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter 12, get ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to be wild by some other crazy stuff, an angel breaks Peter out of prison.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're talking like some crazy stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: So do angels do, are they mess, that's what they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a messenger.
[SPEAKER_00]: An angel is a messenger of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's something that we're seeing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It starts with this message to go, to leave a Samaria, which we're going to talk about in a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: but it says go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the Greek word for south also means midday, which is interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, midday was a time of day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we have to travel.
[SPEAKER_00]: When do we typically do our yard work?
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: When do we typically do our yard work?
[SPEAKER_00]: first thing in the morning or in the evening when it starts to cool down when people didn't have AC and cars and stuff when they would choose to travel it would be the same like first thing in the morning or like all right it's starting to cool down a little bit this word also means midday so I believe it was the instruction of yes you're gonna go south but also the time you're gonna leave which is midday which is not a time that people would typically travel why do I think that well we're gonna talk about it in a second but just remember just a little side note of that
[SPEAKER_00]: And I also want you to remember what Philip is leaving from.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it says, go and leave, while Philip was in Samaria and it said that he was preaching the gospel, all these people are getting saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: So think about what's happening in Samaria.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great awakening.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these people, big ministry moments, like big stuff is happening in Samaria.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these people are turning to Jesus, people are getting baptized, and now I was studying this guy's like, hey, leave, and in our minds, we're like, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well I believe like things are good like people like God's moving here and it's like okay we need to be aware and we need to understand which we're gonna talk about more but big things are happening and he's being asked to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love what David Goosex said about this is our heart posture and we're gonna talk about more with the spirit puts on our heart and kind of going through that in a second but it could have been so easy for Philip to say, well not me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm the one that started in Samaria and like kind of started this and then some of the apostles came and then they started, but I mean, I I'm pretty much I got my roots set here in Samaria starting this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So not me you must mean someone else, right.
[SPEAKER_00]: or will not there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about where he just described him to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Samaria, we're all this stuff is popping off to I want you to go south to the desert road.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably means not often traveled because very specific the desert road.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you guys have never lived in the desert, I can tell you desert roads are desert roads.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are rough, they are not highly traveled.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to work for the Sheriff's Department down in Tucson, and we would always get these people that overestimated their hiking abilities in Arizona heat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I worked for the Sheriff's Department, the area I worked, I used to work in like the city part, and then I eventually got moved to like the desert area.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we would get calls all the time in the summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hiker is lost in the desert.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're like great.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we had our own search and rescue team because this happened so often.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get the calls.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're like, all right, what do they have?
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a 16 ounce bottle of water and their phone has 10% battery.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in the desert.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's 115.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what makes you think that was good planning?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it wasn't something that they really, it's tough, it's hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a difficult thing to travel.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now we have this angel saying, hey, you're going to take the desert road.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be high.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be midday probably, and it's probably not a lot of people there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, if I'm thinking this through, I'm like, this isn't making a lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, all right, am I hearing this correctly?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because this sounds a little crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we sometimes see the knot there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep going though, verse 27.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, so he started out in on his way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He met Ethiopian unique, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Kondake, which means the queen of the Ethiopians.
[SPEAKER_00]: This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship in on his way home.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit told Philip go to that chariot and stay near it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what do we see?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we see him encounter out of obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to talk more about that in a second, but Philip was obedient and praise the Lord that he was because what happens next is still a miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it says that he meets an Ethiopian unique.
[SPEAKER_00]: For one, an Ethiopia, the Jewish community dates back to before the time of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a little bit of some debate on exactly when.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people think that it was back to the time of Solomon and Queen Shiba.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, Queen Shiba heard about how wise Solomon was, goes to Solomon and was like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything I heard doesn't do it justice.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were so wise and goes and spends some time there with Solomon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people think that that was a start of Jewish people living in Ethiopia.
[SPEAKER_00]: Others date back to the time of Babylonian captivity.
[SPEAKER_00]: When that happened, there were Jews that left and went to Ethiopia as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what we do know is in 2020, this is interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2020, they did DNA analysis.
[SPEAKER_00]: of people in Ethiopia, and in East Africa origins, 20% are Eastern, Semitic origin, silver, similar to current modern-day Jewish and Arab population.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we see the fingerprints of everything still there today in DNA.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, how crazy that we see that in the Bible, and we see that there currently, there was estimated over 500 different villages in that area that had some sort of Jewish tie-in.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just crazy that we're seeing this kind of all pylen, I have some more theories that I'll say for a later time, but it's just interesting to think about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I want to talk about is that he's Ethiopian Unic, and why that is significant
[SPEAKER_00]: because he's a unit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in the clean service,
[SPEAKER_00]: He's man, he was made a unique.
[SPEAKER_00]: We tracked in, I don't need to go more detailed than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Deuteronomy 23 verse 1 says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, no one who has been amastulated by crushing or the cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I want you to pay attention, though, to what it says.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says that he was going to Jerusalem to worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what that would mean by the law was that he would not be able to gather in the place where the men gathered to worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's going all the way to Jerusalem basically to be like out in the waiting area just to try to be close to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's going there with a heart of like, I know I'm not going to be able to even get in.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like I want to go and I want to go worship the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And having that heart of just like, I know that, you know, I'm prevented from doing that, but I'm going to do what I can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is why I love, part of why I love this story is because I think that we see a big part of this servant's heart, which is for the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when it's like, I know I can only do so much because the law said, and I would have once you don't understand this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The law was there again to reveal our inability and that we were in need for a Savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: So part of that law was to show that there was no mixing, like for instance, like polyester, you couldn't mix cotton and different things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Polyester would be no, you can't wear polyester.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't wear dry fit magic.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't wear any of these other things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You weren't allowed to mix different things like that, but he would have been very much viewed as an outsider going in there, even though he had Jewish origin.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that's something to be considered.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other thing is that we see about this man is that he was someone important.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in charge of the treasury, says that he's in a chariot, which only wealthy people would travel by chariot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He probably had a whole entourage of people with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he had parts of the treasury with him, you would imagine quite a bit of guards.
[SPEAKER_00]: This would be quite an ordeal, quite a caravan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which also may be why they chose to travel down a less traveled road if you're taking all of these things And you're taking all of this different equipment that's expensive You're probably not gonna want to go on the road that everybody runs on you're gonna want to be like, hey Let's be smart about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's leave it a time no one else is leaving and let's go down a way that people probably don't go
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Philip, that's where he was directed again, and he was obedient in that and now we see that he meets this man here Then we see that the spirit told Philip go to that chariot and stay near it now again.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was most likely not a verbal voice
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit talking to us, I have never had the Holy Spirit oddly speak to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So something to be mindful of is hearing and sensitive to the Holy Spirit speaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I want to talk about is for one, we need to make sure that we have the heart posture to receive and listen to the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So making sure that we're right before the Lord, realizing also, if we're having communication issues, it's not the spirit's ability
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we need to look at first, is we need to look inwardly at our ability to listen and starting with our heart posture.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also need to be very careful of what we say, especially for saying it to someone else, like the spirit told me this because I have seen it said, and I brought this up last week, I'm gonna bring it up again, because it's literally just perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to pray about something that's on our heart because it's not gonna contradict what God's word says.
[SPEAKER_00]: is for one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a kid that I grew up with and you grew up and he went up to another girl that was our friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you guys this last week for those of you who weren't there.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is something that happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went up to a girl that one of my best friends growing up and was like, hey, God told me that I'm going to marry you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's all, well God did not tell me that like so he must have missed the communication on that because I didn't hear that and All this to say fast forward all these years later She is married, but not to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he has kids
[SPEAKER_00]: of her own not to that guy and so I think that was an example of him mishearing or hearing what he wanted to hear from the Holy Spirit and the thing is is that we're constantly having to compare with what we're spoken to to what God's words said and it wasn't well God told me wrong nah dude that one wasn't God bro I'm sorry that was you you had a crush on her whatever you're like God's I'm gonna marry her God told me right no that's not what happened
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you feel called to do something, compare to what God's words said, pray about it, go before the Lord on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, his word is not going to contradict himself, but the more, in tune, the more you listen, the more familiar you are with his voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the easier it will be to discern what the Spirit is telling you versus like, I think that's just me talking to myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got animals, I've got cows, I've got pigs, goats, I've got things that live in our house again in large part to my wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say 80% to 90% is because of her and I just don't want to argue, so like, yeah, that's fine, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, I do love the cows that the cows are awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have one cow like I have two cows One's name is brisket Brisket originally was going to be brisket, but she is too sweet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I can't eat her.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's so nice So we're like, well, we need one that we can raise for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have T-bone and That's our other cow.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a steer which that's a story for another time a steer is when they don't have
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a unique, basically, as what he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a T-bone, the unique, and that was a whole other thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Morgan bought him, he was in tag.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll say that story for another time.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not right now story, but anyway, so T-bone, I love him, but he likes to graze, and sometimes the grass is green on the other side, while he loves my neighbor's grass.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he jumped the fence one time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I could tell that he was gone, but I didn't know where.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes he jumps to the creek, sometimes he goes wherever.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get home.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like 10 o'clock at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like jet black at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: You won't be able to see him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just won't find him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm out there and I'm like,
[SPEAKER_00]: T-bone, T-bone, and then I hear this distant woo-hoo-hoo, and I'm like, I-T-bone, where are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he loves salted peanuts, so that's my trick.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get handful of salted peanuts, and I'm yelling for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm yelling for him, and I find him in the corner of my neighbor's yard.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, all right, let me go get him, and he hears me, he comes up to me, and I get him the peanuts get him put away.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I bring that to say, is that every time I come home, T-bone will hear me get on my car, I'll be on the phone wherever I'll hear T-bone, I'll help brisk it and they'll hear me and they'll go,
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't do that to everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do it because they know me.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also associate me with food and so they're like, Oh, that's a news about the give me some salsa peanuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me get some peanuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is it's their familiar with my voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when I call out to them, they hear me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to be tuned in to the father and to the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when the spirit's talking to us we can differentiate between what's not the spirit We did a a game with the kids in big classes a couple weeks ago and we told him close your eyes and we put a bunch of like things in the way and I Didn't tell them at the time who so we put like obstacles in the way and I had two people
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would tell both the people, I said, tell these blindfolded people, tell them that you're the shepherd and to come this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's your job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of you are going to say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And both of you are going to try to direct them to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, that may maybe be through the obstacles.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had two different people, then I tell the people that are blindfolded, I say, and I pick someone's voice, I say, follow Ken Lee's voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to pick Ken Lee, keep her eyes closed, but you need to listen to Ken Lee.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the way they did that was by knowing what Kenlee sounded like.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're blindfolded.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kenlee's like, step to your right.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're left on the shepherd, the other person, and Kenlee's not saying like, I'm Kenlee, she's the only one talking.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in the midst of everything going on, they had to navigate and find the person that they were directed to find.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is true of us with the spirit, because we have the world telling us and throwing all these things at us constantly.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit and with the Father's voice because we have so many things trying to pull us from that And so we need to be in tune with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my little side note on that But we have him here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's he's listening to the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says go to that chariot and stand by My question I guess would be is one
[SPEAKER_00]: do we have the heart posture and do we have the willingness because it can be uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to talk more about this in a second but sometimes stepping out in the spirit can be a little uncomfortable and it can put us out of our comfort zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fill up is literally going down a desert road and like God I'm just going to trust you because
[SPEAKER_00]: angel told me your spirit saying go by this chariot so i'm just gonna do what i'm supposed to do i guess i don't know what's going on i don't understand so let's keep going act chapter eight uh... verse thirty it says uh... then fill up ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading uh... Isaiah the prophet do you understand what you're reading fill up asked how can i he said unless someone explains it to me so uh...
[SPEAKER_00]: So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him, and this is the passage of scripture that the UNIC was reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before it's sure is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: In his humiliation he was deprived of justice, who can speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: The UNIC asks Philip, tell me please, who is this prophet talking about, himself or someone else?
[SPEAKER_00]: then Philip began with that very passive scripture and told him about the good news about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for one Philip was obedient.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was obedient and going down this road down a time probably where other people weren't traveling and he sees a chariot says go by the chariot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's obedient.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I think I can't help but think how pumped fill up was because he's like man, this is kind of crazy This dude's got all these people around him like I'm gonna look like this crazy dude running up at this chariot But he goes and it starts he says he's here's a reading Isaiah and you're like oh my gosh like I'm not crazy
[SPEAKER_00]: God is literally directing me here in this weird moment for a reason this dude is reading Isaiah Like all right, I'm supposed to be here you get confirmation.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the other thing is sometimes you get that immediate confirmation when the spirit asks you to move and sometimes you don't
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can imagine he was super pumped, like, oh man, I heard correctly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also a side note, reading aloud was common in that day and age.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a normal thing for someone to be reading out loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the fact that he could hear him, reading Isaiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that odd.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like today, my daughter, she loves to read out loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I constantly lovingly remind her that I don't want to read her book right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because she will read like full blast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be like, who's Kinley talking to?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: She's like, oh, I'm reading him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you read in your head?
[SPEAKER_00]: She's like, well, I like this better.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, well, we don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to know what's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: I read the box card children again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to read it again.
[SPEAKER_00]: But reading out loud was normal back then.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I love with next is one Philip was called.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes, he hears this, but instead of just going like, I know what you're reading and I know about that, he starts with asking him a question, which I think is something we need to pay attention to.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, do you understand what you're reading?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's engaging with him in a conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: he's not just shouting at him like I know what that is I know what this is and we have a beautiful picture of evangelism right here if you've ever like I don't have the gift of evangelism I don't know there is a guy I used to know back in Tucson he's the pastor and this dude I'm not kidding he could like he could like go to chipotle and be at a chipotle or he could go at
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: You good?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I pray with you?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll just, this guy be like, I literally asked for someone to come and pray with me today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he had to give an evangel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, this person would just give their life to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, right there, right then.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, no matter where he went, he was just always open to that and he just had a gift of evangelism.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was this dude all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I'm terrible, I guess, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we've ever struggled with like, I don't know how to talk to someone about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I don't feel like I know enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: For one, we saw that the advocate will remind you of the things that Jesus has said and that Jesus has told us, but the other thing is that it starts with what you just know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what can you ask?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, he starts with you understand what you're reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what is that doing for one that's asking him a question, but two, it's engaging in a relationship of conversation with this person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know when the last time, I'm sure you guys can think back to an argument at one point, could be about anything doesn't have to be about theological stuff, but any argument.
[SPEAKER_00]: Has anyone ever been convinced by someone just telling you you're wrong?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I agree, but I tell my wife all the time, you're wrong, it doesn't work for me, I can tell you, it doesn't work.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is, is where do you get movement, it's an understanding and in communication?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also in building relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Relationship is a key part actually having a genuine interest and what do you think like what what is going on and loving that person?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say you have someone you're like, well, Sam, they still don't love Jesus and I don't know what to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll love them because Jesus shining in you will continue to minister to them whether you convince them of what this is or what that is just continue to be a light for that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: and let the Holy Spirit move, but the Holy Spirit do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to convince someone into Christianity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our job is, yes, to point them to Jesus, and if they have questions, answer them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we also need to be a living example of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole, just, I'm going to argue someone to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love to have discussions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what we see here is a genuine love to get this person to understand, like, hey, do you understand what you're reading?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a simple question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says that, according to him, it says that he didn't, he didn't understand, he asked him to explain it or he's, I need someone to explain it to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another part of this I just want to touch on real quick is James 1, 19 through 20 says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if we could live by that,
[SPEAKER_00]: being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to being angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially when we have a disagreement, I mean, I'm just saying, I've got somebody very close to me, it's not Morgan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I won't put her on blast again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got someone very close to me that they love to always just be like, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And every time they say that, I'm just like, I don't even want to hear what you have to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm just so, and let us not be that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us be someone like we're tall, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, realizing they're not rejecting us if we're trying to share the gospel with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're rejecting Jesus and our heart and our prayers is still before that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's get into what he's talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: What he's reading is Isaiah 53.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were going to have someone reading something and you're trying to share the gospel, this is what you would call the softball of the gospel, because this is in the Old Testament before Jesus was born, and it's literally all about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this guy's reading this passage and is like, I don't understand it and Philips like, oh my gosh, this is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is going to be easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: This guy's literally reading about Jesus, like I just set it up for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's read what he was reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: We read, it said that he was reading Isaiah 53.
[SPEAKER_00]: It goes through it, covers some of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go ahead and read the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah 53 says, this is what the Ethiopian Unic had been reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, who has believed our message into whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
[SPEAKER_00]: He grew up before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had no beauty or magistrate to attract us to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like one whom people hid their faces from, he was despised and we held him in low esteem.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crest for our equities.
[SPEAKER_00]: The punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as sheep before it shears his silence.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he did not open his mouth by oppression and judgment.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was taken away yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who of his generation protested?
[SPEAKER_00]: For he was cut off from the land of the living.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the transgression of my people, he was punished.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him to suffer that, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: After he had suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied for by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore I will go or I will give him a portion among the great and will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life until death and was numbered with the transgressors.
[SPEAKER_00]: For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is literally
[SPEAKER_00]: And we look at it and we read it now all these years later, and we're like, oh my gosh, that's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have time to get into all of it, but the prophecy of Jesus being in here for one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just give you one quick example.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was assigned a grave with the wicked.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was crucified with two thieves on the cross next to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was lit, and you can't like, okay, well, they wrote that out afterwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was Isaiah 53.
[SPEAKER_00]: For one, like rabbis would have said previously that this was describing the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now a lot of times they will describe this as the nation of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what they tried to change this to because it fits Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, well, I actually think it's the nation of Israel now, because of how specific it is to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says he was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph of Arimathea is where he was buried in that tomb, which Joseph of Arimathea had a family tomb that had never been used.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone to have that would have had to have been someone of wealth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was buried in an area that would have been designed for wealthy people to have gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: and Joseph of America if he had gave him that to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a couple of things in there for one that it's like, you couldn't have gone in Isaiah 53 pre-dates Jesus, but we see Jesus fulfilling that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have time to go through all of it, but there's so much stuff in Isaiah 53.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could do a whole sermon just in Isaiah 53.
[SPEAKER_00]: I encourage you to go back and look.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is what Philip starts to go through with him on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably things like that, like you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to know what you asked about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, it's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This guy that was killed, guess what?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was, it says here, look at that, right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it says.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, isn't that insane?
[SPEAKER_00]: And this guy's like, oh my gosh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he starts to go through, it says, starting with this scripture, but I'm sure that he kept going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, dude, okay, we'll get this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to know what else?
[SPEAKER_00]: It says over here, it says this, and I bet either just having this discussion like, oh my gosh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like,
[SPEAKER_00]: This dude's mind just like getting blown right now, like this is so crazy, so this is what we see, but we see him share the gospel and then describe, yes, that Jesus fulfilled all that, but what did Jesus do?
[SPEAKER_00]: That he bore our sin and bore our shame, that he took it away from us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philip shared a gospel with a man that I know I would imagine was longing for the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do I think that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, because he was willing to travel all the way to Jerusalem just to be an outsider.
[SPEAKER_00]: that he had a zeal for the Lord, even though it was like, why no, I'm not going to even be able to get in there, but I want to go pursue the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the way to Jerusalem, that he had a heart to know the Lord, that he's reading Isaiah and trying to understand like, what is going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's there reading Isaiah, this desperation of love, and now he has the gospel presented to him, and it's made easy for him, that Jesus paid everything with no strings and no restrictions that he says, accepting Jesus and living your life for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see that this I think mind blowing and probably the emotions this Ethiopian was felt of just like, oh my gosh like before I was just rejected this outsider and now you're saying that Jesus came for me even though I'm a unique and I'm not considered like whole like I for me
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, yeah, dude, for you and everyone else, and what we're going to see next week and for Saul, which is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about that next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I won't get too much into that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to keep going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 36, it says, as they travel along the road, they came to some water and the unix said, look, here is the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: What can stand in the way of me being baptized?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he gave the orders to stop the chariot and then both fill up and the unix went down into the water and fill up baptized him.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they came out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away and the unit did not see him again, but he went on his way rejoicing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philip, however, appeared at Asitose and traveled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Cessaria.
[SPEAKER_00]: So one of the things he talked about is as they continued on the way in the chariot.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I think they continued to discuss this, all these different things of who Jesus was.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they had some great discussions and that he was just so overwhelmed with joy like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been on the outside just trying to get as close as I could to the Lord and now you're telling me that I can have the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there's water like what's standing in the way of me being baptized right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that significant?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, because he was a unique for one, he would not be able to participate in something called Miqva.
[SPEAKER_00]: Micva was like a tradition or a way of someone being immersed, it's different than baptism how we view baptism, but it would be a way of them being like cleansed or purified.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes as someone like converting the Judaism, the only way they could fully convert was to go through this process.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other thing was, is it was like before like major holidays they would go and they would be cleansed He would never been able to do it any of that and so he's like you're telling me Me I can have Jesus and I can be baptized He's like well, what's there's water like what's standing in the way like nothing like I like I'm here for it Like I want the Lord and so he goes and it says that he gets baptized and says um that
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to pay note to what happens next because I think we may have missed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says when they came up out of the water the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away and the unit did not see him again.
[SPEAKER_00]: the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only way I read that is that dude was gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he was not there anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're talking about a supernatural thing that happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it says that he didn't see him anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: All I even know is like, that doesn't sound like he got out of the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, all right, bye.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll never see you again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, he got up and suddenly the spirit of the Lord took Philip away and he never saw him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, this dude's like, where does he go?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, his dude's gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he gone, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it says that this dude disappeared, it says, but he went on his way of rejoicing why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of everything that just changed his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I just picture this dude like having this burning desire for the Lord and finally to be like, God, I know who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like sometimes we get so familiar and so comfortable with the Lord like this dude traveled all the way to Jerusalem just to be on the outside and sometimes we're like man.
[SPEAKER_00]: 30 minutes is a long way for church today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I'm going to make it, traffic's kind of rough.
[SPEAKER_00]: This dude's like, I'm going to go travel however many days you're going to take just to be on the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's convicting, because, again, we live in a life of comfort, but like these, like, uh, this mindset is just, he loves the Lord, and it's so cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says he wanted us to be rejoicing, but let's talk about this, the elephant in the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, fill up this appeared, this dude straight up, like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Transported somewhere else don't ask me, well, how I don't know, I have no idea, but we're going to see some crazy things in the book of acts that is going to be like, all right, stay with me, track with me, this dude appears like 20 to 30 miles away from where this happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are talking a supernatural event and that's the only way I can describe it is like, well,
[SPEAKER_00]: was it like no dude I don't know but what if I don't know I have no idea we just see that the Bible says and I trust what it says that he was suddenly taken away and appeared as a toast and that he continued traveling and preaching the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other thing I want to know is fill up having this and this is my encouragement to you and I'll close with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says but I do want to ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: How encouraged you think Philip was by responding to the spirit in that moment?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think now the next time the spirit speaks, he's like, man, that was crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not saying that y'all are going to be zaps 30 miles away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what I am saying is that we do see the Lord move when we are obedient.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we do see the Lord do things, and sometimes we don't always see it, but it doesn't mean that we weren't still called.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for one, the Holy Spirit is our advocate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we live like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we live like we have the Holy Spirit as our advocate?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we walk in step with the Spirit with an obedient heart?
[SPEAKER_00]: I will give you an example.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will be very vulnerable.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a couple weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was out of training and I want you to know this because I don't want you guys to think like, oh, pastor's a perfect, didn't ever do anything wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nope, we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a training I was at and I was like, all right, you know, I was running the training.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like on how to respond and like critical events and like how to like do first aid, all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so at the end of training, there's a bunch of cops there, and I was one of the ones running it, and that usually, you know, you get a lot of guys just like to talk and keep talking, keep talking, and I'm just like, hey, like, I'll give you the information need, but we're not going to, I'm not going to spend all day, just talking about things that don't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyways, at the end, they're like, do you have anything else at, I'm like, nah, I'm good, and, but I was in my heart, I was like, hey, offer up if someone needs prayer, and I was like, it's a weird thing to say right now, all these cops.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just kind of like, uh, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and I'll tell you, I didn't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt it on my heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, maybe that's just a me thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will tell you this, it wasn't because I felt so convicted that entire night and even still that it's like, okay, well, what would have been the bad part of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if I had not heard that from the Holy Spirit, was that biblically wrong?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, if I would have missed him and like that wasn't the spirit that was just you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The end of the day
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here for prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what did I do?
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in that moment that I chose to reject for the spirit put on my heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is something convicting for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna come before you and say like, we don't always get it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I will say there are times when you do, and that's where you get these encouragement like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will tell you of a success story and I don't say this to be holier than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So please take it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just started with what I messed up on.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was a couple of weeks ago, I was out of training.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this training there was a group of guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had a long day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was really tired and I had all my gear, I'm looking it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been up early that morning, like five, I trained all day, it was like already like five, six, so I'm like, I'm tired.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I see these dudes in a lobby of a hotel with their Bibles cracked open reading and I'm like, walking by, I'm like, oh, that's cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I give them away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I'm going through, I'm like, you know, my Bibles upstairs, like, hey, you should go read those dudes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, I'm tired.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I put my stuff down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I grab my Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: I go down there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was so encouraged by that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these dudes they see me, grab my Bible, they're like, yo, dude, come on, let's go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, bring it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I got out of their Bible study.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't plan on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just like, I felt like, I probably should do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I talked to one of those dudes yesterday, I still talked to those dudes.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're planning to come out here, it was in San Antonio, but it has been such an encouragement of that and continue to grow, like I was just talking to one dude yesterday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, had I been disobedient in that?
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have missed all those things and I don't even know what that fully looks like at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I don't know if there's more that God has in store from that interaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stay tuned, I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I will say is I do feel like that was something that was put on my heart by the Holy Spirit and it was a simple act of obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I didn't understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know what they were reading, but I was just like, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the harm in doing that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that unbiblical to go and gather with these guys?
[SPEAKER_00]: If they would have said, no, man, you can't sit with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not wearing the right colored shirt.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, hey, you know what I'm trying to do about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray for these guys, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it wasn't, and it was such a blessing for me to be a part of.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so my encouragement to you is it starts with stepping out of your comfort zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times when the spirit puts something on your heart, it's not always going to be the thing that you're super comfortable doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, I'll just send in the anonymous text because that's safer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to be uncomfortable that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to usually be a thing that's like, going to cause you to have some obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to push you out of your comfort zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the step one is we don't grow in our comfort zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we're asking for the spirit to move, and what I will also challenge you with, but also costume you with in a loving way, is if you ask the Lord to provide opportunities, get ready, because they will come.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're like, God, I just bring that you open doors for me just to love and share your love with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, just be ready to be obedient and ready to be like, well, that's a little uncomfortable God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I start with something a little easier?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not the desert road to Gaza, please?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but the thing is, is having that heart of obedience, but it does offer you encouragement because what you will get from that is one being obedient.
[SPEAKER_00]: But two, it's going to embold and you to continue to walk in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause you're like, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I heard the Lord, and I responded, again, not like, oh, how great you are, but it's like, man, like, this is what we were designed for.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we were designed to go and to share Jesus with people and we don't do that in our comfort zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's my challenge for you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we continue through, as we continue to go through the book of Acts, get ready, because as we some crazy stuff, I am so pumped for next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter nine is seriously like one of my favorites in the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So buckle up for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to close here in a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to close in the time of worst of in communion.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to just challenge us with having that heart posture, of one being able to respond and receive from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the willingness and the ability to just step out of our comfort zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's pray and we'll come into a time of communion.
[SPEAKER_00]: So dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for your goodness, Lord, and we ask that you forgive us, Lord, of the times where we stepped outside of your will or Lord that we just totally ignored it, whatever it may be and what I pray that one you forgive us of our sins, I pray that you prepare our hearts, Lord, to be in a place where we can hear from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Father, I just pray that we can come before you right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we're here or tuning in online and we don't know you, Lord, that, Lord, I pray that this will be a time where we'll just ask that question of who are you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray that you speak to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you speak to us or I just pray that we can be a light so that people may know you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, we just thank you for this time and Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.