How The Church Flourishes

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Pretty good.

God, thank you.

Uh, if we get the opportunity to practice here on earth what we will do uh forever in heaven, uh and uh that is to glorify you, to worship you.

That doesn't mean we're gonna sit around clouds and sing songs forever, that we're gonna come back and live on the earth the way God created it to be.

But even that's gonna be about you.

Our lives here on earth are are intended to be about you.

But God, we've kind of turned our back on the sun and fallen in love with our own shadow.

Uh and so, Lord, illuminate the scripture today so we can be rescued from the smallness of what we're destined for.

And so, Holy Spirit, speak something that has our name on it.

We didn't come today for a religious whooping or a beat down or be made to feel guilty.

That's not the gospel.

There is conviction, God, but with the conviction, there always comes an invitation.

So let us hear the invitation of God today, not just the words of a man.

This is our prayer, God.

Make it our experience, we ask in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

But if you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.

Doesn't mean you're a bad person.

Everything I'll say will come up on the screen up there.

And if I say anything this morning that you're like, I have no idea what that meant, just come up afterwards and ask me.

I'd love to explain it to you, okay?

I want to talk to you this morning about how the church flourishes, how the church flourishes.

Now, let me let me just say this: we can grow and we can and never flourish.

You grow by you just get more people, and by the grace of God, our church is growing.

Glory to God.

So thankful for that.

But if you're not careful, we just attract more people that love God in the same ways that we do.

There's no extravagant sacrifice, there's no extravagant demonstrations of obedience.

And so the church flourishes.

Now, when I said open your Bible to the book of Acts, sometimes it's hard to understand why the books in the Bible are called what they are, like the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not just four guys to get their take on Jesus.

They were eyewitnesses, they recorded what they saw.

The book of Acts is right after the Gospels, and it's basically it's literally the Acts of the Apostles.

This is what they did as a result of what they believed about God.

Okay?

And so this is how the church got started.

This is kind of the church in its infant stages, and this is the way people lived.

And not just that historically, this is the way you and I were created to live.

This is what I mean when I say this is how the church flourishes.

So I'm going to read a story out of there, and then I'm going to point to five things from this true story we're reading in the Bible.

Acts chapter 8, verse 26.

Acts 8:26

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is a desert place.

And he rose and went.

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of her treasure.

He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah, and the spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot.

So Philip ran to him and hearing him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, Do you understand what you're reading?

And he said, How can I unless someone guides me?

And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the passage of Scripture that he was reading was this: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its sheer is silent, and so he opens not his mouth.

In his humiliation, justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.

And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?

And then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water.

What prevents me from being baptized?

And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way, and he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip found himself at Azotis, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Now there's a word in there that we said about four or five times, and it's the word eunuch, a eunuch or someone that undergoes a certain procedure.

Uh that basically they take a vow of celibacy, they're going to be single the rest of their life.

I remember when I was in college one night, it's about two in the morning, we were up talking, and a guy, about eight of them crammed in my room, and a guy said, I think God's called me to be single the rest of my life.

And I said, I don't think God's called us to be friends, bro.

Uh I don't share that calling, okay?

And to this day, best I can tell, that cat is still single.

He took a vow of celibacy, and I bless that, and I don't want to, I don't want to imitate that, amen.

Uh but basically a eunuch is someone that says, Listen, I'm not gonna be distracted by anything.

I'm gonna full-time serve this person.

So he has made himself a servant to Candace, a queen of Ethiopia.

If it was modern day, he would be Janet Yellen, the secretary of the treasury.

He's over all of her kingdom, okay?

So he's a very important man with a single-minded focus, okay?

Now, what has this got to do with how the church flourishes again?

The church can grow and never flourish.

Growing is like a like a gunshot.

Flourishing is like a bomb goes off.

I mean, it is just multiplied impact everywhere.

There's five things in here that I want to point to.

Number one, we do what God says.

We do what God says.

It's verse 26.

Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is a desert place.

God tells him, Hey, this is what I want you to do.

And by the way, it ain't sexy, okay?

He doesn't always just send you to sexy destinations.

This is a desert place.

Rise and go.

This is a desert place.

Verse 27, and he rose and went.

This is obedience, beloved.

So when I say do what God says, this is what I'm talking about.

Because here, I I know this.

When most of us have been conditioned by our culture, when you obey God, you're missing out on something in life that you couldn't be experiencing.

And I want to submit to you this morning that when you and I disobey God, that we are missing out on what we were created for.

We're missing out on life, capital L, and we're settling for life, little L.

We're just kind of existence.

We're just kind of like, hey, this is, I'm gonna be a part of the only thing I'm gonna be a part of is anything as big as me and my friends can plan, finance, and come up with.

But when you obey God, listen carefully.

You put yourself in a realm and in the possibility where you can be a part of something that's as big as God is.

This is the necessity of obedience.

Well, we engage in obedience like we do because we've been trained to think about it, like we think about it.

And I just say again, obedience is how God loops us into the bigness of who he is and what he's doing in the world.

God says, rise and go.

The Bible says he rose and went.

I love what Craig Groschelle said.

He's a pastor in Oklahoma.

He said, I believe Christians often perceive obedience to God as some test designed just to see if we're really committed to him.

But what if it's designed as God's way of giving us what's best for us?

What if it's designed as God's way of giving us what's really best for us?

My concern is that preaching in America is kind of eroded into these psychological attempts to help people feel better for disobeying.

But when you read this, when if Philip doesn't obey on the front end, verse 26, hey, the Spirit says, Hey, go down to this road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.

It's a desert place, it's not sexy, the school district isn't good.

Your kids are probably not gonna be the academic superstars you wanted them to be, but this is where I want you to go.

He rose and he went, okay?

This is obedience, plain and simple.

You have to, one of the ways that you you you respond to obedience is that you have to realize, hey, that if I don't obey, I've got to be haunted by what I'm missing out on.

Does that make sense?

Let me try that again.

If you ever understand, God says, you know, very clearly, this is God.

I know this is God, and we'll talk about how in just a minute.

But but but sometimes it's like you ought to have experiences, all of us should, where you you're you're reminded, you know what?

I don't have to be responsible for the big thing.

I just have to be responsible with the little act of obedience.

Like case in point, years ago, I'm speaking at a retreat in South Carolina, and the couple at led worship said, Hey, is it true you don't eat before you speak?

I said, No, I don't.

I I preach on an empty stomach.

They said, Well, what are you gonna do?

I said, I'm gonna go eat.

They said, Where are you gonna go?

I said, This only thing open at this hour is the huddle house.

And they said, What's the huddle house?

I said, It's the second cousin to the waffle house.

That's what it is.

And they said, We've never been, and I'm like, You've never been to the come on, man, they got a jukebox.

So we get in our the they the church gave us a vehicle to drive.

We drive down to the huddle house, we order, our I mean, our waitress comes over, we're ordering, and she's talking like her jaw's been broken and her jaw is wired shut.

And I just can't help but stare, especially when my wife is not with me to reach under the table and squeeze my leg as if to say, don't do that.

And I'm just like, I'm staring at her mouth, and I didn't say it, but I'm thinking, what's wrong with your mouth?

Why are you talking like this?

You sound like Clint Eastwood.

Get off my lawn.

Like, what's what's up with your mouth, lady?

And I'm I'm just staring, I'm like, yeah, I'll have scrambled eggs and bacon and a waffle and some coffee and a water.

And I'm like, and she goes, anything else?

And I'm like, okay.

And she left and I said, Hey, did is it just me or something wrong with her mouth?

Yeah.

And I and the lady said, she looks like she's in agony.

And I went, something.

So she came back and I was like, hey, are you okay?

And she said, What do you mean?

And I like this is normal.

I said, What do you mean?

I said, No, I I mean, are you looking?

And she goes, Oh, my teeth are killing me.

And then she smiled, all her teeth are rotten.

And I was like, Oh, I I understood Matt.

There's a story in Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus looks out of the city of Jerusalem and he's so moved with compassion that his bowels just like he's like, Oh, oh my gosh, because something just surged up in me.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

And I said, Oh, I'm so sorry.

I said, Are you taking anything?

And she goes, Well, I can't afford like admin or anything, so I drink cough syrup, it's got codeine in it.

You know you're poor.

Now, if I if I said, Hey, listen, this is lean, wouldn't y'all know what lean is?

Say amen.

About 10 of you.

The rest of you are like, What is that?

Lean is a drink that people on the street drink because it's got codeine in it.

It's called lean because you drink enough of it and you lean, okay?

And so basically she's like, Hey, I'm drinking liquid codeine because I and I that I get, you know, on the black market from my drug dealer.

And so we get done, and I'm kind of like, I just want to bless her.

I'm gonna leave her a big tip, and blah, blah, blah.

By the way, blessing somebody is not always doing, just giving them something.

Sometimes it's obeying what God is saying on the inside.

So I get up there to go pay, and I just said, Hey, I'm so sorry.

I'll be praying.

She's like, Thanks.

And I turned around to walk out, and I almost get to the door, and very clearly the Spirit of God says just one word, Really?

Really?

This is what we're gonna do.

You think giving her a$20 tip for your$30 meal is gonna somehow bless this woman?

Have you lost your mind?

And so I pushed the door to walk out, and I stopped, and the people were with me, they were like, Is everything okay?

And I said, Here, get in the truck, I'll be right there.

I walk back and I didn't know what to say because sometimes I don't know what to say, and I say stupid, moronic things, okay?

And so I walk back over to the cash restaurant and I said, Excuse me, do you have dental insurance?

You've been to the huddle house.

She looked at me and she said, I work at the freaking huddle house.

You've got yourself a point there.

Uh hey, listen, I here's why I'm asking.

I just want to do something about your situation.

I don't want to make this weird or awkward, but if I would pay for you to go to a dentist, would you go?

Absolutely.

I said, So, uh, okay, so so what's your phone number?

And she goes, I don't have a phone.

There's people so poor they don't have a phone.

And I she goes, you can call the restaurant.

I said, give me the number.

And so the next day I spoke and they took me to the airport.

I said, hey, pull over, go in a convenience store.

I walked in and I asked for a phone book.

The guy looked at me like, What?

You have dental insurance?

Do you have a phone book?

Because I'm an idiot, that's why.

And I said, Hey man, here's the deal.

I'm looking for a good dentist in your city.

And the guy's like, What?

And the lady behind the line behind me.

She goes, Oh, I got a great dentist.

And I said, Give me the name.

So I get back, I call my board of directors for my nonprofit.

I said, Hey, listen, we need to bless this lady.

She got some jacked up chicklets.

She needs some help.

She's in agony.

And the board is like, Amen.

Let's bless her.

And so I call the huddle house.

Her name's Renee.

I said, Hey, got your appointment.

You're gonna be on Thursday and you're gonna go see this dentist.

The dentist calls me on Thursday afternoon and says, Whew, Neil, it's bad.

Some of her teeth are broken off at the gum line.

She needs an oral surgeon.

I got two words for you.

Cha-ching.

So he said, We recommend Dr.

Brady Simple.

So she goes to Dr.

Brady Simple.

The following week, he works her in, okay?

And then I get a phone call.

Before she gets, I get a call from Dr.

Simple's uh uh like like payment collection lady or whatever, the enforcer Barbara.

Barbara calls, she's interviewing me, and she said, And what is your name?

Now at the time I'm reading through the Gospel of Matthew, and I'm trying to personalize what the Bible says about me.

And in that gospel, Jesus says, you know, he refers to himself as the light of the world, and he says to his disciples, you are the light of the world.

So I'm trying to personalize that.

And so she says, What is your name?

And I said, I'm the light of the world.

And she said, Excuse me.

And I said, She goes, I need to know, sir, who is the guarantor of this bill?

And I said, You mean the guy's gonna pay?

That would be me.

Okay, what is your name?

I'm the light of the world.

And then hard Barbara cracked, and she kind of giggled.

I said, That's right, Barbara.

I want you to stand up.

I said, Are you in a room with other people?

She goes, Yes, everyone in my office is looking at me.

I said, I want you to stand up, hold the phone over your head, announce, I'm on the phone to the light of the world.

And she did it.

And I can hear people laughing in the background.

She said back down and she goes, now what do I do?

And I said, I know what else you need.

She goes, I need to know who's gonna pay this.

And I said, the light of the world's gonna shine some light on this.

Sure, what is the name on the credit card?

Oh, that'd be Neil McClendon.

Okay, what's the expiration date?

What's coming?

Blah, blah, blah.

I said, Yep.

And so they get him in.

I get a phone call.

She says, Oh, but this is Mr.

McClendon.

I'm like, okay, I'm sitting down.

How much is it?

And then she starts giggling.

And I said, What are you laughing about?

She goes, because Dr.

Simple wants you to know that he's the light of the world, too.

And I said, What?

Now, here's the thing.

When you obey, you don't know what else it activates in the kingdom.

So my little act of obedience.

Now keep in mind, I got bacon and coffee.

I'm heading for the house, okay?

I pushed the door open and the Holy Spirit's like, really?

Really?

You think I sent you all the way up here just to talk to a bunch of knuckle-headed kids?

Get yourself back in there.

That's all I did.

I'm ready to go home.

And so all of a sudden, Dr.

Timblem, they said, now, Barbie said, now by the way, sweetie, she needs teeth.

And I said, Well, you pulled them all out.

Won't you do something about that?

She says, Let me call somebody, and there's a guy that makes dentures, prostagonics, or whatever.

And so I'm like, oh now, this is really going to be expensive.

So I get a call from them, and our Barbara calls me back like four days later, and she says, By the way, Dr.

So-and-so said to tell you he's the light of the world too.

And I was like, Well, glory to God.

And she said, So, sweetie, so far you're getting off scot-free.

I said, This is wonderful.

Now, here, why do I tell you that?

Because when I say do what God says, you do not know what gets unleashed when you obey.

You don't have to take responsibility for everything, but you and I do have to obey.

This is how the church in the book of Acts exploded, okay?

Because people just obeyed.

The Holy Spirit said, Hey, go run alongside that chariot.

Which, I mean, excuse me.

He says, Go at first, he just says, Hey, go down to this road, rise and go.

So, what do you do?

He rose and he went.

We want to we want God to prove himself to us, but he wants us to demonstrate him to everybody around us.

Hear it again.

We want God to prove himself to us.

He wants us to demonstrate him and the reality of God to everyone around us.

See, how does the church flourish?

Number one, we do what God says.

Number two, we never assume people are Christians.

We never assume people are Christians.

Now, listen carefully, okay?

Some of you are like, oh, wait a minute.

We're not talking about standing in judgment of anybody.

We're not talking about that.

No.

What are you talking about?

Look at verse 27.

Verse 27 describes this person that he's interacting with.

It says, and he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Canaans, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure.

He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariots, his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

Now stop right there, and you say, never assume people are Christian.

He's a powerful man.

He makes great sacrifices.

He goes to church and he reads his Bible.

Four things about him you can you can you can discern from the text.

He's a powerful man.

He's in a position of authority.

He's got his own chariot.

He's reading.

This is not a self-driving Tesla.

Somebody else is driving the chariot.

So he's big pimping, okay?

He's got some authority, okay?

He has a personal driver.

I don't know if you've ever had someone send a car for you.

It sounds good.

It's a little awkward.

Because you just get in the back and the guy's like, sir, where too?

And you're like, ugh.

Nicer than expensive.

It's not like a taxi cab.

It's like, oh, this is the town car.

It's like, can I ride up front?

No.

You can be like Deadpool and climb through the window and get up in front with me, but no.

Yeah, yeah, there's some of you.

The rest of you are like, I'm not, I'm not budging.

It's Mother's Day.

Just keep going, dude.

I'm here because I asked my mom, what do you want for Mother's Day?

And she said, Church.

You're halfway home.

When I say never assume, it's because sis, this guy has gone from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, which by the way, Ethiopia to Jerusalem, if you drove it today, it takes 84 hours in a car.

That's how far it is.

Now, if you just factor in, this is the way my nerd brain works, you just factor in a chariot can go one-third as fast as a car in modern days can go.

And so if you extrapolate that out, now you've gone from 84 hours to 252 hours.

Which, if you drove 12 hours a day, it would take you 21 days to get there.

Now, why would someone who go on this 21-day trek in a chariot to go up to Jerusalem and worship and he doesn't even know God?

Here's why.

Because everybody has a deep appetite in them that is unsatisfied.

He's riding back and he's reading the book of Isaiah from the Old Testament.

Never assume.

Never assume.

Here's a third thing.

Just walk in the spirit.

Walk in the spirit.

Verse 29.

Philip sees all this in verse 29.

The spirit said to him, Go over and join this chariot.

See how practical God is?

He's not people like, oh, I'm afraid.

No, he's very practical.

When I say walk in the spirit, this is a phrase you hear in church a lot, but I want us to grasp what it means.

When a person becomes a Christian, God puts his spirit inside of us.

And so instead of us trying to go through life and discern everything externally, we get to we have the capacity to demonstrate things from the inside out.

We have the internal witness of the spirit.

And so we're not always looking around for validation or confirmation.

There's something inside of us that is kind of guiding us.

And so you got to ask, see, how do you know when God is speaking to you?

Because God speaks to Philip and He says to him, Hey, go over and join this chariot.

Run alongside it.

And so this is what I call paralleling.

You should have people in your life right now that you're just kind of walking beside them in life.

You're not judging them, you're not some harsh person.

You're just kind of paralleling them and letting them get a whiff of the fragrant aroma of what Jesus is like.

And so ask yourself today: who are you paralleling right now?

Who are you exposed to on a consistent basis that does not have a relationship with God?

Because this is one of the things that marked the church in the book of Acts.

This is where it wasn't a gunshot that went off, but it was like an explosion of an infinite consequence.

Because Philip is listening and the Holy Spirit says, Go down to this road.

He goes down to the road.

Now I'm here.

And then the Holy Spirit says, Hey, by the way, now you're here.

Here's why you're here.

Run alongside that chariot.

And so he jogs up besides God's chariot.

Now you may be thinking, how do you know when God is speaking to you?

Andrew Wilson has a great response that he says, This.

He's a preacher in London, by the way.

He says, We serve a speaking God who talks to his people throughout the Bible.

We are sons and daughters of a loving father who wants relationship with his children.

We are the bride of Christ, and husbands and wives talk to each other.

We aren't employed as slaves or servants, but welcomed as friends, and friends talk to each other.

We are the sheep of our great shepherd, and sheep know their master's voice.

We are a body in which people prophesy, speak words of wisdom and knowledge, and use other spiritual gifts to edify each other.

We may get ourselves into muddle and silliness sometimes, but as Christians, we are those who hear the voice of God.

This is what you see in the book of Acts.

Philip, just an ordinary dude.

Just says, listen, I want my life to count and for the kingdom.

I want to be a part of what God's doing.

Two ways that we confirm God's leading in our lives.

Number one, we check what we're hearing against what the Holy Spirit has already revealed in Scripture.

That would be the Bible.

We check what we're hearing against what the Holy Spirit's already revealed in the Scripture.

Why is that?

Here's why.

Because the Spirit of God never tells the people of God to do anything that violates the word of God.

It just never does.

Now, I'd been the preacher here, like I started in.

I've probably been here two or three months, and a lady came up right here one Sunday after church and she said, I want you to pray with me because the Lord told me to leave my husband.

And I said, Oh, I'm so sorry.

So has he been unfaithful or is he abusing you?

And she said, No, I'm just not happy.

And I said, So I can't, I can't pray for that.

And she she had already bowed her head and reached out and had her hand on my shoulder.

And she said, Go, and I said, I can't pray for that.

And she looked up like, excuse me.

And I said, Yeah, I just don't understand before I pray.

I want to pray, but I don't know if I need to pray for your husband or for you.

And she kind of looked at me, kind of cock eye, and she goes, What do you mean?

I said, The Bible says, except for the cause of unfaithfulness, you don't leave your spouse.

Has your spouse been unfaithful?

No, he's a faithful man.

He's a good husband and he's a good father, but I'm just not happy.

And then she said this, and my girlfriends and I were out the other night having some wine and we were talking, and they agree with me.

To which I said, You and your girlfriends are all wrong.

And she said, What are you saying?

What else could that mean?

You go get liquored up on Marlowe and get your girlfriends to nod, like, oh yeah, well, God wants you to be happy.

That's not in the Bible.

You need to put on your big girl pants and go home to your husband.

You know what some of y'all are thinking right now?

Dude, it's Mother's Day.

Give us four qualities of an awesome mom.

See my wife, she got all that stuff.

And I was right there, and she said, You mean you're not gonna pray?

No, I'm not gonna pray that.

Why?

Because the Spirit of God never tells the people of God to do anything that violates the word of God.

What you're saying, the Lord told me that's not God.

Well, I'll go find another church.

If you find a church that agrees with you, that's no longer the church because we are the church, and as much as we submit to the clear teaching of Scripture, when you get out from under that, you're not the church anymore.

Well, I won't be back, and I think somehow we'll be better for it.

Now, if you're visiting today, I'm a nice person.

But look at me.

Why are you laughing when I say that?

That should concern you.

Look at me.

If we reinvent ourselves every time somebody new walks in the door, some crazy thought, then we either we don't believe the Bible or we don't have confidence in what it says.

Here's the second way you confirm God's leading.

We can check it against what we know about Jesus, what we know of Jesus.

What do you mean?

Is it in keeping with the character of Jesus?

If not, then it's not the word of God.

What do you mean?

Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 says this long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.

Hebrews 1:1

Hello.

God speaks loudest in and through the life of Jesus, whom he appointed, the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature.

Tell that to the Jehovah's Witnesses when they ring your doorbell, they will lose their mind because they don't think Jesus was God.

He is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

And when this God speaks, it is in keeping with the nature of his son.

So two simple ways.

How do we know?

How do we know?

Here's the fourth thing that how does the church flourishes?

We ask and we expect good questions.

We ask and expect good questions.

What do you mean?

Look at verse 30.

So Philip, after the Spirit said, Hey, go over and join this chariot.

Look at Philip does.

Verse 30.

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you're reading?

And he said, How can I unless someone guides me?

And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this: like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its sheer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

In his humiliation, justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.

And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does the prophet say this?

About himself or someone else?

See, when I say ask and expect good questions, if all you're doing is asking questions, then you're just regurgitating some memorized spiel on people who don't have the patience for it.

You are the your Christianity, Christianity is so robust it can withstand any question that anybody asks.

So Philip asks a question, simple question.

Do you understand what you're reading?

And the guy responds with a question, How can I unless someone explains it to me?

Give me a break, bro.

And then this, he invites Philip up into the chariot with him.

Who in your life right now is not a believer, but they yet they're inviting you closer to their life?

You should live in such a way that people that do not agree with you invite you into their life that they say, Hey, I want to get some time with you because I want to better understand.

I want, I want to get this.

Just this week, I got asked great questions.

I got asked questions like, uh young lady asked me, she said, Hey, if God is good and he's real, like you you seem to think, why is the world so screwed up?

I said, that is a great question.

I didn't say, hey, young lady, what's your mouth?

I said, that's a great question.

I said, you know what?

Sometimes I look around and I think the same thing, but then I got to remind myself, the world is like it is, not because God's not good or God's not real.

The world is like it is because human beings have a free will, and sometimes we can exercise it for good, and sometimes we can exercise it for evil.

And she said, What do you mean?

I said, like when we're done, I could go to the Bank of America right over here on the Grand Park way and rob that bank.

And she's like, shut up.

You would never do that.

I wouldn't.

I would fantasize about it, but I wouldn't.

But let's just say, if I did, if I did that and they arrested me, what I could I just say, hey, it's God's fault.

You can't press any charges against me.

She's like, No, it'd be your fault.

I said, That's right.

See, God gives us a free will, and when we exercise it to do evil, we cannot blame God for the outcome.

Which is what we as a country do.

We break God's laws, God's law all the time, and then we go, yeah, I mean if God's really real, why is the world screwed up?

Because we're screwed up.

Real simple answer.

But I gotta ask that question.

I asked a lady this week, I said, How do you, I said, what do you believe about God that keeps you from trusting him?

And she said, Excuse me.

I said, Yeah, you seem to be really resistant to the whole God thing.

And I respect that.

This is in counseling.

And she said, Yeah, I just don't like the idea that he's he's a male.

Now, no, now don't go.

This is not, you know, feminist, whatever.

And I said, Can I ask you a personal question?

And you don't have to answer.

And she said, sure.

I said, Did you experience trauma at the hands of a male?

And she said, Yeah.

I said, I'm deeply, deeply sorry.

We talked a little bit, and I said, Hey, I don't preach to people in counseling, but can I just say something from the Bible and read it?

And she goes, Yeah.

I mean, I mean, if you believe it, I don't believe it.

You don't believe it?

What?

No, I said, I said, here's here's the I want you to understand what the God is like that you don't believe in.

So I turned to Isaiah 61 and I said, The Bible is this isn't the Old Testament, and it's kind of basically saying, This is what God is like.

He says he gives it beauty for ashes, strength for fear, the garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

I said, Beauty for ashes is like your house burns down, and God says, you know what, I can sift and sort and find some beauty in this.

I'm gonna do something beautiful out of this.

And so, okay, yeah, strength for fear.

When you feel fearful, it's a very weak feeling.

Yeah.

And I said, but that last one doesn't make it say.

She goes, No, garment of praise, a spirit of despair.

I said, when you walked in here, it looked like you were you were draped in a wet blanket.

Yeah.

And I said, God says, I so want to do something about your circumstance and situation that you walk out a little bit lighter and you want to praise God.

That's the garment of praise.

And she's like, Okay.

And then she looked at me and said, That's enough.

And I said, Great.

Bring me down.

I didn't say, Oh, you don't tell me when it's enough.

No.

You know, the best problem, the best question I could ask this week?

A young man asked me, Hey, Pastor, if they legalize marijuana in Texas, will you ever smoke pot?

Just like, where did this come from?

Because this young man, he's not he's not too young.

Uh, he goes to our church.

I basically smokes weed four or five times a week, and he always wants to make a case for it.

He comes told me this week, want to make a case for the legalization of marijuana and blah, blah, blah.

And he goes, Didn't you smoke weed in high school?

Yeah, the weed I smoked in 1982, it doesn't even exist anymore.

You got this high octane THC through the roof stuff that you you get at the dispensary or whatever.

We had to go to someone's bedroom window and they threw it out the window in the grass.

You guys pull up in your Lexus and it's like, uh-huh, you know what I want.

And so, and he's like, Well, what's the big deal?

I mean, I said, Well, it's illegal.

I said, but here's the thing.

Now, by the way, you got to pan the camera back.

I said, Can you fathom how much money you spent on weed in your life?

Now, by the way, if you're a pot smoker in here right now, you're getting real mad right now.

I ain't mad at you, okay?

It's what you choose to do.

I would love you enough to tell you it's illegal, but you should think about it.

I said, How much money have you spent on pot in your life?

He goes, Oh, thousands.

I said, Okay, here's what you got to do.

Fast forward to when you stand before God.

You want to say to God, hey, thanks for all that money, because I got sparking up and I was smoking blunts and playing an online game.

I would live in the dream.

Or do you want to stand before God and say, you know what, you gave me thousands of dollars and I use it to alleviate the suffering of the poor in my city?

Oh, you're trying to make me feel bad.

I said, No, I'm not trying to make you feel bad at all.

I'm just trying to say, just the way your mind's oriented towards the truth determines how you see the world.

And you smoke weed for so long you can't fathom not smoking weed.

Can you feel it in here right now?

We got some, we got some blazers in here.

And look at me, I'm not mad at you, I'm not hating on you.

Some of y'all come with your mother, you're like, my mom told you to talk about this.

I'm not a jukebox, I don't take requests.

But again, if you ask me a question, I'm not at the mercy of the question.

It didn't bother me at all.

He said, So you wouldn't, even if it is legal.

I mean, I'd give it to you for free.

I said, I wouldn't, and here's why.

The Bible says all things are permissible.

It's not permissible right now according to the law.

But if it was permissible, Paul said this, he said, I will not be mastered by anything.

You should ask yourself, why you let yourself be mastered by this?

Oh, I'm not mastered.

You smoke four or five times a week.

That's not mastered.

There's only two other days in the week.

Again, ask and expect good questions.

This is what we see in here.

Here's the last thing be gospel fluent.

You still with me?

I wish y'all could see your faces kind of like I went to church on Mother's Day because my mom asked me to, and the guy talked about blazing up.

Okay.

I said to a kid the other day, I said, You play for Portland?

He said, Play for Portland.

I said, the trailblazers.

Because him and his friend were here, and I said, What's up, smoking the bandit?

What do you call smoking the bandit?

Because you two smoke together and it's against the law.

So you bandits.

And they got offended.

You shouldn't joke about that.

You shouldn't break the law.

What I mean when I say be gospel fluent, look at verse 40, verse 35.

You still with me?

Look at verse 35.

Be gospel fluent.

What do you mean?

The eunuch said to Philip, verse 34, In whom I ask you, does a prophet say this, say this about?

Himself or someone else?

He's reading Isaiah.

This guy's getting killed, and he's not even opening his mouth.

Verse 35.

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

And Philip opened his mouth.

At some point you got to open your mouth, beloved.

And beginning with this scripture, Philip didn't say, Well, I'm not really an Old Testament guy.

I'm kind of in the New Testament.

I just read the red or whatever.

I just agree with the parts of the Bible that allow me to live the life I want to live.

So, Old Testament, that's really harsh.

No, no.

Philip's like, where are we, bro?

Beginning with this scripture, bam.

I can tell you about Jesus from wherever you are in life.

And so beginning with this scripture, this is what I mean by being gospel fluent.

You don't have to wait to tilt the conversation on its ear and jam some awkward-sounding religious phrases into it.

The guy's like, hey man, who's he talking about?

And beginning with this scripture, to be gospel fluent is to be able to join the conversation wherever it is and bring the realities of the gospel to bear on it in relevant ways.

Jeff Vandersfeldt wrote a book called Gospel Fluency.

Here's the way he described it.

He said, A person is gospel fluent when the gospel becomes their mother tongue.

They see the world through that filter, they hear the world through that filter, and they know how to speak the truths of the gospel, the truths of Jesus into the everyday stuff of life.

And just notice this two things.

He said, in beginning with that verse, he tells him the good news about Jesus.

Two things.

It's good news.

And secondly, it's about Jesus.

It's not about our church is building a new sanctuary.

You should come, it's gonna be awesome.

No, it's about Jesus.

Let's keep the good news about the right thing.

Now, I want to just point out two other things to you in the text.

I ain't got time to get into that, but just if you read down there, he says he points them out, he tells me the good news about Jesus, verse 36.

And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water.

When's the last time you got that excited about water?

I mean, this guy's like, Hey, hey, wait a minute.

I want to identify myself as a Christ follower.

And so he has the chariot stopped and he gets out, and Philip walks over and baptizes the guy.

And the Holy Spirit says to Philip, That's all, you can leave now, and he just walks off.

And look what the Bible says.

Verse 39 When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.

How do people walk away from a conversation with you?

A spiritual conversation.

They walk away rejoicing.

You know, lady in the huddle house I told you about?

Last I heard she was getting new dentures, and the and the guy was like, dude.

And then Barbara called me back three days later and said, Oh, by the way, when Dr.

Simple was extracting her teeth and doing performing oral surgery, he saw a little lesion, two little lesions on the back of her tongue.

We bobs and them, sent them off.

She has throat cancer, Neil.

I'm like, oh my gosh.

He said, but we think we caught it in time.

And then there's a pause.

And Barbara says into the phone, Sir, do you realize that you might have saved this woman's life?

I said, Barbara, I I can't let that in, Barbara.

What about three three, four months later?

I go to my mailbox and there's a card in there.

And it looks like like a four-year-old wrote it.

And I'm like, what in the world?

No return address.

It's Renee's mom.

Who'd written and just said, I do not know who you are.

I tracked you down.

And the church gave me your address that you spoke at.

And I just wanted to say, my daughter, Renee, that you met, was an alcoholic when you met her.

And through this process, she's not been able to drink, so she's dried up and sobered up, and she moved back home with me.

And now she has a mouthful of pretty teeth and she smiles.

I just want to say thank you.

I'll never be able to repay you.

And I walked from my mailbox to my house about half a block.

Cried most of the way, but just rejoicing.

Just why?

Because I got to be a part of what God's doing to change the world.

And this is what I'm saying to you, and I'm done.

No guilt trip, no pressure.

When you become a Christian, it's not just, oh, I get forgiven, I get to go to heaven.

You get to become a part of what God's doing to change the world.

And this is how the church flourishes.

Let's pray together.

If you're visiting right now, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.

So I'll pray a prayer.

Some questions come up on the screen, that's for your consideration.

You can just take a picture of your phone, think about it, whatever.

Let me voice a prayer right now.

God, thanks for the truth of the Bible.

Thanks that it's if somebody will just have the courage to explain it to us, we can understand it.

We're not dumb people, we're very smart people.

So, Holy Spirit, thank you for the picture of just flourishing we see in the gospel.

Now just brood over us and cause us to think about what this means about us, what this says to us.

Father, thanks for a picture of simple obedience.

Man named Philip just goes down and just waits by the road.

That's all he knows, that's all he hears in the beginning.

But there's such a bigness to little acts of obedience.

So, Holy Spirit, we just want to obey and leave the outcomes to you.

The outcomes are not our responsibility because then we start manipulating, trying to make stuff happen.

We just want to obey.

We want to be free, winsome, liberated people.

We just obey.

We want it to explode with this kind of life and living.

So, Holy Spirit, speak to us about what that looks like.

With our name all over it, we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for your presence.

If you're a guest today, you're always welcome.

If your mom jammed you up and said, Hey, for Mother's Day, I want you to come to church.

I'm glad you came.

If you don't have a church, you don't have a pastor, we'd love to be your church and be your pastor.

You're welcome anytime.

Here's all we ask of you if you're our guest.

In a seatback pocket in your row, if you pull one of those guest cards, if you haven't filled one out already, just fill one out.

Drop in those little wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.

We're not going to show up at your house unannounced.

We just think you matter to God, and so you matter to us, okay?

And for the rest of us that consider this your church home, that's where we receive our offering.

All right.

We have a couple things going on in the life of our church we want to make you aware of.

So check out our video announcements.

Thank you for joining us today.

Here's a few things we want you to know.

Men's Breakfast is happening this Tuesday at 6 a.m.

in the warehouse.

We'll have a full breakfast with hot coffee and a time of teaching from God's Word.

Registration wraps up this week for our church-wide picnic.

So make sure to sign up before May 12th to get a spot for you and your family.

The new and expected parent break is happening May 22nd.

Parents will be able to meet other new and expected parents.

Ask questions, take a tour of our kids' building, and get a feel for how they're looking here.

Drop a follow in the lobby.

Drop a pop in the lobby before you.

All of these proceeds will go directly to our local mission party, the Pregnancy Resource Medical Center.

And we'll help them counsel women with unplanned pregnancy and fight for the lives of unborn children.

To sign up and find more information about everything you've heard today, head to grandparkway.org slash events.

If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Someone asked me, they said, What's the deal with these baby bottles?

What are we doing?

What's the pregnancy research?

I said, when people, teenagers get pregnant unplanned, we don't want them just to think that God's mad at them.

We want them to believe, hey, there's a God in this world, He loves you, and there's a church in this city that cares about you.

So that's why we give them money.

So well, didn't we give money to mills on wheels?

Yeah.

And we gave money this week to common threads as well.

Uh and we're that's what those baby bottles out there for is to collect for the uh pregnancy resource medical center.

Uh and so we shame is not a fruit of the spirit, and so we don't want to shame people, and so uh that's why we do those kind of things because we love our city and we love the people of our city.

Does that make sense?

All right, we'd like to conclude our service with a smoking blessing.

So stand to your feet, hold your hands out.

You're the light of the world.

Stop being a knucklehead and act like it.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.