Acts 8:26-31 - Pastor Kyle Weeks - August 9th, 2026

If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it.

Turn to Acts chapter eight.

Acts chapter eight is where we're going to be this morning.

We are wrapping up this morning our ordinary people series.

We've looked at eight or nine different people throughout scripture, all of which are just ordinary people like you and I, but all that God has used and used for great things.

And so we're going to look at our last one this morning.

And then next week we'll start a series walking through the Psalms.

We're not going to walk through every psalm as much as I would love to, but we're going to pick and choose some psalms to go through as we uh look to uh the fall and into Thanksgiving.

And so um we'll start that next week, but we'll wrap up our ordinary people series this week looking at Philip.

And so if you uh are able and willing, would you stand with me in honor of reading God's word as we look at Acts chapter 8, starting in verse 26?

Acts 8 · chapter mention

We are going to read to verse 31, and then we will look at it together.

This is the word of the Lord.

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 her treasure.

He had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he 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 heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you are reading?

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

And he invited Philip to come and sit with him.

May God add his blessings to the reading of his word.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before you this morning, and God, as we look to your word, we pray that you would teach us from your word what it looks like to follow after you in obedience.

Father, with an obedience that is unwavering.

Father, a trust that is willing to go wherever you send someone.

Father, as we look to your word this morning, I pray that we would see that God, a person that is spirit-filled, can do great things for your kingdom if they are willing to go where you have called them to go and to say and do what you have called them to say and do.

So, God, would you speak to all of us this morning?

All of us, every single one of us, you desire to use and to lead and to guide in our own directions in life.

Father, would we pray this morning, collectively, that Father, wherever you would lead, would you would you take the reins?

And God, would you guide us and we will go?

Father, give me the words to say, let it be your words and not mine.

Father, I pray that you would keep me from saying anything that goes against your word, and above all, that you would be seen as high and lifted up this morning.

We pray this all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

A veteran lifeguard was once asked, How do you know when to jump in the water?

And the lifeguard replied, I decided years ago that if someone is drowning, I'm going in.

I don't make that decision in the moment.

The only question in the moment that I ask myself is, where do I jump?

All that we know and have seen throughout our ordinary people series are people who have been used by God, that God has directed them where they should go and what they are and what they are to do.

And it is no different for you and I this morning.

No matter where he leads us to go, the calling of every person who confesses Christ Jesus as Lord is to be led by God to go and serve him in whatever he desires to use our lives for.

Adrian Rogers said he might not lead you across the ocean, he might not lead you into the pulpit, but he will lead you, and he has a plan for your life.

The question is, how does God want to use your life?

The question is not if God wants to use your life, that question has already been answered in scripture, and that answer is yes.

God desires to use your life as a follower of Jesus Christ.

That is his desire for you, for his children, to lead, guide, and direct you wherever he feels fit to lead, guide, and direct you.

The question that you and I have to answer is will we go wherever he is leading us?

And he does desire to lead all of us, every single plain, ordinary one of us.

The main idea that I want you to see this morning in the life of Philip is that Philip is a great example of how God can use ordinary people who are willing to be used by God in whatever way he sees fit.

Philip is a great example of this that we see in Scripture.

If you go back to Acts chapter six, is where we first hear of Philip.

And Philip is one of the six that have been selected to take care of the Hellenist widows that are not being taken care of.

These are Greek widows within the church in Jerusalem that were not being tended to, that were being overlooked when it was brought to the apostles as to their to take care of them.

The apostle said, We are to preach and to pray.

We need other brothers and sisters, or other brothers that can help minister to this group.

And so they selected six men.

Um, and one of those is Philip.

So we see Philip within those group of deacons that would have been selected in Jerusalem.

He's a laydeacon, chosen to take care of widows with, I'm sorry, with Stephen and to serve within the church.

And while it wasn't specifically stated in Acts chapter 6, like Stephen, that Philip was a man filled with the Spirit, his life is proof positive that he is a man filled with the Spirit because of how God used him and his willingness to be used by God.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Here's what happened: Acts chapter 7, if you know your Bible.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Uh Stephen, who was a man filled with the Spirit, who was one of the first ones selected as a deacon, is brought before this group.

He is uh preaching the gospel uh under the approval of Paul.

This group turns and stones Stephen.

He is murdered, and this caused persecution, rumblings to happen within the church in Jerusalem, and a bunch of followers of Jesus that were in Jerusalem at that time scattered.

And they all go to different places all throughout the Mediterranean.

And the place that Philip went is Samaria.

Now, as Philip goes to Samaria, we would be a little bit shocked because Samaria is a place that would be looked down upon when it comes to the Jewish people.

It's a place that's dirty of people that are unworthy.

But Philip goes and the Bible says that God does great work in Samaria through Philip.

If you look at the beginning of chapter 8 and verse 6, the Bible says, and the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip.

Automatically, this is a great place to do ministry because the people listen.

Now I know you you don't stand up here every Sunday, but I I can tell you from experience from someone who's in ministry, it's always good when people listen to what you have to say when it's what you feel the Lord is telling the people.

And so automatically, God is blessing the people because as Philip is is proclaiming to them the gospel, they're not only listening, but the Lord is doing a work through the Holy Spirit at that time as well, which is performing miracles to attest to the message that Philip is proclaiming.

If you look at verse 7, for unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were physically or who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

There's another point that ministry is going well.

People are listening, even the demons are listening, and even uh people are being uh who were lame from birth are being healed, they're being restored.

Great ministry happening here within the church in Samaria.

We we see that God is doing some great work.

If God did that work here, we would be uh fired up about it.

Praise the Lord, God is moving.

But then the icing on the cake, on top of that, verse 8, there was much joy in that city.

The influence of the church was not only going to those and being healed and those that are listening, but it's influencing the entire city of Samaria to where, um, or the area of Samaria to where there is much joy within the city where all of this has taken place.

This is the desire of every church planter that wants to go start a church, is they want to go to a city that will be receptive to what they say, where God will uh work and move among the people, and will it will bring transformation to the people that ultimately result in a joy that was not there before among the people.

Now, all of this we would say Phillips got it made, Philip's got it set, everything's going great.

He he's he's doing what he's supposed to do.

This is what life must be about.

And again, as someone in ministry, this is the ideal place to be.

That's what you pray for, that's the work that you desire the Lord to do, and then all of a sudden, in a moment, the Lord says, Time's up.

You're now to go somewhere else.

And all of us in that moment probably would not have the response of Philip, but our response will to the Lord would be, I need to pray about that.

Because we would say, Lord, why would you call me to go somewhere else that's not here?

Specifically, why would you he call him to go down to Gaza through this road that that's to the desert?

Why would you want me to go to a desert when I got an oasis right here in Samaria?

Lord, what are you doing?

And here's the first thing that I want you to see in the life of Philip that that you and I really have to remember as we go throughout our lives, and that is this sometimes what God calls us to doesn't make sense.

Most of the time we operate in the reverse.

If it makes sense to us, it must be God calling us to it, because why would he call us to do something that doesn't make sense?

And so that's the justification that we put in our mind.

But with Philip's case, this leading that the Lord is putting on his life to you and I, objectively looking at it 2,000 years later, we would say, This does not make any sense to me.

Why would God do this?

Look at verse 26 and 27 again as we as we go through.

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

Luke adds into this, not what the angel said, this is a desert place.

So he he's wanting you to get the contrast between what's happening in Samaria and where God's asking him to go.

Going from Samaria, everything's good, to a desert place.

Philip.

And he rose and went.

You and I not only would be confused at what God has called us to do, but we should also be confused at what Philip does in this story because Philip, without any objection, without any question, without anything, the Bible says that he gets up and he goes.

And we would say that doesn't make sense to us, but just because it doesn't make sense to us doesn't mean that this isn't what God has called us to do.

I remember when I first moved to Shreeport, Louisiana to do a work.

I was talking with a guy that was working maintenance at the church, and he said, Where are you originally from?

And I said, Asheville, North Carolina.

He goes, Oh, I've been to Asheville, it's really beautiful up there.

I was like, No, it's a great place to be from.

I love going back.

And he goes, Okay, what in the world are you doing in Shreveport, Louisiana?

I said, What do you mean?

And he goes, To go from there to just this small town in Louise, northwest Louisiana, which is basically just East Texas that's hot all the time and has no seasons, that does not make any sense to me.

Same question I got asked this week, leaving a meeting was, hey, what what made you come to Live Oak?

And I just want to go ahead and just break the ice a little bit.

I've been here almost two years, so you can understand this.

I didn't come to Live Oak because I was just so overwhelmed by the area.

I gotta be honest.

Now you're laughing because you're going, listen, I get it.

But like I'm from North Carolina.

You know what I like?

Seasons.

I I like typography.

I like a little, I like a little elevation change, right?

I like this white stuff that falls from the sky when it gets really cold, more than just some like spitting stuff that we had this past week.

Pastor John was like, Yeah, it snowed last winter retreat.

I was like, Well, snow, it's a relative term.

Uh, some stuff fell from the sky, right?

I enjoy those things.

None of those things had anything to do with me coming here.

So this person said, Well, if you didn't come to Livo because you just love the area, then what'd you come to Live for?

I was like, I came to Livo because that's where God led me to go.

Did it make sense to family to family?

No.

Did it make sense really to us and what and Shelby and I, what we thought God was gonna lead us to?

No, but here's the thing: just because it doesn't make sense, that doesn't mean that that's not where God wants you to go.

In fact, oftentimes when it doesn't make sense, it's trusting that I don't see it yet, but one day he'll show me.

I uh I'm gonna trust, and and that's so much of what Philip had here.

He trusted that the Lord was gonna do this great work and that he's just gonna go because why?

Well, number one, he's had a couple places where that's happened.

He's seen the Lord work in Jerusalem and his great work that he did there, and he's seen the Lord work in Samaria and his work there through him.

Then why would the Lord then not continue to work and move as he would lead and guide him wherever he was to go?

There's a phrase that I've kept using in our house recently, and that is just um something that we see in scripture all the time, but just stones of remembrance.

You have stones of remembrance in your life that remind you of how God has been faithful and what God has done, not to be stones that you celebrate and go, look how great my life has turned out, but stones to say, God has been faithful to work and move in my life, and I have all of these examples before me to look at as I begin to walk in faith into what He's calling me to do next.

Now, this is not simply just for things in ministry, this is everyday life too.

Again, God won't only always call you across the world, he won't always call you across the country, he won't always call you to the pulpit.

He will call you to go to your neighbor next door that you don't know.

That why would I just go over there and strike up a conversation?

I don't know this person.

He he will call you um to to to go to dinner at a different place than you normally go so that you can branch out and see new people that you usually don't see to strike up a conversation.

He'll he'll bring a coworker into your work that that that is not of the same faith or or uh of the same uh demographic that you are.

They didn't grow up in the south, maybe.

Um, and he'll call you to go to that person that you have nothing in common with.

But just because it doesn't make sense doesn't mean that that is not what God is trying to use your life to do.

The second thing that I want you to see is this the Lord knows what he is doing in calling you where he desires you to go.

Not always where you desire to go.

Because the difference between going where only I desire to go and going where the Lord desires me to go is that if I go only where I desire to go, do you know how much work I'm actually gonna do for the Lord in that place?

Not a whole lot.

And I can say that just based on personal experience and personal understanding.

Because when God gives me everything that I want, whenever I say, God, if you do this for me and send me here, oh Lord, I'll worship you, I'll I'll serve you, I'll do all of those things.

You've prayed that prayer, he's given you that thing, and and have you really been as faithful as you committed to be if he did bless you and give you the desire that you wanted.

All of us can sit back here and just kind of under our breath go, no.

But when the Lord calls us to places that we don't understand, places that are uncomfortable, places that stretches us, it does two things.

Number one, it forces us to trust him, which is always good.

The second thing that it does is it forces us to always remember why he brought us here.

Why did he why did he bring you to the job that you were at?

Why did he bring you to the neighborhood that you were at?

Why did he bring you uh to this church?

What why is why did he take you from family that all lived here and bring you over there?

Ah, yes, that's right.

Because he desires to use me here because he's called me to go there.

It's a constant reminder.

There's some of you in this room that went and served in Africa as missionaries.

We have two different families that I know of, two different families, and I can see both of them now that went and served in Africa.

I can tell you of serving in places that's far away or being in places away from family, you are often reminded that I am not here based on comfort.

I'm here because God sent me here.

And and while I do miss family, or I do miss this, or I miss McDonald's, I don't know, Duncan, if you miss McDonald's being in Africa, I don't I don't know.

But you would probably go, well, but in this moment I know why he sent me here, and he's sent me here to to serve him.

And so I don't I don't have anything else to do, nothing else to fall back on, nothing else to fill my time with, then I need to jump in and do what he's called me to do.

Again, the Lord of all creation has ordained that he would use us and do his work through us.

Now, you might be sitting here saying, Well, if God wants to use me, I just don't know like what he wants me to do.

And oftentimes, if we don't know the what that he wants us to do, we'll never go to the where he wants us to go.

Let me just give you a generic what he wants you to do, and he can take and just develop that as you go.

What he wants you to do is exactly what he called you to do in Acts 1.8, which is to go and be his witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

What he wants you to do is to go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

God desires you to go and confess and be a witness of who he is.

That is what God wants.

Now, for some of you in here that's saying, I don't know if God's calling me to do ministry or not, that that's that's the other element that comes in.

But for every single person that has ever lived, whether they have been called to full-time vocational ministry, like Philip was doing or not, we must understand that everywhere I go, I am called to be a witness.

And if God is sending me somewhere, he is sending me there to be a witness.

The mission might look different in where you're going, but the message is still the same.

His plan is for you to be a witness of who he is and what he has done in your life.

The third thing that I want you to see when it comes to that is regardless of where the Lord leads you, the message stays the same.

All of us sit back and go, what if so, like God's telling me I should take this other job and I don't, you know, I don't know what he's wanting to use me for.

I mean, it's the same money, it's the same this.

What does he want me to do?

How am I supposed to interact with God?

Listen, new opportunities that God has given you in your life to be around different people or opportunities that he has placed before you as someone who is a representative of him, an ambassador of him, to be a sweet aroma of him, is to go and be his witness to those that he is putting around you.

If you desire, if God is calling you to go serve at the food ministry and you're going, well, I just don't know what I'll do, I don't know what I'll say.

You will say what you have or should be saying in every other area of your life that you are a sinner saved by a gracious Savior, called to share that salvation with others.

Don't need fancy words, you don't need a degree to do that.

You don't need any training to do that.

You simply go and and do what God has called you to do.

Maybe you have a job that's taking you not only to a new job, but a new city, a new place.

And you go, well, what am I gonna do?

And and and and how would God why does God want to send me there?

What's God doing?

I don't understand.

You can understand the basic element, and that is that He has something for you there and work to be done.

And the primary work that He desires to be done there is evangelistic.

Your work is to be done, advancing the gospel, sharing the gospel, joining in with a body of believers to grow in knowledge of the Lord and then go out and share the good news of the Lord Jesus.

God places us where He desires us, but He doesn't just do so with us not knowing what to do.

We know what to do.

Whether you're in Live Oak, Florida or in Live Oak, Texas, which a lot of people get confused by that.

Whether you are uh just where God is, whether God is picking up your family and moving you to Ohio or you have neighbors that have just come in from New York and is setting you, sitting right beside your house, and God is calling you to go and evangelize and be his witness to them.

Either way, wherever God leads, he does so under the parameters of you remembering and knowing what he's called you to do.

Philip's not doing anything new here.

Look really quick.

He sees this Ethiopian who was in charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning, 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 heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you were reading?

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

And he invited Philip to come and sit with him.

The easiest gospel conversation invitation that anybody has ever received in history is right here.

Do you understand that you were reading about uh Jesus in Isaiah, as Isaiah the prophet is ascribing or describing Jesus and what he would come and do?

Do you understand that that is who he's talking about?

How can I?

Do you know?

Can you tell me?

Absolutely.

Philip jumps in the chariot.

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

Let's go back to Isaiah 53 earlier.

Isaiah 53, one, who has believed in what he has heard from us, and whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form of majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one unto his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and we and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shears is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

The Ethiopian that's reading this is going, Who is the writer talking about?

Is this is this me?

Like, am I the person that's that's that this is happening to?

He would go on and read, and his humiliation and justice was denied him.

He who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth.

And the eunuch said to Philip, uh, about whom I asked, does this prophet say this?

About himself or about someone else?

Is this Isaiah talking about this?

Is this someone else that he's talking about?

Is this even me?

Then Philip opened his mouth.

And beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

That's it.

Starting with this scripture, no, this is Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, who came and lived a life that you and I could not and died a death that you and I deserved on the cross.

It's probably what you heard about when you were just in Jerusalem, about this man that had just been crucified and all the great things that he had done, and people thought he was a prophet, but he was more than a prophet.

He was a king, and he was the king of kings and lord of lords that came and died so that you and I could have salvation.

Upon him was all of our iniquities and all of our transgressions, so that we could have received forgiveness of sins and grace and mercy through his name and his name alone.

It is not complicated, and it has been the same message for the last 2,000 years.

This is what you do.

You tell them what scripture says, what God has given to us in his word to unworthy sinners.

He has provided salvation to us.

And so Philip goes and he shares exactly what this man is dying to know.

If you've read the book of Acts, we see this all throughout the book of Acts as the church is on the move, as the church is moving.

You can do this in any area that you find yourself in.

Paul goes uh in Acts chapter 7.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

He he um finds himself in uh Berea and then in Thessalonica, and then he goes over to Athens.

His message is still the same, but his his tact, his his um his strategy changes because when he goes into Athens, he sees all of this wickedness around him and all of these idols.

It was said that you were easier to find an idol in Athens than you could find a person.

So many idols in Athens, and he goes, and the Bible says that he doesn't just go and go, God, I don't know why you have me here.

I don't know why you sent me to Macedonia.

I wanted to go to Asia, and so I don't know why I'm here.

So while I'm here, I'm just gonna cover my eyes and just pretend not to see all of this is going on.

No, the Bible says that Paul went to the marketplace to disagree to discuss with the people.

He went to the synagogue to discuss with the people, so much so that the people said, You're different than the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers that spew all of their things.

So we want you to come to Mars Hill, where this is supposed to be the greatest place of reason and thought, and tell us what you're saying.

And what does Paul do?

He doesn't go up and have this eloquent uh speech or anything like that.

He goes up and says, This unknown God that you worship has revealed himself.

He is known.

He is Jesus the Lord who was raised from the dead.

The environment that God sends you might be different, but but the message that he sends you with is the same.

One of my favorite parts of this passage, though, comes uh in verse 36.

Let me read it for you really quick, and I want to show you.

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?

Now, this eunuch would probably be a proselyti because he was a gentile.

Um, he was a eunuch, which would make him unclean, but he was a eunuch because he served in the court of Candace.

Now, that doesn't tell us a whole lot because every queen uh that would come into reign within that time was named Candace, and so it's just like which Candace is it?

But he's in her court and he is her treasurer, and and he has been castrated so that he wouldn't have anything to do with her or have any issues with that, according to the king.

And so he is over all of this.

He's come to Jerusalem to do whatever kind of worship he would be allowed to do as a proselytipe, and then he's on his way back down, so he would have some kind of understanding of Jewish culture, and baptism is still somewhat within Jewish culture because John the Baptist came and he offered a baptism of what?

Repentance, right?

And you see people doing that.

Well, more than likely, paired with this guy's Jewish understanding, we don't know, but Philip probably said one of the main evidences that you follow with Christ is you identify with him with his death, burial, and resurrection, and that comes through baptism.

But either way, this man sees some water and he goes, There's some 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.

Then this is where the story gets weird again.

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 own way, rejoicing.

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

Here's what I want you to see at the end of this story.

I want you to see what a joy it is to see obedience, spur on obedience.

And we can watch the domino effect.

Philip is obedient to the Lord calling to, he goes down to Gaza, or he goes down towards Gaza.

This eunuch is passing, this Ethiopian is passing by in a chariot, and the Spirit of the Lord says to Philip, Go to that chariot.

And he's obedient instantly, and he goes into the chariot, and the man says, Can you tell me what's being said?

And boom, obedience.

Philip opens his mouth, tells him all of those things.

Now, watch the next act of obedience is in the point of the Ethiopian who hears the call of salvation to repent and believe and goes, I want to do that, and I want to be baptized to confess that.

There's water, I want to be baptized now.

Obedience.

Now, Philip, after he baptizes him, the Bible just says, and the Spirit of the Lord led him away, and the Ethiopian saw him no more.

We don't know if that was instant.

We don't know if Philip just kind of like dunks him and goes, see you later and just walks off.

Like we are unsure.

But what we do know is that Philip continues in obedience to go on and preach the gospel to every town that he could until he gets to Caesarea.

But Aranius tells us this that as that Ethiopian left rejoicing, that we see in Acts chapter 37 or 39, that he goes down and he shares the same message that he heard from Philip with those in Ethiopia.

And Aranius says that he was the first missionary to Ethiopia to come down and spread the good news of the gospel, and he did so because of the obedience of one man.

You don't think God can't use your life for significant things if you just seek to and resolve to say, I'm gonna trust the Lord and be obedient to all that he's called me to do?

You don't think that God can't use ordinary people?

Remember, is Philip trained in any kind of seminary?

This call and response.

No, no.

Has Philip had had multiple years of just serving the Lord?

No.

What was Philip before this?

He was a lay deacon, he wasn't even an apostle.

Samaria, Jerusalem, Samaria, Ethiopia will forever have the work of Philip ingrained in them because he he resolved that he would be obedient to whatever God called him to do.

God's sovereign work plus man's obedience brings the touch of God to needy human lives.

Can't use it.

His sovereign work in your life to send you where he desires you to go, plus your obedience takes the gospel to people who need it.

The gospel came to you by all these different avenues that the Lord has orchestrated, going all the way back to the apostles.

The gospel came to you through all of that, but guess what?

It didn't come to you so it can stay with you.

It came with you because it was on its, it's on its way to somebody else.

The question is, are you gonna be obedient to do what God has called you to do to share that good news with a lost and dying world that needs to hear it?

God desires to you use your life, God desires to use you to serve Him and to advance His kingdom.

So here is the question that I have for you as we try to apply all of this.

Is your yes on the table for the Lord to use your life in whatever way he desires?

Is your yes on the table?

Now here's what that means.

It means just like a lifeguard.

I know what I've been trained to do, and I know what I should do, and so I will do it, and I will just wherever he tells me to go, I'm gonna go and do that.

Wherever that person is drowning, I'm jumping in.

Is your yes on the table?

Yes, Lord, I will go.

Yes, Lord, I will do.

Yes, Lord, I will serve.

If you have noticed, from every single one of our ordinary people, we see that that God brings them to a point where they submit to Him and go, I'm going to serve you with my life.

It might not look pretty, I might stumble and fall, and that yes, sometimes might really be questioned at the end of some days where it's just been tired, where it's been tiring.

But you know what?

At the end of the day, my desire is to serve the Lord wherever he sees fit.

I will go where he calls me to go, I will say what he has called me to say, and I will do what he wants me to do.

And now I will just wait on the Lord and go wherever.

There's all throughout our oceans, there's trash in it.

But but you think of driftwood.

You think of, especially where I'm from in North Carolina on the coast, a lot of things that wash up on the beach are old pieces of wood, and a lot of it is pirate ships.

Of course, Blackbeard being the famous pirate, he he he kind of went around North Carolina as well, found his end in North Carolina too.

Uh, but but you have pirate ships and all these different pieces of wood that float up.

And the the the ironic part is that wood used to be determined by a rudder and sails as to where to go, but the moment that it just got broken apart, uh it doesn't get to determine anything at that point.

It's just taken wherever the ocean takes it.

You know what I never see on a piece of driftwood?

A rudder or a sail.

I see something that the current of the ocean and where the ocean is taking it is where that piece of driftwood ends up.

So here's the question Are you ready to be like driftwood, used by God and taken wherever He desires you to go?

Are are you trying to add a little rudder and sails to your own life going, yeah, but I really want to go this direction?

God's desire for your life might look different than your desire.

Not to punish you, but to go and minister to people that that are going through the same things, that are in the same stage of life, that that that can can easily identify with you.

God's desire for your life, might look anything like you want it to, the question still is, do you desire to serve Him regardless of if it looks like something that makes sense to you?

If your yes is on the table, the question is, what will you do today to allow the Lord to begin to use you and direct you and where he wants you to go?

Now, if you're in here this morning and and you're not a follower of Jesus and you're saying, Well, I don't know what to do.

I don't even know, like I don't, I want to be used by I don't even know.

I'm still my life's a mess.

I'm still chasing after all these things that I want to bring me happiness.

I'm still I'm still running out after all these things that that haven't satisfied yet, but I think I might find something soon that will.

Let me answer the question for you.

Nothing will ever satisfy.

Nothing, nothing can can can save you, not not even your best days of trying to earn the best karma that you can.

As the Ethiopians saw, and my prayer for you to see, is that God laid the iniquity of every single person who would trust in Christ Jesus on him on the cross, and and that is the only way that you can be forgiven of sin and saved from your sin to enter a life that is filled with joy and peace like Philip's, like the eunuchs, and and a life that is then used by God to do great things for his kingdom.

If you're in here this morning, my question, if you're in here this morning and you don't know who Jesus is, my question for you is is your yes on the table?

You'll you want to know more of him.

Would you repent of sin and trust in him for salvation?

We'll have pastors up front that would love to talk with you.

If you're in here this morning and God is calling you to do something and you're afraid, you're scared, you don't know what to do, there's pastors down front that would love to talk with you.

There's room at the altar where you could come and just do that work with the Lord.

If you're serving the Lord and you're tired, there's a lot of you.

Teachers about to go back to school, you're serving the Lord in those schools, you're already tired of thinking, tired thinking about it.

There's you that serve within the church, you know where God has called you to, you know what He's called you to do, and you're just tired.

We would love to pray with you.

Love to pray with you and just encourage you.

Maybe you're in here this morning and and you're just you just can't, you just can't say yes, you just can't hit and go.

Would you just allow the Lord to work in your heart, soften your heart, to remind you of all the times in your life where he's been faithful?

And to and to give you faith to trust that he will continue to be faithful as he's calling you to this new direction.

Let's pray.