Come to the Water - Excuse the Interruption

Good morning.

If not met you, I'm Forrest Coleman, Lee Pastor here at Multiply.

Glad that you're here.

If you're new with us, welcome.

Hope you feel at home and glad you're here.

There's a connect card on the floor underneath your seat.

Would love for you to grab that, fill it out so we can get to know who you are, get connected with you.

Myself and about a hundred other people.

Just over two years ago, started the work and launched the work of Multiply Church.

And God's been doing some amazing things.

And before I jump in, I always want to give a couple of shout-outs.

One, isn't it amazing, church, that a local school, Hearn Elementary, has invited us to be a part of their back to school splash, that we get to serve them and show up, bring school supplies.

Literally an open door invitation from them to us to be a part, which is incredible.

And you're going to hear in just a few minutes about we're going to have a great Sunday next week.

It is shaping up that we're going to see 10 people be baptized next Sunday in the life of our church.

These are people who stepped up in the act of obedience.

And I'm just excited.

We're going to have a great Sunday next week where we you came in, you saw the shoes that are out there.

One of uh the local school system, Bondret Middle, they are current they're collecting and wanting to collect 500 shoes to put on kids' feet before they go back to school.

And so they've invited us into this.

And so some we we've already been able to begin, you saw today, with like 40 or 50 pairs.

And I just wonder, church, how many of the 500 could we do?

How many of the 500 could we step up and supply here locally for these kids?

And so if you are able, if you're willing, over the next week to grab a pair of shoes for a kid and bring it next Sunday, that'd be awesome.

You could drop it off here in the lobby.

You'll be hearing more about that.

But I'm I'm just so excited for what God's doing, and it's it's it's moving us into this series for the next two weeks called Come to the Water.

And the title of my message today is Excuse the Interruption.

Now, we are in, like they said, the you know, almost the end of summer.

So some of you have already already made your vacation, some of you still have your vacations, but who in the house likes a good road trip?

Yeah, you know, I like a good road trip.

I liked road trips a lot more before I had small children.

A whole lot more before I had little kids.

Because uh, if you've been in that uh place in life, you know infants, uh, if the car's not in motion, somebody is screaming.

And if the car is in motion, somebody is probably screaming.

And uh my dad life goes to the whole next level when we're taking a road trip with the kids because I'm obsessed with traffic.

Like I've gotten to that point as a dad where I'm constantly looking at the apps, like, where is it gonna?

And I don't ever want to just sit on the highway in bumper to bumper traffic in construction, just to be beaten by the sun.

Like, I want to get off the interstate, I always want to be in motion.

Any of the dads and there like that, like, or any of the industries, like, you don't want to sit in that traffic.

I do not want to sit in that traffic.

So a couple years ago, we took a family trip with the kids with Emily's family down to Hilton Head, and we got almost all the way down there, we got down to Columbia, and we're in bumper to bumper traffic.

I'm like, I'm not sitting in this traffic, I'm gonna take a shortcut, this detour.

Now, did my shortcut turn into a long cut?

Yes, it did.

Yes, it did.

And along the way, Emily was asking me, like, do you sure you know where you're going?

I know where I'm going.

I know where I'm going.

Did we show up an hour later than everybody else who sat in the traffic?

Yes, we did.

But sometimes, you know, you just gotta take the detour.

And I wonder today, I wonder, and your plans and your journey, are you open to if God wants to give you a detour today?

If God wants to speak to you, lead you, put you on a different path than what you might be planning, what you might be walking in, what you might be expecting, and they may interrupt your plans, the Lord may say, and lead you to a detour.

See, if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, there's this thing that's really hard to describe and explain, but along the way, as you're following Jesus and walking with God, there are different times when you get a little nudge from the Holy Spirit, a little nudge from the Lord, a little leading from the Lord to do something that may be a little detour for your day.

It may be that you get a nudge that you should give somebody a call who's going through a tough time.

It may be that you get a nudge when you're out that you should buy somebody's meal, or that you should say something kind to someone.

But for those who are believers and you get this nudge, it's up to us whether to be obedient or not in those times when we get the nudges, right, church?

And you don't have to be a super Christian to have what I'm talking about.

Okay?

Us as believers, we should always have our antenna up, listening for where God is leading us in our lives, even if it's changing our plans.

See, one thing I love about the people in the New Testament is they're just ordinary, everyday people serving an extraordinary God, and a lot of them had just ordinary lives and jobs.

The disciples, most of them were fishermen.

The Apostle Paul, he was a tent maker.

Lydia, she sold fine clothes like Gucci and Versace.

Matthew, he worked for the IRS and God still used him.

He was a tax collector.

And today we're going to look at a story of someone in the book of Acts.

This is one of my favorite stories in all of the book of Acts.

And it's a guy named Philip, and Philip, he worked in Food and Bev.

Anybody working in Food and Bev or have worked in Food and Bev?

Hospitality people in the room, God bless you.

Thank you for your service and what you've done.

It's tough out there in Food and Bev.

And Philip is working in Food and Bev.

See, here's kind of the backstory of Philip.

In Acts chapter 6, this is after Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, his ascension back to heaven.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Jesus promises that he's going to send the Holy Spirit to his followers.

And so in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit ascends on the people of God.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Peter preaches this amazing message.

3,000 people come to know Jesus and are saved and are baptized all in one moment, and boom, the early church has begun.

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And then fast forward the clock to Acts chapter 6, and there is something going on in the early believers, and there's a problem.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

The problem is the widows that are in the assembly and the daily distribution of food, they're not getting the food properly.

And so the disciples come together and say, We've got to choose some men.

We've got to choose some people to begin to lead this food program.

And these men should be men who are filled with the Spirit, who are full of wisdom.

And so they choose seven guys, and one of these seven guys is this guy named Philip.

And he's one of the seven.

And he becomes a waiter.

And he begins to serve and love the people of God.

He obviously is a person of high character, filled with the spirit, filled with wisdom.

And we fast forward the clock to Acts chapter 8, where we find Philip, where God interrupts his day.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Now here's what we're going to do as we go through this passage.

We're going to look at the story of Philip and we're going to put ourselves into this story.

Y'all okay with that?

And then once we go through this story, then I'm going to ask you a few questions for you to ponder.

Are you okay with that?

So what we're going to do is we're going to start Acts chapter 8, starting in verse 26, as for Philip.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

An angel of the Lord said to him, Go south down to the desert road.

It runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.

And he started out and he went, and as he went, he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandike, the queen of Ethiopia.

The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning.

Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

And the Holy Spirit said to Philip, Go over and walk along beside the carriage.

Philip ran over and he heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah.

And Philip asked, Do you understand what you're reading?

And the man replied, How can I?

Unless someone instructs me.

And then he urged Peter to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

The passage of scripture he was reading was this He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.

And as a lamb is silent before the shears, he did not open his mouth.

He was humiliated and received no justice.

Who can speak of his descendants?

For his life was taken from the earth.

Verse 34.

The eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?

And so beginning with this same scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus.

And as they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, there's some water.

Why can't I be baptized?

And he ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

Verse 39.

Then they came up out of the water, and the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch never saw him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north in the town of Azotis, and he preached the good news there in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.

So we find Philip.

We find Philip, and he's just having his normal day.

And then he gets interrupted by an angel that tells him, Go south.

He doesn't know why.

He doesn't know for what reason.

He doesn't know who he's going to meet.

He doesn't know what the purpose is of this instruction, but he doesn't.

He steps out and he follows the instructions of the angel.

And then as he goes down the road, the Holy Spirit says, Go over to that guy.

Go over to that guy.

Now, something that I try to do in my daily life and walk is to be open, to be listening, to have my antenna up when the Lord may lead me to have a conversation with somebody along the way.

I was reflecting on this last week, and I was thinking about the six different people or seven different people over this week that I got to talk with and got a nudge to talk to them and got to talk to them some about their spiritual life and also to invite them to come to church.

It's uh at Lakeview Park that happened at a restaurant at the Fuller Center home repair event that was yesterday, a K-State student.

And the way that I do that is because in my wallet here, I just keep these invite cards just stashed right in my wallet, ready to go.

And as the Lord leads me, then I can have a conversation with somebody and invite somebody.

And this is the invite that you're gonna get as you walk out the door today.

You're gonna get one of these.

This is uh invite to uh the 28th, as we have uh our back to school kickoff that we're gonna um that we're going to celebrate.

And so I encourage you to throw those into your wallet, into your purse, have them with you so that you can also know who it is that God may be leading you to share with, invite, encourage.

And so as we think about what has happened to Philip, he gets told to go this way, down this direction, on this road.

He doesn't know where he's going, doesn't know who he's gonna meet, but he is God is an antenna up and he is trying to listen and see what God is calling him to.

And in the same way, I want for all of us in the room right now to consider who is riding on your road.

Who is riding on your road?

Who are the people that are on your path day in and day out who need to be saved?

A family member?

A friend?

A co-worker?

A neighbor?

Are you open to God using you for his kingdom purposes?

Or are you so focused on yourself and the all the things that you have to accomplish and get done throughout the day that you don't have your head up with your antenna up?

Listening at the Lord may prompt you and lead you to try to speak to, encourage, talk to someone.

Now, this story needs a little bit more context.

Because we think about Philip and we hear that he's going down this road and God interrupts his day.

But just a little bit more context for you the chapter before in Acts chapter 7, one of the seven men who were chosen like Philip was a man named Stephen.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

And the chapter right before this, Stephen gets stoned to death because he believes in Jesus.

He becomes the first martyr of the faith.

And so we may just think, oh, Philip, you know, he's just a follower of Jesus.

He's just like this good guy, and God shows up and tells him to do something.

No, God is calling him to do something very dangerous.

His friend has just been killed.

The stakes are high.

And so the Holy Spirit says, go down this road, and then when the Holy Spirit tells him to start to speak to this man, this is the thing that his friend Stephen just got murdered for.

But he's listening to the voice of the Lord.

It reminds me of a time in my life a few years ago that was very instrumental in shape the way that I think about this in my life.

A few years ago, I got to go with a group of people to the country of Turkey to support a missionary who was there full-time, living full-time.

And we went to Turkey for a number of days, and our whole point of being there was just to support this missionary and to encourage him.

And we went along his path as he did all the things that he did in that southern part of Turkey, and we were meeting people, and something you need to know about Turkey is that it's 99.9% Muslim.

Every person that you see in Turkey has never seen a Bible in real life.

They have a Mercedes-bend, they have the internet, but they have never seen the Word of God.

Now, many of them have heard the name of Jesus because in Islam Jesus is mentioned to be a prophet, but then the Quran goes on to say that Jesus didn't truly die on the cross, that it was a farce, it was a fake.

And so they recognize Jesus as a prophet, but they don't know the true story of Jesus and what he's done for their lives.

To love, care, die for their sins, be resurrected from the dead, the gospel.

And so is the missionary over those few days that we were with him, as we talked with every single person and probably 50 people over the course of those few days, the missionary would begin to share the gospel with them in Turkish and begin to speak to them.

And uh, he had a little presentation that he would do and talk to them about the gospel and talk to them about Jesus, and they always had the same two responses most of the time.

The first response was, I've never heard what you have just told me before about Jesus, Isa.

And then the second thing that he would say was, I believe that that's true.

One man in particular, we found ourselves at the porch of a carpet store with a carpet store owner named Mehmet.

And we were sitting together in a big circle, and the missionary was presenting the gospel to Mehmet, and he was talking about his life, and the missionary opened up his Bible and he began to read to Mehmet these words that we just read a minute ago out of Isaiah 53.

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.

As a lamb is silent before the shears.

He did not open his mouth.

He was humiliated and received no justice.

Who can speak of his descendants before his life was taken from this earth?

And then the missionary asked Mehmet, he said, Who is this pastor speaking about?

Mehmed said, Jesus?

He said, Yes, it is.

And actually, this scripture was written a thousand years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

And in that moment, I saw a Turkish man's face go as white as a ghost.

And he received Christ as his Savior.

And then he went into his house and he pulled the Quran down off of the highest point in his house and he replaced it with the Bible that we gave him.

This very same passage, this very same scripture that this Ethiopian official is reading aloud.

Philip shows up on the scene.

My second question to you is who needs to know?

Who needs to know?

Who needs to know about the hope that you have in Christ?

That we should all be able to share about the hope that we have in Christ is what the scripture teaches us.

And in this moment, Philip gets an absolute layup.

I mean, God truly gives him a softball.

He probably walks up to the carriage and he hears him reading this passage from Isaiah, and he probably thinks, God, thank you so much.

You are making this so easy right now.

For this passage that literally speaking to Jesus Himself, it would be, just imagine with me, it would be like you showing up to Starbucks, and you're sitting in your seat, and the table next to you is somebody there reading the Bible.

And you ask them what they're reading, and they say, I don't understand it, and they're reading John 3.16.

God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

I mean, an absolute layup.

And my hope is that everyone in this room, in your walk with Jesus, would be at a place with your walk with Jesus where you could very simply be able to have, be able to explain what John 3.16 is.

So that they can understand it.

As elementary as the ABCs of salvation that we learned when we were in VBS.

One, A, admit that you're a sinner.

Admit the fact that you've sinned against God.

B, believe in Christ Jesus, that he is the Lord of your life, his death, burial, and resurrection, and C, confess your sins to him and commit to a changed life.

As simple as that is, it's my hope that each one of us in this room that you could speak that over someone or share that with someone who needs to know it.

And so maybe you need to practice a little bit.

Practice those ABCs.

Who needs to know?

There's likely somebody in your life right now who needs to know.

And if they cracked up in the scriptures and began to read, they would have no idea what they were reading or be able to understand it.

But you know.

You know.

You know what the gospel is.

The next question is this.

As the carriage is going along, and Philip is sitting in the carriage and he's explaining the good news to this Ethiopian official.

The Ethiopian says, Look! There's water! Why can't I be baptized?

Why can't I be baptized right now?

And they got down out of the chariot and he was baptized.

And I wonder today, in this room, who in this room and outside of this room is waiting on the water?

Who's waiting on the water?

Who hasn't yet been baptized as a believer?

See, we are baptized because Jesus gave us the example that we should be baptized.

Jesus himself was baptized.

We're gonna talk about that next Sunday.

Jesus himself gave us the example that we should be baptized.

In Mark 16, 16, he says for us to repent and be baptized.

There's a call on our life for us to follow in Jesus' example, for us to be baptized as a believer.

Now I know in a room this size, there are probably some people in the room that you have at some point, maybe in your early life, maybe when you were an infant, you were christened.

And that was such a beautiful moment and honor of your parents to choose for them to dedicate you to the Lord.

And now later in life, later in life, Jesus is calling for you to be baptized be baptized, baptizo, which is a Greek word that means immersed, and for you to follow in his footsteps to be baptized as a believer for your own choice, by your own choice.

Now you may be in the room and you may be one that you were baptized when you were a child, and you're wondering, Forrest, I was baptized as a child, like, but I don't know if I understood it all, and but I think that I did.

Like, do I need to be rebaptized?

And what um I want to share with you today is that if you were baptized as a child and at the point you were baptized as a child, you were saved, you would say, you know, yeah, as I was baptized as a child, I was saved, then your next step is for communion, community, and caring for others.

You don't need to get rebaptized, you don't need to get double dipped.

The scripture says there's one baptism.

But for those of you here in the room who may be rededicating yourself, Step forward in community, communion, caring for others.

See, we see what this instruction just a few chapters earlier as Peter gives this sermon to the 3,000 in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Peter says this each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

And then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Very plainly.

It is for us an act of following Jesus, his example, for us to take the step to be baptized, immersed, as Jesus gave us the example to do.

Now, thankfully, God has opened the door that even the child can understand it.

I was baptized when I was uh eight or nine years old and understood what God did, and we are supposed to come to the Lord with the faith of a child.

With the faith of a child.

And so our children who are saved and then baptized, Jesus loves it when they make the decision for themselves.

It reminds me of one of the most haunting passages in the scripture to me.

This is in James chapter 4, verse 17.

James 4:17

It says, remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not to do it.

See, Jesus asks us, he calls us, he speaks to us, he leads us, he tells us that we should repent, believe on him, and be baptized.

And we know that that's the good that we ought to do.

And if we're waiting, why wait?

Why wait?

What are you waiting on?

You're waiting for the clouds to open up, you're waiting for a sign, you're waiting for a feeling.

Here's your sign right here.

There's no reason to wait.

There's no reason to delay.

It reminds me of something that I like to do when out on my road.

And I've been doing this for a few years.

But a lot of times I like to do this, and if I get a nudge from the Holy Spirit, when I'm at a restaurant, and normally the waiter or waitress, there's always a point in the meal when the waiter or waitress comes up, the food has come out, and this happens like most of the time.

They come up to you, the foods come out, and they just kind of appear out of nowhere and they say, Is everything okay?

Is everything all right?

Did you get all your food?

And at that moment, I love to, at that moment, if it all works out together, I love to say, Hey, yeah, actually, everything's great.

Um, I would uh love to ask you, is there anything that, I'm about to pray for my meal, is there anything I could pray for you about today?

And sometimes I get blown off.

But sometimes people say, you know what, actually, um, I lost a loved one this week.

Or I'm trying to pay for college, and I would really appreciate the prayers.

Or what happened at Cracker Barrel a few months ago when the waiter said, Yeah, my car just broke down.

We prayed for God to supply for him that his car could get fixed.

And this is something that I have done over time, and I actually has inspired my mother-in-law and father-in-law, that they now do that too on occasion.

And it wasn't too long ago that they did that very thing at my father-in-law's favorite restaurant, Waffle House.

He loves Waffle House, he goes there all the time.

And my mother-in-law and my father-in-law were there at Waffle House, and their waitress came and they did the very same thing.

They asked if they could pray for her.

And she began to open up of how they could pray for her.

And they continued to go to that Waffle House, and she continued to be their waitress, and they continued to pray for her.

They even bought her a little Christmas gift.

And then there was a long stretch where they didn't go to that restaurant for very long, but they came back after quite a while, and she was still there.

And she came up to their table and she said, Do y'all remember me?

I said, Yeah, we remember you.

Remember you prayed for you so much.

She said, Hey, I want to let you know.

You're all praying for me.

It made such an impact for me.

I started going to church and I recently got baptized.

And I want to say thank you for praying for me here at this Waffle House.

She eventually ended up going on a mission trip to Africa.

Here's the thing, here's the thing, here's the thing.

We don't ever know the stakes.

We don't ever know what somebody's going through.

We don't ever know what us stepping out and giving the good news of the gospel, what God could do with it.

It's him the one that's working.

It's him the one that's that powerful.

You know a little more about this story?

This Ethiopian eunuch.

Scholars believe that this was the moment when this Ethiopian eunuch took the gospel of Jesus to Ethiopia that is still a Christian nation today.

The Coptic Church has preserved some of our earliest manuscripts of the Scripture in Ethiopia.

You don't ever know! You don't ever know.

Also, on a side note, one of my favorite parts of this scripture is at the very end, the passage says that Philip dunked him down in the water and he came back up, and the scripture says that the spirit snatched Philip away.

Now, there's a lot of theories about this, but I like the theory the most that he got teleported.

Because it says he shows up 70 miles north in the Zotus.

And wouldn't it be awesome next Sunday baptize somebody and then boom, I'm in the Bingle Stadium in Cincinnati?

Wouldn't that just be so great?

Oh, I love this.

I love this story.

It reminds me of something that one of my pastors used to say growing up, the youth pastor.

And for those that are in the room that have not yet taken the step to follow Jesus in believers' baptism.

Something that my pastor used to say to me all the time is this statement.

Delayed obedience is disobedience.

Delayed obedience is disobedience.

Now, I want to be clear.

You may be thinking right now, like, Forrest, you're really going hard on this right now.

You're trying to guilt me right now.

No, don't be confused.

I'm not guilting anybody in this place.

I'm inviting you into the good work of the good news of Jesus, to follow him, to be obedient to him, to walk with him, and then to invite others into it as well.

Because there's a lost and broken world that is in desperate need of the hope and the healing of the gospel, and whatever the woman's in carrying it on the road, and whatever the woman's got in the power, just something shaken, have a life transformed and be baptized and be saved.

You have no idea what God wants to do in and through you.

We just have to be obedient, so do not delay.

Do not delay.

Put on your mind who are some people on your road who need to know.

Maybe it's a coworker, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's a family member.

That you know that they need the good news.

They know, you know that they need to hear the testimony of what God's done in your life.

And for you to be obedient to the Lord to share.

And then I'm gonna pray for those in the room who have not taken the step of baptism, that you would step into what God wants you to do, has asked you to do, has instructed you to do.

Today I'm just giving you instructions.

So would you bow your head and pray with me now?

Father, all across this room, God.

You invite us into your plan.

God, thank you, Lord, that along our path, that God, you interrupt us, Father, that we could see you work miracles.

That just by the opening of our mouth to share the hope and the healing that we have in Christ, that God, you would you would use us that are not worthy.

We're not worthy.

But God, it's what you have done that make us worthy.

It's your death, burial on the cross, that you've given us your righteousness.

So, Father, I pray right now under the sound of my voice, Father, anybody in this room, God, who's a follower, believer of you, that God, right now, you would put in mind and heart who it is.

Who needs to know that God, that you give them the boldness.

You give them the boldness to share this very week.

Now, Lord, I want to pray over our room.

And everybody who's in here who has not yet taken the step of baptism.

They believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for their sins, that you are alive, that you are the savior of the world.

And Father, they've not taken the step to follow your example, Jesus, but today is their day to make the decision to not wait any longer, but to be baptized, maybe even next week.

So, Father, I pray all around across the room right now for anybody in this place who needs to make the decision to be baptized, that today they would make that decision in front of you, for you.

And so, right now, if you're in this place and you know that that is your step, you need to take the step of baptism.

What I'm gonna do is to ask you is a an action before the Lord, a confirmation of that decision that I'm gonna ask you just to raise your hand up right here.

I see you.

Anybody else?

Anybody else?

Anybody else who needs to be baptized?

Thank you, sister.

Right here?

Yep, I see you right here too.

In the front, love it.

Anybody else?

Father, I thank you, Lord.

That in this place, God, that you're drawing near to us and drawing hearts.

Father, I pray right now, Lord, for those that need to take the step to be baptized.

That God, you would give them the courage, the boldness, Father, to not let the enemy get in their way, not let the enemy try to distract them.

But instead, Father, that this decision they're making today, Father, that you would help them, Father, Lord, to take it.

They've got to be a sign and a symbol of their dedication to you, their salvation on this earth.

But we thank you, God, for your mighty hand.

You're working among us.

In Jesus' name.

Everybody said, Amen.

Hey, if you made that decision today to be baptized, I'd love for you to grab that card that's on the floor in front of you, fill it out for me.

Check the box that says baptism.

If you didn't raise your hand, but you know that that's your step that you need to take, grab that card and fill it out.

I'm gonna invite you to stand to your feet now.

Church, let's all worship and sing together.