The Cycle of Being Used by God | Acts 8:26-40

Welcome to the family from the way of your feet.

Good morning, everybody.

Our scripture reading today comes from Acts 8, verse 26 up to 40.

Acts 8:26

Praise Christ for the reading of the word.

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go towards the south, to the road that goes to the e to 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, a queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge 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 in his chariot.

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, guides, guides me?

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

Now the passage of the scripture was reading, he was reading was this.

So he opened his mouth, and he's humiliated.

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?

Then Philip opened his mouth and began with the scripture he taught.

And 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.

And Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him.

And when they came up to the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more.

And went away rejoicing.

But Philip found himself at Azotas, and he passed through the priest, and he preached the gospel of all three towns until he came to Caesarea.

Here goes the reading of the way.

Amen.

Feel free to take a seat.

Good morning, everybody.

I'm the youth pastor here at The Way Church.

And so, since I'm preaching, that means that our lead pastor is not here.

So Zach Schimmer is our lead pastor here at The Way Church.

And he has a really cool opportunity this morning.

So he's speaking at a church called Knoll Avenue, and it's on Nall Avenue.

And so this church is a church that we've began to partner with very recently.

So Pastor Seth is over there, and they are a church that we're beginning to partner with, and he him and his wife have been coming to our recovery nights, which happen once every month.

So a little plug for our recovery nights, the first Friday of every month.

But Pastor Seth and his wife, and they bring a group of people to come, and so they begin to partner with us in that way.

But kind of a really cool story before we begin.

And so, within unison of Zach, Ashton, myself, Chels, all having this conversation, Pastor Seth found Zach at a coffee shop.

Pastor Zach was having a conversation with someone else.

Seth comes up to him and is like, oh, so you're you're you're a Christian?

Are you a pastor?

I was overhearing your conversation.

And so they got to talking, and Pastor Seth is wanting to lead out on this 100 days of 24-7 prayer to start the new year.

Media team, if you have the slide, could you put that slide up just when you get a second?

And so this is this is something that we want to partner with beginning uh the new year, and we'll roll out all the information.

This is kind of the first time that we're talking about this.

But I wanted to mention this because Pastor Zach is preaching at their church today to help set the vision for their church, and we'll be we'll be coming alongside of them to pray 24-7 for 100 days to start the new year.

And so just keep that on your radar as we continue to roll out information.

Um but since he's there, I'm here, and we're gonna have a great time.

We had a busy week this week, and so there's a couple things that I want to applaud.

Number one, as you can tell, we have a Christmas tree up, and we have lights and garland and a whole bit.

So give a hand to everyone who helped out on Tuesday.

Yeah.

Uh it would be too many people to name, but there were so many people that came out on Tuesday and did an incredible job with all of the lights, all the garland, all of the things.

So it was great.

And then next, this is something else that you guys need to give yourself a hand for.

This last Friday and Saturday, we gave out our Thanksgiving boxes.

And so we've been announcing this for a couple of um weeks prior, and you guys showed out uh in an overwhelming way.

I was um astounded by how much food you guys actually brought.

And so we were able to hand out 18 turkeys and Thanksgiving boxes to families this weekend.

So give yourselves a hand uh for coming through on that.

That was, I honestly was blown away.

I mean, we were talking, I was like, I don't think um I've seen us come together in that way um quite yet as a church.

And so it was an amazing testimony of you guys as a community caring about our our students and our families that go to Frank Rushton.

So good job on you.

Let's pray and then we can get started today.

Jesus, we thank you for today uh the opportunity to come here, to come to church, to gather together as the saints, as believers in you.

Lord, as as we do this, as we we take the step of faith of coming to church on Sunday, Lord, you respond by meeting us, and you care so much about what we're doing here today.

It's so much more than sometimes what we make of it, and you care so deeply.

And so, Holy Spirit, I just ask that you would meet us, that you would come and minister to our hearts.

Uh we need you, Lord, and all the the various hurts and um heartbrokenness and pain that we we uh uh create a mask to hide behind, but we're we're dealing with even though we come.

Lord, I just ask that you would um come and that you would minister to everyone here, and that you would uh just begin to uh continue doing a work in people's lives as we read your word and as we gather together.

Jesus, we love you and we thank you for who you are.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Well, if you've been coming to church for the last couple of months, we have been in a series in the book of Acts, and it has been an incredible time.

If you're new with us, uh we're a church plant, we we planted last Easter, and so we've been going for about a year and a half, and it's been an incredible experience.

But we exist to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together, and so the book of Acts is something that is in unison with that and in a line with that um very closely.

And so we'll be picking up in that sermon series in Acts will be in Acts 8.

But just a note, uh, this will be our last week in Acts for the rest of the year because we'll be beginning an Advent series uh for the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas.

Jevan knew Christmas was coming, we all knew Christmas was coming, um, and so we're looking forward to that.

But this is an amazing time to start because a man that you may or may not have heard of, Saul, appears in the next chapter, and and uh Ashton told me not to spoil what happens next.

So if you want to know and look ahead, you can always read your own Bible.

But um we'll be stopping today in the end of chapter 8, and that's what Dolly so graciously read to us, um, verses 26 through 40.

And so what I want us to talk about and what we're continuing in is a story with with a guy named Philip.

So, Philip, we see a couple chapters before this, and he is named one of these seven men that we now name uh called deacons, and one of them was Stephen.

And so if you've read the book of Acts, or if you remember a couple weeks ago, Stephen was the first church martyr.

And so Stephen was faithful to preach God's word to the point of death.

Well, Philip also served within the same job, within the same calling as what Stephen did.

And so last week we talked about this guy named Philip.

And Philip was responsible by the grace of God to go to Samaria, which were the group of people that there was racial divide, there was economic divide, there was a lot of hate and animosity between these two groups of people, the Samaritans and the Jews.

And so, by God's grace, he used Philip to see a revival happen in Samaria.

And so the spirit broke out and people's lives were changed in a moment because Philip was obedient to do what God called him to do, even in Samaria, which would have been impossible to the Jews at the time.

And so we pick up this story and we pick up with this guy named Philip.

And what we all we know about Philip is that he's a good man, that he that he is faithful in everything that he does, and that he said yes to the call of God when he asked him to go do something.

And so we're picking up there, and and the I think the crux or the big idea of what we're talking about today is what what I'm calling the cycle of being used by God.

You and I, as if we're if we love the Lord, then we should have this innate desire to be used by him.

That our Christianity is not just a passive lifestyle that we you know we put on our Facebook page, but that it's something that we're partnering with God to accomplish his purposes, his plans, and his goals on the earth.

And so what we're what we're gonna be talking about by using this story with Philip is that is what I'm calling the cycle of being used by God.

And so the first thing that we see in this story, and we'll we'll break this down, is the first step in this cycle is what's called obedience.

You guys have heard this word.

Um if you're me, what you've heard is stop being disobedient.

Um, but there is a positive to that as well, it's obedience.

And we see just in verse 26 and 27.

So I'm gonna read that again.

So verse 26 of chapter 8.

Now the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is the desert.

So he, being Philip, arose and went.

And we'll stop there and we'll pick up in a second.

So, a couple things that I want us to pull out from what we talked about last week is we saw that because Philip showed up in Samaria, God used him, and revival was seen.

True Old Testament, not Old Testament, sorry, New Testament revival happened at the hand of Philip because God gave him the power to do so.

And so where he's at, he's having booming success in every metric of the word.

People are coming to faith.

People's lives are changed.

Even the people that, there's no way that person would come to know the Lord.

And they are, because Philip was faithful to be where he was at.

And even still, God says this to Philip.

He says, Arise and go.

He says, Arise and go.

And so God understands the context.

I mean, God's the one that brought Philip to where he was before, and still, even in the midst of this revival and the success, God tells him to arise and go.

And so Philip, it doesn't, it doesn't talk about this, but he had some options.

If he were to stay where he was at, I bet he could continue to have fruitful ministry where he was at, because the Lord was moving there.

But instead, what we see is what Philip does is he arose and went.

And some context is to be had here because where God was telling Philip to go was far, far, far, far, far away.

And so it says here that he wants him to go on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, and I looked it up, but it is important to note that he is actually in Samaria.

So he's even farther away from Jerusalem, which is far away from Gaza.

And so from where he's at in Samaria, if you were to take this road from Jerusalem to Gaza, it would be 84 miles approximately.

And obviously he didn't have a car, and he wasn't rich, so he didn't have a chariot or a donkey, and so he is having to walk this 84 miles.

And he knows this when God tells him where to go.

He knows how far this is going to be.

And it still says that Philip arose and went.

He arose and went.

And what's omitted from this, from what God tells him to do, is why are you having me go?

God's not telling Philip to go here, to do this, to meet this person.

He doesn't know the rest of the story.

He's where we're at in the story right here.

Where he's at, he's having success.

And God tells him to go a long distance of approximately 84 miles on foot without any context.

And he just says, get up and move.

And so this is a picture of true obedience by Philip.

And we'll see what happens because of the act of Philip's obedience.

We see how God uses that.

And I think what's interesting as I was thinking about this is a lot of times the way that we see obedience can be a bit skewed.

I was thinking about it and I was like, how do I see obedience?

And the first thing that came to my mind was I had a dog growing up, and we got her at two years old.

Her name was Macy.

And so since we got her when she was two years old, she was a bad dog.

She she, the owner, the previous owner uh didn't take great care of her, and so we we got her, and so she was a very bad dog.

I mean, she was a big dog, boxer, greyhound mix, so she could jump, and she would jump on people, and she hated guys especially, and so she would just, if the door was open, she'd dart out after guys.

And so this dog, I mean, she she was a bad dog.

But what she hated was water, which is you know strange for some dogs, but she hated water.

And so what we would do is anytime she would run or jump on somebody or bark when she wasn't supposed to, she would jump over the couches because she was a greyhound, so she could jump a mile.

We would spray her with this little water bottle, and then she would react and she wouldn't do the thing that she was supposed to not supposed to do anymore.

And so I think sometimes we see uh obedience in this way where we're living our life and doing our thing, and then God sprays us with a water bottle, and we're like, okay, let me just get back in line with what you want.

And then we kind of get off and get sprayed with a water bottle and come back.

But I actually think obedience is a lot more like music.

So I I obviously I played drums today, I've played drums for uh around 15 years.

Um and so drumming is a part of my life.

But as you progress and learn something new and go along in life, the hope is, and especially if you're a drummer, is that you get better.

Now I'm not as good as I should be for playing for 15 years, and I know that's what you guys are thinking, but just give me a break, okay?

But one one thing that that you're so the it's kind of the threshold, or should be, a threshold from if you're a beginner drummer to being more of an amateur drummer, is this idea of um oh my gosh, I lost the word.

4-4.

Uh time measures.

What am I yeah, time signatures, sorry.

Obviously, I haven't learned this well enough, so so so there's there's a couple of different uh time signatures, and it's important that you play in the right time signature if you are a drummer.

I mean, if you're the the whole band, it's very important.

If you're the drummer, it's like the most important thing that you do.

And so there's a couple of different time signatures, and uh there's actually quite a few, but the most common ones would be one, four, four.

So four, four is one, two, three, four.

Everybody.

One, two, three, four.

Okay, so that's four, four.

Another common one is is six, eight.

We played six, eight today for gratitude.

So six, eight is one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three.

Okay, everybody.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

So these may not seem all that different, but I'm telling you that they are vastly, vastly different.

And it is the utmost importance that you play correctly and you have different beats according to which time signature that you're playing in.

So, if you are to play, and I've done this once, there's a time signature called 3-4, and before I learned how to play 3-4, I was, yeah, she knows.

Before I played in this ever, I was just thrown up on stage and they said, Let's play this song.

And I didn't know it was in 3-4, I didn't know how to play in 3-4, and let me tell you, it was awful.

I mean, it was so, so, so bad.

Everyone's looking at me like, what are you doing?

And it was not in front of a small group of people, it was in front of a big group of people.

And, you know, it was that afterwards, it was that thing where people were you did a really bad job but they don't tell you, so they just don't talk to you.

That's what happened.

So I knew I did bad because nobody like cracked a joke with me afterwards.

So it's it is important that you play in the right time signature, and if you play the wrong B in the wrong time signature, then you're a bad drummer, just plain and simple.

And so I actually think obedience is a lot more similar, obedience to God is a lot more similar to that than it is with a spray bottleneck and dog.

Because God's way, if we're obedient to what God wants us to do, then we're going to be a good drummer.

God's way is the best way.

And when he calls us to do something, it is what's best for our life.

A good example of this is worship.

A lot of times worship can seem like God commands us to worship, and he's some egotistical God that is separated from us and tells us that you're supposed to worship, and so because he's worthy of it, we worship him.

And part of that is true, and by the way, if that is who God is, then he would deserve it.

He would he would be worth that.

But God commands us to worship not just because it, you know, builds up his ego, but because he knows that if we worship him, then we are going to become more like him, that we're gonna look more like him, that our life is going to be a picture of his life, and that he created us to worship something.

And so no matter what, you walked in here worshiping something.

Now, some of you maybe it's Patrick Mahomes, and I don't mean to pry on, you know, a sensitive part of your life, yeah.

I'm kidding.

But maybe, maybe not.

But everybody worships something because we're designed by God to worship something.

And so God telling us to worship him is not just because he's far away and wants our praise, but he but it's because he knows that it's gonna change our life and we're gonna look more like him.

And so obedience to God is not just because he wants to rule over us with a heavy hand.

But obedience to God is because he wants us to bring us into a life that he's called us to, and that life is better than what we could ever have imagined.

Now, granted, it's not gonna be perfect, and um, don't hear me wrong, where it, you know, as you go away from here, the expectation is that you should have all the money that you want and nothing should ever be hard again.

But regardless of if it is hard, God's way is still the best way.

And being obedient to God was even better than where he was.

And where he was was pretty gosh darn good.

And so as we continue, the next step of this cycle is what I'm calling the cycle of being used by God, is discipleship.

So we're gonna read a small chunk here, and it's it's verses 28 and 35.

So Dolly already read this, but we're gonna read it again.

And I'm preaching from the New King James Version, this is in the ESV, so there are reference, it's no problem at all.

So, verse 28.

So the Ethiopian was returning from Jerusalem.

I didn't read that part.

So 27.

And behold, a man from Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge over all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning.

And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Then the spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot.

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said to him, Do you understand what you are reading?

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

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

And the place in the scripture which he read was this He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer.

Is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

In his humiliation, his justice was taken away, and who will declare his generation?

For his life is taken from the earth.

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this?

Of himself or of some other man?

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at the scripture, preached Jesus to him.

I mean, what an amazing, amazing story here of Philip.

So God calls Philip to go, and he's walking along this road that's approximately 84 miles long before he reaches Gaza, and he has no idea who he's supposed to talk to.

He has no idea what he's supposed to do, but he's just walking.

He's just going, he's just doing what the lap the last thing that God told him to do.

And then all of a sudden, the Spirit prompts him and says, Go talk to that guy.

And this guy was a eunuch, and he was someone of great power.

So obviously we know what a eunuch was, was a castrated man, and so it that's something that's demasculating to us, but in their culture, being a eunuch was also demasculating, but they were people of great power.

Because you could trust a eunuch around your the prince or the sorry, the princess or the queen, the women that were in power, because they had no throes of the flesh or anything like that.

So you could trust a eunuch to uh protect the women that were important to you.

And so this man is of great power, and he's coming back from Jerusalem where he was worshiping, and he's reading.

And so we see here, there's obviously two people in this story, and when it comes to discipleship, I think we can relate to actually both people in the story.

It might seem plain to us that we could relate to Philip, but I think we could also relate to the eunuch here.

And the point is, is because any type of spiritual formation or discipleship or learning to love God more, it takes humility.

There has to be humility on the inside of us in order for us to receive anything from God, or for us to have any sort of spiritual formation.

And so we see here of the eunuch, specifically in verse 31, and this is just amazes me, this man of great power would say this in verse 31, and he said, How can I unless someone guides me?

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

And so if if if you're if you're here and um you aren't sure what to do, what's the Lord calling you to do, or where are you at in this cycle?

Well, we know from the Bible that we are called to discipleship.

We are called to make disciples, and in the same sense, we are called to be discipled.

I remember when um I was around 19 years old, my brother got married, and at his wedding, the officiant shared the testimony of how he had been a part of my sister-in-law and brother's relationship since the beginning.

How he had saw them before they were dating, he saw them when they were dating, saw them when they were engaged, and now he saw them get married.

And he was able to testify to the to the amazing things that God had done in their life.

And in that moment, I felt convicted by the Lord and jealous for that kind of discipleship, for someone to be in my life before, while I was in a relationship, and then once I got married.

And so I remember from that point on I began to pray and ask the Lord for this kind of discipleship.

And really cool story that wouldn't take too long to share.

But I tried out a couple guys, you know, I was like, would go out to coffee with guys, and and for whatever reason, there was just never one that clicked.

And then all of a sudden, the Lord dropped a man named Marvin into my life, and Marvin walked with me through some of the darkest points in my life, some of them, some of the high points in my life.

He saw Ashton and I start dating, get engaged, and he was at our wedding, um, and he saw us get married, and he would be able to share the same testimony of what the Lord did in my life.

But the Lord, by the grace of God, had to humble me in order to say, I need someone to walk me through life because I'm messing it up on my own.

I mean, I was a 19-year-old kid, I was messing up my life.

And so to be discipled, which everyone in this room, regardless of age, regardless of merit, regardless of what you've done in your life or how much you know about the Bible, you are called to be discipled.

And just like this eunuch, this should be our response.

Now, it shouldn't just be anybody, and you should you shouldn't just go to someone you don't know or have a good relationship with and ask to be discipled by them.

But there should be no excuse that you don't have someone in your life to walk through life with, someone that you're looking up to, that that that you enjoy them and like where they're at in life, and you say, that's somewhere that I want to be.

So, regardless of where you are, just like the eunuch, we should have this humility to be able to say, I can't do this on my own.

I don't know everything.

I might know a lot about the Bible, I certainly don't know all of it.

And there's someone out there that knows better than me.

And so then obviously the other person in the story is Philip.

And we see here that Philip's the one that walks the eunuch through the gospel and through the reading of the word.

And so obviously, he's the one that's discipling the eunuch in this story.

But I want us to move uh away from Acts for a second.

And it's a verse that that complements verse 31.

So verse 31 once again says, and he said, How can I unless someone guides me?

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

Because you guys don't have to turn here and it won't be on the screen, so just listen to me.

I didn't tell Madeline she's gonna be mad at me because I didn't tell her that I was going here.

But Romans 10, verse 14, says this and how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

Romans 10:14

So it's talking about unbelievers here.

And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

And so I see these passages to be happening, uh, they seem to be saying a similar thing.

Here it's it's the eunuch showing the humility to say, I need help, I need someone to guide me through this.

And then we see in Romans this seeming call to be the ones that are walking with people to lead people to Jesus, to show people the truth of the gospel, and we see that Philip is the one that does this here.

And so we're called, you and I, to make disciples.

And what does that mean?

Obviously, it means that that you and I should be walking people to Jesus, showing them Jesus, pointing them at Jesus.

But also, and this is something that I think as as the American church, there can sometimes be a disconnect here.

And it's and it's this this idea that that my spiritual formation, me bettering myself, is really just for my own good.

It's really just so that I'm a better Christian at the end of the day, and that when I you know when I get to heaven, I get your good and faithful servant.

Now, obviously that's true, and we should be living a life and should be searching after spiritual formation for the sake of those reasons.

But also, the Bible's very clear that our spiritual formation should also be to bring other people along with us.

People that are not on the same level as us, people who maybe are misfortunate or don't have the same things as us, or people who don't understand God's word and and the revelation of his word has not has not come to them, and so we're also called to these people.

And so just just to challenge you challenge yourself right here, and and ask yourself, if if someone was reading, this is um Isaiah 53, if someone was reading Isaiah 53, could you tell the gospel message from Isaiah 53?

If if that's what someone was reading and then said, I don't I don't know the gospel, can you teach it from me?

Well, that's a question to ask yourself.

Would I be able to do this?

Now, obviously, there's no shame or guilt, and that's not why I'm here to shame you for not knowing something.

Obviously, that's not what we want.

But you should challenge yourself and ask yourself that.

And so the question is, are you regularly reading your word?

Are you regularly in prayer?

Does your life look like the life that God has called us to live?

And if not, then maybe you aren't being useful to disciple other people.

Because the Lord has called you to do certain things, you're neglecting those things.

And so there's people that need us, believers, who are going to stand firm on the gospel and stand firm on God's word to bring other people along.

And this is why this is why I love youth ministry, and it's a privilege of mine that I get to be the youth pastor here at this church.

Because obviously it's important for me, like I've said, to have someone discipling me, but it's also important for us to be discipling people.

And there's there's this idea with high schoolers and middle schoolers, where every single one of us in this room, no matter what, were that age once.

And maybe some of you didn't finish high school or whatever, you were at least at that age.

You know what it was like to be a boy or a girl that likes another boy or a girl.

You know what it's like to have pimples on your face and to feel insecure and to not to be funny, and then the moment you make someone laugh, you try again, and then no one thinks you're funny again, and it's like, how is how did that happen?

I was just funny 30 seconds ago.

So we've all we've all been there.

I mean, we have all been that age, and so no matter what, no matter what you are doing now in life, you have been there.

You know what these kids are going through.

And and in some ways, we can even imagine how much harder it is for kids now than maybe you were that age, with social media and phones and just the prevailing culture that is that is um spreading darkness uh to these kids.

And so that's why I love youth ministry so much, is because no matter what, I can at least relate to these kids and remember, oh my gosh, when I was a 14-year-old kid, I was a little numb school.

I was like, there is no way that I was doing life correctly.

And so to have the privilege to be able to be in youth ministry and to walk with these kids through some of the hardest years of my life is such a privilege.

And it's such an easy way and a simple way for me to help disciple these kids.

Not only with what we're preaching in youth, but also by the way that we have fun.

And and by the way that my life might look, by the way that I love my wife at Youth Group.

They're looking at all of these things, and I get the opportunity to shine that light to them.

And so, what is that in your life?

Maybe it's work, maybe it's while you're volunteering in the kids' ministry, maybe it's with your family, but it's important for us to recognize that am I the person that this person should be looking to to be discipled towards Christ?

That's number one.

But then number two, am I being proactive to live my life a certain way, to love the person next to me, to love my wife, to love my husband according to the way that the Lord calls me to, so that when other people see my life, it's pointing to Christ.

And so if we're called to be discipled and we're called to disciple, then it's important that we watch ourselves and we watch ourselves carefully according to God's word.

And we take a look at our life, and and you guys know what goes on on the inside of you.

You know the deepest, darkest thoughts that you have.

And we all have them.

I mean, I I am not uh you know saying that I don't have them either.

I have my moments, I sin, there's there's darkness that's on the inside of me that I need the light of the gospel to shine on.

So we're all there.

So you know, and you know the way that you sinned right before you walked into church today.

But that that that does not have to matter.

If we look at our life, we repent for those things, and we decide to point our life towards Christ, other people are watching.

This is one of my favorite stories to tell, and I've told it in youth a couple times.

I don't know if any of the youth now would know the story, but some of the older ones would.

So there was this man, a guy, his name, his name's Colby, and he was uh a senior on my football team in high school, and he was the best leader on our on our team.

We all looked to Colby for everything.

And he told a story once of when he was floating the Boise River.

So, sorry, I grew up in Boise, Idaho, and one thing that we would do regularly is float the river.

And so he was floating the river, and while he was doing that, a middle school kid that goes to the same school as him came up to him and was like, Oh my gosh, you're Colby Steiner, and like give him a fist pump.

It was just so hyped to see him, and it was just a small, uh, short interaction.

But what Colby realized that day is that no matter where he was, someone was watching him.

That this middle schooler who just recognized him, if Colby was uh, you know, to be underage drinking or smoking or cussing or inappropriately joking with his friends in that moment, that kid would have seen someone that he looks up to and Colby would have been an example that he didn't want to be.

And so we need to recognize that as well is that discipleship begins on the inside of us, but we should also be living a life that is pointing towards Christ.

We should know our word so that when someone asks, who is this Jesus, that we can point to the word and say, This is who he is.

That when someone has their Bible open to Isaiah 53, we should say, Well, this is the gospel story from this point that you're at.

That's what we're called to do, and that's what Philip did here.

And that brings us to our third point.

And it's it's what I'm titling the the harvest, the the fruit of the situation.

This is the the third step in, like I said, what I'm calling the cycle of being used by God.

It's this idea of the harvest.

And so let's read, uh, starting in verse 36, and we'll go through the end of the chapter.

And it says in verse 36, now they, being Philip and the eunuch, went down the road and they came to some water.

And the eunuch said, See, here is water.

What hinders me from being baptized?

Let me stop there and just make a point, just a quick point here.

So, verse 37, some of you have might have your Bibles, and you might have a verse 37 in here.

Uh, some of you just have a verse 36 and a verse 38.

So just look and get your Bibles, you'll recognize.

So, verse 37 wasn't in the original written manuscripts, but it was added later.

Okay?

So I'm gonna read verse 37, it's not gonna be up on the screens.

So recognize that this is not like uh to disprove that the Bible is a legitimate document.

Um, at some point in Christian history, someone thought it was important to add this, but it's also important that we make the note that this wasn't in the original manuscripts.

Okay?

It doesn't change the story, it doesn't change our theology, um, but it's important for us to note that.

So I'm gonna read verse 37, and then the the screens will pick up at verse 38.

So, verse 37 says, Then Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may uh be water baptized.

And he and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Verse 38.

And he commanded the chariot to stand still.

And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

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

So Philip was found at Azatos, and passing through he preached in all of the cities till he came to Samaria.

And so we see here the fruit of Philip's labor.

So Philip is obedient to God and walks along the road, sees this guy, meets this guy for the first time.

This guy is in the book of Isaiah, reading Isaiah 53.

Philip is obedient to the Spirit to go walk this man through the scripture, and then we see the harvest, the fruit of what Philip was looking for.

We see that this man recognizes that what Philip says is true and wants to make the change.

He wants to not live his life the way that he was, but live his life according to the truth.

And he sees a body of water and he says, I want to be water baptized.

And so we see here that Philip experienced the harvest of his labor.

But it's important for us just as an application point.

If we are desiring to be used by God, and we are taking these steps, we're being obedient to God, and and you know, every step along the way that we're saying yes to what God has for us, we're being discipled and we're discipling somebody.

Well, sometimes, and if if you've done it long enough, you'll recognize that sometimes things don't change.

Sometimes you'll walk with someone for so long and it doesn't seem like anything's changing.

It doesn't seem like their life is any different.

It doesn't seem like the words that you're saying are making any change in their life.

Or maybe you've been praying for somebody for many years and it doesn't seem like anything's changed.

And I just want to encourage you that our success isn't only contingent, our success on being used by God is not only contingent upon seeing the harvest, seeing the fruit of our labor.

It talks about this in Hebrews that many of the fathers of our faith, Abraham and Moses, that these people never actually saw the fullness of what God promised them in their lifetime.

And so there are ways that you are being faithful to God and answering the call of God, and you might not see the change.

You may pass away before the change happens.

You may be out of that person's life and have no idea that your part to play actually made a difference.

So what I want us to recognize here is that it's actually the Lord that brings the harvest.

It is up to him in his timing.

The change comes when he says, and we see in the word that he's called the Lord of the harvest.

And the Bible says to pray to the Lord of the harvest.

And that he's the one that brings the change.

He's the one that makes things happen.

And so don't let it discourage you if you aren't seeing the effects of what you're doing, and you aren't seeing the life change right in front of you.

Keep going, keep being obedient, keep discipling, keep being used by God, and don't use the only metrics of success as that's receiving the harvest of your labor.

And here we see that Philip did.

But I just don't want us to be discouraged from doing all that God has us to do because we lose hope.

This last Thursday, we um had a conference.

So there the SEN Network is the network that we exist under as a church planning, as a church plant.

So it's the SEN network, and there it's a bunch of church planners.

And so we went to this this conference, and and in the morning, the session, the guy that he preached on was pray out of your mind prayers.

And the idea was that there are these prayers that seem foolish in our own minds or foolish from the outside that we would even keep praying.

Like there's no way that guy would change, there's no way that that situation would change, there's no way that God could actually do that.

And sometimes we have that unbelief.

But the the encouragement there was to keep praying out of your mind prayers.

And I and I was convicted of this.

Uh my my grandmother recently was in the hospital and we had a scare and she had a heart heart issue.

And so there was about a week there where we we were like, she's she's gonna pass away, and so we're prepared for we're preparing for that and everything.

But it's important to note that both sides of my grandparents don't know the Lord.

So my mom's uh dad and stepmom, and my stepmom was the one that was having the heart issues.

They don't they don't know the Lord.

And on my dad's side, my grandma on my dad's side doesn't know the Lord.

And those are people that when I was younger and you know, much fuller of in faith, I was praying for them regularly.

I just remember being a kid, and anytime I think about it, I'd be like, Lord, I pray for grandma Dana and uh save her.

You know, it was when I was five and six or whatever, but it was important to me that I prayed for these people because my heart ached that they didn't know the Lord.

And as I've gotten older, they are the people, unfortunately, that I have said there's no way that they could be saved.

I have prayed for so long and I've seen them do so much bad that there's no way that they could be saved.

And so I was convicted with this idea that I stopped praying for these people and I stopped even relating in some ways because I thought it was hopeless.

And so maybe you have someone like that in your life that you've been walking with and that you've been supporting, that you've been praying with, and I just want to encourage you don't stop.

Don't stop.

And I will, in front of you guys, uh admit, and you can keep me accountable, that I will not stop praying for my grandparents to come to know the Lord, because it's important that they come to know Jesus, and Jesus wants to know them.

And there's people like that in your own life as well.

And so what going back to the story, what we see here is that the gospel, when the gospel is shared, what it should do is that it should evoke a response.

Now, if if we're if we are preaching the true gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ in his word, then a response should be evoked, and sometimes it's not always a positive response.

I don't know if you guys have ever shared the gospel and and someone automatically just hates you for it.

The fact that you even mention the name Jesus or say that you go to church.

Those people exist as well.

But if you're living out according to what the gospel says and are really changed on the inside of you, and you are sharing the gospel with people, there will be a response, whether positive or negative.

And we see here that the eunuch is the one that initiated that response.

He's like, There's water right there.

I want to be water baptized.

And that brings us to another.

Another point that we see here in this story is that Philip, while he's telling the story of the gospel, it's not just you need to receive Jesus.

And then they pray a prayer and he walks away.

But that there was this act of faith that we see that's called water baptism.

And I just want to take a take a second on this.

Because uh you guys may or may not know this, but we we're part of the Southern Baptist Convention, so inside of the name of uh who we're affiliated with is the name Baptist, is the word baptism.

So obviously that's something that's very important.

Now, I I believe that that um that water baptism is not necessary for the regeneration of your spirit.

Now, this is a conversation that we can have, um, and I'm more than welcome to have this conversation if you disagree with me.

Don't turn your ears off quite yet.

Okay.

But what I believe is that water baptism isn't the necessary point to where, unless you're water baptized, then you don't have the spiritual regeneration, or you aren't a Christian, or you aren't a believer, or you aren't following Jesus.

Okay?

But what I will say is that water baptism should be the first priority of a new believer.

And here's why.

Here's why Philip, in his gospel message, pointed to water baptism.

Because water baptism is not supposed to just be for me, just like we're talking about.

Spiritual transformation is not just for our own good.

But water baptism is a moment, a declaration of who God is in a moment, and when you come out of that water, what you're saying is that you are being held accountable from the person that is watching you get water baptized, that you actually have your life changed, that on the inside of you, you are no longer the old creature, but you are a new creature under God.

And so what you're doing in front of everybody is you're making that declaration and you're inviting all of them into a moment where you're saying, This is what I believe.

And there is spiritual significance that God considers from being water baptized.

And so if you um have been saved and you've never been water baptized, then I just want to encourage you to take that first step.

We would love to do that here.

But don't just let water baptism be something that that is a cultural thing.

Something that that some churches do and some churches don't.

And it's not just for you, but it's also for the the body of believers to come together to celebrate this decision that you've made and to help keep you accountable according to the decision that you're making.

And so we see this beautiful story of Philip.

And and as Philip's story continues, we only see Philip one more time, and it's when Paul, spoilers, his name used to be Saul, he's not Paul, many chapters later in Acts, and we see Philip show up again.

And so this is about the end of this guy's story.

But what we can see today is that he models perfectly the Great Commission.

In the Great Commission, we see the word go, go.

And it's our job to be obedient to that go.

And it says to make disciples, and all and to everyone and all the world, everywhere that you go.

And so we're called to make disciples.

And when we're doing when we do that, when we're obedient, there will be a harvest, there will be change life change.

If you stick to it long enough, you will see life change.

And it's not the point, it's not why we do it, we do it because God commands us to do it.

But it is there, and he does promise it, and God is faithful to come through on that.

And so where you're at, where you came in today, with with all the things that you're experiencing, I don't know where you find yourself on on what I'm calling the cycle of being used by God.

Is it are you struggling with this obedience piece that that God has asked you to arise and go and and you have not arose and went yet?

Are you stuck with where you're at?

Because where you're at seems comfortable.

It seems like you're being used enough to your comfort level.

And is God asking you to do more, or is ask is God asking you to do something else than what you're doing?

And up to this point you just haven't done it.

Maybe that's you.

Or maybe you you're you recognize that you don't have anyone discipling you, that you don't know everything and you want to know more, and and maybe there's someone that you look up to, and someone that that you would say, if if that if I could look like that person's life, then I would be successful.

Then go and ask that person.

Humble yourself.

Like we like I said, it's humility is the first step to any kind of spiritual formation.

So I'd encourage all of us to have someone that is there that we're looking towards to make us look more and more like Christ.

Or maybe you don't have anybody that you're intentionally discipling.

And I don't I don't think that after this you need to go up to River and say, River, I'm discipling you.

You don't don't you don't need to do that.

That's a little awkward.

And then if River doesn't, you say you're not humble enough and you walk away.

That's let's not do that.

But consider it and pray about it.

Is is there someone in your life that you know looks up to you, or maybe it's a family member, or or maybe it's a volunteering in our kids' men or in our youth bin, whatever it is, is there someone that is looking at your life and you're discipling on a regular basis that you are living and walking arms with to see the fullness of what God has for?

Maybe that's you.

Or maybe you're struggling, and like I mentioned, you've been faithful to what God has has called you to do, but you aren't seeing any change.

And you just keep praying and you keep going, but nothing changes, and you're feeling dejected, or you you don't know if if you should keep going, you're feeling hopeless.

And I just want to encourage you by saying God is so, so, so faithful.

And using the example of my my family, whether or not I believe that they can change, God is after their heart so much more than I ever could be.

God wants them to come to know him so much more than I ever could.

And he's offered this opportunity for me to take part in that harvest by the use of me praying for them, by the use of me having a relationship with them, being around them, not being shy about talking about my life, that I work at a church, that my whole life is made up of church.

These are small things that I can do to just keep going, to just keep praying, to just keep being obedient.

And so, Ashton, come on up and I want to do something, and it's a little different, um, but I think it's I think it's important.

And so obviously, within this story, we see um Isaiah 53 being said.

And if you've never read Isaiah 53, what I want us to do is I want us to read it today.

Um what I want us to do is is not only just read it, but if you would, in a moment, close your eyes and just picture who Jesus is and finding Jesus in this passage because it's a beautiful passage, and it's imperative that we know who this Jesus is, that we're being called to disciple other people into, or we're being called to live by.

So I didn't save this in my Bible, so give me a second.

But I want us to read this chapter and just consider the the prophetic message that we're supposed to get out of this.

So I'm gonna read this, and and if you wouldn't mind with me participating and just and just closing your eyes and picturing this Jesus as I read this.

And if if if you're prompted, just ask the Lord to show him to to you, to show himself to you, to reveal himself from this passage to you.

So Isaiah 53.

Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground, and he has no form or comliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised, and we did not esteem him.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation?

For he was cut off from the land of the living.

For the transgressions of my people he was stricken.

And they and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief.

When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressions, or sorry, the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Lord, we just pray today, God.

We thank you for the message of your gospel, the truth of your gospel, the revelation that you came as a man, died on the cross, and rose again on the third day.

For the sake of sinners, wretched humans who do nothing but spit in your face, and yet you still went to the cross and suffered greatly for our sake.

And God, we thank you for that.

And Lord, we thank you for commissioning us, for using us, for being faithful to partner with us in ministry.

And Lord, we ask that we could be found faithful in your eyes.

Lord, I ask that you would convict us of our disobedience, that you would convict us of our pride, that you would call us higher to accomplish all that you have for us, for your sake, for your glory.

And Lord, we just ask for those people in our lives, for those situations that we've prayed for, that we've seemingly gave everything to.

And Lord, we just ask once again that you would bring the harvest, that you would bring the change, that we could see the fruit in our lifetime.

But if we don't, Lord, we vow to continue to be faithful to you despite our surroundings, despite what goes on around us.

Jesus, we love you, we thank you for who you are.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for listening.

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in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City.

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