Desert Directions - Tim Timberlake

Hey, I'm Tim Timmerlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church podcast.

I hope this message encouraged you, strengthened your faith, and gave you something you can carry into your week.

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Thanks again for being with us.

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Y'all ready to get the work?

Let's get the work done.

Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Beginning at verse 26, I'm going to be reading from the ESV translation.

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

This is a desert place.

And he rose and went.

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 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.

I want to utilize these verses for our subject matter today, entitled Desert Directions.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We ask that you would speak to us today.

We thank you for your presence.

We thank you for your power.

But most importantly, we just thank you for being you.

Thank you for being God in our lives.

Thank you for covering us and keeping us and lifting us and protecting us.

Where would we be without you?

So right now in Jesus' name, we give you all of the glory, we give you all of the honor, we give you all of the praise.

It is in your name we pray the name that is above every other name, the name of Jesus the Christ again.

And if you're glad he's still alive and well seated on the throne, come on for the next 30 seconds.

Amen.

You can take your seat.

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

This is a desert place.

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

He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot.

He was reading the prophet Isaiah, and the spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot.

As I read this text in my studying, I was reminded that oftentimes God does his deepest work when we obey directions that don't look like destinations.

God does some of his deepest work when we obey what he's asked us to be obedient in, even when it doesn't look like destiny.

God does his greatest work in our lives outside of the plans and the schedules and the mood boards and the dream walls that we have planned.

And he infuses what I would define as a divine disruption in our lives.

In Proverbs, it says that you may make your plans, but in the end, God will prevail.

Philip, he is in the middle of Samaria, experiencing revival, and he's seeing people turn to Jesus.

He's seeing people paralyzed receive healing and wholeness.

He's seeing the lost be found.

He's seeing all out Maham in the best way possible happening in the body of Christ.

And God plucks him out of this moment and sends him into the desert.

As we'll continue to read, God gives him a command without instructions.

God gives him a command without a blueprint.

God disrupts him in a moment that many would define as a God-given moment, and God tells him to leave where you are to a place that I will tell you.

And so often we get so comfortable in the movements of God that we no longer hear the voice of God.

Philip has been preaching in this text in Samaria.

Crowds are listening, miracles are happening, unclean spirits are leaving.

And Luke literally says there was much rejoicing in that city.

Philip is in the middle of what we would define as an all-out revival.

Then God tells him to leave, not for another city, not for a bigger crowd, not for a better platform, not for more money, not for popularity, not for influence.

God tells him to leave for a desert road.

Here's my question for us.

If God was to tell us to leave the comforts of blessing for the desert, would we?

Easy for us to answer.

Yes now, we're sitting in an air-conditioned room.

Haze still in the air from the smoke machine.

Sitting beside people that we know, and for some of us, people that we love.

But what if God told you, I'm sending you to a place you do not know, to a road you are unfamiliar with, and there won't be anyone there when you arrive.

I'm stripping you away from the comforts of convenience.

And I want you to go to a place, a desert place.

And this word translated desert can carry the idea of a wilderness or desolate place.

Luke phrases this in both a parenthetical and geographic observation.

There is even a translation question around the Greek phrase in verse 26 that allows us to get a glimpse into Luke's demeanor as he's writing this because he gives us the description, this desert road was heading towards the south.

Luke wants us to feel the strangeness of this assignment.

God plucking Philip out of what would be defined as a movement by the Holy Spirit and positions him on the road with no one to be seen in the middle of the desert.

As we look at this text, Philip is being moved from visible fruit to apparently an empty road.

Scripture says he obeys.

And he meets an Ethiopian.

And this passage, most likely, this Ethiopian is from the ancient kingdom of Nubia.

And Luke gives us language when he says he is the treasurer of the queen of Candace.

Now, Candace is not her name, Candace is her royal title.

And they would utilize this name for uh women that were queen of queens in the area of Cushite.

Queen of Queens or Queen of Mothers.

And rather just calling her by her name, the word of God calls her by her title, which gives us the evidence to understand that this Ethiopian eunuch was pretty important if he was in a chariot, if he was over the treasury, if he was on the road by himself, and he was reading from the book of Isaiah, which means he had an education.

The Bible gives us even further description in calling him a eunuch.

Now, a eunuch is a male that has been castrated.

The reason he has been castrated is because kings in authority did not want there to be any entanglement with any of the women in the royal palace.

If you don't know what an entanglement is, just Google it.

It would be too much power to have control over the treasury, to be educated, and have access to the women in the palace.

Can I get a good amen?

So, in order to negate those things from happening, they would castrate the men who were educated and had authority and authorization to the resources of the treasury.

He was wealthy, he was educated, he was powerful.

So he was not just any ordinary man.

He was trusted with the royal treasury.

And the fact that he's possessing Isaiah suggests that he had a significant education to be able to afford an entire book.

Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 1, it placed restrictions on a eunuch's participation and education in Israel's assembly, while Isaiah 56 later holds a prophetic promise of belonging and enduring to those that were faithful eunuchs, which gives us a bird's eye view into why this eunuch is possessing the book of Isaiah in the first place.

Deuteronomy 23:1

Because the book of Isaiah, it gave eunuchs freedom, it gave them language, it helped them to understand their life and the promise and the prophetic declaration that God has made over them.

Therefore, he's reading an instruction manual as to what he is supposed to do and who he is supposed to become and how his life is supposed to be walked out.

And as he's reading this, he has questions.

He has money, but he has questions.

He has position, but he has questions.

He has access to royalty, but he has questions.

Which allows us to know just because you have the word in your hand does not mean you know who Jesus is.

He has a scroll in his hand, but he still needs someone to show him Jesus.

And God pulls Philip out from the crowd because one confused man on a road in the middle of a desert reminds us that God finds the one that is in search for him.

God will leave the 99 to pursue the woman that's hungry and thirsty and desperate for him.

Didn't God find you?

Didn't he seek you out?

Didn't he search for you when you were lost and did not want to be found?

Didn't he pull you and pluck you out of obscurity and place you on the path of righteousness, even though that path was a path in the middle of a desert?

You think that everybody has abandoned and forsaken you?

No, no, maybe it's the fact that God has plucked you out of the place where you are comfortable around people and place you on the path of righteousness in the middle of a desert so that you could not depend on any other voice except for his.

But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip.

Philip did not leave Samaria because revival had ended.

He left because God spoke.

This is difficult for us to wrap our minds around because we often assume success is permission for us to stay.

I'm experiencing success in this area of my life, so this must mean God desires for me to stay.

No, it may mean that God is changing your season and wants to test your ability to steward what does not look like success.

Because some of us have fine idols in our success, forgetting that God is the one who blessed the work of our hands in the first place.

Here Philipp is being called away from success to a desert road, and most of us would hear the voice of God and say, I bind you in the name of Jesus.

God surely would not call me out of the air conditioning and put me on a desert road.

Surely God would not call me out of my new job that I just got promoted in.

Surely God is the one who opened this door for me.

Maybe God didn't open the door that you are in right now.

Maybe God told you not to go through that door and you did it anyway, and you found success there, and that success is distracting you from the thing God desires for you to be focused on.

And so God will absolutely touch that success until that success is no longer success.

That success becomes stress.

Just because the door is bigger does not mean the door is gone.

Sometimes God will, in fact, point you to a smaller door, but you keep your peace.

Sometimes God points you to a smaller door, but you keep your joy.

Sometimes God points you to a smaller door, but you don't get bitter and resentful and become an angry and terrible person.

Maybe the door you're walking through is not as big as the door you dreamed of and envisioned, but you keep your integrity and your godly character intact, and you don't turn into the person the enemy wants you to turn into.

Sometimes success becomes a prison that God has to break us out of.

Philip could have easily said, I'm gonna stay because God is moving here.

People need me here.

The numbers of the church are growing.

Things are great.

Revival is breaking out.

More people than we've ever seen come to know Jesus.

I'm gonna stay here a little while.

And God sends the angel of the Lord and says, Go.

God sends him from a city full of people to a road with apparently nobody on it.

And when I read this, God dropped this revelation in my spirit.

Sometimes you have to trust the voice of God more than you trust the evidence of God.

Philip had to trust the voice of God because he's singing the evidence of God.

Why would God tell me to leave what he is blessing?

Because God wants you to know that the blessing is not predicated upon you being there.

See, some of us like to believe this is happening because I'm here.

Oh, God is using me in a great and mighty way.

I can't leave.

And God is gonna say, take your hands off of it.

Walk away from it.

God, where do you want me to go?

To a bigger place?

No, to a smaller place.

God, where do you want me to go?

To a mountaintop?

No, to a valley.

God, what breakthrough?

What promotion?

What elevation am I walking into now?

Maybe you're walking into a greater season of humility.

God, if you leave me, I'll follow.

Come with me to the desert.

Surely that can't be God.

Surely God will never tell me to leave the place of comfort and convenience so that I could encounter him and be used by him for the life of someone else.

I want you to write this down.

This is this is gonna step on your toes, but it's gonna be alright.

I promise you.

Number one.

Sometimes the hardest place to leave is the last place God used you.

Oh, God is blessing me in this area.

And God is saying, okay, I'm done.

And no God, I still see the fruit.

I still feel good there.

I still feel the hair on the back of my neck raised when I go there.

Leave.

Go to where I'm sending you.

Surely that can't be God.

Sometimes the hardest place to leave is the place God used you.

And some of you are calling it faithfulness, but God is calling it fear of leaving what finally made you feel important.

Some of you got your identity there, and God is saying leave.

Some of you like to be recognized for the season that you are in, and God is saying leave.

Some of you love the label that people have stamped on you because of the season that God is telling you to leave out of, and you found comfort, you found identity, you found community in these things.

And God is saying, Listen, I want you to be separate, I want you to be set apart, I want you to be peculiar.

I I'm gonna name you, I'm gonna label you, I'm gonna position you, I'm gonna set you up for a win, but it's not gonna seem like a win right now because oftentimes in the kingdom of God, when you're winning, it seems like you're losing when in fact you're actually winning.

And and and and when you really think about it, God doesn't add up.

Because his addition always starts with subtraction.

His word says, I'm gonna take you from faith to faith and glory to glory.

Okay, God, I'm ready for more.

Let me strip this away from you first.

Okay, God, I'm ready for increase, I'm ready for promotion.

Let me remove you out of this circle of friends.

God, I'm lonely.

That's exactly what I want you to be for a season.

So you don't depend on them, you don't depend on that, you depend on me.

And when you get what you need from me, I'll give you directions for who I want you to be surrounded by and where I want you to go and what I'm sending you.

It may not look popular, it may not look convenient, it may not be comfortable, but you'll find my voice there, and you'll find my presence there, and you'll find me there, and when you find me there, you'll have all that you have need of.

Somebody shout desert directions.

God is not obligated to keep breathing on something just because you built your identity around it.

You keep telling people about what you used to do and how well you used to do it.

And God called you out of that season so that you could be focused on the season that you're in right here, right now.

Be honest, you're a little frustrated with God.

You're a little angry with them.

Because you thought you deserved the former season.

You walked, you worked hard for that season.

I can hear you in the sea in the spirit.

I busted my butt to get in that season.

And you made that season an idol.

God placed his hand.

Come with me.

Have you ever been in a good season?

And it abruptly comes to an end, and you find yourself in a different season, and you ask God the question, why am I here?

Why am I here?

Why what is the purpose of me being here?

Has God ever sent you to a place and you did not know where you were going or why you were going there?

And then you came across somebody and it made sense?

The Holy Spirit has told me, I want you to do A, B, and C.

And I get there and I'm just waiting, I'm like, okay, God, what what am I here for?

What are we doing?

It's hot.

I'm hungry.

I'm tired.

You you beyond tired, you tired.

T I D E, tired.

What am I doing here?

And then all of a sudden you come across the person that God sent you there for.

And you say to yourself, now it makes sense.

I can't tell you how many times God has instructed me to go to a place and I get there confused.

And then quickly realize it was life or death for the person God sent me for.

What would happen if I was not obedient?

What would happen if I didn't leave my place of comfort and convenience to go into the desert?

I would have missed an opportunity to be obedient to God, to help someone else connect with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that's where we find this eunuch.

This eunuch has the word, but he has questions.

He has success, but he has questions.

He has wealth, but he has questions.

But the thing that I love about him is he sticks with reading the word of God.

He kept studying the word of God.

He stayed in the word of God, even with his questions and his concerns and the things he could not quite understand by himself.

And I truly believe that as he was in search for a blessing, as he was in search for knowledge, as he was in search for understanding, God not only had in his desire and mind to bless him, but he had in his desire in mind to change Philip.

What I see happening today is a change of a guard and leadership in the body of Christ.

And the reason I believe this is happening is because some ministries, some pastors, they love yesterday's oil more than today's instructions.

And great things were happening.

And the oil of yesterday cannot sustain you for today.

God calls Philip out of this incredible move.

Sends him to the desert.

And when I read this, I asked myself the question, would I go if God told me to go?

It's easy for us to immediately react to yes.

When you account for the weight of responsibility, that yes gets a lot slower in response.

I was convicted and challenged.

Philip teaches us that obedience is not simply going when you are uncomfortable.

Obedience is going when things are going well and God still tells you to go.

It's a completely different level of obedience to leave after fruit.

And if God sent Philip to the desert, it is to teach him something, and if God is teaching Philip something through the desert, then he is teaching us something through the desert.

I just want to give you a few observations as to what God taught me through this text.

The desert taught Philip that obedience doesn't always look like advancement.

He left the city in revival for a role with no crowd.

What I've learned about God is sometimes God shrinks the audience to enlarge the assignment.

Maybe you need to pull away for a season.

Get by yourself so that you can hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit to tell you who you are instead of taking on the fake and false identity that everybody in your circle has been telling you you are.

What looks empty to you may already be encountering and occupied by your purpose.

The desert taught Philip is that God will interrupt success for significance.

Look at me, successful people.

That's everybody.

Look at me.

God will interrupt your success for significance.

To help you redefine what success is.

Some of you define success by how much is in your bank account, how much you're trading, how much stocks you got, what house you got, what car you got.

God does not define success as those things.

God defines success by how many people you're helping to connect to Him.

So you are a millionaire.

Whoop-de-doo.

How does it help the body of Christ?

How is it advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Are you stewarding God's money to expose other people like Philip did with the eunuch to the knowledge, the understanding, the wisdom, and the revelation of God's word?

If you're not, then guess what?

All that money you have earned will be left here in the earth.

You and your fancy black card can't swipe it to get into the gates of heaven.

And hear me, I'm not saying wealth is wrong.

I pray everybody is blessed.

What I am saying is if you idolize wealth and disobedience over being obedient to God.

If you think more about the amount than how God desires to use it, then money has become an idol.

And God will in fact interrupt success for significance.

Some of you want a successful life, but not a significant life.

And you define success as 6'5, athletic, and God is like, but significance is 5'10.

Maybe a little pudgy.

Y'all ain't talking to me, it's okay.

Maybe you define success.

Coke bottle shape, long hair.

God defines significance as a little different.

And you're walking past significance in pursuit of success.

And you're being disobedient to the person that God has made for you.

And you've been walking past them, and you've been coming to the altar.

God, I'm just waking up on my blue thing, I'm just waking up on my good thing, and God is saying the significant person that I made for you is right on the second row, and you keep walking past him because you're in search of your little dream board.

God will interrupt what you define as success for significance.

And I wonder, is there anyone that is willing to sacrifice success for kingdom significance?

What did the desert teach Philip?

That clarity often comes after movement.

The angel said, Go.

God often gives direction in installments because full instructions would make faith unnecessary.

Some of you are praying and fasting for a five-year plan, and God is like, No, I'm gonna give you a today plan.

This is the day that I have made.

And you got a choice.

You can choose to be glad in it, or you can choose to be selfish, or you can choose to want more, you can choose to look over today into tomorrow.

But I'm encouraging you, pay attention to today because there's a blessing in today.

And some of us are not focused on today because we're so concerned about tomorrow and next week and next month and all these different things.

And God will teach you in the desert that clarity often comes after movement.

The desert taught Philip that isolation is sometimes divine positioning.

God will, in fact, empty a room because your next assignment requires you to hear a whisper.

And some of you are in environments that are too loud to hear from God.

You're in too many conversations, in too many chats, and too many Facebook groups.

God is calling you to the desert so that you can actually hear him, discover who he is, not just what he can do for you, but who he actually is.

The desert taught Philip that the wilderness can be somebody else's doorway to Jesus.

Philip's inconvenient road became the eunuch's conversion road.

The place you would have avoided may be the place someone else meets Jesus because you showed up.

The angel gave him the road, the spirit gave him the chariot, the scripture gave him the conversation, and Jesus gave Philip the message.

Look at what happens when God plucks Philip out of a movement and places him in the middle of a desert.

Someone else understands, knows, comes into a relationship with Jesus Christ because of his obedience, which tells us stop demanding the whole map when God has already given you the next move.

Some of you want the map, you want the GPS coordinates, and God is saying, just take the first step.

When you take the first step, just take the second step.

When you take the second step, just take the third step.

I'm leading you, I'm guiding you, I'll give you directions on a need-to-know basis.

I'm not gonna show you the whole picture, but I will give you pieces to the puzzle, and when you put the piece to the puzzle, after you know it, the picture will be complete because you were obedient.

Acts chapter 8, verse 27.

Acts 8:27

So he got ready and went.

So he got ready and went.

No committee, no confirmation tour, no ten prophetic words, no prophetic conference, no revival breaking out to confirm what God had already told him.

He received the word of the Lord from the angel of the Lord, and he got his stuff, and he did exactly what the angel of the Lord told him to do.

No fleece, no argument.

God spoke.

Philip moved, which teaches us a valuable, valuable, valuable order.

Instruction, obedience, encounter.

Let me repeat it for the people in the back.

Instruction, obedience, encounter, instruction, obedience, encounter.

See, we want encounter.

Then we'll obey.

And because we're obeying, we think then we'll follow the instructions.

No, no, instruction, obedience, then encounter.

That is the order of the Lord, that is the order of the blessing of the Lord, that is the order of the breakthrough of the Lord.

Instruction, obedience, encounter.

Philip doesn't meet the eunuch and then understand why God sent him.

Philip obeys God before he understands why God sent him.

This is where many of us get stuck.

We want revelation before relocation.

Reveal yourself to us, God, and we'll relocate.

And God is saying, just go and I'll reveal myself to you.

Was it not God that was a pillar of fire at night for the children of Israel and a cloud by day?

But God in the middle of the desert.

Yes, but I'll provide all that you have need of.

Was it not God that provided manna on a daily basis?

But God in the middle of the desert.

Yes, but I am God, and I'm gonna provide all that you have need of.

Was it not God who provided for you when you thought that you were going to make it?

When you instruct and you obey, He then sends an encounter.

You want God to show us the person, the opportunity, the outcome, and the testimony, then we'll go.

But Philip went towards an empty road.

Philip moved towards the desert.

He moved towards a dry place, a desolate place, a seemingly dead place.

And that's where he was obedient to the instruction that God gave him.

And when he was obedient to the instruction God gave him, God gave him a supernatural encounter.

Which teaches us a valuable lesson.

Point number two.

God will often hide the reason until you obey the instruction.

You keep asking God to show you what's next while ignoring the last thing he told you to do.

What I have to come to the understanding of is that God does not owe my curiosity an explanation before obedience gives him my yes.

God does not owe you an explanation.

He does not owe your curiosity an explanation.

He just tells you, be obedient and I will provide.

They're just waiting on you to walk far enough to be seen.

Keep going.

Keep walking, keep being obedient, keep moving in the direction of the leading of the Holy Spirit and watch how He provides for you.

Some of us are calling it discernment, and it's not discernment.

You're just stalling until you feel good enough to obey.

You ain't gonna like me.

I don't care.

I'm just I'm waiting on the Lord.

Oh, I'm just waiting on the Lord.

I'm just gonna pray and fast.

And God ain't asking you to fast, He's just asking you to be obedient.

I'm just gonna wait to hear from God.

Have you opened this?

Because He's already said it.

When's the last time you just sat down and searched this for the answer?

Pastor, I need to hear the audible voice of God.

Doesn't the word of God say in the beginning was the word?

And the word was, and the word was with God.

So you're looking for a word, but you're not looking in the word.

Make it make sense.

And you can wait your entire life on a word and miss the word of God because you're too stubborn to open the Bible and search it out for yourself.

The eunuch had questions, but he had the word.

He had concerns, but he stayed in the word.

He did not know everything, but he stayed in the word.

Can you stay in the word when you don't know which way to turn?

If you need the whole plan before you obey God, you don't trust God, you trust your plans.

Acts chapter 8, verse 28.

Acts 8:28

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

This verse is loaded.

He's returning home.

He's been to Jerusalem to worship.

Now he's going back to the place that God brought him from and he's reading Isaiah.

Consider this tension.

Consider this.

He's been around religion, he has visited the holy city, he has gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he still has questions.

He has the text, but he still has questions.

He doesn't yet understand the truth, but the text is pointing him in a direction.

This eunuch proves something uncomfortable to us.

You can be close to sacred things and still be confused about Jesus.

You can own the scroll and still miss the Savior.

You can attempt worship and still travel home wondering.

You can know the language of faith and still not know what any of it means.

And yet I love this man.

Because though he does not understand, he keeps reading.

He doesn't throw Isaiah away because Isaiah is difficult to understand.

He stays in the text.

There's a hunger in this man.

There's a thirst in this man.

There's a desperation in this man that confusion cannot kill.

Point number three.

Confusion isn't the enemy of faith.

Sometimes apathy is.

Anybody that makes you believe they know it all, don't know a thing.

Any pastor that says, I got all the answers.

Run.

He's a cult leader.

Been pastoring 22 years and I have questions.

I have concerns that I won't get the answers to in this life, but I trust God with them.

And I don't take those questions and concerns to people and try to get the answers from them.

I take them to God and I wait patiently on his response.

And if he tells me to wait, then I'll wait the rest of my life to get the answer to the questions that I have.

And if he does not answer them, so be it.

Well done.

We have to stop making excuses in the places we are not patient enough to wait.

The most dangerous person in church isn't the one with questions.

The most dangerous person in church is the one who stopped asking because they're too busy pretending they know it all.

I'm so tired of fake and phony people.

You've been in church for 30 years, but you're still a spiritual toddler.

How?

Because you've been around the things of God, but you have not invited him into the secret parts of your life.

And you can play church all you want to, it still will not allow you to inherit the kingdom of God.

And some of us know church more than we know the kingdom.

You can highlight every verse in your little Bible and still leave Jesus unrecognized.

Because we're so prideful.

We can't acknowledge, I don't know.

One of the most freeing things as a pastor to tell somebody, I don't know.

I am not Google.

I can't just recall things that you want me to recall when you want me to recall them.

What verses from I don't know.

What is the Lord saying to you about me?

I don't know.

I am not a slot machine.

I do not pick out prophecies because you want to know what they like.

People coming to me.

What is God telling you about me?

Stay planted in the house of God.

Stay faithful, stay loyal, stay consistent, stay out of that person's bed.

Be loyal to your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Because familiarity with scripture is not the same as surrender to what God has spoken.

The eunuch is confused, but he's reading.

He's uncertain, but he's reading.

He has questions, but he's reading.

And maybe maturity isn't always understanding everything.

Maybe maturity is sometimes understanding I don't understand, and I'm okay not understanding.

I'm still in search for the answers because I know the person that does understand.

Acts chapter 8, verse 29 says, Then the spirit said to Philip, Go up and join this chariot.

Acts 8:29

This is my favorite verse that we've read so far because the angel got Philip to the robe, but the spirit gets Philip to the person.

The angel of the Lord tells him to go, but the spirit of the Lord tells him where he's going.

The first instruction was geographical, the second instruction was relational.

Look at what he says: go near to the cherubim.

Philip doesn't know this man, he has no idea who this man is.

And when he begins to engage with this man, this man has questions and concerns about the scripture.

And the Greek word for join here, it carries a sense of joining closely, attaching, or clinging.

And the instruction is not merely notice the chariot and notice the eunuch.

The instruction was to join them.

Philip is directed, hear me, to get near and connected to the person that had questions.

This is where the church gets uncomfortable.

Because we love preaching at chariots, and we love preaching to people who know less than we do.

But we don't like walking with them.

And we'll post about chariots and we'll post about people and we'll criticize the chariots and we'll criticize people and we'll build conferences around tearing chariots down.

But the spirit told Philip, get close.

Get close to the person that's fallen.

Get close to the person that has questions about Jesus.

Get close to the person who does not walk the same way you walk, talk the same way you talk, do the same things that you do.

Get close to the person.

It's crazy how we think we can disciple someone that we despise.

And we become the judge, the executioner, the warden.

And God is saying, I just dealt with you this morning on the very same thing you were judging them about.

How does that work in my kingdom?

Remove the law from your before you talk about the speck in somebody else's.

Philip could not hear what the man was reading from a distance.

He had to get close enough to hear his confusion.

This is one of the greatest New Testament descriptions of evangelism that we have.

He was not screaming from a distance.

He got proximity.

Not assuming that this eunuch understood what he was reading.

He listened.

And he did not treat people like a project.

This is my little project I'm helping.

I'm just I'm on a journey with them.

No, no, that's a person that has a soul.

That is a person in search for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And they may not meet them if you treat them wrongly.

Philip gives us a blueprint.

He gets close enough to hear his questions.

Point number four is this.

Ah, this is good.

God will not use you to heal what you refuse to get close enough to hear.

The church has mastered rebuking people from a distance.

Maybe they don't need you to raise your voice.

Maybe they need you to decrease the distance between you and them.

But we don't want to do that because then we'll be associated.

We'll be seen with them.

Isn't the goal to be seen with your brothers and sisters in eternity?

If your holiness requires you to be avoiding every broken person, then it doesn't look much like Jesus, I tell you that.

If your relationship with Jesus requires you to be distant from people who don't talk the same as you do and walk the same as you do, it doesn't look like Jesus.

One of the greatest misconceptions is that Jesus hung with sinners.

We say that.

Jesus hung with sinners.

No, he didn't.

Sinners hung with Jesus.

But it gives us a glimpse into who Jesus actually was that sinners wanted to be around him.

Catch this.

How loving was Jesus that people who did not yet believe in him wanted to be around him.

How loving was Jesus that he could see a woman caught in the very act of adultery, place her behind him, draw in the sand and say, He or she without sin cast the first stone.

How loving and grace-giving was Jesus that sinners that did not know him wanted to be around him.

He was Jesus.

And if you say you follow him, then I encourage you to reflect him.

You cannot disciple people you secretly despise.

God will in fact call you to close the gap of distance, to increase the intimity of relationship with him in someone else.

Look at this.

The chariot was moving.

The man was reading scripture.

He had been to Jerusalem worshiping.

He was seeking, he had questions.

And God plucked Philip out of revival in Samaria, placed him on a desert road so that he could provide the solutions for the things this eunuch had need of.

That is the providence of God.

I love this because Luke gives us such incredible descriptions.

He's in a chariot.

And the chariot could carry him, but it could not clarify Christ to him.

And some of you, you're utilizing different vehicles to make you feel a certain type of way.

And it is not clarifying Christ for you.

It is not until you ask the right questions that you will arrive at the right answers.

Philip leaves a revival for a road, a crowd for a chariot, public miracles for a private conversation.

And here's what wrecks me about this text.

Philip didn't even know the man's name.

He didn't even know where this man came from.

He was just operating in obedience.

Luke never gives us his name, Luke never tells us his entire name, Luke never tells us his age.

But look at this.

Although we do not know his name, heaven knew his location.

God knew exactly where to find him.

Just like he knew exactly where to find you.

Aren't you glad God didn't leave you where he found you?

Aren't you glad that God did not leave you where he found you?

Aren't you so thankful that he met you, that he lifted you, that he carried you, that he covered you, that he protected you, that he kept you when you cannot keep your mind in perfect peace.

He kept your mind in perfect peace when it has stayed on him.

Although you may think nobody knows my name, heaven knows your location.

And the word of God says that he'll never leave you, nor will he forsake you.

He'll be with you until the very end of all time.

God knew what road he was on, God knew what he was reading, God knew what he did not understand.

God knew when the chariot would pass, and God knew exactly which disciple was available enough to sin to give clarity to the questions that he had.

The question isn't whether God is still speaking, the question is whether he can still interrupt your life to speak to you.

And some of you want God to speak, but you don't want him to interrupt you.

Some of you want God to move, but you don't want him to interrupt you.

Some of you want God to fix it, but you don't want God to interrupt you.

Some of you want to be healed, but you don't want God to interrupt you.

You want God to do what you want him to do on your timeline, and God does not work that way.

God will, in fact, interrupt you.

He will pick you out of what seemingly looks like blessing and place you in obscurity on a road that's a desert and tell you keep walking.

Go until I tell you to stop.

But God, why am I here?

Keep moving.

God, what does it you want me to do?

Keep putting one foot in something in front of the other.

God, what is their name?

It does not matter.

Will you be obedient to the assignment without being attached to the outcome?

The question isn't whether God is still speaking, the question is whether He can still interrupt you.

Some of us are so scheduled, so branded, so posh and polished, so perfect, so churched, that we're not even living.

So busy, so successful, so affluent, so influential, that even if the angel said go, we have to check our calendars to see if we can.

I don't know if I can go today, God.

I'm busy.

And for some of you, maybe it's not go.

Maybe it's just stay throughout service.

Maybe it's just stay put until the benediction.

Because offering is not the benediction.

I don't know if you know that or not.

We're so busy that if the angel said go, we have to check our calendars to see if it fits within our pre-scheduled plans.

But Philip he got up and he went, he got to the road and he continued to walk in obedience until God met him.

Obedience met hunger, availability met confusion, a disciple met a man in a chariot, and Jesus was about to be revealed.

I love this because it tells me that God is still looking for people who don't need to know why before they say yes.

Will you say yes?

God is still looking for people who don't need to know why before they say yes.

Will you say yes?

Will it be your testimony that you went anyway?

God, it's inconvenient, but I'm gonna go anyway.

God, I know it's gonna cost me, but I'm gonna go anyway.

God, I know it's gonna be lonely, but I'm gonna go anyway.

God, I don't know nobody there, but I'm gonna go anyway.

God, it's hot out there, but I'm gonna go anyway.

God, I know I'm gonna be dehydrated, but I'm gonna go anyway.

God, I know I'm gonna be isolated, but I'm gonna go anyway.

God, I won't be able to find it as successful, but I'm gonna go anyway.

Do I have anybody listening to me because the mind made up?

I am gonna be obedient to the word of God, and I am going to go anyway.

No crowd, I'm going anyway.

No explanation, I'm going anyway.

No evidence, I'm going anyway.

Nothing about the road looks like revival, but I am going to go anyway.

Nothing looks familiar, but I'm gonna go anyway.

Because some miracles only make sense after you arrive.

Some of you you think you're lost.

No, no, no, you're not lost.

You're being sent.

You're not lost, you're sent.

God knows exactly where you need, and he knows exactly how to find you.

The eunuch unnamed on a desert road, far from home, confused, but heaven had its coordinates.

And you can be lost to everybody else and still be located by God.

And I know some of you feel overlooked, you feel not seen, you feel abandoned, you feel like you're in the wilderness, you feel like you're in a desert place, but just because you are in a foreign place does not mean you're in a forgotten place.

And no one may know your name, but heaven has your location.

So stay put in the desert long enough to get direction from God.

Because God has a plan for your life.

I said, God has a plan for your life.

He knows what you need before you know you even have a need.

He knows where you're going before you even realize you're on the road going somewhere.

He knows what he desires to do for you before you even know who he is.

God has a place for you, and in the desert you will find direction.

Keep walking.

Keep walking.

If you keep walking in obedience, he'll be with you every step of the way.

I know it's inconvenient, I know it's costly, I know it's hot, I know you feel like everything that you love has been stripped away from you, but I'm telling you, he's with you, and if he's with you, who could be against you?

And like the eunuch, you're in the middle of the desert.

Hold on to the word of God.

Hold on to the word of God.

When you're in search for the answers, hold on to the word of God.

When you need a touch from heaven, hold on to the word of God.

When you need God to speak to you, hold on to the word of God because there's directions that are given in the middle of the desert.

Hold on to the word of God.

God is not left you, He is leading you.

God has not abandoned you, He has isolated you so that you can actually know that He is God, and beside Him there is no one else.

God knows where to find you.

And I'm so glad that He didn't leave me.

I'm so glad He didn't leave you.

I know He carried you, He picked you up, placed your feet on the path of righteousness for His name's sake, gave you a new name, told you to go.

Will you surrender your will for His?

Will you surrender your way for His?

Will you surrender your desires for His desires?

Will you surrender your wants for His wants?

Will you surrender?

Will you give Him your complete and total yes?

Yes to your will Yes to your way Yes to your wants Yes to your needs Yes to your desires Will you give them your yes?

That's a question.

Will you give them your yes?

Stand to your feet, lift your hands, close your eyes, by your head.

I want you to hear me.

Right now in this moment, some of you have been held hostage by success.

You've been held hostage by your desires, by your wants, by your will, by your way, by your selfishness, by your ambition, by your ego, by your comfort, by your convenience.