I Love Black People OCTOBER 11, 2026 Pastor Steven L. Anderson

Man, the title my sermon this morning is I love black people.

Again, the title this morning is I love black people.

Now, when it comes to evangelizing, they're typically very receptive to the gospel.

That's one of the reasons why I love them.

And right now, a bunch of our church members are down on a missed trip in the Caribbean.

They're witnessing to black people all day, every day,

because that's pretty much the demographic that you get down there in the Caribbean.

I remember when I was in Bible college at Hiles Anderson,

they had different ministries that you could join and take part of.

And I actually specifically chose the what they called the black chapel ministry.

And this was a ministry where I would go up every Saturday and Sunday for over two years,

preaching and soul winning and ministering in Englewood.

Not the one that you would think of like Englewood, like Los Angeles,

but this is a different Englewood, but it's just as black.

In fact, it's blacker than the LA Englewood.

I mean, you could go there for years and literally never even see another white person.

I actually got pulled over by the police for driving while white, if you can imagine that,

because they're like, what are you doing in this neighborhood?

You don't belong here.

Like, are you here to buy drugs?

I'm like, no, I'm here doing church work.

But I'm telling you, Chicago is very, very segregated.

Most cities like Phoenix isn't like that, but Chicago is very segregated.

I went there for over two years.

Lots of people saved.

We went back about five or six years ago and revisited that same exact area of Englewood.

We had a new IFB soul winning marathon there.

It was super receptive.

Lots of people saved great success.

And you know, when we've done different soul winning marathons across the country

and we would often pick areas specifically because they're a black area,

because a lot of times that's just going to be a receptive area to go preach the gospel.

Now look, obviously the Bible tells us to go into all the world

and preach the gospel to every creature.

And the Bible also says go either for and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost.

But obviously it makes the most sense to go to places that are receptive

and if there are certain areas or demographics that are unreceptive,

we might hit it once.

But if it's receptive man like the Apache Reservation or something,

we're going to hit it over and over again.

And so I want to show you in the Bible this morning,

I'm going to show you two different stories about black men in the Bible.

We've got, of course, Acts chapter 8 with the Ethiopian eunuch.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And then we've got Jeremiah 38 about ebed melech.

So Acts chapter 8 gives us an example of a black man who was very receptive to the gospel.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Okay, look what the Bible says there in Acts chapter 8 verse 26.

Acts 8:26

And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying,

Arise and go toward the south under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

And he arose and went, behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority

under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure

and had come to Jerusalem for to worship.

Now, here's the thing, a eunuch is a man who has been castrated.

Okay, so he has had his, you know, part of his reproductive anatomy surgically removed

and often men who are in high positions around queens

and other royal female figures would be mutilated in this way.

They would be castrated in this way to make sure that they could not father any children

or anything like that, that there'd be no infidelity on the part of these female officials.

And so, you know, this isn't necessarily the way that you want to go through life as a man.

You know, the same thing happened to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Bible.

Obviously, this is a barbaric practice, not something that's good.

But you know what? This is what happened to him.

So he's a guy who, you know, in one sense, he's an unlucky guy in that sense.

But in another sense, he is actually a very important man

because he's a treasurer for the Queen of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia was a pretty powerful kingdom at this time.

And so he's got a lot of authority and he's going to Jerusalem to worship,

but he doesn't know about Jesus Christ.

He's thinking about just the Old Testament religion of the prophets and the law of God and so forth.

And so it says in verse 28,

was returning and sitting in his chariot,

read Isaiah the prophet.

So he's on his way home from Jerusalem and he's reading the Bible.

He's reading the book of Isaiah.

Okay?

Now, here's the thing.

One of the reasons why I think that black people are often really receptive to the gospel

is that usually they, even if they're totally unsaved,

they usually have relatives, at least, to our Baptist

or at least some kind of a family connection to Baptist or the Bible.

So this will often make them kind of open when you say,

hey, I'm from a Baptist church.

A lot of times there's a connection there.

And this guy was kind of the same way where he already had a connection

to the Old Testament scriptures.

He's already reading Isaiah.

He already knows a little bit about this.

And so Philip, it says, you know,

is prompted by the Spirit to go talk to this guy.

It says in verse 29,

then the Spirit said unto Philip,

go near and join thyself to this chariot.

And Philip ran thither to him

and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said,

understandest thou what thou readest?

And he said, how can I, except some man, should guide me?

And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

So look, this guy wants to hear the gospel.

He's saying, man, get in the car, you know, climb in,

explain it to me, teach me the Bible.

This guy's receptive.

And you know what?

When we're out soul-winning, that is what we're looking for.

That guy who wants to get saved.

And look, sometimes it could be frustrated

when you're out evangelizing and just being turned down

and so many people saying no to you

and some people will even be rude or unkind to you.

But it's always worth it when you get to that one person

who really wants to hear the gospel and wants to know.

That's why when I'm out soul-winning,

if somebody says no to me, I can't get out of there fast enough.

I'm not mad.

I'm not offended.

I'm not going to stick around and argue and fuss about it.

I'm just like, great, the faster you tell me no,

then you're just not wasting my time

because I know that there's that other guy down the street

that is just ready and waiting to hear the gospel.

And that's what we live for,

is that person who wants the gospel.

I'm not just out there trying to just preach to people

who don't want to listen.

What's the point when there are all kinds of people

who do want to listen?

And so this guy wants to hear the gospel.

That's what we're looking for.

But he says, look, I can't just figure it out on my own

from reading the Bible.

And a lot of people think that you can get saved

from just reading the Bible by yourself

or that if we just hand people a Bible

or just pass out new testaments or something,

somehow they're going to just figure it out

or get saved on their own.

But the problem is that unsaved people

cannot understand the Bible.

The Bible says the natural man

receive it not the things of the Spirit of God,

for their foolishness unto him

neither can he know them

because they are spiritually discerned.

And so unsaved people don't have the capability

to understand the Scripture.

That's why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 5,

1 Corinthians 3:5

who then is Paul and who is Apollos,

but ministers by whom you believed

even as the Lord gave to every man.

So the Bible says, look, everybody who's saved

has been given someone in their life

who at some point explained the gospel to them,

ministers by whom they believe.

And when it says ministers,

we're not saying it's necessarily a pastor.

It could be man, woman, boy, or girl

who basically was used by God

to present the gospel, to explain the gospel,

either to plant the seed, water the seed,

or be there for the reaping itself,

but someone has to teach the unsaved person the gospel

because they don't have the Holy Spirit's indwelling

and they need a Christian who is indwelled by the Holy Spirit

to actually be able to explain that to them.

That's why he said, how can I understand it

except some man should guide me?

And so it says in verse 32,

the place of the Scripture which he read was this.

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter

and like a lamb dumb before his shearer,

so opened he not his mouth.

In his humiliation his judgment was taken away

and who shall declare his generation

for his life is taken from the earth?

Of course this is Isaiah 53.

And man, if you read the whole chapter of Isaiah 53,

you have to be totally blind to not see

that it is about the Lord Jesus Christ.

I mean it is just so blunt.

You know, he's wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities, right?

The chastisement of our pieces upon him.

By his stripes were healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We've turned everyone to his own way

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, right?

And so that chapter, Isaiah 53,

is something that is very clearly talking about Jesus.

And so this is what the guy happens to be reading.

Obviously God has worked out this timing

that the guy just happens to be

in one of the best, most messianic passages.

That's what he's reading.

And then Philip runs along

because God told him to run along at that time.

And boom.

Look, God is often preparing the hearts of people

for us before we even get there

to preach the gospel to them.

You know, when we go out soul-winning,

we'll often get to people's door

and that person's already been thinking about these things.

Circumstances have led up to this point

to where they're open and they're ready

and they're interested.

And you know what?

I believe that God is guiding and directing us

when we go out soul-winning

to the people that he wants us to preach to that day.

And that's what we pray.

We always pray, God, please lead us

to the people that are receptive.

Lead us to that person that you want us to preach to.

And I believe God answers that prayer

because we're praying according to his will.

He's hearing us.

And so often people have already been prayed for.

The seed has already been sown.

It's already been watered.

God's already working.

I mean, look, in this situation,

this guy's already just read

one of the best Messianic passages.

He's just ready to go.

You know, I'd say he's white under harvest,

but he's black,

but he's ready to hear the gospel.

And look, God is out there

getting people ready

and preparing the hearts before you.

And then we just enter into that

and it's already ready to go.

You know, going soul-winning is powerful.

And you know what's funny?

You got a bunch of bozos out there

criticizing soul-winning.

Oh, soul-winning doesn't work.

It's not real.

Y'all are just going around

and just praying a prayer with people.

We're just so dumb about that.

It's like, well, the Bible talks so much

about evangelizing and preaching the gospel.

And in the Bible,

the people who go out and preach the gospel,

they end up getting results.

And yet the people who are down on soul-winning

and criticizing soul-winning,

it's not like they're doing some other method

where they're just getting Boku Salvation.

Do these people just think

people just don't get saved or something?

Or that people just rarely get saved?

Yeah, at your church,

maybe people get saved once in a blue moon,

but sorry, that's not going to work

to preach the gospel to the whole world

getting somebody saved every six months

or every year, every year and a half.

No, it's going to take weekend,

week out, day in, day out,

people out there doing a serious amount of soul-winning.

In order to get it done.

And look, why would it not work?

What could be more basic

than just opening your mouth boldly

to make known the mystery of the gospel?

Like, what could be more basic

than one guy opening a Bible

and telling another guy how to be saved?

I mean, it's just the most basic, normal thing.

How could it ever be outdated?

How could it ever go out of style?

How could it ever stop being relevant?

And if God is up in heaven

and the Bible says God is not willing

that any should perish

but that all should come to repentance.

So God's up in heaven wanting people to get saved.

I'm down here wanting to get people saved.

Lost souls are out there

that want to go to heaven like the Ethiopian eunuch.

Why in the world

would God not bring this together

and make it happen?

Why wouldn't He bring the guy who wants to get someone saved

to the guy who wants to get saved

and then the Holy Spirit does the work

because He wants people to get saved.

I mean, to me, it's absurd and foolish

to think, oh, soul winning is not real, soul winning doesn't work.

That's just a bunch of lazy people

who don't want to go soul winning

because soul winning is hard work.

So they want to just make excuses.

So God's already working on this guy.

So then it says in verse 35,

then Philip opened his mouth

and began at the same scripture

and preached unto him Jesus.

Here's the thing, when you're out preaching the gospel

you've got to use the Bible.

Philip's going to use the Bible

to get this guy saved.

You want to be an effective soul winner?

Use Bible verses.

Don't just paraphrase or explain things

in your own words.

Open your Bible and show them

actual word for word verbatim verses

Romans 3, 10,

Romans 3, 23,

Romans 6, 23, Romans 5, 8,

John 3, 16.

Go through and show them those scriptures.

Why? Because faith comes

by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

God's Word

has power.

And the Bible says

over and over again that the so-word

is sowing the Word.

That's how you get people saved, the Word.

The Bible says receive with meekness

the engrafted Word

which is able to save your souls.

Acts 11 verse 14

Acts 11:14

who shall tell the words

whereby thou and all thy house

shall be saved.

So it's the Word that gets you saved.

So use the Bible.

It says in verse 36 as they went on their way

so he's preaching about Jesus

he's using the Bible, he's giving them the gospel

and as they went on their way they came

into a certain water and the eunuch said

see here's water what hinder me

to be baptized.

And Philip said if thou believest

with all thine heart thou mayest

because look that is the prerequisite for getting baptized

is you got to get saved first

and then baptized.

If thou believest with all thine heart

thou mayest be baptized.

And then he answered and said

I believe that Jesus Christ

is the Son of God

and he commanded the chariot to stand still

and they went down both into the water

both Philip and the eunuch

and he baptized them.

So a couple things we can learn about baptism here is that

number one you got to be saved first

you got to believe with all your heart

on the Lord Jesus Christ first

then you get baptized

and then number two when they got baptized

notice they went down both of them

down into the water and he baptized them

baptism always takes place

in deep water in the Bible.

There's no sprinkling or pouring in the Bible

that's garbage, that's nonsense

and isn't it interesting

that the same people want to baptize babies

who have not believed with all their heart

because they don't believe anything

because they don't know anything because they're just a baby

they're not even to an age

to comprehend what's going on

the same people want to

defy this and baptize a baby

are the same ones who want to do some stupid

sprinkling pouring fake

baptism that's not real

the word baptism

means immersion

we are buried with

them by baptism into his death

that like as Christ was raised up

from the dead even so

we also should walk in the newness of life

so when you're dunked under the water

that's a picture of Christ being

dead and buried

and then coming up out of the water

is a picture of the resurrection

what is sprinkling water on someone's head

are you buried by just sprinkling a little dirt

on someone? I mean I don't know

maybe you went out and murdered someone

you want to bury them in a shallow grave

you just throw a little dirt on top

well the police are going to discover that body

pretty quick

but burial is underground

and we're buried with them by baptism

because we're going underwater

the Bible says that John was

baptizing an anon near to Salem

because there was much water there

why would you need to baptize

in a place where there's much water

if it's a sprinkling

or a pouring that's nonsense

and then you have these weird quotes

from these early church

writings and church fathers

you know from the first second century

about sprinkling and whatever

look my friend there are already

heretics and false prophets while the Bible

was being written just because

something's old doesn't make it right

it doesn't make it accurate

so you have these books that say

well you know if there's no

cold water available

like when did the Bible

mention the temperature

it's like if there's no cold water

available use warm water

if there's no running water use

a basin of water and if there's

not a big enough basin of water

then you just sprinkle

and then sometimes they'll even go further

and say oh well if there's no water

you could just use sand or something

it's like what?

humans don't live anywhere where there's no water

there isn't any place on this planet

where humans could be alive where water isn't

there because of the point that

humans need water for survival

and if it's a hike or whatever

then you need to take that hike

and go get baptized

the planet's 70% water people

I think we can figure this out

we live in a desert

and we can still find plenty of places

to dunk people

but it's like oh it's not available

and then by the way they brought this

up to King James there was a famous

incident where at the same

meeting where King James decided to

commission the Bible translation

they had an argument about baptism

and one of the bishops of

the Anglican church brought up this thing

of like well you know so and so

the church father said that if there's

no water available they could use sand

and King James famously told the person

well maybe you could just baptize them and

piss because that would still be more Biblical

than sand okay

and it just like ruined the guy's career

like King James just ended the guy's career

in one statement okay

but you know what?

that's stupid

the bottom line is

being baptized is being dunked underwater

every single instance

they go to a place where there's much water there

they go down both of them down

into the water and he baptized them

the Bible says Jesus when he was baptized

came up straight way out of the water

right and he saw the spirit

of God descending on him like a dove

and so baptism is

by immersion there's no like

well if there's no water available

or if someone's on their deathbed

someone's on their deathbed then they just don't get baptized

the Catholics tried to say

oh when water came out of Jesus' side

it squirted the

the thief on the cross and that's how you got baptized

you know what? that's a bunch of made up

mumbo jumbo okay

baptism isn't

necessary for salvation

so if someone is so

invalid or crippled

that they can't be baptized well then maybe they're just not going to get baptized

the thief on the

cross didn't get baptized and he's still

in heaven you don't have to be

baptized to be saved you have to believe

with all your heart to be saved

and then after you believe on Christ

you get baptized

as a picture or a token or a symbol

of the salvation that has already taken place

so baptism is like

my wedding ring right this ring doesn't make me married

this ring is a symbol

to other people to show them that I am married

so if I take it off

I'm still married if I put it on you

you're not suddenly married to my wife

okay this ring

is not to show me that I'm married

because I already know that I'm married

I won't have to look down at this and need this as a reminder

like oh crap I'm married

I gotta go home to my wife

I already know I'm married

this is more a symbol to other people

showing other people that I'm married

it's an outward sign

baptism is the same way

you can still know for sure that you're saved

you know you're going to heaven

you've believed on Christ and then baptism

is just a way to publicly show that

and you could be married and never get a wedding ring

and you'd still be married

and I guarantee you that there are men

who are married that have never worn a wedding ring

when I was a child

that seemed like a lot of men did not wear wedding rings

nowadays it seems more

on vogue for both men and women

to always wear a wedding ring

but who knows what I'm talking about

like in that previous generation

a lot of men just never got a wedding ring

they just never wore a wedding ring

the wives got it and the men didn't

it was just a cultural thing

did that make them any less married

no now I do think that

having a wedding ring is a nice thing

it's a good thing it's something that we should do

and in the Bible

obviously baptism is a commandment

but guess what

we all break a lot of commandments

and thank God being saved isn't

by keeping commandments being saved

by believing on Jesus

so look if you if you're here this

morning and you're saved

and you know you're going to heaven

but you've never been baptized

after you got saved you should get baptized

this morning you should get baptized

right away because if you say well

I got baptized as a baby no you didn't

you got sprinkled as a baby

you got wet as a baby

you did not get baptized

no no no they dunked me well if you got dunked

before you were saved it doesn't count

you say how many times do I need to get baptized

one time

after you're saved

in deep water

in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost

right

that's all you need

look if you've been baptized

after salvation deep water

name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost

you're good to go

otherwise you should get baptized this morning

we have a baptistery we have water

we have changed clothes we have towels

we'll baptize you today we'll get it taken care of

but you know what you can just say

I'm not going to

well guess what you're still going to heaven

I'm not holding the keys

to heaven back there at the baptistery

saying hey you know

you got to get in this water to go to heaven

no you go to heaven by believing in Jesus

that whosoever believeth in him

should not perish but have eternal life

that's what the bible says

so what does it mean to believe with all your heart

it means you put all your faith in Jesus

not

well I'm trusting Jesus and my good works

I'm trusting Jesus and Buddha

Jesus and the spirit in the sky

great grandfather great spirit

no you got to put all your faith

in Jesus now look

obviously we as human beings

some people have more faith than others

you know some people

are of little faith

some people have great faith

the quantity of faith doesn't matter

you could be a person

of very little faith very low

faith individual you know people talk

about like low IQ individuals

you know there's certain like low faith individuals

you could be a really low faith individual

as long as you take all the faith

that you do have and put it all on Jesus

you're saved

it's sort of like the widows might

you know she cast in everything she had

even though it was a tiny amount of money

that was everything that she had

you know and obviously this is a carnal

illustration because I don't think

that we should do any gambling whatsoever

and gambling is wrong

but here's the thing it'd be sort of like

if you went to a casino

and you had a little bit of money

and you put it all on Jesus

right that's salvation

you could put a lot of money on

you know whatever the number on the roulette

wheel or whatever or you could put a little money

the only point is you gotta put all your money

on Jesus that's how you get saved

you gotta believe with all your heart

and you may

so of course he does he says

yeah man I believe that Jesus Christ

is the son of God right that's what

you have to believe to be saved

you gotta put all your faith and trust

in Jesus the son of God

his death barrel and resurrection of course

Isaiah 53 is a great passage to explain that

they both go down into the water

he baptized him by immersion

he dunks him underwater

and here's what's funny when he comes out of the water

verse 39

the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip

that the eunuch saw him no more

and he went on his way rejoicing so notice this

think about this

Philip is baptizing the eunuch

and literally when the eunuch

pops out of the water

Philip's gone

like that's how fast he's gone

it's just like Philip is just whisked away by the spirit of God

so it's a miracle

that Philip is teleported away

whisked away and what's funny is that

again the critics of soul winning

the people who criticize

going out evangelizing

and soul winning they'll often say like

oh you didn't follow up

you need to do more follow up

you didn't plan to church in every single place

you went soul winning

well first of all there's already a baptist church

in every town in America

it's not my fault if they're lame

some are awesome some are lame

not my problem

there are baptist churches everywhere

most of the countries we go soul winning there are baptist churches there

there are options for people

oh you didn't soul win

and then do follow up

and you didn't keep doing the bible study

and keep going back to their house

well how much follow up did Philip do

I mean Philip gets the guy saved

dunks him

and then he's just like see a sucker

and he's gone he couldn't have done

follow up if he wanted to

and look

God is the one who whisked him away

Philip could have kept preaching to the guy

he could have kept teaching the guy

he could have ridden with them all the way back to Ethiopia

just taking a big road trip

why did God whisk him away

I'll tell you why God whisked him away

because God had other people for him to go preach to

and talk to

and Jesus Christ when he's evangelizing

he goes into a town

preaches there gets a bunch of people saved

they're begging him to stay

they're saying stay here

for days or weeks or months

and you know what Jesus I gotta go

so that I can preach in the other towns also

so this thing of

oh everywhere we go

we have to just park it

and be there for weeks or months

no we can do some drive by

get in

get out helicopter style soul winning

where we jump into an area

knock all the doors get everybody saved

that we can that will listen

that will you know believe and then just get out

totally biblical

but you know what it's man's logic

and man's reasoning that says

oh how dare you do that

that's like putting a baby in the dumpster

and you're just leaving them as sheep with no shepherd

and blah blah folks

read the four gospels

look at the evangelism

that Jesus and the apostles did

read the book of Acts and here's the thing

yeah a lot of times in Acts

the apostle Paul does post up somewhere

for a year and a half two years

and do a ton of discipleship

and growth and everything

but there are plenty of examples like this

of just get them saved

move on

they're both valid

I mean look here we are in Phoenix

Arizona we got a crowd

of people here and what are we doing right now

we're learning the Bible we're being discipled

we're getting fellowship we're here three times

a week

but guess what we also like to go

other places and just helicopter style

get people saved they're both biblical

let's do both

alright let's change gears

and go to and by the way

the proof for that is in verse 40

it says that when Philip is whisked

away he's found it azotus that's

the New Testament or Greek spelling of

Ashtod one of the cities of the Philistines

he's preaching in all the cities

God just had other people

for him to preach to

alright go to Jeremiah chapter 38

Jeremiah 38 · chapter mention

let's change gears so we saw

the example of

Ethiopian eunuch title of the sermon this morning is

I love black people

okay and here's the thing

in Acts chapter 8

Acts 8 · chapter mention

we have an example of a very

receptive guy who really

wants to hear the gospel just ready to

get saved God leads Philip

to this guy and he gets saved he's a black

man because in the Bible

Ethiopians are the quintessential black

people so nowadays

Ethiopians aren't really that dark

because of just years of

colonization and intermingling

and stuff they've gotten lighter

in skin color but if you read ancient

Greek literature or the Bible

they are like the blackest of the black

at that time they're very black people

and so we see that the Ethiopian

eunuch was a super receptive person

that God wanted this guy to get saved

so he specifically pulled Philip

off his mission and sent him

to get this guy saved and you know

what I think that we

are going to go find some Ethiopian

eunuchs out there we're going to

find some people out there

that are receptive and that want to be saved

and that's the job

but now I'm going to show you another

story about an Ethiopian in the Bible

this is Jeremiah chapter

Jeremiah 38 · chapter mention

38 and here's the thing about this guy

this is a guy who is actually

a very loyal friend

to the prophet Jeremiah

now look what the Bible says in Jeremiah

Jeremiah 38:6

38 verse 6 they took

then Jeremiah

and cast him into the dungeon

of Malchia the son of Hamalek

that was in the court of the prison

and they let down Jeremiah with

cords and in the dungeon

there was no water but mire

so Jeremiah

sunk in the mire this is basically

like a sewer

this is refuse

this is sludge this is like

the bottom of an outhouse

this is a gross

horrible unsanitary

disgusting place

where instead of just being in prison

he's put in a quote dungeon

but the Bible says there's no water it's just

mire it's just muck

it's just filth and Jeremiah

is literally sinking

in the muck and mire

he's in a horrible situation

verse number 7 now when

ebed melech

the Ethiopian now this literally

the Hebrew words here ebed

means servant melech means king

those are some of the most basic words in Hebrew

so when ebed melech

his name means servant of the king

but that's just his name the Ethiopian

one of the eunuchs

which was in the king's house

heard that they had put Jeremiah in the

dungeon the king then sitting

in the gate of Benjamin ebed melech

went forth out of the king's house

and spake to the king saying

my lord the king these men have done

evil in all that they

have done to Jeremiah the prophet

whom they have cast into the dungeon

and he is like to die for hunger

in the place where he is for there's

no more bread in the city look

these are the kind of friends that you want to have

when you're in trouble that will go to bat

for you because

look when the apostle Paul was

thrown in prison a lot of his friends

for shook him because they were quote

ashamed of his chain

and then there was Onesiferus who was not

ashamed of the chain well here's an old

testament example ebed melech

is publicly

outspoken saying look

Jeremiah is innocent let's

get him out of the muck and mire

let's get him out of the dungeon you know

these are the kind of friends that you want to have to go to bat for you

and here's the thing

most of the men of Judah they're not

going to bat for Jeremiah

so who do you think is a better friend

who do you think is a better brother

who do you think is a better

companion

some Judean some Judah guy

some Jew who doesn't

help doesn't care doesn't

stand up for you or the black

man who's actually going to help you out

ebed melech

and you know at the end of the day when you're a Christian

and you're living for God

and you're serving God you know what you're going to find

is that sometimes it's not always

your physical family

it's not always the people you grew up with

it's not even always the people of your same

nationality or ethnicity

that are going to become your best friends

your biggest allies the people

that are really there for you you know sometimes

it's going to be very different

people that God brings across your path

because we're all one in Christ Jesus

you know and we're going to end up

having more in common

and more affinity

with our brothers and sisters in Christ

than unsaved people

who just happen to be from the same

part of the country or part of the world that we're from

or they just happen to be our blood

relatives you'll end up forming closer

relationships and closer bonds

with your brothers and sisters in Christ

red and yellow black and white

and by the way when you see these people online

that are white supremacists

and they just can't stop talking about race

and everything's about race for them

you know what they're just showing that they're just

very immature and carnal

as a Christian when they feel that way

you know because like they're just

looking at the flesh

they're not thinking about the spirit

spiritual things and you sit there

and say oh you know well my race

is the best and look bro

at the end of the day what matters

is the spiritual side of things

you know and you'd rather

have an ebed melech

on your side

than one of these Jews

that's a bozo

and so ebed melech

he's doing what a true friend does

he speaks out he gets involved

he helps out his friend

he's not ashamed of the chain

and so he says this

and then it says in verse 10

then the king commanded ebed melech

the Ethiopian saying take from hence

30 men with thee and take up

Jeremiah the prophet out of

the dungeon before he die

so you know presumably ebed

melech is literally saving

Jeremiah's life because

he's probably going to die down there

he's not getting bread he's not getting water

and he's living in filth

in this dungeon

so ebed melech took them in

with him verse 11 and went into the house

of the king under the treasury

and took then old cast clouds

and old rotten rags

and let them down by cords

into the dungeon

to Jeremiah

and ebed melech the Ethiopian

sent him to Jeremiah

put now these old cast clouds and rotten rags

under thine armholes

under the cords so basically you know

armhole is obviously armpits

so he's saying you know

he lowers down like a makeshift

rope thing just out of rags

and whatever cloth they can find

and then he says hey put this under your armpits

you know it tells me that Jeremiah is probably

in a pretty weakened condition

it's not like he's climbing

the rope like in gym class

or even holding on normally with his hands

it's more like they have to make a loop

that can go around his armpits

so that he can just be dragged up

through no effort of his own

and so they end up

pulling him out

it says in verse 13 they drew up

Jeremiah with cords and took him up

out of the dungeon and Jeremiah

remained in the court

of the prison

now flip over if you would to

Jeremiah 39

so he's not out of prison

but at least he gets out of just the most filthy

hole that he was in

and gets put in a normal prison

and he's able to get some bread and water

and survive and ride out

these trials and tribulations

now in the end God's gonna bless Jeremiah big time

and he's gonna be taken care of

and everything's gonna go great for him

but this is a really hard time in Jeremiah's life

where he's on the point of death

elsewhere in Jeremiah

he says to the king

do not send me back to that place

or I'm gonna die there

he was in the worst pit of his life

and who pulled him out

Ebed Melek pulled him out

Ethiopian

now in Jeremiah chapter 39

Jeremiah 39 · chapter mention

Ebed Melek gets a special shout out

in the word of God

for having done this great deed unto Jeremiah

in the previous chapter

look at verse number 15 of chapter 39

now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah

while he was shut up in the court of the prison saying

go and speak

to Ebed Melek the Ethiopian

saying does say at the Lord of hosts

the God of Israel

behold I will bring my words upon this city

for evil and not for good

and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee

but I will deliver thee

in that day say at the Lord

and thou shalt not be given in the hand

of the men of whom thou art afraid

for I will surely deliver thee

and thou shalt not fall by the sword

but thy life shall be for a pray unto thee

because thou hast put thy trust

in me say at the Lord

look it's pretty cool

when a special sermon

a special shout out

several verses in the word of God

are actually dedicated

not just to the deeds that you did

not just to the good works that Ebed Melek did

in chapter 38

but also you know about the fact

that God noticed what he did

God saw what he did

and God said you know what I'm going to reward you

and when other people are dying

other people are suffering

other people are getting smoked in Jerusalem

namely the Jews

he said you know what

you are going to be okay

you are going to survive

and I am going to save you out of that adversity

because of what you did for Jeremiah

I'm going to reward you

you don't have to worry about anything

look that would feel pretty good

if you're Ebed Melek and you get this sermon

telling you hey man God's going to take care of you

and God's specifically revealed to Jeremiah

that he will not be killed

now I want to point out

that in

verse number 17 it says

I will deliver thee in that day say at the Lord

and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men

of whom thou art afraid

look was Ebed Melek

afraid was he scared

yeah and here's the thing the Christian life

is lived by

human beings

by normal people like you and me

I mean Elijah was a man

subject to like passions that we are

he was just like us

and so here's the thing

we are sometimes going to be afraid

in our lives we're going to be scared

but Ebed Melek

is the kind of a guy where even when he's

scared he still steps up to the plate

and does what's right

you know because guess what

we're all going to be scared at times

the difference is if we're going to let that

cowardice and fear

prevent us from doing the right thing

or whether we're going to overcome that fear

and just say yeah though

I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I will fear no evil for thou art with thee

with me

and then in Revelation it says fear none of those

things which thou shalt suffer

and so it's like fear not Ebed Melek

I know you're scared

I know you're scared of these people

don't worry about it I got your back

because look

the best way to be safe is with God

protecting you

it's not by leaning on your own understanding

I mean Ebed Melek could have just said

well I don't want to get involved with Jeremiah

because what if he goes in there

and says hey man

it's not right Jeremiah is innocent

why'd you throw him in the pit

what was Jeremiah being accused of again

Jeremiah is accused of treason

he's being accused of

being a defector to the Babylonians

and that he's a traitor

now it's not true it's a lie

but Jeremiah is falsely accused of being a traitor

now wouldn't it have been pretty easy

for somebody to say to Ebed Melek

hey you know what

if you're going to bat for this traitor

maybe you're a traitor too

we're going to throw you in there with Jeremiah

I mean he's risking

by putting his neck out for Jeremiah

and he's risking maybe getting killed

or getting thrown in

with Jeremiah getting lumped in with Jeremiah

getting put in the muck with him

but yet he overcomes that fear

that the Bible says he had

that he was scared but he did the right thing anyway

he spoke truth anyway

he stood up for his friend anyway

he was loyal to the man of God

anyway and what happened

God says well I'm going to deliver you from your fears

I'm going to take care of you

you're going to be fine

you're not going to be given into the hand

of the man of whom thou art afraid

and then he says in verse 18

at the end because

thou hast put thy trust in me

sayeth the Lord you see it takes

faith to stand with

the people of God when they're being persecuted

to stand with the man of God

when he's being persecuted it takes faith

why because you know well the man of God

is preaching the Bible

and I believe the Bible and the doctrine

is on point the doctrine is sound

I'm staying with the man of God

you know what you gotta believe the Bible

to take that kind of a stand

it's a lot easier to just go

man of God's

losing popularity I don't know if he's

winning not winning and you know what

there are some preacher friends and I use

the word friend loosely over the years

that I've had that basically

they will stand with you if you're winning

and if you're losing

they're not going to stand with you and it's like

hey are you winning are we going to win

they just want to be on the winning side

well you know what I already know I'm on the winning side

because if I'm with the Bible I'm always

on the winning side because of God

before us who can be against us

but these carnal preachers

they want to be on the winning side with this

world the winning side carnally

the winning side right here now no I just

want to do the right thing and you know what

if standing up for my friend

if standing up for a man of God

or the people of God are standing up

for right and doctrine and truth

if I knew that it was going to make

half the church quit

or all the church quit

but it's not even a decision

you just do what's right

you know I

find that the hardest decisions in life

are the ones where you don't know what

the right thing is

the hardest decisions in life

is where the Bible is not clear

and you're like oh man what do I do

what does God want me to do

do I go to the right hand of the left

folks when the Bible is clear on something

those are the no-brainer decisions

it's like oh what's it going to cost me

it doesn't matter if it costs you everything

you do what the Bible says

those are the no-brainer decisions

you stand with the man of God

you stand with the people of God

when the Bible is clear you stand on it

those are no-brainers

and you don't even worry about it

you don't even think about it

like oh man you know

is God going to take care of me

well you know what you just got to put your trust in God

that's what the Bible says

and you know what kind of level

of commitment God expects

he says be faithful unto death

and I will give thee a crown of life

so in conclusion last place

we're going to turn act chapter 10 is this

act chapter number 10

in conclusion I want to say this

don't get caught up

in the trends

of being negative toward

or hating certain races of people

it's a stupid trend

it just makes you a foolish person

it just shows that you're carnal

you're not spiritual

you're not smart

you're not a mature Christian

if you're seeing the outward appearance

if you're just looking at the flesh

if you're seeing as man sees

you're just showing that you are not

a spiritual person

because a spiritual man

is not going to judge people

based on their race

or the color of their skin

and being caught up in that

just shows that you don't really know the Bible

or you don't really care that much about the Bible

if you have that priority

and look I understand and I'm not saying

that every person

who's racist or who's ever been racist

is a horrible person

because I know a lot of people are just kind of brought up that way

or maybe they just live in an area

where they've only seen bad examples

of that particular group of people

you know I remember

for example I had a certain

extended family relative

they came and visited

and where he was from

he just didn't really have

a lot of good examples

of people that weren't white

so he's living around white people

and then the people that are not white

were gypsies

and they were criminals

and a lot of them were reprobates

evil, scammers

sexual perverts

and so like that's his exposure

and I'm trying to explain to him

look man

we're in America now

that we're not in your home country

this isn't the gypsies

and I'm saying look our church is filled

with all kinds of great people

red, yellow, black and white

and he showed up at the church

and he told me wow you're totally right

these people are great, these people are awesome

then he went to the park

and he spent some time at the park

and he said wow you're totally right

at the park I saw all these nice

normal families

and they're black people, Mexicans

they're just nice families playing with their kids

look some people

they just haven't really been exposed to

examples

of quality people

from different ethnicities

but here's the thing I can promise you something

there are quality people of every ethnicity

how do I know that

because first of all the bible talks about

how when we get to heaven

there's going to be people in heaven

from every nation, every kindred, every tongue

whatever and then look what the bible says

in Acts chapter 10 verse 34

Acts 10:34

it says then Peter opened his mouth

and said of a truth

I perceive that God is

no respecter of persons

but in every nation

he that feareth him

and worketh righteousness

is accepted with him

he said look in every nation

somebody who fears God

and works righteousness

is acceptable to God

and God doesn't put a difference

between one nation and another

because all the nations before God

are counted as less than nothing

and so he will accept

anyone from any nation

and the reason I wanted to give you these two examples

is because the Ethiopian

eunuch is a great example

for just being receptive to the gospel

and that's one of the reasons I love black people

is just because like

that's a pretty receptive demographic usually

and so we focus a lot of soul winning

in those black neighborhoods

and we're going to continue to do that

anywhere we can find them

we'll go and we'll preach

because guess what a soul is a soul

it doesn't matter what color they are

it just matters that they're a human being

for whom Christ died

and we want to get him saved

and they have just as much value as next

but the reason I wanted to show you this other example

of Eped Melek

is that this isn't just an example

of a black dude that got saved

this is a black dude who's an awesome Christian

who's actually

the most loyal friend here

who's actually

stepping up to the plate

and going to bat for the man of God

when other people aren't

when nobody else cares

when nobody else is doing it

this guy ends up being a very loyal friend

and a very zealous Christian

willing to overcome his fears

and actually put himself out there

and stand up for what's right

and so yeah

in conclusion don't get caught up

in all of the racial hype

obviously there's this stupid thing

of just acting like

all white people are racist

from the other perspective

like this hyper sensitivity to racism

we don't want to get sucked into that

hyper sensitivity to racism

but then also we don't want to get sucked into

like oh well people have been calling me racist

my whole life so I'm just going to be racist

you know and then just start getting negative

toward groups of people

and you know what instead of

let's just say you know I may be hitting a little

close to home with anyone who's listening right now

and you're just like well I just don't like black people

whatever here's the thing if you don't like black

people you know what the best thing you can do

is get them saved

because then they'll become better people

because every single person who gets saved

becomes a better you know what's going to make a better white person

a saved white person

you know what's going to make the Chinese man better

getting him saved

you know what's going to make the black man better

getting him saved you know what's going to make

the Iranian better

get him saved

salvation is what is going to cause

the carnal

man to actually be able

to live a righteous

life through the power of the Holy Spirit

and so

instead of just picking people apart

criticizing groups of people

because guess what you could criticize any group of people

and yeah different groups

of people might have their strengths and weaknesses

but at the end of the day you know what

every person is an individual

and if we can be

saved and walking in the Spirit

we can be great men we got you know I would love to be

like Ebed Melik

except for I don't want to get castrated amen

but other than that

I want to be the kind of man

that Ebed Melik was

and so it's not

our ethnicity that's important

it's not our nationality

it is whether we're saved

whether we're serving God

whether we're loyal to the people of God

being a good friend

having courage being saved

that is what makes you great in the eyes of God

and if we see through a spiritual lens

the people that we like

we're going to like the Spirit filled

soul winning Christians and we're not going to care what color they are

you know we're going to like

the zealous preachers and the zealous

soul winners and we're going to look up to them

even if they're a different color

than us we don't care

because we don't see as man sees

man looks on the outward appearance

but God looks on the heart

Father we thank you so much

for your word Lord

we thank you so much for these

examples from the Bible of great men of God

like Philip and the Ethiopian

eunuch and Ebed Melik

Lord help us to learn from these examples

and aspire to be great

and Lord I pray that no one

would look down on people of another race

but also I pray that people of another race

would not somehow

think that that's an excuse

for not achieving great things

because

apparently you can use anyone to do great things

and so

Lord I just pray that every single person

would live up to their full potential

as a Christian and Lord I pray that we would

get as many people saved on the mission

trip in the Caribbean

and here at home as we can

Jesus name we pray amen