Acts 8:26-40, What’s Your Next Step?

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Acts 8:26-40 What’s Your Next Step?

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Alright Acts chapter 8 will be reading from verses 26 to 40 Hear the word of the
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Lord Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip rise and go toward the south the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza this is a desert place and He rose and went and there was an
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Ethiopian a eunuch a court official of Candace Queen of the Ethiopians Who was in charge of all her treasure?
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He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot
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And he was reading the Prophet Isaiah and the Spirit said to Philip go over and join this chariot
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So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the Prophet and asked do you understand what you are reading and he said how can
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I unless someone guides me and He invited Philip to come up and sit with him now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this
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Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shears is silent
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So he opens not his mouth in his humiliation Justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life has taken away from the earth and the eunuch said to Philip About whom
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I ask you does the Prophet say this about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture
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He told him the good news about Jesus and as they were going along the road
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They came to some water and the eunuch said see here is water What prevents us from being baptized and he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water
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Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and When they came up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord carried
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Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing But Philip found himself at Azotus and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea May the
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Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word What's your next step?
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Where are you going next? After this, I don't mean lunch. Maybe that may be thinking
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Should I take this job? What subject should I study should I move there?
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Should I date or marry him or her? Now providing guidance is a favorite topic for Christian speakers
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You can make some money off of it if you can get it message honed, right? You know get people to believe that you have the secret for what they need to know their next step to take
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Usually there's the traditional tips on finding the will of God, you know the Bible prayer
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Seek wise advisors to the promise that some have that they have a word for you to give you guidance
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So you'll know the next step they could they'll kind of conduits right to God now be careful though if you get such a word
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Submit it to the word and prayer and wise advisors People are often desperate that they not make the wrong
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Next step that they not study the wrong thing or make the wrong decision about a relationship or that they not take the wrong job
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Do you need to know what's the next step? Maybe it's a relationship problem.
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You haven't dealt with or a goal you've wanted to achieve But you have it yet.
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I mean, you know what your goal is You just don't know what the next step is to get there You think what am
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I going to do about this problem in in the family? The family isn't doing what it's supposed to Maybe your unspoken treaty the treaty that every dysfunctional family lives by that we won't mention our sins
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We won't even admit that they are sins. We'll help each other hide the truth We won't we won't call a spade a spade so we can all just get along Maybe that isn't working
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What are you what are you going to do next? Or maybe you need to know what's the next step to finally take care of that?
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Address some problem you've been having maybe with pornography Use some guidance
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Like stop subscribing to premium channels If you can't stop from what turning on their porn when you're watching
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TV late at night all by yourself Or get an accountability pro for your program for your online viewing like Covenant eyes
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Maybe you want to read the Bible every day You're determined even to trudge through Leviticus good for you
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But you need to know what's the next step to finally get serious about doing that? Well carve out some time just set aside for that.
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Maybe you maybe you want to do better understand the Bible well Try Sunday school and listen to sound teaching.
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What's what's your next step or sometimes your first step? Here Philip has been remember the context of all this has been pushed by that first great persecution that broke out in Jerusalem Pushed him to leave
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Jerusalem Remember said what's it going to take to get the church to finally get moving to begin to fulfill the
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Lord Jesus's vision that they Would that they would receive power which they did act chapter 2 and witness to him
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Eventually to the end of the earth he said to every nation But what's it gonna take?
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Well, it took a great persecution now. They are on the move They've crossed one boundary in Samaria and now it's easier and easier to hear the voice of God telling them to cross even more boundaries.
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What's the next step Philip? Well, God will tell him a God will guide him by angels by the
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Holy Spirit What's the next step for the gospel to get it to the end of the earth? How you going to get from Jerusalem to the end of the earth out of Israel to?
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to China to America Well scripture tells us scripture tells us to go but practically
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You know if you're planning You need to know What's the next step?
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You need guidance We see that here in four major parts first the guiding second the servant song third the baptism
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Fourth the spirit does it rhyme or alliterate or anything? Sorry. You just have to remember it
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Guiding the servant song baptism in the spirit. What's your next step for Philip that comes from an angel a messenger
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Sometimes it says angel the word is the Greek is the same word as messenger So you could be like a person but here it says the angel of the
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Lord Which is this kind of Old Testament phrase it means literally an angel You know this kind of supernatural being comes from God and he tells
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Philip to go to a special rendezvous Actually didn't tell him to give rendezvous. We just tell us somewhere to go
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Rendezvous is what's coming but apparently Philip doesn't know that he just says rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza Philip is in Samaria.
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Remember which is north of Jerusalem where things have been going things have been going well in Samaria Why not settle down there, you know
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Except for some unpleasantness about Simon except for that things have been going very well But suddenly he's told that his next step is to go to a highway in the middle of nowhere
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It's in the desert for what He's a no, what's next after that?
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He'll be told that when he comes to it, you know he kind of told on a need -to -know basis and the next step the only thing he needs to know now is
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Go to that highway south in the desert Notice he's just told one step at a time He's not given the whole scenario
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You know, you're gonna meet an important Ethiopian official such as a place and you know, you'll baptize him and then you know
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He's not told that just the next step Now go to the Jerusalem Gaza Highway and God may guide us just a step at a time
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Martin Luther King said that faith is taking the first step Even when you don't see the whole staircase
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We're we're given just enough guidance for the next step and When we take that We'll get what we need for the step after that It's just one step at a time
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When he arrives there, he sees it in Ethiopian probably dressed like the important official that he was, you know
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He's not just like any guy from Ethiopia. He is unique. He's a he's a court official of Candace Queen of the
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Ethiopians So he was the treasurer Imagine they like in America. He's like the Secretary of the Treasury.
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I mean, he's a important figure You know, he controlled the wealth of Ethiopia So he's a he's a big shot and he's traveling in some kind of chariot
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Normally, I think of a chariot is he's getting a kind of soldier standing up, but he's seated So it's probably more like we would think of as a wagon
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And there's a chair there. There's probably some servants actually driving it. He had come to Jerusalem to worship
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So he's coming from Jerusalem after going to the temple there to worship Which means that he's either a
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Jew by birth or he was a convert to Judaism called a proselyte What's interesting to at least to me is that means that even he even though he was just in Jerusalem he's leaving there
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Remember what's in Jerusalem? There's all those Apostles in Jerusalem. There's Peter and John and the rest of the church in Jerusalem Well, why didn't
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God arrange then for him to encounter the gospel there? You know, why didn't you God arrange for him to bump into Peter and John right there in the same town with with them?
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Why didn't the angel tell Peter, you know Peter hey rise go up into the temple and meet the Ethiopian God Seems more efficient that way it is wouldn't it?
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It would have been an easy trip. They're right there in the same town together Peter and John are going to the temple all the time.
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The Ethiopian eunuch went to the temple. Why not? Arrange a rendezvous, but whatever that was a
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God's way Sometimes we think God's way for the next step should always be the most efficient way
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The easiest way the way of least effort. That's the way I think anyway, I hate inefficiency
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Why make two trips upstairs when if I think about it, I can do both things in one trip here.
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Why? why not arrange for Peter and John to speak to the Ethiopian eunuch when they're in the temple together and Just leave
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Philip in Samaria where he's getting along. Well, but here we see that for whatever reason Sometimes God guides in a way that doesn't appear
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Efficient to us The Ethiopian unit comes and goes from Jerusalem never meets an apostle there and then out in the middle of the desert
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He on the road to Gaza. He encounters Philip Philip though, you know, he's went to the highway, but he said he had no wise there
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He's probably watching chariots and wagons and camels and walkers go by. He doesn't know why
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I Just told to go there one step at a time Philip. So now he needs guidance again
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It was it wasn't as though he's there and he sees the Ethiopian unique and you know He just kind of knows this is the guy that I should go talk to no
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He knows guidance again this time He gets guidance from the Holy Spirit in verse 29 the Spirit says to Philip go over and join the chariot
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But for us can we expect to get guidance from the Holy Spirit? for him to speak to us and tell us to do something or this is like for Philip He's kind of special and we don't we don't get things like that to happen to us
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Keep in mind though that Philip is not an apostle He's not he's not one of the twelve. He's one of the seven.
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It's one of the deacons So this is it one of those signs of the Apostles, you know Some people say those the signs of the
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Apostles for them, but they're not we don't need them anymore Cuz we're not an apostle, but he wasn't an apostle
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So there's no reason to say that we can't get guidance by hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit like Philip did Now this scares many people today because they think that's too subjective, you know
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Too touchy -feely to feelings based too open to following whatever rim and impulse desire
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That is sweeping you at the moment You'll just say that the Spirit is leading me to do this or that a woman said
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That the hope that the Lord is leading her to leave her husband now He wasn't an adultery or physically abusive or anything like that She was just sick of him.
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And so she calls this yearning to get away from him the God leading it is not
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Okay, the Bible is clear about being faithful to marriage so we subject our feelings
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Even if we really feel this is a leading of the Lord We subject our feelings to what the
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Word of God says after all our feelings might be the leading of the
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Holy Spirit but the Word of God is always Definitely the leading of the
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Holy Spirit All Scripture is inspired like breathed out
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It's the words got led by the Holy Spirit word for word. You want to hear the
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Holy Spirit speaking? Well here Given you a book there It is the Bible is also clear about keeping your commitments your vows your covenants
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And the reason we make covenants when we feel like making them is so that we'll keep them when we don't feel like keeping them
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This is a simple idea, but this escapes many people today They think they make commitments because that's the word sound good at the moment
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And then when they don't like them anymore, they just drop them, but that's not the reason why remember the Lord Jesus said and His brother the
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Apostle James said above all let your yes be. Yes Yes, I'll do such -and -such.
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I'll forsake all others until death do us part I'll serve the church in this way for this amount of time Psalm 15 says that who is the one who gets to dwell with the
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Lord to live eternally with God? Who is that one? Well the one who among other things swears to his own hurt and does not change
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Well, then you have people who wonder they made a commitment whether the Lord is leading them to break their commitments
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Because they don't feel like keeping them anymore. They they feel led they say but they're not led by God Mary's boss if I remember that story, right
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Man named Andrew go and talks about how a man who said he was led by the Holy Spirit To get a job at mr.
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Goe's magazine and mr. Goe responded something like, you know, funny the Holy Spirit didn't tell me that All that kind of stuff just discredits the idea of being led by the
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Spirit, you know Yes, it can be abused. But does the Holy Spirit speak to lead us?
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This here couldn't this happen something like this happened to us. Well, yes, it happens to Philip here There's no reason to believe that the
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Holy Spirit still doesn't do that when I was graduating college I was planning on going to get a master's degree though at a
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Bible College in Pensacola, Florida Which is associated with my home church in Alabama, but I began to get a feeling that that was it, right?
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Just kind of an uneasiness about it Professor who asked me about my plans and my college said he didn't know why
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I'd want to go there And that kind of stuck in my mind and and then one day at the college library I took a break from studying to read the magazine
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Christianity today and there just happened to be this story about some place I'd never heard of before called fuller three fuller theological seminary, which the first time
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I heard of it And that was a very interesting story. It's not like an interesting place. I just stuck in my mind.
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It's kind of kind of You know like I couldn't stop thinking about it that place it and not long after that I was watching a
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Christian TV show which I which I rarely did and the host said something about fuller I don't know where it came from fuller theological seminary being one of the best seminaries in the world that whoa
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That's the one I just read about it's been thinking about that place It struck a chord so I looked into it and decided to go there which changed the course of my life and that Ended up eventually believe it or not
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That's why I tell us not to story about me Because it ended up changing the course of all our lives and bringing us all here together here
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None of us would be here if that hadn't happened Does the Holy Spirit guide believers today?
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Sure, but I understand two things first as Paul said we see it through glass darkly
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Remember that it's like you talked about prophecy and these spiritual gifts darkly
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It may not be right may not be because we perceive we might be wrong about what we perceive as his guidance
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That's why the word takes precedence When the when the Word of God the
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Bible speaks clearly to a subject it takes precedence About whatever you feel about it, right?
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Now, of course, there's a lot of things it doesn't address So sometimes we feel you know, we're making decisions Is he leading us in this away, maybe he will lead to lead you through impressions but be humble about it because he's
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We see through a glass darkly so be humble about it and say I think I'm being led Don't say just say if the
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Lord, you know, like you're Isaiah or Jeremiah or something like that second I don't think we should expect supernatural the supernatural voice of the
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Holy Spirit for just personal kind of natural Things like what to study who to marry what job to take
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Some of the concerns that obsess us make me maybe he will but don't expect that Usually God expects us to use natural means to find his will for natural things
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What should you study? Well, what do you have an interest in? What do you have skills for?
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What can you get a job to do? That's kind of an important one many people today forget, okay You thinking should
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I marry him or her? Well, can you love him or her? Do you share interest?
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If you're a Christian is he or she a Christian Christians are only supposed to marry in the
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Lord They use natural means for natural questions Now here this is about what
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Phillips going through about the gospel finally first member
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Chapter 1 Jesus said chapter 1 verse 8 you will see power be my witnesses Jerusalem They've already done that even the the
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Sanhedrin said you fill Jerusalem with your teaching Jerusalem Judea the province around Samaria where Philippians is gone and then finally to the ends of the earth so far we haven't gone there
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But this is about the first breakthrough to the end of the earth
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How are we going to get there? What's the next step to getting there? That's the whole context of this
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Philip won't go there himself to the end of the earth But the Holy Spirit has him rendezvous with someone who will
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This isn't about Philip using God as his personal guidance counselor to find out what does he want to do for a career?
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He wants to set up shop in Caesarea doing something or who he's gonna marry No, this is about this isn't about us using
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God as our personal guidance counselor. They're kind of a magic 8 -ball Should I should
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I break up with her? It looks cloudy something like that, you know, whatever that thing says to give us guidance over every little thing
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No, don't expect that this is about Philip being being on God's mission
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Not his own Now perhaps the reason we don't experience more of the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives is that we're not on his mission
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We want his guidance over everything that concerns us To how to get our best life now.
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He wants to speak to us to tell us How to get life? to the spiritually dead
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So Philip, here's the voice of the Spirit, you know go up to that chariot Now whatever is pulling it a horse or a donkey or an ox
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It's probably just walking and so we can just got a jog over and get next to it and the Ethiopian eunuch is reading from Isaiah And he's reading out loud as people always did back then
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And Philip here. Here's him reading from Isaiah 52 and 53 a passage that begins behold my servant
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So Philip asked him Do you understand what you're reading? the
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Ethiopian replies How can I unless someone guides me?
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Scripture offers guidance but Do you need guidance to understand scripture?
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Often yes now sure. Sometimes it says some things plainly I do. Yes. Yes, you keep your commitments
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Don't don't divorce them for adultery only Mary in the Lord that is other Christians, but sometimes it's not so clear
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And you need guidance to understand it That's why the Lord gave the church Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11.
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Paul has given Christ has given the church pastor teachers to guide you into Understanding his word what his word says, for example, there's poems in the in Isaiah the book of Isaiah about The servant of the
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Lord, what do they mean? It's not so easy to tell Especially if you don't know about Jesus then it's really hard to tell
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You need teachers to show you teachers who? Hopefully themselves have studied to show themselves good workmen with the word
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So they don't have to be ashamed how to handle it like a carpenter you have to be ashamed if he can't drive a nail straight or a painter if he gets
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Pain over everything you shouldn't or a cook who burns all his meals, you know That would be shameful if you're a workman like that, but you need teachers who are trained
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That's why the reformed tradition especially has believed in trained pastors and teachers the
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Puritans were in America only six years remember that they the bulk of them landed in and the
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Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and There was only six years later They founded a college for training and only six years.
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They're probably still living in log cabins Still haven't figured out how to grow crops that well in New England They but they started a college to train their pastors they called it
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Harvard and the attitude so prominent today though That is that you know,
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I don't need anyone to teach me No, they may say sure. I like to hear a good sermon.
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I like to hear good preaching kind of his entertainment You know, like you mean you like you might like to watch a good TV show
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But I don't the attitude is often that I don't need to be taught. I can understand the Bible all by myself
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That attitude is Arrogant, it's wrong We need teachers.
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You need pastors to guide us into the understanding what the Word of God says Thankfully the Ethiopian was understood was humble enough to understand that Notice his humble attitude
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But I just find it really just amazing words that he says because he's so sick
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Particularly from my point of view you so rarely hear anything like this, man I would just like fall over in my seat
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Fate and collapse if I heard anyone talk like this today, how can I? understand
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Isaiah unless someone He means someone else right someone a teacher who knows better than me guides me
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That's the attitude we need So the Ethiopian invited the Philip up and come up into the chariot and sit with him and and teach him and he was teachable
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Ethiopian man was was teachable One of the worst things that could be said about someone in church is that they're not teachable
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Why even go into church if you're not teachable They think they know better. They have their mind made up.
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They refuse to learn I've seen that in people when it would have especially when it becomes clear that something is being taught that is different than than what?
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They already believe They resist I've seen people so closed that they start they'll start talking
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To the person with them to tell them what is wrong with what this the preacher or teacher is saying
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Even before they're done hearing it Why go to church if you're that unteachable?
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Arrogant people wonder why they don't get any guidance from the Lord when in reality is they have plenty of guidance
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They just don't they just refuse to listen to it. The Ethiopian was not like that Guidance comes from the
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Lord Messengers of the Lord from the Holy Spirit if you're on his mission and from the word, but you'll need guidance
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To understand his word the Ethiopian needs guidance to understand the servant songs the book of Isaiah can't contains at least four
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What called servant songs they're spread out interspersed from Isaiah chapter 42 chapter 53
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We will be taking a break from acts Since here Philip and the
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Ethiopian are talking about the servant songs We're taking a break from acts to look at those servant songs over the next four weeks one
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Every week for the next four weeks the big question for the Ethiopian and and the scholars and all kinds of people still last today the
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Ethiopian asked here in verse 34 is Who is it about? Who are these servant songs about?
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Is Isaiah talking about himself So what some people say it's what the Ethiopian eunuch is wondering
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Is he's talking about himself as the servant of the Lord or it's about someone else. If so, if it's someone else who?
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The exact passage that he that he was reading here out loud. So my Isaiah chapter 53 verses 7 to 8 like a sheep
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That what that was notice the verb verb to his past tense that was led to the slaughter Isaiah speaking in the third person
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I was about a he someone else. Yeah, so we just certainly doesn't sound like he's talking about himself. Does he? He's speaking in the past tense of someone who who's experienced something.
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That's like a slaughter Like a lamb before his shearers is silent. So he opens not his mouth
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Remains quiet Is it about Israel corporately? That's what some people say. This is Israel as a nation
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Israel was slaughtered when the Babylonians invaded and destroyed Jerusalem Yeah, but they certainly weren't passive and quiet about it.
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That's for sure. They tried to resist they weren't like a lamb Quiet before the slaughter the book of Lamentations.
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Is there a complaint in his humiliation justice was denied him Israel's destruction by the
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Babylonians Was the just punishment for their sins. That's what they deserve.
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That's what God gave to them for their sins So it doesn't make any sense to think the servant of the Lord is
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Israel as a nation Then who is it about? It's not Isaiah It's not
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Israel who suffers unjustly quietly like a lamb Who can describe his generation?
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Isaiah writes how to describe the perversity of the society that put him this mysterious servant of the
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Lord They put him to death What what nation was that Turns out it was the nation the
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Ethiopian just came from for his life is taken from the earth He died
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It's not Isaiah. It's not Israel Who is it? the servant of the
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Lord There are four points about the servant of the Lord About Jesus, of course in Isaiah each of them beautifully wonderfully
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Describing the Lord Jesus who he is his character what he experienced what he felt in some ways
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Deeper and more powerfully than the Gospels themselves. The four Gospels give us the facts and the teaching and well remember what
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I and How the book of Acts begins? What what Jesus began to do and to teach?
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And the four Gospels give us what literally happened to him the four servant songs of Isaiah give us portraits of Who he is?
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What he felt like what his experiences mean? what literarily happened to him and That's where Philip starts.
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What a place to start. I mean you think of the timing of this This is this is self as a miracle
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It's not a coincidence The Holy Spirit had guided Philip so perfectly that he was beside the chariot at just the right time not, you know
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I mean the Ethiopian could have been reading laws from Leviticus or Proverbs, but no he was reading
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Philip got him there exactly when he was reading about the servant of the Lord So Philip begins with that Isaiah 53 and from and from it told him the good news about Jesus He can do that because the
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Old Testament is about Jesus We've seen that repeatedly now already in the book of Acts. The Old Testament is not a previous dispensation all about Israel that that did work out and now he's trying something totally new.
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No, it's about Jesus on the day He was raised the Lord Jesus himself appeared to two disciples on another road remember and also showed them how the
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Old Testament is about him and then when breaking bread He disappeared here.
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Philip has a similar encounter on an on a road showing how the Old Testament is about Jesus ending in baptism instead of breaking bread and disappearing in a manner of speaking so there's guidance by the
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Spirit and in the word and there's the servant songs the Old Testament about Jesus now now
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What's the next step? After a while the Ethiopian is so convinced from Scripture that Jesus is the servant of the
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Lord the Christ that he decides to obey him to become his disciple and That's going along.
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There's a Stream or something and say exactly what it was It is big enough for them to go down into he says
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Ethiopian says see here is water Phillip had obviously told him that you demonstrate your faith
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Washing away the old life rising to new life by by being baptized that Jesus had commanded, you know go make disciples
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Ethiopian wants to be a disciple Go make disciples baptizing them them the disciples
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Baptism is for disciples. So the Ethiopian asked then hey, I want to be a disciple. There's water what prevents me from being baptized
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Nothing He's a knowledgeable man. He's been reading his own copy of the Bible, which is very rare in those days
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It's because he's wealthy and powerful and he now knows what baptism means
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He knows who the servant of the Lord is what it takes to follow him. They understand the because sometimes this passage is abused
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The Ethiopian is not a child who hardly knows anything he's been manipulated maybe by some
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Sunday school teacher say this prayer or by music and And an emotional invitation come forward and say this repeat -after -me prayer and then is rushed immediately to being baptized
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He is instead a grown informed Responsible man who can count the cost and he decides he wants to be one of those disciples who is baptized
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So they stop the chariot stop They the next steps are into the water
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It seems to me that they have to go into the water instead of just scooping some out If you go into the water because that's what baptism is.
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It's immersion. They went in and Philip baptized him What's your next step
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If you believe Jesus is the servant of the Lord the one who suffers Humiliation for your sins who was led to the slaughter because of you who didn't protest and try to talk his way out of it
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Although he could have but but he didn't talk his way out of it because that's the reason he came
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He came to be the Lamb of God who takes away your sins So he didn't open his mouth, even though it was unjust
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It was wrong that his life was taken away like that so brutally so unfairly
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He didn't do anything wrong anything wrong to deserve punishment, but that had to happen So that the sins you committed your lack of faith in him your willfulness
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Your lack of love for him that your love for yourself that so can consumes you consumes us all
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That's why we try to use the Holy Spirit as our own guidance counselor In his word as a book of magic tricks to get healthy or wealthy because we love ourselves
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Instead of him. We're willing to use him for ourselves. We don't really love him. We We don't see that our best life is in being the servant of the servant of the
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Lord But if we do If God has enabled us to see that the
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Holy Spirit's come into our lives and open our eyes And finally like the Ethiopian here. Finally, we we see that we believe and we then want to be his disciple then our next step
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Not something we're manipulated into You know, if you finally if you do this, then you'll be safe then you'll be secure
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You got it. You've got to do this to get it as though baptism itself saves it doesn't It's the next step you take once you finally see like the
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Ethiopian here That Jesus is the servant of the Lord When you become his disciple then your next step is into water
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Baptism is at the step you take to be saved It's the next step you take
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After you're saved. So there's the guidance from the
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Lord by the Spirit and his word and teachers of his word There's the servant of the Lord Who is
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Jesus and There is the next step baptism finally
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There is the Spirit So they come up out of the water and then the Holy Spirit takes
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Philip away And like a lot of people I had read that as some kind of miracle that he was transported supernaturally
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From the Gaza Highway up to Azotthos, which is the next city directly north back up to Israel Then he was kind of snatched up like Elijah, you know when the whirlwind except Philip was landed somewhere else back up in Azotthos Maybe but that's not necessarily what it means
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It could only mean that the Holy Spirit guided him moved him propelled him to leave immediately that as soon as he came up out of the water that he that he sensed the
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Spirit was telling Him to go back north. They urged him to go right away either way. The Spirit was guiding him again
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The Spirit was also with the Ethiopian Giving him joy For having a new life for being a servant of the servant of the
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Lord What's his next step? Well going back to Ethiopia There in Ethiopia, he'll tell others about the servant of the
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Lord You see Jesus was it just for one nation, you know, maybe just for Israel just for the white people just for America He's not just the one you worship when you're in America But if you go to the land of land of Buddha you worship
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Buddha or the land of Lao Tzu Or the land of Confucius. Well, you worship their way, right? So some people think no he
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Jesus Is that we saying Jesus is Lord of all he's for all people all nations he's for Israel and Ethiopia and with great joy the
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Ethiopian takes the news of Jesus to Ethiopia What's the next step
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The end of the earth Ethiopia China America to this day
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Ethiopians trace their Christian faith back to this man Meanwhile Philip was on a roll man.
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However, he got to Azotthos miraculously or just propelled The he's in Azotthos the next city up on the
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Mediterranean coast and he just keeps going along the coast up north What's the next step for Philip?
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He's looking to fulfill Jesus's Commission. So it's one step at a time town by town Azotthos to Caesarea the big important city about 30 to 40 miles up north
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Step by step preaching the gospel to every town along the way What's your next step?
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Well Where are you at right your next step depends on where you're at now, are you a believer in the servant of the
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Lord a Disciple who wants to follow Jesus step by step if so, then you need to take the next step to be baptized
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Baptism is for disciples Well, maybe you're baptized already What's your next step?
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It's easy to get drawn off the right way Away from following Jesus by making him into your guidance counselor all about showing you what step to take next, you know
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Help you hoping you'll he'll give you the wise advice on maximizing your efficiency to make the most money or or suffer the least by but maybe consider maybe in making and keeping a lot of money and having a life of ease is
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It where he's guiding you He wants to guide you to sacrifice for his mission
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For doing your part to get the gospel out the good news that the servant of the
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Lord has borne our griefs and Carried our sorrows that he was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities
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Maybe he wants you to take the next step To get that good news out
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That's his mission What's your next step Maybe you're not a believer in the servant of the
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Lord yet Well, we're glad you're here Maybe you think well, he's just the
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American God or the old people's God Well, I can tell you Confidently that the
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Holy Spirit is saying that that's not true he's the God of Ethiopia of America and of China of the ends of the earth of every generation
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He is your God and if you all but take the next step to believe that to follow
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Jesus You can go on your way like the Ethiopian with great joy so Take that next step now