We are in Acts chapter 26, and
I want to briefly run through our five points. And if you will, you can pull
up the first PowerPoint under the theme Philip and the Ethiopian,
and we will work our way through that. Having been off for a week,
I know you have the cobwebs in your mind, and we can just kind
of burn some of that dross off. The way we opened up last time
was to mark the unique characteristic of Philip. And I just want to
highlight that briefly for us again tonight, that Philip was
the kind of believer that we all should be aspiring to be. He wasn't a superman. His office
we call superdeacon because he had compounded with his call
to service. And that's what it means to be
a deacon. is to be a servant. He had compounded with the humble,
lowly position of being a deacon, the power of apostolic witness. God had given Stephen or Stephan
and Philip the power of apostolic witness. And they were able to
do that occupying the office of deacon. What that means, ladies
and gentlemen, is that they have the ability to hold humility
in one hand and then authority in the other. And what that really
is called biblically is meekness. They had the ability to be a
servant while at the same time operate as a king. What that
means biblically is to have the virtue of humility or meekness. They were able to be on the lowest
rung of the ladder in service of the kingdom of God to be a
deacon, which means to serve tables, to feed people and to
make sure they have practical needs met, while at the same
time possessing in their person an access of power by which they
could heal and to show miracles and wonders. Now, a person who
is not principled would probably lean towards the power side and
seek to gain or use that power for his or her own leverage and
thus acquire a name for themselves versus simply maintaining their
position as a servant. We talked about this in our Greek
class before this class that one of our present sisters who
has been put on a pedestal for the glory of God, Miriam Ibrim. Do you guys know who I'm talking
about now? Miriam Ibrim. She is the African Sudanese,
I believe she's Sudanese, sister who is a Christian who has just
now been released from prison after suffering over a hundred
days in prison with the threat of murder or being killed, capital
punishment, are being lashed a hundred times, which equals
the same thing. You're not going to survive a
hundred lashings. All because she said she would
not deny Christ as Lord. So in prison, she was pregnant
and had her second son in prison. And then they released her and
then they stopped her at customs and held her back. She went through
a remarkable trial over this last one third of a year. Is
that true? and all because she would not
deny her faith. That's a real lesson for us,
isn't it? Because I mean, as many of us have admitted, we
crumble under tests infinitely less challenging than that. And so I had to affirm as I had
a discussion with my sister that God is not going to allow American
Christians to be tested like our sister Miriam, because we
wouldn't pass the test. We don't pass the test in local
things. Why would we pass the test of
being put to death for Christ's sake? You see the Lord does not
tempt us above that which we as believers can handle. Are
you following me? Now the devil will try you with
temptations to get you to fall. All God is doing is helping you
and I see our weakness. so that we might call upon him.
He never pushes you to the brink and tells you to jump off the
cliff and see if I'll save you. God never tempts any man because
God himself cannot be tempted. Thus he does not tempt us. When
you and I are tempted, we are tempted by the devil according
to our own lust. You guys know that, right? So
the devil has the ability to actually incite our own propensity
to do wrong. And if we yield to it, then James
chapter one, verse 14 comes into place. Every man is tempted and
drawn away by his own lust and enticed. and then the inevitable
effects occur. But I want you to remark with
Sister Miriam Ibrim that she is on a pedestal right now, right
along with Philip. They're both famous, aren't they?
I'm not famous. You're not famous. We're not
famous. They are. Are they any different
than us by nature? No. But there is a grace working
in their life that allows them to be employed by God. as an
instrument of his glory by which God is honored, the platform
of suffering, the platform of suffering also becomes the place
where God is glorified in the life of the believer. The place
of suffering for Christians who trust Christ becomes a platform
for God to be glorified. It might be just within a small
space of your own home as a family member with family, extended
family, who don't particularly care for you being a believer
in Christ, and you stand on the word of God, and now everybody
in the family is gonna see that you actually mean business with
Christ. You go through a crisis, you are sick, ill, and everybody
wants to see how you're gonna handle that now. God comes along
in your suffering and weakness as he promises to buoy you up,
to strengthen you, to encourage you, to protect you, hold you
up. Is that true? Doesn't God hold us up when we're
weak? In our weakness, his grace is made mature in our weakness
because in our weakness, we are much more inclined to trust God
than in our strength. And so I say that sister Miriam
is now a trophy of God's grace because she understood that all
she was was an instrument. She wasn't the source of glory.
She wasn't the cause of glory. She was simply an instrument,
which every believer has the prerogative to be. Lord, make
me an instrument of your grace. 18 years old, didn't know anything
about the Bible, understood that I was an instrument of Satan's
work. I asked God to make me an instrument
of his grace. I would encourage you. Lord,
make me a vessel meet for your use and he will. And when he does, this is what
you will know. You and I are nothing but vessels. When that's secure and forged,
in your thinking, then God can use you. Now, I say all that
to say this. Philip was no different than
you and I. He was a man of like passions. He had his weaknesses,
his inclination. He was a Hellenistic Jew. He
was a Christian. He was a believer. But something
about Philip was remarkable and worth marking. And that's this.
He was led by the spirit. I don't want to put a lot of
stock in that. I want you to simply affirm that proposition. He was led by the spirit. He was led by the spirit into
Samaria, right? And then he was led by the spirit
out of Samaria into the desert. Four points under that proposition,
the obedience of what? And that's what God calls you
and I to. Be sure of that. He doesn't call you and I to
the disobedience of faith. He calls us to the obedience
of faith. And that's something you and I are gonna learn for
the rest of our lives. That's a lifelong process. But
where you and I are gonna experience the blessings of God in our life
is when we understand what it means to operate in the obedience
of faith under these four categories. Lead of the spirit. We talked
about that in Romans chapter eight very clearly around verse
14. As many as are led of the spirit,
they are the sons of God. Is that true? And then when we
are led of the spirit, according to verses 26, 29 and 39 of Acts
chapter eight, verse 26, and the angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip saying, arise, go toward the south unto the way that goes
down unto Jerusalem, unto Gaza, which is desert. And then in
verse 29, then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join
thyself to this chariot. And then again in verse 39, here
it is. And when they were come out of
the water, The Spirit of the Lord did what? Caught away Philip. He was led by the Spirit, was
he not? Now here's what's happening, which is going to get us into
our study now. When you and I are led by the Spirit, that's when
God is going to use us in the areas in which he is most concerned. And that is either the salvation
of sinners or the edification of God's people. Those are two
very important areas of kingdom work the salvation of sinners
You and I are called to be witnesses, right? That means we are called
upon to be ready to be prepared to have a heart inclination to
tell men and women about Jesus is that What operates in your
soul? Do you? Do you have a longing
and desire to be able to share the gospel with people? Do you
look for opportunities to do that? I do that more and more
now. Even in my older age, I'm looking more and more for opportunities.
One guy I realized I've been passing by about three times
a week. And today I said, Lord, okay. And I didn't even think
about the guy. I said to myself, Lord, okay,
I want to be used today. Give me an opportunity. Open
the door. So I can share the gospel with somebody, even if
it means just passing out a track. So I keep tracks with me. I keep
our invitation tracks. I keep our witnessing tracks
with me because all I have to do is this and God can do the
rest. So I make this left hand of mine.
I'm left handed. I make this left hand of mine,
an instrument of righteousness because I used to do some bad
stuff with this hand, some bad stuff. And now I'm using it for
God's glory. So I recognized a brother I had
been seeing three or four times a week. And I said, OK, Lord,
I'm going to take this up as an assignment. If this is the
person you want me to talk to, give me an opportunity. So I
went to him and I shared with him our track. And I was glad
to be able to do it. Didn't take but a few minutes.
But see, what it was was a mindset to not continually go through
the process of my day, missing eternity bound souls. Wanting
to be led by the spirit, And again, the whole concept of being
led by the Spirit is something that we don't have to call mystical,
mystical. The term led equals the word
guided, to be guided. It's one of the terms we learned
a while back when we were talking about the work of the Spirit
of God in John chapter 16, verse 13. Look at John 16, 13. I want
to show it to you and just help you be reminded of what the master
said would occur when he sends the third person, the Spirit
of God, who is himself also God and is a person. It says in John
16, 13, these words, let me get there. And when he, the spirit
of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. Listen to
what it says. I'm not there yet, but this is
what it says. John 16, 13. How be it? When he, the spirit of truth
is come, he will, what? Guide you. That's the Greek word
hadego and it means to take by the hand. To guide you means
to take you by the hand and lead you where you are to go. In other
words, this guidance is not two mutual persons sitting down collaborating
on a scheme and then the one having enough confidence in the
other to leave him with the scheme to work it out on his own. This
is the word guidance, which means to take by the hand and lead
because the one leading knows that the one that's being led
must be led because he has no capacity or she has no capacity
within themselves to actually get the job done. This is the
same word that's used in Romans chapter two. And I'll have us
to go there in a moment. Listen, how be it when he, the
spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all the what?
That's right. Literally all the truth. And
I might say that as we contemplate that it is not merely guiding
us into academic truth about the word of God with reference
to God. It's guiding us into the reality of those things that
God has purposed for us, which are themselves the truth. Let
me say that again. When we are talking about being
led into all the truth, We are talking about being led into
the propositional truths of God's word. Thy word is true, John
17, 17. We are talking about being taught
the truth. as the truth is in Christ. We
are talking about the benefit of scripture, 2 Timothy 3, 16,
all scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction,
training, righteousness, all of that. You guys know those
verses, but you know, there's a big difference between knowing the
verse and knowing how the verse works in everyday life. There's
a big difference. There's a whole bunch of folks
who can quote John 16, 13, as well as second Timothy 3, 16,
who have never been led by the spirit of God, who have never
seen the reality of true in the course of submission to the will
of God. So when I say he shall lead you
into all the truth, I'm talking about the truth objectively of
the person in work of Jesus Christ, as is declared in scripture,
but the truth also subjectively of the reality of Christ in our
life as Lord by the power of his spirit, bringing us into
conformity to Christ and fulfilling his will in our life. Did anybody
miss that? I know that's long old drawn
out conjunctions, but it's important to get. Truth is reality according
to God. And when we know God's word,
and we are in the way of truth, we begin to see the unfolding
of that truth on an everyday level in our life. And if we
are not seeing that truth unfolding on an everyday level in our life,
we have every right to be concerned with whether or not we are in
the way of truth. Are you following what I'm saying?
Because there are some people who are not in the way of truth,
and there are others who are in the way of truth. And you
and I want to be led in the way Truth then go with me back to
our text so we can start working through this Fascinating account
with this dear brother Philip was led of the Spirit and he
was led of the Spirit into the will of God This is what is meant
by John the Holy Ghost leading the believer into the will of
God and when that occurs when God is leading you into his will
and That process is gonna be very much, but not always, but
very much like what Philip here experiences. And that's what? He's moved from one experience,
one dimension, one realm, one set of circumstances which were
very favorable to him, and growing, affirming him as a minister of
the gospel, Samaria. Samaria now is being confirmed
and strengthened by the apostles ministry and Philip is now free
to go somewhere else. And didn't we talk about the
distinction between one sewing another watering and God giving
the increase is the difference between making the bread, breaking
the bread and eating the bread. Making the bread is the exegetical
labors that take place when the Bible study is accurate. Breaking
the bread is the event that corresponds when the word of God is taught
and you and I are feeding on that bread, breaking it. making
it and then breaking that bread. That then becomes the process.
One souls, another waters. We become much more familiar
with the ingredients that go into that bread by virtue of
divulgence, by virtue of eating the bread of life, experiencing
its nutrients, its power, its ability to satisfy our need. Am I making some sense? Otherwise,
it's just show bread in the temple. There's some people that just
get to clean up around the temple and never get to eat the showbread.
But guess who eats the showbread? The priest. And are we not priests
in the temple of God? Do we not get to eat the showbread?
And so the show bread is Jesus Christ. He's the seed that goes
into the ground and dies. And when he died, he brought
forth much fruit. He's the wheat from which the bread is made.
Is he not? And we eat that bread of life and we are strengthened
there by, and I am certain that Philip was just as excited about
this new assignment as would be the man who would run across
him in our account. Aren't you and I excited when
we, um, when we sense that we are in the will of God. We're
excited that God is about to do something because we sense
that we are in the will of God, particularly when you have learned
the ways of God in your life in the past. When God has shown
you how he works, because he works a little differently for
all of us. Because we're all unique weirdos
in God's kingdom, right? We are the nuts and fruits of
Solomon's garden. This is true. Accept it. You're weird. And God loves it
because you're his weird thing. So long. And you're an exotic
fruit. Ain't no doubt about it. You're exotic. And no one has
to like you but God. No one has to like you but God.
And the one we're really concerned about eating of our fruit is
the master. When he comes to this big tree,
I want him to find fruit on this tree and he can have as much
as he wants. He can strip the thing dry. You
understand what I'm getting at? And so I'm sure Philip was jazzed,
even though his outward circumstances would have had everyone around
him who were driven by mere evidentialism or empiricism or outward appearances. Philip, what in the world are
you doing? Do you know that they killing people down in Gaza?
Right now we're seeing that, aren't we? Gaza ain't nowhere
to preach the gospel. Yes, it is. The gospel is to
be preached where sinners are in desperate need. Desperate
need. And it's significant. It's not
insignificant that we are talking about desert because the desert
signifies the condition of the human race. You and I, apart
from God, are like a desert, a dry, arid desert wherein there's
no water and no fruit. And God promises, according to
Isaiah 35, that he would turn the desert into a fruitful field
with running water, pools of water, bearing forth fruit and
vegetation everywhere. Only God could do that. And we
saw last time how this being led by the Spirit of God moved
Philip into this place. And then I gave the last proposition
and this is Ecclesiastes 3.1. And you might as well accept
this and embrace this and learn how to work with this. Everything
is beautiful in its own time. Do you believe that? This is
really true. Now, if you accept that, then
you will be ready for your assignment, even if God doesn't use you until
you are 75 years old. Think about that. to everything
there's a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens. Everything is beautiful in its
season. Now I know Solomon was speaking
in a very general sense, but it is true when we are in the
will of God, all is good. Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. That's what Solomon also said.
And so it's important for you and I to know that timing, timing
is what? Everything. Timing is everything. You know, sometimes God has to
work on you and me for a long time before he puts us in a position
to use us. Now, we don't like that because
we want to be used coming right out of the chute. Born again
today, used tomorrow. But God generally doesn't do
it that way. He generally saves us, then he grows us, and he
matures us, and then he uses us. That way, you and I don't
stumble in the process. Remember our sister Miriam, Ibrahim? We would ask the question, why
would God take her through such a test and put her in such a
public, prominent position when he could have used 100,000, a
million other Christians because he had prepared her. See, God
prepares you to use you. That's what the Bible teaches.
Joseph was prepared to be placed on Egypt's throne and his preparation
were the kind of trials and tests most people wouldn't pass. But
God prepared him for that exaltation, didn't he? So we know God prepared
sister Miriam, didn't he? As God has prepared Philip, as
God is preparing the Ethiopian that we're gonna deal with right
now. So everything is beautiful in its time. Notice what the
text goes on to say, let's get at it now, let's get to work.
Point number three in the outline, this is so beautiful to me. A
promise of grace to Africa also. So why do I say that? I mean,
pastor, isn't that anecdotal? The Ethiopian eunuch is just
one man. So what are you saying? That
God doesn't do big things through one person? The Ethiopian eunuch
is one man. Adam was one man. Moses was one
man. Joshua was one man. Job was one
man. Our master was one man. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? It only takes one. Paul was one
man. And our sisters all through the
scriptures, one man. That's all it takes. So I don't
think I'm stretching the text by making this application that
our friend, the Ethiopian eunuch, we'll talk about that a little
bit, is a signal of a promise of grace to Africa, And then
you notice how I close that sentence up? Also, thank you, Lord. Thank you for saving black folks
too. Yeah. So every time I get to talk about
ethnocentric issues and I'm not gonna expand on it fully today,
what I try to remind my brothers and sisters of the rich resources
of grace and the demonstrative nature of his mercy is that anytime
I'm talking to an audience of 50, 60, 70, 100 people, thousand
people, I will say, look around you. You're going to see people
of every color, but you're going to see Africans there too, because
that's the way God works. And so just like we would rejoice
and laud in our Jewish brethren, or in our Anglo-Saxon brethren,
or our Italian brethren, or the spectrum of our Asian brethren,
our Filipino brethren, we rejoice also in our African culture too.
In the different lands where the ethnic groups are dominant
and they are Christian, I am sure they are thankful that God
smiled on that nation. In the different ethnic groups
where the people are Christian and they gather together and
their numbers are monolithically one group, one ethnic group,
I am sure they are rejoicing in the fact that God smiled on
them. and we ought to as well because
we know that whatever God does is perfect. I'm just gonna share
with you a couple, two or three verses out of this. First and
foremost, go with me back to your Bibles and your Bibles to
Genesis chapter two. Just kind of give you a prophetic
picture of this promise that God would make to the Cushite
people as we would call them according to Abraham or Adam.
Noah's sons in Genesis 9 through 11. In Genesis chapter 2, however,
we read of the Garden of Eden and in the Eden, we have a lot
of deep and rich symbolism around the manner in which the Garden
of Eden was structured and made. I just want to share with you
one little picture that underscores for me the promise of redemption. Now you do understand that the
Bible, while in its historical context, is true historically. You do believe in the veracity
of Scripture, right? You believe that the Bible is
the Word of God and that it is right scientifically, it is right
historically, it is right grammatically, it is right theologically, it
is right redemptively. It's God's Word. It's right. It's right. It's right historically.
It is right geographically. And anyone try to find the Garden
Eden today and if they don't find it, that doesn't make God's
Word wrong, it makes them ignorant. Why? Because of the major cataclysmic
change and shift after the flood and after the earthquake in Pilate's
days, the ability for us to find ground zero wherein God started
this thing is almost nil unless he wants to. Right? You guys
didn't understand what I'm saying. Often God covers up stuff and
hide stuff for his own purposes until the right time. So it is
with the garden of Eden. But in that garden, I want to
show you a beautiful truth that we learned long ago. The word
of God is about Jesus Christ. You do know that. And therefore,
it's about redemption in him. So often the historical narrative
has a redemptive narrative underneath. We call it a meta narrative.
There's always a story alongside the story. Don't fall prey to
a kind of parable that denies the historicity, but certainly
understand that the historical narrative is always going to
have a rich theological component to it, because that's the nature
of God's work. So the Garden of Eden is both
in the opening of the Genesis account, as well as the closing
of the last chapter of the Bible. We call it the Neo-Edenic Butyphic
Vision. where God restores and transcends
the restoration of the Edenic account in a superlative way
where we will never ever fall again. But we have a pure, pristine
manifestation of the Garden of Eden in Revelation chapter 22,
do we not? And it is clearly emblematic
of the centrality of Jesus Christ for there is a throne in Genesis
22 verse one. Him that sat on it and the lamb
is there and from that throne flows a what a river That's what
we have going on in our Genesis account. So Genesis chapter 2
opens up very clearly Along these lines addressing this beautiful
truth Genesis 2 verse 10 notice what it says and a river went
out of Eden to water the gardens And from thence it was parted
and became into what? Four heads. Now what does the
number four represent in the scriptures? Universality. These
are the four corners of the earth. And always you will have every
nation, kindred, tribe, and what? Tongue. That's the way the book
of Revelation lauds the universality of God's redemptive work in the
world. So we have the four compasses God's work in the seven spirits
of God which you're gonna learn two weeks from now when we get
back to the Sardis Church the seven spirits of God which is
really the one Holy Spirit in the perfection of his work goes
into the four quarters of the world to call men and women to
Christ so we have this river proceeding from one place spreading
out in what four directions now notice what it says and the name
of the first is peace on and That is it which compasses the
whole land of Hevila where there is gold. All kinds of speculations
as to what that land is. I don't know what it is. I told
you before the geography has radically changed. But guess
what? God knew where it was. Moses
knew where it was. And it's possible revelation
was given to the people of God at that time where it was. That's
the first river. Second, And the name of the second
river is Gihon, the same, here it is, is it, that compasseth
the whole land of Ethiopia. Do you see that? God at the very
beginning saw to it that Ethiopia would be nourished with the river
of life. And the third, the river Hittikel,
That is that which goes toward the east of Assyria and the fourth
river, Euphrates. Now you guys already know locally
we are dealing with that central Middle Eastern. We are here contextually
in what would be considered the area of Iraq. Babylon. And centered out from that area,
our region would be the Euphrates River, the Ethiopic people, our
Cushite people, and then our Asiatic people, our Middle Eastern
Semitic peoples. This is how far the river is
going. So the river starts in a central place and goes out
in four directions. And God makes sure that we understand
that he is paying attention to Ethiopia. Lord, thank you for
Ethiopia. Thank you for those people. Thank
you for your purposes in their life. Do you believe in predestination?
Absolutely. You believe in election? Absolutely. I do. I listen. Even if you don't,
you'd be a hypocrite because every day you elect things and
you choose not to elect things. Do you understand? And if you're
a person that are given the politics, you believe in election and you
ought not to believe in predestination along the lines of election in
terms of us having power, but somebody, is ruling and reigning
and rigging the game even in politics. Ought not God to rule
and reign and rig the game when everything he does is right?
I want him to rule and reign and rig the game. And I'm so
glad that he chose me. Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. And I'm thankful for that. and
so the Ethiopian people would be designated for. Would they
go through hard times? Absolutely. Would all the nations
go through hard times? Absolutely. Now turn with me
in your Bible to Psalm 68. I'll skip over Matthew for a
moment, and I just want you to see the rich prophecy in Psalm
68 concerning the Ethiopian people as we begin to prepare to contemplate
something that is very important in my own heart, but certainly
mostly important in the heart of God with regards to the relationship
between Philip and the Seteopian. We'll get a chance tonight to
tease that out more fully. But in Psalm 68, as we almost
finish the whole of Psalm 68, which is a wonderfully and beautifully
messianic psalm written by David under inspiration of the Spirit
of God, we're in in Psalm 68, he gives us that great prophetic
emblem of Christ's resurrection over in and his therefore providence
in dispensing spiritual gifts. In verse 17 and 18, the chariots
of God are 20,000, even thousands of angels. The Lord is among
them as in Sinai in the holy place. Speaking of the temple,
you have ascended on high. You have led captivity captive.
You have received gifts for men. Isn't that Ephesians 4? Isn't
this the net consequence of the risen Lord after his atoning
work? He's speaking prophetically of
Christ in his ascension. He says, you have received gifts
for me and yay for the rebellious also. Do you see that? What men
were not rebellious? I'm so thankful for the rebellious
also, aren't you? That's actually talking about
me, not you, me. Oh yeah, give Jesse a gift too,
that the Lord God might dwell among them. Powerful. Verse 18 actually is describing
God's care about providing what was necessary for rebel sinners
like you and I to go and coexist in his presence without him destroying
us. He has made it so that we can
dwell in his presence and he can dwell with us in his holy
state and in our sinfulness without him destroying us. You know what
we call that? A gift. and it's the gift of
grace and mercy that flows from Jesus Christ. How can sinful
man dwell with a holy God? Christ! Christ, who is the gift
of God to every man who believes on him. You have ascended on
high. You have let captivity captive. You have received gifts
for men. Yay for the rebellious also that
the Lord God might dwell among them. And we're seeing that in
the book of Acts, are we not? God's breaking into the ethnic
groups. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, now
Ethiopia. How is he doing it? With gifts.
He received gifts, that is Christ. He gave them to his apostles.
He's given them to Stephen. He's given them to Philip. And
Philip is using his gift to break into those people groups. I'm thankful for it. See, God
uses means, you do know that, right? God uses means. Listen
to what verse 31 says. This is absolutely phenomenal. Let me start back at verse 30. Rebuke the company of spearmen,
the multitude of bulls, with the calves of the people till
everyone submits himself with pieces of silver. Scatter thou
the people that delight in war." And remember now, contextually
Psalm 68 is speaking about the constant opposition that came
against the temple. It speaks largely on the larger
prophetic level of the conflict and battle of humanity against
God. So let me contextualize this
before we make the application. You do understand that all of
us in Adam are at war with God. We do know that. That we fight
against his revelation, we fight against his providence, we fight
against his rule, his authority. The one thing that we don't want
is God to rule over us. That's endemic in our nature,
both before salvation and after it. I'm sorry to say, even in
our safe state, We still fight against submission to the rule
and crown rights of Jesus Christ. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. And every
honest Christian knows that. This is why David is such a blessing
in the Psalms, because one thing David knew how to do was ask
God to deliver him from his enemies. And he wasn't only talking about
outward enemies. He didn't talk about himself
too. This is why we have so rich a penitential Psalm in Psalm
51 and in Psalm 32. This shall all the godly pray
in a time when they may be heard. So shall I teach sinners in the
way. When you have cleansed my heart,
when you have renewed a right spirit in me, when you have given
me deliverance from my fall, oh God, then I will be a witness
to others. The primary impediment to our capacity to be a witness
to others is our own propensity and inclination to do our own
thing. That's the impediment. Do you
understand that? The impediment for me not being
able to serve God the way that I want to is because I really
want to do my own thing. I want to peel off about an hour
for God and the other 23 I want to do my thing. I want to do
Jesse. I want to do me. That's how we talk about it.
I want to do me. Doing me is killing me. I want to do less
of me and more of Christ. Yeah. And so in God's mercy,
he has to subdue our weaknesses and our follies. And he does
that as he humbles us through trials. This is true. If you and I are going to be
used greatly by God, he's going to have to humble us. David knows
that. And so we now move into the prophecy,
verse thirty one princes, shall come out of Egypt. Do you see
that? Princes shall come out of Egypt. Well, they have over and over
and over again. Joseph was a prince. Moses was
a prince. This Ethiopian is a prince. Listen to what it says. Ethiopia
shall what? Soon stretch your hands out unto
God. Isn't that fascinating? I'm not
gonna bore you with the construction of the Hebrew language here,
but this is a compound word that's used here when it says, stretch
out her hands. Ethiopia shall stretch out her
hands. So now the nation is being personified as a female, right? Shall stretch out her hands.
And the idea ladies and gentlemen of Ethiopia stretching out her
hands is to actually call on God The word is Yadah. That's our Hebrew word Yadah.
It's a very prominent word. We talked about this several
months ago. It's the word which means to confess. In the Hebrew
it means to confess. It means to open the mouth wide
and say everything you know about who you are and about who God
is. See, true confession is not holding back. like Ananias and
Sapphira held back part of the price. True confession is when
you open your heart to God and say everything you know to be
true. Homologeo is the Greek term for
saying the same thing as God has said. That's what confession
is. If we confess our faults, if we confess our sins, he is
just and faithful to what? having already forgiven us of
our sins, having already cleansed us from all unrighteousness. So if we are honest with God,
the word is wide open, wide open. What that means is we're letting
God know as far and as wide as I can see who I am and what I
am. I'm going to tell you the truth
about me. See, now that's being real with
God. This is what David said in Psalm 51. You desire truth
from the inward man and from the hidden parts, he will reveal
Christ to you. Reveal Christ to you for what?
In order for you to have access back to God through him. Remember
the publican in the temple? He wouldn't even go up near the
front, smiting his breast, saying, have mercy on me, the sinner. Remember that? And Christ said,
this man went down to his house justified. Why? He had a revelation
of the mercy seat. He had a pictorial revelation
of the place where God meets sinners. He says, I will meet
you between the cherub with blood. Isn't that what God says? Here's
why I will commune with you. And that penitent sinner, that
publican received the grace to acknowledge to God Everything
he knew about himself and that's all God is requiring I've told
people this before if you own your sin, God will own your sin
If you deny your sin, God will deny your sin The gospel is a
sinner's gospel. It is not for the righteous It
is only for sinners Sinners need Christ not righteous people And
there is no sin so deep, so wide, so profound, so enormous that
the blood of Christ can't wash it away. No sin. So to the degree that God gives
me a knowledge of His glory in the depths of Christ's atoning
word, to that degree, I can pursue God with my hands wide open.
I messed up. I messed up. Are you hearing
me? See, that's what the word Yadah
means in the Hebrew. It means to open wide, tell it
all to the one who knows what to do with it. And so here's
this sister, Ethiopia, who will quickly stretch out her arms. That's what the word stretch
out her arms. We stretch out our arms on to God. The other part of that compound
word, you know, uh, to Christmas is a Hebrew word, which means
to run quickly. She will stretch out our arms
in open confession of what she is, all that she is not all that
she should be. And she will run quickly towards
God. That's a powerful image there. It's like the little child that
messes up really bad. And when they see daddy or mama
afar, they come running with their hands wide open. Mama, mama, daddy, daddy. And
the only thing they're thinking is this is my refuge. This is my refuge. This is where
I will find security, healing, deliverance. God will bring me
out of this trouble that I am in, and only God can do it. She
will soon stretch out her hands. Now see, what we are dealing
with here in this metaphor is about the personal one-on-one. Listen to me now, this is the
personal one-on-one relationship between the sinner and the Savior.
This is the one-on-one relationship between the sinner and the Savior.
When you're in the mold of an outstretched head and a pursuit
of God, you're not thinking about anyone else. The publican said,
have mercy on me, the definite article, singular, exclusive
sinner. In his mind, there were no other
sinners in the world but him. See, when you and I are talking
to God about other people, We are not confessing. We are some
religious folks. One of my brothers said, hmm. So I'm pausing for a moment so
it can resonate. Because I want it to resonate. Because I think we waste a lot
of time in prayer too. I think we waste a lot of time
in prayer. See, God is not like you and
me. Do you understand you're not
filling in? Anything that God doesn't like
you God ain't waiting for you to actually bring him to Chronicles You understand that right you're
not like come on now tell me tell me tell me all right now
now what have you done God's not doing he's not waiting for
you to actually inform him what he's asking for is something
he would have seen even before you started running and A broken
and a contrite heart you will never despise. A broken and a
contrite heart you will never despise. And what that means
is before the words is the motive and intent of the heart, which
is the voice of the soul. The voice of the soul is motive
and intent. See, God doesn't hear your words.
He ponders the heart. The words can be filled with
all Haven't you noticed this? When you pray, very often your
prayers are jacked up by the things you say. There's another
revelation, get a hold of it. I'm gonna work this before I
move on. As you go to praying and you
go, I am messing this thing up. Because you can't find the appropriate
words to correspond with your initial motive and intent, which
are voiceless or wordless. And somehow you're trying to
make compatible the sincerity of your soul and its disposition
to get to God the right way with words that don't seem to qualify. And then because you are, as
it were, holding as it were, two concepts in your mind, the
concept of your motive, the intuition of your motive, and then the
cognitive awareness of your vocabulary. Your vocabulary takes over and
starts forming hypocritical or religious terms and religious
phrases, and your soul is backing up, saying, I'll see, Lord, I
ain't with her. I ain't with her. I ain't with her, because
she ain't even real. Your soul, way over there in
the corner, said, not me. See, your soul is with you when
your words rightly reflect the disposition of the soul. But
as soon as you go to entering into your own personal split
personality, your schizophrenia, the soul says, no, that ain't
prayer. Stretching your hands wide out,
running to God is a unity, a unity. We were talking about this two
weeks ago in our Greek class about the nature of God. In theology,
we call it the simplicity of God. God is a simple being. Let
me help you with that. What that means is God is not
complex and broken up into multiple categories in a kind of distinct
way, which threatens the unity of his being. Like with you and
me, we are complex creatures. We, we operate in categories
and these categories actually conflict with each other. Am
I telling the truth? God's not like that. God is one.
He is of one mind and no one can change him. There are three
in heaven and they are all one. They bear record in one. They
think with one unified, coherent, cohesive thought process and
every one of God's attributes and every one of God's Characteristics
and every one of God's actions are in complete harmony with
everything about his nature We call this unity in simplicity. Am I making some sense? But you
and I are not simple. We are jacked up We are dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde and When
dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde are in prayer
You're in a war Sometimes prayer is a war Sometimes you find yourself
fighting against yourself and pray you calling it the devil
Devil get behind me, but those are your own thoughts Probably
because you were praying too long You know, you can't pray
too long let me help you now you can pray too long God help
us with this You can pray too long when you are in manipulative
mode and trying to manipulate a God who is immutable. You know our heads are messed
up when we think we can move in movability, right? We try to move God. And so we
are doing fine for about the first 30 seconds of our prayer.
Moving to minute one, and then the earth starts moving. By minute
two, we feel like we own the sea. By minute three, we all
over in Mazatlan, Africa, Middle East. We all in MTV, BET, every
other T, but the true. How many bear record with what
I'm saying? I just need some honest folks. Yeah, I'm telling you
now. Here, let me, let me just, I
cannot, can I just tie the knot on this? because this is where
people misunderstand the character and nature of God in the area
of truth. It's not in the multitude of
words. It's not in the multitude of words. It's in the quality
of the words consistent with the motive. Lord, save me. Did you get that? Lord, save
me. Me this is what we call a simple
sentence subject verb object. You got it Lord save Me not a
long complex sentence Simple now you can actually say this
in about a second Lord save me That's about a second. You guys
got that that will have more efficacy on the throne in heaven
than all your father Thou knowest Stop with the King James stuff,
okay? Our sister was made to stretch
out her hands and open confession to God because the time was right. And so you know this too. You
know that when the time is right and there's a sincerity in your
soul, and that's a gift from God. That's a gift from God because
we don't always have it. Sometimes when we go to pray,
we shouldn't pray. Because it's not time to pray. You guys understand
what I'm saying? You don't have to do that. You
can just talk to God. Just like, like I'm talking to
you now. You can just talk to God. And
then at other times, prayer is something that we slide into
so easily. That pocket is there and we can talk and commune and
fellowship with God. And there's a unity and simplicity,
a harmony, coherence there. And it can go on and on and on.
It can just go. And it's natural. It's without
compulsion. It's not fabricated. It's not
contrived. And it's a wonderful place to
be. I saw this woman is she's running to God. You guys got
the picture. This is God's mercy to Ethiopia. Let's go back. Got 10 minutes
to go on an exegetical labor of what it means to be evangelical. A promise to Africa also now. Do you understand what you are
reading? This is so fascinating. Acts
chapter 8, and I won't be preaching on this on Sunday, but I will
be preaching about what's taking place. This Sunday we will be
baptizing 10 or 15 people, and then two weeks from now baptizing
some more. So I will be dealing with baptism
as a doctrine this Sunday, and I'm looking forward to it. It's
rich, rich, rich implications to what we know is the gospel. And what you and I are going
to have now is a model of biblical evangelism minus the sterile
sort of pedantic and contrived methodology that most of our
churches try to foist upon you in terms of being a witness.
You want to be a good witness, make communing with God your
priority. You want to be a good witness?
Drink in the word of God with the objective of being able to
share it with others. Remember freely you have received
freely what? That's right. So I want to be able to pour
into other people's lives. So in order for me to pour into
other people's lives, I have to be poured into. But I really
want to be poured into because I want my communion with God
to be sustained. Because I know that if I am pleasing
to God by God being pleasing to me, then I can be pleasing
to me. Am I making some sense? Because
because to be pleasing to God and thus God being your pleasure,
you become a unique person where in others are benefited. As often
christians are empty vessels with a promise of water and nothing's
in it And there are souls all over
the world that are dry and famished and parched And all they want
is a cold cup of water from a far country And the believer ought
to be that messenger with a cold cup fresh Water of grace and
truth to give to a thirsty soul. Am I making some sense? But that
will only be a consequence of you and I feeding on the Word
of God and feeding on it with the objective of enjoying God
Enjoying God ourselves personally and a a constant constant fixation
on the beauties and glories and effulgence and wonders of God
in Christ. See, the father is not interested
in you telling people about the father. He's interested in you
telling people about his son. And the Holy Ghost is not interested
in you telling people about the Holy Ghost. He's interested in
you telling people about the son. This is my beloved son in
whom I will always be well pleased The role of the holy ghost john
16 13 is not to talk about himself His goal is to glorify christ
exalt christ because in exalting christ you exalt the father to
the degree that we diminish who Christ is and what he did and
where he is now in his mediatorial role for sinners in his triumphant
position as our high priest. We are diminishing the glory
of the Father. Like Father, like what? Son. And if you dishonor
the Son, you dishonor the Father. Go for yourself and look at it
in John 5. He that does not honor me does
not honor the Father. When we tell people, do not get
the Trinity lopsided. Do not misappropriate the persons
of the Triune God. Do not split them up. Don't some
of y'all over here say, well, I worship the Father. You can't
worship the Father unless you are both in the Son and love
the Son. There is no access to the Father
apart from the Son. Well, I love the Holy Ghost.
You can't love the Holy Ghost. unless you love the Son. Because
the Holy Ghost has no personal objective of manifesting himself
distinctly apart from the Son. His job is to glorify the Son.
He casts light on the person and work of the Son. I know I
have the Holy Ghost when I am enamored with, taken up by Jesus
Christ. And when the spirit of God is
pleased to use me to Lord him and exalt him, but first and
foremost, to see him and to adore him and to want him and to want
to be just like him. Now I know the spirit of God
is working. I can prove that in my text. I can prove that
in my tax. Do you understand what you're
reading? Verse 30 and 31. We've got about five minutes to go.
Let's watch this. Verse 29, then the Spirit said
unto Philip, go near, join yourself to this man's chariot. So now
you know, because the Ethiopian was a black man, I told you,
he's riding in a Denali. He got a Denali, he rode a big
long black Denali. Gold rims, 50s, TAs. That's just how we do it, right?
Rolling. And Philip is a horse. That's
what Philip means in the Greek, horse. And so God gave him the
ability to run. He running up on the chariot.
He running right by the, The Ethiopian unit hits the button
on his window, window rolls down halfway. Can I help you brother?
Just kind of bring them to 21st century vernacular because this
is an amazing event. How is a brother on a desert
road where nobody is supposed to be running across an entourage
of Egyptian majesty, Ethiopic majesty, and meeting a man who
no less is sitting in his chariot audibly reading the scriptures. If that's not an easy assignment,
I don't know. Jan, it's like waking up saying,
Lord, use me to witness to somebody today. And the moment you step
out the door, somebody sitting on the porch right there with
a Bible open saying, man, I wish somebody would help me understand
this verse. You think the Lord might be in
that? Listen to the text. Then the spirit said unto philip
go near and join yourself to this cherry didn't we learn this
last week that when you are actually witnessing It is a dangerous
thing Because you are called upon to break into other people's
spheres and dimensions and this is a kind of uh interruption
here albeit it's an assignment, God's in it, but didn't we say
two weeks ago that Philip could have actually been killed in
the process of trying to break into that entourage with all
those soldiers around this Ethiopian having their spears and their
swords ready to go? Preaching requires a level of
boldness and confidence that only God can give you, which
Philip already had. Our brother ran through those
soldiers, knocked on the window, The Ethiopian wrote it down.
Philip said, can I holler at you? He didn't say it quite like
that, but this is what he said. And Philip ran thither. And as
he ran, he heard him read the prophet. So our Greek term is
Zaius and said, do you understand what you are reading? Now, ladies
and gentlemen, this is an opportunity, par excellence. And the question
that Philip now raises is insightful because it's really sort of predicated
upon his office as a deacon. He's actually ready to serve
this man in the role of a teacher. So he's coming, not stating dogmatic
propositions, are jumping on this man with Bible verses. You know how we do as religious
folks. Amen, brother. I see you read the scriptures.
You know what Jesus said in John 14, eight. Oh man, I read the
scriptures every day, man. I love the word of God. I was
last night. The spirit of God gave me this.
See right now, what I'm describing is a narcissistic Christian who's
really wrapped up in himself. He has absolutely no sensitivity
to the moment or the need or the person. Philip simply makes
himself available to serve this man's need. He does it by identifying
and affirming what he's doing. He's reading the scriptures.
He's reading the scriptures. And so he simply takes occasion
upon the reading of the scriptures to see if he can have access
into this man's conversation and dialogue. His interest, I
see you reading the scriptures. Do you understand what you're
reading? If the Ethiopian would have said, yes, Philip would
have said, could you tell me what you have received from that?
And that might've been a second avenue into a conversation. Cause
you out here in the desert, I'm out here in the desert. Ain't
nobody else out here but us. You read the scriptures. I'd
love to hear what you have to say. Maybe the Lord has me here
to learn something from you. Sometimes in witnessing the people,
that's how it occurs. I can tell you many, many times
people have come to me thinking they go, tell me something about
the Bible. And so I'll let them start. And I, the last thing
I will ever tell people is I'm a pastor, this and that. I try
not even to make mention of my name. I will inflect my voice
often so that they don't even know I'm the radio guy. I'll
do that. So yeah, I really do it. I keep
it low, keep it low. Cause as soon as they, Hey, is
that you? Jesse gets there. Cause people
trip once they, you know, kind of know who you are and especially
when your pastor is over with. And so I try as hard as I can
never to let people know I'm a pastor, but people will frequently
try to impress me with Bible verses and what they know. And
70, 80% of the time it's not quite right. So, you know, it's
awkward because you might have to say, well, you know, it doesn't
quite say that. And see, this would be embarrassing
for us as Christians if we are trying to witness to people and
all we're doing is either trying to get a notch in our belt, impress
somebody, you understand, or out of a legalistic objective,
win somebody to Christ. And we're not ourselves really
proficient in the word of God. And then also just not proficient
in witnessing, not knowing how to come along someone and actually
meet them where they are. and try to engage them where
they are. And that's what Philip was doing here. He says, do you
understand what you are reading? So verses 30 and 31 actually
opens up for us what we call the effectual door. Listen to
what it says. He said, do you understand what
you read? And he, Anasidon, the Ethiopian said, how can I accept
some man, what? It's amazing. So we have this
sort of serendipity going on here. Earlier, I talked to you
about the word, what? Guide, didn't I? So what we are
dealing with now is a sort of a parallelism. And this is the
way the Hebrew works too. We can go back to the Old Testament,
see multiple stories where God gives us these parallels inside
the narrative. And here's a parallel. Philip
is guided by the spirit of God. Here's a man reading the instrumentality
by which we come to know Christ. but he does not have the efficient
means. He has the instrumental means,
which is the word of God, but he doesn't have the efficient
means, which is the spirit of God. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? Lots of people have Bibles, but
they don't have the interpretation because they don't have the efficient
means. The instrumental means is the word of God. The efficient
means is the spirit of God. The ultimate means is God himself.
God is light and in him and there is no darkness at all. But the
word of God is a light unto our feet. It's a lamp unto our path.
But the spirit of God is the illuminating source by which
we comprehend that truth. So Philip is led by the spirit
to this man who needs Philip's guidance. So these two brothers
are match made in heaven. Are they not? Here is what God
does this is why we believe in Proverbs 16 1 this is what I
meant by the predestinating work of God predestination Doesn't
mean that God predetermines your path predestination means that
God has purpose to conform you to the image of his dear son
okay, it's a different concept of for ordination and and foreordaining. Predestination means that God
has chosen before the foundation of the world to have sons and
daughters in his own image by virtue of their adoption in Jesus
Christ. But the process by which that
is done for those of us who are fallen sinners is for the gospel
to be preached to us. How can I believe on him whom
I do not know? And now watch this now. Here
we have the Bible in the hand of an Ethiopian. And like some
Christians would say, I don't need a preacher. I don't need
a teacher. I don't need anyone to tell me
about God. I got my Bible all alone. Right. And at that point,
they are denying a number of fundamental principles in scripture,
one of which we said earlier, one souls and other waters. God
does what? Which means God honors means destiny. See, God gives
us gifts in the church and those gifts are teaching gifts, they
are ruling gifts, they are helping gifts, they are healing gifts,
and all of those are necessary to build us up in the faith.
We need teachers. And so this man's heart was prepared,
wasn't it? You know what he said? How can
I understand it except some man guide me into the truth? So we're gonna stop here. Let
me just simply make a couple of observations and we'll come
back, not next week, because next week is our missionary conference.
And I want everybody in grace, plus your mama and your daddy,
your uncle, your auntie, your cat and your dog to be here next
Friday and next Sunday. We are a church that supports
missionary work. Number of missionary works we
support around the world. And one of my brothers is coming
from Papua New Guinea, Lance Heller. He's been doing missionary
work for 30 years. Before him was his father, And Pastor Heller
is a very humble man, very meek man. This is why I want you to
meet him because he's not... Most authentic missionaries are
not like our American preachers. I'm going to share this with
you and then we'll be done. In Western Christianity, there's
too much entertainment, too much religiosity, Too much flesh,
too much pride, too much showmanship, too much ego, too much carnality. I'm just telling you. So what
I want, what I want our people to meet are real missionaries
who are like the beaten gold of the temple. See, God made
the temple of certain skins with certain colors. Then he made
it of acacia wood, some of the hardest wood in the world, so
that it wouldn't decay. And that's all symbolic of eternal
life. And then he overcovered that wood with gold. And then
he made artifacts and articles in the temple of gold, but the
kind of gold that God used was what we call beaten gold, which
means the gold had to be pounded out to be shaped and formed into
the vessel necessary for God to use. and every vessel that
God uses must be a beaten gold. Are you following me? And so
beaten gold is gold that has been humbled by God, not the
manufactured, pressed kind of images that we have in our present
Christian journey today where people have really not went through
much. Going to school, learned a few things, basically learned
how to manipulate people run churches and are nothing but
popularist, politicians and big names. And what is often lacking,
this moves us into a whole nother dimension about the gold, silver,
bronze and precious stones in the temple versus the wood, hay
and stubble in the temple that will be burnt up on the last
day. So God has always given his people an awareness that
the temple is made of durable things and perishable things.
They coexist in this dimension of grace, but in glory, the only
thing that's going to be in glory are durable things. Are you hearing
me? I'm almost done. So he has tutored,
catechized the church from the beginning that when God is in
it, it reaches the level of gold because the gold signifies deity,
longevity, durability. It's only a flawed analogy. Gold
can perish too. You do know that, right? Physical
gold can perish. It can oxidize. It can waste
away. It can lose its value. I just want you to know if you
don't know. But it's an analogy of something that endures. And
it has always been the standard for all economic wealth and worth. You guys know that. So the gold
in the temple represented the deity of God, the purity of God,
the holiness of God in terms of his intrinsic distinction
between everything else. The silver in the temple represented
the perfections of our God having been tried in the fire and purged
of all the dross of sin. So the silver in the temple is
another qualitative statement about the atoning work of Jesus
Christ. And then it diminishes to bronze. You have gold, silver,
and bronze. All three of those are critical
components in the temple. Could talk about that forever.
I'm simply saying it to say this, that in our churches, most of
our Western churches, the bulk of our churches are nothing but
facades made up of wood, hay, and stubble. If there's any gold,
silver, precious stones in it, it's only very little, because
we are used to show. Do you understand? We can put
big ornate buildings up in a few weeks, which means they have
no substance to them. The temple that Solomon built
took seven years. And we could talk about the gospel
in that and show the richness and the depth of God's presence
and work in every piece of artifact, every piece of metal, every piece
of the components that put the temple together to show us that
when God is in it, it's a matter of him taking time to purify,
perfect, to mold and shape, beat us into vessels, meat for the
master's use. That's why we don't have to be
in a hurry. Am I making some sense saying, you ain't got to
be in no hurry. God takes his time making a vessel, meat for
his use. He takes his time. Want to put
up an edifice in a day? It can go down in a day. Are
you hearing me? So when you meet authentic missionaries,
here is one more key evidence and token of their presence.
Are you ready? Humility. They're not going to
be prancing all over the stage, acting a fool, clowning, not
authentic missionaries. They're not going to even tell
you the war stories like our military boys who actually fight
wars. I ain't talking about the showman soldiers. I'm not talking
about the paper. I'm talking about the real soldiers
that actually fight. They don't talk about it. Real missionaries
don't get into the hard stuff because it would be a deterrent
for shallow thinking Christians. What I want you to do with your
pastor is to appreciate what I consider the frontline soldiers
in the kingdom, people who are willing to go into places and
live with people who are nothing like them for the rest of their
life to actually be a means by which these people come to Christ.
having formerly been barbarians. My Popeye New Guinea brethren
will cook you and make you into gumbo so quick, apart from the grace of God. And my brother Lance, he'd been
with him so long. He looked just like him now,
only he white. I love it. With whom you associate,
you assimilate, you associate, you become like. But he knows
them, they know him. They love him like a brother
because he took the time to do the long arduous work of a missionary. So when you come on Friday and
we're starting at seven o'clock sharp, you're gonna hear him
tell the story about the missionary work on Friday. And then on Sunday,
he will preach to us. But after him, Elder Rick is
going to bring the word. Remember my elder who started
the work up there? Elder Rick is going to preach
for us. So we're going to get a local missionary work and a
long term missionary work. And I'm sharing with you here
that it's not bells and whistles. You got to listen with your heart
as that man shares with you how grace works. to transform little
islands around the world. You guys follow what I'm saying?
All right, let's pray. So Father, thank you for this
time. Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for your
word. Thank you for the word. Thank you for the word made flesh
dwelling among us. Thank you for giving us eyes
to behold his glory. Thank you for conforming us into
his image. Thank you for your spirit, oh God, that is bringing
us into a greater and more deeply profoundly appreciative love
for Christ every day. Be gracious, oh God, as you are
by nature to us, to our children, to our children's children, to
our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, our moms and dads,
people we know and care about who are lost, they're lost, and
we want them to be saved. Oh God, be gracious, use us in
every way. As we go our way, give us troubling
mercies, prepare us to worship you on Sunday, we pray in Jesus'
name, amen. Amen. God bless you.