Philip and the Ethiopian

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[upbeat music]

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♪ I got the joy, joy, joy, joy ♪

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♪ Down in my heart ♪

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Where?

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Okay, come on.

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I'm wearing a cap.

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Not to be disrespectful, it's a cool cap.

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That's why I got it on.

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But also, this past week,

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I had a granddaughter who turned 18.

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And I sent her a text and I said,

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"Happy birthday, young woman."

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And she replied, "Thank you, old man."

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[audience laughing]

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And then she said, "Ha ha, I think she meant that kindly.

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"And I'm not sure."

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And I said,

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"Gray hair and even a bald head is a sign of wisdom."

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And she said, "I know."

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So anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to reveal.

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[audience laughing]

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Yeah, there you go.

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Glad you're here this morning.

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Philip and the Ethiopian,

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we're gonna talk about this passage

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in Acts chapter eight this week.

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Philip was one of the original deacons,

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and he's also often referred to as Philip the Evangelist.

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One of the reasons that he's referred to

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as Philip the Evangelist is because of chapter eight.

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After Stephen had been martyred,

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Philip went to Samaria,

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and he began to preach, and the whole town,

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the whole area came to the Lord.

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The whole area, God said.

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There was a big revival going on.

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In fact, he was confronted by a guy named

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Simon the Sorcerer who, well, I don't know if he was,

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they called him Simon the Sorcerer.

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I don't know, you know, let's just call our kids Simon.

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He was a man of faith.

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He was a man of faith.

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He was Simon the Sorcerer.

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I don't know, you know, let's just call our kids

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Simon the Sorcerer.

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But they called him that,

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and he had been a big deal in the area,

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and I love this story because when Philip was confronted

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by this guy and challenged by this guy,

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he didn't do what we have a tendency to do

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when we're confronted and challenged about our faith.

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He didn't go, "Blah, blah, blah, blah,"

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you know, "Out on you, bang, bang, bang."

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No, he got him saved.

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He converted him.

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You know, it was really great,

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and so this big revival's going on,

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and Peter and John is sent to Samaria

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in the first half of this chapter,

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and an angel speaks to Philip

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and gives him some new instructions.

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Would you stand with me?

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Let's find out what those instructions were.

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Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip,

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"Go south to the road, the desert road

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"that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."

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So he started out on his way.

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He met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official

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in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake,

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which means queen of the Ethiopians.

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This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

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and on his way home was sitting in his chariot

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reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.

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The spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot

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"and stay near it."

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Then Philip ran up to the chariot

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and heard the man, Isaiah the prophet.

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"Do you understand what you are reading?"

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Philip asked.

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"How can I," he said,

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"unless someone explains it to me?"

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

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This is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading.

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He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

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and as a lamb before its sharers is silent,

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so he did not open his mouth.

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In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice.

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Who can speak of his descendants?

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For his life was taken from the earth.

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The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please,

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"who is the prophet talking about,

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"himself or someone else?"

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Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture

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and told him the good news about Jesus.

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As they traveled along the road, they came to some water,

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and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water.

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"What can stand in the way of my being baptized?"

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And he gave orders to stop the chariot.

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Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water,

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and Philip baptized him.

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When they came up out of the water,

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the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away,

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and the eunuch did not see him again,

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but he went on his way rejoicing.

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Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about,

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preaching the gospel in all the towns

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until he reached Caesarea.

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Father, thank you for your word.

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Thank you for the life that is in your word.

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Thank you for the presence of the Holy Spirit in this place.

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Give us ears to hear.

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Give us hearts to understand.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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You may be seated.

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Now, before I get into what I wanna actually

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talk about today, I wanna immediately do a bunny trail,

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a word about baptism, because I was asked

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a few weeks ago by someone,

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"What do you have to do to be baptized?"

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And I've been asked that many times

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throughout the years in ministry,

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and what they mean is, "Well, do I need to take some classes?

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"Do I need to, what do I need to learn?

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"You know, do I need, what do I need to do?"

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And this is, this passage pretty much answers it.

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There is a verse that you won't find

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in almost any of the new translations

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because it's not in some of the older text,

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but it's, when the eunuch says, you know,

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"What would stand in the way of me being baptized?"

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That verse says it doesn't change anything,

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but the verse says that Philip told him,

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"If you believe with all your heart, you may."

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And the eunuch answered, "I believe that Jesus Christ

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"is the Son of God," and so they baptized him.

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And so if you're wondering what do you have to do

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to be baptized, believe.

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You believe, if you believe, you should be baptized,

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you should get baptized, 'cause you see,

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we not only are proclaiming that Jesus is our Savior,

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we're proclaiming that Jesus is our Lord.

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And you know what Jesus said to do?

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Get baptized, be baptized, and if he's our Lord

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and he's saying, "Be baptized," then hey,

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I'm not gonna put, nothing stands in the way

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except just saying yes.

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So anyway, that's got nothing to do

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with what I'm gonna teach about today,

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but it was something that I felt like I needed to say,

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was supposed to say.

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The book of Acts, the book of Acts was written by Luke,

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and we know this because Luke wrote the book of Luke,

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and in the book of Luke, he addressed it to dear Theophilus.

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I wanna tell you some things here.

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And the person who wrote the book of Acts says,

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"In my former book, Theophilus,

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"I told you about this stuff,

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"now I'm gonna tell you about some other stuff."

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And so Luke wrote the book of Acts, but he didn't name it.

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He didn't call it Acts, he didn't call it anything.

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He just said, "Here you go, Theophilus,

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"I'm gonna tell you some stuff."

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It was almost 200 years later when a guy named Arrhenius

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named it, called it the Acts of the Apostles,

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and the name stuck, and it's rather unfortunate

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that the name stuck, Acts of the Apostles.

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Because, well, some things that are recorded in Acts

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were things that the Apostles, the original 12,

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were involved in.

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A lot of the things that are recorded in Acts,

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Paul was involved in, now he was an Apostle,

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but he wasn't one of the original 12.

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Philip wasn't an Apostle, he was a deacon.

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He was a deacon and an evangelist,

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and there are other things in the book

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that weren't necessarily done by the Apostles.

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However, everything in that book was inspired by

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and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

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And so a more accurate title for the book

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would be Acts of the Holy Spirit.

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And if these were simply the Acts of the Apostles,

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then it might lead some to believe

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and some to even teach that,

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well, those guys aren't here anymore,

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so that stuff doesn't happen anymore.

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But guess who is still here?

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The Holy Spirit.

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And so because he is still here,

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the things he did then, he does now.

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He is part of the Godhead, the God who doesn't change,

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Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

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Hey, the Holy Spirit is also the same

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yesterday, today, and forever.

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And so the Holy Spirit does stuff.

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Well, who is this Holy Spirit?

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The Holy Spirit has multiple titles,

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just as the Father and the Son have multiple titles.

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The Father is the ancient of days,

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he is the Lord God Almighty, the God of Abraham,

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Isaac, and Jacob, the great I Am, Jesus.

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The Son has multiple titles, he's the Prince of Peace,

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he's the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,

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he's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

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Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit over in John chapter 14,

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and the word that he uses to describe him

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is a word that contains many titles.

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Now, it's a Greek word, and I don't usually use Greek words,

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but I can pronounce this one.

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And the word is parakletos.

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And if you're reading in various translations,

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you might see the word comforter,

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or you might see the word advocate,

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or you might see the word counselor.

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And if you're only gonna use one word

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to describe parakletos, then yeah,

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you can use any of those words.

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But what the term literally means is

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one called alongside to help.

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That's what it literally means.

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Philip left the revival in Samaria,

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and it says an angel gave him instructions,

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and it probably required an angel

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to get him to leave a big revival

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where he's kind of a central character

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and things are really going on,

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and wants you to go and walk in the desert for a while,

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go take a desert road.

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But an angel tells him to do that,

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and he meets an Ethiopian eunuch along the way,

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an important official, and we read this.

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The spirit told Philip, go to that chariot

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and stay near it.

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Now Ethiopia, the results of this encounter

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were massive, were unimaginable.

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Ethiopia was actually the first country in the world

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to officially proclaim Christianity

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as their religion, and today, almost 2,000 years later,

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even though it's surrounded by Muslim countries

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on all sides, over 70% of the population

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of Ethiopia are Christians.

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They still claim Christ, and this happened

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because Philip was listening to and obedient

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to the Holy Spirit.

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Now, here's the kicker.

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The Holy Spirit wants to talk to you.

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He's not just here to talk to certain ones.

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He's not just here to talk to apostles.

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He's not just here to talk to pastors.

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He's not just here to talk to evangelists.

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He wants to talk to you.

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There is such a thing, and the culture

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and the teaching that I was brought up in

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was all about the Holy Spirit.

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We heard about the Holy Spirit a lot,

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and let me just say, you know, we sang earlier.

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One of the first things that we sang today

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was I have decided to follow Jesus.

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I hope by the time I get through this morning,

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you'll understand that that is a totally empty phrase

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unless it is coupled with the decision

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to follow the Holy Spirit,

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because you can't follow Jesus

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unless you're gonna follow the Holy Spirit as well.

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There is such a thing as being filled with the Spirit,

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being baptized in the Holy Ghost.

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Now, that's what I was brought up with,

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baptized in the Holy Ghost, and man, I was several times.

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And you know, when you get baptized in the Holy Ghost,

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you speak in tongues, and just weird things happen,

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and you seek and you tarry until that,

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yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

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And that's real.

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There is such a thing, and I know a few weeks back,

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Kevin held a service and invited people to come down

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and be filled with the Holy Spirit,

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and that's a wonderful thing,

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but one of the things that I have learned over the years

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is that being filled with the Spirit

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is not a one-time event.

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Yeah.

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If you go and fill your car up with gas,

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you know what you're gonna have to do next week?

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You're gonna have to fill it again.

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In fact, the day that Kevin held that service,

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we were out of town, and we were traveling,

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and we were gonna listen to it,

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but the internet didn't work.

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It got broke or something that day, I don't remember,

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so we weren't really able to,

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and then we watched it later,

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and then they cut it off before the real stuff

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started happening, which, but anyway,

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we were driving that day, and you know what?

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We started that day with a car full of gas,

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and we had to fill it up the same day.

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And just because you've been filled with the Spirit

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doesn't mean you're still filled with the Spirit.

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Yeah, that'll preach.

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Yeah, I mean, it is an ongoing thing, an ongoing process.

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And so, even if you, here's what I wanna say.

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Even if you've never experienced the baptism

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of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Holy Spirit,

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you still have the Holy Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit is still your paraclete.

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He is still the one called alongside to help you.

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He is still inside of you.

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Romans 8, 9 says this.

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You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh,

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but are in the realm of the Spirit,

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if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you,

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and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,

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they do not belong to Christ.

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Conversely, what that is saying is if you belong to Christ,

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the Spirit's in there.

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Now, the tank may not be full.

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It may be somewhere down here, but the Spirit is in there.

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Let me just say, because I know I kinda grew up sometimes

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where some people would take this particular passage

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and they would go, see, you gotta be baptized

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in the Holy Ghost to be saved.

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That's not true.

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It does not say God so loved the world

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that he gave his one and only Son,

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that whosoever believes on him and speaks in tongues

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shall not perish but have everlasting life.

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No, you, hey, I'm not denigrating speaking in tongues.

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I speak in tongues, but I'm just saying

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that's not a requirement to be saved,

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and it's not a requirement to have the Holy Spirit

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living in you.

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This last Thursday, Justin was teaching in Galatians

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and came across a verse and he said,

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you know, we're in the middle of talking

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about the Holy Spirit, and this is the reason

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why we're talking in Galatians.

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Hey, he's getting better every week.

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[audience laughs]

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He really is.

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I mean, the boy's coming along.

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Yeah.

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Even Michelle likes you now.

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I mean, she always laughed at your jokes, but.

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But this is the verse he was talking about.

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Because you are his sons, God sent the spirit of his Son

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into our hearts, the spirit who calls out Abba, Father.

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The first paraclete taught us to pray, our Father,

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who art in heaven.

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The second paraclete comes into our very hearts

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and cries out, my Father, my Father.

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And so if you belong to Christ, if you're saved,

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the Holy Spirit is in you.

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He's there, and he's trying to talk to you.

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He's called alongside to help you,

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and he's speaking to you, and this isn't just

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a special occasion event.

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We tend to think, okay, yeah, the Holy Spirit will speak

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when something big happens.

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The Holy Spirit will speak when something big

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is really needed.

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That's not, no.

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In fact, he's unlikely to speak when something big happens

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if you haven't learned to listen to him

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when something small is going on.

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He can't really trust you with a big word

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if he can't trust you with a small word.

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This is a daily event.

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How much help is a helper who only shows up every few years?

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I've got a couple of friends up in Antioch,

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and they're physically, they're really going through it.

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She's got all kinds of issues.

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He's dealing with like his fourth or fifth bout of cancer,

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and this one has really been rough on him.

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They don't go to the church here.

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These are friends from back in my theater days.

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But anyway, Michelle and I have gone to visit them

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several times and gotten to know them

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and really, really care about them,

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and Michelle has been very concerned

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about how do they make it?

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How are they able to take care of each other?

Speaker: 00:20:50

And yesterday, I was on the phone with my friend,

Speaker: 00:20:54

and he told me, he said, "We have home health now.

Speaker: 00:20:58

"They come five days a week, and they take care of things,

Speaker: 00:21:02

"and they're getting ready to start coming

Speaker: 00:21:04

"seven days a week."

Speaker: 00:21:05

What if they only came once a month?

Speaker: 00:21:10

How much help would that be?

Speaker: 00:21:14

What if they only showed up every three months?

Speaker: 00:21:16

Or just every now and again?

Speaker: 00:21:19

No, they're gonna be there every day

Speaker: 00:21:23

because they're needed every day,

Speaker: 00:21:25

and the paraclete, the one called to walk alongside of you,

Speaker: 00:21:29

is walking with you every day.

Speaker: 00:21:33

He wants to talk to you every day.

Speaker: 00:21:35

And then when he does speak, we tend to think of it

Speaker: 00:21:38

as a relegating it to the realm of the woo-woo.

Speaker: 00:21:42

But it's actually far more pedestrian than that.

Speaker: 00:21:46

He can speak to you from a burning bush.

Speaker: 00:21:50

He can come and set this bush on fire,

Speaker: 00:21:54

but it's not being consumed, and tell you to go to Egypt,

Speaker: 00:21:57

and confront Pharaoh, and tell him to let my people go.

Speaker: 00:22:01

He can do that.

Speaker: 00:22:02

He's never done it to me.

Speaker: 00:22:06

I mean, that's not usually how he does things.

Speaker: 00:22:12

I've had him tell me to do some pretty big things,

Speaker: 00:22:16

but he never did it that way.

Speaker: 00:22:18

He never did.

Speaker: 00:22:19

He can also speak to you at the grocery.

Speaker: 00:22:23

He can speak to you at the appliance store.

Speaker: 00:22:28

He can speak to you at the shoe store.

Speaker: 00:22:33

He can speak to you at the clothing store.

Speaker: 00:22:39

Come on, this is supposed to step on your toes.

Speaker: 00:22:42

This is supposed to hurt.

Speaker: 00:22:44

He can speak to you at any of those times.

Speaker: 00:22:48

One of my favorite stories that I heard a long time ago,

Speaker: 00:22:53

I think Wayne Barry told it to me, so I think it's true.

Speaker: 00:22:57

But it involves Don Finto.

Speaker: 00:23:02

Don was a pastor at Belmont Church in Nashville,

Speaker: 00:23:06

and Wayne and Gene were going there at the time.

Speaker: 00:23:09

Apparently, they used to have Sunday night services.

Speaker: 00:23:12

After the Sunday night service,

Speaker: 00:23:15

Don liked to go home and have ice cream.

Speaker: 00:23:17

So he'd go home after the Sunday night service,

Speaker: 00:23:22

he'd get out a scoop of ice cream,

Speaker: 00:23:23

oh praise God for ice cream.

Speaker: 00:23:26

Been doing the work of God today,

Speaker: 00:23:28

and now it's time to rejoice.

Speaker: 00:23:30

So anyway, apparently Don was telling the church one time

Speaker: 00:23:36

that he had gone home after the Sunday night service,

Speaker: 00:23:40

and he'd gotten out his ice cream,

Speaker: 00:23:42

and the Holy Spirit said, what are you doing?

Speaker: 00:23:44

And Don goes, well, I'm eating ice cream.

Speaker: 00:23:50

And he didn't hear anything.

Speaker: 00:23:53

And he went, you don't care.

Speaker: 00:23:54

I mean, you're not, are you?

Speaker: 00:23:57

Now I don't know if Don went ahead

Speaker: 00:24:03

and ate the ice cream or not.

Speaker: 00:24:05

But what?

Speaker: 00:24:08

He didn't.

Speaker: 00:24:09

He's a better man than me.

Speaker: 00:24:11

[audience laughing]

Speaker: 00:24:14

Because I'm, full confession here.

Speaker: 00:24:17

I mean, I'm not batting a thousand.

Speaker: 00:24:19

I never claimed to be.

Speaker: 00:24:21

You know, I'm just trying to stay above the Mendoza line

Speaker: 00:24:23

for those of you who know what that is.

Speaker: 00:24:25

But you know, I mean, there've been times

Speaker: 00:24:29

that I've been at home,

Speaker: 00:24:30

and I'm starting to scoop out ice cream,

Speaker: 00:24:33

and God has reminded me of that story.

Speaker: 00:24:36

And I'm thinking, yeah, God, that's a good story.

Speaker: 00:24:40

Very instructive.

Speaker: 00:24:47

He can also tell you when to pick up the phone

Speaker: 00:24:53

and call somebody.

Speaker: 00:24:54

He can tell you when to go and talk to somebody.

Speaker: 00:25:00

There've been so many times that I've called somebody,

Speaker: 00:25:04

and I've heard, oh, you called it just the right time.

Speaker: 00:25:08

Well, somebody told me to.

Speaker: 00:25:11

And that's why it was just the right time.

Speaker: 00:25:15

And he doesn't just speak to preachers about that.

Speaker: 00:25:20

He doesn't just speak to people

Speaker: 00:25:22

who get up on the platform about that.

Speaker: 00:25:24

He wants to speak to every one of us about that.

Speaker: 00:25:27

Well, how do you recognize the Spirit's voice?

Speaker: 00:25:33

[audience member speaking faintly]

Speaker: 00:25:37

I like jokes.

Speaker: 00:25:41

And a few months ago, one of my favorites

Speaker: 00:25:45

was a few months ago, Evan and Charlotte

Speaker: 00:25:48

were over at our house for dinner,

Speaker: 00:25:50

and Evan goes, "I got a new knock-knock joke for ya."

Speaker: 00:25:54

And I said, "Okay."

Speaker: 00:25:55

Yeah, he goes, "Knock-knock."

Speaker: 00:25:58

I said, "Who's there?"

Speaker: 00:26:01

"Charlotte's pregnant."

Speaker: 00:26:03

[audience laughing]

Speaker: 00:26:06

Now, I started laughing.

Speaker: 00:26:07

Yeah, I found it funny.

Speaker: 00:26:09

Michelle didn't start laughing,

Speaker: 00:26:11

but she was jumping up and down on her seat

Speaker: 00:26:13

and going, "Yeah, that's so great, yeah."

Speaker: 00:26:16

I didn't do that, but I was laughing.

Speaker: 00:26:19

Now, and if you were laughing, that's great.

Speaker: 00:26:21

If you weren't, that's okay too.

Speaker: 00:26:23

It probably wasn't funny.

Speaker: 00:26:25

But if you found it funny,

Speaker: 00:26:27

you might wanna hang out with them more often.

Speaker: 00:26:29

I got one for you.

Speaker: 00:26:32

Knock-knock.

Speaker: 00:26:33

>> Who's there?

Speaker: 00:26:34

>> Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:26:36

>> Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:26:37

>> That's the problem.

Speaker: 00:26:39

That's the issue.

Speaker: 00:26:48

Back in the days before caller ID and stuff like that,

Speaker: 00:26:55

you'd get a phone call sometimes.

Speaker: 00:26:58

I might get a phone call.

Speaker: 00:27:01

Hello, is Arwin there?

Speaker: 00:27:03

May I ask who's speaking?

Speaker: 00:27:06

Arwin was my daughter.

Speaker: 00:27:08

And you know, I didn't know who it was.

Speaker: 00:27:13

I'd never heard this voice before.

Speaker: 00:27:15

If he called back the next day,

Speaker: 00:27:19

you know, I might have an idea who it is.

Speaker: 00:27:22

And if somebody kept calling regularly,

Speaker: 00:27:26

I wouldn't have to ask, "Who is it?" anymore.

Speaker: 00:27:29

The way you recognize the Spirit, learn to recognize

Speaker: 00:27:32

the Spirit's voice is you listen.

Speaker: 00:27:34

Is you listen.

Speaker: 00:27:37

And you start by expecting.

Speaker: 00:27:40

By expecting him to speak.

Speaker: 00:27:43

In fact, it's even okay to ask him to speak.

Speaker: 00:27:48

It's even okay to go, "Hey, I need some direction here.

Speaker: 00:27:52

"Would you speak to me?"

Speaker: 00:27:54

And you might find out that you need

Speaker: 00:27:56

a whole lot more direction than you think you need.

Speaker: 00:27:59

As you begin to learn to listen to him

Speaker: 00:28:03

and begin to learn to follow him.

Speaker: 00:28:05

And then listen, he isn't gonna start

Speaker: 00:28:07

by telling you to go to Africa.

Speaker: 00:28:09

I mean, you know, some people go,

Speaker: 00:28:10

"Well, I don't know if I wanna hear from the Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:28:12

"He's probably gonna tell me to do something

Speaker: 00:28:13

"I don't wanna do."

Speaker: 00:28:14

Well, maybe he is, but he's probably not.

Speaker: 00:28:18

He's probably just gonna start out

Speaker: 00:28:19

with something real simple and see if you'll pay attention.

Speaker: 00:28:22

See if you'll actually do it.

Speaker: 00:28:27

Like I said, there's been many times in my life

Speaker: 00:28:29

when I clearly heard about big things.

Speaker: 00:28:34

I heard about big things about going

Speaker: 00:28:37

into the ministry full-time.

Speaker: 00:28:38

I heard about, you know, I clearly heard

Speaker: 00:28:41

about going to Africa.

Speaker: 00:28:43

The hardest one that I ever heard him say

Speaker: 00:28:47

for me to do was go to Smyrna.

Speaker: 00:28:49

Very honestly.

Speaker: 00:28:52

I went, "No."

Speaker: 00:28:54

Oh.

Speaker: 00:28:54

All right, I'll do it.

Speaker: 00:28:58

Oh, and you know, if you start saying,

Speaker: 00:29:02

[mimics

Speaker: 00:29:21

But most of the stuff that I hear about is smaller stuff.

Speaker: 00:29:26

There is a principle in scriptural,

Speaker: 00:29:30

in scriptural, through all of life, and it's this.

Speaker: 00:29:33

Whoever is faithful with little will be entrusted with much.

Speaker: 00:29:38

I said earlier that he's not probably going

Speaker: 00:29:41

to give you a big burning bush experience

Speaker: 00:29:45

to have you go do something.

Speaker: 00:29:46

And if you don't hear from him regularly,

Speaker: 00:29:51

because he can't trust you with it,

Speaker: 00:29:53

until he knows he can trust you with something small,

Speaker: 00:29:58

until he knows that he can trust you,

Speaker: 00:30:02

that if he goes, "Hey, go over to George today,

Speaker: 00:30:07

your friend George, and don't say, 'How you doing?'

Speaker: 00:30:12

Say, 'Are you okay?'"

Speaker: 00:30:17

Go over to Betty and ask her, "Is everything all right?"

Speaker: 00:30:22

Can he trust you to do that?

Speaker: 00:30:26

Or, you know, go to Fred and say,

Speaker: 00:30:31

"I love you, man.

Speaker: 00:30:34

I care about you."

Speaker: 00:30:35

That'll be just the thing Fred needed to hear.

Speaker: 00:30:38

But the Holy Spirit's gotta trust somebody

Speaker: 00:30:40

to take the message.

Speaker: 00:30:44

And over time, you'll learn to recognize his voice,

Speaker: 00:30:48

not necessarily so much how it sounds, but how it feels.

Speaker: 00:30:52

The Holy Spirit's voice feels different

Speaker: 00:30:57

from the other voices that are trying to talk to you

Speaker: 00:31:00

in this world.

Speaker: 00:31:01

The Holy Spirit's voice feels differently

Speaker: 00:31:03

than your own flesh.

Speaker: 00:31:05

And of course, his voice will always confirm his word.

Speaker: 00:31:13

And you'll learn that you can trust him,

Speaker: 00:31:16

and that the Holy Spirit is working both sides

Speaker: 00:31:19

of the situation.

Speaker: 00:31:21

You know, Philip didn't know it,

Speaker: 00:31:25

but this Ethiopian eunuch was reading a passage in Isaiah

Speaker: 00:31:30

and needed somebody to explain it to him.

Speaker: 00:31:33

And the Holy Spirit sent Philip on this mission

Speaker: 00:31:37

and told him to go and stand by this chariot

Speaker: 00:31:39

because he could explain that to him.

Speaker: 00:31:42

He was working both sides of the equation.

Speaker: 00:31:44

And whenever he says to you,

Speaker: 00:31:47

"Go tell Fred how much you love him,"

Speaker: 00:31:49

he knows that there's something inside of Fred's heart

Speaker: 00:31:52

that day that's going,

Speaker: 00:31:53

"Man, I just don't feel like God loves me."

Speaker: 00:31:56

When he tells you to go and ask Betty,

Speaker: 00:32:00

"Is everything all right?"

Speaker: 00:32:01

It's because, no, everything isn't all right.

Speaker: 00:32:04

And that may be why you don't wanna go and ask her.

Speaker: 00:32:07

But he's got something big that he wants to do.

Speaker: 00:32:11

In her life and in your life as well.

Speaker: 00:32:15

But if you're gonna also go,

Speaker: 00:32:20

"Well, he'll confirm the word,"

Speaker: 00:32:22

you need to know something about the word.

Speaker: 00:32:24

How can you know if his voice is confirming the word

Speaker: 00:32:29

if you don't know the word?

Speaker: 00:32:31

You don't have to be a scholar.

Speaker: 00:32:33

You don't have to be aspiring to be a scholar.

Speaker: 00:32:38

But you gotta do something.

Speaker: 00:32:41

You got to at least be trying.

Speaker: 00:32:44

And it's not a matter of,

Speaker: 00:32:47

"Well, I can't ever be blah, blah, blah, blah."

Speaker: 00:32:51

You don't have to be blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker: 00:32:53

You need to be what the Spirit needs right now

Speaker: 00:32:55

for this situation.

Speaker: 00:32:58

Father Ray Cash was here a few months ago and he spoke.

Speaker: 00:33:02

I love one of the stories.

Speaker: 00:33:03

He's a close friend of mine.

Speaker: 00:33:04

He didn't tell it at this, but he was telling me.

Speaker: 00:33:07

I love one of the stories.

Speaker: 00:33:11

He was discipling a couple of young men

Speaker: 00:33:13

who had recently come to know Christ.

Speaker: 00:33:16

I think they were bikers or something.

Speaker: 00:33:18

I mean, they were kind of rough around the edges.

Speaker: 00:33:20

But they didn't know much about the Lord.

Speaker: 00:33:23

And he had been discipling them for a little while.

Speaker: 00:33:25

And they brought a friend with them one day

Speaker: 00:33:28

to the discipleship time.

Speaker: 00:33:30

And as the friend was listening to what was going on,

Speaker: 00:33:35

he decided he wanted to get saved.

Speaker: 00:33:38

Yeah, I want Jesus.

Speaker: 00:33:40

I'll take Jesus.

Speaker: 00:33:42

And Ray went, "Well, that's great."

Speaker: 00:33:45

And he went inside to get a Bible.

Speaker: 00:33:47

And he brought it out and he said,

Speaker: 00:33:49

"I'm gonna give you this Bible."

Speaker: 00:33:51

And then he was gonna give him some instruction

Speaker: 00:33:55

in the Bible, but before he did,

Speaker: 00:33:57

one of the guys stepped in and said,

Speaker: 00:33:59

"No, no, no, wait, wait.

Speaker: 00:34:00

"Let me show you something."

Speaker: 00:34:03

And he opened up the book and he told his friend,

Speaker: 00:34:06

he said, "That big word you see at the top there

Speaker: 00:34:08

"where it says John, that's the name of the book.

Speaker: 00:34:11

"And this big number right here, three, that's the chapter.

Speaker: 00:34:17

"And then these little numbers over here,

Speaker: 00:34:21

"those are the verses."

Speaker: 00:34:23

And the guy went, "Wow."

Speaker: 00:34:28

See, Ray was about ready to shoot

Speaker: 00:34:32

about 100 miles over the guy's head.

Speaker: 00:34:34

But the Holy Spirit knew what the guy needed.

Speaker: 00:34:39

Knew where he was in the walk.

Speaker: 00:34:43

And so he can use you.

Speaker: 00:34:44

You don't have to be a scholar.

Speaker: 00:34:48

He can take the verse you read today

Speaker: 00:34:51

and plug it in somewhere in your day.

Speaker: 00:34:54

I mean, there are people all over here

Speaker: 00:34:56

who can go, "Yeah, it happens to me all the time."

Speaker: 00:34:58

It can happen to you all the time,

Speaker: 00:34:59

but you gotta read a verse.

Speaker: 00:35:00

You gotta read a verse before it can happen.

Speaker: 00:35:04

I'm not saying you have to read

Speaker: 00:35:05

chapter after chapter each day.

Speaker: 00:35:07

If you did, that's great, but something.

Speaker: 00:35:10

Make some kind of effort.

Speaker: 00:35:12

And many think that they've heard the Spirit say

Speaker: 00:35:14

to fix something, but they're totally acting in the flesh

Speaker: 00:35:19

'cause they have no idea what Jesus would do.

Speaker: 00:35:22

Because they haven't spent any time in the Word.

Speaker: 00:35:27

They don't know what it feels like.

Speaker: 00:35:29

They just feel like, "I'm gonna fix something."

Speaker: 00:35:33

No, you're getting ready to break something.

Speaker: 00:35:36

And it's not the chains of oppression.

Speaker: 00:35:38

Only He can do that.

Speaker: 00:35:42

If you encountered this Ethiopian eunuch,

Speaker: 00:35:47

or somebody, anybody, reading the passage,

Speaker: 00:35:51

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

Speaker: 00:35:54

and as a lamb before His shares was silent,

Speaker: 00:35:56

opened not His mouth, was deprived of justice,

Speaker: 00:36:01

taken from the earth.

Speaker: 00:36:02

Could you tell them who the prophet was talking about?

Speaker: 00:36:05

You should be able to.

Speaker: 00:36:09

It's Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Speaker: 00:36:13

The result was magnificent.

Speaker: 00:36:21

Look at this here.

Speaker: 00:36:22

When they came up out of the water,

Speaker: 00:36:24

the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away,

Speaker: 00:36:27

and the eunuch did not see him again.

Speaker: 00:36:29

Woo, that is so cool.

Speaker: 00:36:34

You know, have you ever been translated?

Speaker: 00:36:36

No, I haven't either.

Speaker: 00:36:38

But almost every time I go on a long trip,

Speaker: 00:36:41

I think about it, I go, "Lord, translate us."

Speaker: 00:36:45

It just doesn't happen.

Speaker: 00:36:48

But apparently it happened to Philip.

Speaker: 00:36:50

He's just gone.

Speaker: 00:36:51

He was there, and then he wasn't there.

Speaker: 00:36:53

Wow, that's good.

Speaker: 00:36:54

But that's not the part that I want you to see.

Speaker: 00:36:57

He didn't see him again,

Speaker: 00:37:01

but he went on his way rejoicing.

Speaker: 00:37:04

Rejoicing.

Speaker: 00:37:05

He wants to talk to you, the Holy Spirit does,

Speaker: 00:37:10

and if you will let this sink into your being,

Speaker: 00:37:13

expect it, listen for it, go,

Speaker: 00:37:18

"Okay, this is how it's gonna be from now on."

Speaker: 00:37:22

It is life-changing.

Speaker: 00:37:24

It can be life-changing for someone else,

Speaker: 00:37:27

but it'll definitely be life-changing for you.

Speaker: 00:37:31

Because you see, he isn't just the one

Speaker: 00:37:33

who tells us what to do.

Speaker: 00:37:35

He isn't just the one that says,

Speaker: 00:37:36

"Do this, don't do that," that kind of stuff.

Speaker: 00:37:39

I mean, he does that.

Speaker: 00:37:40

The first Paraclete, Jesus,

Speaker: 00:37:47

walked alongside the disciples,

Speaker: 00:37:48

and many times he told them what to do.

Speaker: 00:37:50

He gave them instructions about that,

Speaker: 00:37:52

but he was also the one when the storm was raging.

Speaker: 00:37:57

Is it raining outside?

Speaker: 00:37:59

Hallelujah!

Speaker: 00:38:01

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:38:02

When the storm was raging

Speaker: 00:38:04

and things were really getting rough,

Speaker: 00:38:07

he was the one who went, "Peace.

Speaker: 00:38:10

Be still.

Speaker: 00:38:12

Don't be afraid.

Speaker: 00:38:13

Where's your faith?"

Speaker: 00:38:16

He's the one, and the second Paraclete

Speaker: 00:38:19

can do the same thing, and he does in our lives.

Speaker: 00:38:23

I mean, we all go through stuff.

Speaker: 00:38:26

The Holy Spirit is the one who is able

Speaker: 00:38:30

to speak a word of peace.

Speaker: 00:38:32

He's the one who bestows beauty instead of ashes.

Speaker: 00:38:36

We look at a situation, and the only thing there

Speaker: 00:38:39

seems to be ashes, but the Holy Spirit comes along

Speaker: 00:38:43

and goes, "Let me show you the beauty.

Speaker: 00:38:46

Let me show you where that is."

Speaker: 00:38:48

And he's the one who causes us to cry out,

Speaker: 00:38:54

"Father, my Father."

Speaker: 00:38:57

Yeah, come on out, guys.

Speaker: 00:39:00

I didn't tell you to, but I imagine the Holy Spirit did.

Speaker: 00:39:03

(audience laughing)

Speaker: 00:39:06

I know he did.

Speaker: 00:39:08

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:39:09

When Father Ray was here, he mentioned prayer,

Speaker: 00:39:16

talked about prayer, and he mentioned the morning

Speaker: 00:39:18

and evening offices in the prayer book.

Speaker: 00:39:21

I went, "Yeah, I wanna check that out."

Speaker: 00:39:27

And I haven't really gotten into the evening part yet,

Speaker: 00:39:31

but the morning part, I'm doing pretty much every day.

Speaker: 00:39:34

And it starts off with a brief prayer.

Speaker: 00:39:39

Actually, they got two of them,

Speaker: 00:39:40

and I was flipping them back and forth

Speaker: 00:39:42

'til I got to the one and went, "No, that's the one."

Speaker: 00:39:44

And it says this.

Speaker: 00:39:50

It says, "Open our eyes to see your presence

Speaker: 00:39:54

"and strengthen our hands to do your will,

Speaker: 00:39:58

"that the world may rejoice and give you praise."

Speaker: 00:40:05

Philip obeyed the Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:40:11

This guy went on his way rejoicing.

Speaker: 00:40:14

And I suspect Philip may have had a little rejoicing as well.

Speaker: 00:40:22

We oftentimes think we're doing God's will.

Speaker: 00:40:27

And one of the things that I have begun to look for

Speaker: 00:40:32

when I think I'm doing God's will is the result.

Speaker: 00:40:38

Is the result that the world may rejoice and give you praise?

Speaker: 00:40:43

Or is the result that maybe I feel like I won,

Speaker: 00:40:51

but people now despise Jesus

Speaker: 00:40:54

and the faith that I stand for?

Speaker: 00:40:56

If we listen to the Holy Spirit who calm our storms,

Speaker: 00:41:05

who show us beauty for ashes,

Speaker: 00:41:07

He will open our eyes to see God's presence in everything.

Speaker: 00:41:15

That He will strengthen our hands to do God's will

Speaker: 00:41:20

in such a way that the world rejoices, gives Him praise.

Speaker: 00:41:25

Would you stand with me?

Speaker: 00:41:30

This isn't obviously an emotional type of teaching

Speaker: 00:41:38

or anything, but as Pastor Kevin was saying earlier,

Speaker: 00:41:44

sometimes we just need to be quiet and listen.

Speaker: 00:41:49

For those who are gonna pray with people, come forward.

Speaker: 00:41:52

And that's all, I mean, we're gonna worship,

Speaker: 00:41:56

but in our spirits, let's get quiet.

Speaker: 00:41:58

And if you hear him saying,

Speaker: 00:42:01

hey, I'd like to do some work here.

Speaker: 00:42:07

I'd like to do something here.

Speaker: 00:42:09

Go down there and pray with somebody.

Speaker: 00:42:12

Let's talk about it.

Speaker: 00:42:13

Then be obedient.

Speaker: 00:42:18

Let's worship.

Speaker: 00:42:20

Let's worship.

Speaker: 00:42:21

(gentle music)

Speaker: 00:42:26

[music fades out]