Isaiah 53, by the way, starting in verse 7, was what we had down in verse 32. Just so you know where we were coming from, in case you didn't. Another passage, though, that lines up perfectly with this, our passage today. And do you understand what you're reading is Romans 10, 14 and 15? And by the way, I'm going to be giving you lots of scripture today. You can turn to it and read if you want, or you can just write it down in your notes. But there's going to be a lot of scripture. But Romans 10, 14 and 15 reads this way. How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things. Well, I should just preach that sermon today. But this is the picture. This is this is it. This is who we are. We are the people that need to hear these things. But we are the people that actually, by the grace of God and by the spirit of God living in us, we are more able easily or easily able to understand. But still for that, we still need preachers. We still need men who are educated, who have taken the time, who are willing to take the time each and every week to look through the commentaries, to look at the language, to see what's good and what's bad, because there's the word needs to be preached. Some people, I remember people have told me before, I love the idea of the gospel, but I've heard it so many times, I get tired of it. I've actually had people say this to me in the church, that they get tired of hearing the simple gospel. And we should never, ever get tired of hearing it, because my attitude is if you're tired of hearing it, you need to hear it some more, a whole bunch more. Philip, for his part, he was a wonderful example. to the whole of the church as to the attitude and the willingness that all Christians should have in whatever world system they are living in. It was true back then, it's true now, and it will be true until the day the Lord comes back. We need to be willing to hear the Lord speaking to our hearts, and we need to move in that direction. And I know that's hard. And you say, well, what about what if my wife doesn't agree with me? Well, all these things, any any time the Lord leads you in a direction, if you have a wife, you need to talk to your wife and let her know. Here's where I think the Lord's leading us. How do you feel about this? You're the leader of the home. There's a man that's the head of the home. But remember, that wife's your other part. So we need to understand this, because I've seen people go off the deep end a number of times and go wherever they wanted to go. We need to be hearing the Lord. My friends, my brothers and sisters, and who I know you, you're in Christ, you have been called, you have been called. Now, I don't know what all of you have been called to exactly, but we've all been called to some degree to share the good news that we have. You don't need to be a preacher to do that. Anybody can do this that has an understanding of the word of God. And yet, for the most part, the church today reaches out very little outside of its own walls. And this is sad. Kind of like the early church not wanting to leave Jerusalem until God pushed them out. The sadness of this issue is that many of those men who are the most gifted in the knowledge of the word of God, And I say this from personal, and they're gifted in the languages, they're gifted in the knowledge, but they only talk to others who agree with them. We need to be willing to, I don't want to say argue, to debate, to discuss, to sit down. Do you think that when Philip brought His passages to the Ethiopian that the Ethiopian didn't have some questions or maybe at some point say, hey, wait, I'm not sure. But we need to be able to talk to people. We need to be able to use scripture because it's not our words that's convincing people. And we'll see this throughout this. It's God's word that does the convincing. You are just a mouthpiece with your voice calling out in the wilderness as it would be. And we don't want to be people that only talk to those who agree with us. And then we can sit around and smoke a cigar or a pipe and have a beer and laugh. There's a world full of people who are dying without Christ. And we forget about them sometimes because it's not comfortable going out and sharing the gospel. It's not comfortable talking to somebody you don't know about something that they really don't want to hear about. In this case, though, it's a little bit different. In fact, it's a lot different. So when we see this, and this is part of the things that I've seen and I've struggled with in the Reformed churches since I came out of evangelical backgrounds and Pentecostal, where people were just in your face all the time. I mean, let me say this. We were in people's face all the time about Jesus. We used to carry our big Bible with us. Big Bibles like this, carry it with us everywhere I went. How many of you still, raise your hand, how many of you still carry a Bible with you? Somebody held up a phone. That's true. But the truth is everybody in the world has a phone. The Bible, we used to carry a Bible around. One of the things that people did was they knew that you were a Christian. Sometimes people kind of walk away from me. Now, they'd see me walk up one side of the street. They kind of cross over indiscreetly to the other. Sometimes I'd follow them to the other side because I knew what they were doing. I knew you're trying to get away from me, aren't you? You're the one I'm supposed to talk to today. No other I was really supposed to talk, but I was just being as obedient as I could and sharing the good news with people. And when we don't, then there's no conversion and no turning from error to truth. Sometimes, how many of you realize that there's a large group of people, a large group of Christianity today, larger than the Reformed group, whose doctrine in some places is bad or lacking. In some places, it's absolutely horrible. Now, let me ask this. Have you done anything to rectify that at all? Do you take an effort? And a really discouraging thing that I've seen, especially in the last few years, and I'm going to get back to Philip in just a minute. is that, I don't want to say many, but some young and reformed people have a problem of pretty much attacking everybody on everything they don't agree with. And it's not a slight, it's an attack. And pretty much it's sometimes saying, you're probably not even really a Christian. And so we end up in a bad place. We don't want to be attacking others. We want to be, if we know somebody's got bad doctrine, then we want to bring them the true doctrine. Because I'll be honest, when I got hold of the truth of Calvinism in its fullness, and the truth of what the Bible really teaches, I was ecstatic. And I was sad at the same time. I was sad because nobody else had taken the time to tell me. They didn't want to argue with me because I was loud and belligerent at times. And I told them what I thought to John Calvin and his doctrine, where it came from. They should have pressed, press on a little harder. But God in his perfect timing worked that through. But I'm going to stop there. I just want to remind you, as Reformed Christians, you have a job, each of you. It may not be as big for some as it is for others, especially as you're getting older in life. You're not allowed around that many people, but remember that one ministry I keep telling you, I call it a ministry, that nobody wants, that one of prayer? We're all called to pray. If you have neighbors that don't know Christ, pray for them. If you have relatives that don't know Christ, absolutely, you should have been praying for them all along. This is where we should be as Christians, as men and women who love Christ, but also love people. Because remember, when Jesus came, he didn't come just for an idea. He came because of people, people that he loved, people that the Father gave him, people that were created in his image. That's who we should be. But let's get to the wonderful account of the work of God through Philip. the evangelist, and I'm calling him that, and this Ethiopian eunuch. That's a nice new word. His being a eunuch, by the way, just has very little to do with his story, except to once again show forth that in the new covenant that we live in through Christ, how things change for many people groups. There was the eunuchs, the women, the children, the poor, the widows. For the Jews, they didn't care much for them, and for other people, some of them discounted them altogether. And children, by the way, all of you who love your children and you hold them. In some societies, to a great degree, children were kind of considered a nuisance until they got to an age where they were actually could do something for the household and stuff. This is how people were at times. And just take a side note, there's traditional writings, by the way, that link this Ethiopia to being the founder and leader of the Christian church in Ethiopia. Now, and these are across the board, and there's always dispute whether this is the guy. But I'm going to take it that this may well have been the case. So let's start digging through this a little bit. In 8.26 here, it says, Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise, That is, to get ready. It wasn't get up right this second, by the way. The term in the Greek can be applied to get ready. It's the context that it's in. And go straight, go toward the south along the road which comes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert. Basically, this is a desert road. And where it says to get ready, because he wasn't going on a little walk or even a long hike. He was going. He was leaving. He was leaving where he was at and he was not coming back there again. So who was the angel? Who was this angel that the Lord mentioned here? There are four mentions in this book that Luke refers to the angel, the Lord. The first is with Moses in the burning bush in 738, 30 through 38, and the accounts with Philip and the eunuch that we're reading here, when the angel sets Peter free in 12, 7 through 10, and finally in the striking down of Herod in 12, 23. So it mentions this, but who is this angel of the Lord? And many hold very clearly this is speaking of the Spirit of the Lord. So let me go on there. The arise that I said that The commentator more clearly means to get ready. You've got to pack stuff. You've got to have clothes. You've got to have a certain amount of food and whatever else. And again, if the Lord knew he was sending him away and he would not be coming back, there were things that he had to take care of right there. There were goodbyes that he would have to say. And so again, that That's something I just want you to see. I think it's important. And Philip was to make arrangements. He was to make good arrangements. And Philip did not, at that point, he didn't know that he was going to be gone for a long time. He just knew that he'd be gone. So he was acting accordingly. The route that Philip was told to take was one, by the way, of two routes that were used at this time. And this is important to some degree to the story here. One was commonly used that followed along the coastal plains and linked to the main travel route from Egypt to Damascus. And that, you know, that's where most of the people travel. This was not the one that Philip was to take. He was told to go on a road that went down through the desert. It was pretty much desolate. And then he was to head toward Gaza. Whether Philip traveled, and this was something my wife and I talked about this week, with Peter and John on their trip back to Jerusalem or not, we do not know. But that is a real possibility. Because in those days, as even in today, if you're traveling, it's always better to travel in numbers than by yourself. So now the command's been given. So he arose and he went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, had come down to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. So we see, again, Philip is obedient in his actions to the Lord, to the angel of the Lord, and finds this man, a man, again, who is of high standing. He was of the Nubian ethnic group, not race. There's only one race, that's the human race. This is the Nubian ethnic group. Ethiopia today is known as Cush, or what was known as Cush back then. So just a little bit of background. Oh, and this man, again, and this is important because I said it wasn't as important to the context, but it is important. He was a eunuch. But let me give us just a little better understanding of what that might mean in the time that all these events took place. When we say eunuch today, we have this one view. Generally, he would be someone who was emasculated, either on purpose or for one reason or another. It could be a punishment or have an accident where this happened to him, perhaps in an incident from war, sickness. We never think about this even, or even one who might have been born with a birth defect. But in the day that this happened, it also referred to the keeper of the harem. And that would be one of these people that was chosen out for that purpose. But also, and this is important because most people are unaware of this, it was also used in that time as a term for a government official. And what did I say he was? He was the head accountant for Candace, the queen of Ethiopia. So whether he was an actual eunuch or not, we don't know. We do know that he went up to Jerusalem to worship. And how long he had been a Jew, we don't know, because the Jews had immigrated a lot into Egypt and Ethiopia by that time. But we can't be sure what type of eunuch he was, nor should that be the greatest concern for this story. We do know that Scripture calls him this. And the main focus, as it should always be with Scripture, is not on the eunuch. It's not even on Philip, although we're going to talk about him. It is on what God, on Scripture and what God is saying and what God is doing. One commentator, Kissamaker, states this in his commentary, and I'm just reading this to you. If we understand the word correctly, then we see Christianity removing the barriers of Judaism had erected. A foreigner would become a convert to Judaism, but because the Ethiopian was a eunuch, He could not fully participate in the temple worship. This is from Deuteronomy 23. Although he traveled to Jerusalem to worship, he was still considered a semi proselyte. Deuteronomy 23, one, you all know this. He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. They were not seen as people who were fruitful. So it's interesting when we read that how it's stated there by crushing or mutilation. And that would be someone who was made to be a eunuch. Nevertheless, the Old Testament, and this is where we want to get into, because this gets this gets kind of fun. The Old Testament predicted the day when foreigners and eunuchs would no longer be excluded from the fellowship of God's people. That time has finally come. Now, one thing I did want to say, because the Jews in Ethiopia, the Jews in Jerusalem and Israel, when they worshipped, these people would not be part of it. In the Ethiopian tradition, they invited anyone to come and to participate, not fully participate, but be a part of it different than what I'd read before and some other things. So I thought that was interesting to give that some attention. The Queen, oh, this is, where was I? Okay. Isaiah 56, three through seven says this. Again, this would have been where I would have, this one might have been the next verse I'd have went to if I was Philip. Do not let the son of a foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord saying, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people, nor let the eunuch say, here I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant, even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of the sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also, the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to his servants, to be his servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant. Even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations Remember this and you keep wondering how did the jews miss this? They went for so long With this being part of their word and yet never seemed to pay much attention now One thing I did want to remind us is it's a house of prayer. A house of prayer. This is important that we come into God's worship with this attitude, a prayerful attitude. And just I thought this is important because I mentioned this about the queen that this eunuch served is called Candace. Well, it's important to understand that Candace was not her name. Candace was not the name of a person that was used, and that was the title of the Queen Mother of Ethiopia. But I did want to point out again, but this man, he was the head of all of her finances. So you can assume he was highly trusted above just about everybody else. So in coming down to verse 29, it says, and then the spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. And this is important. This takes us back to the two roads. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you're reading? Again, this is one of the key verses here. Do you understand what you're reading? And obviously he did not. Which one commentator gave the idea that when he was in Jerusalem, he may have been a newer convert to Judaism, and he had gotten himself this scroll that was written in the Greek, which Philip would read the Greek, and that would be the Septuagint, as we would call it. And that's what he was reading here. And he says, how can I? How can I, unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come and sit with him. Now, when I think about this, how will I, unless someone guides me? I needed this. Did any of you ever read the Bible before you were a Christian? And you just looked at it, and it just, no matter how you read it, It just did not make sense. And it happened to me numerous times. I mean, there are some of it everybody can get. And a lot of you are going, no, no, I'm not getting it at all. But as soon as you became a Christian, as soon as that Holy Spirit did that work in your heart, you still didn't know everything, but you understood it a lot better. It was like, and I don't know how many of you, I know, I've had this happen a couple times, especially when I was a baby Christian. I'd open up my Bible and it was like a verse, you know, like in a cartoon movie, just jumped out at me and just got bigger, just one verse. And I mean, I wasn't playing Bible roulette at the time. I was actually trying to read something and then something just stood out a little more because God brings that truth into our hearts. And it should be understood also that as Philip was running to this man and heard him reading, oh, reading aloud, that people in those times, as opposed to us, how many of, well, don't raise your hands, how many of you read aloud? A lot? Okay. Most people in that time did not read silently to themselves, but they read aloud, even if they were by themselves. In fact, many of the Jewish rabbis of that day taught that it was better for memorization. By the way, another thing better for memorization is writing out your sermons rather than typing out your sermons. But the same thing applies. The same rule is you are reading it aloud. You're not only reading it, you're hearing the word there more clearly. So they taught that to read aloud was good for memorization and that to read to oneself was a mean or a cause of forgetfulness. So, just a little fact to note, because this is what people did then. They read aloud more than they did to themselves. And it seems from what I stated earlier, again, about the two roads that were taken to Gaza, that the Ethiopian, he determined to take the road that was less traveled. And I didn't even think about that until now. That's what all Christians do. We take the road that is less traveled with Christ. One commentator, and I can't remember which one, stated that being of such high rank that this man most notably had a driver, so he could have been riding, and this is why you would go this slow road, because you didn't have all the traffic of the other road, so that he could ride quite slowly while he read aloud. But sadly to say, not understanding much of it at this point. And there's a parallel, by the way, that I thought I'd bring in between this passage and one that I would have you listen. I'm going to read this in short. Luke 24, 30 through 35. You all know the passage as soon as I start almost. Now, it came to pass as he sat at the table with them and he took bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us? So they rose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And they told about the things that had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Wonderful story. Got actually two parallels there. One that Christ himself was reading the scriptures to them, pointing to himself. Because remember, he had disguised himself in some way or he had made it so they couldn't see who he was. until that point when he broke the bread. And the other thing, that he vanished from their sight. Remember that it was Philip who later just, he's talking to the eunuch and poof, he's gone. Just like that. So I thought that was a good one to bring in as a comparison. And then to look at this further down where it goes into verse 32. If we come down and it says, the place in Scripture which he read, again, was Isaiah 53, 7. And he was led as a sheep to slaughter, as a lamb before its shearer's side, and he opened not his mouth in his humiliation. His justice was taken away, and he who will declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth. Now you read that. If you read that and you didn't know what you were looking at and had never read that before, would you understand that? So when we see that Philip is taking him through it, we must understand he was not only reading to him or reciting to him. I'm sure he's actually probably opening the scrolls and And pointing out right here is where it says this, and then explaining what that means. One reference I had was John 1, 29 through 31, where it speaks of Jesus. The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the same Lamb that we see mentioned in Isaiah 53. And so we see this, and then this beautiful recitation of what God had done there. And so it says, So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? And then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. Now, I'm not going to go too long. I'm not going to do any explanation, but I want to read some scriptures that I found that would lead exactly to this, where it would bring it into it. Zechariah 9.9 says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding a donkey, a colt, a foil of a donkey. Well, you see, this is a picture of this, the same thing that he's hearing about in Isaiah 53, and that we've read about in Isaiah 66, I believe it was. And then there's another one in Zechariah 10, where it says, and I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieves as one grieves for the firstborn. And this is, you can almost see Philip trying to take different, whether he used these scriptures, I'm not sure, but these are ones who would have worked well for this to say, this is the same guy here that we saw up here. This is Jesus is seen here and then taking him When Christ rode in on the triumphal entry on a donkey, taking him here, where I will pour out on my house of David and on the spirit of grace and so on. And this has happened not too very long ago. And they will look on me whom they pierced. And you could take them and show them it's Jesus whom they pierced. Because remember, what he was doing, he was evangelizing. He was preaching the gospel to them. Micah 5.2 you can look at as well, if you want. I'll let you do that on your own. And if you want to write down, Jeremiah 23.5 and 31, 31 through 34. Now there's one more that I'm gonna read. I'm gonna actually read that one to you, the last one. Where it says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. I love that picture. Took them by the hand. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And he's trying to point them to this picture. And no more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord for they shall all know me. from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord and I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. Now I can think of this Ethiopian eunuch hearing those words and especially the last part and I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. This is the promise of God. of a covenant to these people. And I'm almost hearing him try to explain this. You can also look in Isaiah 61, 1 and 2 in Ezekiel. 34, 11 through 16. These all point to Christ very clearly and very vividly. We don't know how long this was, this took place. It seems that the words of Philip quickly produced the desired result. The questions are answered and he seeks to become a convert. But we don't know how long this actually sat there with this man. Or they may have been still riding down the road, moving along. At some point, they were riding. Now, they came. As they came down the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? By the way, which reminds you, Philip must have told him about the baptism that people, when they become Christians, go through. What hinders me from becoming baptized? And we don't, like I said, we don't know how long the call, I'm assuming this conversation lasted at least a couple hours. It was probably at least that long. It may have been a bit longer, because I know I've sat down talking to unconverted people before times where I thought this is going to be like a 20 minute thing. And three and a half hours later, I'm still talking to them, still trying to explain to them using the word and hoping that the Holy Spirit interjects to them. But he had told him about. So what hinders me from being baptized? Where was this water? Remember, we're in the desert. Now, there's two two things. First, there were oasis's or there were pools in the desert. that could be found. And there was also a kind of a river stream, Wadi el-Heshai, that ran near Gaza. And it may have been there. We don't know how far they had gotten for this. But then Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, today, we probably want to bring you into some classes and stuff. You have to ask yourself, at what point, at what point, you may want to direct them. I think they're going somewhere else. At what point, I lost that thought. Oh, there it is. I was talking to my wife about this today. At what point in the church did we go into a place from where people would hear the gospel, they would believe, and they would be baptized until the point where we live now, where you hear the gospel, you believe, and now you have to meet with people to confirm whether your gospel receiving was good enough to allow you to be baptized. Just a thought that I like to throw out to people every now and again. I understand the goodness of the idea, but is it biblical? I mean, we as a people who say we do all things biblical, all by the Bible. I just don't see it. I see in the early church history that there were things that where there started to be a thing. This seemed to be after the persecution because you wanted to make sure that the people were actually people getting saved. There was another thing, by the way, I wanted to add this. It's not a real concern to me, it's just something I read about. This verse is missing from quite a number of passages, Bibles today, modern translations, because they assumed that a scribe put that in there. The ideal is still here, that he had to believe. So whether Philip said it to him that way or he'd already said it to him prior in something, they wanted to get the idea in line, tie this all together, if you believe with all your heart you may. And so there it is. Or at least my Bible has it. If you're reading King James, it has it. But some others don't. And I'll be honest, I struggle with taking away or adding to the word of God in any way. And then going down, and so he commanded the chariot, stop, be still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized them. Once again, a good verse for the Baptist, they went down into the water now and they're in it all the way up over. Well, we don't know that. It doesn't tell us how far. They may have went down into the water up to their knees. They may have went down in the water up to their chest and may have only been ankle deep. That would depend on the time of the year and how the water was in that particular area. And he baptized him. And we can be sure that it was nothing elaborate, that it was nothing, you know, super holy, just simply the words, I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ. And by the way, the practice in the early church at this time was to baptize in the name of Jesus only, not in the name of the triune God, as we do. And I'm not going into that, but just wanted to touch that. And so now it says, and this is the favorite part of this whole story to me. Now, when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught them away, so that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Asteros, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Now, I love this part because it always reminds me of the Beam Me Up Scotty, except Philip didn't know he was getting sent away this quickly. He just did what he did, and all of a sudden he was gone. And what is interesting to me, in the union, saw him no more. And it didn't say he was bewildered or wondered what was going on. It just said he just went on his way rejoicing. And you can imagine, you're out there, you're sitting, you're reading something. All of a sudden, a guy comes running up. He's jogging up beside you, asking you what you're reading. You invite him up. He starts telling you what you're reading. and takes it to its logical conclusion, to Jesus Christ. To Christ to save. Because that's where all of the Old Testament, it is directing us to Christ. And all of the New Testament is proclaiming that same Christ. And so, I want to touch on this just a little bit. and Philip, and it didn't say anything about him other than that he was found in Asherah, or what's called Asherah, which is down near Gaza. By the way, if you have your Bible maps at home, you can look at that, and it's down south. And if you look where Caesarea is, where he ended up, and this is what he says, and passing through, he preached in all the cities, that is all the coastal cities, until he came to Caesarea. And all of this, every bit of this, is taking place in a time where everything about Jesus and this revelation of him being that Messiah, that one that they had waited for a couple thousand years almost for, well actually since Genesis, so many thousand years. for this Messiah to finally come. And now he's finally come. He's accomplished his work. He is with the Father. And now the church has their mandate for the rest of eternity. Well, I'm sorry, not eternity, until the Lord comes back. Which can be as long as the Lord wants us to do. So I wanted to, do you understand what you're reading when you're reading scripture? And if you do, wonderful. And if you don't, you need to talk to people that can help you. Because there's still people in the church. When I talk to them about stuff, I said, well, you ever read it? Well, I read it, but I didn't quite get it. You need to be people who are available to sit down and talk with people, to take up of your time, to inconvenience you and your desires so that you might serve the Lord more fully. Philip remained, by the way, in Caesarea, where Paul later visited with him. And you can read about that in Acts. You can read part of this. He also, if you've read the story about Philip, he had four daughters. They were unmarried, who also had the gift of prophecy. And that's in Acts 21, 8 through 10. So if I were to say, well, in this whole reading of all this, what's the most important thing for us to understand? Well, I think clearly it is to be open to hear the Word of God, for the voice of God in your life. And I've encouraged you many times, because I know you all, you're set where you're at. You've got your calling in life. Are you still praying? Are you still asking God? Anything else? Anything new? And if there's not, that's fine and good. But if there is, we need to all be like Philip, where God's saying, get ready. And you go get yourself ready. Go prepare yourself for whatever God's going to do. And then you do whatever He sends you to do. It may be great. It may be small. Philip didn't even know what he was going to do at this point. He didn't know he was going to run into this unit. God told him, just go down here and just do this. Now we know, again, God acted in quite some different ways at times during the New Testament, those early New Testament years. But we don't want to limit God to our own imagination sometimes. Sometimes we say, well, he can't do this, he can't do this. God can do a whole lot more than you think he can. And there may not be the gifts of certain types of ministry for this day. They were done away with when the fullness of scripture was given and we didn't need them in the same sense. But that doesn't mean that God can't still do some of these things. That he still can't speak to people in a language that, or through people in a language that they may not know. Now, this is not a gift in the same way today. It's a one-time thing. People are healed. Have you ever prayed for somebody and seen them get healed immediately? I have a couple times. Just prayed for them. Nothing about me. Just prayed for them and asked God to heal them. I prayed for myself one time. Didn't even get to say the words and God healed me. Seriously, I'll tell you the story if you want to know. Never even got to say the words. I was getting ready to utter them and I realized I'm better. I was completely better. But I've seen these things happen. Do I believe I have a healing ministry? Absolutely not. If I had a healing ministry, I wouldn't be here preaching to you. I'd be in the hospital healing people, getting them better, and then preaching to them in the hospital. But we are all kind of like those sick people in the hospital. We all have our own little problems we have to deal with. So again, if you leave here today with anything, what should you be doing? More in your service to God. Be more willing to listen to Him. Be more willing to listen to Him. And don't always expect what you think God's going to do with you. God may have something great and magnificent to do with you in your life. And sometimes we think in terms of ministry, in terms of life. So it doesn't preclude women from being a great part of God's working in many ways. You may not become a minister, but there's thousands of things you can do in service to God. God, be open to God, be willing to go where and do what God wants you to do and be praying and seeking God to make sure that you're walking the same course that you should be. So let's pray. Father God, thank you again. for your blessings in our life. We thank you for this story. It's a wonderful, wonderful story. And I always love when I see absolutely miraculous things take place. But Lord, that's a minor thing compared to any of the healings you've done. Any of the gifts of giving people who were barren children. Oh Lord, you do wonderful, amazing things all the time. And we forget that. We think that it kind of ended, but it's happening all the time for us, Lord. And you save us at different times where a car just moves out of the way just at the right time. Oh, Lord, if it wasn't for you, we'd be dead. You are God and you are good. Help us, Lord, help us each one, young and old, to love you more than we have and to serve you to our fullest capacity, remembering that even if we had a hundred years in this life, it's a short time in eternity. Thank you, God, for your mercy on us. Thank you for choosing us to be your own. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming and dying for us so that we might be part of your family, that we might be part of the bride of Christ today. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.