All right, I mentioned this morning that I would be preaching out of the same passage of scripture in Acts chapter 8 tonight. I want to connect with that and build using some things in this chapter. Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26. 26. Acts chapter 8 verse 26. These T-Rex focals, I'm kidding, I don't have triples yet. One day, I'd probably just be like Mr. Magoo, I'll just walk off a cliff somewhere, if y'all even know who he is, that's how old I'm getting. But I looked down, I saw one number, I said, there it is, I'll read it. It's hard to see. When I study and work at my computer, man, I have to take my glasses off to see the computer. I have to put them back on to read where I'm writing, take them back off to read what's on the computer, put them back and take them off to read the Bible. Who needs a gym? I'm working out just to do my message. But I do want to look at this scripture and I hope it will be a challenge to us to connect to us to our burdens for for people that need to be saved in our lives, that we know, and those that we even don't know. But in picking up with verse 26, let's see. We'll just recap the story. The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem, unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for worship. Verse 28, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. Philip ran thither to him and heard him, read the prophet Isaiah and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired, Philip, that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, Of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord called away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. I want to title this message tonight, The Blessing of a Questioning Heart. What I mean by this is not someone who's doubting, but asking questions. It is a blessing to have somebody that comes across your path or in your life that asks questions about the things of God. And don't ever take that for granted. If your children ask you, make sure you're patient. Make sure you spend time and you answer those questions. If someone's asking you spiritual questions, now you can understand, please understand, I don't mean doubting. And I don't mean debating because some people want to debate the word of God. They want to try to change you or make you look dumb or stupid. They think they know more than you do. We don't have time for that. We don't. And it never even if you win the debate and most cases you lose the person. So it's not worth the risk. So please don't get caught up in that. But what I mean by the blessing of a questioning heart is it ought to be something that we pray that, Lord, please send these kind of people into our lives that are asking questions. But it also means we need to ask God to prepare us to answer those questions. You know, a lot of people say, I don't know. I don't know about all that Bible stuff. You have to ask my preacher. That's a shame on any Christian, any believer. that you do not have at least a few basic elemental things that you can know how to lead someone to the Lord Jesus Christ. How you got saved, how you got in should be sufficient, amen? If you really are saved, you got enough. If you are truly converted and born again and something changed your life, you should be able to share that with someone else. And be able to think about that and pray for that for someone to be here in your life, in your influence, or that God would send you there to be in their influence, amen? Philip was occupied preaching and busy and working, working for the kingdom of God, but God apparently thought that it was more important to take him away from that and send him over there to this one man who had these questions. He was questioning a lot of things. It's important that we be faithful over what God has already given, like Philip was doing. If you'll do that and abide on where you're doing, bloom where you're planting, there's no telling what God will lead you to, where he'll lead you to talk. He may send someone in your pathway to be able to win them to the Lord. Obviously, we win the person more than we don't save the soul. You win the soul by, I believe, connecting to them. and they see that there's a truth of what you're saying, Jesus is the one that redeems and saves people. But I wonder if we pray about those kind of things, and we think about it on an everyday basis, maybe there's some questioning people in your life that you really not thought about, you've got a lot of opportunity there of what's already going on around you. So let's look at a few things here. The questions that this man asked, Verse 27, the Scripture says he was from Ethiopia. We understand and know that he was a different race than the Jews were. We know that from Ethiopia he probably, either he was a Muslim at one point that converted to a proselyte of a Jew or he was studying the Jewish faith, the religion. But he came to Jerusalem as that capital city with the connections that were there. And when he came there, as I mentioned this morning, I don't believe it was an accident that he came when Jesus was alive, when John the Baptist was alive. Amen. I don't believe that was an accident at all. And I don't believe in that time frame. What I mean is in the age that they appeared. and then Paul gets saved and he's got all these people, the apostles are now ministering. This was not an accident that he came at this time where Jesus was relevant and all the connections that were there of hearing the ministries of John the Baptist and all the things that went on and what baptism is and what salvation is and he's in Isaiah 53 of all places. He could have bought a scroll at some shop But none of that was ever an accident what God was putting in his life. As he is returning, verse 28, it said he was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near. Very important thing is you and I need to be spirit led to go near. Some people just go in without the Spirit leading them. They go, and we've got a command to go, and they go with boldness, and they get in people's face. They get spit on. I know of preachers that have gotten in fights with other people and gone to jail. That is not what God's called us to do. We've got a lot of things backwards. We need to be led by the Spirit, but we need to have a burden to be led. We want to go and be obedient. And he drew near to him, and he's reading these scriptures. So this man has a question, and this question could have an answer that might spark another question. So don't be afraid. Don't have confidence thinking you got all the answers anyway. Just try to win that person. Try to connect to that person. I mean, think about how far this has gone. Philip, go down to the Gaza. Yes, Lord. And he goes, and then there's the Ethiopian Union. He said, go near. And then the man, he can begin to dialogue and discuss things. And do you understand? Understand it's what thou readest. He says, verse 20, verse 31. How can I? How can I? Except some man should guide me. I need someone to guide me in these scriptures. And amazing that he invites him to come up in his chariot, sit next to him. That's pretty close, isn't it? It's amazing how close God can get you in. if you're willing to just go near. It may be much further and closer than you ever thought. How can I is a powerful question. How can I be saved? How can I do this? How can I do that? How can I get to church without a ride? Well, there's answers to those questions, aren't there? Many times they're the people that belong to a certain church, but some of those people will not bring people to church. And I appreciate many of you, I know some of you bring people to church, and I appreciate you doing that. And I know others could do as well. And pray for bus ministry and things like that, but you need faithful, committed, I mean, involved people to run those kind of ministries. So he's in Jerusalem. from Ethiopia and he went to try to worship. Now you cannot worship God unless you worship him in spirit and in truth. So he apparently went with a desire, he had the right motive, but yet he really wasn't spiritually changed in his life, there wasn't a spiritual connection. Now he has the scripture, which is the truth. Now if you got at least part of the puzzle there, Man, we're doing pretty good, if we'll just admit it. If you've got people questioning the scriptures, again, I'm not talking about doubting them. I'm not talking about debating them. But I mean, they're really asking questions. You know, and you can think from the angle, the Muslim faith believes that Allah is God and that Allah has no son. They do not respect Jesus Christ as the son of God. They reject that. He might be a great teacher, but they don't look at him as the Messiah. They don't look at him as the son of God, as you and I do. And they may want to debate that. But if one of them really desired, with a questioning heart, to know more about those scriptures. As he was going to worship, the Bible says, verse 28, he was returning. To me, it just sounds kind of empty, like he was going back without really having worshiped, without having really met the Lord, without really knowing what it was to worship God. And you can imagine the timeframe. We know when Jesus' death and his resurrection and on into the early days of the church, there was a lot of influence by the high priest. There was a lot of dead religion going on in the Jewish faith. And that you can imagine thinking the temple, the veil in the temple was entwined from top to bottom. They had an earthquake that damaged the temple. There's a lot of things that God shook up when Jesus died and was resurrected. And yet somehow, brother Donald, they just sewed it right back up and repaired it and went right back on with the same ritual of religion. It's hard to worship when religion is dead. Boy, we need something that is real in our life. Philip was saved and real. And he was in a revival and people were getting saved and it was real. And God moved that real believer to go meet someone else who had some real questions in their life. Now, I think about this man, maybe he was discouraged with his trip. He went to worship, but didn't really find any worship. A lot of dead ritualism and things going on there. Him being a Gentile and not being able to go into that inner court, there's just a lot of things he didn't have access to. And he was maybe discouraged with that, and he's reading through the scriptures, trying to figure out some things. And he's reading Isaiah, thinking Isaiah's talking about himself. Sometimes you just need somebody to help you show you some things in the scripture here. And to me and Isaiah, when you read Isaiah 53, and if you say, well, maybe Isaiah's talking about himself. Did Isaiah do any of the things that Isaiah said about that in Isaiah 53? No, he did not. But I know someone who did, amen. And when you preach Jesus, it's like the square peg that goes in the square hole, amen. It fills it up and shows you that it's real. Number two, not only was he discouraged with his trip possibly, but he desired to know the truth as he's reading through that scroll, looking through the answers there. And how can I understand this unless someone should guide me? He decided he needed someone to tell him. And he invited Philip into his chariot. Do you think he ever met Philip before? We know Philip is making his actions by the car because he's spirit-led. But why did the Ethiopian man allow a stranger to jump up into his chariot? Can you imagine the security detail there? He's a treasurer. He's over lots of money over Queen Candace. And here comes some preacher dude, you know, walking down there. He looks like he belongs, but he also looks like he don't know what he's doing there halfway. And then he, hey, I understand what you're reading, and apparently he must have heard him reading out loud. Amen. And he says, how can I? And then he invites him to come in. He desired Philip. What a thought. You ever prayed and said, Lord, let somebody desire to hear the gospel and let me be the one? Let them have a question and let me have the answer. We do a lot of nonchalant, non-interaction Christianity in this day. We really don't want to ruffle anybody's feathers. I'm not saying you should debate, but we don't want our own feathers ruffled. We don't want to get involved. We don't want to talk to people about our faith and share it. He didn't hear from anyone there that could give him the answer, and God sent Philip. And I'll tell you this, if you've got family that's far away from here and you can't reach them, and I can't go visit them, you can pray for a Philip somewhere, somewhere else. And God sent a Philip. Send somebody who's listening to your spirit. Let them go near. Let them be asking questions and let them be able to answer those questions. How can I? Number two, he goes on to say, whom speaketh the prophet this? His question, number one, proved his interest. What is it that is going on in this verse that I need to know more about? I don't know if this man, this prophet is saying about himself that he was wounded for transgressions and that he was a lamb before his shearer is dumb. And that symbolism is when that lamb is getting ready to have its throat cut. They, in complete submission to that person that will take the knife, they never bleat, they never make a fight, they never resist, they submit totally like a dumb lamb and their life is yielded. In Isaiah 53, he's wondering, is Isaiah saying this of himself? Because I'll ask you this, who would do such a thing? Who would not fight and resist? I'll tell you this, Jesus did not fight and resist because he knew it was the only way that souls could be saved. He had to die as a lamb before his shearers is done. He had to yield his life. His question proved his interest. What is there to know more about here? Whom speaketh the prophet this? If he's not talking about himself, I wanna know who he's talking about. What a blessing. Wouldn't that be a blessing to have a school friend or a family member or a neighbor? Some of you brought people to church this morning. Wouldn't it have been amazing if they're not saved? They'd say, I got some questions about that sermon today. Or I got some questions. Why do y'all baptize that way? I know he knew that preacher was preaching, but I don't listen to that. I don't ask you a question. I don't even know what he was saying. He's got his hands in the air. I don't even have to know what he's saying. They said something about sprinkling and immersion. Could you answer those questions? You should be able to. You should know why you know what you know. And if you don't know much, you need to learn a little bit more than you know, amen? You need to have enough to be able to answer these things. His question proved also not only his interest, but his ignorance. Now I'm not being critical, but I want you to understand what I'm talking about is that there's some things he did not know. He was very ignorant of, he did not know that this scripture and Isaiah 53 was not talking about Isaiah. And of course it wasn't talking about John the Baptist and his ministry that was going on there. It wasn't talking about anybody else to me than Jesus. There are Jews today, when a Christian will challenge him with Isaiah 53, they'll just say that they do not know what it's talking about. they'll flatly ignore that nobody perfectly fits that scripture, fulfills it, like Jesus Christ does. Wounded for our transgressions, amen, always bruised for our iniquities, by his stripes we are healed. Scriptures that remind us that he made his grave with the wicked and he was, you know, between those two thieves, prophecy after prophecy that reminds us of who Jesus is. But they ignore it, they push it to the side. So when he's asking this question, he proved he had some ignorance of things. He did not understand some things. He didn't know and he didn't deny it. So it proves to me that he was actually pretty intelligent as well. If I don't know something, but I act like I still know it, I'm more ignorant than I realize. But if I can be ignorant to a level to understand that I need answers that I don't have, then I have a little bit of intelligence about me. And I can get more intelligence. I can be smarter. He wasn't so smart to assume that he already knew the truth. He realized that he needed to hear something more. And he was smart enough to ask, needing to know. Whom speaketh the prophet this? I need to know more. I need to know. I have to have an answer. Why was he even interested? God was working. There's no doubt God's working in this man's heart and his life. Philip would have said, Lord, I'm too busy. I mean, I'm doing a greater thing to go down to the desert, away from the revival in Jerusalem. On what did the scripture say? He tells him, the angel of the Lord speaks to him to go to Gaza, which is desert, and he arose and went. According to this scripture, brother Don, I'm gonna read it. Arise and go toward the south under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. It never said anything about why he was going. Unless the spirit leads him and he knows in his heart God's got a plan, there's something going on here. If God moved me from this when this was revival and souls being saved and he moved me down there to that, there's got to be a reason. If God moved you at a job, if he moved you to a new neighborhood, a new state, there's got to be a plan. If you're submitted trying to walk for God and let the Spirit of God lead your life, you gotta be able to trust that God is working in every one of those steps and phases of what's going on. And he goes down there and he beholds the Ethiopian man. He sees the camel train and all the chariots there. And apparently he gets to hear him reading Isaiah 53. And he says, do you understand this without reason? How can I? And then he said, well, come on up here in the chair and sit with me. What an open opportunity. That had to be exciting. Now the word he says, let me find the scripture here again. Verse 31, how can I accept some man should guide me? And he desired Philip, he would come up, sit with him. And he read the scripture. And then the eunuch said in verse 34, of whom speaketh the prophet this? So that word whom also like when we mentioned who, who we talking about. And I want you to understand this. The answer to the question of who cannot be answered if you and I are not available. If Philip had not been available, he would have never got the answer to that. He would have rode in that chariot looking for worship, looking for answers in that scripture, and he would have never found them. And he went all the way back to Ethiopia empty with no answers. You need to be available. And I think that's one of the problems with our modern Christians in the church. We're not available. God, not me, send somebody else. Jonathan, he gave some good points. He said something, you know, a lot of people would rather pay hundreds of dollars and send missionaries everywhere else just so they don't have to answer any questions. So they don't have to answer who the scriptures are talking about. They don't want to be available. We need to change that. We need God to change our hearts. Who cannot be answered if we're not available? Who cannot be answered if we are not approachable? You know, a lot of people, it's hard to approach certain Christians. They're so much better than everybody else. They're an authority on everything. They have forgotten they were purged from their old sins and they think they're God's gift to mankind or they're God's gift to himself. And they walk, I know some people this way, so please don't get upset with me, but I know some people, preachers too, they walk like this almost. I didn't really think that much of that was a real thing. I grew up pretty poor, didn't know how poor we were, but I grew up pretty poor. Got into, my mom got saved, I got saved through the ministry of a local country church there in the East of Galilee, Baptist Church. My pastor was just a common man, he was a simple godly man, I loved him. And he never had airs of coming across that, that he was filled with pride. He never looked down upon people at all. He never forgot where he came from, but I've been around some people. They're not approachable. They're just certain people. You're not going to be able to get access to them. You understand what I mean? I mean, they're not, they're not going to, they're just like, you're, you're too dirty. You're too low. You're too, you're too this. You know, if we can't go, listen, I'm not against going to the nice houses and talking to people and visiting people, but if you can't go to the trailer parks, you're leaving people like me out. That's where I came from. And we need to be approachable. Not be too big for our britches, so to speak. And so saved and so holy that we can't remember what it's like to be out in the world and have the scars of sin and those who are on drugs and the things that they've gone through or on alcohol or whatever it might be that are on the road to hell. And they need to be, we need to be approachable. It's hard to win somebody when you don't even want to be in the same playing field with them. You don't want to be connected to them at all. And it's also hard to answer those questions if you're not willing to go approach them And it takes two for that. And the word or the answer to the question of who is this scripture talking about, it cannot be answered if we are not acquainted with the scripture and the spirits leading in our lives and we don't know who it's talking about. I can't tell you Jesus' answer if I don't have Jesus' answer in my life. And if I am saved but I'm not leaning on Jesus like I need to and the Lord's not leading my life, it's gonna be hard for me to have a lot of spiritual answers to some of those questions when I'm struggling my own self spiritually. And we need to get our hearts right first and get close to God first priority so that we can answer those questions of those questioning hearts in other people's lives. I sometimes wonder why maybe sometimes people don't invite people to revivals. It's because you've been living like hell at work and it's a mockery. I'm not saying you, but it's just a thought, generically. If you cuss around people that work and all of a sudden you get spiritual, we've got revival coming. Hey, I want to invite you to revival. It's like you're speaking two different languages to them. You want me to go be spiritual with you? You want me to go seek spirituality? You want me to go seek church when you've been telling dirty jokes right along with us? Do you see the dilemma in the modern church today? That's a reality. And so if we're not acquainted with it and we are not applying these things to our lives, that Jesus is the answer to all the problems in my life, I can't say that's the answer to you if I don't believe it's the answer to me. So whom speaketh the prophet? This was a question that proved his interest, his intelligence, his ignorance is all. It shows us that we need to be able to answer that question. be available, approachable, and acquainted with the scriptures. Can you imagine, he's reading Isaiah 53, and Philip goes, I don't know, I ain't never read that. I never even heard of that. That's a good question. Now, I'd rather just go ahead and admit my own ignorance. Say, I don't know the answer to that. Obviously, I should, I apologize to you, but I'm gonna find the answer and I'm gonna get back to you. I'd rather just own that, amen, than to act like, well, you know Isaiah, he's in the lion's den and there was some kind of boat called an ark. The world don't need any more foolishness, amen, they need truth. And if it could just be true and say, you know what? You make me feel bad because I don't know the answer to that. Both of us need to go find out the answer to that. I'll find out the answer to that. And obviously the critical time frame we're talking about is this man is heading back home to Ethiopia and he will see him no more. How many times is that the truth that there may be people coming to our lives that we will see no more? And we're not going to have time to be able to go figure out what Isaiah 53 means. or what John 3, 16 means. And there's a lot, listen, and there might be a lot of scriptures that you don't know the answer to, but there are some you do know the answer to. And you can answer that question with another question or a greater answer. I tell you that Jesus fulfills all that. And Isaiah 53 was just a loaded question. I'm going to tell you, church, it was just a loaded question. Whom is he speaking of? Jesus. I'm going to preach to you, Jesus. And Philip opened his mouth and began at that same scripture in verse 35. And he bring to that same place, that scripture, and he preached unto him, Jesus. We ought to get to the place, Brother Carl, that we ought to be able to draw Jesus out of a hat better than a magician can draw a bunny out of one. You ought to be able to find Jesus almost out of any place in the Bible, any story, any circumstance. If there's a question and there's a peril and there's a perplexing problem, Jesus is the answer. You and I ought to be able to do that. But if you don't have that real life experience where he's answered and brought peace to your life, he's brought comfort to your life, you might not be able to answer those questions with the answer of Jesus because it's not real in your own life. Later on he says, what does hinder me to be baptized? I wonder if you and I would be able to answer that question. I've had similar conversations with people. There's a lot of weird stuff out there and I'm sure most of y'all have experienced some of it. There's some weird stuff out there. And it's hard sometimes when people who think they're very religious and they know everything and like I said, you're going to come to find out you're going to be casting your pearl before the swine. It's not time to debate. That's all you're going to end up in. They don't really want to know the truth. They think they already know it. But you could be able to have somebody say, yeah, I've been thinking about getting baptized. You guys baptized down there at your church? You ought to be able to say, well, you need to get saved before you get baptized. Could you answer that question that way? That's the proper way to answer it. Do you know what it means to be saved? Can you imagine being able to make that conversation? I mean, that's just a perfect opportunity to say, well, you know, you need to be saved before you get baptized. Do you know what it means to be saved, to have a saving faith in Jesus Christ? I don't know. You know, I got baptized when I was 12, but I hadn't been living right, so I just figured I'd get baptized again. And if you don't have the answers to that, you need to equip yourself better, and you don't have to become a preacher to be able to do that. You should have some very simple truth that you'll be able to study, be able to answer those questions, to know that you must be born again or you cannot enter the kingdom of God, that you need to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, certain scriptures like that. And we have a little toolkit here. and it's got the Roman's Road, a summarizing of the Roman's Road in here that can show them you are a sinner, you owe a sin debt, Christ died for your sin debt, repent, receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, and the verses are there, and if you don't have a Bible, you can Google it. Amen? You could. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Well, if thou believest with all thy heart, boy, God knows the heart, does he not? Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you mayest. The Bible says, yeah, this is not First Chronicles. Chronicles 28, nine, for the Lord searches all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. What a powerful Old Testament scripture. God searches hearts, understandeth all imaginations and thoughts. Everything is even going through your mind right now. Some of you are thinking, man, I wish he'd hurry up. If you believe with all your heart, you missed. And at that point, if you have believed with all your heart, you'll probably, Sister Suzie, have a better ability to be able to recognize when somebody else is sincere and they want to believe with all their heart. You can tell most of the time when people are real and sincere. Some people I have seen come to the altar facing divorce, just to make their wife happy. They come down, make a false profession of faith. I prayed with them, read the scripture. They said they got saved and went right back to the drinking, went back to the cussing, went back to the threatening of their wife. There was no change in that man. He's just trying to slap a Band-Aid on and trying to avoid some kind of confrontation in his life. We need to be converted and there needs to be a real desire, a true belief in our heart that we are the sinners in these stories and we need a Savior, which is Jesus Christ. Boy, if somebody comes to you with that kind of questioning heart, what a blessing it would be. Here's a Muslim thinking about things, thinking about being a Jew, and then he turns to that, to this, and he meets this apostle who has been born again by saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ while he's on the way home, riding down maybe the Macedonian Road through there, and he ends up turning to Jesus Christ. And he says in that statement, I believe, verse 37, that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Can you imagine whoever's around there hearing that? What's going on in there? That chariot. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Stop the chariot. Amen. I don't believe Philip said stop the chariot. He had no authority to stop the chariots. I believe that Ethiopian man said stop the chariots. And they all stopped. He said, there's that water we're talking about. And they went down in that water. And the Bible says, I want you to look at verse 38. They went down both into the water. What a blessing. Can you imagine getting to go in that water with him? Now, I almost drownded Art this morning, but it was somewhat his fault. He said he's been a diver. He's dove in the ocean and water and snorkeled and everything. And as a professional diver that he's got certifications, he felt like he could just lean back and hold his breath. But the water still went down the nose. And I thought he had his mouth open. I thought, I said, what are you doing? And he come back up and he's choking and all that's going on there. But when he got through coughing, He said, am I good? I said, yes sir. And he reached out and he wanted to hug me. There's just something about these real spiritual things that connect us. They bind us together. Can you imagine the joy? Now he didn't get to stay around Philip long. They goes down in the water and he gets baptized and the spirit of God yanks Philip back up, probably sent him back where he was. And this Ethiopian man no longer has this spiritual influence in Philip in his life. But you know what he has, Brother Brent? He now has the Spirit of God living inside of him. And the Bible says, as he was caught away, the eunuch saw him no more. He just went on his way rejoicing. He got out of that war and he praised God. Man, it's good to be saved. Well, thank you for sending Philip into my life. Thank you for answering those questions of who that scripture was talking about. I found the answer. It's Jesus Christ. And he goes back to Ethiopia, and there is some historical verification that through that gospel lead, there are groups of Christian Ethiopians go all the way back almost 2,000 years ago. That doesn't surprise me. If he went back, he said, I gotta tell you what happened down there in Jerusalem. I went to worship, man, it was so dead. Them old dead priests of that dead religion, they wouldn't even let me go in the inner court. It's kind of kept me back. Everything was holding me back. And finally, something brought me nigh, amen, brought me. It was the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He went on his way rejoicing. He was not confused or concerned about Philip and where he went and what happened to him. That had to be the peace of God. He's like, what happened to that guy you was talking to? I have no idea. There's just some things I can't explain and I ain't got enough education spiritually to understand where that man went. All I know is God sent him into my life. I'm not worried about where he went after that. I'm just glad God sent some people into my life. He wasn't rejoicing over the terrific job he had or the trip to Jerusalem, but he was rejoicing over trusting in Jesus as his savior. His life has changed, his sins are gone. You know, technically, Philip came from out of nowhere anyway, did he not? And then he just went out of nowhere when he left. Because he's kind of just showed up, and then he finally just showed out. He was gone. And this man didn't let it rattle him. He was just glad someone answered the questions. His questions were answered. What a wonderful, happy day. I want you to turn as we close. This is a powerful scripture, a challenge to all of us. 1 Peter chapter 3. Please, please, please, please, please, please turn to this verse. Take the time to do this. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15. When you found your place, say, Amen. We got most of you. 1 Peter 3, 15. You say, ouch. You still there? Ah, you got it? Ah, 1 Peter 3 15. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. That's a powerful verse. Are you and I ready to give an answer to the reason? The reason is Jesus saved my soul. He saved my soul from sin. He changed my life. And so much in this verse I could get hung up on, but there is hope within you and I that this world needs to see that they do not have it. And the only way they're gonna see they don't have it is if we're living and acting upon it, that blessed hope that we have. and be ready always to give an answer to that lost person, to give that answer. What a thought to say, Lord, somewhere out in this day, this week, I'm gonna meet some people. No wonder if they got any questions that I might have an answer to. And what a thought if someone might ask you, why are you so happy? Some of y'all are laughing like, well, you ain't asking me that, preacher. You ain't asking me that. Why you so bitter and mad and mean and ornery? Well, you probably got a lot of answers to that one, don't you? Well, if you had as much trouble as I had, we need to reverse that thing and ask, why are you happy? Why do you act like you got hope? Because I do. Jesus saved me and he's coming back for us as the church. And I'll never walk this life without peace and hope and grace. He never leaves me nor forsakes me. He forgave all my sins and he released all that guilt and he made me a child of God. That's quite a hope we have. Do you have the answer to that? I hope that you do. The Bible says to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. That means you need to separate yourself to focus on him. You need to submit yourself to learning about him, meditate upon him, walk for him, fall in love with him, let God lead and spirit lead your life, and be ready always to give that answer. Church has said that a lot of time, Christians today are so beat up, so spiritually messed up, so cold, so distant from God, they're not able to answer those questions. And probably a lot of times people are not asking us those questions. They're not asking, why are you so happy? Why are you so joyful? Why do you act like you got peace all the time? Why would all these troubles happen when your horse dies, your car broke down, and everything just burns down to the ground? You say, well, the Lord's just gonna help take care of it. The Lord's good. He'll provide. How do you have that kind of hope? You need to have an answer to that. Jesus brings the peace of God that passes all understanding. in your mind. Sister Virginia, I'd like for you to come, play something for us. I'd like for you to spend some time in reflection and prayer. Think about what a blessing it is that God would send someone into your life to ask a spiritual-minded question with a sincere heart. Some of you got family members. Susie often talks about, even now, reflecting back times, there's stuff that Andrew's still Sometimes you wonder about our family sometimes, but sometimes you still say, man, something's still stuck somewhere along the way. You know what sticks? It's your real belief in your heart and the truth of the scripture. And so don't give up on your family and ask God to let you be approachable and accessible. Let you be acquainted with these truths. Study your Bible. Search the Scripture. Find your purpose in life to lead others to the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, you can't do that if you have no peace in your own heart and life. Every head bowed, every eye closed. I don't know where you are spiritually, but if you're not saved, you need to get saved. If you are saved, you need to be trying to want to have a burden that others could see Jesus in your life. You could answer those questions. You could be a light, a witness, and show them how to be saved themselves. If someone has a spiritual question, sincerely be able to answer that question about the hope that lies within you. Be able to answer the question about some biblical thing that they have. And if you don't know the answer, say, that's one I don't know, but I tell you, you go to church with me on Sunday, we'll jump on our preacher with that one when we get there after the service is over. And if he don't know, he'll hijack somebody till he finds out. We'll get you an answer. And the answer needs to be a biblical answer. Because the truth will make us free. Anybody here, nobody looking around, anybody here said, preacher, pray for me. I want to be a better witness. I want to be able to win people. I want to be able to influence them through Jesus. My family, yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am, several hands. My neighbors, my friends, the others in my life. What a prayer to say, Lord, would you send some people with questions? Let me give the answers to the ones you've already given me in my heart. Let me answer them with that about what Jesus did in my life. Be a good prayer. Say, Lord, let's send some people into my way. Lord, prepare their hearts. Prepare mine. What a blessing it would be. To see someone turn their eyes on Jesus and trust in Him as their Savior. And believe with all their heart that Jesus is the Son of God. Now Phillip didn't get to spend much time with Him in the water there. One truth that we have now is that you might be able to spend a little more time with the one that you're able to see come to Jesus. Might even be able to see Him come sit on the pew with you. Come to church with you. Wouldn't it be a joy to see somebody get saved because you kind of led them and pointed them, you answered the question, and you get to sit there one Sunday and watch them get baptized? What a joy that would be. Church, we're hungering and thirsting for the wrong things, not seem to be longing for spiritual type of things. What a blessing it would be to have God sent some people with questioning hearts into our lives. Walk the trail, Christian, with that hope abiding in you. Ask God to restore your joy, your peace, your happiness. And they said, why are you so happy? I said, because Jesus saved my soul. Because Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Whatever, you don't know John 3, 16 like Eddie. He wore that one out, praise God. Hey, he might not be able to memorize the whole Bible, but we can sure do better than one verse. But if not, use that verse. I've said this before almost in rebuttal. You might not be able to memorize anything. Go to John 11, 35, Jesus wept. You can't get nothing, get that one. And then just say, listen, I don't know much about the Bible, but John 11, 35 said Jesus wept and Jesus was crying because Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus died. He had compassion for them. He raised that man out of the grave. And then one day Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. And then God raised him out of the grave too. And one day, if you'll trust in Jesus, he'll raise you out of the grave. You can do all that from John 11, 35. Father, I pray you'll help us. Lord, just revive our burden. Lord, just help us, Lord, to draw closer to you. Lord, as the challenge of the scripture, be able to answer the questioning heart. Be thankful, Lord, for those you put into our life that have questions about spiritual matters. Let us search the scriptures daily. Let us try to learn more about you. Let us ask, Lord, let's be led spiritually by you to the path of other people into our life or into their life. Lord, may we see souls saved, see people's lives changed as you changed ours. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.