So if you still haven't had your Bibles with you, I'm just gonna jump into the passage, which was already read for us this morning by Malachi. And I'm gonna go to verse 32, Acts chapter eight, verse 32. This is concerning the Ethiopian eunuch on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now the passage of scripture which he was reading was this. He was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shears is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will relate his generation? For his life is removed from the earth. The eunuch answered Philip and said, please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you in the name of your Son. Lord, we are so grateful for all that he has done on our behalf, that he in obedience should come to this world and take on the form of a servant. And for the sake of saving our souls to render himself a sacrifice, that the wrath that belonged to us be taken up by Him, that our reproach and our condemnation be removed, and that in Him we have been granted life, and we have been made reconciled to You. And Lord, this is the boldness, then, by which we can even approach You, by which we offer up to You our worship here this morning, and in particular, Now, as we walk through your Word, we pray that your Holy Spirit would be using it in our hearts and in our lives, that you would continue to lead and to direct us, to move us by your Spirit, Lord, for the sake of your Son, that he may receive the glory that is due his name. And it's in his name that we pray these things. Amen. You may be seated. I'll begin by making just an observation here. You can't move something when it's bound fast to something else that's immovable. Let me say that again. You can't move something when it's bound fast to something else that's immovable. Now that's a principle that's pretty straightforward and you all realize that and actually practice that. For instance, if you have a bicycle, you're riding and you're in town and you stop to go inside a store, you'll chain that bike to a lamppost or some bike rack or something else that can't be moved and the purpose, therefore, is that no one will take your bike while you're away because you can't remove it if it's bound up to something immovable, right? Let me use another illustration. For those of you that don't know this, I'm a physical therapist. I work at the hospital. And I'm often called upon to move patients from their bed to a chair or vice versa that are particularly either heavy or very weak and therefore difficult to move. So they call upon us. And with the right sets of skills and some oomph, you're able to relocate such patients. Typically, in that kind of scenario, you're hoping the person is a small elderly lady. That makes the job usually a lot easier. But not always. There have been many instances where I have sought to move one of these little old ladies. and found that they were nearly impossible to move because they had some sort of death grip on the bed rail or on the chair that I was moving them from. And all of a sudden, what seemed like an easy task became exceedingly difficult. In fact, there's one particularly interesting story where I was seeking to move such a little old lady. And I don't remember all the details surrounding this, but I think she had already been placed in the chair and I was moving her to a wheelchair. And I had her, as I often do, had her grab onto my arms because that way they're less likely to grab something that will interfere with the transfer. And as I went to move her, kind of one, two, three, she didn't budge. Okay, try this again. So with a little more gusto, I did the same thing over again. And it was like moving a sack of bricks. I mean, I could not budge her. So I stopped to scrutinize the situation a little bit more carefully and realized that she'd been belted into the chair. And apparently, her mental faculties were not sufficient to alert me to this interesting detail. But she was not going to be moved over to that wheelchair by any forces exerted to me until I removed the belt from the chair and freed her up by it. So you might be asking, what does this have to do? with the passage at hand. I want that just to sort of simmer in your minds for right now. It's something I will come back around again to towards the end of the message as we make some application. So, just briefly by way of review, as we enter into chapter 8 here in Acts, it was on the heels of the stoning of Stephen, who was the very first Christian martyr. And it was at that time, we were told, that a great persecution had erupted there in the city of Jerusalem. And it was being zealously led by a man named Saul, who is going to be a particular individual of interest as we move into chapter 9. It was on account of this persecution that the believers living there in Jerusalem were being scattered, we're told, out into the regions of Judea and Samaria to the north. And that was except for the apostles who remained there and were leading the church in Jerusalem. So last week, we saw from the passage that the fire of persecution had unleashed the seed of the gospel and it was being dispersed and planted, as I said, by the wind of the Holy Spirit. And the lens has shifted now to a particular man by the name of Philip. And Philip, like Stephen, was one of the seven, one of those men who had been set apart by the congregation for the purpose of waiting on tables and overseeing the distribution of food to the poor in order that the apostles would have more time to devote to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And we're told that these men, these seven that had been selected, were men of good reputation, men that were filled with the spirit and wisdom. And so in the text, we see how Philip goes out during this time of persecution, and he goes to the city of Samaria, and there he begins to minister. He was, it says, proclaiming Christ, he was performing great miracles, and he was baptizing the new believers. So, in response to reports that had come back to the apostles in Jerusalem, they decided to send Peter and John in order to go and see what was happening there, and particularly for the purpose of bestowing upon these Samaritans the gift of the Holy Spirit. And in this context, we came to this side story about Simon Magnus, who was a new convert, who Peter ended up rebuking because he was trying to buy the power and authority of the apostles. And that's where the story takes up today in verse 25. And here we're gonna see Philip continuing to be the focal point of Luke's account of how the kingdom of God was spreading. So, the theme that I've established for this particular text is this, the Holy Spirit uses surrendered saints in fruitful advancement of the gospel of Christ. The three headings this morning are these, the leading of the Spirit, the teaching of the Spirit, and the moving of the Spirit. So, verse 25. So when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Now, this verse really serves as a transition for us from the last scenario into the present one. And here we have Peter and John. having already done their work in the city of Samaria, not only imparting the Holy Spirit, we're told, but also giving solemn testimony and speaking the word of truth to them. So they begin heading back to Jerusalem, and as they do so and are passing through the regions of Samaria, they continue to preach the gospel along the way. And then, of course, they are continuing with the fulfillment of the commission that had been given to them by Christ. And that brings us to verse 26. "'But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "'Get up and go south to the road "'that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. "'This is a desert road.' "'So he got up and went, and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, "'a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, "'who was in charge of all her treasure, "'and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. "'And he was returning and sitting in his chariot, "'and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the spirit said to Philip, go up and join this chariot. Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, do you understand what you're reading? So while Peter and John are making their way back to Jerusalem, Philip is approached we're told by an angel who gave him some very explicit directions. in particular, that he should go to this road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza, which would have been from there to the south and to the east of Jerusalem, located along the Mediterranean Sea. Now, apparently, some years before this, Alexander the Great had conquered the city of Gaza, and later it had been rebuilt in another location. So this particular road was one that was deserted, and why we see the little side comment here by Luke. And so you have to think that this would have been a very strange instruction for Philip to have received, to go to this desolate road. And this, for the purposes of advancing God's kingdom, probably didn't make a lot of sense from a human intellectual standpoint. And it would have been, of course, the very road that an Ethiopian would have taken who was returning home because of the direction in which it placed him en route back to his home country. So we're not given the name of this particular Ethiopian, but we are given a variety of details concerning him. First of all, Luke notes that he was a eunuch. and that just simply means that he had been castrated. Now, this was a practice that was not uncommon among men who were serving as slaves, in particular in situations related to the royal family, and especially if it related to the female people of the royal family, that they would have been eunuchs. Furthermore, Luke says he was a court official of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, and apparently, he had been appointed in charge of her finances. So my understanding is that in that culture with the Ethiopians, the king, the man, would have just been left to reign, not to rule. He just sort of was a figurehead of the state, basically, but often the treasuries would have been under the direction of the queen. So he was certainly a man of rank and of means. Furthermore, we're told the reason for which he had been in Jerusalem, and that is that he was there to worship. Important detail, because this means that this man was Jewish. Now, that raises the question, why do we have a Jew living in Ethiopia? And we're not entirely sure, but there's two very plausible reasons. First of all, he might have been of a family lineage of the diaspora. Again, those are the Jews that had been dispersed following the exile to Babylon. So that might have just been where his family took root. Otherwise, he might have been a convert, somebody who had converted to Judaism on account of the diaspora presence there in Ethiopia. In this account, we find the Ethiopian, it says, sitting in his chariot and reading from the book of Isaiah as he went along his way. So several points, again, worth noting here. First, it seems very plausible that the reason he was reading from Isaiah is that when he had made his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he purchased one of the scrolls there. He would have had the means to do so, and likely had been reading through that scroll of Isaiah, and that was the point that he had gotten to. His didn't have Isaiah 53, the numbering came later, of course, but that's where he happened to be at the time when he had this encounter with Philip. Secondly, the word here for chariot is actually the same word that can be translated carriage. And we know that on account of this, he probably had at least one or two others that were traveling along with him. It would have not been the practice for someone to travel alone in those days. Someone would have been leading the horse that was pulling the carriage along. And thirdly, it mentions that he was reading out loud. Now that, I'm told, was actually the normal method of reading at that time, rather than silently as we often read. So it would have been natural for him, if he was reading the scroll of Isaiah, to be doing so out loud. And this is where Philip comes into the picture, and the Spirit tells him to go up and to join the chariot, which he does. So that's sort of the gist of the storyline here, but I want to pause a moment and draw your attention to some very relevant details regarding the way in which Philip was led by the Spirit of God. We see this in particular in two ways and in two instances. in that he heard the voice of God and he obeyed the voice of God. And he does this twice over. Now, Kurt brought up a good point this morning I hadn't really considered. We're gonna see the eunuch do the same thing. He's going to hear from God and he's going to obey God as well. So let me show you what I mean from the text here. First we read, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. saying, get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now, granted, we don't normally hear our instructions from an angel of God, at least I never have, but all the same, the principle is true. He heard from God. Let me say that again. He heard from God. And God's instruction was very clear. And Philip wasn't given the why, he wasn't really given any of the details, only told that he should do it. And the next thing we read is this, so he got up and went. He didn't ask questions, he just obeyed. He obeyed the command that he had been given. This is very much like Father Abraham, who is called to leave Ur of the Chaldeans. and he got up and left, or later on in the story, he's called to sacrifice his son Isaac. So the next morning he got up and went to the place where he was to offer him. So that was the first incident. Philip heard from God and Philip obeyed God. Then we see this repeated in verse 29. It says, then the spirit said to Philip, go up and join this chariot. So this time, it's the Spirit of God communicating to Philip, perhaps that small, still voice to which his ears had been well-tuned. Again, he heard from God, and here's what follows. It says, Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. Again, no questions asked, just immediate obedience, and that with great zeal. And let me note that this has all of the marks of what I would call true biblical obedience. That is, it's done immediately, completely, and with the right attitude. Those are the marks of biblical obedience. Those are the marks of obedience that God would have us to follow. They're the marks of obedience that we ought to call our children to in our homes. And that kind of obedience is born out of a heart that has a surrendered will, and that's really important, a surrendered will. So it's two by two, two ways and two instances by which Philip heard from God and obeyed God. And this, I think, is to us very instructive in terms of the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are led by Him when we hear and obey, and I'm gonna come back around to this again in the application, but let's move on now to the next heading, the teaching of the Spirit. So returning again to the text in verse 30, Philip ran up and heard him teaching, I'm sorry, heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, well, how could I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture, which he was reading, was this. He was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before shearers is silent, so he does not open his mouth. In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will relate his generation? For his life is removed from the earth. The eunuch answered Philip and said, please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. So I want to begin looking at this passage in terms of the need of the Ethiopian. The reason behind God's leading Philip here was first on account of this man's spiritual confusion. He was reading from Isaiah 53, which we had read for us earlier this morning concerning the suffering servant of God. And apart from what had been accomplished through Jesus Christ, this would have seemed terribly confusing. He had the word of God, but he had not yet comprehended it because he had yet to have the key that would unlock its mystery. He was bound up in spiritual confusion. But we also see that it wasn't merely spiritual confusion. It was a confusion that was accompanied by a spiritual interest. After Philip runs up alongside the carriage, he asks, do you understand what you're reading? By the way, What a great question for spiritual engagement, right? And he said, well, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. So the Greek word here in the text translated guides, unless someone guides me, can also be translated teach or instruct. He needed to be taught its meaning. The Ethiopian didn't understand what he was reading and his heart had been already opened to hear the gospel. He just needed someone to explain it to him. And this attitude was, I would say, considerably, it's the opposite, considerably different of the Jewish counsel that had stoned Stephen. They too had spiritual confusion, but theirs was in relationship to a blindness and refusal to hear from the Holy Spirit of God, as Stephen himself said, that they, like their fathers, were always resisting the Spirit. So the Ethiopian invites Philip into the carriage to sit with him, obviously with the assumption, based on Philip's questioning him, that he had the means by which to guide him into an understanding. And so after reading the text from Isaiah regarding his suffering and serving, he asks Philip explicitly, please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or someone else? It's like handing an evangelist a T-bone steak here. I mean, wow, talk about an open door and a green light into a spiritual conversation. And I love what Luke writes next. It says this, then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. It gave me goosebumps when I was preparing the sermon. He preached how Jesus had come in fulfillment of this passage written 700 plus years before, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. But he didn't stop there. It says, beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. And here's one of the things I love about this. Jesus is the gospel. Let's never forget that. When we preach the gospel, we need to be preaching Jesus. not merely some plan of salvation. We need to tell of who Jesus is, of what He has done, of what He's doing now, of what He's going to do. To preach the gospel, we preach Jesus from the Scriptures, that which has been given to us by the Spirit of God. And so, we see in the text the leading of the Spirit, teaching of the Spirit, and this brings us to the final heading, the moving of the Spirit. So returning to our text, verse 36. As they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? So there are several ways here in this passage that we see the moving of the Spirit of God, and the first is regarding the heart of the Ethiopian. After Philip had preached Jesus to him, we see his heart responding in faith. And notice there's no invitation here given by Philip. Not that inviting someone to respond to the gospel is wrong, but it sure wasn't necessary in this case because the eunuch is actually the one who takes initiative in responding. And he does this with great enthusiasm. He says, look, water. What prevents me from being baptized? So this is clearly evidence of the Spirit's work upon his heart, moving him by an irresistible grace found in the good news of Jesus. Furthermore, he wanted to give full expression of his faith through baptism. Now, we can assume that Philip's message must have touched upon an explanation of baptism in keeping with faith and repentance in Jesus, particularly as a way of identifying oneself with the crucified and risen Christ. And therefore, seeing this stream or pool along the way, this man immediately wants to express his newfound faith by being identified with Jesus as one of his followers. So just as a side note here, if you're reading from the ESV, you might've already noticed that it skips over verse 37. Or if you're in the NSB like me, you might have brackets around the passage there, and that's because that verse is not found in the oldest manuscripts, and it may represent something that was inserted at a later time. So let's just continue on to verse 38 here. It says, and he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he was baptized, and he baptized him. So Philip goes down to the water and he baptizes the eunuch. I wanna make just some passing comments on this. First of all, again, we see this word baptize, which means to immerse in water. That's what baptism is. And Philip does this in response to his profession of faith and his desire to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, we might take note here, while this is certainly an exceptional situation, Philip isn't actually an elder. He's been ordained as a man responsible for overseeing the distribution of the poor, okay? That's the ordination that he received, not as an elder of a church. Furthermore, we're out in the middle of nowhere here. We're on a desert road, and there might have been a couple other people there, but this wasn't really in the context of a church. And the only reason I wanna bring this up is that I think we need to be very careful. Sometimes we let historical positions drive our understanding and some of the things that we do. We need to be careful that we don't go beyond Scripture and what it said in terms of setting up rigid fences that have never been prescribed here. I know in some churches, and I say this because I know in some churches, you can't baptize someone unless you're an ordained elder. Well, that certainly isn't the case here. Or you can't have somebody baptized if it's not immediately attached to a church service. Again, that's not something that we see here. So we just want to be careful. I think we can make good and reasonable principles to follow, but we also need to be very careful that we're deriving what we're doing from the Word of God itself. So moving on to verse 39, it says, when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. So immediately after this baptism, we're told that the spirit snatched Philip away. I'm gonna come back to that shortly, but for now I wanna savor this very last phrase, and Justin pointed this out again. I just commend Justin, he does such a nice, I don't know where Justin's at, I'm pointing out here, there he is. He does such a nice job in reading the passage and pulling songs that relate well to the very text that we're in here. He went on his way rejoicing. This man had received a pardon for his sins. This man had received new life in Christ. This man had found the pearl of great price. By all means, he should go on his way rejoicing. In fact, this ought to mark the life of every true believer. And if it doesn't, then something isn't right. Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. But there's something else here, perhaps not quite as obvious, and it's found in the phrase, he went on his way. That phrase is actually quite loaded. You see, we can see here how the Holy Spirit of God is working and moving in the life of this man. a man that had spiritual interest, and he wanted to honor God, but he didn't know how. And so he brings Philip into the picture, and he unites that with the word of God to show him how to find Christ. And so it was a wonderful act of divine mercy and grace in the life of this particular man. The Holy Spirit was working this out. But you have to understand, this man continued on his way. and it was ordained of God. It's actually very profound here. This appointment would have a huge impact upon a whole new region of the world because that Ethiopian took the seed of the gospel in his bosom back to his home. The early church historian Eusebius related that this converted eunuch was the first missionary to Ethiopia. Here's something else remarkable. If we turn in Isaiah just a few chapters beyond this text, we come to another text that I think bears import here, and that's Isaiah 56, three through eight. Let me read it to you. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people. Nor let the eunuch say, behold, I'm a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant to them, I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants. Every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even those I will bring to my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. The Lord God who gathers the dispersed of Israel declares, yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered. Isn't that amazing? God was working this out and he was bringing him to an understanding of Isaiah 53 and the fulfillment of this prophecy just a few chapters later. This Holy Spirit driven encounter was part of God's plan in the global advancement of his kingdom. So now back to the text in verse 40. But Philip found himself at Azontes. And as he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea. So we're told in verse 39 that the spirit of God just snatches Peter away. And apparently he was just suddenly translated from that road to the city of Asadus, which, as renamed, it used to be the city of Ashdod, part of the region of the Philistines. Now, this is a very miraculous event. I mean, there is the moving of the spirit, and then there's the moving of the spirit, which we see here. physically moved. So this city, Exodus, was located about 20 to 30 miles to the north along the same road that runs parallel to the Mediterranean Sea. And from here, we're told that he continued as he made his way along this road to preach the gospel in all the cities as he traveled northward until he reached the city of Caesarea. So I just want to kind of jump ahead in the story. In Acts chapter 20, this happens during one of Paul's missionaries journeys, it says this, Luke records, on the next day, we, we meaning Luke was present with him, we left and came to Caesarea. And entering the house of Philip, the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. So apparently, Philip, after making this trek, had settled subsequently there in Caesarea with his family, and now he was no longer serving as a traveling preacher, it would seem, but rather perhaps a leader in the local church there. And Luke being with him at this time would have had an opportunity then to visit with him and to hear these accounts firsthand from him, perhaps owing to some of the details that we find here in our text. So I'd like to bring the message then to a close by returning again to the statement that I made at the beginning of this sermon here. The Holy Spirit, the theme, I'm sorry, the theme, the Holy Spirit uses surrendered saints in fruitful advancement of the gospel of Christ. The Holy Spirit uses surrendered saints in the fruitful advancement of the gospel of Christ. So in this passage, we see with very special clarity, I would say, the activity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is leading, the Holy Spirit teaching, the Holy Spirit moving, all of it quite remarkable. But once again, I would call to your attention the fact that this is all being done through a man named Philip, not an apostle, just a man named Philip, a man like us, a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit. And it is from this perspective then that I want to provide some application. The main principle of application is this. We need to be yielded. to the Spirit of God. We need to be yielded to the Spirit of God. That is, surrendered to Him. Crucified with Christ. I began this message this morning by pointing out that you can't move something when it's bound fast to something else that's immovable. We need to be freed from self. Self-will. self-glory, self-empowerment, in order that we might be moved by the Spirit and used by the Spirit of God. From our text here, oh, sorry, before I go to that, I would say just back to the illustration, too often, I would say that we're kind of like that little lady that's got a death grip on the chair, impossible to move. We have a death grip on the furniture of self, and we're bound with it by a cord to our own throat. So I wanna give three particular ways drawn from this text in which this surrender to the Lord and to the Spirit of God ought to be manifested. First of all, we need ears that hear. We need ears that hear. We need to be constantly in the word of God. Because here it is that God has spoken to us ever so clearly through the agency of his Holy Spirit. Paul writes to Timothy, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching. for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. And as we read in Proverbs 8, where Solomon writes of wisdom personified, blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. We know that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom. And not only this, we have the Holy Spirit in the inner sanctuary of our hearts if we are truly born again. We need to be continually listening for that small, still voice. And this requires that our thoughts need to be constantly redirected towards the Lord. Let me say this, the noise of this world will make us hard of hearing. And so we have to be careful that our senses are not dulled by all of its allurements and all of its distractions. And with this sensitivity to the Spirit, we are led of God. like Jesus, who constantly attended to the will of his Father. Henry Blackaby, in his study called Experiencing God, put it this way, we don't choose what we will do for God. He invites us to join him where he wants to involve us. Secondly, we need hearts that heed, like Philip, who obeyed the voice of the Lord immediately, completely, and with the right attitude. So, just by way of example, when you're reading through the Word and the Spirit of God reveals a truth to you and convicts you and says, you've not yet applied this, then immediately receive that Word and do it. Have a heart of obedience as you're walking through the pages of Scripture. You see, hearing is not enough. In fact, I would say this, I've met many who mistake their knowledge of the Word for true obedience to the Word. Those two are not the same. We must act upon the Word. That's exactly what Jesus was teaching in his parable when he said this, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against the house, and it fell, and great, was its full. We need to have ears that hear, we need to have hearts that heed, and finally, we need to have mouths that proclaim. Like Philip, who it says, opened his mouth. Philip, who it says, preached Jesus. Now, I understand that we're not all called to be preachers, and that's fine. But our words ought to always come out of us with a view towards something that is causing edification to the person to whom we're giving, according to the need of the moment, so that it may give grace to the hearer, as we're told. And that grace In particular, with the design of pointing others to Christ, or building them up in the faith, whether it be admonishing the unruly, or encouraging the faint-hearted, or giving help to the weak, whatever the case. Or simply just to give testimony of what God has done for us in Christ. It may not be elaborate, but if it comes from a heart that is sincere and pure, God will use that. If we're yielded to the Holy Spirit of God, He is going to make use of the things that we say, because the Holy Spirit uses surrendered saints in the fruitful advancement of the gospel of Christ. I want to close this morning from another quote. I actually stumbled upon this one as I was looking for the other quote from Henry Blackaby, but I thought it was quite fitting for our text this morning. Henry Blackaby writes this, if Christians around the world were to suddenly renounce their personal agendas, their life goals, and their aspirations, and begin responding in radical obedience to everything God showed them, then the world would be turned upside down. How do we know? Because that's what the first century Christians did and the world is still talking about it. With that, let's close in the name of prayer. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful for the example that you've given us of men like Philip. Men filled, Lord, with faith, with your Holy Spirit. Lord, men who listened for your voice, who heeded your voice, who opened their mouths. Father, we long to be, we should long to be believers like that. Father, we recognize from your Word that this only comes when we are crucified with Christ, like the Apostle Paul says. When we pick up our cross, when we deny ourselves, when we yield and surrender to your Holy Spirit. Lord, whatever death grip we might have upon anything of self, Lord, would you give us hearts, Lord, that by faith we'll let loose, Lord, that we might trust you, that we might surrender to you, Lord, for you are faithful and your promises, Lord, are all true. So let us, Lord, live lives that are yielded to your Holy Spirit. We pray this in the name of Christ. Amen.