In his book, Contiki, Across the Pacific by Raft, the Swedish explorer Thor Heyerdahl tells about how he and a crew of five crossed the Pacific Ocean from South America to the South Pacific Islands on a crude raft made out of balsa logs. Their journey took three months. This is back in 1947. They had very little control over the raft. They had a sail that they erected and they had no way to stop their forward progress as the current or the wind took them forward. They learned very early on in the voyage that if they dropped anything off of the raft, if they were not able to immediately retrieve it, it was gone. Two months into their voyage, and thousands of miles from land, one of the gentlemen on the crew, Herman Watzniger, lost his footing and fell off of the raft. There was a strong wind at the time that was blowing their little raft forward. Having no way to go back, Herman swam as fast as he could in order to catch up with the raft, but no matter how fast he swam, he went farther and farther behind. They threw a life belt to him in order to have him grab onto it, but the wind blew the life belt back to the raft. in almost an instinctive way, another gentleman by the name of Newt Hoglan grabbed the life belt, dove into the water and swam back to Herman as fast as he could. He still had more rope left when he caught up with Herman so that he was able to, with one arm, wrap himself around Herman and with the other hold on to the rope and then the other crew members drew him to safety and back onto the raft. A picture, an illustration if you will, of the risk necessary in order to rescue somebody who is perishing. And I'd like to use that as a picture of the kind of responsibility we as believers have to reach out to lost and dying people who are perishing in their sin. Now the risks involved in reaching out to someone who is spiritually lost can be great. We may risk the loss of our finances, of our social position, maybe even the loss of a job, but the reward, the satisfaction of being used by God in a substantive way to make an eternal difference and bring transformation in the life of someone else is well worth any kind of trivial loss in this life. As we continue our study through the book of Acts, We began last week talking about the ministry of a young minister in the early church by the name of Philip. We don't know if it's because of the persecution that started up because of Stephen's martyrdom and the subsequent persecution, indeed the attempt to eradicate Christians from the city of Jerusalem. Maybe it was that event that propelled Philip to leave the city and go into the northern region of Samaria. Maybe it was simply the directing of the Holy Spirit, but for whatever reason we found last week that Philip's ministry in Samaria was tremendously fruitful. He preached to large groups of people in Samaria and there were many who positively affirmed their belief and their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There was another man that Luke highlights here by the name of Simon Magus, as we know him in church history, who professed faith but did not possess it, showing us the danger of a person maybe being raised in a Christian climate, maybe being a church attender for a long period of time having heard the word of truth and yet not embracing it, not possessing it. This morning we find Philip involved with yet another man in contrast to Simon, one who thoroughly and authentically, that's not the word I need, genuinely embraced the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to be reading Acts chapter 8 beginning at verse 26 to the end of the chapter. I invite you to follow with me. 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 of her treasure, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and 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 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 its shearer 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 of someone else? Then Philip, opening his mouth and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. As they went along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? And 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. and he ordered the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. 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. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through, kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea. Now between verses 35 and 36 is a sermon, a teaching, an opening of Philip's eyes as to the person of Jesus. Unfortunately, that conversation has not been captured and recorded for us. I wish that it had, but the Holy Spirit had other ideas in mind. What we do have from this text of scripture is not a how to evangelize an Ethiopian eunuch, but we do have a number of principles that guide us in the process of rescuing the perishing. I'm going to pull out four and if you follow along with me in your notes, you'll find four points for principles of reaching out to lost people to make an eternal transformation in their life. The first principle I'd like to pull out is this one. God initiates salvation. Verse 26 tells us that the angel of the Lord speaks to Philip and says, and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. And then there's this parenthetical expression, this is a desert road. A little bit of history here. Gaza is one of the five primary Philistine cities along the coast. Gaza is the southern most of those cities. It is through Gaza that a person traveled from Jerusalem to Egypt. The person that we're going to meet in verse 27 is a person from Ethiopia. He had to go through Egypt in order to get to his homeland. He had to pass through Gaza in order to get to Egypt in order to get to his homeland. So this man is traveling from Jerusalem to Gaza, through Gaza actually. And the scripture says to us that this was a desert road. Well, in the first century BC, the Romans destroyed old Gaza and then they rebuilt Gaza closer to the coast. And now there's not just one road, now there's two roads to Gaza, both heading south from Jerusalem. Now the parenthetical expression tells us that this is a deserted road. How many of you have the new American Standard Translation? You'll notice that your text has the word road in italic type. the editors of the New American Standard translation, use italic type, not for emphasis, but to tell you, to inform you as the reader, that particular word does not appear in the original text. They have supplied that in order to clarify what is said by the author, the original author. So if we were to omit the word that is in italic type, the literal text would read, this is the deserted. Deserted what? Look at the footnote for verse 26. This is another way that it might be rendered. This city is deserted. So is it the road that is desert? Ed or is it the city that is deserted? We don't exactly know. We know that there were two roads going down from Jerusalem to Gaza and this particular road to which Philip was called was the deserted one, the one less traveled. This is the one that was the dry, dusty gravel road. The other one was the paved road. That was the one where the gas stations were. The outlet mall was on this one. This is the other road that Philip was called to because he had a divine appointment. I also noticed, I know that that might seem like a little picayune piece of trivia here, but I think it's an important puzzle piece. Right now I haven't put the puzzle piece in the puzzle. I want you to hold that little disconnected puzzle piece at present in one hand because I'm going to put another puzzle piece in your other hand that might also appear to be disconnected and maybe unrelated, but it does. Notice the beginning of the angel's exhortation to Philip, his command, if you will, get up and go south. You see that. Now the word, the Greek word translated south might also be translated noon. Oh, that's interesting. How does that work? Well, when that particular, and you find it's translated noon in Acts chapter 22, verse six. It's when the context has to do with location, it's translated south. When the context demands that this word is used in a reference of time, it's translated noon. We can legitimately translate this. I checked it out in the lexicon. We can legitimately translate this. Get up at noon. to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now, if we would translate this south, the angel of the Lord would be informing Philip, who grew up in this area, that the road traveling from Jerusalem to Gaza, in order to get to Egypt, went south. I think Philip already knew that it went south. I think the angel is telling him, I want you to go to this unusual place at an unusual time. He's saying, I want you to go, not on the road that everybody uses now to get to New Gaza, I want you to go to Old Gaza Road. And I want you to go at noon. I want you to go at siesta hour when nobody else is traveling. I want you to go in the heat of the day, in the middle of the desert, because I have an appointment for you all lined up, Philip. You might be saying at this point, Isn't this rather unusual? Why is it that God did not have this arrangement made in a more convenient place like in Jerusalem? Why couldn't Philip have had this conversation with this particular Egyptian Ethiopian at another time when the Holy Spirit didn't have to pick him up and carry him over here or there. It was certainly out of Philip's area right now. It was certainly inconvenient for Philip to get up at this point to go run and catch up with this guy in a chariot. The point here is that God went to extremes in order to reach this perishing man. God does the same thing for each one of us, does he not? God may reach us in the middle of a hell hole, if you will, in order to pull us out, in order to grab our attention, We might be in the midst of financial mess, relationship mess, health mess. There's all kinds of messes we can find ourselves in. Sometimes God will go to the deepest. He will allow that rope to get stretched all the way out before we are rescued. But that's the way God works for every person. This particular Ethiopian is not unique. God does this for every person. He goes to great lengths and great extremes in order to save us. Scriptures tell us that we are born in sin. That doesn't mean that the time we are born we have done something wrong. It means that we have a fallen nature. We have inherited a spiritual death. We need God to do something in order to bring life. And the scripture says that God is the one who brings us spiritual life. He brings us a new heart. He gives us a new nature. Repentance is a gift from God, scripture tells us. Faith is a gift from God. All of salvation is given to us as a gift from God. We as human beings contribute nothing to our justification. That's why we say that this act of God is monergistic. Like a monorail has one rail, a monergistic work is the work of one person, and that is God himself. He initiates salvation, he accomplishes salvation, even in the most sinful of people. Now, the takeaway truth for this principle is simply this. If God is the one who initiates salvation, if God is the one who brings people to faith in Christ, he even gives them the ability to repent, then if I fail to speak the truth to a lost dying person, that person's soul is not on my shoulders. Now I have taken away a great privilege, a great opportunity, and a great blessing to not be involved in the process of winning a lost soul to faith in Christ. But if the Spirit says, speak, and I keep my mouth shut, if the Spirit says, go, and I stay, that person's eternal destiny is not my responsibility. I have simply taken myself out of the picture of being able to be used by God. If God is going to save this particular person over here, and I choose to stay when the Spirit said go, I chose to keep my mouth quiet when He told me to speak up, He will use someone else to win that person to Christ. But the second principle is this, second page of your notes. God uses human instruments to bring the message of salvation. God has no other plan than to use his redeemed people as the messengers of the gospel. God has said, I'm not going to save anyone apart from the gospel and my redeemed people are going to be the messengers of that truth. God has no other plan. I want you to see the incredible diversity between Philip and this Ethiopian eunuch. I want you to see how Philip made himself available to the Holy Spirit to be that messenger of the gospel truth. Verse 27 tells us that this man is from Ethiopia. Now in the ancient world we would say this is the land of Cush. it would be directly south of present-day Egypt, quite likely somewhere along the Nile River system. Secondly, it tells us that this man is a eunuch. Now, a eunuch originally was an emasculated man who was given charge of guarding the king's harem. He was altered, if you will, physically, so that he wouldn't mess around with the king's ladies. That particular definition grew, expanded, and broadened. We don't know if this particular man was a eunuch by physical description. He may have been, but now we have a problem if that's the case. If he was a eunuch by physical description, then he was prohibited, according to Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 1, prohibited from entering into the temple to worship the Lord. So what's he doing in Jerusalem? Where do you worship the Lord in Jerusalem? In the temple. So was he a eunuch by physical description? Well the broader understanding of that word included a person who was a steward or a chamberlain of a person's household. So it went just from guarding the harem to overseeing all of the household. Then it went to a broader understanding of not just a nobleman or a king's household but even more to be a general description of somebody who is a steward, a caretaker. This man this Ethiopian eunuch was a caretaker for Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. Now Candace is not a name for this particular woman. That is an honorary title. It's like Pharaoh or Caesar. She was the one who ran the country. She was the Queen Mother. And this man was the Secretary of Treasury. So what we have here is a very high-ranking official in this woman's cabinet. Now, I am guessing that he was of Jewish lineage. That's my guess because, well the options are he was a Jew or he was a Gentile convert. Because of the way that Luke has laid out Volume 2 of his writings, his Gospel is Volume 1, Acts is Volume 2, Because of the way he's organized it, it appears as though Cornelius in chapter 10 is the first Gentile convert. Now if that's true, and that's an assumption on my part, then probably this man, this Ethiopian, would be a Jew by lineage. That's a guess. So we put all of these little pieces together and we discern that this is a powerful man, a very influential man, and a very affluent man. What's he reading when Philip comes alongside the chariot? What's he reading? He's reading Isaiah. That would have been printed, handwritten on a scroll. Only the very wealthy had access to a scroll. And we find out from verse 38 that this man is not Ben-Hur. He is not driving his own chariot. He has somebody else driving in this chariot, which means that this isn't just a chariot. This is a chariot limo, a chariot limousine driven by another servant of this high-ranking official. Now you put all that into the mix and we find Philip, a Greek-speaking Jew, called to come alongside this very high-ranking, powerful, affluent state official. Everything about this man, including the chariot limo, said, You're not qualified to talk to this guy. You're not cultured enough. You don't have the right clothes. You don't have the right accent. Your skin's the wrong color. Philip put all that aside. Because in the space of four verses, the Lord told him two times, I want you to go and I want you to speak." Philip went and he spoke. God uses his people as messengers of the gospel truth. Let me read this statement that I put in your notes. Second bullet point under point number two. God greatly uses those who are holy, H-O-L-Y, and holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, available to him. Philip was used greatly of the Lord because he was mature in the faith, because he was holy before the Lord, because he eagerly sought personal purity. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 20. 2 Timothy 2 verse 20 reads this way. Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels but also vessels of wood and of earthenware and some of to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. How will we be useful to the Master? By being holy, sanctified, so that we are best prepared to be used. It's my eager desire that we all grab that life belt, jump into the water, and put our arm around that perishing person that might be our next-door neighbor, might be a family member, might be somebody at work, might be a friend that you've known for many, many years, God will use you to bring that person to faith in Christ. Though it is still all of God, He uses us as His messengers of the Gospel. But God uses those who are holy, sanctified, cleansed from sin. Perfect? No. Moving in that direction? Yes. And, as I put it in my statement, not just wholly, but wholly available. Saying, here am I Lord, send me. Philip was one of those kind of people. and the Lord knew it. That's why the Lord used him greatly. I don't know about you, but I want to be used greatly of the Lord, and I know that there's only two ways to do that, or two necessary components for me to be greatly used. I must be pursuing holiness and personal purity, and I must make myself wholly available to the Lord. So when the Lord says go, I go. When the Lord said, speak, I speak. Third principle I see from the text here. The gospel centers on Jesus as revealed in sacred scripture. Now I want you to crawl into the mind of this Ethiopian official if you can. Where was he very recently? City of? Jerusalem. Now what happened in the city of Jerusalem very recently? The martyrdom of Stephen and the eradication of believers from the city. This court official, for whatever reason, finding himself in the city, maybe it was only to go worship. Maybe he had other business there and was in his mind saying, well, I'll take care of this other business, but what I'm really doing here is spending my time in worship before the Lord. All of the hubbub that was going around in the city regarding Stephen and the persecution of believers subsequently, all of that brought to light conversations again about who is this Jesus of Nazareth? This Stephen guy, all these other Christians say that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the Christ. This Ethiopian was there in the city hearing those conversations and witnessing the turmoil in the streets as people were kicked out of their homes, driven out of the city. Now, he's on this deserted road, or on the road toward the deserted city, and he's all by himself. And he's reading a passage of scripture that God placed before him. Now when you had a scroll, my friends, it's not like a codex, a book, where you have pages and you can turn quite easily from one to the other. A scroll is enormously long piece of parchment that is rolled. Where is this passage of scripture that he was reading from? If you have cross references, it'll tell you that it's from chapter 53. He's toward the end, which means he would either have been reading a lot, or as I more strongly suspect, he had scrolled his way through the scroll to find this particular passage. Maybe by the directing of the spirit and not by a a cognizant choice on his part. We call this section that's quoted in verse 32 and verse 33 in our text from the Song of the Suffering Servant. This is something that we speak of frequently as a description of the Lord Jesus. In popular Jewish culture, there was some confusion. If you look at verse 32, It talks about this one, he, being led as a sheep to the slaughter. And in popular Jewish religion, this one who was slaughtered was either the nation of Israel as a whole, depicted as a man, or it was the prophet Isaiah himself. in popular Jewish religion, the Messiah was the triumphant one. He wasn't the suffering one. So the Messiah didn't even hit the radar for the popular Jewish understanding of this particular text. But now, because of what he had been hearing in Jerusalem, questions began swirling in his mind, questioning the assumptions that are in place regarding this text. Who is this one? He asks in verse 31. Well, Philip asks him, do you understand what you're reading? And then he responds, how could I unless someone guides me? I don't have a commentary. I don't have Rob's sermons available on the internet. Wi-Fi access out here in the desert is really bad. How can I get some answers here? Well, here's where Philip comes into play as the Lord's messenger. He is the one delivering the truth. He's not the one that saves this man, that's the Lord's doing. Okay, verse 34 is where we read this Ethiopian speaking to this Greek-speaking man. Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else? Verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. He began here in Isaiah, but he went to other passages of scripture, probably ones that Philip had memorized, quite possibly this Ethiopian eunuch also had memorized. If he was a Jew, he would have revered the scriptures. If he had a copy of Isaiah's scroll, he quite possibly had others as well. And so they talked about the scriptures and how Jesus was the fulfillment of those scriptures. Let me pause here for just a minute. The gospel is a series of facts. It is propositional truth. It is teaching. It is information. It is doctrine. The gospel is not How do I fix my marriage? The gospel is not how do I raise my kids. The gospel is not how do I live a happy life. The gospel is not how do I reach my fullest potential. The gospel is about Jesus Christ and all of the teaching, the doctrine of the Old Testament points to Jesus being the fulfillment of all of God's promises, all of God's revelation. Now I put that in context to an article I just read this last week. I just got my most recent copy of Modern Reformation magazine. And in this magazine is a quote by Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, which is said to be the largest church in the United States with some average weekend attendance of 43,000 people. He preaches a message of prosperity and was asked by this interviewer to explain why his message continues to attract followers in the midst of an economic recession. Quote, our music is not traditional hymns. My message is not about doctrine. I don't have to get 50 references from scripture in a sermon for it to be a good sermon. Churches that are helping people live out Christian living are growing and flourishing." I simply want to highlight that particular statement he makes. My message is not about doctrine, really. If my assertion is true that the gospel itself is doctrine, what, pray tell, might he be saying of eternal substance? Our task, my friends, in proclaiming the gospel is to use the scriptures as the backdrop and the backbone of our proclamation. So the question then becomes, how well do you know the Bible in your hands? Are you able to use the whole of Scripture, not just the Old Testament, but certainly that included, to teach people about Jesus. When the Ethiopian asked Philip, who are we talking about here in this passage? Philip used that opportunity to direct him to the whole understanding of Jesus from the entirety of scripture. That's our responsibility. Now, tracts and testimonies have their place in evangelism, and I certainly do not want to push them aside as meaningless and useless. But the best tool that we have is the whole of the Bible. That's what we are here communicating. how Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God's promises and all of the pictures, even all of the warnings that we find in the Old Testament, find their fulfillment and completion in him. Third principle that I see in this particular passage is that the gospel demands a response. And we find that response in this Ethiopian in verse 36, we read these words. As they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? Verse 37. And 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. And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. So somewhere in between verse 35 and 36, there is a long discussion about who Jesus is, and there is a recitation of many of the passages in the Old Testament fulfilled in Jesus. And as a part of that, Philip must have described to the Ethiopian, this is the appropriate response for a person who puts their faith in Jesus. The first is this, to repent and to believe. Now we've said in different times, in different ways, even in this particular series, that those are two sides of the very same coin. I repent from sin, from myself, from getting sucked into the ways of Satan, and I trust the Savior. Repent and believe. One act. The second response is that of baptism. Now baptism is not an act that saves you. It is an outward manifestation of the inward reality that I have put my faith and my trust in Jesus. He is my King and my allegiance is to Him. That's what baptism signifies. So when they came upon some water, this Ethiopian already was in a state of repentance and faith. So he said, well, what prevents me from taking step number two and being baptized? Nothing. And so they went down into the water and they were baptized. No, we don't know what this was, whether it was an oasis, that's immaterial, other than he was baptized. Now some of you, particularly if you have the NIV text, you may be scratching your head at this point because verse 37 is not in your text, is it? It's in a footnote. And you're asking yourself the question, what happened here? If you have the New American Standard, it's in brackets. If you have the King James or New King James, unless you were to look at the footnote, you'd think, nothing wrong here. Well, the footnote will direct you to the fact that in many ancient manuscripts that particular verse, verse 37, does not show up. And it is my humble opinion that Luke did not write verse 37. Now the content of verse 37 is accurate. It's biblical and we could turn to many other passages of scripture that would affirm the very truths that we read in that particular verse. But I don't think that Luke wrote it. This is one of those verses where we would say, we have 105% or 103% of the Bible. And that little extra, are those things that a scribe at first, well-meaning, inserted into the margin in order to clarify something. And then later somebody else said, oh, this probably got misplaced. It should have been in the text, so they moved it from the margin and put it right into the middle of the text. And I think the reason why a scribe specified what took place in verse 37. Well, if you believe in your heart, you may be baptized. And then we have that affirmation, yes, I do believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and I receive Him as my personal Savior, and I would like to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That kind of a baptismal formula that we find in verse 37 quite possibly was added in contrast with Simon earlier in chapter 8, who said he believed, but there was no evidence of real faith. So this scribe might have added this little gloss to the margin in order to say, now you really have to mean it, guys. The truth is there. The truth is elsewhere in the New Testament. I'm not sure that it really was penned by Luke. Now that should not remove any authority or weight of the scriptures to your own soul. It should not cause any doubt as far as what you have here because you have a hundred percent of the Bible there. There are an occasional word or an occasional verse like here that may not have been written actually by the original author. Truth of the matter is, the gospel demands a response. Demands a response of faith, repentance, and that of baptism. Now, I'm going to bring things to a quick conclusion here. You may intellectually agree with what we have said here this morning, but that's not what I'm after. What I'm after is, where is your heart? It's very easy for us to say, yes, that person who has fallen off the raft and is going to perish needs a rescue tube. They need somebody to jump in and save them. Not interested in your intellectual agreement, I'm looking for your heart. Are you concerned about that person who is lost and perishing? That person that lives next door, that family member, that co-worker? I want you to listen to the words of Charles Spurgeon. who speaks to this heart issue in evangelism and witnessing. He asks the rhetorical question, have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that. Love to perishing sinners and his blessed master will be an all-absorbing passion to a genuine believer. It will so carry him away that he will almost forget himself in the saving of others. He will be like the brave fireman who cares not for the scorching or for the heat, so that he may rescue the poor creature on whom humanity has set its heart. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled with our teeth. in the teeth of our exertions and let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for. May God burden our hearts with the priorities of his kingdom. Let's pray. Father, by your own initiative, you reached down to this Ethiopian and brought him faith. By this obedient servant named Philip, you delivered the message of hope and of life. By understanding the person of Jesus, and responding appropriately to him. We know that at some point, someday, we will meet this Ethiopian in the halls of heaven. And we thank you for that blessed truth. And now, my dear Father, I pray for those lost people in our web of relationships. I think of my cousins that I will meet on Thursday of this week who are lost without you. I think of my next door neighbors with whom I have frequent conversations who do not know you. I think of the numbers of conversations I have had at the pool where I swim with people that do not know you. I pray for boldness for myself and for my brothers and sisters who have similar conversations and similar expectations to meet with unsafe people this week. Father, give us a holy boldness to speak forth the claims of Christ Give us a burden for these people lost in their sins. We know that you are the only one that can change their heart, that can give them a new nature that has the ability to respond in faith. But you do so through the proclaiming of your gospel. So I pray, Father, that not only would you give us holy boldness, but you would give us clarity of speech and of thought. that we might speak the pure doctrine of the Gospel, speaking of Jesus Christ as He is revealed plainly and clearly through the pages of Scripture. Take our mouth and use it wholly unto You. Take our feet and our hands Take our mind. Take the resources at our fingertips and use them for your glory and the furtherance of your kingdom. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.