 We're going to be looking today at this particular portion of scripture and I was going to just actually move into chapter 9 because I've tried to just put in snapshots of each chapter but as I was reading through it I was normally going to simply put some things together and then move into chapter 9. Chapter 9 is actually the conversion of Saul and I didn't want to just move into that. I'd like to do that by itself and so I was reading the verses before us and the Lord was speaking to my heart some things and I thought well you know what I'll just stay with this today and so we're going to be looking at the conclusion of chapter 8 by looking at verses 26 through 40 and so I'll begin reading at verse 26 and read to verse 29 and we'll get into our study this morning. We're looking at the subject if you believe. So beginning at verse 26 now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship was returning and sitting in his chariot he was reading Isaiah the prophet then the spirit said to Philip go near and overtake this chariot. And so last time we were together in the book of Acts we were looking at the spread of the gospel how the gospel had begun to spread from the city of Jerusalem. Remember with me that Jesus had given a command he had given a command to his disciples in Matthew 28. He had said in verses 19 and 20 go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you and though I'm with you always even to the end of the age and so they were to go to all nations and they were to teach them even as he had commanded. Well later he gave greater insight into how this command would be obeyed how it could be observed. Now how would these men who have never traveled be able to obey this kind of command? Well in Acts 1 verse 8 he had said you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So with God's word and God's power they were going to be empowered to evangelize the world and after Pentecost had occurred this is what has been happening. You see on Pentecost the disciples shared the gospel in Jerusalem. They established a community there. They began to do the work of ministry. Now Jesus had said that through the power of God they would be his witnesses and this would make them effective in their ministry. So they were effective. Luke says that they had favor with the people and also that they were greatly esteemed. So throughout Acts we see the impact of the word and the preaching of the word. When baptized by the Spirit the gifts of the Spirit and power were both evidenced and thousands were being saved. Miracle signs and wonders were present. Now Paul would later give insight into how God affected such amazing change in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 5. He said our gospel didn't come to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sakes. And so the gospel the power of the Holy Spirit transformed lives. Obedience to the command was impacting. Well persecution arose and one thing was evident because as they had been taken and were being persecuted and began to share concerning the reason they were doing these things it simply said in Acts 4 13 that they had been with Jesus. And so persecution arose at first in a mild form but it began to grow in intensity. It became so severe that they began to scatter throughout Judea into Samaria. Now Jesus has said to preach in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and now we see the gospel as it begins to move out even further. In chapter 8 we saw Philip preaching the gospel in this region called Samaria and now we see the gospel as it begins to move to the end of the earth. Multitudes have listened to the gospel. Multitudes have witnessed amazing miracles. Many are being saved. Many were being baptized. So Peter and John had come from Jerusalem and they prayed for them that they might receive the Spirit. After dealing with false conversions they returned to Jerusalem and as they returned they began to preach in many Samaritan villages and that's where we're picking up our study. So as all of this is taking place 1st 26 simply says an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza and then he has this statement this is desert. So we're going to see Philip sharing the gospel with a high-ranking Ethiopian official. Philip as I've mentioned several times now is the only one in Scripture ever referred to as an evangelist. We don't hold that office ourselves some do but not all of us do. We may not hold the office of evangelists but all of us are to do the work of one. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 5 Paul said you be watchful in all things endure afflictions and he went on to say do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry. So we all in one form or another already do the work of an evangelist. We share with people the things that matter most to us and so in the case of Philip he's sharing the things of the Lord. Now revival is occurring it's occurring in actual life is occurring in and a great excitement is occurring in Samaria but Philip has been instructed to go to the desert. That's interesting to me and I was thinking about this things were happening. Philip was seeing people saved. Philip was seeing people baptized in the Spirit. Philip saw miracles he was performing miracles. The Lord God was moving and yet the Lord says to him you need to go to a place that is dry you need to go to the desert and that's what is told to us here. He says go down from Jerusalem to Gaza and then we're told this is desert. Sometimes the Lord may be moving in your life. Sometimes he may be doing something to you in a special way through you in a special way and then he moves you and he sends you some place you don't necessarily want to go. When I got saved back in 1970 when I got saved I was you know I was excited serving the Lord but within three months I went to my own personal desert for the First Army. I had to go into the military I went to the army and there I am I'm being moved out of Calvary Chapel. I'm being moved out of a great work of the Lord. There's so many young people getting saved it was so exciting. There were so many wonderful things taking place. We were going to Bible studies several times a week. We were holding times of prayer and worship in homes and it was just an amazing refreshing time for me to do that as a brand new believer and now I'm being moved into the desert. I had to go into the military. I had been drafted. I went into the service and now I'm at Fort Ord up close to Monterey and I have to tell you it was not a joy filled moment for me. I still remember getting on that bus in LA and going up north and arriving later in the evening and there I am in this barracks and I'm thinking man I didn't want this. I wasn't the happiest of all people and all of that but there was a guy there and this there were more than one actually this one guy named Larry and Larry and I got to know each other. I had a friend named Bill Bill and I and Larry began to know each other and and you know we're going through basic training together and and as we did so I had an opportunity to get to know this young man and as I was speaking to him I remember sharing with him and my friend Bill and we're brand new Christians ourselves but we shared with Larry and in that barracks one evening I asked him do you want to receive the Lord and he said yes he bowed his head we prayed with him and he gave his heart to Christ. Now after that I'm I'm shipping out I go out to Georgia. I end up in in North Carolina and you know I don't see this guy I have it didn't see him and then one day I'm here in in Ontario and and as I'm there in Ontario and I'm just walking around and we had quite a number of people on the campus and all this guy walks up to me and he says David and I go yeah I didn't recognize him and he says hi I'm Larry, Larry Schwum and I looked at him and I said Larry and he said yeah we went through basic together and I said yeah and he said I just wanted you know he said I heard that you were having this thing here he lived close by and he said I thought I'd come and just say hello and let you know everything's going fine with me I'm serving the Lord and so sometimes you're moved from some place where everything's happening to a place where you think nothing is happening and it turns out God has moved you there because there's somebody who wants you to minister to so never ever get discouraged if you move from one place that seems to be happening to a place where nothing seems to be happening because you may be the reason there's somebody there waiting that God is going to use you to go and reach that person and that's what we're seeing take place here in in the story of Philip and the Ethiopian you see he's sent and he's moved out and he needs to go out and speak to somebody who the Lord has set aside so that he can reach notice how it says in verse 26 an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying arise and go down from here so in obedience he does he here rises and he goes now he could have been reluctant but God was after someone Peter and John had returned to Jerusalem they were preaching in Samaritan villages as they did so Philip was sent on a journey of his own now notice an angel of the Lord had told him to go to Gaza and again which is desert earlier we had seen an angel release the apostles from jail in chapter 5 here he issues a command for Philip to go south into Gaza there were two roads at that time that were going that direction that were main main roads one of those roads would lead to an inhabited area but the other went towards the desert so instead of moving into the more populous region he actually went into the desert area and once again instead of going to a place that was promising he went to a desert again as I was preparing this I was returning I was remembering certain things and and when we had begun our ministry and first we were a home bible study in Ontario then we began to rent places eventually we began to rent the uh the school Ontario High School and the Lord was beginning to move and all of that we had asked Pastor Chuck to come out on one occasion when we were at Ontario Christian and I was very excited about that and a couple of years later we had asked him to come out to do something and so we were at that point meeting in the Ontario High School and I still remember that the school was so crowded that people were sitting on the floor and and they were you know in the uh it sat 1200 people they were sitting on the floor and some were sitting in everywhere actually filled up all the chairs and I was very blessed to see that happen you know and as we're walking out I'll never forget these words I heard come out of Pastor Chuck as as we're walking out and we're standing in the parking lot for just a second under his breath he said something that I'll never forget under his breath he said I hate you David no he didn't say that under his breath he said who would have ever thought Ontario and I thought the same thing who would have ever thought Ontario because there had been a Calvary Chapel that had been planted before we planted ours it didn't fly but this time it did and Chuck saw that and again sometimes you're moved into a place that may not seem to be promising but God is there and God has a work that he wants to do it's a blessing to see how the Lord works to reach the one in need and we see that the Lord has an appointment now with an Ethiopian official now with the angel of the Lord said go toward the south that was a divine direction for the purpose of presenting the gospel to this man now Philip had been used by the Lord to minister to multitudes while in the region of Samaria and many had come to faith in Jesus Christ as he had preached he could be reluctant to preach after section experience but he's still sent and that's going to strengthen his faith as he sees that Jesus seeks not only multitudes but he also seeks out the one Jesus spoke of the individual who is in need of salvation he spoke of the man who was searching for his one lost sheep he spoke of the woman who was searching for her lost coin he spoke of a father who was longing for the return of his lost son Jesus the one who stopped by a toll booth and told a man named Matthew to follow him he went to the city of Samaria to speak to a lonely woman at a well he went across the sea of Galilee to reach a man who was demon possessed and each of these individuals were used to tell many of who Jesus is and so the church is something that God will do a work in but it sometimes begins with just one person when I began this ministry many years ago now I had served as an assisting pastor in another fellowship I was ordained in serving and I resigned my position I held a Bible study after I'd resigned and people asked me what are you going to do and where are you going to go and I remember as I was there at my home having a study and they said you're no longer serving in this place what are you going to do I said to them I'm going to go to my sister-in-law Patty's house and teach her on Sunday until I find a church that I can attend the reason the church began was really for a single person it was for Patty it was so that Patty might have a Bible study and Patty in a roommate would attend that's why you do things you don't go out and do things because you think that somehow this will be a step in zone to something greater just do the thing in front of you just do the thing that you can do Bible studies when I began Bible studies I started just because my mom and my dad needed a Bible study this church actually began in advance of that event that I just mentioned when my brother Frank got saved and he needed a Bible study and that's why I drove from Norwalk and I would drive to Ontario it took me 45 minutes to get there and I went for the one person you always go for the one now sometimes there are great groups and sometimes there are small groups and sometimes there's just one person but you go because God sends you and that's what's happening here with Philip Philip has seen the spirit moving he's seen and performed miracles the Holy Spirit has baptized multitudes there are people who are getting saved there's there's this great life and great joy and great excitement and then the Lord says now you leave that and you go to some place that's a desert and you move into that area and at first you might say why would I do that why would I want to do that things are happening here why would I go somewhere else well because there's a there's an Ethiopian official there that I've got it an appointment with just the way that he had Jesus had had an appointment with that woman at the well when he said I must need to go through Samaria why because there was a woman at the well that he was going to minister to and you see the same kind of thing taking place here and so the people that were reached in the other things I mentioned were people who also spread the good news and now we're going to see the Lord reach somebody who is a very high church official who became a very high official in the ministry of the Lord so in verse 27 it says here rose and went so without argument Philip did exactly what he was commanded to do now notice verse 27 here rose and went behold a man of Ethiopia a unique of great authority under Candice the queen of the Ethiopians who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship was returning and sitting in his chariot he was reading Isaiah the prophet and so this man is spoken of an as an Ethiopian it speaks of him being a black man Ethiopia is also spoken of in scripture as kush and kush is actually referring to blackness this is a black man he was a eunuch of great authority he is a member of the court now he's spoken of as a eunuch now I'm going to share this for just a moment because it matters we we read about eunuchs in scripture and normally the word eunuch is used to speak of a man who has been castrated but it doesn't necessarily mean that this man was castrated Genesis 39 verse 1 speaks of a man by the name of Potiphar and Potiphar is referred to as a eunuch and yet he was married this is a man who is referred to as a eunuch he's a man of great power which means that he's the minister of finance for Ethiopia this very powerful man who's referred to as an as a eunuch has has come to Jerusalem to worship he's obviously searching he was seeking to know the true and the living god but he's returning to Ethiopia spiritually empty now he had come to worship the exact feast he was observing is not given his time in Jerusalem didn't completely satisfy his spiritual hunger now considering the spiritual state of the nation he would have left unsatisfied again he went he went to worship he's returning but he's still empty and it sounds very much like the way many people may may return after a church service they go to a religious service but they they leave empty those they're left unsatisfied they're hungry for truth but but they they don't hear it this man was hungry for truth and that made him in a great position to receive Messiah and there he is in verse 28 sitting in his chariot and he's reading Isaiah the prophet now in the midst of all of this god is preparing the minister of finance for salvation god saw his hunger and he sent Philip there to share with him in Jeremiah 29 12 and 13 he says you will call upon me and go and pray to me i will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart and so this man is in a great position to be saved notice verse 29 the spirit said to Philip go near and overtake this chariot the spirit said notice how how he makes it clear that it's the spirit who's speaking to him you see that kind of phrase in chapter 10 verse 19 you see it again in chapter 11 verse 2 as well as chapter 13 verse 2 it's speaking of the person of the holy spirit so the spirit prompts his heart to move and he did god had prepared this man's heart and it must have thrilled an evangelist like Philip to be able to go and speak to somebody about the lord you see first he was directed to a desert and now he's directed to a man and both the desert and the man are dry but Philip is bringing water the water of life verse 30 says Philip ran to him and he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah so instead of hesitating and doubting Philip hurries over to the man and he begins to speak to him now there must have been bodyguards around this man but Philip was able to approach him once again you may be surprised at how many people are open to hear about Jesus sometimes we think no one's interested but that isn't true many are hungry for truth many desire purpose and hope I remember being at a church service and and my cousin his name was Ray was with us at the church service Ray lived up in Corcoran at that time he came to visit the family and so we took him to church it was a Sunday morning Philip and and my cousin didn't show many much evidence of being interested in the things of the Lord I would share with him and all of that as we do but he would just kind of just smile and nod his head and I still remember going to church and him going with me and then the pastor gave an invitation and as I was seated there and the spirit of the Lord began to minister he ministered to my heart and he said when the invitation was given he said tell your cousin Ray that you'll go up with him if he wants to get saved and I remember arguing with the spirit in my mind I said no he's not going to want to go and I also remember saying anyway I've been saved for two and a half years already why would I go up again I don't want people to think I'm getting saved I still remember thinking that and so I didn't say a word to my to my cousin I didn't think it was interested and I didn't want to humble myself and so we got home and we were sitting at the kitchen table and and Ray is sitting across from me and he looks at me and he says you know today when that invitation was given I was waiting for you to say I'll go up with you and I started learning lessons at that early age in the Lord that sometimes you may feel that nobody's interested when in fact God is preparing hearts and in the case of Philip and the spirit said go and attach us after that chariot go and speak to that man even though that man was a great man of great authority there would have been an entourage of people who were with them he would have had bodyguards because he was a man of of high ranking in Ethiopia none of that deterred him the spirit said to go and he did and he went and spoke to him and so as he begins to speak to him notice verse 30 how it says here Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and he said do you understand what you're reading he said how can I unless someone guides me and he asked Philip to come up and to sit with him how can I understand unless someone guides me because he asked that question do you understand you see the man wouldn't know the meaning of the passage and so he says it how can I unless someone guides me it shows us something it shows us that this man was humble he had a humble character he obviously was religious he's obviously a very powerful man Philip is a stranger he's not rich he's not powerful but in spite of this the Ethiopian humbly confesses he needs a teacher passage he's reading as arrested as attention he wants to know what it means Philip is an evangelist he's filled with the spirit he's filled with wisdom he's conversant with the passage and he can provide an answer in this instant the evangelist became a teacher now the Ethiopian says how can I unless someone guides me that's an important point I want to develop for a second the bible is a closed book to those who don't know the lord there are people who will tell you that if you share your faith at all they'll say I've read the bible it makes no sense to me I've read the bible it doesn't appeal to me I've read it I don't really get it at all the bible is a closed book to those who are not saved so this Ethiopian in reading that passage isn't getting spiritual insight into it because it doesn't have the spirit in 1 Corinthians 2 14 people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's spirit it all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the spirit can understand what the spirit means and so you can share with people the gospel but it takes the spirit of God to awaken them to its truth they can read it on their own and sometimes the Holy Spirit will speak in such a way through the word and convict them and they can read and be saved but under normal circumstances it takes someone to come and preach them to them and share with them and so the preaching of the word and conviction of the spirit is what God uses to draw those who aren't saved nature and conscience make us aware that there's a God but the word of God reveals him to us so Philip needs to explain the passage to him that he might see who it is pointing to and it takes the Holy Spirit to draw this man to Christ in John 644 no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them and I will raise them up at the last day so the man's response reveals the humility of his heart as well as its hunger he invites Philip to be seated with him and I must have thrilled Philip for this opportunity in verse 32 it says the place in the scripture which he read was this he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before its shearer is silent so he opened not his mouth in his humiliation his justice was taken away and who will declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth who is this prophet writing about is the question the eunuch answered Philip I ask you of whom does the prophet say this of himself or of some other man and Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture preached to Jesus to him who is the prophet writing about himself or some other man now this is a question many in Israel have wrestled with some thought that Isaiah was speaking of himself some of the rabbis during that day were teaching that it spoke of Jeremiah or it was speaking of one of the righteous one of the prophets who had suffered but many others thought that the passage spoke of Messiah Philip obviously knew who was being spoken of in this passage I was I was I listened to a Jewish man recently who was saying that in in synagogue reading that Isaiah 52 will be read but they don't read Isaiah 53 they skip off into Isaiah 54 they still reject even in synagogues to this day that Jesus is Messiah they skip over Isaiah 53 well this Ethiopian eunuch is saying who's being spoken of here this man or some other man and so what happens I want you to see this verse 35 Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture preached Jesus to him Philip was filled with faith and power and God's word and he clearly shared Jesus he started there and began to present to him who Messiah is and that principle seems to be lost on many in pulpits today as they skip over passages or don't teach the word of God but that's been the strength of Calvary Chapel ministries for many years teaching the word of God verse by verse and looking at what it says and how do you apply that and so he began there you see the whole Bible actually points to Jesus in John 5 39 he had said you study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life these are the very scriptures that testify Jesus said about me and and so we study to be able to minister in that manner with the systematic knowledge Philip was able to present the passage and point to the Savior in 1 Peter 3 15 it says sanctify the Lord God in your hearts always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's in you with meekness and fear that's why you read and that's why you study that's why you memorize that's why you spend time in the word of God with others it's so that you might be equipped so that someday you may be on a bus a train a plane or with a friend as you're driving somewhere and the topic of Christ may come up in your prepared Philip was prepared and by the power of the Holy Spirit was able to communicate to this man about this passage it says in verse 36 now as they went down the road they came to some water and the eunuch said see here is water what hinders me from being baptized and Philip said if you believe with all your heart you may any answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God it seems obvious that that Philip shared how to have a relationship with God and told them who Jesus is he would have spoken to him about what Jesus did what his life was like how he died on a cross how he was buried how the third day he rose from the dead how he ministered how he sent the Holy Spirit he would have told him all of those things he would have spoken to him of the command that Jesus had go into the world preach the gospel and baptize people and so as he did so this this man understood that to be a recognized follower of Christ was to make an open declaration and so he wants to be baptized he knew that baptism because he had been taught this is a picture of the new life that you have in Jesus it's like what paul later was to say in and roman 6 when he said in verses three through five don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father we too may live a new life if we have been united with him like this in his death we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection death burial resurrection this man says what hinders me now somewhere down the road as he was hearing to the word hearing the word of god he came to believe and in the midst of the desert they came to some water in the midst of the dryness they found a place of refreshment so we asked what hinders me from being baptized i want to follow jesus and before all of these people i want to be baptized i don't know how many of you are aware of a woman by the name of sandy macintosh sandy macintosh is the wife of mike macintosh who for many years past to the church of horizon called horizon church it was originally calvary chapel san diego they changed it to horizon and he ministered there over 40 years and sandy was sharing how she came to faith in christ which i found very interesting so i'll share it with you very briefly she shared that even after she and her husband mike had had problems they had actually divorced and and he had gotten saved and he was beginning to try and win her to christ that he said you need to come in here this band that's playing and they went to a place called pirates cove and she said she's there and all of these young people are there and and there was somebody singing a song but what it was was it was actually a baptism she's unsaved she says but i decided i think i'll get baptized she she got in line and then she's standing in line the guy behind her says to her oh you're getting baptized he starts a conversation and she says yeah he says uh do you know why you're getting baptized and she says well because everybody else is and he says do you know the lord and she says no not really and sandy's testimony is that in the line on a way to be baptized is where she got saved i think that's beautiful in that line this guy led her to the lord and then she got saved you know yeah i think i think that's great so when you when you follow the lord you receive water baptism even as we did just recently what is the condition to be water baptized well notice if you believe verse 37 if you believe with all of your heart you may if you believe in romans 10 9 and 10 if you confess with your mouth the lord jesus believe in your heart that god has raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes into righteousness with the mouth confession is made unto salvation there is no such thing as half hearted conversions this man knew what god had said concerning our duty to him you see in mark 12 29 and 30 jesus said the first of all the commandments is here oh israel the lord our god the lord is one and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength this is the first commandment i used to teach a bible study just up the street from here in in a house there on on the corner of east end and in philadelphia it's made out of rock anybody who drives in that area can see it it's still there that house it's i used to call it the rock house but i don't anymore because that's not where you could buy rock but anyway it was but it's it's made out it's covered with rock and um and i used to live there i spent 25 dollars a month that was how much we spent for uh for rent there were four of us 100 dollars a month think about that for a second but don't get depressed it's a long time ago but while i was there i was doing a bible study and um it's funny because that was long before we actually purchased this property marie and i drove by and this property even before we were married and i still remember saying now that would be a great little did i know that the lord had prepared this place for us some years later but while i was there there was a guy who was in our bible city is one of the guys who would come for the bible study on monday night his name was charlie and charlie listened to the word he eventually got saved by coming to the bible study and then a few years later i was speaking to him and charlie said you remember when you said that we were to love that the bible said we were to love gone with all of our heart so mind-strike you remember that i said yeah that's what the scripture says charlie goes i had a real problem with that he says because i really love my children he said in the idea that i would love god whom i cannot see more than i would love the babies that were born to me he said with such a foreign thought he said i couldn't grasp it he said and i didn't realize that when i began to love god more and more i was able to love my children with the deeper pure and more passionate love than ever before he said i finally discovered what that means to love god with everything means make others loved greatly also i said yeah you put god first and everything else flows from that charlie and so this this this ethiopian knew what scripture said you don't make half-hearted commitments to god you don't say to god i'll follow you one or two or three days a week but the other days are mine i didn't marry my wife marie with the idea that you would love me twice a week on a wednesday and a sunday i married her with the understanding that together we would love each other every day of the week every moment of every second of every day that we were fully committed that's what marriage is and our relationship with the lord is not half-hearted it's not a kind of thing well i'll give you this much but the rest belongs to me and this ethiopian knew that to follow god requires a full commitment and so as he hears the gospel what does hinder me from uh from being baptized there's some water in the midst of a desert he finds some water hears some water what's keeping me from it and he says you may if you believe with all of your heart and he says i believe jesus christ is the son of god and before the entire entourage he dedicates himself openly to the lord now it says in verse 39 when when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord caught philip away so that the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing but philip was found at azores and passing through he preached in all the cities until he came to cesarea so he went north so philip is immediately taken away from the man the spirit who led philip to the desert and the ethiopian is now moving him to a different direction he's taken away immediately it's interesting how it says that that he was caught away that word caught is a very powerful word it speaks of a forcible uh removing it's it's basically similar root word as to the word arpazzo which is used to speak of the rapture it speaks of a sudden a sudden movement a sudden taken away and so before everybody he's baptized but philip is immediately taken away and as he's gone the ethiopian it says begins to rejoice greatly in his salvation now verse 40 philip was found at azotus azotus is 20 miles north of of gaza he's preaching in the cities he continues going north to a place called cesarea now nothing is mentioned of the ethiopian again but there's a church father erinius who wrote that this ethiopian had become a missionary to the ethiopians we don't know that for sure but in church history that is traditionally believed he became a missionary to the ethiopians what we do know is this the spirit prepared the man and philip brought that man to jesus the spirit prepares you but normally somebody else will bring you to the lord i believe that the lord is still preparing people and that people need to hear that they can be saved and i haven't gotten to the point where i think that we're completely lost as a nation i believe that there are many who are waking up right now to see that the times are severe and that the church of all times should be loudly speaking of the love of christ even at this moment i believe that god is is still working and that people are still being saved and god is still moving and we need to believe that i think as a group because that's true one last thing we were in the silicon valley just last week we were invited to go and speak of the jesus movement as it occurred in the early days a brother by the name of mike mclure has a fellowship there a fellowship calvary up there in san jose and he had asked me along with a couple of other guys over the weeks to come in to share and so we did we sat on the platform and they asked questions before we spoke we um had odin odin who is a pioneer mere marinatha music worship leader and and then i went up with my wife marina we shared a little bit and they were asking questions about the movement because they had seen the movie jesus revolution and we're curious as to people who were firsthand uh in that who experienced that and came out of that and they wanted to know what what what our opinion was as it related to that and so we were able to go there and so he was sharing with me how that in the midst of the silicon valley where there is so much darkness it's really kind i would call it the heart of darkness next to hollywood in california there's so much unbelief and so much so much uh hatred towards faith in god and yet in the midst of the the situation the covet situation he said people began to be hungry for truth for hope and his church when covet hit his church had 800 members which is a good work in a silicon valley it now has 3000 because the lord works through the darkness people guys please don't let the don't let the enemy convince you there's no hope please don't there is there's always hope in jesus christ there always is hope in jesus christ you have not come to the end yet so let's just be girded up let's share with people about who jesus is and watch god move in christ there is always hope there is always love there's always faith there's always joy there can always be peace if we keep our eyes on him this religious man this ethiopian had gone to worship but left empty he encounters a man on a road down going towards a desert but this man brought the water of life gives him the word presents to him jesus his heart had been prepared he brings him to faith here's some water what hinders me from getting baptized you can if you believe with all of your heart oh i do believe that jesus is the son of god he baptizes him he goes back rejoicing and again church tradition says that many came to faith in christ through this ethiopian one man in a desert can change many people's lives when he finds the living water that is the truth don't forget it don't forget it