Live Free with Josh Howerton - Philip’s Journey with the Ethiopian Official // Acts 8:26-39

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

Have you ever experienced a life-changing encounter with a stranger? In today’s episode, we witness Philip’s journey into the wilderness where he encounters an Ethiopian official searching for truth. God orchestrates this meeting, and Philip seizes the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus. Their time together culminates in the official’s decision to be baptized, a beautiful step of faith inspired by a divine encounter. Let’s be open to these intersections today and see where God might lead us.   For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. What is up? Thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive. My name is Bro, and we are catching some highlights from a book called the book of Acts. You can find it right after what are called the Gospels or the Good News. It's the fifth book in the New Testament, and it is the history of the early church. Yesterday, we pushed pause on a great story where there's this guy named Philip, who just takes a risk, and he goes to preach in a place where nobody else wanted to go, a place called Samaria. And God does amazing things there through him. And lots of people. of people end up giving their lives to follow Jesus. And then the Holy Spirit directs him to go down this desert road.

So he does. And God intersects his life with a guy who was searching for truth. The man is a foreign government official from Ethiopia, and he must have been God fearing because he was on his way home from worshiping in Jerusalem. And he's sitting there in his carriage reading the book of Isaiah. So Philip goes over to the guy and he strikes up a conversation, asking, well, you're reading. and the Ethiopian guy shows him and says, can you make sense of this?

Why don't you climb up and help me understand this? So let's pick it up in verse 32. The passage of scripture he had been reading was this. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shears, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants,

for his life was taken from the earth? So the Ethiopian asked Philip. Was Isaiah talking about himself, for like somebody else. And then it says this. So beginning with this same scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus. You know, I love the way Philip just met this guy where he was.

Befriended him there in the middle of nowhere, knew that God had intersected their lives for some reason, and so he invests some time, he invests some attention, some listening, some understanding, some help, and some friendship with this foreigner he had never met. I've always liked how Rick Warren would say, I've never led an enemy to Christ, only friends. He's just saying, invest some time and energy into relationships.

Make them a friend, not a project, because people can tell. Friends open up. Friends ask questions. When people know that you genuinely care about them, they're much more open to talking about important spiritual things. I was talking backstage a few weeks ago with one of the guitar players in our band. Great guy. He said he felt like he'd been spending way too much time watching

television and playing video games and not connecting to people. So he told me he's intentionally building friendships and listening to God as he gives him leadership. He started following the promptings and being open to the Holy Spirit interrupting his day. And he said, man, I am having the time of my life. See, honestly, sometimes the people around us every day, co-workers, neighbors, people to school, people in the football stands, they just become part of the landscape. Man, I've been there, haven't you? They might as well be like a tree or a rock or a lamp, as far as we're concerned. We don't intentionally know their story. We don't find out if there might be some kind of need. We may say, how you doing? But we really don't want to know,

because it's time-consuming to know. You might have to get involved in their life, and who knows where that might lead? Exactly. Who knows where that might lead? You never know what God might do through you and the people he intersects your life with. So be aware and be intentional and invest in some people. Get to know your neighbors. Invite them to dinner before you invite them the church. Just know their story and genuinely care. Find ways to meet them where they are and invest in the relationship. Philip does that. He meets this guy where he's at. The guy asks a sincere question, and Philip then gets to tell him all about Jesus, how he came, how he lived, what he taught, how he fulfilled every prophecy ever written about the Messiah. He tells his new friend how Jesus died. He tells his new friend how Jesus

died for the sins of all the people and how he lives so that we can all live forever too. And somewhere along the road, this man from Sudan believes. And somewhere in the course of conversation, the topic of baptism obviously comes up because it says this. As they rode along, they came with some water, and the Ethiopian said, look, there's some water. Why can't I be baptized? He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water and Philip baptized him. What a moment. That must have been for Philip.

And I guarantee you, it was not on his to-do list that day. It wasn't like, okay, feed the dog, check the email, baptized in Ethiopia. I mean, no way. But cool and unexpected things happen, gang, when we step into the intersections that God leads us to.

There are nine specific conversion stories in the Book of Acts, and every one of them begins with someone putting their faith in Jesus Christ from the inside, And then immediately it ends with the external expression of baptism. This guy says to Philip, look, there's water. I want to be baptized. I want to surrender to the love and leadership of Jesus.

I want to go public with my faith. Let's go. And they do it. And Philip moves on to somewhere else, and the Ethiopian moves from confusion to joy and goes home grateful for the unexpected intersection of their lives. I'm just praying today that God might intersect your life in a significant way.

And I want to invite you to come on back tomorrow because I want to answer a few questions about what Philip and the Ethiopian did in that water. And I hope you have a great day. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point,

visit lakepoint.comptarch slash daily drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out.