Mi Historia Favorita, Junio 7, 2026

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Well, good morning, family. Good morning. It's good to see you all again. It's good to be back at my favorite campus. I mean, I love my campus. But you are my second favorite. It's very close. I'm so glad to be here. I love you dearly. I love my teammates that serve you as pastors and those in the ministry here. I'm so thankful for their gifts and their heart for you. I'm so thankful for the shared mission we have at Fellowship. I'm so thankful for a heart of the gospel that wants the gospel to be shared everywhere. Whether it's here in our own community, or it's going to Honduras, or across the world. At Fellowship, we love Christ and we want him to be made known. And so today, all of our campuses are all having teachers rotating, talking about their favorite story. Our teaching team, we are going to different campuses all over Fellowship. So today, you are stuck with me. Thank you. We start the best at first, right? Listen, one of my favorite stories is a story about just a brief, a short encounter that happened on a road. And the beauty of the gospel that happened in this moment. And I love this story. And you're going to get to hear why. One is, I used to live in Africa, and this is a story about an African. This is a story about sharing our faith, and I love to encourage people to share their faith. And so today, I'm going to share one of my favorite stories with you.

If you and I had lunch together today, and we sat down, if you gave me five minutes, I could figure out what you love. Give me five minutes, and we can talk, and I will figure out what you love. What are the things that come out of our mouth first? We talk about family. We talk about where we live. We talk about those around us. We'll talk about hobbies. It comes out when we talk. We hear what each other loves. Our campus pastor loves Honduran football, even though they lost. He still loves them. It comes out. We love what we love, and we love to talk about it. And when we think about our relationship with Jesus Christ, the longer we are in the faith, the more we grow. The deeper our love becomes, and the more we want to talk about it. So that leads us to today. Our passage today is Acts chapter 8. We're going to read verse 26 through 39. 39, we see the working of God to save a soul. But we also see instruction around baptism and the truth of the gospel. We do this on our campus, this is what we ask people to do on our campus. Would you stand with me as we read God's word? Let's read this verse. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went.

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot. And he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah, the prophet, and asked, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him who can describe his generation, for his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and with beginning with the scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see here is water, what prevents me from being baptized?

And he commanded the chariots to stop and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. Echos 28, del 26 al 39. Un angel del Señor habló a Felipe diciendo, levántate y ve hacia el sur, al camino que desciende de Jerusalén a Gaza. Este es un camino desierto. El se levantó y fue, y aquí había un eunuco etíope, alto oficial de Candace, reina de los etíopes, el cual estaba encargado de todos sus tesoros y había venido a Jerusalén para adorar. Regresaba sentado en su carruaje y leía al profeta Isaías. Y el espíritu dijo a Felipe, ve y júntate ese carruaje. Cuando Felipe se acercó corriendo, le oyó leer al profeta Isaías y le dijo, ¿entiendes lo que lees? Y él respondió, ¿cómo podré, a menos que alguien me guíe? E invitó a Felipe a que le subiera y se sentara con él. El pasaje de la escritura que estaba leyendo era este.

Como oveja fue llevado al matadero y como cordero, mudo delante del que lo trasquila, no abre él su boca. En su humillación no se le hizo justicia. ¿Quién contará su generación? Porque su vida es quitada de la tierra. El eunuco respondió a Felipe y dijo, te ruego que me digas, ¿de quién dice esto el profeta? ¿De sí mismo o de algún otro? Entonces Felipe abrió su boca y comenzando desde esta escritura le anunció el evangelio de Jesús. Yendo por el camino, llegaron al lugar donde había agua. Y el eunuco dijo, mira, agua, ¿qué impide que yo sea bautizado? Y Felipe dijo, si crees con todo tu corazón, puedes. Respondió él y dijo, creo que Jesucristo es el hijo de Dios. Y mandó parar el carruaje. Ambos descendieron al agua, Felipe y el eunuco, y lo bautizó. Al salir ellos del agua,

el espíritu del Señor arrebató a Felipe y no lo vio más el eunuco que continuó su camino gozoso. Let's pray. Oremos. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the instruction it gives us, Lord. We thank you for the calling of the gospel itself that we receive in your word. Lord, I pray that today would you fan the affection of our heart for you so that Lord, when we speak, you come out. Lord, I pray that you give us a heart for those around us that don't know you. Lord, give us clarity of the gospel and let us even see in the beautiful picture of baptism how you've redeemed and saved us. Lord, give me words to speak today and prohibit me from saying anything that I don't need to say. And I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. This morning, we're gonna look at three things. The calling that we have upon our lives. We're called to be spirit-led messengers. We're called to be good news sharers. And this one's a little hard. This is baptism commissioners, those carrying out baptism. One of the reasons this is one of my favorite stories, I grew up in a Baptist church in Southwest Little Rock.

Every time we did baptism on a Sunday, my old pastor would walk out and he would read this passage. He wouldn't preach it, he would just read it. And he would walk back and he would baptize those that were waiting to be baptized. And a long time ago in 1986, I was baptized after I came into the faith and my pastor read this passage of scripture. It is a sweet memory for me and it's one that has stayed with me. So I love to get to preach it. So let's look here at our first point. We're called to be spirit-led messengers. We see the story of Philip here. Philip is a deacon in the church. Philip is a deacon in the church. We see what's happening here throughout when the church is first starting. That the church selects seven deacons to help the church serve those that were poor and in need. Philip is one of these men. He lives in a place called Caesarea and it's up in the north. And he's serving the church there. He has four daughters, which makes me love him because I have three daughters. And three daughters is a lot. Four daughters is too many.

But he has a heart for the Lord and his dear friend Stephen has been killed preaching Christ. And it makes Philip all the more excited about Jesus. So he starts preaching Jesus everywhere. And in this moment, he's called to go south of Jerusalem. Saying, you're gonna go to this road and I'll tell you what's gonna happen when you get there. All he has to do is say, I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen when you get there. All he had was a location. An angel of the Lord said, you go right here. He didn't know what was waiting for him. He was just obedient. And so he goes. And as he's walking on the road from Jerusalem down to Gaza, the Spirit of God leads him. El Espiritu de Dios le guia. Go over and join this chariot. We don't know how fast the chariot was going. Philip must have been fast. But he knows he's supposed to go. Sitting in that chariot was an African. This African had been riding going to Jerusalem and is now returning home. 1,500 miles. One way. From Ethiopia to Jerusalem.

He rode this far to worship. He went this far for a Jewish holiday, most likely. And while he is now returning home, he has a scroll of Isaiah. And he's reading. He's about to go home. He has a very big job. He is in charge of all the money for the queen. He oversees all the money. A lot of important things he does every day. And yet, because of all this, God allows Philip in one moment to be instrumental in his life. God ordained this meeting. God knew where the Ethiopian would be at this place in the road, at this specific time, and for Philip to be there too. Do you see the beauty of what God is doing? It wasn't by accident. God ordained all of it to happen. God ordained him to be in a chariot, the African in the chariot. God ordained him to open a scroll of Isaiah. A specific passage of scripture. Details, details, my Spanish word for the day. Spanish word for the day. Right, detalles, detalles. I knew I would mess it up. Okay, details, details. Do you see?

Do you see the glory of God in details? None of this is by accident. None of this is an accident. I'll work better on my Spanish, I'm sorry. But the beauty of this passage is God called the African and used every little detail to call him. This includes salvation that God ordains those that would come to faith. He instruments all of us hearing the gospel and responding. I grew up in a Christian home. I got to hear the gospel in church. But God was still sovereign over the details for me to respond to the gospel. It was the spirit of God who called me. Who applied conviction to my sinfulness so that I would know I need Christ. Even though the Ethiopian had Isaiah in his lap, he was not looking for Jesus. In 1986, I was not looking for Jesus. Jesus found me. I didn't find Jesus. The Ethiopian didn't find Jesus, Jesus found him. That's God's glory. That he goes searching for us, not that we try to find him. God calls us to salvation. The son provides salvation. The spirit applies salvation so that the triune God gets glory when you come to faith. Because it's got nothing to do with you.

You have no goodness. You have nothing to add. The only thing you add is the sin necessary for Jesus to die. So God does the calling out of his grace for his glory because he's called you. When we look at adoption, bringing someone into our family, it's a beautiful picture of the gospel because what we see is someone can't choose a family, a family has to choose them. They don't do enough good things. They don't say, if you'll bring me into your family, I will do good things. And they don't say, if you don't bring me into your family, I'll work hard, I will contribute all of these things. I will do good things. They don't say, if you don't bring me into your family, The family says, by grace, I'm gonna ask you I will do good things. to be my child. It's a beautiful picture. I'm calling you to be my child. That's the beauty of this. That God orchestrates all of these things. Think about when you came into the faith. Think about when people shared the gospel with you. You think about all the things that had to happen for you to come into the faith.

Only God can do those things. Only God. Not us. John 6, 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. It's God's grace to call us to himself. God doesn't look down through time and say, I really hope I get to save that person. He doesn't say, I would love them to be on my team. I'm gonna, let's hope that they come. But yet his grace and mercy is set on us to save and redeem us. And he calls us. Even though we can't find him. He certainly has found us. Romans 3, 10 through 12. No one is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All turn aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. All sufficient merit. We just sang it. We have nothing to add. It is the work of Christ. It is the work of Christ. To save us. To apply salvation.

To call us. Not our own. Not what we can do. And if you're a broke sinner like I am, we love grace. We love that Jesus saved us despite ourselves. Not because we look good. Not because we act right. Not because we act right, we have everything in order. But because Jesus is so gracious. Isn't he gracious to you? Isn't he gracious to save you? Isn't he precious that he would be the one that calls you? Isn't he precious that he would be the one that calls you? And when we believe that in our heart, and we look at those around us that we love, we do not get to say these words. That person is too far away. That person is too difficult. They've done too many things. They will never trust Christ. Look how far away they are. Do you not understand this? God's grace is greater than that person. The cross is stronger than the sin. And no one is too far gone. Because I was never too far gone. And he still saved me. That is why we love grace. That is why we share grace

and we share the gospel with everyone. And that is why we can be bold in sharing Christ. Look at verse 30 and 31. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is how Philip shares Jesus with the African. Do you understand? Just a question. Do you understand what you're reading? Much of the way that we share Jesus, I learned from John Vance. You ask questions. You ask. You ask. Do you understand? Do you understand what Jesus has done for you? Do you understand how loved you are? Do you understand the cross of Jesus and what it did for you? Do you understand the gospel? And so that's what, the joy of this is just by a simple question. Let's look at second point. We're called to be good news sharers. The African is reading Isaiah 53, seven through eight. Let's read it here in verse 32 and 33. Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter

and like a lamb before its shearers, is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth? El pasaje de la escritura que estaba leyendo era este. Como oveja fue llevado al matadero y como cordero, mudo delante del que lo trasquila, no abre él su boca. En su humillación, no se le hizo justicia. Quien contará su generación? Porque su vida es quitada de la tierra. Details. Los detalles. Detalles. Thank you. It's not by chance he's reading this. It's not by accident. He's reading about Jesus. 700 years before Jesus was born. Algo 700 años antes de Jesus haber nacido. Is Isaiah writing about himself? That's the question. Or is he writing about someone else? He's writing about someone else. He's writing about the Messiah that would come and suffer. And how would he suffer? Like a lamb to the slaughter. Como un cordero llevado al matadero. Like a pure, perfect lamb

that would die on an altar for a sacrifice. Como un cordero puro, perfecto y limpio que moriría en el altar del sacrificio. And before Jesus was baptized. Y antes de ser bautizado Jesús. His cousin John said this. Su primo Juan dijo esto. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Mirad el cordero de Dios que vino a llevar el pecado del mundo. Jesus fulfilled Isaiah. Jesús cumplió Isaías. By being our sacrifice. Al ser nuestro sacrificio. All of your sin. Todo tu pecado. Past, present, future. Pasado, presente y futuro. Has been placed upon Christ. Ha sido puesto sobre Cristo. And you bear it no more. Y tú ya no lo tienes por qué cargar. Your sin is no longer ever held against you. Tu pecado ya nunca más va a ser contado en contra tuya. Jesus paid it all. Jesús Cristo todo lo pagó. That's what happened at the cross. Eso es lo que pasó allí en la cruz. Innocent God bore your sin.

Un Dios inocente cargó tu pecado. That's the gospel. Y ese es el evangelio. A holy God. Un Dios santo. Created you for his glory in a relationship. Que te creó para una relación con él y para su gloria. But your sin separated you from God. Pero tu pecado te alejó de Dios. And because he is holy and you are not. Y porque él es santo y tú no. You will stay separated from God for eternity. Te vas a mantener separado de Dios por la eternidad. And the only hope you have. La única esperanza que tienes. Is not you. No eres tú. It is the one who came for you. Es el que vino por ti. That the Lamb of God took away your sin at the cross. El Cordero de Dios se llevara tu pecado en la cruz. And paid the price for you. Y pagara el precio por ti. And he bore the consequence of your sin. Él cargó la consecuencia de tu pecado. And he died on the cross. Y él murió en la cruz. And they put him in a tomb that he only needed to borrow. Y le metieron en una tumba y él solo necesitó tomar la prestada. Because he only needed it three days.

Porque solo fue prestada por tres días. And he rose again, and he defeated death for you. The greatest rescue was for you. That's the good news. That's what Christ has done for you. That's what Isaiah was saying. That's what the African needed. That's what Philip shared. To talk about what Jesus had done. This is what we share with others. Some of you are so scared to share your faith. I don't know what to say. You say this. Jesus saves. He saved me. I was a sinner separated from God. Jesus saved me, not because of me, but because of what he did for me. He paid for my sins. Repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus. Repent and believe. That's what we share. We don't have to be afraid. Well Cody, what if they ask me questions that I don't know the answer to? You can say, I don't know. And then you give them Alfredo's phone number. You say, you call Alfredo, he'll tell you. But you share Jesus. Because they need Jesus. Don't be afraid of questions. It's okay to say, I don't know.

But what they need most is for you to tell them about what Jesus has done for you. And how he has saved you. I know the hard part about sharing our faith. It's not everyone that's going to come into the faith. Not everyone is going to say yes. And we talked about this last week. That there will be those that reject Jesus. And it breaks our heart. But we don't stop sharing. They may reject Jesus today. They may accept Jesus tomorrow. We don't stop. We keep loving people. If we are sowing seeds of the gospel, we don't know when it's time for them to sprout. We can water. We can take care of the plants. We can give them sunshine. But we don't know when they're going to sprout. But we keep sharing the gospel. And we trust that God does what he does when we share. I hope there's some peace we can have when we talk about sharing our faith. Even seeing this moment where Philip is sharing. Number one, you can have confidence. Not in yourself. You have confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel saves people. An understanding in the work of Christ is what saves people. You don't save anybody. No one has ever come to Jesus because of Cody. It's not me.

It's the work of the Spirit. It's me sharing the good news of Jesus. And the gospel is the one that calls them through the work of the Spirit. We ought to have confidence. Because we can just share Jesus. We trust that God gets glory when we share. Whether someone comes into the faith or they don't, God gets glory when you share Jesus. The second thing we can do is rest. If I have an opportunity to share Jesus with someone, I can just share and it's okay. If the Holy Spirit is the one that saves people. I don't have to rush to close the deal. I don't have to try to pressure them to do something. I don't have to pressure them to hurry up and say some words. One of the joys I have had as a father is sharing the gospel with my children. And every single moment of sharing the gospel with my children like being the father of three girls has taught me patience. And I don't have patience. Very little. No patience. Very little. But gospel sharing takes patience. I don't rush. I give the gospel. I tell them I love them. I give them a clear picture of what the a holy God, sinful man, and a redeeming Jesus. And then I pray for the spirit to convict. And the spirit to save. And then I have to sit back and wait for the spirit to work.

I can't save my daughters. Only Jesus can save my daughters. So I'm patient. And I need to rest in the work of the spirit. And by God's grace, he has saved my oldest two daughters. My youngest, she turned 12 today. Today is her birthday. And you know what we're going to talk about today? Jesus. We just keep talking about Jesus. We keep talking about what Christ has done for us. We can rest. We don't have to be afraid. I want to say something to make it really clear. You cannot mess it up. How do doctors learn how to do surgery? Do they will in a healthy patient? No. They will in a dead person. And they say practice. Right? You can't make them more dead. They're already dead. You can't mess this up. And I know this is kind of silly. But when you share the gospel with people, they're dead. You're not going to make them more dead. You're not going to make them more lost. Don't worry about messing up. It's okay.

Don't be afraid. Share. The worst thing that could happen is they say no. And God still gets glory when you share. Your faith grows when you share. Your love for Jesus grows when you share. Don't be afraid. You're just operating. It'll be fine. I hope that gives you confidence to share the faith. Well, lastly, let's talk about baptism. We're called to be those that perform baptism. The African comes to water and says, what stops me from being baptized? And the African go down and Philip baptizes the African there. I want to teach just a little bit about what's happening here. What is happening here is an outward reflection or a view of what has happened inward to the African. We need to understand a couple of things. It's a picture. It doesn't save him. That's big. Because what's happening in the river here is a picture of what's happening in the African. It doesn't save him. It's a picture of what's happening in the African. of what happened inside the chariot. The African trusts in Jesus in the chariot. The African is saved in the chariot. And now the water is the picture of what happened to him.

Baptism is a beautiful gift to the church. It's a wonderful reflection of what has happened. Jesus modeled it. He was baptized by John. Jesus commanded it. Matthew 28. The Great Commission. Go then to all the peoples everywhere and make them disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We come into the faith and are baptized. Then we go to the nations and teach them and baptize them. When we are baptized, we say, I belong to Jesus. That's baptism. A couple things. Baptism is like your wedding ceremony. I have been married almost twenty years. Twenty years in December. My wife is the most patient woman in the world. For twenty years she has put up with me. But when we got married, we told our family and friends, we commit to each other. I belong to her and she belongs to me. Baptism is that same declaration. I want us to understand it is to the world that we proclaim Christ in the way that we are baptized. It doesn't save us. Jesus saves us. That's the picture of baptism. The way that we do baptism is by the Bible. The word baptized means taken under, placed under water. Dunking.

Right? Because that's what the word means. The word we see in the New Testament is those that would be taken under water and brought out. That is the way that Christ was baptized. That is the way that he has charged us to be baptized. That you were buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in new life. That's the picture we have. That is why we baptize this way at Fellowship. Because it is scriptural. It's a picture of our death and resurrection in Christ. And it is commanded of us. One of the most beautiful pictures we have on Sundays here is when we see baptism. Today there's baptism at Fellowship. They'll be outside. There's a sweet eight-year-old little girl who's getting baptized today. She made her own invitations to her family and friends. Because she wants them to see her baptized. But it's also her way to tell them about Jesus. That she was dead in her sins. She's raised to walk in new life. That's the beautiful picture of baptism. Today I want to encourage you with this. If you have questions about baptism. Maybe this is something that happened to you in the past. Maybe there's a way that you were baptized that you have questions about. Please have conversations with all of us. Please reach out to us. The beauty of the gospel is one sinner trusting in Christ and then being baptized.

And I know this brings questions, but we do want to answer your questions. There's a beautiful part of baptism where we get to declare Christ to those around us. And if you've never experienced after you've come to faith, you can. Let me ask you just real quickly these questions. Do you understand? Do you know Christ? You can. Have you ever been baptized? You can start that conversation. You can start that conversation. And lastly, it's this. Who in your life has God put in your place? He's put you in the same chariot for a reason. They're asking questions. They're watching you. Who do you know that needs Christ? And are you ready? Are you ready to share? Be ready. Share Jesus. Pray for them. Love them well. And look for opportunities to share. As I pray here in just a second, I want you to pray for the person that God's put on your heart.

Let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for the beautiful picture that we have of how we have come into the faith and how you have saved and redeemed us. Lord, thank you so much for our salvation and for the picture we have of how you have brought us from death to life. Lord, I pray for the one here that maybe has never put their faith in you. Lord, that they would understand what you've done for them and they would repent and believe in you. For the one wrestling with these questions about baptism, would you put it on their heart to talk to the pastors and those serving here in Espanol. But Lord, I pray that we would, with bold hearts, walk out of here today. Looking for opportunities to share your love with others. Lord, we're not afraid. We're not worried what they will say. We love them and they need Jesus. So we share Jesus. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Lord, we're not afraid.

We love them and they need Jesus. So we share Jesus. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.