Resilience | Flexibility - Acts 8

Yeah, yeah, hey, stay standing, stay standing. Don't go anywhere. We're gonna continue to celebrate. I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love that song. It's a new song. We're gonna keep singing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're gonna keep singing it. First Wednesday worship throughout the fall and into the winter. We're gonna keep singing it because I don't know if you're wired this way or not, but I'm always looking forward. Like I'm looking forward to things. And so that line about we're hungry, we're expectant, man, that touches something in my soul because I'm always looking forward to things. So even like right now is we're getting ready to turn from summer towards fall. Next week is fall kickoff, by the way. Remember, there's a lot of things I'm looking forward to, and I bet you are too. One thing I'm looking forward to is lower temperatures. Anybody else gonna get an amen? I like to wear a hoodie and it actually makes some sense to do that. I'm looking forward to Coach Stein putting the SEC on notice down at Kroger Field. I'm looking forward to the sights and the sounds

and the smells of Keeneland, something that is so unique to the Bluegrass. And I'm looking forward to our guys, Malachi Moreno and Trent Noah making some people recognize what's going in the new folks along with them down at Rupp Arena. I'm into all of that, but more than anything else, man, I am hungry and I'm expectant to see what God is going to continue to do in the life of our church. So I am all about looking forward. Oh man, y'all just making it longer. Keep doing it. But man, I got a lot to say today, so that's all right. That's all right. I'm excited to see what God is gonna do, but here's what I'm not so good at. I'm not so good. Maybe you're like me. It's stopping, pressing pause, looking back and celebrating what God has already done. See, there's a whole book in the Old Testament called Deuteronomy. It's about God's people. They've journeyed all the way through the wilderness and they're about to literally cross over into the Jordan River. They're gonna step into the famous promised land that they've been so hungry for for generations. And Moses, their leader, doesn't get to go with them.

And so he steps up in front of them right before they take that last step of the journey. And he basically preaches a sermon with one word over and over and over again. He just says, remember. Remember who God is. Remember what God has done. Remember, he's the one who carried you all the way that you went from that place in bondage and slavery to this place where you're about to step into freedom. He's the one who did it for you like a father carries his son all the way that you went until you arrived at this place. And so what we're gonna do right now for the next few minutes is we're gonna celebrate what God has already done before we turn the corner into what we expect God to do. So let me tell you what God has done just this summer in this place. We sent seven mission trips all around the world. 130 of our students were on those trips to serve others and spread the gospel. We had 946 students go to camp. 946, along with, God bless these people, 259 leaders that are still recovering right now. We had 1800 people show up to I-75 for summer worship night and it was a moment in the life of our church as we defiantly worshiped in the face of our circumstances. Just to give you some perspective,

last summer during the same stretch of time, we had on average across our five campuses about 12,000 people that were attending on Sundays. This summer, almost 14,000 people are attending on Sundays. We've had 345 people come to Southland for the very first time and tell us they came for the very first time, which means that's probably a third of the amount of people who did that. Here's one of my favorites. $182,000 has been given to Dollar Club to help those in need who are in crisis. And here's my favorite one. 217 people have been baptized this summer. 65 of those are under the age of 18. Here's what that means. God is doing what He's always done. He is saving young, He is saving old, and He is saving everyone in between. And here in a couple minutes, I'm gonna come back up here and I'm gonna preach my guts out about how we want desperately for God to entrust us with how many? One more this fall. But before we do that, we are going to celebrate what God has already done and what we've already witnessed this summer. So let's sing our faces off, let's go. ♪ You're good and I've witnessed it ♪

♪ You're strong and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ You're constant I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ And I'm telling Him that I see it again and again ♪ ♪ Your love and I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ Your healing I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ Your saving I've witnessed it ♪ ♪ And I've come back система ♪ I see it again and again and again ♪ ♪ And I've witnessed your faithfulness ♪ ♪ I've seen you bring life within ♪ ♪ So I'll pour out my praise and thank your worthy God ♪ ♪ You're worthy of all that I am ♪ ♪ Your promises never fail me ♪ ♪ I've got stories I'll live to tell ♪ ♪ So I'm pouring out my praise again ♪ ♪ You're worthy, good God, You're worthy of all that I am ♪ ♪ To the broken, I'll win this time ♪ ♪ To the hurting, I'll win this time ♪ ♪ To the lost, I'll win this time ♪ ♪ And I'm telling, I'm telling what I'll win next time ♪ ♪ To my family, I'll win this time ♪ ♪ To my city, I'll win this time ♪ ♪ To my nations, I'll win this time ♪ ♪ And I'm telling this, I'm telling what I'll win ♪ Let's go. Let's go. Pray with me, pray with me, pray with me. Father God, we stand before you now and we are just humbled. We're amazed at who you are and what you've done.

Father, we do not deserve this. We did not earn this. This is all grace. This is your doing. So thank you that we get to be a part of it. Thank you, Father, that we get to see you tell your story again and again and again, right here in our midst. So Father, now as we open up your word, I pray that you will change us. It's in Jesus' beautiful name, I pray. Amen. Y'all can grab a seat. Y'all ready to go? All right, let's go. Hey, got your Bibles? Got your Bibles? They're gonna be in Acts chapter eight, Acts chapter eight. If you're just kinda coming back for the fall, just know we bring our Bibles around here. So bring your Bibles, Acts chapter eight. Our key word again today is resilience. My buddy Carl did such a great job walking us through one component of resilience. We're gonna hit the second component of resilience this week. My favorite definition of the word resilience is this. It means the capacity to maintain core purpose and identity in the face of dramatically changing circumstances. Okay, we all the time find ourselves

in dramatically changing circumstances and we have a choice to make. Are we gonna be resilient or are we gonna wilt? So we're looking at resilience. It has two key ingredients. Carl introduced us to the first one last week. The first one is strength. And we looked at Acts chapter three and four and we looked at these dudes, Peter and John. They're just going about their day, doing what they do. They're in their routine. They're gonna go to the temple. They're gonna pray. They heal this man and they do that in the name of Jesus and it causes this big ruckus, right? Because the religious leaders are trying to tamp down the movement of Jesus. And so it doesn't help matters if people heal people in the name of Jesus. And so they haul Peter and John in and they go, listen, we don't care what you guys do. Only one thing we're telling you is stop saying the name of Jesus. And Peter and John are like, no, we're gonna keep saying the name of Jesus because we'd rather obey God than obey you. And so we're gonna go with God and leave the consequences to him. We're gonna keep preaching the name of Jesus. They beat him up, they turn him loose

and they say, as they turn him loose, hey, let that be a lesson to you. Don't preach in the name of Jesus anymore. And of course they weren't silent about it at all. And here's the thing that some of us are thinking right now, that's very interesting, Scott. That's interesting how in Bible times there was great persecution against Christianity, but I don't know if you've looked around, Scott, but we're in the United States of America. There's no persecution against Christians in the United States of America. Do you see what's happening to Jesse Clark Middle School right now in Fayette County? Freedom From Religion Foundation, perhaps one of the most intolerant organizations in our nation, came after Jesse Clark, Fayette County Public Schools and FCA because a couple FCA character coaches who are also pastors happened to make an announcement on social media that a couple students of Jesse Clark came to Christ at an FCA meeting. Of course, FCA's operated at schools for generations and so the Freedom From Religion Foundation is trying to come after Fayette County Public Schools and FCA and these pastors. That's happening right now in our context. So we gotta make a decision ahead of time in these changing circumstances, which that book, by the way, you're gonna wanna read

that Carl mentioned Life in a Negative World by Aaron Wren. He and I, Carl read that together, means this. We have journeyed in very short amount of time from people in our culture having a positive view of Christianity and Christians to a neutral view of Christianity and Christians to a negative view of Christianity and Christians and we gotta decide now, are we gonna be strong and are we gonna be resilient or are we gonna wilt when we're told that we're no longer to preach the name of Jesus? That's step one, that's strength, but there's another component to this and it's called flexibility and that's what we're gonna see today in Acts chapter eight. We're gonna pick up the narrative and basically in the early church, things went from bad with Peter and John getting beaten up to worse. If you know the story in Acts chapter eight. Chapter seven, this young deacon named Stephen, he is hauled into the streets. He preaches basically one of the best sermons you'll read in the entire New Testament. And what he gets payment for that is, he gets stoned to death in the streets. And everybody who's about to stone him to death, as they take their outer garments off, they lay those down at the feet of this young zealous man named Saul.

And as often happens with crowds, a mob mentality breaks out after they murder Stephen and persecution breaks out in Jerusalem. And all of a sudden Christians are running for the hills. But the interesting dynamic is this, when persecution breaks out, it has a counterproductive effect for those who want to see the name of Jesus not be spread. I've heard it said before, like persecuting the church is kind of like walking out on your front lawn in the morning with a cup of coffee and noticing that you got a bunch of dandelions that have gone to seed. You know, like when you're a little kid, you like to pick those and blow and then the seeds go everywhere. It's like walking out there and going, I know what I'll do, I'll rid my lawn of these and just walking around kicking those things. All you're doing is making it spread. And that's the dynamic that we're gonna see happen right here in Acts chapter eight. We're gonna pick it up in verse four. So read this with me, watch. Now, those who were scattered went about what they do? Preaching the word. Now, Philip, this is gonna be one of our main people we wanna talk about today. We wanna celebrate today what he's all about. Philip went down to the city of Samaria

and he proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip. And when they heard him, they saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. Write this down. Persecution perpetuates the spread of the gospel. That's what it does. Persecution perpetuates the spread of the gospel. Christians get scattered, they preach the word. That's what happens. Here's the comforting thing about this that we gotta understand. God's not worried when his people get persecuted. He's not in heaven wringing his hands going, oh no, they just killed Stephen and now everybody's running for the hills. What am I gonna do? Do you understand that with our sovereign God, there's no plan B? He's way ahead. In other words, he's playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers. And the thing that he's doing with that chess board most often is he's moving his people around strategically, including this dude named Philip that he's moving around strategically.

And he sends Philip to Samaria. Now, remember this. This is a place that historically speaking, Jewish people had great animosity towards and the feeling was mutual. Like they hated each other, Samaritans and Jews. But Philip is a follower of Jesus and he knew Jesus. And what has Jesus already done? He's already been to Samaritan villages and towns. Maybe you remember the woman at the well. He has this unbelievable encounter with her. It changes her whole life. She runs back into towns like, come see this man who told me everything I ever did. And everybody's like, everybody knows everything you ever did, but we'll come see who this man is. And he changes the whole town. They stay there for a few days and the whole village comes to faith in Jesus. So there is precedent for this. And so Philip goes, man, I'm going to go preach to the Samaritans. And what happens? Demons run, people are healed and the place is saturated with joy. Y'all, that is my prayer for every city that Southern Christian Church touches. That demons flee, that people are restored, that life and freedom are brought into the lost and broken.

And that joy saturates every city that our church touches because we bring the name of Jesus everywhere we go. Now, there's a but, watch this. But there's a man named Simon. He had previously practiced magic in the city and he amazed the people of Samaria saying that he himself was somebody great, very humble dude. They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the power of God that is called Great with a capital G. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he'd amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Watch this, even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with Philip and seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. This dude Simon was into some seriously dark stuff. He's into magic, witchcraft, dark arts. You gotta hear me say this. The Bible doesn't just tell us what happened. The Bible tells us what always happens. So you don't give way to this idea of like, well, yeah, I guess they did stuff like that back then. They do stuff like that on Nicholasville Road, you know? Every time you see like a tarot card reading or a psychic

or someone who says they're gonna read your palms or something like that, that is not like a game. Do you understand? There's demonic power in that and it's real power. You don't wanna mess around with this stuff. I'm gonna talk more about it on the podcast, but the temptation toward the new age and the occult is being restored and restored. We vivified in our country right now, and it's dangerous. See, from the moment that Eve listened to the voice of the serpent, we've been susceptible, you and I, to tune our ears to the same voice of a liar and a deceiver. Now, here's what I love though about what's going on in Samaria. Nobody's saying, you know what? These people are too far gone for the gospel. Nobody's saying like, hey, we should withhold the name of Jesus and salvation from people who are this dark, this far gone. No, no, no, no. Philip is like, I'm gonna be so flexible that I'm gonna take the name of Jesus and I'm gonna take the gospel to people who are far from God so that they can be near to God. He doesn't have any preconceived notions about just how far the light of the world is willing to go. He just understands that wherever the light goes, the darkness has to flee. So he brings the name of Jesus into Samaria,

even with dark people like Simon. Watch, now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word, word comes back to Jerusalem, hey, there's people in Samaria coming to Christ. They sent to them Peter and John. They're like, Peter, John, go. Y'all gotta see what's going up, see what's going down over in Samaria. And they came down and they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them. We'll talk about that in a second. But they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, oh boy, he offered them money, saying, hey, give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But of course, it's Peter that speaks up. I'm surprised he didn't just punch him, but this is pretty good progress for Peter. But Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you, bro, because you thought, the bros in the Greek, I promise, you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. He says, you've neither part nor lot in this matter,

for your heart's not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. Then Simon's like, I see that you're in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered, pray for me to the Lord that nothing of what you have said may come upon me. Now, there's a ton to unpack there. Again, we'll talk more about this on the podcast, but I wanna keep a 50,000-foot perspective on this because the big idea helps us get down to the smaller ideas. John and I used to sit in his office or mine all the time, and we'd talk about the Bible, we'd talk about sports, we'd talk about all kinds of things. But one of the things we'd say about the book of Acts is this, if you're looking for a pattern in the book of Acts, you're gonna be hard-pressed to find one. The Holy Spirit does all kinds of different things in different ways in the book of Acts. It's all over the place, but there is a distinction that we see a couple times in the book of Acts between this, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's power on people. The Holy Spirit in people versus the Holy Spirit on people. And the Holy Spirit on people was always for a very specific purpose, and that purpose was evangelism so that other people far from God would be brought near to God so they could see the manifestation of the reality

that people who were once far from God are now near to God, people who were just like them. Even Samaritan sorcerers like Simon try to say that three times fast, I dare you. By the way, even though commentators are very perplexed about what to do with this Simon dude. I just, this is my humble opinion, okay? My humble opinion is he is just a walking, talking demonstration of Jesus's parable of the sower. Maybe you remember the story. Jesus tells the story of this farmer. He goes out to scatter some seed, and this dude does it indiscriminately. He's just throwing it everywhere. Some of it lands on a hard surface, like a sidewalk. Some lands among thorns, some around rocks, some lands on good soil, and some of it gets choked out, some of it's too dry, some of it grows, some of it never even takes root. Here's the idea. The condition of someone's heart is not our deal. We can't control it. What can we control? Sowing the seed of the gospel. It's God's job to change people's hearts. It's the Holy Spirit's job to change people's hearts. It's our job to share the gospel and not hold back because we think someone's too far gone. So let me ask you like a really personal, invasive question. Is there anyone you've given up on?

I mean, let's be honest today. Is there anyone, because I got them. Is there anyone who you're like, man, I just think they're too far gone. They're in too deep with addiction. They've gone too far. They're in too much darkness. There's no possible way that they could ever come to faith in Jesus. Anyone you've given up on? Let me ask an even more deeply invasive and personal question. Anybody that you would rather not come to faith in Jesus because you just don't like them? I got those people. Any people in your life you're like, man, they're just too gross. The idea of sharing heaven with them is not something I really wanna do. You don't think they're necessarily too far gone, but you don't necessarily wanna be in relationship with them. So you can't imagine them being in relationship with. Jesus, I got people like that, who I have categorized and demonized and marginalized in my heart and in my mind. And consequently, I just ignore them or view them as like a inconvenience. This is the part of resilience I desperately need to grow in, the flexibility side of things.

The strength side, I kind of got that one down, okay? I mean, like, listen, governor comes to me today and says, Scott, you're no longer allowed to preach in the name of Jesus. Y'all better get some popcorn, that's gonna be fun, okay? That's not the thing I need to work on. Some of you are kind of like me. I'll give you an example. I got to do a family vacation this past summer. If you know me really well, that means I got to go to my happy place. This was like the, probably the last time for a little while we get to have all of our adult children and everybody together on the same trip. So my son-in-law and all my kids, so seven of us all went down to the beach. The beach is my happy place. I got my toes in the water, my tail in the sand, and I got my stack of like Jesus books for the morning, like my Bible and my Jesus books. And then I got my stack of books that are about good guys winning over bad guys in the afternoon, you know, that's what I got. And so, so I don't, before vacation, I think I learned this for the first time or I forgot. I didn't know. Some of you will know this, but did you know that the movie Jaws was a book first? So I was like, what would be the best beach read on the planet?

Jaws, let's go. So Amazon primed it up, it came to the door, I got it. I was so excited. I get to vacation and the afternoon rolls around. I sit down there in my little beach chair and I crack that thing open. And my favorite thing was watching people walk past me as I'm reading Jaws on the beach. And they do this like double take, like who is this psychopath who's over here reading Jaws on the beach? Because listen, some of you are like this. I'm wired to, in the presence of a monster, it's not that I'm not afraid of the monster, but I deal with the fear by moving toward the monster, not away from the monster. Here's the problem though with people like me, not everyone's a monster. You gotta have discernment to determine the distinction between wolves that need to be shot and sheep that need to be shepherded. Philip has this one down. This is Philip's wheelhouse. He's got discernment on this. And so folks like me need to lean in to Philip. Back to Acts chapter eight, let's see what happens. Now, when they had testified and spoken to the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, I want you to notice this. First, we're gonna see him be told to do something twice. First, it's an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And we should all be scratching our heads right now going, desert place? And if you're Philip, you're definitely scratching your head going, desert place? Why are we going to a desert place? Hey, Mr. Angel, let me talk to you for a second. I don't know if you noticed this or not. We're kind of making hay with the gospel in places where there's people. The desert doesn't have people. I need people to preach the gospel to. Why are you sending me to the desert? That's the argument I would have been tempted to have with the angel. But Philip, he responds, look at this. He just rose and went. Well, dang. You know, here's Philip, he just rose and went. He simply obeys. There are people in the Bible who argue with angels. Read it. Philip's just not one of them.

So let's see what unfolds as he obeys. And there, I want you to notice all these distinctions. This is really important. Was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace who was queen of the Ethiopians. And man, this dude is in charge of all her treasure. And he had come to Jerusalem, why? To worship, and he's returning seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Every one of those components is really, really important. Here's what I want you to notice. This is first and foremost. God dispatches through an angel, Philip, who is reaching so many people. To reach how many people? This is not a trick question. One more. He's all about reaching one more. God is very interested in tribes, and tongues, and nations, and people groups, and he's interested in you. Every last one of you. Every single soul he wants to pursue, he's interested in every lost sheep, including this Ethiopian eunuch. One man. He's an outsider by literally every definition. He's from Ethiopia. He's a eunuch. He's got great power. He's got great wealth.

He has access to power, but because of his proximity to the queen, he has lost a lot. He had to lose his masculinity to have that kind of proximity. to the queen and that kind of power. This was normal. And he's seeking something. He goes to Jerusalem, why? To worship. Because there's something in him that suspects that the God they worship in Jerusalem is somehow different from the false gods they worship back in Ethiopia. That this God maybe is a God who isn't petty and actually keeps his promises. And isn't it fascinating that he has a scroll in his hand. By the way, no printing press. This would have cost a lot of money. And the scroll is the scriptures. And what scriptures specifically? The prophet Isaiah. That is not coincidental and that is not an accident because this Ethiopian eunuch, I bet you, I'd be willing to bet my life, knew that tucked away in that scroll at Isaiah 56 were these words and these promises of that God in Jerusalem. Let not the foreigner, he's a foreigner, who's joined himself to the Lord.

He's trying to join himself to the Lord. He's seeking to worship in Jerusalem. The Lord will surely separate me from his people and let not the eunuch say, he's a eunuch, behold, I'm a dry tree. In other words, I'm not gonna be able to produce anything in my life. For thus says the Lord, to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, good news, that shall not be cut off. I think that's the promise of God that he was holding onto. No wonder that was the scroll that was in his hand. He's desperately holding onto this. And now watch what happens. Watch how God's gonna move these chess pieces around. The spirit said to Philip, notice it was an angel first, now it's the spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, go over and join this chariot. And so Philip, what'd he do? He ran to him. Spirit said, go, what'd Philip do? He ran. Coaches, how many of you want players like Philip? You say, go, they run. Teachers, you're getting your classrooms ready right now. How many of you are on your knees before the father

pleading to God for a classroom full of people like Philip? Yes, ma'am, yes, sir, I'll go, I'll do it. What do you need? Parents, how many of you are pleading? How many of you would love to have some children that are like Philip, that are so responsive to your commands that they are pleased to carry them out with urgency? You're like, stop talking about heaven, Scott. That's what heaven will be like. Philip's so flexible. He goes where he's told to go. He does what he's told to do and what he's told to do in a excited way. Again, we have a lot to learn from Philip. Let's see what happens when he runs over there. And he heard him reading. Isaiah the prophet. And so Philip asked him, do you understand what you're reading? And the eunuch said, well, how could I understand unless someone guides me? So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the passage of scripture that he was reading was this. This is also Isaiah. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer, so he opens 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 we should all be going, who's the he? And the eunuch said to Philip, that's his question, about whom? I ask you, does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else? And then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he was prepared, he knew the scripture. He told him the good news about who? Jesus. Jesus is the he. He's the him. He's the one. And Philip draws a straight line from this prophet Isaiah to the prophet of all prophets, Jesus himself. And so let's see what happens next. This is so cool. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, hey man, here's water. Like what prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down to the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord just carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing but Philip found himself at Azotus

and as he passed through, what'd he do? This dude's a beast. He just preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. How beautiful is that? And here's what I love in the presence of this person who wants to move from death to life. When he says, hey, there's water, what prevents me from getting baptized? Philip's like, not me. This is gonna ruffle some feathers. But notice that he doesn't go, well, hey man, I need you to take a class on baptism. Need you to work through this curriculum. I'm gonna need you to read more than just the scroll of Isaiah. He doesn't go, well, I'm worried about your ongoing spiritual formation process. I don't know what church you're gonna get plugged into in Ethiopia. Newsflash, there weren't any. There was gonna be some because of this, but there weren't any for him to go to. And listen, all of those things are valid concerns, but they're not so valid that they should rise above the level of one lost person being found in that moment. We wanna be all gas, no brakes, when it comes to somebody finding faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit presses the gas,

we go with the Holy Spirit and go where he goes, and we baptize people. That's what Philip did. Because here's the thing that Philip seemed to understand. The same God that could save someone would sustain someone, you understand? Even in a faraway place like Ethiopia, the same God that was saving this man right here in his presence was gonna take care of this Ethiopian eunuch when he got back home. Now, this has major ramifications for us as a church. That was all the introduction to the sermon. Y'all were like, please, I hope he's lying. Yeah, it's hot in here. I hope you've been leaning in, but I need you to lean in even more for the next few minutes because this is going to shape and inform our future as a church. And when I say future, I mean like tomorrow, okay? This is so important. In order to become the resilient church that we need to become, and I believe this is not just unique to Southland. In order for the American church to become the resilient church, it needs to become, in these days that are negative, there are three things that we have to embrace. Number one, the word of God. Number two, the power of God.

And number three, the mission of God. We all know churches that are weighted one direction or the other. Like we all know churches that are all about the word of God. Man, you don't wanna play these guys in Bible jeopardy, they will wipe the floor with you. You know what I'm talking about? We all know churches that are all about the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And they beg and they plead, and they worship with a reckless abandon. They wanna see miracles done. They wanna see change happen, all of that. We know churches that are all about the mission of God. Man, they roll up their sleeves and they get to work, and they take care of orphans and widows in their distress. They feed the hungry and they share the gospel. But here's the problem. When a church only values one of those things or even two of those things to the exclusion of the other thing, the church will get out of balance and there's weakness in that, and the church will not be as resilient as it can be. We all know churches that love the Bible, but don't love people. Anybody ever been to that church? We all know churches that are all about the Holy Spirit's power,

but because they're unanchored, they delve into chaos and confusion and abuse. We all know churches that are all about the mission of God, but they only see hungry people this side of heaven. They let go of truth, and they end up leading people straight to hell for eternity. But my question is simply this. What would you call a church that embraces all three of those things? And here's the answer. That would be a resilient church. And here's the thing I need you to lean in on. We are building a resilient church so that we can reach one more. We're building a resilient church so that we can reach one more with the life-changing, eternity-altering good news of who Jesus is and what He's done. That's why we exist, which means that you have to understand when you come here, when you invite your friends, your family, whoever you bring, you need to know the kind of church you're inviting them to. Southland, we are a Word of God church. We stand alone on the Word of God, which means we speak truth unashamedly. We're not trying to do it unlovingly,

but we're not gonna be ashamed of the truth that we speak around this place because it is in truth that life is found, and truth corresponds to reality. And so we preach it and we teach it and we share it with boldness. Southland, we are a power of God church. And so we worship defiantly because Jesus, we believe, is king over everything, everywhere, for all time. He's our king. He's the one that we take our marching orders from. So we worship Him defiantly. Southland, we are a mission of God church because of who He is and what He's done for us, we extend grace generously. And so if we'll hold on to all three of those things, we will be the resilient church that God desires us to be so that we can reach one more. As you go home this week, I'm gonna challenge you to read Acts chapter eight again, and what you will see is all three of those things, the Word of God, the power of God, and the mission of God being equally embraced by Peter, by Philip. I want us to be that kind of a church. So here's two challenges. Number one, next week is fall kickoff. Who's a person you know that is far from God, but they're near to you?

Maybe you gave up on them, I don't know. Invite them next week so that they can hear this life-changing message of who God is and what He's done. I can't wait to preach next week. Y'all think I'm amped up today? Just wait, all right? And bring them. But I wanna personalize this. This isn't only just the kind of church I desperately wanna be a part of. I wanna be a part of building alongside of you, but I also wanna be this kind of a person. I wanna be the kind of person who is so resilient that no matter what happens, I hold onto all three of these things. So let me give you some questions to reflect on this week. And if you're really brave, you won't just ask them to yourself, but you'll ask them to someone who knows you really well and then say, please answer honestly. And here's question number one. Write these down. Am I a word of God person? Is this your daily bread? Let me give you a little secret. If you're not hungry for this, it's because you're not eating this. What you feed grows, what you starve dies. So if you want your appetite for the word of God to increase, guess what you gotta do?

Read the word of God. Are you living under its authority? Or be real honest, do you have a highlighter and a pair of scissors out at the same time where you're cutting out all the uncomfortable stuff that calls you to repentance and you're highlighting all the other stuff that calls someone else to repentance? Am I a word of God person? Am I a power of God person? Am I not only living with the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit, but am I daily hungry and expectant for God to pour out his power on me, in me, and through me so that lost and broken people can be found through my example and through how I live my life? Am I a power of God person? Number three, am I a mission of God person? I once was lost, but now I'm found. Do you want to see the amazing grace that God has given to you be given to one more person? Because after all, this is what Jesus did for us. He was dispatched at the word, at the command of his father to go on a rescue mission for us. And while he was here, he was empowered by the Holy Spirit as he accomplished his mission. But God shows his love for us in this, while we were what, at our best, dressed up to go to church and Sunday school with a Bible under our arm? Nope, while we were what, still sinners.

While we were at our worst, in the middle of our mess, in our shame, in the middle of the thing that you still don't want to admit that you did or tell anybody about, he looked at you and said, I'll become that sin, I'll become that shame, I'll pay the price so that one more lost sheep can come home, so that one more person can step into the freedom and the promise of new life that I have for them. Take out your communion cups. And you know this, every time I take communion, I challenge you to do the same. Take that little piece of bread and break it. I want you to break it today, remembering that Jesus's body was broken for you because you had broken relationship with the father. And he did for you what you could not do for yourself. So take and eat. Now take the cup. And I want you to remember that when Jesus poured out his blood for you, that was not some of the payment. It was not a down payment, it was not an installment. What do we sing? Jesus paid how much? It all for you. So take and drink, remembering your savior. Pray with me. Father God, we are here in awe and amazement of who you are and what you've done. For each of us as individuals,

what you've done for us as a church, and we are hungry, we're expecting to see what you're gonna do in the future. Because there is power in your name. There's power in your blood. There's power in the life that lives under your authority by your Holy Spirit. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.