The Introvert's Guide To Changing the World - Ben Stuart

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, a shipyard worker named Desmond Dawes was among the many young Americans who took it personal and wanted to do something about it. His only problem was he was a Seventh-day Adventist and had sworn to never take a human life. So he enlisted as a medic. And he headed into battle, resolved to carry no weapon whatsoever, not even a combat knife. But as his battalion entered the Pacific theater, they were charged with the nearly impossible task of scaling a 400-foot-high cliff on the island of Okinawa and taking the summit from a deeply embedded Japanese force. And upon reaching the top, the men engaged in a fierce firefight that lasted several days. And on May 5, the enemy pounded US troops with artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire that engaged in an all-out assault that wounded 75 American soldiers and drove the rest of them all the way back down to the base of the cliff. And so when that evening arrived, the only soldiers remaining on top were the wounded, Japanese forces, and little Desmond Dawes. And as the US troops regrouped on the ground below, they saw suddenly above them a wounded soldier appear over the face of the cliff. And he was lowered down by a rope to safety below. Then another soldier came down, then another. And for the next five hours, Desmond Dawes

charged again and again into harm's way, would tend to a wounded soldier, drag his body to the edge of the cliff, fashion a rope around him, and lower them individually down. And by the time that night was through, the army estimated that Desmond Dawes had saved the lives of over 75 men. So he received the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest honor for bravery. And when they asked Desmond Dawes, what was going through your mind as one after another, you saved these men's lives, risking your own? And he answered, I just kept praying, please, Lord, help me save one more. Please, Lord, help me save one more. Now, why do I mention that? Because we love these kind of stories of ordinary people rising to do something extraordinary, because they give us hope that maybe our lives can be shot through with meaning as well. Now, why do I bring it up today? Because in Acts chapter one, verse eight, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was dead, buried, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, told his followers, you will receive power when my Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. The gospel of grace is gonna go to the world through you, and in chapters one through seven

of the book of Acts, we saw the gospel go forth in power among the Jewish community, localized in the city of Jerusalem, and then peaking into the outskirts of Judea. But now in chapter eight, we're gonna watch the gospel jump the banks of this ethnic group, and we're gonna see it go to Samaria in the north and to the ends of the earth in the south, and God will accomplish this great work through one man named Phil. And you may say, who is Phil? I've heard of the apostle Peter. I've heard of the apostle Paul. I've heard of John. Who is Phil? Well, if you were here last week, you remember Phil. He was in charge of bread distribution to widows. Actually, that's not true. He was second in command. Stephen was in charge of bread distribution to widows. Phil was the assistant to the manager of bread distribution. And he would've gotten the manager job, but Stephen got killed, and Philip and the rest of the people had to scatter because of the persecution. But I want you to see what's about to happen here. The last 50% of what our Bible calls the Great Commission will be kick-started by the assistant to the manager of bread distribution. The bread truck guy is about to change the world, and he becomes a model to us about how everyday people can have extraordinary impact.

And I hope this encourages you, because God wants to accomplish eternal impact through everyday people, that God wants to touch not just history, but eternity through ordinary people proclaiming his name to the nations. And God wants to use you. Not a lot of applause there. Let me tell you why. Because a lot of times, believers celebrate the idea of God being glorified and people being forgiven from their sins. If I stood up here and said, we want God's glory around the nations, you'd say yes. And when we sing about the glory of Jesus' forgiveness, we say yes. And then when I say, and God wants to use you, we go, I don't think so. No, no, no, no. That is scary. That might cost me socially or economically. I'm gonna have to say no thanks, right? And I understand that, evangelism is a scary thing. I get it. Look, I'm an introvert. I remember when I got my first job in college as a waiter, I used to have to pray in the kitchen for the courage to go out to the table and take their order. I'm not making that up. And some of you go, they're expecting you, they want you to.

I know. But the thought of initiating a conversation felt so crazy, right? So imagine how successful I was when the first ministry I joined was a street evangelism ministry that would hand out tracks and pool halls. I was not particularly successful, right? So I understand the fear, but the facts remain the same. Everybody wants a life of meaning. Many of you moved here to DC because you want your life to matter. And the message of the grace of God available through Jesus is the most important cause of all causes, message of all messages. So if you want a life of meaning, this is the most meaningful message. And God wants to make eternal impact through everyday people so we gotta figure this out. And Red Moon is right. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the determination that there's something else more important than the fear. So we need to get on board with what God is doing. That's what this sermon's about. God wants to use fills to change the planet, right? So this title, this talk, I think, is entitled The Ordinary Person's Guide to Changing the World, right? Or The Introvert's Guide to Evangelism.

I don't know which one, we'll see. But let me tell you what we're gonna do. Before we looked at the practice of how to do it, we're gonna give you some perspective on why. Because I can give you technique about how to talk about your faith, but if you're not gonna do it, it's a waste of time, right? I remember going to a job training once where for an entire day, they trained me how to do a job that I had decided in the first five minutes I would not do. And so it was a total waste of time. So I gotta give you a why before we talk about the what's. And now I know as I say that, some of you are like, wait a minute, tell people about Jesus. I don't even believe in Jesus. Some of you are like, I just came because she invited me and promised me brunch. I don't know what this is. Well, if that's you, you just sit back, relax, and listen, because I'm about to explain why your friend keeps inviting you to church, all right? You're gonna see it here. We're gonna get perspective, and then we're gonna get some practicals on how to let the world know about the grace of God, the grace of God available in Jesus. Now, Philip, if you caught in our text, led a great revival in the city of Samaria. So great that a mass of thousands of people responded, and he's part of a movement that you see

the motivations of that movement. You saw it in verse four. It says, now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Now, who are the those and why were they scattered? Well, this is what we looked at last week. It was a direct result of what we preached about last week, the murder of Stephen. And the murder of Stephen in the city of Jerusalem was a culmination of animosity against this new religion, this new commitment to Jesus Christ that was growing within the city of Jerusalem. As people began to proclaim that Jesus was the Savior, you saw that they arrested and threatened the Apostle Peter and John. Then they arrested and beat all 12 apostles. And then finally, they arrested and murdered Stephen. And when they saw Stephen die at peace, forgiving his enemies, they realized this is a different class of people. The only way to eradicate this movement is through extermination. And you see in this text, a Pharisee named Saul is turned loose, and the verb is he ravaged the church, kicking in doors and pulling men and women out and putting them in prison. And so you saw in verse one, it says a great persecution arose and they were scattered throughout the regions

of Judea and Samaria. Those who were scattered were believers in Jerusalem who were literally running for their lives from persecution, right? That you would expect. What you wouldn't expect is what we read in verse four. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Huh? Shouldn't you scatter, lie low, disappear? Scatter and preach the word, do the very thing that got Stephen killed? Why would you do that? Well, here's the perspective that leads to this practice. It's identity that precedes activity. They saw themselves as ambassadors to the king. And you see it in the verbs. That word preaching is the word eulengizo in Greek. You is good, angelos is where we get the word angel. Messenger, angelos is message. They were proclaiming the good message. This was language used of the annunciation of the birth of a king, of the coronation of a king. And so the gospel, the good news of Jesus is the king has come. The capital K king, the king of kings has arrived. It says in verse five, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them Christ. That word proclaimed is keruso.

It's the word herald, like a town crier. That if someone is a herald of a king, then they go before a king into a town to announce his coming and his will. I come with an announcement about the king. By the authority of the king, I don't write the announcement, I don't change it, I just take the message from the king and I declare it to his people. That's how they saw themselves. I'm the herald of a king, the king has come, not just mine, but yours. Jesus wasn't just a teacher, he was the very son of God, come to forgive and rescue and so they saw, that's who I am. I'm a messenger of that king, I'm an announcer of that king, so yeah, lying low makes sense if you only see yourself as a regular citizen. But if you see yourself as an ambassador of the king, ambassadors represent their king. And early on they saw, I have an agency in the world, he called me. I watched a documentary years ago called The Bridge, and it's about the Golden Gate Bridge and the fact that it was a destination for years for suicide, that people would go there to jump off the bridge, because you plummet 240 feet in four seconds, hit the water at 75 miles an hour. And so this documentary is about suicide. And so they set up cameras around the bridge for a year and just documented people who tried to jump or did jump successfully, which sounds really morbid and it's really sad. The documentary did try to save people, they didn't just kind of watch people die, they tried to rescue them, but if someone either attempted to jump or did, they would interview them if they attempted, they would interview family members, friends, people who were on the bridge. And so as a pastor I was watching this to understand despair that would lead you to want to die. And it was really sad to watch. And so I'm watching all this human tragedy play out, and then at one moment they cut

to a guy that was on the bridge one day taking photographs. And he was talking about how he was there taking photographs, and he was photographing this one girl and he saw her climb over the rail, and kind of climb down to the outside rail. And while he's explaining this, they're showing the photos he took of this girl climbing on the rail. And he says, I thought to myself, oh, she's about to jump. Some kind of despair has led her to the edge of death. And he said, but you know, when you're a photographer, you can see yourself as not really part of the action. And so as he's explaining this, they're showing his photos, I'm like, oh God, this guy is going to photograph this girl jump and live with the guilt of it the rest of his life. And so I'm watching this, I'm like, this documentary is so depressing. And then as he's explaining, he was like, you see yourself as just an observer. He said, it took some effort to remind myself, no, I'm here today. And he said, so I put the camera down and then they cut to the video and you see him climb over the rail at risk of his life. And he's a big boy. He leans down to her, picks her up by the back of her shirt and doesn't struggle to lift her up, hoist her like a rag doll back over the edge and sits on her till the police come. And I'm watching this video that had been so depressing up until then, I'm like, I freaking love this guy. This is my guy. And he's just talking about this moment. I had to remind myself, I have agency. I'm an active participant in this world. And they saw themselves, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Jesus, not at the risk of his life, at the cost of his life, gave his life. So those at the edge of despair and death wouldn't have to die, but could have life.

And then those who said yes to that offer of grace, that offer of grace for everybody. I'm an active participant. So if Jesus died to procure our salvation, I will give my life to proclaim it, that there's a reason I'm in these places. I'm an ambassador of the king. I am something. I am somebody. And so I gave them the confidence to go and scatter and say, of course we're gonna spread the world. Because this is the king who controls all things. It's a passage Nikki read earlier, that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, that he prepared in advance that we would walk in them, that they understood our king runs this world. Like it says in Acts, he's determined the exact times and places you would live, if perhaps you might seek him. They're like, I'm the ambassador of the king who rules the world. And that king uses all things for his purposes, even the death of Stephen. That before the death of Stephen, the church was growing, but stayed locked into Jerusalem. But Jesus said, it'll go from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And it was locked in here. The death of Stephen was a catalyst for gospel expansion. So God even uses pain for his purposes. It wasn't that he lightly kills a Stephen. God weeps with those who weep. But every one of us will die. Stephen's death got to have a great purpose and meaning. To see the world come to know Jesus, and they saw, even Stephen's death has purpose. I trust my God. There's clarity that comes when you realize, I'm a carrier of his name, into every room I walk into.

That's what I am. Yeah, I may be here to do this job, to attend this class, but I'm more than that. I'm always more than that. I'm a carrier of his name into this place. It's interesting. I was in San Francisco all this week. I mentioned it last week, which is part of why I'm so tired. So if my speech is slurring, I'm sober. I'm just tired. But I was doing this video series for small group curriculum. And so what they did is, I taught six sermons over the course of two days, and they would video me. and they wanted to have attractive backgrounds, so it was in all these kind of dramatic locations all around San Francisco, kind of out in the open, guerrilla style, and they wanted me to do Second Thessalonians, which is a lot about hell, the end times, the Antichrist, in the middle of downtown San Francisco. I'm like, yeah, let's do that, that'll be fun. And so, most of it is me talking to a camera, and so I told one of you, one of our church members last week, yeah, they sent me to do this. The last time we did this in Miami, it was a lot of fun, but it was insane. There was planes flying over, and yachts going by, playing EDM music, and birds calling, and a sweet blind woman wandering into the shot, and you're trying to get this video,

and there are all these interruptions. It's kind of a crazy place to do a sermon, and now we're gonna do it in the middle of San Francisco. And I was just saying it as a joke, like, isn't this crazy? The world's a crazy place. And she goes, no, wait a minute. I think God has a purpose for you doing it in San Francisco. You need to be praying for that. Why would God send you to San Francisco to do this? There's a reason for you going there. And I was like, well, yeah, but I was just kind of joking. You know what I mean? I was like, no, I received, like, you're right. It's not an accident. And so, yeah, I'm gonna do these videos, but maybe the location isn't just background. Maybe there's some purpose to it. So we're at this evening shoot, and I was on this pier, and the pier was quiet until I started talking, and then suddenly it became very important for all of San Francisco to be on this pier. I mean, it was just like people on their phone, people talking to each other, and then I said to him, like, right next to me, people suddenly fishing, like, I have to fish right here, and it was just like, man, this is, like, really difficult to do this video. And so it takes a lot longer to do. We're into the night, and at the end, they're like,

can we just ask you two more questions before we end? So we're there way later. There's several guys that have moved onto that pier where apparently they're gonna spend the night. This is their place. And so there's a guy closer than you are, Alex, to me, that's, like, getting ready to spend the night on the pier. And as they're videoing me, they say, we just got two questions. Number one, what does it mean to be in the image of God? Why does that matter? And I was like, well, Genesis 1, I start explaining it, how we're made in the image of God, and what that means as you look through the Bible is that everyone has dignity, regardless of their capacity. Every human being does. Whether they agree with the gospel or not, every human being has dignity and should be treated as such. And they were like, what's the love of God, and how do you know God loves you? I said, the subjective experience is valuable, but it goes up and down, it changes. But objectively, 1 John talks about, for God so loved the world, John says, that he gave his only begotten son. This is love, not that we love God, that he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So how do you know God loves you? He sent his son.

How do you know the son loves you? He sacrificed his life. So you look objectively at the space-time arrival of Jesus on the planet and his death on the cross to know God loves you. And so I just explained that real quickly, and this sweet man about to bed down just goes, good answer! And I was like, I love that guy, that's my guy. And I just thought about what Rosa said, and I was like, I think you're why I'm in San Francisco. There may be some other reasons, but I think you're why. Would God fly me across the country for that man? Yeah, I think he would. And there's some clarity about that. My king runs this world. You are not in that office by accident, or in that classroom, because we are ambassadors of the king and that king controls all things, and that king has compassion. That's what you see in verse five. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them Christ. Now that's crazy. In chapter two, it was Jews under every nation, under heaven, who were coming to Christ. But now, the gospel has, up until this point, stayed locked into one ethnic community. It's gonna jump the banks right here, because Philip's gonna go to Samaria.

He's gonna reach out to the thems. All of us have an us and a them. And at this time in history, Jew and Samaritan did not get along. It's a hostility that existed for thousands of years, because you can read about it in the Old Testament. The nation of Israel split into two. The northern kingdom was wiped out by Assyria, but some were left, and they intermingled with other nations and other religions. The southern nation was carried off into exile into Babylon, and when they were brought back at the end of your Old Testament, they saw this intermingled religious institution as a bunch of heretics and half-breeds. We did not get along with you, right? And so when Jesus, in John chapter four, says I must go through Samaria, do you remember he sat by the well and he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water? And she doesn't answer his question. You never know if she got her a glass of water. The fact that he's talking to her was so shocking. She doesn't answer his question. She answers the implications. He says, can I have a drink of water? And she went, what are you doing talking to me? And what we know he was doing was tearing down the dividing wall of hostility, saying my death is not just for one ethnic community,

it's for all tribes, all nations, all people. I've come here to get you. I've come here to you. If you knew who was talking to you, you'd ask me and I'd give you the water that leads to eternal life. Jesus. This was reaching out to the thems. And so Philip, when he's scattered, he scatters to them, right? Because God has compassion on even the people who are far from God. So I remember for me, when I was in high school, there was a kid named Brett that was one of the most intimidating people I'd ever seen. He was a massive kid, wore all black, but with a lot of like chains, a lot of metal fastened to him at various places, and he would march through the hall like this. He was the first guy I'd ever seen do this outside of a movie. He was a little freshman kid, having a conversation in the hall, and he just got in the way of the direct path of Brett. And so Brett, just without hesitation, went and threw him into a trash can. I was like, whoa, that's like 80s movies kind of stuff. Just trash can to this kid, so unnecessarily violent. So I did what every logical person would do, avoided Brett and made fun of him behind his back.

All right, that's the standard ops. But I remember one day, the little ministry that I was a part of just said, hey, we're a Christian ministry, and there's this Christian band coming to town, so you should tell your Christian friends. Listen to some good Christian music, have a good old-fashioned Christian time. And so I did. I went and told all my Christian friends about a Christian band, playing some Christian music at a little Christian venue, and we're gonna have a fantastic little Christian time. And so I invited them, and we showed up, and you can imagine my shock when I showed up, and there was Brett. I'm like, what are you doing here? You lost? Is there like a Megadeth concert nearby? Like, can I help you find, where are you trying to get? And he was like, Eric invited me. He said, I didn't even know things like this existed. He said, we just went to dinner beforehand, and he's talking about the grace of God and forgiveness, and I wouldn't raise you on any of this, and he starts talking to me about this, and he was so tender in the way he was talking to me, he goes, I'm just so glad I'm here. And I remember thinking in my mind, even Brett,

that the gospel of God wants to extend to them. And the early church understood that. We are the representatives of a compassionate king. So yeah, we're gonna take this message to the world he loves. We absolutely are. And he takes it to Samaria, and leads a great revival. It's amazing. Really, the only city with a church was Jerusalem. This starts popping off, the apostles come to see it, the spirit lands, and they're like, this is something God's doing. This is amazing. Then they get in a face-off with a magician. It goes nuts. We don't have time to get into any of that. I'll do it on the further in podcast later, but we've got the perspective. I'm the ambassador of a compassionate king. Now, practically, what does it look like? Because some of you go, okay, I want to have a life worthwhile, helping people know God is the most worthwhile thing. Ben, I don't know how to do it. What do you want me to show up with my Bible on Monday, and be like, hey, what are you up to? I'll tell you what you should be up to, repent! You know, you're like, what exactly do you want me to do? Well, practical step number one. Ask yourself, are you willing to be used by God?

Are you willing? Look at verse 26. 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. He had gone north from Jerusalem to Samaria, and somehow, an angel, we don't know if this was like a dream or a physical appearance or an impression in his heart, we don't know. We just know that God came to him and said, I want you to go south of Jerusalem, right? This is not nearby. This is 60 miles away. And it's not really a place that's poppin'. Notice the inclusion, this is a desert place. This area had been destroyed around 96 BC. There's nothing out there. It would have been natural for Philip to go, hey, I'm kind of in the middle of something that's going wild, like I'm leading a revival, can you send someone else to the desert? Someone else has got to be closer. Lord, I don't want, it'd be like God's, I want to be an ambassador for you, Lord. Ray, go to Luray, huh? No, no, no, I want to go to Importantown. But you don't see Philip do that. Verse 27, it just says, and he rose and went. God says go, he goes.

And so my question is, are you even willing to be used by God? Some of you go, no, man, I'm here to use God for my plans. I don't want God to use me for his plans. But who do you think's got a better plan, ultimately? Just something to consider, you know? But just, so just, you gotta ask yourself, am I willing to be used by God? Am I open to embrace the inconvenience of proclaiming grace to my lost friends? I wasn't always. I mean, I remember waiting tables. I worked at a Mexican food restaurant in Texas in the summer, it was hot. I lost 10 pounds just sweating, carrying margaritas to drunk people, right? And I just got to a point where I was like, man, like, the fajitas here are outstanding, but I just, this job is killing me, man. I hate this job. And so I got to the point where literally, my routine was I would pull up at work. put it in park, and go, oh, God, please help me get through today. Then I'd go to work. And that was my prayer every single day. Until somewhere about mid-summer, I realized, what exactly am I asking God to do? Like, help my molecules continue to cohere?

Am I praying my heart would stop beating? Like, this isn't a real clear request, right? What am I doing? And so I remember, and this is real, I just stopped and went, oh, God, please help me get through today. And if you want to use me or whatever, fine. That's seriously what I said. I walk into the restaurant that day. And, you know, as soon as you walk in, you had to wipe down all your tables. I pray that prayer, walk into the restaurant, start wiping down the tables. This waiter walks up to me and goes, hey, Ben, you believe in God? And he goes, tell me about him. He sits down at my table. I was like, what? Well, he's the coolest. I was just like, kind of riffing here. And he goes, hold on a second. And he leaves, and he comes back with another waiter, sits down and goes, he's gonna tell us about God. Start over, here we go. I was like, well, he's got a son. So I just kind of started fumbling through the gospel. And it turns out they had watched a documentary together about aliens, and it freaked them out, and they were terrified. And something I had done while waiting tables

made them think maybe I had an answer. But I just thought that was so funny that God would condescend to answer the lamest prayer. And if you wanna use me or whatever, fine. And God let me help these guys know God. Are you even willing? Are you willing to be used by God? I was involved in a ministry where, I mean, they would do street evangelism. I remember going with a guy, and he was so good at it. We showed up at a bus stop in Dallas. And he would just walk up to me, and he was like, hey, man, just come with me. He walked up to me, he goes, hey, man, I'm reading this Bible verse. Tell me what you think. He read a verse to a guy, and he goes, what do you think about that? And the guy starts crying. I think I needed that. He's like, yeah, man, yeah, we all need it. Can I pray with you? The guy's like, yes. And they start praying, like revivals breaking out, and I'm like, what is happening? And then it's my turn, he's like, you do it. I was like, okay. And I walk up to the guy and go, hey, man. The guy's like, hey. Oh, sorry.

You know, sorry. It's my, you know what? I'm out, I'm out. Like, this is not, I'm not good at this. But I want to be a part of what God's doing in the world, so I remember asking God, God, I need you to create opportunities. And then would you give me the courage to take them? So I used to go to the same coffee shop, and I realized, I'm God's man in this coffee shop, and there's no difference being made here. But I was like, but I don't know how to do it, you know? So I'm walking up to the counter, like, what am I gonna do? Like, can I have some bread? And would you like the bread of life? I'm just like, ah, you know, it's so stupid. So I just started praying. God, will you create opportunities, and then give me the courage to take them. I just started praying that at the coffee shop I would go to. Maybe you can take that prayer. As I started to pray it, I'll never forget, the barista took her apron off one day, went and sat at my table during her break. She said, I see you in here all the time with your Bible open, I need you to pray for my son. I said, I'd love to pray for your son. She starts telling me through all the hard things he's going through.

I said, can I pray for him right now? She's like, yeah. And then now, every time I went to this coffee shop, she would tell everyone else on work that day, this is a guy praying for my son, this guy praying for my son. Over time, they all started coming to our church, like all these baristas. Like, God is on the move through an introvert. That had no idea how to start a conversation. But just ask God, would you create the opportunity? God tells him, go. So he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian. I love that, that there was, in Greek, is the word idu, it means behold. Go down to this random desert place. Okay, behold, an Ethiopian. A eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. This guy's an Ethiopian. The ancients regarded Ethiopia as the ends of the earth. This is probably modern-day Sudan, right? And so the gospel in Acts 1.8. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Here it goes.

He's a eunuch. Not gonna go into great detail about that. Means he can't have kids. Also means he was not allowed into the temple courts. Because physical deformity was not allowed in close physical proximity to where God is worshiped in the temple. He also happened to be a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Candace is not her name, that's a title. The king of Ethiopia at the time was Venerable. narrated as a child of the son, which meant he was too sacred to do work. So the queen mother did the business of running the country. This guy was her dynasties, her powerful one, her ruler, and he was her CFO in charge of all the money. And he happens to be in Jerusalem, not close to Ethiopia. He had traveled about 1,000 miles because he had money and he had power. But as many of you know, that does not satisfy the human heart. And so he's searching. Don't make the mistake of thinking your rich and powerful friend has peace. Those things can't give it. And so this man's on a journey and he's gone to Jerusalem. He's traveled miles to try to find an answer to the things he cannot find. And so he buys a skull of Isaiah and he's trying to read it and understand it.

Now, Philip doesn't know any of this. Philip just knows be available on a desert road. And then the next text says, go over and join the chariot. God's not like, because here's the deal, got a CFO of Ethiopia. We're about to break up in Africa, kids. He doesn't tell him that. God just says, go. And Philip's like, okay. And just has to do something kind of weird. And that's your next point. Are you willing to be used by God? And then embrace the awkward. It's awkward to start conversations about spiritual things. You know, that's why many of you don't do it. And it's awkward too because people don't often talk about it. We talk about the weather and nonsense and stuff like that. It's weird to bring up spiritual stuff. The interesting thing is if you look statistically though, people want to talk about spirituality. They do. It's just someone has to break through the awkwardness. And again, I understand that that's tough. I was on a plane a couple of years ago and ministry I was involved in early on said, anytime you're on a plane, God has ordained you to share the gospel with the person next to you.

And I'm like, oh man, it was like so stressful for years. And then when earbuds got popular, I was like, they clearly don't want to hear it. So we're good. And I remember getting on this plane and this woman sitting next to me is like, where are you headed? And I'm like, I'm doing this. What are you doing there? I got this problem. I was like, how about you? And she's like, well, my dad just died and I'm going down to handle his affairs. And I was like, so sorry for your loss. And I put in my earbuds, introvert begin. And a few minutes in, I'm like, wait a minute. She just lost her dad. I'm a pastor. Should I say something or offer to pray for her? And then I did what most people are like, no, that'd be so weird. And then I was like, I actually know it wouldn't. And I kind of had this internal argument. And finally I was like, look, I don't want to be awkward, but I'm a minister. Like, I'm really sorry to hear about the loss of your dad. Can I pray for you? And she starts telling me some of what she's going through. And she's like, I would really love that. And I prayed for her and she just said,

I just can't believe the kindness of God that I'm in this moment. And he puts a pastor in the seat right next to me. I was like, man, I'm just so glad I didn't talk myself out of an opportunity to be a part of this story. So am I willing to be used by God? And if you are, embrace the awkwardness. My prayer was always, God, will you create opportunities? And then will you give me the courage to take them? That's the next part. I remember when I found out my grandpa was in the hospital. It's probably in his nineties. And I thought this may be it. And so when I heard he was in the hospital, I was like, I should go and try to share the gospel with him. And as soon as I thought that, I was like, I don't want to do that. He doesn't want to see me. He's not going to want to hear this. He's stopped anybody cold who's ever brought up the Bible. This is going to be a waste of time. This is going to be a complete waste of a day. He don't want to see me. He don't want to hear this. And I was just wrestling with the, I don't know, should I go? I don't want to go. And finally I was like, you know what? If he dies, I want to have known I tried,

but I had no expectation of success. And so I drove the three hours to the hospital and the whole time I'm driving, I'm like, this is so stupid. This is a waste of time. And I pulled in the hospital. I'm like, I'm going to walk up there. There's going to be nurses everywhere. Doctors everywhere. It's going to be chaos. I'm going to be like, anyway, you know, what did you say? I was like, this is all, this is going to be so dumb. And I was just so frustrated, but I just made myself walk up there. And I remember turning the corner and he was alone in his room, reading a book. And I walked in, I was like, what are you reading? And it was the autobiography of Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty. And it was right in the chapter where Phil was talking about his life had fallen apart because of his own choices, but he heard about a Jesus that could forgive even him. My grandfather was reading the gospel because it came through a voice he understood. Second Thessalonians, Paul asks the Thessalonians to pray that the word of the Lord would speed ahead and be honored. And I drive fast and the word of the Lord outpaced me and was being honored in that room. So I was trying to work out my speech and how I was going to get there.

Do you know what I did? I just saw that and I said, do you understand what you're reading? So what do you think about that? Have you made peace with God, because you're about to meet him? And we got to have an honest conversation, because I was just willing to show up. Philip just goes running. And over here's the guy reading Isaiah the prophet. So Philip leads with a question, which is a great way to do it, by the way. Do you understand what you're reading? The guy says, how can I? Unless someone guides you. No, I really don't. But I love that. Open with a question. Don't feel the need to try to be cute in telling your friends about your faith. He doesn't run up and go, man, it sure is hot out here. You know what else is hot? Hellfire, am I right? He's not weird. Don't make it weird. Lead with a question. I remember when I was a youth pastor, right out of college. In college, as a young man,

I had finally crafted the art of sarcasm, because I had learned among my friendship group, if anyone ever says anything that shows the slightest modicum of weakness, you exploit it for a laugh among your friends, right? And so I had kind of refined this craft. And so when I became a youth pastor, middle school kids are like fish in a barrel. I'm just like, ha ha ha, ah, making fun of all these kids. And then I realized they wouldn't open up as much. And I was like, oh man. And I remember one kid saying that, like sarcasm is the humor of a hurting heart. And I was like, okay, how dare you, sir? And I realized I'm making them shut down when I'm trying to minister to their life, this whole style of humor needs to go. It's counterproductive to my purposes. So I realized, well, I just gotta ask them questions about their life, be genuinely interested in them. And I used to pray that, God, and we still pray this all the time. I'll walk into a room, God, help me be genuinely interested in the person I talk to. Which sounds lame, but how many times do you talk to someone and you don't care? So I said, God, I wanna be genuinely, truly interested in the person in front of me, will you help me do that? So I remember I was like, I'm gonna do that.

I talked to this kid, I said, what are you into? What do you like to do? Because I always open questions that way. What are you into, what do you like to do? He said, I play the oboe. And like 100 jokes just came right up to the surface. And I was like, no, no, no, no. And so I was like, tell me about it. I'm like, how does one get there? I said, I don't play any instrument. I have no understanding. Would you wake up one day and you're like, oboe, give it to me, now, let's go. I was like, how do you even get there? And he said, my dad played the oboe. I was like, well, how'd your dad get into it? And he said, I don't really know, he's not around. And now we're talking about life. And I realized by just being interested in his life, he opened up about things to me. And for some of you, being genuinely interested in the people in your office and around you will open up doors to very deep and profound conversations. I was with a friend the other day, or excuse me, a couple years ago. He was very wealthy. He had bought a house that had kind of foreclosed and he was gonna flip it. And so it was this, large house isn't quite right. A small monastery is maybe a better way to describe it.

It was like several stories cascading down into a lake. It was pretty amazing. So he was like, hey, you wanna come check out this house with me? I said, yes. And he said, meet me out there. So I show up at this expansive palatial estate. And here's my friend who's been very successful in real estate and this other guy. And so the three of us get in the hot tub to check it out. And so we're in the hot tub and I'm trying to figure out who's this other guy. And so I finally asked him, so how'd you get here? And he's like, I don't even know. I was like, what do you mean you don't know? He's like, he just invited me to come, I'm a plumber. I was like, oh, okay. He's like, yeah, I was working on his pipes. And he's like, you wanna come check out this house? He's like, no, I'm here in this hot tub with you guys. And he goes, you know what's crazy? And he was using a lot of colorful adjectives that I can't repeat as a pastor to describe his experience and how he landed here in that day. And he said, but you know what's wild? He said, I'd go to church, but for the last 30 years, no one's ever asked me. He said, this guy just started asking me questions while I was working on his pipes and he invited me here and he invited me to church and I'm gonna go.

And I remember this guy was absolutely open to spiritual things, because someone was just open to caring a bit about him. And so Philip ran. Do you understand what you're reading? No. And he invited Philip to come and sit with him. Notice that. A genuine interest in kindness gives him the right to be a guide. And so he starts with grace and it gives him the opportunity to speak truth. And the eunuch is reading Isaiah. The passage that says, like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, he did not open his mouth. Here's what's crazy. That's Isaiah 53. Isaiah 56 is about the grace of God breaking out and even eunuchs have a place in the family of God. That's where he's headed. But how do you get to that place where the eunuch has a place in the family? It comes through Isaiah 53, the suffering servant. And so the Ethiopian asks, who is this guy who suffered? This is the passage that says the chastisement that brought us peace fell upon him. By his stripes, we are healed. Who is this person who took on pain for our redemption?

Who is this? And Philip, starting right here. told him the good news about Jesus. That's the last thing. Are you willing to be used by God? Embrace the awkwardness. Lead with a question, and then at some point, you gotta bring up Jesus. At some point, you do. I remember it was popular when I was in high school to talk about relational evangelism. And you do need a relationship. That does help. But if you always have the relational and never the evangelist, people just think you're nice or from the South or something, right? At some point, he's gotta come up. I remember talking with one of you. It was a while back. You know, we do a rally with our door holders. I'll close with this. And we tell Jesus stories of how God's moving. And he talked about, you know, I came to DC to obviously accomplish these career goals, do these sorts of things. He said, but I realized Jesus has changed my life. I wanna talk about it, but I wanna do it in a way at work that's not like weird or feels like it's contrapurposes with my office. So I was just praying like,

God, I don't know what to do about that. And he was like, and what I realized is if someone asks me about my life, church is a part of my life, I'm gonna bring it up. I'm not gonna stop at Saturday. You ever done that? Show up at work on a Monday and they go, what'd you do this weekend? Oh, saw the cherry blossoms. And that is all. You're like, no, it's not. You were at the Lincoln. And he's like, I'm just gonna not stop at Saturday. And he was like, so it was during COVID. So all his meetings were on Zoom and he had this check-in with his boss like once a month. And so his boss was like, what'd you do this weekend? He was like, well, I did blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He said, and then I went and played the guitar and led worship at the kids ministry at my church. And his boss was like, you did what? You played the guitar for children? Like, what are you talking about? And he's like, yeah, I volunteer at my church. And he's like, why do you do that? And he's like, well, I do that because Jesus changed my life and I just have this ability to serve and I can help these kids and I wanna do that. And his friend's like, I've never even heard of that.

And so his boss was like, okay, let's move to bossy, worky stuff. Couple months later at his meeting, his boss says, hey, I got a question about the sermon this Sunday. He's like, what? Turns out his boss had been listening ever since that day to us. Couple months later, his boss starts talking about how our faith plays itself out in our choices. He's like, when did it become our? And he realized just being open to speak the name, talk about it, praying for opportunities, the courage to take them, you know what it led to? Same thing it led to here. Philip is whisked away, he was just in his life for a moment, but it says the Ethiopian went home rejoicing. That's what's on the other side of the awkward, is joy. People say my life's been changed, I'm not the same. And I don't know, the last thing I would say is you leave the results to God. I remember for years thinking I was a Christian and so I'm responsible for my dad's salvation. No. I remember showing up to see my dad in the hospital and some random guy had been there before me that volunteered as a chaplain at the hospital. My dad was like, you're not gonna believe this conversation I had. So this guy sat down and said, yeah, I just volunteer to pray with people at the hospital.

Do you have any sins you wanna confess? I don't know that I would recommend leading with that at work, but that's the question this guy led with. My dad said, you'd be here all day if I started that. The guy was like, I'm retired, I got all the time in the world. So my dad said, we talked for hours and this guy heard it all and told me about forgiveness and he's just, I've never had a conversation like that in my whole life. And I realized, I've been praying for my dad. God sent him this guy. And I don't even know that guy and that guy doesn't know me and he doesn't know I've been praying for years and he was an answer. And I realized, I could be that for somebody else. God's just moving pieces on the board. He's like, Philip, God's like, go, go. He's just doing stuff. And I want in and I wanna be a conduit for joy in the world and that's the opportunity on the table for you. Forgiveness in Jesus, grace in Jesus, life in Jesus, joy in Jesus and then the joy of being a part of what he's doing. I had one of you come up to me a couple weeks ago, young woman, I was at the park with the kids and she just said, you know that stat you said, 64% of the people who are here are here

because a friend invited them. She said, that got to me. She said, I love coming to church. She said, but when I heard that people come because a friend invites them. She's like, I'm inviting friends to Easter. Will you pray for me? Like, yeah, let's go. Like, I'll pray for you, you invite them and I'll promise to not be weird at Easter. I'll do my best. Bye.