Description
SWAGGER JACKER
Step Up
April 17, 2011
Ed Young
Transcript
How are you guys doing today? I want as just at Plano at one of our campuses, speaking there. It’s one of our great campuses. What’s up Plano? Also, Downtown Dallas, how are you guys doing? If you’re ever in downtown on a weekend it’s an awesome, awesome place. Fort Worth, over in cow-town, or Funkytown! And then finally the coolest church in the hottest city, or maybe the hottest church in the coolest city, Miami. How are you guys doing in Grapevine, pretty good? Yeah. You got your swag on? Man, I’ve been getting some help from O.G. It’s really, really changed my life.
I was 21 years old, only 21, and Lisa and I were just married. We were living in a little place. I was in school, I finished my undergrad, then from there I went to seminary. It’s amazing when I got married my grades really, really went to the next level. They began to get pretty good. I don’t know why, it just helped me a lot. Marriage, I think, is that way for a lot of us. Lisa and I were hanging out in Houston. We were enjoying life and just barely getting by, as most newlyweds do. I was finishing up my undergrad and facing seminary.
One night I got a call from a guy, and this guy didn’t identify himself on the phone but he acted like he knew me. Do you ever have calls like that? People call you and you’re like, who is this person? I wish they would say their name! Due to this conversation when I was 21, I always identify myself now when I call somebody. Because it’s pretty embarrassing when you don’t. So, he’s talking to me and talking to me and talking to me, and finally this guy asked me to go to Los Angeles with him. He goes,
“Hey man, I’m going to LA tomorrow with the former heavyweight champion of the world, George Foreman, and a writer from Sports Illustrated, Gary Smith. I’m just calling to ask you to go with me.” And I said,
“Hey, I hate to be rude but what’s your name again?” And the guy told me his name again and I still didn’t know who he was. He said,
“I’ve seen you around the church and I know you like basketball and sports, so I want to take you to LA with me.” So, I said,
“Well, I’m in the middle of school and let me see if I can get out of my classes tomorrow and if I can, I will call you right back and we will go.” He said OK, so I hung the phone up and began to call around and ask some of my friends, “Is this guy legit? Who is this guy?” No one knew who the guy was. Finally I met someone who said,
“Yeah, he’s an attorney and he represents some of these big-time athletes. So Ed, If I were you, I’d go.”
So I got out of my classes the next day, showed up at Houston Intercontinental Airport, and sure enough there was this guy, George Foreman (you know the Foreman Grill, some of you don’t know who George Foreman is) and this writer from Sports Illustrated. So here we are, flying first class from Houston to LA. We land in LA, a giant limousine picks us up, and I’m going man, where are we going? We make our way to this very exclusive hotel, enter in a back entrance. And I walk into a room and there, greeting us, is Muhammad Ali. I’m like… Muhammad Ali! I’m thinking, “I can’t believe this! No one told me! My friend did not tell me!”
My friend sat me next to Ali. I was on one side of him, Foreman was on the other, and he said,
“Muhammad, I’m really excited about hooking you and Ed up because I want Ed to share with you the good news of Jesus.” It was surreal. This guy didn’t prepare me for it. He didn’t give me the 4-1-1 before this meeting. Here we have a 21-year-old college kid, sitting down talking to one of the most known people who has ever walked on planet earth, a devout Muslim, and I’m telling him about Christ. Unreal. Unreal.
So I talked to him for a good while, 45 minutes. After about five minutes, when you realize this is just a regular guy, then you begin to get comfortable and you begin to talk. So after the conversation he had a quick lunch, jumped back on the plane, flew back to Houston. I rolled into bed that night at 2 or 3 a.m. and Lisa goes,
“Honey, how did the trip go?” I said,
“I got an opportunity, Lisa, to share Christ, to talk about Jesus to Muhammad Ali.” She goes,
“Oh, that’s awesome.” I mean, she was still asleep, you know?
But I’ve often thought about that. In fact, my friend snapped a picture of us, bad glasses and all, in the midst, in the depth of this conversation about Christ. I have that picture in my office to remind me of something that I have been doing since I was 18 years old. Since I’ve been 18 I have been praying a very high-risk, industrial-strength, up-in-your-grill, a scary, scary prayer. And here’s the prayer: God, I want to be usable. God, you’ve brought people into my life who are far away from you. Help me to draw near to them and to make your message clear.
Little did I realize when I was 21 and said that prayer, that I would hook up… Some of you are saying, “Hook up. He doesn’t know what hook up means!” Oh no, no. Let’s reclaim that phrase. I’m talking about the Holy Hookup. Little did I realize the Holy Hookup would take place and it would collide my path with the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali. Thank you very much for the imitation. Applause. The greatest of all time.
You know what Muhammad Ali said? I will never forget this. In fact, this has even been put in print. He said this, he said, “I had the world by the tail and it ain’t nothin’.” Wow.
Many of you here have never made a commitment to give your everything to Christ. I will tell you right now you will never do what Muhammad Ali has done. You’ll never have the fame, never have the money, never have the women, never have this or that like Ali has had. And do you know what struck me after that conversation? How empty and lonely Muhammad Ali is. It was really sad, when I walked away. Here’s a guy, an icon, a guy who has done it all, yet he’s still searching for the true meaning and purpose of life. Yet God, for some reason, put my path right in the way of his.
I want to talk to those here who are believers. If you’re a Christ-follower I want to talk to you for a second, and then I will talk to those who are not a Christ-follower. If you’re not a Christ-follower, listen. Because as you listen you should be going, “Wow man, I am loved by God!” You’ll be thinking this as I talk over the next couple of minutes. You’ll be going like, “Man, this church, they really love me. And I’m really way out there. I’m really far away from God.” Because the goal of this talk is for us to live in the green zone. It’s for us to have Godfidence, that spirit-led swagger. That’s the goal. That’s what God wants in all of our lives.
What’s weird about it, when you talk about the kingdom of God, it’s an upside-down kingdom. Whenever we deal with pride, and all of us deal with pride, we’ve got to man down. We’ve got to man-down. If we’re dealing with fear we’ve got to man-up. And when I use the word man I’m talking about man and woman. God, though, wants us to say, “God, I’m your man. God, I’m your woman for this season and this situation, because remember, God’s plan will blow any plan, any agenda you have or I have out of the water. God has called all of us. If you’re a believe, I’ll say it again, if you’re a follower of Christ, God has called all of us.
And here’s another one that will complicate this whole process. If you are a Christian, you are a missionary. I will say it again. If you’re a Christian, you’re a missionary. If you’re a Christian you’re a missionary.
“Whoa, Ed! I thought you had to be a missionary when you go across the pond!” Well, yeah, there are missionaries across the pond. And most of the time God does not call us across the pond, he calls us across the street. He calls us across the cubicle, maybe at work. He calls us across the court or across the field or across the classroom, or across the dance floor. I don’t know. God calls us across to people that we come in contact with each and every day. So if you’re a believer, you’re a missionary. So turn to your neighbor and say, “I did not realize I was seated next to a missionary.”
So the deal is not, hey, am I called? No, no, no. You’re called, I’m called. If you’ve been rescued by redemption, if you’ve been saved (you hear that term saved) from a Christ-less eternity by the grace of God, you’re called. So the question is, what’s your response? What’s my response? I want to talk about several responses that we need to have if we are going to live this life of Godfidence, if we’re going to have an industrial-strength existence.
The first response is: whenever. OK, God has called me, he’s called you. I’m talking to Christians now. Whenever. Say that word. Whenever. If you have your Bibles turn to the book of Acts chapter 8. If you don’t, I’ve highlighted the most important verses we will discuss and they’ll be behind me or on either side of me, at all of our campuses through the miracle of technology!
Here’s the situation. I’m talking today about the development of the first church, the early church. Persecution was rampant in J-town. I’m talking about Jerusalem. You’ve heard of the apostle Paul? Saint Paul? Well, before he became a believer he was known as Saul. He was one of the main guys who killed Christ-followers. Stephen had just been martyred.
You have people talking about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You have these fanatical fisherman who were cowards, who had run when Jesus was crucified. Now he has risen from the dead, and they’re like, oh yeah man! They’re walking with swagger. They’re up on Godfidence. Here prior to that they were all up in pride, all up in fear. Now they were like walking with this swagger and people were like, whoa! Something has happened. So the church began to get persecuted. Due to persecution a lot of people bolted. God uses persecution so the church would spread. A lot of people thought that Christianity was a Jewish thing. God said, “No no, no, it’s not a Jewish thing. It’s a people thing!”
One of the guys that God used greatly is a dude named Philip. Let’s call him Phil. Phil was in Samaria, many people were following Christ because of his message. Well one day, the Bible says in Acts 8:26 and angel tells him (and I’ve never talked to an angel like this), an angel tells him,
“Hey Philip, go. Go to the dirty south. Go to the place where they serve collard greens and black-eyed peas and cornbread. Go to the south! That road leading outside of Jerusalem to Gaza, out in the middle of nowhere, out in the desert. Leave the masses and go to the dirty south.”
Now that’s odd. An angel telling Philip to do that. The Bible says that we have entertained angels without even knowing it. I think when we get to the other side a lot of us are gonna go, “Whoa! I talked to that dude, that person, that girl. That was an angel! She was an angel! Man, that’s crazy!” But we can’t get on that too much. We have to know this, though. An angel told Philip to go.
Now you might say, “All right, Ed. Why didn’t God just send the angel to talk to this powerful African man?” Answer: Angels cannot talk about the grace of God. Why? Because angels have not experienced the grace of God. God has given you and me that authority, that responsibility, because we have explained the mercy of God. We know what it’s like to be separate from him, we know what it’s like to have that cosmic chasm. It’s been bridged by Jesus. We have been recipients of that grace. God has given us the responsibility to go. Even if we’re 21 years old and have bad glasses, GO. Even if we’re talking to Muhammad Ali, GO. The Bible says GO. And we don’t say, “Yo!” We say, “OK, God. Whenever. And that’s what Philip did.
“I will even go to the dirty south,” Philip said. And then in verse 28 (I can say the dirty south because I’m from the dirty south. Anybody here from the dirty south lift your hand). See, Texas ain’t the south. Again, you’re from the dirty south, lift your hand.
The Spirit told Philip on this desert, dusty, downtrodden, despicable road, the Holy Spirit of God said, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” We talked about this in the last session. There is this caravan cruising from Jerusalem to Gaza, back to North Africa. And the Spirit said,
“Hey Philip, get near the chariot.”
Question: I’m talking to believers now. Who is that person in your life? Who is that person just cruising by in their chariot, in their caravan, that God is telling you, “Hey, draw near to him. Hey, draw near to her.” Who is that person? A family member? Who is that person? A friend? Who’s that person? A classmate, a teammate? Who’s that person? Because you are that Philip, I am that Philip, in someone’s life. It’s not like, “OK, am I called? I’m not sure. Am I supposed…?”
No, no! We’re called. What’s our response? It should be: Whenever. Because I’m a missionary.
Look at this next response. Whoever. Phil was like, “Whenever.” Then he was like, “Whoever.” Verse 27, acts 8. “So he started out (he basically said, God, I want to be usable. It’s not about my ability or your ability. It’s about our availability. God, I want to be usable)… He started out and on his way he met an Ethiopian.” This dude was rich, he was powerful, he was educated. Philip could have gone,
“Hey man. He’s black, I’m white. He’s rich, I’m not. He’s educated, I just graduated from high school man. I mean, he’s powerful, I don’t have this huge position.” He could have said all of that! He didn’t. He knew that God said, “Go.” God said, “Get near the chariot,” and God was gonna take care of it.
Then in verse 28 it says, “He was on his way home (this African, this Ethiopian eunuch) and he was reading the book of Isaiah.” Now, just to have the book of Isaiah meant this guy was rolling in the cash. He had to spend some serious money just to read the book of Isaiah. Plus, he was searching for God. He had gone 200 miles to the holy city, Jerusalem, to worship. He had watched CNN and Fox. He had seen about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He had heard Saul going after the Christians. He had heard about this guy who was as mean as a pit viper. He had heard all of the rumors and this and that. He kind of knew the 4-1-1 about the situation.
So he found himself reading the book of Isaiah, chapter 53, which is a prophetic chapter that talks about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So he’s thinking, is this Isaiah talking about Isaiah? Or is Isaiah talking about somebody else. Well, enter Phil. Enter you. Enter me. We start where people are. We’ve gotta go for the ask.
And don’t you see you’ve got to work it, man, to do this! That’s why the Bible says “do the work of the evangelist.” If we’re in the business of praying this industrial-strength prayer, if we’re in the business of saying, “God, I want to be usable. I want to be whenever or a whoever guy or girl. I want to walk with Godfidence.” I’m telling you, we’re gonna have to work. I like to see how this guy worked.
So then the verse continues as we keep reading here in verse 30. “Philip ran to the chariot. ‘Do you understand what you’re reading?’” You’ve gotta go for the ask.
“ ‘How can I unless someone explains it to me?’ So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.” I love that, man!
Draw near. So they can hear. And make it clear. That’s the best compliment you can give Fellowship Church. “Man, that worship song was clear. That video was clear. That visual man, it’s clear. The message, clear! It’s simple. I can understand it. I can apply it. I can take it home. I can get handles on it. Man, it’s clear!”
Just because someone or something is muddy doesn’t mean it’s deep. A lot of stuff that’s muddy is really shallow. I know how to talk over your head. I know how to do church to reach church people. I know how to do that. I know how to preach that way. We know how to do music that way. We know how to style our church that way to reach a bunch of people who are believers. Guess what? That’s not why we are here. That’s not why we’re here! We’re here to do what? To share the good news, not the bad news, with everybody!
When they are rescued, when you are rescued, when I’m rescued by the redemptive work of Christ, then I hook into the church and I realize it’s not about me. And I do here what I can’t do in Heaven. I have the opportunity to share the good news of Christ. I don’t force it down someone’s throat. I’m not mean-spirited. I’m not legalistic. I simply do what Philip did. God, whenever. God, whoever. I’m ready, God, I’m ready.
Here’s what’s so crazy sometimes about the Bible. God does not always explain himself. Many times he doesn’t. He didn’t explain himself to Philip,
“Hey Philip. Hey, you’re gonna leave Samaria and go all the way to the dirty south, and I’m gonna hook you up with a multibillionaire. This guy is an African and he’s brilliant, and I’m gonna give you the words to say to him about Jesus and he will become one of the best evangelists in Africa. He will take the gospel to the northern region of Africa because of you.” He didn’t say that. He said, “Go.” Philip was like,
“OK, I’ll go.”
“Hey man, there’s a caravan. Draw near to that chariot. You better start runnin’, boy!”
He asked a question, “Hey, I hear you reading. What are you reading? Isaiah? Oh, you know what that’s about?” <Screeching halt sound effect> Keep reading.
“The Ethiopian eunuch invited Philip into the chariot. Philip explained to him about the things of God, and the guy became a follower of Christ.
Now, obviously he had been prepared, God had prepared him, because he was sincerely seeking God. He was worshipping in J-town, understanding what was happening on the news, the church, this rumor about this Nazarene being crucified, buried, and now this resurrection. And now there are all these people whose lives are changed. They were all freaked out in fear, all puffed up with pride. Now they have this Godfidence and thousands and thousands of people are turning their lives to Christ. And people are persecuting them and now they’re being dispersed to Samaria. And now, “I’m meeting this guy, he’s not even an apostle, Philip. He’s in my chariot, reading my e-mail.” And this Ethiopian becomes a follower of Christ.
And here’s another response I want you to think about. Yeah, it’s about whenever God calls, it’s about whoever, but also it’s about whatever. God, I will do whatever it takes in my world. Here’s some good news. God is not gonna call most of you across the pond. He’s not. And what’s so crazy is a lot of people think is, “Well, I can’t do missions unless I’m in Borneo or China or the Philippines.
Question: What’s the difference between someone committing their lives to Christ on a desert road, in South Beach, in north Dallas, Downtown Dallas, Fort Worth, Grapevine, or Flo-Mo (Flower Mound, those of us who are in the hip-hop culture!). What’s the difference? There’s no difference. There’s no difference! People are like, “Oh man, it’s all about missions.” Yeah! We’re doing missions right here! And I’m all for, and our church is HUGE into this, we spend a bunch of cash and a bunch of resources to send this message all over the world. To feed the hungry, to give water to those who are thirsty.
But there is a whole cool thing, a real sexy thing out there these days called “Liberation theology.” Oh, it’s cool man. It’s just socialism with a little bit of Bible sprinkled on top. No, no, no, no, no. That’s not the deal. The deal is the gospel of Christ. It’s the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if you want depth in a church, you’ve gotta talk about that.
And speaking of depth, they’re cruising along the road. The eunuch has become a follower of Christ. And he sees some water out in the middle of the desert. That’s strange. Water in the desert, you don’t see it very much. It’s kind of an oasis, and he says, “Let’s get baptized.” Obviously this dude has seen baptism or heard about baptism and he stopped the chariot. Read here, the caravan. The African said whoa to this entourage. He was going public with it. Stepping up, stepping out, stepping into liquid swagger. It’s this beautiful collision, this Holy Hookup (turn to your neighbor and say, “He said it again.”), Holy Hookup. He placed the Ethiopian and Philip right at that perfect point. If Philip had hesitated he would have missed it. It he had said, “Well, I’m not sure, I’m fearful. You know, this guy has a lot of pride and I’ve got pride in myself. I can’t step up into his world. He’s big-time.” The Ethiopian would have never made that decision. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever.
So the Ethiopian and Philip saw the water. The Ethiopian goes, “Man, I want to step up and step out and step into liquid swagger.” They went down and got baptized, the Bible says. They went down deep and got baptized.
I know what the stats say. The stats say that about 75% of us move every three to five years. We move somewhere, to another city, another hamlet, another town, maybe another country. It’s part of it. We live in a very, very, very mobile society. When you move, those of us who are Christ-followers (again this is for Christ-followers right now. Those who are not Christ-followers, listen, but I’m talking to Christ-followers) you will try to find another church in another town. Because that’s what the Bible says. You cannot be a Christian, really, you can’t be a full-court follower of Christ without being hooked into the church. That’d be like me going,
“Hey, I play in the NFL.” And you’d be like,
“What team?”
“No, I don’t play on a team, I’m just an NFL player.” You’d be like,
“What are you smokin’ again?” If I’m an NFL player I play for a specific team! OK, if you’re a believer you have a specific church that you’re hooked into, you’re a part of. Ninety-five percent of the time the word church is used in the Bible it refers to a specific local church. When you look around for a church, number one say, “Is it a Bible-teaching, Bible-believing church?” OK.
If it is, here’s the next question. If it’s an Acts 2, New Testament church, here’s the next question. Is it a Bible-believing church? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And most churches will say, “Yeah, we’re Bible-teaching, Bible-believing.” Here’s the next question, and it gets usually very, very silent when people respond to this question. “Who are you reaching?”
“Oh our church, we want to reach out! We want to reach people who are away from God.” Everybody wants to reach people until you start reaching people. I said, “Who are you reaching?”
“Oh we reach out!”
“Well, really, how many people did you baptize last year?”
Don’t be talking to me about spiritual depth when people are not going deep in the waters of baptism in your church. Don’t be talking to me about spiritual depth when no one is stepping up and stepping out and stepping into liquid swagger. Again, so much of the church growth movement you hear about is just swapping … “Baaaaaa!” Sheeple.
Do you know why churches don’t baptize more people? It’s just… too… hard! The Bible says, “Do the work of the evangelist.” I know how to talk to the already-convinced! I know how to do a church that will empty out a lot of churches around here. People will be like, “Whoa! Man, look at these people! This is awesome!”
Who are you reaching?
“Well I want to reach everybody!”
“How many people did you baptize?” That’s the question. That’s depth. Going deep in baptism. And that’s why I’m so thrilled to see what’s happening right here at Fellowship Church. Unbelievable, the thousands and thousands that we baptize each and every year. This church is one of the greatest evangelistic tools I’ve ever seen anywhere in all my travels all over the world. And for the life of me, if you’re a follower of Christ and you don’t use this regularly, it breaks my heart.
“You mean it’s all about you?”
No, no, no. It’s not about you. It’s about Him. It’s about others. There is only one thing you can do here that you can’t do on the other side. That’s share Christ. Who is your Ethiopian eunuch? God is bring people up in your life right now. Who is the Ethiopian eunuch in your life? God has called a Holy Hookup to take place in your life. Are you gonna be fearful?
“Well, I don’t know enough! Man, I’m all jacked up and screwed up and messed up, who am I to tell this person….hahaha.. I just don’t know enough. I’m scared.”
Man, Jesus specializes in taking people, projects in the fear column and giving them phenomenal Godfidence. If you don’t believe it, just read the gospels and read what happened to the followers of Christ after the death, burial, and resurrection. They faced their fear. Just face your fear. Go for it! Trust God and allow him to take you into Godfidence.
Some are like, “Well, I’m just not gonna… I… I… I… What will people think of me if I just invite someone or just share with someone about my story? I mean, what will they think? Because I mean, my reputation. I’m the man!” Man down. Say,
“God, this pride stuff is all about me, what makes me look good. What makes me feel good. What give some pleasure. I want Godfidence. I want that Spirit-led swagger.” Because God wants you and me to have the kind of swagger to step up and face our fear to – by his Spirit – pound the pride and say, “Hey God, I’m available. I’m usable. Whenever. Whoever. Whatever. Because everybody is facing the forever. You’ve never locked eyes with someone who is not gonna live forever, either in one of two places, Heaven or Hell. So what are you doing about it? What am I doing about it? Who is your Ethiopian eunuch?
I think about how many opportunities I’ve missed in my life, how many time I’ve been thinking about myself or I’ve been freaked out with fear and I’ve missed walking in Godfidence. I’ve missed drawing near and making it clear. What an opportunity we have over the next seven days just to invite someone! That’s all we’ve gotta do man? To invite someone! And you’ll see church like you’ve never seen it before. Godfidence. Godfidence!
Little did I know when I prayed that prayer at 21, bad glasses and all, I’d be sharing with Muhammad Ali. Little did I know when I was 18 years old, playing basketball at Florida State, the first time I ever prayed that prayer. When a guy who was so jacked up and screwed up and so freaked out looked at me and was like,
“Man, something is different about you, dude.” I’m quoting him. “I want what you got.” It was the result of prayer. Are you man enough, guys, to say the prayer? And here, the guys in here will be like,
“Touchdown! Dirk shot the three (or Lebron)! He cold-cocked him, man!” You’ll say that so quick, so cool, so bold, so brash, but you won’t say jack about Jesus?
Ladies, you’ll be so bold to talk about this and that, give your opinion. Talk behind someone’s back. How about going for the ask? How about praying a high-risk prayer?
When I was back in school, and it’s still this way today, I was always confident to carry around a permission slip. You had permission. And we have some people coming down and they’re gonna give everybody here a permission slip. It’s gonna be cool. Don’t freak out, it’s a good permission slip! It’s a permission slip from God, himself. But I want you to fill this out. It’ll take about a minute to do it. A permission slip. Everybody has one. I mean, you don’t have to fill it out if you don’t want to, but I’m saying, a permission slip.
Today’s date, it says. There’s a line for that. You’ve always gotta have a date on there, right? Today is the 17th of April, 2011. The time is almost 12:36 now. So that means in Miami it’s 1:36 p.m. Permission slip. And here’s the prayer I’m gonna challenge you to pray. This is the prayer, the whenever-whoever-whatever-because of forever prayer that I want to challenge you to pray. And when this is seen, even on television, let me look in the camera. I don’t do this very much, but even on television I want you to fill out this permission slip. Just make one up yourself. Here’s the prayer, let me read it first:
Holy Spirit of God, I, Ed Young, give you absolute permission today to do whatever you choose in me, with me, for me, and through me, for Jesus’ sake.
That, I’m telling you, is a Swaggasaurus Rex prayer. That’s a swaggeristic prayer. God wants to swaggerfy your life and mine. That’s a Holy Hookup prayer, right there. Then sign it. So, “Holy Spirit of God, I (your name), give you absolute permission today to do whatever you choose in me, with me, for me, and through me, for Jesus’ sake.” Now write your signature. Then on this permission slip – here we go, the plot clots – on this permission slip I want you to write down the name of the Ethiopian eunuch in your life. Who is God, right now, depositing into your spirit, into your heart? Who is God saying, “This is your Ethiopian eunuch.” You’re Philip, or Philipette, who is your Ethiopian eunuch? Who is it? Who is it? Write it the name of that person down. Who is it?
Now if you’re not a follower of Christ, you can just skip out on this. But again, if you’re not a follower of Christ, you should be going like,
“Wow! God loves me so much that he’s put all this stuff in the Bible? A bunch of love letters to reach me?” And if you’re here too, you might be going, “This church is crazy about me! This church loves me, unconditionally.”
And let me tell you this. I say this all the time. We accept everybody at Fellowship Church. Everybody. I don’t care what you’re into, what you’re about, we accept everybody. It doesn’t mean we approve of all the behavior. We sometimes confuse acceptance with approval, but we accept everybody. And we will show you, OK, here’s what the Bible says about a relationship with Christ and here’s how to live. That’s between you and God. We want to help you and coach you and serve you in this manner.
But who is that person in your life? In my life? That Ethiopian eunuch that is just passing by. Because when you continue reading the text, after the eunuch was baptized it says he left with joy. Outrageous, Contagious Joy, a great book, might I add. (That’s a book I’ve written, that’s a little joke.)
He left with outrageous, contagious joy. He became, many people believe, a great evangelist in North Africa because of this life change. But he never saw Philip again, never saw him! And I’ve had the opportunity in my travels, sometimes I’m with somebody or whatever and I feel that the Lord is just leading me, he’s guiding me, and I just ask a question or they’ll ask me a question and I will just have a chance. Sometimes I will say,
“You know what? This is probably the last time I’m ever gonna see you, because I doubt I’ll be here again. Our paths have just crossed. But let me just tell you the deal. I’m a sinner, so are you. But I confess my sin, told the truth about my condition, turned to Jesus. I gave him my life and my life has never been the same because of it. I’ve met people all over the place who tell the same story. That is what you’re made for. That’s what you’re hard-wired for. It’s probably the last time I’ll ever see you so I just want to leave you with that man.” Boom.
Now I don’t say that all the time, but sometimes when the Spirit says, “Ed, draw near, make it clear so they can hear, face your fear.” You know? That’s what I’m talking about.
Now let’s pray together….
[Ed leads in closing prayer]