Growing up, I remember getting together with friends, I think of friends like Jesse and Sean. And there's actually brothers who named Matthew and Mark and they had younger siblings, Luke and John not making that up. And then the family actually had a little girl and I was really hoping they would name her ax, but they did not. Um, anyway, so we get together with Matt and Mark and, and Jesse and Sean and my brother and Dave and I, we'd all get together. We'd, we'd be riding bikes, we'd be playing games, we'd playing sports, trade, basketball cards, we'd uh, play video games, we play long form board games. We played Risk and Monopoly. And if you played those games, you know that games like Monopoly can go on for hours. Right. Seemingly days. I think I still haven't finished the game from 1998. But, um, it's a fun game and, and you go, and you try to dominate the world, right? And, and get all the places and, and, and get all the money and you try to go and it's super fun to play with friends. Now, those games can get intense, especially when you're playing with family and friends. But there was one spot on the board that was always refreshing and, and renewing and that was when you could pass boardwalk and park place if you didn't own them. Right. And you got to actually land on go. You're like, who take a deep breath, a sigh of relief that you made it another trip around the board. You got to collect $200 and get renewed for just a moment and ready for another trip. Now, I don't know what brought you here today. But my prayer and hope is that this can be a little reset that you land back on go that whatever your last trip around the board was for you, maybe you, you won some money there. Maybe you had a great day. Maybe you just kept landing on those spaces and feel like you had to pay out whatever your last trip around the board was for you. I'm glad that you're here. And my prayer is that this can be a reset a refresh. Sadly, I will not be giving you $200 cash for your journey this week. But what I do have for you is a word from God uh from scripture found in acts chapter eight. And so we're going to go there today. So if you have your bible, go ahead and open up to acts chapter eight. And this message is entitled this morning when God says go when God says go and if you're taking notes, you can write this down that the gospel is for everyone. The gospel is for everyone. Now, that statement in and of itself seems pretty generic, but it can be transformational when we understand what this actually means. Because most other religions can't say the same thing that if you study world history and you study religions around the world, they can't say that the gospel really is for everyone that it is for the right people at the right time, for the right class, for the right rule followers or whatever expectations they set on someone. They say you have to be good enough in order for God to love you where Christianity differs from other religions that instead of man reaching up to God, it is God reaching down to man. And so that we can openly and honestly say that the gospel really is for everyone and my heart and prayer for you today is that you would believe this as true and then also live this out by the end of the week, this week. OK. So one of my favorite quotes comes from a guy named Adrian Rogers who was a pastor. Uh And he said this that I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody. Uh so simplistic, but yet I love it that I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody about us. Somebody who can save anybody. And this comes from this idea that two of the foundational passages of the Christian faith that you will hear here at mission Grove repeated often. Why? Because it's not just that the church has a mission, but that the mission of God actually has a church and that these verses came before the church ever launched. And so these are the foundational passages of what it means to be a Christian. So in Matthew 28 verse 19 and 20 some of the last words of Jesus, he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Another way to translate that is as you go, make disciples that every single man, woman and child as believers in God were called to make followers of Jesus that in turn make followers of Jesus. And then in acts chapter one verse eight, which is the theme verse for this entire book of acts as well as our series Jesus in his final words to disciples right before he ascends to heaven says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria to the ends of the earth. So we are called as Christians to go, literally the word go is in gospel, in our English word here. And then to, to be a Christian is to go, that we're not called to stay on that space though, as safe as it might feel is that we're called to make another trip around the board for the name of Jesus to go and make disciples. But here's the reality is that people that believe in God sometimes struggle in sharing their faith with others and different studies have different percentages. But what we know to be common is that actually very few Christians turn around and actually share their beliefs publicly with other people. And so I wanna start off this morning before we talk about the value of doing. So let's take a look at why is it that people don't share their faith? The gospel literally means good news. Why is it that we don't talk about believing in Jesus with others? Well, I think there's four common excuses. Number one, we say not me, not me and usually not me falls into either I'm afraid or I don't feel equipped, right? I, I'm afraid because I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough. I mess up. I, I I'm not great with words. I don't know the Bible enough. I, I don't quite understand it or we think I, I just can't do it. I not me, God use somebody else. But what's encouraging in scripture over and over And over again, God uses unlikely people to spread just this eternal message with others. And so you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have a seminary degree. You don't have to be a pastor. You don't have to have the Bible memorized. You don't have to have all these things. You just have to have a faith in Jesus and then you turn around and you share your story about God's story. Here's what Jesus means to me. Here's why I believe my life before Jesus was this. I put my faith, Jesus here and now here's why I believe I'm a, I believe in Jesus. And so just sharing your story with others, just being open and honest with others. We don't have to be afraid that God can use you right now where you are. So the second excuse that people give is, is not them. So at first they say it's not me. I'm not good enough. But then they say, ah, not them either. They say, well, I can't do. That's my boss. That's my coworker. That's my neighbor. That's my classmate. That's my teammate. II, I can't share with them. What if they say no? What if they reject me? What if they think I'm weird. What if they know that? I think they're weird, right? I don't know. But wherever you are like, it's easy for us to get caught up, not me, not them. The third excuse is not there. Why can't, I can't share the gospel at school. I can't share the gospel at work. I can't share the gospel and out on a walk with my dog, I can't do that. Like that's not the right spot. It's not church. The see church is not just a building to come to the family to belong to. And so wherever you go, the church goes. And so there's always an opportunity to share. So we give excuses of not me. We say not them, say not there. And I think the most common one is number four, not now, not now. We have great intention. We go God. I wanna share my faith. I just gotta get through my to do list. I wanna share my faith. I just need to get through the day through my college years. I just need to get married. I just need to buy the house. I just need to get the rate, whatever it is. We, we, we put sharing our faith as a someday thing. When in reality, God calls us to share our faith today and that we can be praying and searching for and looking for opportunities to share. Why do we say this? Because Jesus final words should be our first priority. Jesus' final words should be our first priority. Now, we're gonna be in acts chapter eight today and we've been walking through the chapters as a church family. And when we do so, just previously in a, in acts chapter six and seven, there's a guy that comes onto the scene, his name is Steven and he's an everyday guy. Ordinary guy, not one of the original 12 disciples gets promoted in leadership. He's a man of character, of spirit of wisdom and he starts preaching and he gets killed first faith. He's seen as the first martyr. So now in the beginning of acts chapter eight, Stephen is buried, the Christians are scared. So they're scattered throughout the community and beyond. And now there's a guy named Saul who's going to become Paul here shortly but is persecuting Christians. And so and so these people scatter. One of the people that scatters is a guy named Phillip. Phillip was one of the seven chosen along with Steven, except he didn't get a really cool description like Steven did. It was like Steven, a man of full of wisdom and of grace and of power and Philip like it'd be like if you're lined up at siblings, you know what I mean? It's like here is Steve, OK. Here is Steve Steve. It's straight, a student honor roll, a varsity athlete and Tim, right? Like like this is what we have here with Philip. So Steven and Philip, but Philip now is a man of character. He has those things. We don't have the description he goes. But where God calls him to go is this place called Samaria. And now Samaria and Samaritans was really an unlikely people group, like the gospel in theory, should not have gone there. And the reason for this disdain, it's not just like a disagreement among sports teams, which I love sports and I love giving the other teams a hard time and I can take it coming back. So I'm ok if I'm ok with pettiness when it comes to sports, I embrace it. Right. And, uh, and, and for those that are into sports, you got something right? Everyone's got something they, they jump into. So, uh anyway, what we're talking here is not like a disagreement in sports teams. We're talking here 1000 years of disdain that stems all the way back to about 20th century BC when 10 tribes of Israel go north to the area of Samaria and then two tribes go south to Jerusalem. So the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. And so what happens in the tribes of the North is they actually start to marry with other religions and other ethnicities and things there too. And ultimately, in the seventh century BC, the Assyrians come in and take them captive. And so there's this intermixing, whereas the lower kingdom or the, the Southern kingdom I should say is actually they try to really keep the, the Jewish heritage alive. And so actually they do keep that alive even to this day. OK. So it's, it's very real places that are still in existence that are still in the news today, we're going to see some names like Gaza and other places that are mentioned in our story in just a few minutes. And so they really didn't like each other because they felt like they, they kept the faith, they kept their beliefs where the Northern Kingdom intermarried and, and mixed religions and they were taken captive by the Syrians. But in the fifth kind of sixth century BC, they were taken over the Southern kingdom by the Babylonians. But then you had this guy named Nehemiah who it's all in the Old Testament too. He comes back and then rebuilds the city, they rebuild the temple. There's this great incredible picture of restoration and the remnant of the people of Israel and of faith. But then around the third century BC, the Samaritans build their own temple on Mount Geri. And so now when you come to the time of Jesus, you have people who have hated each other for 1000 years to where Jewish people didn't even walk through Samaria. They added 2 to 3 days around for their trip to go somewhere else so they could avoid it. And so what we see with Jesus is that he breaks through and bust through any type of stereotype. That's why in John chapter four, he shares the gospel with the Samaritan woman at the well, and this woman ends up leading an entire village to Jesus and putting faith in it. That's why you hear the parable of the good Samaritan. Now we have hospitals named after that, but at that time, it was seen as blasphemous, like it would almost be seen. Not like it's hard for us to even grasp this. It would almost be seen like it would be like the good Hamas leader like kind of thing or the terrorist attack leader or someone going through that someone who was seen as so extreme that they could never put them together. But yet this Samaritan is there. And so Jesus actually gives not the priest as the good example of a neighbor, but the good Samaritan, someone who loved their neighbor. Well, so now you got Phillip, the unlikely person going to the unlikely place to preach to the unlikely people. So here's where we pick up our story in acts chapter four acts chapter eight verse four. Now for those who were scattered, went about preaching the word and Philip went down to the city of Samaria and 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 and 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. And I love this verse verse eight. So there was much joy in that city. So Philip is preaching and people are getting saved and, and what we see here is that sharing the gospel brings joy, sharing the gospel brings joy. I love that phrase there, that the end. So there was much joy in that city. May it be said because of the Ministries of Mission Grove Church? There may be joy in Cave Creek. There may be joy in carefree. There may be joy in Phoenix and in Scottsdale and in Anthem and in New River and in Glendale and Peoria and beyond. Can you say that to your sports team, to your school, to your workplace? Because you have shared the gospel? There is joy. Why? Because you take joy with you because you are the church and you bring the message again, unlikely person, unlikely place, unlikely people. And they found joy. Why? Because their joy was in Jesus. So people are getting saved. Miracles are happening. Philip is performing the same level of miracles as the early disciples. Why? Because they have the same message and they have the same holy spirit living inside of him. And so uh Peter and John hear what's going on. And so they go visit out there to kind of affirm that you have another repetition of acts chapter two, if you will at now, here in Samaria, and so now people are getting saved and one of the people that gets or claims to get saved is this guy named Simon Simon, a magician, a sorcerer. And we don't know fully if he gets saved and he faked it and um or that he was messed up and then he repented and later he gets saved. We don't know. But what we see happen is that your motivation for religion matters, ok? Your motivation matters because he sees all these people responding to Philip and then Peter and John come back into the scene and they see all these people responding like, hey, I want that power. So in verse 18, it reads this. Now when Simon saw that the spirit was given through the lane on of the apostles hands, he offered them money saying give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to Him, may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter for your heart is 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 of you. You see Simon tried to buy power, tried to buy from God. And in fact, actually to this day, there's a word simony when it's used throughout church history to describe when people of religion or people of the church tried to buy religious power or title or position. And if you study world history, every time that quote unquote Christian leaders try to attach themselves to power and money. It doesn't go well. Right? And you cannot buy a position with God. It doesn't work that way. It didn't come that way. Our way of faith came through humility, through sacrifice, through service of Jesus Christ who used his power to sacrifice and to save others. And so we have to be humble, we have to repent and understand that it is a gift from God, not something that we work for or we earn. Ok? And so we make it about ourselves and really Christianity and our relationship with God isn't just about us. It's about so much bigger than that. See, sin will keep you in, but the Gospel will help you give, you know, they say there's no I in team. Uh there's definitely an I in sin. And in fact, that is the picture of sin. If you just take that letter, I, when you choose self over God, when you choose self over others, what you're doing is that you're choosing sin over a relationship with God, it's making a decision based on pride. That's what Simon wanted. He didn't want God, he wanted the power, he wanted the authority that came with it. And so sin will keep you in, but the Gospel will help you go. The word go literally in that word Gospel, right? We should be reminded to go throughout the world. Those the final words of Jesus and the final words of Jesus should be our first priority because here's another way to think about it is that sin makes it about you, but gospel makes it about others. It's the good news that you share with others, right? Unlikely person, unlikely place, unlikely people. But because of the, uh, there's joy and that means that the gospel is for everyone. The gospel is for the many. If you felt like far away from God, if you feel like man, based on my choices, God can't accept me. Maybe you think because of the choices of others and the things that I've been through. God won't accept me. I'm telling you today that the gospel is for you and the gospel is for your coworker, your, your classmate, your sports team, right? Your your neighborhood friends, your neighborhood enemies, right? It's, it's the people around you that we are called to share with. When you do that, it changes everything. Sometimes God uses unlikely situations to reach a mass amount of people. For example, for us, you know, we launched in 18, we're walking through 2019 and us along with every other church said we got a 2020 vision. We thought that was clever that we were the only church, but every church had a 2020 vision, right? And going through and then the pandemic happens and we were in a rented space, we don't know what to do. And so one of the things we decided to do is like, well, let's use the technology that we have and start going online. We had stuff online before, but we didn't put a ton of effort behind it. And so we started not only posting uh the messages and started recording messages online, but we also started posting devotionals and so on. And so I was curious and I went back and looked this morning at the most updated numbers that since March of 2020 the Mission Grove Church, youtube Channel. And we're a tiny church. We're a small church in Cave Creek Arizona. Right? We think, well, we don't have a very big footprint. Ok. At the time, even before, uh, the pandemic, there are days where we'd start the service with like two or three people in the room. And so we're like, well, let's just use what we have to do what we can to reach who, who God has for us. But since March 2020 do you know that we've had almost 100 and 40,000 views on youtube? That's over 12,000 hours of watch time. People connecting with the gospel. The first hour I thought that was kind of cool and clapped. But I, I think you guys are reflective. So, but it's ok. You're taking it in. I can, I can, I can hear it. So think about that small church, brand new church, Cave Creek Arizona and in a pandemic with not a lot of resources. 100 and 40,000 people, we started posting little videos like we did a, we started doing Christmas videos that year and we had a Christmas worship video, the song Noel that has over 30,000 views. We did uh that month, the same week that we shut down the church. We recorded a couple uh explanation videos of what is the gospel, what is a disciple and, and for the first like three years, four years, that video got like 50 views and for whatever reason in the last year now, the what is the gospel video has 18,000 views. Uh What is the disciple has 15,000 views like four years later? And so now 32,000 people have heard from Mission Grove Church. What it means to be a disciple of Jesus and understand the gospel. And this is from a video in a pandemic from a small church years ago. And so God can use unlikely situations to reach the masses with his message of the gospel just as Philip took it to the Samaritans and entire cities were responding with joy. So the gospel is for everyone, mass amounts of people, but it's also for every one meaning individuals. And what we're gonna see here is that while ministry is going great for Philip God calls him out of that growing ministry down the road to meet one person. This person is an Ethiopian eunuch. Now there's kiddos in the room. So we won't emphasize fully on what a eunuch is. But basically you got someone who is infertile, can't have kids. And they did that on purpose because if you're working for the king and queen, they didn't want you to potentially procreate there with others. And so, and they were slaves and so there's no way for them to live beyond their years. And so you could use them as slaves and as rulers and as leaders and completely control them. And so they'd be slaves, but then they could also rise and be, be given important tasks. So the one that we're gonna meet today, this Ethiopian official is in charge of the treasury. And so it's smart, educated. It's got a chariot, OK? It's got the nice new chariot, OK? It's got the latest, it's got Tesla chariot, OK? And it's going through like it's super nice. OK? He's got a couple of people with them. Uh Now it was from Ethiopia. It was really the kingdom of Nubia at the time, Southern Egypt. Uh maybe not exactly where Ethiopia is today but close. OK. And so they were probably a dispersed Jew, someone that had been persecuted but then came to faith or someone, a proselyte or someone who became a believer in Jewish faith. And so they went to the Jewish festival, they're returning back home to Ethiopia and then Philip is gonna encounter this person on the road. Now, Philip is an everyday ordinary dude, right? Who's got the power of the Holy spirit inside of him. Now, we're going to be approaching a government leader in a chariot with some, probably some protection along with them. Ok? So it's kind of intense. But here we go, verse 26 of acts chapter eight. 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. See this is very, these are real places, real places, real time. 2000 years ago. Ok. So it goes down to Gaza. This is a desert place. So it doesn't even give him specifics just head south. OK? Verse 27 and he rose and he went and there was an Ethiopian a eunuch, a court official of Candace. Now, Candice is not the name, it's actually a name. It's like a title like you would think of Pharaoh or Caesar. I was looking up and someone else based on history was saying that potentially the king was at the time was a lady named no weak, but I can barely say that word. So we're going to go with Candace for right now. And so Caesar's title Caesar Pharaoh Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. And so this man was in charge of all of her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and he was returning seated in his chariot and he was reading the prophet Isaiah and the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. Now, an everyday person, Jewish guy running up to a government official in a chariot armed guard might not go well, but runs up to him and check out what he says. So Philip ran to him, heard him. Marine Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you're reading now? It could be really nice. Right. It could have been like, hey, do you understand what you're eating? It could also be a little offensive. If you think about it, you got the everyday person, Jewish person running up to this government official in a area armed guardian. Hey, do you, can you read, do you know, do you know what you're reading? But God prompted him to say that to ask a question, do you understand? And to which he replies verse 31 he says, how can I unless someone guides me invited Philip to come and sit with him. Now, the passage of scripture that he was reading was like this. It's actually specifically from Isaiah chapter 53 which is seen as a Messianic Psalm because it's about Jesus. So he's reading Isaiah 53 verses and it says like a sheep was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before it shearer is silent. He opens his, not his mouth and in his humiliation, justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth. He's describing the sacrifice of Jesus verse 34. And the eunuch said to Philip about whom I ask you, does this prophet say this, is it about himself or is it about someone else? And then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture. He told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, see here is water, what prevents me from being baptized. And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water and Philip and the eunuch and he baptized them. And when they came out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself in Atos and he passed through and he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Cesarea. So this is a crazy story. Uh But what I find interesting here is that so he leads his Ethiopian to Christ, but then he doesn't get to stay and see the end result of it and he cares, ok, you did your job, you shared with this one person and now I want you over here. But then the Ethiopian says he goes away rejoicing and it's a present participle. So it's an ongoing joy and what I find fascinating here. And I think part of why he did this is because the joy that the Ethiopian receives is not in Philip, the joy is in Jesus. And so Philip goes away but Jesus stays with the person. And so therefore, the joy stays with the person. So now we see a city that's filled with joy. And now we see a person that's filled with joy in this Ethiopian official. And what's really cool is that some other um historians have noted that potentially this Ethiopian unit goes back and is the first missionary to Ethiopia with the good news of the gospel. In recent studies. Some of the numbers fluctuate that right now in the country of Ethiopia, there's potentially 36 million people who claim to have put their faith in Jesus Christ. 36 million that you could trace potentially back to this one person. See, when you share the gospel with one person, you're not sharing with one person, you're sharing with one person, one family and potentially the ripple effects could shape a legacy and generations to come. Some of you sitting in this room are watching on online right now are the ripple effect. The 3rd, 4th, 5th generation. Because someone in your family tree decided to put their faith in Jesus and said, I want my kids to have their faith in Jesus as well. And some of you, you could be the person that changes the direction and destiny of generations to come because you put your faith and that happens because Philip was obedient to what the spirit prompted him to do. And we know that Philip while his job changes is that he stayed faithful to the mission. Because 20 years later, we see Paul now who was Saul in chapter eight and is now called Paul. Here in Acts 21 they're visiting people. He's on a missionary journey himself. And it says here in Acts 21 verse eight is on the next day we departed and came to Cesarea. Notice that's the same place where Philip was going. And we entered the house of Philip, the evangelist who was one of the seven and stayed with him. So now he's not just Philip, he's Philip the evangelist because you got 20 years of experience sharing his faith. Next to the next verse is he's got four daughters who are all kind of in ministry as well. And so he marries, he's got kiddos and he's still preaching the gospel in Cesar Cesarea and beyond. And so it's such a cool story that the gospel is for everyone. It's for, it's for nations, it's for cities, it's for villages, it's for workplaces, it's for teams, it's for schools, but it's also for one that God called Philip away from a quote unquote successful ministry experience where lots of people were being saved to minister to one person. And so what we see from Philip is three things, three characteristics that we can take with us this week in our everyday life. Number one, we see that Philip read the word of God. He read the word of God that when this official was reading, Philip would come and say, hey, let me help you understand what that means. No, we're not giving every person $200 as you pass go this Sunday morning. But we do have something far more valuable, something of eternal value. And that is the word of God that you can take this with you in your next trip around the board that you can go and live your life by and you can share that with others. So Philip read the word of God. Number two. Philip responded to the spirit. He responded when he was called to go to Samaria. He responded when he was preaching to those people, but also he responded to go visit the one in a desert place in an uncomfortable conversation because God told him to see when the Holy Spirit moves. Sometimes it's a big movement. Sometimes it's a little drip in the ear. It's a little tap on the shoulder. It's, it's when God puts somebody on your mind out of nowhere, I should text them. I should call them. I should have a conversation with them. I should email, I should reach out. I should have a conversation. Ok? Will you be obedient when the Holy Spirit taps you on the shoulder? Because He will, if we're paying attention. The third thing that Philip did was that he reached the people in front of him, unlikely person, unlikely place, unlikely people, but it was whoever was in front of Him, who is God placed in front of you. There might be someone in this room right now who has a name that comes to mind. Are you praying for that person right now that you can be having, have the opportunity to present the good news of the gospel with that person and beyond. Because God could use you to not only change that person's life, but could change the legacy for generations to come. Because at the core, Philip shared the heart of Jesus. Philip shared the heart of Jesus with others. He obeyed wasn't perfect. Not everybody will respond, but some people will and that could change everything. See, we know this is the heart of Jesus because in Luke chapter 15, we read this story here that now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus. The religious leaders didn't like this again. Unlikely people were befriending Jesus and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. This man receives sinners and eats with them. And so he told them this parable verse four, he says, what man of you having 100 sheep if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it lays it on his shoulders. Rejoicing. Notice that joy that keeps running through, right? The Samaritans had joy. The Ethiopian official had joy. This shepherd has joy verse six. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for, I have found my sheep that was lost. I'll be honest with you. We have today uh If you're watching this later, we had a fall festival for the kiddo, super cute little animals. I was super tempted to like grab the little lamb and put it on my shoulder. But, and for the illustrations, that'd be really cool. But I went out there and it like at me, I was like, uh I, I don't trust myself with animals. It's probably like poop on me or something anyway. So I didn't do it. But um we do, if you want to see little lambs, they're out back. It's pretty cute. All right. So now in the story you have here, the shepherd goes back, calls his friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven. Notice that joy, the continued theme, joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Now, here's the reality. We often think that we're the 99 right? But that last phrase there who need no repentance. We all need to repent. So you know what that means? It means we're the one. We are not the 99 that don't need forgiveness. We are the one that needs save. That Jesus will go from eternity down to earth. Embrace the limitations of humanity. Die on a cross, a painful death, buried and then rose again on the third day so that you can know and trust him as Lord and Savior. This is why Jesus in his last moments dying for the world dying for the many can look to the man on the cross next to him, who, who, who believes in him as Lord and say, I will see you in paradise. Jesus dies for the many, but he also dies for the one. So it's important for us to know that the gospel is for everyone. It doesn't happen all the time. But I want you to know stories like the Ethiopian does happen and I got to experience one starting the church 2018, I left my last position. We haven't even had the first Bible study yet. I was just doing a prayer 21 days of prayer. And I, and I, I sound confident now because we have a building in people, but I was not super confident. Then I had a month of savings call from God. I'm like God. I hope you're here. And I was doing a prayer um devotional online. We happen to be on John 10 and 11 saying that Jesus brings life and with life he comes and uh, and then it's the story of Lazarus and I happened to have a meeting on the west side of town. It's on like a Monday at like 11. Ok. It's, it's the week of the Super Bowl. I know that because the Cardinals stadium was hosting, not the Cardinals, sadly, but uh the Cardinals stadium was hosting, it was like, oh, I'll do my video in front of the stadium. It'll be kind of cool. And so talk about the Super Bowl and how this could be the Super Bowl for somebody putting their faith in Jesus and that every time someone puts their faith in Jesus, it's bigger than the Super Bowl kind of thing. So that was the vibe in my head. So I drive over after my lunch appointment, first parking lot is closed. Drive over to the next parking lot that's closed. I go, if you've been to the stadium, you say it's just a big open space there is nobody there, nobody there. And so I get out third parking lot, shoot my little video and I want you to check out this last, it's the last minute of the video. So you can go ahead and watch love and joy. And so the greatest thing you can do this weekend, the greatest thing is not just celebrate the plays that are made on a field in a stadium like this one. But really what's made in someone's heart and a decision made to personally believe and follow the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And if you do believe that already, the greatest thing you can do this weekend is to tell somebody about that and invite them to do the same because they too can have abundant life. God bless hope you have an awesome afternoon. Enjoy the week, enjoy watching the Super Bowl, but even greater than the game, make the most important decision in your life and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior God bless. So it is Monday at 11 and a few pounds and wrinkles ago. Ok? And looking back, I'm like, wow, ok. Church planting ages you fast. Anyway, I kid you not. I end the video. I look up and there's a man standing right there and he's holding a Bible and I go, oh, where did you come from? And I go, what's your name? He goes, my name is John and turns out his family's van just broke down and he didn't know what to do. Um He grabbed his brother's bible out of the van. He said, I've never been to the Cardinal Stadium. Walked a mile to the Cardinal Stadium, walk to the exact spot where I was standing talking about John. Well, he's holding the Bible. Hey, have you ever read the Bible before he goes? No. What were you just talking about, ok, he's wearing a cross necklace. I go, you, I see you're wearing a cross necklace. Do you know what that means? He goes, no. Can you tell me what this is right after I said those words and internally I'm praying God, you're supposed to start this church. I don't know if you're really in this thing. We drive back to Walmart about a mile away, uh, buy dinner for his family and right there in the Walmart parking lot, get a chance to lead uh John Ramirez to Christ. You can actually see a photo. This is me and John right after we prayed to receive Christ. And I knew from that moment like I did, I, I'm pray, I don't know what God did with his family and what ended up happening. But all I can tell you is that God is very real and God prompted me to go to that spot at that time of that day and prompted him to walk a mile with a Bible. He'd never read with the necklace. He didn't know what the meaning was so we can meet and so he could hear the gospel and respond. And that gave me the confidence to go. And then a month later start those Bible studies that would lead to more Bible studies that would lead into our church that we have now today, wherever you are, I want you to know that the gospel is for everyone. If you never put your faith in Jesus. I want you to know that the gospel is for you. It's not about you being good enough. It's about God being good enough. You can believe in Him today. And if you already believe in Jesus, then God's calling us to go to share with everyone the masses. But also the one, the people that are right in front of you. Is there a name? Is there a group? Is there a team? Is there somebody that comes to mind that God might place you in possession to present the good news of Jesus to them that could change not only their life but a legacy in generations to come. God is God is good and the gospel is for everyone. Will you pray with me dear God. If there's somebody here today who has never prayed to receive you, God, I pray that they would use this moment to put their trust in you. Yeah, we believe that your Lord, that your savior, that you died on the cross. She rose again that because of that only you are the way to heaven. We put our faith in you. We put our trust in you. God, forgive us our sins. May the Holy Spirit come into our lives and we commit our lives to you. Not something that we earn, but something that we receive. Thank you for saving us and God for those who are Christians who believe in Jesus may we have the boldness to go just as Philip did. Unlikely person, unlikely people, unlikely place, whether in a group setting or on a road in the desert. God, I prayed or in a parking lot of the Cardinal stadium, God, wherever you have called us God, may we go and we share our faith so we can see others come to know you as Lord is saying, where we truly believe that the gospel is for everyone and it starts with us today and your so we pray amen.