Obedience and Humility: The Legacy of Philip

"and god is a god of justice but he's a god of mercy and he will enable us all of us to preach the gospel i think farther and wider than we've ever dreamed more than we can even ask or thank in this in this season the internet is the is the net now john 21 remember the disciples had fished all night and they caught nothing jesus is on the shore he said cast the net on the right side of the boat in other words do it this way do it my way and when they cast the net the suddenly there's 153 fish that are sent by the hand of god to swim into that net and the net in our generation is the internet" [00:01:39]

"and the characteristics in philip the evangelist life are very similar to the characteristics in david hamm's life and i want to go through the story of philip the evangelist and talk about what was in this man that god could use him in a spectacular way and there's no doubt about it of all the people that have been used in the new testament there's there's rarely a man that's more curious than philip or a man that was more great had greater experiences with god there's nobody else in the bible ever that was translated by the hand of god" [00:05:20]

"god with all my heart for your word and and every time we open your word there should be something that shapes us changes us my god i i don't want to just learn and never come to the knowledge of the truth lord i pray god that even as i preach this tonight for my own life that that you would change something in me in my thinking in my heart in the the very composition of my being would be changed as we sit under the preaching of your word lord jesus christ i'm asking again tonight that you would take this offering of my hand and multiply it and speak lord to every person here in the manner that they need to be spoken to" [00:06:54]

"and that was the thing about philip the one characteristic of his life is whatever god asked him to do that's what he did i can honestly say that about david hand pastor david hamm that when he came here and became part of our tsc staff although he had a reputation and he was well known in the christian world and in the ministry world i can honestly tell you as his pastor for a season that whatever i asked this man to do he would do it he would just arise and he would go and i don't recall you ever saying anything to me but yes sir" [00:08:28]

"can god speak to you can god move you from where you are today and can he take you to where he wants you to go can he make your life into that which he's destined it to be so that it brings glory to his name or or do we get so entrenched in our own self-view our own ideas maybe of what our life should be or even ministry what ministry should look like and we get entrenched to the point where the lord can no longer we're speaking to god but he can't speak to us anymore we're not willing to even consider moving outside of the comfort maybe that we found for ourselves" [00:11:21]

"now here's where philip's ministry starts it says in chapter 6 of acts verse 2 to 6 it says then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said it is not desirable that we should leave the word of god and serve tables therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the holy spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business not just ordinary people to serve tables but people who had a good reputation they were filled with the spirit of god and they had wisdom" [00:13:29]

"philip was a man who did not consider any form of service appointed by god beneath him that's the point you see any form of service you know as leaders in the body of christ for example if if somebody if there's a piece of paper stuck on the platform we shouldn't stand here and wait for somebody to pick it up we should pick it up ourselves as leaders we are called as as leaders to lead by example and and pastor david you have led by example you've always been an example you've been an example of me you've challenged and encouraged my life just in watching your response to the things that god gave you to do and the excellence with which you did it" [00:17:57]

"and he needs somebody to meet the man that's going to bring the message of christ there and philip could hear him don't ever get so big that you can't hear from god don't ever get so big that something that is small looks like it's too small oh no not for me no i'm the miracle man peter and john have taken notice of me man i'm on the way up this is my career is set i'm gonna i'm gonna put my name in lights i'm going to have a brochure with my picture on the front like however they did it back then oh no everybody's going to know my name and suddenly he's leaving town hey guys look after the revival god be with you i'm heading off to the desert" [00:24:59]

"and so he meets the ethiopian eunuch in the desert and leads him to christ takes him down into the water and baptizes him i love this story and then it says in chapter 8 and verse 39 when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord caught philip away so that the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing but philip was found in a zotus and passing through he preached in all the cities until he came to caesarea imagine imagine you could be used of god in such a way that you baptize a man then you disappear and you you end up in a city and you're walking around saying you tell me where this is where am i" [00:26:00]

"here's the point god's calling in philip's life was never about himself but always about others and if if we can get to that if you're if if your calling is about yourself your ears you might as well stick your fingers in your ears you're never going to hear from god if it's about you but if it turns to being about others if it's if it's about if if if one person means as much to you as the crowds once did in samaria then god can use you in a miraculous way god can take you god can take me where to places that only he can because our focus is not on ourselves" [00:29:19]

"and this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied and luke says and we stayed there many days and this is this is what i love about this is the the man who scattered him early on the book of acts is now welcome in his home don't you just love that i love the fact that the men who scattered all of scattered paul and scattered all of his his companions and scattered philip is now welcome in philip's home and philip now has four daughters and his last ministry now is to pass on this ability that god gave him to hear his voice to his family" [00:31:07]

"and here's the promise when we live for god when we're willing to be used by god when god can take us from one place to another and it always doesn't have to be bigger and better we will have the privilege of passing this on to our children in my case our grandchildren will have the privilege of being able to speak into their lives and you see philip lived a kind of a life that became desirable when he would tell the stories to us tell us again dad about how god lifted you you were in the water and the next thing you know you're in a place called a zodis tell us how did that feel and philip would just because his focus was on just obeying god and being used for the sake of others the lord was able to pass on that vision that he had in his heart to his family" [00:32:03]