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Thank you for the great salvation that we have, oh God. Thank you for the blessings of the body of Christ. Thank you for your joy, Lord.

Your joy deep within us, the peace and the joy and the satisfaction that we have in you. Thank you for being good to us, Lord. Thank you for being faithful to us.

But I pray that you bless your people right now, Lord. Bless us, Lord, with your presence. be with us tonight, Lord, as we come to lift you up and magnify your great name, Lord.

Give us what we need in this house, Lord, which is to be with you, Lord. Give us what we need, which is for your presence to come and minister to us, oh God, like only you can. There's no place in the world where we can find life like we find in you, oh God.

And we're asking that you give that to us this evening, not because we deserve it, but because you sacrificed your life for ours. You're good and you're faithful. you're rich in mercy and I pray that your blessings be upon us tonight, Lord.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So good to see so many of you all out on this Wednesday night.

Um I'm going to preach and teach from book of Acts in just a few moments, but why don't you greet somebody and tell them that you are glad that they are here on this Wednesday night. Amen. We want to get started.

I'm getting a 321 from the sound booth. So, three, two, one, go. can start returning to your seats.

Always makes Wednesday night so real when you look back and see somebody still kind of wearing their work clothes. You know, I know Y'all are running here from work and I'm just so grateful you do that. It means so much and these are really special services.

So good time to be in God's house with God's people. I want you to know I do my best to prepare and uh because I love the body of Christ and uh I know you are coming straight from work. So thank you so much.

I hope that um anything I do is out of love for you and I hope it helps helps our church. Love you. So, we've been working through the the book of Acts on a lot of our Wednesday sermons and probably need to do a quick recap because I'm going to I'm going to skip over chapter two, primarily chapter 7 um because I just preached on Stephen a while back and he's the focal point.

But in order to kind of get to where we are right now, we probably need to just kind of do a recap of the the narrative to catch up where we are in this story. So again, the book of Acts, it's kind of an easy way to think through it or to to divide it up as a a book is to think of it in two categories. There's there's really a large portion of it that is really Peter and the the church's origin and start at Jerusalem.

And then there is the kind of the uttermost parts of the earth. And that's of course where you start to hear of Paul's missionary journeys. and you start to see okay what happens when the church gets outside of Jerusalem.

So those are kind of the two major sections in the book of Acts. One is focused again on Jerusalem and Peter. Uh the one is focused on the rest of the known world or Asia and Paul.

And Acts one is is really that kind of the the setting place for the mission of the church. So you're getting kind of the the uh directions of Jesus coming and uh the mission that that God wants the church to have. Uh that's the ye shall receive power to be witnesses to Jerusalem and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.

And then of course Acts chapter 2 is is actually God's empowerment of the church. That's the spirit being poured out on the church. And now the church is getting that power to become those witnesses.

When you get to Acts 3 and 4, you start to see the persecution of the church as well as as the revival is coming. You're going to start to see the friction that's coming. Uh, and that friction is primarily coming from the Jewish people because they're losing power or they're nervous about losing power and the these Christians are kind of starting to grow and to multiply and Jerusalem is a small place.

So they're seeing what's going on there and you're starting to see them come and threaten the church and threaten the apostles and uh really you start to see uh uh more miracles that are coming and more boldness from the church, more prayer from the church. Uh but as this is happening, things are starting to heat up. Uh so you're you're Acts five is more of uh where the Lord is showing not just the threats from outside of the church from you know external forces but Acts five you're starting to see threats uh from inside of the church.

So that's where you have Ananas and Si Safh you have God's judgment of sin because God's wanting to protect this very very vulnerable church. You have this vulnerable church that's in the face of persecution. They've got some troubles inside of it in Acts chapter 5.

And those problems also arise in Acts chapter 6 when there's just friction among the saints. And we talked about the problem solving and caring about each other's needs and making sure that we're addressing each other's needs and staying together. And throughout all of this process, the church is growing, growing, growing.

And the message of Christ is changing lives. And the Sadducees and the high priests start having the same conversations that they had about Jesus. If this is starting to get out of hand, we got to do something.

We have to maybe up the Annie. And the rhetoric is heating up, the threats are heating up, and uh their of course belief is that, you know, if this gets out of hand, uh we're not going to be able to stop it. And there's this boiling point that you can sense is coming if you're reading through the chapters.

And finally, you get to uh uh Steven's kind of miraculous uh uh miracles, I should say, that are performed by Stephen. And then he starts to have some friction with a group of Jews, and they finally just stone him and kill him. So, um, uh, his martyrdom is really the apex of this boiling point.

And he's this amazing individual, Stephen. I preached about him a while back. He died in the most noble of fashions with all this dignity.

He's an he's just kind of this Christlike figure even in his death. It's a beautiful thing. But I just preached about it maybe like maybe like four or five months ago.

So, I'm going to skip over that and jump directly in after his martyrdom. to Acts chapter 8 and I'm going to read you this text and it says this is leaving his death, his martyrdom. It says, "And Saul was consenting unto his death." So it shows us this first glimpse of Saul.

This of course is the same Saul that will go on and become Paul. He'll have a conversion experience later. And what the what's happening here in Acts 8, there's these two or three verses here in the beginning and they they're linking verses in the strangest of ways.

But when they wrote these when they wrote narratives in this specific time, they used to use a technique where they would use a a verse to connect both to the former and the latter and they would just kind of have like a small little linking section. So when you read through the narrative, these verses look kind of strange. It's because they're linking up.

This is a major shifting point. In other words, in the actual story itself, we're shifting away from one part of the story to a part of the or to a new part of the story. So Saul is at the center point of it.

Uh he's at the he's at the end of the old story and the start of the new one. And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.

This is the start of the end of things at Jerusalem. We're now going to be moving out of Jerusalem. Was against the church at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad.

So the church was scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So we're starting to broaden the mission beyond just Jerusalem. People are starting to get outside of just the city of Jerusalem.

And it says, "And devout men carried Steven to his burial and made great lamentation over him." So that's the the linking verses is Saul's and Stephen Saul's part in Steven's death. And this is of course the beginning of Saul uh being linked to the scattering of people throughout Jerusalem. So that's kind of the transitional point in the book itself.

And it says, "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women, committing them to prison." So the it's heating up in Jerusalem. People are leaving. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.

Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So here we have a very very beautiful moment in the book of Acts. A moment where God takes Stephen's death, this individual who's a probably by by everybody in everybody's mind was going to be one of the great leaders of the church.

And he takes the death of this individual that would have potentially crippled the church and somehow he takes that and he uses it for good. It's the ultimate you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. In Acts, you can always feel this kind of invisible hand of God hovering.

Sometimes Luke says it out loud. Sometimes Luke says, "The spirit stopped them right here." He'll just tell you how God is directing the affairs of the church. Sometimes in this moment right here, he'll say, "You know what?

This specific moment was the cause and them being scattered out." But you always get the sense that God's in control of what's going on. The sovereignty of God. You have the empowerment of his spirit.

Things are happening because of his spirit. You see God judging sin harshly to protect the integrity of the church. There are miracles and there are signs and wonders.

Every time they go to a new place to show people that this message is real, they are accompanied with miracles and signs and wonders. And of course in this moment you see his sovereign hand through his taking what is meant for evil and making it for good. And Luke tells us that before this moment the church was solely focused on Jerusalem.

But after this moment, God sends out his people abroad to share the good news. And verse four tells us something very important. Did you notice what it said?

Can we get it back up there again? Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. They were not the apostles.

It was those who were scattered. Did you notice that? The apostles stayed at Jerusalem.

It was those who were scattered. It was the quote followers of Jesus. This is just normal people.

who had heard the truth of the gospel, who had experienced the new birth, whose lives were changed and transformed. It was people who heard what and and I want to make it really clear. I'm not minimizing the apostles specifically.

They are very important because they were the eyewitnesses of Jesus and their testimony was very very important. But these were people that said, "I'm going to give you my testimony, which is I heard what Jesus did through the apostles and now I'm going to tell you how that impact and that changed my life." And they were doing that and the church was growing. There were great revivals that were happening elsewhere because just common people just like you and me, common people were just telling other people about Jesus.

They were telling them the good news. They were telling them how God had changed their life. They took what was given to them from the apostles and they said, "I'm going to give it to somebody else." He took what they had received and said, "This isn't just for me to receive, but I give what I have received." The world pays evil, evil with evil.

You come to me and you give me evil. I don't give you evil back as a Christian. I've received goodness from God and I repay your evil with good.

That is unbelievably unique. Only only in that Christian world. Nobody else was doing that in that day.

No one. You'll find a lot of kind people in all kinds of circles in that day. It was rough rough territory.

It was the repaying. You give me evil, but I'll give you what God gave me. I'll give you goodness.

And the gospel was at this point starting to extend to that final destination of being the uttermost parts of the earth. And it was going through people who had received it and been transformed by it. Now they could say, "Here's the message of what we have heard and here's what he has done for me." There are times that we say this with our words and there are times that you say it with the life that you live.

But in some way, you need to be preaching the gospel. Every day you need to be preaching the gospel. Whether it be with your words, whether it be with the life that you live.

And I think you need both. That's I'm not a believer that you just have one or you just have the other. I think you need both.

And this truth gets at a truth that is important for all of us to consider in this place today that we are uniquely placed where we are to shine a light where others aren't shining theirs. Peter isn't in your workplace. You are.

John, the beloved disciple, doesn't live in your subdivision. You do. Paul isn't at your family reunion.

James isn't a member of your bowling league. And Apollos doesn't stop at your local 7-Eleven for coffee every morning. You do.

It's you and it's me, not them, not the apostles. It's us as the followers of Jesus. So we have to take a step back AND SAY WHO IN my family, who in my workplace, who in my geographic proximity, who in my recreational activities, who in my commercial relationships or where I shop, who can I shine the light of Jesus for?

That's an important question we should consider today because the apostles aren't going to shine it. you are. I am because Peter and John, they're in Jerusalem.

They're not in Samaria. The apostles are scattered abroad. It's the rest of the followers of Jesus.

And you always have to you don't always have to do the same thing. When you recognize this, it doesn't mean that every single day you've just got to scream out loud, come to Jesus. Doesn't mean every single day you just got to hammer somebody and invite them to church until they avoid you.

Doesn't mean you've just got to consistently batter someone over the head. Sometimes you can just focus your prayer on someone and pray from someone for years. Years.

We're playing the long game here. Years. You can pray for them.

Sometimes you can invite them to church. Sometimes you can serve them in meaningful ways. Sometimes you can just listen to them gripe about their problems and just sit there and serve them by listening to them.

Sometimes you can spend time with them. Sometimes you can give them a book to read. Maybe it's somehow about Jesus.

Sometimes you will find common ground with them. Maybe they like some sort of interest that you like and you can somehow connect the gospel to that. But the point is that we must recognize our unique placement, our unique place to be a light for certain people that are never going to meet the apostles.

We must be intentional about it. That's one of the beauty beauty beauties of Acts chapter 8. Isn't it true that many of the greatest revivals happen through a series of conversations that happens when or series of conversions that happens when one individual comes in?

Don't you notice that this church, right? The history of this church wasn't like there probably just a string of people that came in. and it was like one or two conversions and then suddenly there's that person knew this person and this person knew that person and that person knew that person.

That's the way it often happens. It's one individual who's a a key person. When I came to the Lord, my my brother's girlfriend's brother got invited to church by a pastor's son.

He converted. Then my sister-in-law or my brother's wife or my brother's girlfriend at the time converted. Then my brother converted.

He came in soaking wet from being baptized and told me about Jesus and I come in. See that? That's the way it happens.

one one witness becomes a witness to another individual and great revival happen because people share what they have experienced with others. Many great revivals happen not because preachers preach but because people share what happened to them. They share their own testimony.

So there is a great revival happening here in Acts 8. It's happening through evangelism. And what Luke does here is he goes from a concept of, hey, the gospel is being spread out through the whole world.

And he starts to drive down and demonstrate how it's happening. And he does so through a specific revival that happens in Samaria. And we'll probably talk next time I I preach on a Wednesday, we'll talk about a unic as well.

But we're not going to we're not going to focus specifically on that tonight. We're just going to talk specifically about Philip and this this uh revival that's happening at Samaria. It's a familiar text for most of us.

It's a great proof text for our experience as Pentecostals because it's very clear. So you all and most of you all know the story through that lens. I'm not going to dig deep into the story.

Uh brother Ess preached about it a while back when he talked about the experience. So I'm not going to dig into it from that angle. I'm going to look more specifically at what the Lord did with Philillip.

the evangelist. God shows revival's happening. Focuses down on this individual called Philillip.

He's commonly referred to as Philillip the evangelist. He is not an apostle. Mind you, he is not an apostle, but he is uniquely equipped to go to a place like Samaria.

Read verse 5 with me. It says, "Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.

And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip said, hearing and seeing the miracles that he did." Now, I love Philillip. I'm crazy about Philillip. He's one of my favorite people in scripture.

I love his story. We were first introduced to Philillip in in uh uh Acts chapter 6 when they had the whole dispute. Remember they called for for seven men full of the Holy Ghost, people to be servants to the church.

Remember they picked Stephen. Steven was one of them. The other one they picked or another one they picked was Philillip.

This is him. Philillip the deacon. Philillip the servant.

He's not in it for himself. He's not somebody that's trying to rush and be in front of everybody. He's happy to serve.

But now, like Stephen, he's transitioned over to a ministry where he's having great miracles. And somehow he understood something before anybody else. He understood what God wanted to do with the gospel before anybody else did.

And I love him for it. Remember that verse, ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth.

These are some of the final words that Jesus spake to his apostles. Some of the final words he spake. Critical most important words.

Yet the apostles in this moment are still back in Jerusalem. still in still in Judea, still in Galilee. They're not in Samaria.

They heard the words of Jesus. And this is often true when you hear the words first. They take a while to sink in.

It's true with most of our faith. We hear something, we say, we believe it. We don't.

It's not in our bones. We believe it and we say we do because it's the word of God. They said they believed it but they didn't.

Not yet. They heard the words of Jesus but they had yet to sunk in. But they did for Philillip.

He went to Samaria and he is the first to venture there. They heard those words to Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. And the ramifications of that had not yet sunk in.

They could not see it. But Philip could Philip could see what the apostles could not yet see. See, back in Jerusalem church, they had some old ideas about Judaism and how Judaism was kind of still a big part of Christianity, and that was stuck in their heads.

And their brand of Christianity still had all of these Jewish customs packaged into it. To make it more clear, to convert to Christianity in a sense in the Acts 3, four or five church, to convert to Christianity pretty much meant you were going to convert to Judaism. That's what it was like.

They hadn't yet figured out the now what of the gospel. We believe the gospel. Now what?

They hadn't figured it all out out yet. They were still trying to understand it. And the Samaritans were people who had this Jewish bloodline within them, but their ancestor had inter intermingled with Gentiles.

So their bloodline wasn't pure. And the connections with the Gentiles for the Samaritans meant that they had a lot of gentile habits packaged into their Judaism. So their Judaism wasn't pure enough.

Their Jew their their bloodline wasn't pure enough. And because they weren't pure enough, the Jews, the Hebrew Jews, did not want to hang out with him. They didn't want to be around him.

They had their own temple. They had their own Bible. They had their own idea about the Messiah.

And they hated them. And the Samaritans hated them. Hated each other.

Frankly, that hatred was stopping them probably from reaching them. So to go to Samaria was not something the apostles were yet ready to do, but Philip was. You can learn a lot about somebody by their name, can't you?

I didn't really understand this until I had to name my own kids because now I had to name a kid. I understood the whole process of what goes through a parent's mind. It's a pretty important thing.

So for me, when I named our girls or Alicia and I named our girls and I had these kind of I had these very specific things in my mind that I kind of liked and then Alicia pretty much picked the names, but I I had these things that I kind of liked. I like literature. I like to read.

So, I like I said, let's find let's find some old books with names in them that are timeless because if they're in style a 100 years ago, they're going to be in style 100 years from now. That was my thought process. If Scarlet, you got Daisy, Olive, these are very old names.

100 years ago, they would have been completely normal at that time as well as now. you know, no, there's nothing wrong with these names, but like Maddie or, you know, these these very very popular names now. You know what I just I just I wanted it to be in style a hundred years ago.

So, that was one thing. We didn't give the girls middle names. None of our our girls have middle names.

So, I don't have a middle name. So, like that's part of how it occurred to me. Then it also occurred, I really like the last name Bria and I really hope my girls get married.

I love love marriage. I think it's a great thing. Uh, and if they get married, they can keep Bria as their middle name.

So, they can keep it. So, all of this is going into choosing a name. And parents put a lot of thought into it.

And it'll tell you a lot about probably more about parents than it will about the child. If you know about their name, what about Philillip? It's not a very Jewish name, is it?

It's not. It's a Greek name. What's a Jewish person doing with a Greek name?

What is a Jewish person doing with a Greek name? First and foremost, it was a famous Greek name at the time. It was a common Greek name.

Alexander the Great's father who Alexander the Great promulgated Greek culture throughout all of the Middle East. The whole area they were living in at this time. Greek culture was everywhere.

That's why you had Greekeaking Jews because Alexander the Great had tried to conquer the known world to him and he spread his culture everywhere. So this was really really important for the quote unquote fullness of time. This was really really important for the gospel to be able to spread is that there was one common language.

So that's how they were able to circulate Greek documents to the rest of the known world at that time. So this was super important and really I believe God's sovereign plan was for Alexander the Great to do such a thing to have a common language that you out there. But because of Alexander the Great, his father's name was Philip of Macedon.

He's one of the most famous uh Greeks above and beyond Alexander the Great and his name is Philip of Macedon. So this was a really really popular name at the time. Furthermore, you might remember Jesus's interaction with the apostles when he says, "Who do you say that I am?" Remember that interaction?

Well, some say you're Elias, some say you're, you know, Isaiah, Elijah, you know, through that whole thing. And he said, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed art thou Simon of Barjana for flesh and blood isn't build but my father which is in heaven that thou art Peter and plan this rock I'll build my church that whole exchange that was at a place called Cesaria Philippi which just meant Philip's Cesaria that's what it meant what Philip are they talking about it's was built by individual called Philip of Tetrarch he was a son of Herod the great the same Herod the great that his family members ended up or his nieces and nephews ended up killing John the Baptist.

So this Philip was kind of a name going around. So the fact that Philip's parents named him Phillip tells you something about his parents, doesn't it? Richard Neber wrote a book about culture uh and how the church is to address culture.

It's like 70 years ago. It's a good book. I can't remember the the name.

It's it's a very very important book. I'm embarrassed I don't remember the name of it. But he really says, "What is the church going to do with culture?" And he said, "There's three main categories." He says five, but really it's three.

The last three are kind of just derivatives of the same one. The first thing you can do with culture around you is you can be against culture. And everything that culture does is bad.

you isolate, you get as far away from culture as possible. An extreme example of this would be like the branch devidians. Um, if you remember that story, that was the David Caresh in Texas where they just build a compound.

Their whole idea idea was culture is really really bad and we're going to hide from culture. there was a hostility towards culture, an anger towards culture. And um typically if you've got a hostility and an anger towards culture, you're going to start to have a hostility and anger towards the people that live in that culture.

Secondly, there's Christ of culture. So you have this very very I'm against culture. Then you have this very very uh uh different approach that says whatever's happening in culture, it's just happening in the church.

We've got no division. There's no differences. We're not working hard to figure out how uh the church needs to nuance what things are good and what things are bad are coming in.

You just pretty much have a church that's just like everything else around them. The third, which is my favorite option, is Christ's transforming or redeeming culture. It's different than a hostility towards culture, and it's a difference in it different than an apathy that just says culture is going to dictate my actions.

It's the belief, the belief that through our relationships with people around us, we can start to change the temperature in the room. that we as Christians can actually impact the way people think, the way that they do things. And you can't have a hostile mind towards culture and simultaneously hope that God will redeem it.

Somehow Philip's parents named him Phillip. Jewish people named him Phillip. Hostile people don't do that.

People that are hostile towards culture, they don't do that. But they also did not, however, say, "Philip's going to be just like culture." They taught him the Jewish ways. They taught him the right way to think.

They taught him the word of God. Clearly, this is a powerful preacher. Power of somebody who understands and expounds scripture.

This was a Jewish person who was taught. This is somebody, an individual that both knows how to navigate a group of people that hate him, the Samaritans hated him, and he also knows how to navigate the Jewish people of which he is from. And somehow can figure out how to navigate those two worlds.

Philillip, you don't know a lot about a name. So when he heard because of his upbringing, what I believe, because he probably had parents that raised him in a certain way, he has a certain sensibility, had a certain demeanor towards culture. When he heard, "You're going to be a witness in Samaria." Didn't bounce off his forehead like an echo off a rock wall.

He didn't say, "Well, I believe it." And then just stay in Jerusalem. He remembered the stories of Jesus and how Jesus dealt with the Samaritans. He remembered the life-changing moment at a well for a Samaritan woman.

Philip probably thought to himself, "I need to find that lady. Where is she? I need to find her and tell her the rest of the story." Oh yeah, there was that Samaritan leper that Jesus healed.

I wonder if he knows that Jesus didn't just heal him. I wonder if he knows that Jesus died for his sins. Does he know about the resurrection?

Phil, remember Philip's Jewish. He's a Henistic Jew. He's a Greekeaking Jew, which probably gave him a more broad-minded understanding of the world than somebody who just strictly was brought up in Jerusalem.

But he was still a Jew, pure bloodline. The Samaritans hated him. And he went there.

Went there to preach the gospel. He didn't have the same blocks in his mind. So he went to Samaria to preach the gospel.

And something really, really amazing happened when he did. They received it. They received the gospel.

And he sends word back to Jerusalem to tell all of these amazing things that are happening. He doesn't say, "Let's just keep this here to us. Let's just don't tell them what's going on." on.

He sends word back. Amazing things are happening in Samaria. Through years, just probably last five to seven years in particular, feel like I've just had the unfortunate task of talking to a lot of friends that have left the apostolic faith and more unfortunately just faith altogether.

And the conversation usually sounds or is directed towards people and it sounds something like this. You know, the church is full of flawed people who have a bad way of thinking. You know, apostolics aren't very thoughtful.

They speak for God and say things that God doesn't say. The church mishandles this and it mishandles that. The church has bad people in it.

The church is so judgmental. And I usually don't disagree with a lot of what they say. I don't spend time trying to convince them otherwise because sometimes they're right.

I do warn them though that the complaints that they have are in every place, not just ours. They are. They're in every place.

You're going to find them wherever you're going. So before you just leave here thinking that like you're going to go find some panacea somewhere else, it ain't there. It's not happening until we get to heaven.

You're going to be able to find faults in the church. And my advice to them, stay put and find healthy people. Stay put and find people that are whole.

Don't leave. Don't leave. Find out.

You don't have to stay and be abused, but stay put and find people that are whole. They're there. And you're going to go find dysfunctional people in other movements as well.

Any place that's large enough to have a lot of different churches packaged together, the bigger you are, the easier it is going to going to be to find dysfunctional people. They're everywhere. What we all got to be, we all got to be healthy and whole.

So when people come through our doors, they find a healthy, safe place where God is governing our actions and where the fruit of the spirit lives. Love and joy and peace and longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, and faith. That's what governs us.

Philip was committed to a church with a flawed understanding of God's plan. You see that they didn't understand the plan. And Philip said, "I'll stay." He understood it before everybody else.

And he said, "I'll stay." And if you think I'm exaggerating their lack of understanding of God's plan, read Acts 2 and 39 and read Acts 10. And if you know, you know. If you don't, read them.

Read Acts 2:39 and read Acts 10 and tell me the church understood God's plan. They didn't. They didn't get it yet.

Philip did. He saw it before other people did. But he didn't leave.

This is God's people and God's being patient with these people. I'm going to be patient with them and I'll just keep moving along. Didn't mean that he didn't do the right thing.

Didn't mean he just said, "Well, it doesn't matter what I do." No, he did the right thing. He kept his nose down until other people caught up with him. I love verse 25 at the conclusion of the chapter after Peter and John finally hear something's happening in Samaria.

There's miracles and stuff happening over with the Samaritans and it sounds like they kind of like us. So goes over Peter and John pray for him. They receive the Holy Ghost.

They had already had great joy. They had already had uh uh you know been baptized. They come over specifically and pray for them so they can receive the Holy Ghost.

Complete separate experience, a manifestation of God. They come and do it. But I love the conclusion of the chapter because it it wraps a bow around this kind of this fact that they're starting to extend their borders.

They're starting to believe more people have deserve this. Watch verse 25. After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem.

But watch what it says. Preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. They got it.

They got it. Philip got it first. He didn't leave the church.

So, Philip went to Samaria before others were ready, but he went because the Lord called him to. Now, I have no idea what your Samaras are. I have no idea.

have no idea the places that are calling you that you're uniquely equipped to go and shine a light to that no one else in this room is. I don't know where they are, but I hope you don't stay in Jerusalem. I hope you don't stay in Jerusalem.

Don't stay there. The call is to Samaria. to call us to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Let's build intentional lives where we recognize that there are people around us that need our prayers. They need us to demonstrate the gospel and also speak the gospel. Gospel, we both proclaim and we demonstrate both.

We say it out loud and we live it. And there are people in your lives, again, in your family, in your workplace, in the places that you shop, in the places that you have recreation. They're everywhere around us.

That's your Samaria. It's your Samaria. Let's not stay in Jerusalem.

Let's go to Samaria. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the privilege of being a part of this body of believers.

Uh God, this is feel your presence. I feel you working. I know that you've placed us uniquely, Lord.

You've placed us, of course, uniquely in Rock Hill, our church. And I also know that you've placed every individual in this room uniquely with people around them that need their prayers. We need them to show the gospel to them, to testify of them, to be a friend to them, to serve them.

I pray Jesus, we do so. live our lives intentionally with the understanding that we are a light to people around us. Lord, give us wisdom uh as to how to shine that light.

Give us wisdom, Lord. We need to be led by your spirit. We've got your your spirit has to guide us because we know not what to say, Lord.

Let us be spiritled, but give us wisdom and direction, Lord. But let us be a light. Let us be a light, Lord.

It's a privilege, Jesus, to have this precious, precious experience that we have. It's a privilege to be a part of the church. It's a privilege to know the good news, to experience the gospel the way that we've experienced it.

Lord, I pray Jesus that we not just receive it and hold it, Lord, but give it away. Give it away to others around us. We're grateful, grateful, grateful, God, for the privilege, Lord.

Lay a burden on our hearts and bring revival to our families, to our workplaces, to places that we shop, places that we frequent. Lord, bring revival. Bring revival.

Revival. Lord, give us a desperation, Lord, and an understanding of the moment of our time. Lord, give us an understanding, Jesus, of the impact that we can have and the light that we could shine.

Help us, Lord. Help us. We trust you and we love you, Lord.

And we're grateful for your blessings. Bless our church body. Give us strength as we go out to our workplace and finish our week.

Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much.

God bless you all.