Listening To God Series

Acts 8:26-40

Listening To God

Introduction

A. Note the title today it is “Listening to God”

B. Key word “Listening”

C. It does not mean hearing

D. There is a difference

E. My dad has either gave me, or taught me the ability to tune things out – I’m not sure which one it is

F. That ability sometimes is good – like when driving a van fool of loud kids

G. And sometimes is bad – ever so often Heather will say something, and I will hear her

H. However, I don’t respond

I. Dan, Dan, Dan, do you not hear the sound of my voice

J. I hear it, but I was not listening – not a good thing to do

K. Today we are not looking at hearing God, we are looking at listening to God

L. We are going to look at 4 voice’s

a. God’s Voice

b. The Holy Spirit Voice

c. The Scripture Voice

d. Christ Voice

I. God’s Voice (26-28)

A. Explanation

1. Philip’s was obviously by what we have look at the past couple of weeks, enjoying a very fruitful ministry in Samaria

a) Man were things going good

b) People were reaching their neighbors

c) People were getting baptized left and right

d) The Church was growing

e) Everything was going good

2. Then an angel of the Lord appear

a) Basically this angel of the Lord was God himself who spoke to Philip in form of angel

b) Now why did God send an angel? The best guess that we can give is because people are not able to look upon the holiness of God, we are just too sinful

c) We read in Acts 22:6 about The Lord appearing to Paul in a bright light

(1) Was it the type of light we think of, you take that light bulb and keep adding juice to it and seeing how bright it can get?

(2) Probably humans are just not able to express magnificent events

d) So God told Phillip to get up and Go

3. To go to the south to the dessert road that goes down to Gaza – This was right at the edge of the Sinai desert, witch trailed off into Egypt. Very sparsely populated

4. Would not seem like a fruitful place form ministry

5. But God said Go

6. That was it, no I wonder if you would be interested in… No why don’t you talk it over with your family, no pray about it

7. Keep in mind he had a fruitful ministry, surely there was still work to be done there

8. But God Said Go and so he went

9. As Philip was heading along the way, he came unto a chariot

a) In this chariot sat an Ethiopian eunuch – better put the treasurer of the Ethiopian Kingdom

b) This Ethiopian, who we are never told his name, was on his was back from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem were he went to worship

10. Now the ironic part of this, is that Philip thought he was God was calling him to Gaza. We will see shortly however, that God planned on using him on the was to Gaza

B. Application

11. So what can we learn from these verses.

12. There are two very important lessons to be grasp in these couple of verses

13. Number #1: When God says go – Go!

a) This does not mean you sit there forever waiting to make sure

b) When God speaks you go

14. But Dan, how do I know if God is speaking to me. I do not here a great loud audible voice like (*talk into the mike*)

15. Henry Blackaby tells us that God speaks to us by the Holy Spirit through the bible. He also speaks to us through prayer, circumstance, and the church to reveal himself, his purpose, and his ways.

16. God still speaks to us today, and if we stand around debating whether or not he is speaking we will miss an opportunity for a great blessing

17. Number #2: Sometimes we become so focused on our destination (or more correctly or perception of god’s plan or destination) that we may miss opportunities to share the love of Christ along the way

a) We become so preoccupied, about when we get to the destination we then will begin.

b) Folks if Philip did that look what he would have missed.

c) The journey is Just as important as the destination

18. In Greek there are 2 words for time, just like there are three words for love

a) The one word “Chronos” – is were we get Chorological time – seconds minutes, hours, days

b) When we focus on Chronos we think of things such as effectiveness, efficiency, what is the best use of my time