The Other Side Of Obedience

Sometimes the most important step of faith is one you cannot fully explain yet. In Acts 8, Philip was called away from a successful ministry and sent down a desert road with no details and no destination. He simply obeyed—and that obedience led him to an Ethiopian official who was searching for answers.

This message explores what real obedience to God looks like, why He often gives us direction without the full explanation, and how one simple “yes” can have an impact far beyond what we can see. If you’ve been waiting for the whole plan before taking the first step, this is a reminder that God doesn’t need you to see the entire picture. He asks for your next step of faith.


This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Alright, friends, let's find a seat. Find a seat. Good morning, everybody. How about that drummer today, huh?

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Come on, that drummer.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Woo! Glory of God. Um hey guys, uh, can I introduce you to my friend Pastor Parker Manuel? He's from Pinewood Church.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Glad to be here. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Um, I'll I'll share some uh some words about him here in a second, but as we're getting going today, he's gonna be bringing the word today. But I I figured some of you guys know Parker because Pinewood Church used to meet out of this building and they were kind of rubbing shoulders with us quite a bit back in that day. I'm sure Parker will tell a little bit more about that. But um, by way of introduction, I just want to uh start this morning with a lightning round with Pastor Parker Manual, okay? It's a lightning round of questions, okay? He's gonna say all these things to introduce himself, but uh he doesn't know what these questions are. So I'm gonna rapid fire five questions to you.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

You have 10 seconds too.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Do I need my Bible?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

I do not need your Bible. Okay, we couldn't. I don't know. Question number one what was your most recent Amazon purchase?

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Um it was probably more irrigation from my garden.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Oh, look at you, man. Look at you.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

A little late, but yeah, we needed they needed water.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Okay, hey man, you're a good man. You're a good man. Okay. What is the most Colorado thing about you and the least Colorado thing about you?

SPEAKER_02 1:27

The most Colorado thing about me. Um I don't wear shoes a lot. I don't know if that's a colorado. That's the boulder thing about me. Colorado thing. What boulder thing or colorado thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

I don't know. Colorado thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

I mean, if I'm outside of Boulder, the most colorado thing about me is I hunt.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Oh, there you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Inside Boulder, yeah, that's it. There's gonna be a lot of things that uh I don't know. Uh the least colorado thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Um probably a little south in you. Okay. All right, I need you to settle this for us today. LeBron James or Michael Jordan?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

There's no settling in everything. Everybody already knows. I was there for the three-peat interview.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Okay. What's the weirdest thing anyone's ever said to you after a sermon?

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Um, weirdest. Oh man, that's been a lot of weird things. I've been hissed at.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

You've been hissed at. Oh, that's another issue.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

That's another issue. I mean, that was probably one of the most weirdest things. All right. Uh somebody like hissed in my face.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Okay, somebody hissed in your face. That's a weird thing. So just after today, please do not hiss in his face.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Any more of those stories.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

And if you do, we'll get we have plans for you. We got plans for you.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Please don't hiss at me.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

All right, okay. Last serious one. What's your favorite part of pastoring in Boulder?

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Um this is gonna sound super cliche. But the people. The people. Yeah. Beautiful people in Boulder. So that's a huge privilege.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

All right, friends. Well, uh, we get to welcome Pastor Parker to bring the word to you today. I'll I'll say this one of the things that you don't know is that uh we have we have the privilege of getting to spend time together. There's a whole group of pastors in the Boulder area. We get together regularly for prayer, uh, for parties, just to build relationship. And honestly, you guys need to know this. We don't see each other as competition, there's no territorial nature here. We uh we're here for each other so that each of us win. And uh I've known Parker uh for the last several years now. Yeah, and they're doing incredible work in at Pinewood Church in in the heart of Boulder. He's gonna share a little bit about that. But here, can you guys join me this morning? It is an honor and privilege to get to welcome him into this house and we get to hear the word of the Lord. Can you guys help me just give a nice warm lookout welcome to Pastor Parker today?

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Come on. Thanks. Thank you, thank you. Love you too. Come on. Man, it's so glad to be so glad to be back. It's been a while since I've been here, but it feels like coming home. I wanted to, before I dive into the message in the word, I wanted to give a special honor to Pastor Luke and Megan. They are some of our favorite people in Boulder. Uh, Pastor Luke, if it's your first time and if you're a guest, just stay right here. You're not gonna find a better pastor. Uh, he is even better off of the stage than he is on the stage. He cares for people. He leads uh, he really is the pastor of pastors for Boulder. He brings together all of the pastors for prayer and for encouragement, uh, and he's that for me. He's an exceptional leader, but I think more than that, he is an incredible dad and husband. And I think as far as priorities go, I think that would be uh something that I would look for in a pastor. I would want somebody who prioritizes the home and their marriage more than anyone else. I like to tell my congregation it's like my wife, my kids, and you guys are down here somewhere on my priorities. Um doesn't mean I don't still love you, but uh family always comes first, and you lead out in a great example of that. So I love you a whole lot. Very kingdom-minded. Give it up for your pastor, Pastor Luke. If you have your Bible with you, would you turn to Acts chapter 8? Acts chapter 8. We're gonna be looking at a story starting in verse 26. Acts chapter 8. And let's start reading in verse 26. An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is the desert road. So he got up and he went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, the high official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit told Philip, go and join that chariot. When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you're reading? And he said, How can I? He said, Unless somebody guides me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the scripture passage he was reading was this He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shears, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. The eunuch said to Philip, I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about, himself or someone else? Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that scripture. We'll stop right there. We'll come back. Let's pray. Father, we love you. We ask that your Holy Spirit be the teacher today. Change and transform lives. God, I pray that we would be thinking about what you want to do personally in our lives, not with who we came with, not our spouse, our kids, um, but that we would hear this word and we would be convicted by it, transformed by it. We know as your word goes out, it accomplishes the purpose for which you sent it, and that it will have success. And so we lean into that promise this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Title of today's message is The Other Side of Obedience. The other side of obedience. And the big idea is that you rarely know what's going to happen on the other side of your obedience. Lookout has been a huge part of Pinewood's story. From the very beginning, Pastor Luke has been, like I said before, encouraging us. He's been in um encouraging me personally. But beyond that, whenever COVID hit, our church wasn't even two years old yet. We were a baby church, and we were seeing God do some incredible things, and COVID hit, and we were now without a home, and really without anywhere to go. And we looked, we tried to get in anywhere that we could. We tried to do the video thing, which was awful. That was terrible. That was bad. That put me in a really bad place. Uh, but uh, Pastor Luke, I reached out to him and I said, Hey, can can we meet on in your field? And without hesitation, he said, Come on. He said, Uh, you know, you need a place to meet, come on. Now, it would be easy for a church to think, uh, well, another church, come in, what about us? Like, are we gonna have people switching back and forth? Are they gonna take ours? Or is he gonna, you know, there could be this like competition mindset. Uh, you guys don't have that at all. You have very, very, very kingdom mindset. Not a pinewood kingdom, not a lookout kingdom, but you have a very much like there's one kingdom, and there's one church. And when one wins, we all win. And so Pastor Luke said, Come on. So we actually met outside for three months, and it was amazing. And I remember one Sunday, Pastor Luke calls me and he says, Hey, your volunteers are out there in a storm and it's windy and it's snowing. You need to come inside. And you welcomed us into your home. So if you are new or you've uh maybe only been around for a couple years, we actually met in the youth, is it? I think it's the youth room now. In the theater. Uh we we called it the little house and the big house. Uh but we met, we met in the uh we met in the little house over there uh for several years. And whenever I think on the other side of obedience, Pastor Luke, in that moment, whenever he heard about our need, he responded with obedience to the scripture, and that's to care for one another's and to be hospitable. And so he said yes, which allowed us as a church plan of only two years old to continue to meet. Not only continue to meet, but continue to grow and reach more people. While we were here, we saw many salvations, we saw many baptisms. Um, I have my family. If you would pull a picture up of my family, this is my family. Uh love my family. There's there's two things this uh picture tells you. One is that my wife is a total saint. I mean, she's the absolute best. And uh, and yes, I am old enough to have a 23-year-old. That's two things that this picture does tell you. Um, but a little bit of the story of even my family, whenever we were in the little house, uh the theater, um one of the people that came into the room was somebody who didn't want to be there. And I could tell right out of the gate because you know how y'all had mingle time just now? During that mingle time, I walked down and I looked at this person and I said, How's it going? I'm my name's Parker. And she did not shake my hand or look at me or respond to what I asked. And I said, That's okay. I'm glad you're here. And uh later on, that person would be in the hallway and my my wife met her in y'all's hallway out here and began to lay and lay hands on her and pray for her. Uh, that teenage girl at the time uh would be somebody that we would continue to pray for and lean into. And uh through a series of events, uh, we allowed to actually move into our home. We invited her to move into our home so that uh she could have a place to stay. Uh that teenage girl became my oldest daughter, became that girl on the far left. And now she's a part of our family. She was saved here, she was baptized here. Uh, she would then go on to want to serve the Lord with her life to reach high school students, middle school and high school students in Boulder, uh, working through young life. And now she is continuing that, uh, reaching students that are far from God, just like her, with a very similar story. Kids that are nobody that everybody has given up on these kids. Those are the kids that she's like, that's my kid. And I'm gonna reach her. So you just never know. You just never know what's up, what's on the other side of one yes. When God gives you a nudge, or when God says this, uh, Pastor Luke could have never known what would happen with his yes to us move here. We could have never known from our yes to keep going after COVID what God would bring in. But the the Christian life, what you're gonna find is that really it's a series of small yeses that lead to a really big move of God. And this is what we see here in Acts chapter 8. Philip. In 8, 26 and 27, he says, An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. Uh, one thing, speaking of COVID, one thing I believe when people read this passage during COVID, it said, get up and go south. I think some people thought that was a word for them, and moved to Nashville in Florida. At least that's what happened with us. We saw at least half of our church move south. But that's not what this passage is saying. It's not saying go south. What Luke is referring to here is just go wherever I tell you to go. Go to the desert road. And he makes it sound, Luke, Luke's the author of Acts, and he makes it sound really simple. Go. And then right afterwards, we see, so he got up and went. So as we read this text as kind of a face value, it almost feels like Philip is sitting there just waiting on some assignment from the Lord. Philip's just sitting there, I'm waiting. Send me. And then God says, go, and he's like, Finally, I got I got something to do. That's not what was happening. If you look at the context of Philip, Philip was actually in a very thriving ministry. There was a ton of fruit. Imagine if a church planner shows up in Boulder, the church blows up, thousands of salvations, baptisms, people are getting healed. It's a great move of God. And then God asked that church planner, hey, by the way, get up and go south. And you'd be like, What? Do you not see what's happening here? Do you not see the revival that's happening here? That would be what I would think. I would have a lot of questions. I would say, are you sure? You want to tell me to go to the desert land when I'm experiencing an incredible move of God here? But that is the context of what's happening with Philip. He's called out of a successful ministry into the unknown. And what does he do? Does he question God? Does he doubt God? Or does he say no? No. The Bible says that he got up and he went. We like to tell our kids that uh whenever we're training them in obedience, we like to say that delayed obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience. So it's like, okay, I'll do it. And then they don't. That's called disobeying. But obedience is an immediate response. It's a God, you tell me to move, I move. You tell me to go, I go. You tell me to speak, I speak. And this is what Philip demonstrates here. God doesn't give Philip an explanation, He gives him a direction. And just that one phrase alone, I think, could be something that we could just sit in for just a second and just process. How many of you, whenever you feel God is calling you to do something, you need the details? But where are we going? What's the budget? Who's going with me? But if I go, that means that I'm not going to be able to. But God, don't you know the desires of my heart? But you're calling me to do this, but this is risky, but this is scary. But don't you see my fruitful ministry here? You see, there's so many questions that we can have, and there's so many pushbacks that we can give God, but so often God does not give an explanation, He gives a direction. He says, Go here, say this, do that. Number one, if you take a note, obedience takes the next step. Obedience doesn't give the full story. Obedience takes the next step. God often gives you the first step and then he waits to see before uh what you do with that step before he shows you the next step. So many people want to say, I just don't know. I talk to people all the time who say, I just don't know what my purpose is or what God has me here, or I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm like, okay. Where do you work? No, I work, I work here. Okay. Who works with you? Okay. What is God calling you to do in the lives of the people that you work with? So much so so much we want to look at a bigger purpose, like an umbrella thing, uh experience without, and but we'll walk right over the like person God has put right in front of us. No, no, no, no, that's not what I'm doing. I'm looking for purpose. Like so the people that you have around you are not your assignment. Philip wasn't told to go to Ethiopia, wasn't told that there would be a chariot, he wasn't told there would be a man reading Isaiah 53. And he wasn't told that he would be bringing a gospel conversation and get to baptize him. God simply said, Go. And he sends them to the desert land. I think that's an interesting way to say that. Uh, a while back, a long time ago, actually, uh preached this uh a little differently on uh the desert land of destiny. Uh and it's basically you you you like to think um if you're winning and if you're successful, that's where God is calling you. But sometimes God calls you into the desert land intentionally, not to punish you. This wasn't God calling Philip away from something that was working to punish him. This was God calling him into the desert land to bless him, to give him a mission and an opportunity that he didn't know what would be on the other side. We like to think that God's will looks like momentum, opportunity, influence, resources, friendships, relationships, certainty. But obedience often looks less promising than what you're leaving. This has been a big part of our story. My wife and I lived in Nashville, Tennessee, prior to coming to Boulder, Colorado. And in Nashville, it was amazing. I love Nashville, and it Nashville's booming right now. Everybody wants to move to Nashville. How many of you want to move to Nashville right now? Where's LBC those hands? Uh no, no, no, I'm just kidding. Nobody moved to Nashville. Um, we need more Christians here, okay? Um, it's an awesome place, and I loved everything about it. I wasn't coming to Boulder to run from anything. We were uh having our fourth kid. Our family and all of our lifelong best friends lived within 10 minutes from us. We had recently renovated our dream home on the back of five acres. That was one minute from the church. Um, and we really had a special community, and it was in that moment that God said, I want you to leave and go start a church. And we didn't know where. So we went on a journey uh praying over cities, and we Boulder wasn't even really on our radar. But whenever we were traveling through Denver, we felt like God was leading us to go pray through the streets of Boulder. And as we did, there was just a unique peace that we felt being in the city. We went through all of the other cities and then we went back, and just as we prayed and fasted into it, it was God made it very clear that Boulder would be the place that you would go. Now, I'm not trying to like say that I'm Philip. I mean, he was leaving something so much better, and this is Philip, very unique, very different. But what I am saying, I is I understand the tension that you can feel when God calls you away from something that just feels amazing and really comfortable. And you can really, at least I did anyways, you can begin to question, you can begin to wonder, is this God? If God, if you feel a nudge calling you to leave where you are to go spread the gospel somewhere else, there's a high likelihood that could be God. If he's calling you, if you feel something calling you from comfort to discomfort, there's a highly good likelihood that that could be God. Looking back, I can see that God's hand was all over that move. But looking ahead, it was a great mystery. I didn't know how we were gonna fund it. I didn't know how my kids were gonna do. I even had one pastor tell me I wouldn't even drive my kids through Boulder. I was like, dang, we're moving. There, man. That's not what you tell somebody that's about to move there with their kids. Oh man, that was not encouraging. But we just knew that God had something in store for our family here. I say that to say because I believe that there's many in this room that's in a very similar situation. You have your business going and it's going really well, but you've been feeling God call you into something else. You have the relationships around you that are comfortable, but maybe not the best for you. And maybe God is calling you to let some of those relationships go because He has something else for you on the other side. And maybe you're just living a very calculated, comfortable life. And maybe God is calling you to live a life of sacrificial generosity. You've been feeling a stirring in your spirit towards that. Maybe he's even giving you a number, but you're like, God, if I do that, then I can't afford the second house. I don't know what you're trying to get. I don't know. I can't afford this. Or that's going to affect how early I retire. Looking back, though, you can see when God calls you to something, there's always a bigger mission as to why. In Acts 8.27, he continues and said, There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, a high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Number two, obedience finds the one. Obedience finds the one. This man was powerful. This man was wealthy. And here he is having all of this influence and all of this great wealth. And here he is wrestling over a text that he can't understand. There was still something greatly missing in his life. I think that is a beautiful picture of Boulder. A lot of wealth, a lot of success. Things are going really well, but yet there's a big hole in your life of, I don't know. There's something missing. I'm searching for something to fulfill this hole. Acts 8.29, the Spirit told Philip, go and join that chariot. The progression, he said, go to the road. And then he said, go to the chariot. Whenever you take your first step, I believe the great next thing of obedience, the great next thing to do is, okay, now what? Maybe God's just calling you to a place or a people. Okay, God, I'm here now. What do you want me to do? And this is what he did. And I love what it says here in verse 30. Philip ran up to it. He left. God told him to go to the chariot, and then he starts running. Acts 8.35. Philip proceeded to tell him the good news of Jesus. Now, from verse 26 to verse 35, you're like, what is happening in this story with Philip? And then here in verse 35, Philip discovers what was on the other side of the obedience, and it was a person. So often when God is calling you to leave where you are into the unknown, it's because of a person. Maybe there's somebody that only you can reach on the other side of your obedience. Maybe it's only your story that could connect with that one person. Maybe it's just that one encounter where you happen to fall, bump into somebody that is wrestling with their faith or has their doubts, and that's your exact story. There's a guy in our church. He came for about a year and a half, and he was not a believer. And his wife was and was kind of like for a while they're kind of keeping it kind of hidden because when they got married, they said, We're never gonna follow any religion. We're gonna just stay atheists. That was an agreement that they had. Well, she had a dream that she was in a bookstore buying a devotional, and so she woke up from that dream. She went straight to Barnes and Noble and she bought a Christian devotional. And she ended up giving her life to Christ. And then she showed up at one of our women's events that I didn't even think we promoted. I don't even know how she found out about it, but she showed up to this women's event and told this story to my wife. And so she started showing up, again, kind of keeping it from her husband. Then finally she told her husband, and her husband started to come into church with her. He came for about a year and a half. Did not trust Jesus. Um every week, weekend we'd give the gospel, never gave his life to Jesus. Uh, but we'd always lean in there, lean into his story, uh, ask him, you know, what questions do you have? What's keeping you from following Jesus? And it was just, he was just a tough cookie. To one day, he was driving. He's an electrician, he's on his way to a job site, and he just got restless with God, kind of frustrated, honestly. And he just started throwing his hands up in the air while he's driving, going, if you're real, just show me. Just, I mean, he was when he told me the testimony, it had some explicits in it. So I'm gonna like keep it the G-rated version for you guys. Uh, but the the idea of it was like, if you're real, then show me and tell and let me see it. So he's like, see? And nothing happened in the car. So he said, see? Nothing. Gets to his job. He's out there working on the breaker box. And as he's working, he feels a tap on his shoulder. This is a guy, a resident. Guy taps him on the shoulder and says, Hey, can I tell you my story? And he puts his tools down, he says, sure. This man proceeds to give his testimony about how Jesus saved his life, and about how he wrestled with questions, and he gave his full testimony. And right then and there, this man began to cry. And uh he said, That's my exact story. And so he lifted his hands up and he said, You got me. You win. You're real. And he came and he was, I saw him, give it up, give it up, give it up. He came to me after the service. I uh uh for the first time I was preaching and he was sitting second row, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, go, yeah. And I was just like, You ain't never been excited about church. And then right after he came forward, he's like, Can I be baptized today? I said, Man, we will fill up the water and we will baptize you today. Um got me. Think about the guy. Now that person has gone on to lead his family in the Lord, his whole family's been baptized. He's gone on to uh reach others for Christ, and he's a real world changer, he's got an incredible story. But think about the guy that's sitting in his couch while an electrician is repairing his breaker box who got a nudge. Did he know that guy's story? Did he know anything about that guy? And if anything, couldn't it have felt incredibly awkward to just walk up and tap an electrician on the shoulder and say, Can I tell you my testimony? Of course. It's it doesn't make sense, it's uncomfortable. But it was for the one. A saying that we say often at Pinewood is even if it's just for the one, it was worth it. We've been around, we've lived in Boulder nine years, we've been in church for almost eight. If we would have spent all of those resources, spent all of that energy, set up and tear down for years, and we reach one, it's worth it. You know who really cares about the one? Jesus. He's a big fan of the one. What does he say? He leaves the 99 and he goes after the so Philip leads a successful ministry. He's following the next steps of what God has for him, and then God directs him to the one. Who's your one? Have you thought about your one? You see that the one isn't just for pastors or leaders in the church. You have a one. I have a one. God has intentionally put people around you. He's put you in situations that you didn't even know about. And what if it was for a person? One person. Who's your one? Last. Obedience outlives the moment. This is amazing. Here we see Philip explaining Isaiah 53, which is a uh really a prophetic verse about Jesus. And then after he gives him the gospel on the road, he is baptized. He says, Look, there's water. What's keeping me from being baptized? And he baptizes him. And I think it's this passage is so fascinating to me. If you love sci-fi, this is about the most sci-fi the Bible can get. The man goes underwater. He comes out. And Philip gets transported. That's pretty cool. He's just, he's gone. He's just not there in the water anymore. He's gone. That's so cool. Verse 39. I love the Bible. You gotta look for this kind of stuff. Verse 39 says, the man went on his way rejoicing. Think about how many acts of obedience he had. Philip had to leave Samaria, take the dirt desert road, approach a chariot, start a conversation, and one man's obedience led to another man's encounter with Jesus. Now, what Paul didn't know, or what Philip didn't know, was that he was actually fulfilling what was spoken in Acts 1.8. What does Acts 1.8 say? And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So what happened? In Acts 1.8, we see that the gospel started in Jerusalem. Persecution led them out to Judea. But then we see Philip going out to Samaria to spread the gospel. But what he didn't know was that as he would go on to a desert road, run up to a chariot, share the gospel, that as he began to share the gospel with this eunuch, that eunuch would go on to fulfill Acts 1.8 and take the gospel to the ends of the earth. The eunuch was a missionary that took the gospel to the earth, the first missionary that took the gospel to the ends of the earth. Philip could only see one man, but God saw a much bigger story. Every great evangelist or revivalist or leader who's ever done anything significant in the world, ever, was somebody who was a maybe kid in a class or a teenager who walked into a room where there was somebody there that loved them, got to know them and share the gospel with them. You never know what's going to happen on the other side of your obedience. But God does. And who is your one? Years later, we see Philip again in Acts 21:8. Luke describes him as Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the seven. Philip the Evangelist. Not too many people have titles in the Bible. At all, actually, but Philip has one. He's Philip the Evangelist. But he didn't start out as one of the seven. He didn't start out with a title. If you look back in Acts 6, before Samaria, before the Ethiopian, before anybody called him Philip the Evangelist, he was serving tables. He was just faithful. He was a servant. And I believe that's our assignment. Not to seek titles, not to seek great influence. Philip was seeking none of that. He was just saying, Lord, I want to be used by you. I want to serve. I got a coffee. A very difficult coffee. I asked some for something off the menu. And what do they do? We got you. Whatever you need. They're a servant. Holding a pop sign, a servant. In the parking lot, servant, running sound, a servant. Nobody's looking for acknowledgement. Nobody cares if the eyes are on them. The worship team, a servant. Pastor Luke, a servant. God has uniquely gifted us with gifts. He's uniquely gifted you with a story that's only your story. And he's calling you to say, God, what do you have for me next? I'm not looking for anything grand. I'm just looking to serve. Use me. I'm yours. I'm your servant. My encouragement for you today is to keep saying yes. Philip saw a desert road, but God saw a personal person traveling down that road. Philip could have seen an interruption, but God saw a divine appointment. Philip could see one Ethiopian, but God saw the gospel continuing to the ends of the earth. And that's why obedience matters. We can't see what God sees. And we don't know what God knows. But we can know God. And we can hear from God. And we should be led by the Spirit of God. If you would go ahead and stand to your feet. I want to give you an invitation right now. As we close, our prayer team is going to be down in the front and on the corners. I think it's important that you respond with obedience. It's pretty clear from the book of James that we could be hearers only and we could walk away saying that's good information. Or I didn't know that about the passage. Or that's interesting. I think that's the worst possible thing you could do on a Sunday is say, that's interesting, or good information. The Bible clearly tells us to respond to his words with obedience. So as we looked at God's word today, what's something that God has called you to? Not something big, not something great. What is one very simple next step that he is calling you to right now? Or maybe a who. Our prayer team is gonna be down the front. If there's something that God is stirring in your spirit, if you need prayer for something or healing, please come down and talk to somebody. If you have never made Jesus Lord of your life, let today be the day that you say yes. Maybe this is why you came today. Maybe you don't know why you're here. You're like, Philip has nothing to do with me. But I will tell you, the best decision you'll ever make in your life is to say yes to Jesus, to put your faith and trust in Him. He loves you. He died on a cross for your sins. He didn't just die for you, he died as you. He took our place on a cross. Bible teaches that everyone has sinned. You know, I've never met anybody that said they haven't sinned. You know, we start off with Romans 3.22, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I've never met anybody that said, That's not me. Everybody that I say talk to says, I'm a sinner. I'm probably I'm probably the best one in here. Best or worst? I don't know. It's probably both. I'm the worst one in here. But now that you've acknowledged that there is sin and that you are one, a sinner, you have to acknowledge what sin equals. Sin equals death. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So somebody has to pay that penalty. It should be us. We're the ones that disobey God, turned our back on God. It should be us. But what does God do in his love and in his mercy? He sends his one and only Son to die on a cross for our sins. Scripture says, For by grace you are saved by faith. Not a result of works, so that nobody can boast. Our salvation is not in our effort, not in how good we are or how bad we are or how hard we work. It is in Christ Jesus alone. And receiving a free gift. For by grace you are saved through faith. And it is not of your own doing. It is a gift from God. If I were to hand you a gift right now, what would be an appropriate response? Thank you. You you receive the gift and you say thank you. You're like, that seems too simple. Welcome to the gospel. That's why it's called good news. The bad news is sin, and then there's the good news of all you have to do is put your faith and trust in Jesus to receive this free gift, and he'll forgive you, he'll wash you, his Holy Spirit will come inside of you, and your life will be changed forever. If you want to make Jesus Lord of your life, if you would bow your head, close your eyes. I'm gonna say a simple prayer. And if you could just repeat this prayer after me, it's not the prayer that saves you, it's your faith in Jesus that saves you. Would you say, Jesus, I acknowledge that I need you. I confess that I have sinned against you. I believe that God has raised you from the dead. And right now, by faith, I say, Jesus is Lord. Thank you for forgiving me. By your grace I am saved, and by your power, I am set free. Let me pray for you. Father, if there is anybody that gave their life to you today, I pray that they would tell somebody, that they wouldn't keep it hidden, that before they leave, they would either tell somebody they came with or they would come down front and they would tell somebody in the prayer team. God, we thank you for another day where we can worship you, we can lean into prayer, fellowship, and the teaching of your word. I pray that we would be a people that is faithful to your house. Faithful to gather. Your word says to not neglect the gathering as some are in the habit of doing, but to gather together all the more and encourage each other in love and good deeds. God, I just pray that we would be faithful to lean in as your bride, as your body. We thank you for this time, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

unknown 41:12

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

Go ahead and take a seat. Take a seat, just a couple more minutes here. Yeah, give a hand uh uh uh is anybody thankful for that word this morning? Yeah, would you thank Pastor Parker coming up, man?

SPEAKER_02 41:22

Amen. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Um now you know Parker shared some of the story of their journey of saying yes uh to God. They're in an incredible new story. Didn't you get a chance to share it there? I know. But I want to invite you to share just uh just a little bit of the season that Pinewood is right now and and what's before you. What's the next yes before you?

SPEAKER_02 41:41

So the next yes was to really pray over a building. So two years ago, we felt a stirring that God was wanting us to uh create more permanency and go from portable to a permanent established place in Boulder. And we were praying over the buildings, and one building became available, and so we prayed around it for over two years, uh, asking God for us to be able to get this building. And at first, uh no doors were opening up for that. And then we got an uh email that said, we would like for you to put in an offer on this building, which is a miracle in itself. That's a big miracle. And this building, I have a picture of it actually. I was supposed to talk about this during the message, and I just totally uh did not look at my notes. Um, this is the building, it's turtle, it's first uh Church of Christ science scientist, and it is two blocks from Pearl Street. Um, you can see Pearl Street two blocks away, and it's a beautiful historic building in the heart of the city. We have a picture of the inside as well, holds 300 people, which is perfect. And um we put in an offer, they accepted that offer, and we are now under contract for that building in downtown Boulder. It's a miracle, it's wild, it's a miracle, it's a lot of series of miracles, it is a lot of series of miracles, but in this next uh six months, what are you what are you guys needing? From now until December 5th, we are needing to raise one million dollars so that we can move into the building. And uh that may seem like a lot, but this is the house of faith. And every time that I've shared that, you know you're around the right people whenever you I even this morning I shared that we're trying to raise a million dollars, and everybody's like dropping the bucket for God, you know? Everybody says that unless you're in that and now it's still seven numbers, you know? Um, but yeah, we're believing for many, many, many more miracles from now until December 5th, so that we can close the gap on that million dollars and we can sign the papers and move into that building for the end of the year.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

Come on, so that's the next guest. And uh it's it's a significant one because in the city of Boulder, there's not a lot of churches that are going and actually able to purchase properties in Boulder to to put to put an anchor, to put roots down right in the heart of the city. They're one of the ones that's doing it, all right. I don't know any other churches in the last uh you know. Several decades who were who were on the same trajectory and just have the faith to build into the state.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

There's never been a church by a church building in Central Boulder.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Ever in the history of the city.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

So so when when Parker shared, here's what I want to share with you guys. When Parker shared the story, and and you know, it's one of those things where when we when we hear about these things, like, oh, it's not it's not like, hey man, hope hope God works that out for you. The question is always well, how is God leading us all to be a part of what he is doing in Boulder? Not just what Pinewood's doing in Boulder, but what he's doing in Boulder. And so they're on a mission, he's he's sharing this far and wide with everybody he can just because he believes this is what God is doing. I believe that too. We need Pinewood to win in Boulder for generations to come. Okay, and so you know, so as a church, several several weeks ago, our our elders prayed and said, What do you want us to do? And so we we unanimously was just a green light. We're gonna make a financial contribution on behalf of the lookout to Pinewood. Here's a check for you guys here today.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Oh man, yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

And uh thank you guys, and and and it's a seed, it's a seed from our heart. And I want you guys to know sometimes we we take up an offering and we do the whole thing, and certainly if you want to give to Pinewood above and beyond this, you can do that. But what I just want to know that we're putting a stake in the ground that we're gonna be a part of what God is doing here, and we're asking God how He wants us to move towards that, and so this is a seed as a church that we get to partner with our friends and say, God, do it again. Every time we say yes, you come through. You do have good plans, you have good plans for us, you have good plans for this city, despite what people say. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

So let's can we just pray? Can we just stretch our hands towards Parker and let's just pray for him on behalf of Pinewood Church and the yes that's before them? And so, Jesus, today, I thank you. Um, I thank you for our friends, I thank you for the bold faith that they walk with. I thank you for the the the fire inside of Parker and Jess and the whole team at Pinewood. And God, as we get to just give them a seed and sow into what's going on at Pinewood, I thank you, God, for your plans and purposes in the city of Boulder, where people only see darkness and oppression. God, you see something completely different. You see your redemptive purposes over the city. You see lives that still need to be reached, lives that need to be changed. You see darkness that needs to be overcome with light. So I just thank you, Lord God, for the full amount and even more to come in before the end of this year, Lord God, so Pinewind can just be launched into their next season together. And as one church, God, we say, God, bring your name glory in this county, bring your name glory in this region. May the name of Jesus be lifted high all across Boulder County. In Jesus' name. Amen. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Amen. Love you. Thank you so much, church.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Absolutely. Let's all stand together. Thank you guys for coming to be a part. Thank you for coming to hear Pastor Parker today. And listen, as we go, we're not going empty-handed. If you're a guest here today, we want to meet you in the back at our sign. You'll see a connect with a sign. Don't leave without saying hi. And I just want to say, as we go, uh may you love well, light up, and look out to the world that God has called you to. May you go with that yes in your heart. In Jesus' name. Amen. See you guys next week for the barbecue. Love you guys.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

Amen.