1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,640 Father's Day. In a world where so many fathers don't seem to be around, we can be grateful 2 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:24,820 for those who are. And I'm very appreciative of fathers who take their position as fathers 3 00:00:24,820 --> 00:00:36,720 seriously. We need more of them. Turn with me to Acts chapter 8. Today we're going to 4 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:48,560 look at a very special father. A man who, well I don't know if you thought much about 5 00:00:48,560 --> 00:01:04,560 him. Get a little bit of a background. Stephen, one of the seven, are often called deacons. 6 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:14,080 The Bible just refers to them as the seven. And Stephen, one of those seven, had just 7 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:27,720 been stoned to death. And a persecution broke out against the church. And people were being 8 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:32,320 hauled off to prison for being Christians. By the way, did you know people are being 9 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:42,320 hauled off to prison today for being Christians in some places? Did you know that there are 10 00:01:42,320 --> 00:01:50,360 people today, just as in the days when Stephen was stoned, there are people who are being 11 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:58,480 killed for their faith? Did you know that there are some places on earth that it's 12 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:14,080 very dangerous to be a Christian? It really is. Anyway, Saul, who was one of the leaders 13 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:24,640 in the martyrdom of Stephen, at that time a great persecution arose against the church. 14 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:35,840 Acts chapter 8 verse 1. And they were all scattered throughout in the regions of Judea 15 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:43,480 and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made 16 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:55,800 great lamentation over him. This was a time of great difficulty for the church. And as 17 00:02:55,800 --> 00:03:03,160 I said, it's happening today. Some places it's worse than others and some places that 18 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:13,200 it was worse, it's better and some, you know, it's up and down. Only the apostles, and I 19 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:20,160 don't know how the apostles escaped staying in Jerusalem, but they did. And they were 20 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:30,640 all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. It's interesting 21 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:37,720 because it says that Saul, he made havoc of the church entering every house, dragging 22 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:48,920 off men and women committing them to prison. Now, what is interesting to me is that people, 23 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:54,680 Christian people were scattered everywhere and verse 4 says, therefore those who were 24 00:03:54,680 --> 00:04:04,400 scattered went everywhere doing what? Preaching the word. Now that's an amazing picture. These 25 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:08,980 are people who are running for their lives but they can't keep their mouths shut when 26 00:04:08,980 --> 00:04:18,840 it comes to Jesus. They can't stop talking about him and what he's done for them. And 27 00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:25,960 it was time, if you will look in Daniel chapter 9, which we're not going to go to, but you 28 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:33,960 will find that the time when Jesus was to begin his ministry had been foretold to the 29 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:43,440 year. Did you know that? Did you know? And I think most of you do, that the time of his 30 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:57,340 crucifixion was told to the year. Did you know that? It's exciting. And the time when 31 00:04:57,340 --> 00:05:10,800 God's probation on his Israelite people was also foretold. And sure enough, we see the 32 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:19,560 gospel is no longer just going to the Jews in Jerusalem. It's going everywhere. And 33 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:25,960 by the way, I think it's going just about everywhere today. They tell me over at Jesus 34 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:33,160 for Asia that there are 6,000 people groups in the world today that as far as we know 35 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:43,000 have not been reached with the gospel. Pardon? All we need is 6,000 missionaries, one to 36 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:49,480 go to each place. Wouldn't that take care of it in a hurry? Well, God has ways of reaching 37 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:59,000 people that we have never heard of or thought of. And I have found over the years that we 38 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:06,680 should not sell him short. God's arm is not any shorter than it ever was. I'll never forget 39 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:15,560 sitting at a table potluck dinner after the morning service in Indonesia. It was the day 40 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:21,880 when we had our big baptism, it was a mission trip. We were doing evangelism there. I had 41 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:27,440 a church I was doing evangelism in. My wife had a church she was doing evangelism in. 42 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:35,120 And there were several other sites where evangelism was going on. And that afternoon we had a 43 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:40,480 big baptism from all the sites in the hotel swimming pool where we were staying. That 44 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:46,800 was exciting. But during lunch we sat across the table from a young man who was telling 45 00:06:46,800 --> 00:07:01,720 us how he had grown up being taught how to kidnap and assault young Christian women. 46 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:08,640 He told us the things that he had been taught and then he told us how one night he had a 47 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:21,040 dream. Jesus appeared to him in a dream and told him that he needed to go to the seventh 48 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:28,960 day Adventist and he needed to find out what things were really all about. And I don't 49 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:34,600 remember the specifics of the dream but that young man today is a seventh day Adventist 50 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:45,120 evangelist. That young man today has been winning souls for Jesus including some of 51 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:54,600 his family members. I would like to give more details but you know we can look here in scripture 52 00:07:54,600 --> 00:08:02,760 and see that God is well able to take care of the details. He scattered Christians out 53 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:09,200 of Jerusalem everywhere with the persecution. And one fellow by the name of Philip, not 54 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:17,000 Philip the disciple, you remember the apostles all stayed in Jerusalem. This is thought to 55 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:27,400 be Philip one of the seven just as Stephen was one of the seven. Philip went down to 56 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:33,960 the city of Samaria. In fact as we get into the story a little bit we find that he apparently 57 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:42,000 went to not just the city of Samaria, which city we're not sure, but he went down to Samaria 58 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:49,760 and he reached the whole province of Samaria. Things happened because the Holy Spirit was 59 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:57,920 with Philip. Notice the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip 60 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:04,380 hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits crying with a loud voice 61 00:09:04,380 --> 00:09:10,400 came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed and 62 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:19,440 there was great joy in that city. I don't know about you but when I read that I am 63 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:27,640 interested in the fact that when God's message comes to people and they find Jesus he can 64 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:38,720 fill their lives with joy. Now that's interesting. I know I had a church member one time who 65 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:46,040 was being badly persecuted in her home. She said oh I wish I could find the joy. Hey it's 66 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:56,360 there. It's there and what's interesting I go through the gospel and I find Jesus preaching 67 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:02,080 to the Samaritans. Oh that brings me to a very important point. Philip wasn't the first 68 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:11,660 one to go to Samaria was he with the gospel. Where had these people heard the gospel before? 69 00:10:11,660 --> 00:10:21,640 They heard it from Jesus himself at least some of them had. John chapter 4 Jesus is 70 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:28,840 sitting by a well. He's tired he's thirsty the disciples have gone into the nearby town 71 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:36,800 to buy food. Woman comes to get water you know the story and he asks her for a drink. 72 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:43,600 Now you could buy stuff from Samaritans if you were a Jew but you didn't ask for favors 73 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:51,760 and you didn't grant any right. We call that racism today and the Jews were very racist 74 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:56,600 and so were the Samaritans and you know the story. How is it that you're a Jew asking 75 00:10:56,600 --> 00:11:07,720 me a Samaritan and a woman at that for water. You know the story. If you knew who it was 76 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:15,200 who was talking with you you would ask him and he would give you living water. And Jesus 77 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:25,720 goes on to present himself as the water of life to this woman. And before the story is 78 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:32,720 over she runs to the town and talks to the men because she apparently was a woman that 79 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:39,880 knew the men better than the women. And she tells them come to come out and see the man 80 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:50,800 that told me everything I have ever done. Is not this the Messiah and they went. And 81 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:57,880 afterwards they said now we believe not because of what you said because we have heard him 82 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:09,340 ourselves and there was great joy. I get excited about what God does for us with his Holy Spirit. 83 00:12:09,340 --> 00:12:20,000 We hear today a lot of people talking about the Holy Spirit in the religious world. There's 84 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:27,840 different claims made for him. Mostly we hear about power. We hear about the gifts of the 85 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:36,120 Spirit and I believe in the gifts of the Spirit. We hear about all kinds of things. But I'd 86 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:49,680 like to suggest that when the Holy Spirit fills our lives he brings joy. Deep down joy. 87 00:12:49,680 --> 00:12:58,200 That even when the world about us is coming apart. When people are unhappy and crying 88 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:07,280 and everything else. In Jesus there is joy through his Holy Spirit. And in Samaria that's 89 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:14,320 what happened. It seemed like everybody was being converted. People were happy. They were 90 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:20,240 proclaiming. People would hear and they would share it with their friends. Even Simon Magus 91 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:27,280 the sorcerer who had been kind of a religious leader amongst the Samaritans noted for his 92 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:35,120 magic. He accepted the gospel. Now he had some problems. I don't want to go into all 93 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:44,240 of that. But it tells us that word got back to the apostles in Jerusalem and guess who 94 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:51,640 came down to get in on the program. And at that point the people were being converted. 95 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:56,560 They were filled with joy. They were seeing the miracles that Philip was doing. And down 96 00:13:56,560 --> 00:14:04,680 come Peter and John to Samaria. By the way, remember how John loved Samaritans? Lord shall 97 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:13,680 we call fire down from heaven on these people like Elijah did. Remember that little story? 98 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:23,960 It tells us about it. Now Peter and John come down to preach a more full gospel to lay their 99 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:30,160 hands on people and give them the gift of the Holy Spirit. I don't know about you but 100 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:38,240 I think this is an exciting story. Right? Yeah. And if you've ever seen the Holy Spirit 101 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:45,840 at work healing, it doesn't seem like we see a lot of it but we do see it. And it's 102 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:53,480 exciting when it happens. And when these people saw the Holy Spirit at work they were filled 103 00:14:53,480 --> 00:15:00,880 with joy all the more because demons were being cast out. They would make a loud cry 104 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:08,200 and leave their victims and the victims would be converted. The lame were walking. The blind 105 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:21,400 were seeing. A little bit hard on the ophthalmology business but it worked. People were seeing. 106 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:33,800 Little bit hard on orthopedics there. But who made us? It is he who has made us and 107 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:41,360 not we ourselves. Little hard for us to remember that sometimes but the one that made us can 108 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:47,320 heal and he can give strength. And one of these days we're told he's going to take 109 00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:54,680 old dusty bones and give them life again. Did you know that? I'm sure you did. You've 110 00:15:54,680 --> 00:16:02,400 heard it before. So it's not a big thing for him to heal. Maybe it's a big thing for 111 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:11,040 us to accept it sometimes. I don't know. But one of the gifts, there's a number of 112 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:19,640 gifts of the Spirit that are mentioned. That's just one of them. Anyway, Philip has done 113 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:27,820 a wonderful thing down there. And then we go on later on in the chapter. The Lord tells 114 00:16:27,820 --> 00:16:36,880 him the angel of the Lord, by the way, who's the angel of the Lord? Jesus. Remember Jacob 115 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:43,680 fought with an angel by the brook Jabok and he finally discovered it was the angel of 116 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:48,280 the Lord when the angel just touched his hip and threw it out of joint. Boy, that's quite 117 00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:59,080 a touch. Try that one. That's the opposite of healing. The angel of the Lord appeared 118 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:07,080 to Gideon. The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah and his wife. The angel of the Lord 119 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:17,320 when Jacob had finished wrestling with him, he said, I have wrestled with God and lived. 120 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:23,120 The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go toward the south along the road 121 00:17:23,120 --> 00:17:32,000 which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold 122 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:38,460 a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, 123 00:17:38,460 --> 00:17:44,920 who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning 124 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:51,120 and sitting in his chariot. He was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said to 125 00:17:51,120 --> 00:17:58,000 Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. I like the way the spirit was able to direct 126 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:06,880 him. You know the spirit is still able to direct. He directs, doesn't always speak 127 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:13,480 to us directly, does he? But he does give us direction through circumstances and some, 128 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:25,800 once in a while he speaks. Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and 129 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:32,280 said, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides 130 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:37,280 me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the scripture which 131 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:44,960 he read was, and you know this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb 132 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:55,320 before its shears is dumb. So I'm sorry. This is a, in this version it says silent. So he 133 00:18:55,320 --> 00:19:04,320 opened not his mouth to his humiliation, in his humiliation his justice was taken away 134 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:12,640 and who will declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth. Some of us have 135 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:25,880 learned those passages about the suffering Messiah written in Isaiah 53, back over 700 136 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:37,120 years before Jesus was ever born. Isn't that amazing? How God could look down in the future 137 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:45,800 and say, this is what's going to happen to the Messiah. And here's this man, this Ethiopian, 138 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:54,880 now he's obviously a Jew, he's been to Jerusalem, been there to worship and so he's, he's a 139 00:19:54,880 --> 00:20:01,360 Jewish Ethiopian, there's still plenty of Jewish Ethiopians today. Did you know that? 140 00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:08,280 And many of them will, and actually there's Ethiopian Christians who say that Christianity 141 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:19,140 first, they trace Christianity and Ethiopia back to this man. Very interesting. And so 142 00:20:19,140 --> 00:20:28,040 with the Holy Spirit guiding him, our friend Philip explains how the Messiah came, how 143 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:34,840 he was rejected, how he bore our sins and was nailed to a cross and how he arose the 144 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:42,440 third day. And this Ethiopian, and they got to the point, you know, a chariot, how fast 145 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:52,320 does a horse push and carry a chariot along? They don't use chariots anymore. I've been 146 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:58,920 in places where they have wagons. In our hotel in Egypt they had a chariot, we were there 147 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:05,720 during December and they had a chariot down in the lobby with some plastic horses pulling 148 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:13,600 it and they had a Santa Claus in the chariot. It's kind of interesting. But here's this 149 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:23,640 man and Philip riding along. They've covered who the Messiah was, how he died for our sins, 150 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:29,520 they've talked about baptism and they come across a pool of water and the man says, here's 151 00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:36,880 water, what's to keep me from being baptized? You know, you're here, you can baptize me, 152 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:42,040 can't you? Yeah. And so they go into the pool and they come out and then the Holy Spirit 153 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:49,040 does something that I don't read about anywhere in scripture other than here. It says he caught 154 00:21:49,040 --> 00:22:03,800 Philip away. I don't know what that was like. All I know is that he showed up 20 miles away 155 00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:12,760 and he didn't walk that 20 miles, the Holy Spirit transported him there. And Philip, 156 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:19,560 well he's known as the evangelist, after all, look what he did in Samaria. Look what he 157 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:27,320 did with the Ethiopian eunuch. To read the story of Philip is for me to get very excited 158 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:34,600 about what the Holy Spirit can do. It's not the last mention of Philip in Acts, by the 159 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:42,600 way. If you go to chapter 21, if you're looking in your Bible, let's look at Acts chapter 160 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:53,040 21. Paul is coming back from a missionary trip, his third one. He's headed for Jerusalem 161 00:22:53,040 --> 00:23:04,240 where he expects to run into, you guessed it, persecution. But he stops and spends a little 162 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:12,520 time in the home of Philip. Verse 8, on the next day we who were Paul's companions departed 163 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:20,400 and came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip, the evangelist. We've met that 164 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:27,360 guy haven't we? Who was one of the seven and stayed with him. Now get this. This is one 165 00:23:27,360 --> 00:23:37,120 of the most, well I find it a very interesting verse. I wish I had a whole lot more details. 166 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:47,760 Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied. Did the apostle Peter have a wife? 167 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:56,520 Bible says he does. Paul says, yeah, Paul says he has as much a right to haul around 168 00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:04,760 a wife with him as Cephas and the other apostles. So yeah, we know Peter was married. What about 169 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:14,880 his children? Did he have any kids? I don't know. I see puzzled looks because you don't 170 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:23,440 know. The Bible doesn't tell us. Was Paul married? The apostle Paul. Well when he wrote 171 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:30,360 first Corinthians chapter 7 he obviously was not. Had he been married before? Well we know 172 00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:35,120 he was a member of the Sanhedrin and one of the rules for belonging to the Sanhedrin was 173 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:41,160 you had to be married. So he probably was at one point. What happened to his wife? We 174 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:47,740 have no idea. The Bible does not even mention her. Did he have children? I have my doubts. 175 00:24:47,740 --> 00:24:54,560 We don't know. How about the other disciples? Do we know anything about any of the twelve 176 00:24:54,560 --> 00:25:04,600 apostles' children? If they had any. We don't know. Do we know anything about the children 177 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:17,840 of the seven? Did Stephen had children? We don't know. How about Nicholas or any of the 178 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:28,520 others? We don't know. Children are rarely mentioned unless they're in a royal line or 179 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:35,400 something which reminds me. You can go through the kings of the Old Testament. Have you ever 180 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:43,200 looked at some of the stories of those kings? Some of them were good men. They might have 181 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:51,680 had some problems but they were good men. Right? King David? King Saul was not that 182 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:58,680 great a guy but he had an awfully fine son, didn't he? Jonathan? Yeah. Stop and think 183 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:08,920 about it. Then there were some others. How about Hezekiah? Was he a good man? How about 184 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:17,080 his son who followed him on the throne, Manasseh? He was about as bad as they get. How about 185 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:25,760 Jehoshaphat? Was he a good man? Wonderful man. What about his son who reigned after 186 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:36,080 him? Very wicked. You go down the list. A good man might have a good son. A good son 187 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:43,080 would have a son who would turn out to be a good son who would have a son who was terribly 188 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:49,720 wicked. Have you ever wondered about that? What went wrong? And by the way, I would like 189 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:56,960 to point out that with the best of parents, some children grow up and they make their 190 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:03,240 own decisions, right? There comes a point where you just can't really hold parents 191 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:10,080 responsible. But I have thought about it. Who raised these little princelings in the 192 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:18,880 Old Testament? Dad was busy with the affairs of state, right? Conducting wars, taking care 193 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:25,920 of all kinds of things that had to be taken care of by a king. Well, mom might have a 194 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:35,080 little more input. And were moms chosen because they would be good mothers? Maybe sometimes, 195 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:43,600 they were just pretty women. And my guess is a lot of them, in fact the Bible mentions 196 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:52,300 it with Ahab's children that they had governors and people who raised their children for them. 197 00:27:52,300 --> 00:28:03,340 And all of that made a difference. And it still does make a difference. Growing up, 198 00:28:03,340 --> 00:28:14,080 I noticed that it was proverbial that preacher's children had problems. As a preacher, that's 199 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:26,840 scary. But it's true. Dad's gone a lot. Dad's busy with the affairs of the church or maybe 200 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:36,480 two or three churches or four or five. I've had a district once where from the front door 201 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:46,360 of the parsonage where I lived to my father's church was 112 miles exactly. And there are 202 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:53,280 districts in the denomination that are bigger. Wyoming, there's a pastor there. In fact, 203 00:28:53,280 --> 00:29:00,520 I assisted in that district for a while. He has five churches all the way from New Castle, 204 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:10,840 Wyoming to Sheridan. That's more than 200 miles. That's at least 150. He's got the 205 00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:20,040 whole northeast corner of Wyoming in his district. Where do you find time for family when you're 206 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:27,520 constantly on the go? Well, I'll tell you, there was one man who managed with the help 207 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:36,360 of the Holy Spirit to work it out and his name was Philip. He had four daughters. Now, 208 00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:42,800 did he have any other children? I don't know. But he had four daughters who had the gift 209 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:51,160 of prophecy and God doesn't just give that gift to everybody. I think it's an amazing 210 00:29:51,160 --> 00:30:01,140 story how much is in those few verses he had. Look at it. Now, the man had four virgin daughters 211 00:30:01,140 --> 00:30:11,280 who prophesied. That is so exciting. I wonder what their home life was like. Well, I've 212 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:17,720 heard it said the first thing you can do for your children is to marry a woman who would 213 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:25,520 be a good mother. And maybe it's the other way around too. Women, the best thing you 214 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:33,920 can do for your children is to find a good father. Unfortunately, we live in a society 215 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:41,680 where those items don't seem to enter into the choices very often. You know what I'm 216 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:49,560 saying? Oh, he loves me. Or she loves me. She's so pretty. You know, we could go on. 217 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:58,080 You know the kinds of things that people look at in our society. Emphasis on outward appearance. 218 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:09,760 The son. All kinds of things. What kind of a parent will that loved one be? Philip and 219 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:17,920 his wife, and we know nothing about her, but the two of them must have been dynamic in 220 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:25,000 the home because they had four daughters who had it together. Now, the daughters weren't 221 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,960 married. They didn't have children. I don't know if they ended up getting married. I don't 222 00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:33,480 know if they were grandchildren that ever got involved. There's so much we don't know, 223 00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:41,120 but we do know that all four daughters of Philip prophesied. And that tells me that 224 00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:51,480 when Philip was home, there was a very special presence in that home. The Holy Spirit. And 225 00:31:51,480 --> 00:32:01,440 four daughters had received the gift of prophecy. The Holy Spirit's presence in that home made 226 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:09,240 it a very special place. And daughters who almost never are mentioned in the New Testament 227 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:18,360 are four of them mentioned here. And by the way, did have you ever read the Book of Malachi? 228 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:23,840 Anybody here ever read the Book of Malachi? Not a very long book, but it's a very interesting 229 00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:32,480 book. It says, by the way, it's my wife's favorite. It has one of her favorite promises 230 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:40,120 in there. Did you know that? It says in there that we will grow up as calves in the stall. 231 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:48,320 Isn't that a precious promise? There's others there. It says, Behold, I will send you Elijah 232 00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:55,640 the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will 233 00:32:55,640 --> 00:33:04,040 turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. And the hearts of the children to their fathers, 234 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:12,880 lest I come and strike the earth with the curse. I don't want anyone to go out feeling 235 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:23,040 guilty if your home is not what you would like it to be. I want to make that very clear. 236 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:28,120 But I do want to make another thing clear, and that is we need to be praying for the 237 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:34,360 Holy Spirit. Not just that we might have the gifts of the Spirit, but that we might have 238 00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:44,040 lives that are representative of our Heavenly Father. And we cannot make our children's 239 00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:55,080 decisions for them. Right? They cannot make our decisions for us. Well, if we get old 240 00:33:55,080 --> 00:34:05,160 enough and bad enough shape, they might be making decisions for us. But we can be praying 241 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:13,440 that God will fill our hearts. Men, I especially address this to you. I grew up in a society 242 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:24,560 that said religion was especially for women. Malachi talks about fathers. Philip was a 243 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:33,080 father who had four daughters who were filled with the Spirit. And as imperfect as we are, 244 00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:40,320 and none of us are perfect, we need to be praying for the Holy Spirit to fill our lives. 245 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:50,480 Men, yes women too, but men, this is a message for you. This is Father's Day. You cannot 246 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:57,880 make mother be whatever you think she should be. You can pray for her. You cannot make 247 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:03,200 your children be, especially when they get older, you can't make them be what you think 248 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:12,720 they ought to be. But you can pray for them. And most of all, you can open your heart for 249 00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:22,240 the presence of the Holy Spirit so that you can be the Father that God intends you to 250 00:35:22,240 --> 00:35:35,840 be. And to the young men, to the children, such things are still in the future for you, 251 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:44,800 but if time lasts long enough, you too will probably be a parent. And you too can pray 252 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:53,280 that God will fill your life, that you can be to your children and to those about you 253 00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:58,840 the person that God would have you to be. I understand we're all born with a bill of 254 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:10,280 goods, every one of us, but we can turn that over to God. We can. And our God can make 255 00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:29,800 us new creatures in Christ Jesus. What about it?