Leaving Church Disappointed
Dr. Brad Whitt
Acts 8:26-30
INTRO: I want you to take your Bibles now today and be finding your place at Acts chapter 8. If you've been in church, or been around church any time at all, this is probably going to be a very familiar story for you. It's the story of the Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, but this morning what I want to do is this - I want to preach this very familiar story in what you might call an unfamiliar way.
You see, most of the time as preachers and teachers we approach this story from the end. We talk about the fact that there was a man that God sent Philip to and Philip witnessed to him and he got saved and was baptized, and there's certainly nothing wrong with preaching and approaching this story that way.
But what I want to do this morning is approach this story from the beginning. Where had this man been? What had he seen? What had he heard? What was going through his mind as he traveled back toward Ethiopia? And what did Philip show, what did Philip do, what did Philip say that was used by the Lord in such a wonderful, powerful way to make an eternal difference in this man's life so that then we can get to the part of the story where he was saved, baptized and sent home to tell others what had happened to him?
You see, I believe that as we begin this story, what we'll find is that here was a man who had been to church - and he had left disappointed.
Have you ever been somewhere and when you left you were disappointed?
ILLUS: I remember a couple of years ago (this was before we had kids, of course) I planned a nice night out on the town and I had made reservations at what was supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Greenville. Well, we showed up and we walked in and the place was so dark that I kind of had to feel my way to our table. When I finally was able to sit down in the chair they brought out our menus and I was barely able to read the menu by the little candle they ...
Dr. Brad Whitt
Acts 8:26-30
INTRO: I want you to take your Bibles now today and be finding your place at Acts chapter 8. If you've been in church, or been around church any time at all, this is probably going to be a very familiar story for you. It's the story of the Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, but this morning what I want to do is this - I want to preach this very familiar story in what you might call an unfamiliar way.
You see, most of the time as preachers and teachers we approach this story from the end. We talk about the fact that there was a man that God sent Philip to and Philip witnessed to him and he got saved and was baptized, and there's certainly nothing wrong with preaching and approaching this story that way.
But what I want to do this morning is approach this story from the beginning. Where had this man been? What had he seen? What had he heard? What was going through his mind as he traveled back toward Ethiopia? And what did Philip show, what did Philip do, what did Philip say that was used by the Lord in such a wonderful, powerful way to make an eternal difference in this man's life so that then we can get to the part of the story where he was saved, baptized and sent home to tell others what had happened to him?
You see, I believe that as we begin this story, what we'll find is that here was a man who had been to church - and he had left disappointed.
Have you ever been somewhere and when you left you were disappointed?
ILLUS: I remember a couple of years ago (this was before we had kids, of course) I planned a nice night out on the town and I had made reservations at what was supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Greenville. Well, we showed up and we walked in and the place was so dark that I kind of had to feel my way to our table. When I finally was able to sit down in the chair they brought out our menus and I was barely able to read the menu by the little candle they ...
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