Redeemer Lutheran Church
1084 W. Bullard Ave.
Fresno, CA   93711
Phone: (559) 439-8500
Fax: (559) 439-8585
office@redeemerfresno.com

The Reverend Clarence Eisberg
Phone: (209) 725-9082
Cell:  (209) 631-3108
pastor@redeemerfresno.com

Worship ~ 8:30 a.m. & 10:00 a.m.
Family Ministries ~ 10:00 a.m.
Holy Communion ~ 2nd & 4th Sundays
Connecting People to Jesus
and to One Another!
www.lcms.org








The Reverend
Clarence Eisberg

August 23, 2009

“Listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit”
“It’s 50 miles to Gaza.”  
“It’s hot.”
Meeting people on the road….
”Hello, On your way to Jerusalem?  Have a nice day.”   “Lord… it’s been two hours.”
Philip:  “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”  

Have you ever wanted to know God’s will for your life?
This story in the Bible is about how to listen to the voice of God.  It is about obedience.  It
is about trust.  It is about being connected to God.  

If you are a user of the internet then you know that you must first get your modem
connected with a server before you can have access to the unlimited knowledge base
known as the World Wide Web.  If the phone lines are down, if the server is busy, you
simply find yourself looking at an empty screen.

The first lesson we can learn from this story in Acts 8 is if we want to be connected to
God… we must be obedient to the voice of God.  Through an angel God said to Philip.  
“Go south on the road to Gaza.”  That is all he was told.  No details.  He was not told how
long to walk, how far to walk, what he was to look for.  Just “walk south on the road to
Gaza.”

How often do we ask to know what God’s will is for our lives, but in the process we want a
detailed map.  “Lord what do you want me to do?  When should I do this? Where will I do
what you want?  What will be the ending?


Henry Blackaby in is book Experiencing God tells about the time he was invited to visit the
home of one of his members.  He was serving a church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
Canada.  The directions to the farm were quite specific.

“Henry, come out and visit us on the farm.  Go a quarter mile past the edge of the city and
you will see a big red barn on your left. Go to the next road and turn to your left. Take that
road for three quarters of a mile.  You’ll see a tree.  Go right for about four miles and then
you will see a big rock….turn left onto the gravel road…that is our drive way.”


That’s the kind of specificity we would like from God.  No.  God asks for obedience and
trust.  “Philip, go south on the road to Gaza.”  


After some time had passed.  God said.  “Philip, see that chariot.  Go to that chariot and
stand by it.”   More than likely you and I would have asked… “then what.”  No, God knows
you can figure some things out on your own.  


God had a plan.  God wanted the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus to go
to Ethiopia.  God knew the Ethiopian had come to Jerusalem to worship God.  God knew
he was on his way home.  God’s plan was implementing His plan to take the message of
salvation beyond the walls of Jerusalem, beyond Judea, beyond Samaria to the ends of
the earth.(Acts 1:8)  Jesus had told his disciples that they would simply be his witnesses.  
They were to tell the story of his life, death and resurrection.  


Philip was obedient.  He walked by the chariot.  He heard these words:’
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb before the shearer is silent  
So he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from him.”
Philip said to himself… ”I recognize those words.” What would be the normal conversation
if you were in Philip’s shoes?   “Are you reading from the Book of Isaiah?”  Next question.  
“Do you understand what you are reading.”  

So, the response from the Ethiopian: “How can I unless someone explains it to me.”  Philip
is invited into the chariot and they have a bible study. As the journey continued…the
Ethiopian saw some water and asked to be baptized.”  The rest is history.  Christianity was
taken to Ethiopia where the Christian Church is still alive today, even in the midst of
ongoing persecution.

God’s process for taking the message of salvation to the ends of the earth has not
changed.  He still speaks to His people today.  God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the
bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal Himself, His purpose and His ways.

The key to knowing God’s voice is not a formula.  It is  not a method you can follow.  What
we would like is the find the location of the “burning bush” that God used when he talked
to Moses… then we could journey there… make it a holy sight and have all of our
questions about God’s will for our lives, our careers, our future spouse, a detailed map to
follow.  Sorry, God only used the burning bush once.  So How can I recognize the voice of
God?  How can I know what his will is for me? Or what “exactly” does God want our church
to do?  

Knowing God’s voice comes from an intimate love relationship with God.  The Bible tells
us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and will teach us all things.  God through
the Holy Spirit does not whisper to us every moment of every day.  But His voice whispers
in your heart when he wants you to respond.  You don’t have a week to think it over.

What did God say to Philip?  “Go south, walk on the road that leads to Gaza.”  That’s it.  
Obedience was required.  Philip could not wait a day or two to see if what he heard was
true.  He had to act…. He started walking.

We have discussed this issue of hearing the “voice of God” in our Thursday morning bible
class.  Several years ago I have made an early morning holy communion call on Gussie.  
On the way back to the office… this thought came into my head.  “you need to go see one
of our other members at her school.”  Well, I almost came back to the office… and
decided, no… so I drove to her school.   

Well, wouldn’t you know… Just as I drove into the parking lot the individual I wanted to see
had just come back from a serious meeting down town.. It was not a good meeting with the
Superintendent.”  We had a brief chat and then we both had to get back to our normal
offices.

Then all day…I had a deep nagging pull within my mind that maybe I didn’t say enough,
maybe I wasn’t as compassionate as I should have been…  So at about 3:30 I decided to
revisit the school and I took a gift of coffee and a slice of cake.  Well, what a surprise.  
The timing was again perfect.. For my friend had just returned from a second visit to down
town… and the news was not good.  Care, Christian concern, and prayer was shared.  

That’s God’s timing.  His timing is always right and best.  I had not idea why, on that day,
and at that time, I should change my schedule and visit with a member who had received
difficult and challenging news.  But God knew.  

What did God tell Abraham?  “leave your country, leave your family, leave your father’s
house and go to the land I will show you.”  “Did Abraham ask “what land?”  “How far?”  He
packed up his family, his 300 plus servants and all their animals and began a journey that
eventually led him to the land of Canaan when God then spoke to him a second time.

What lesson have we learned from Philip’s experience so far?        
1) believe that God is at work in the world.
2) agree to follow him one day at a time
3) agree to obey him even when He does not spell out
all the details.

In the O.T. book of Jeremiah we find the story of the “potter and the clay”.  God is the
potter and we are the clay.  He shapes us for the kind of ministry and service he wants
accomplished.  In other words… God simply wants us to be available and useful.  To be a
servant calls for an attitude of humility and obedience.  “Whoever wants to be first among
you must be a servant.”  

Peter and John were two of the first disciples selected by Jesus.  After the resurrection of
Jesus, God healed a crippled beggar near the temple through Peter.  Peter and John
were called before the Jewish Sanhedrin to give an account of their actions.  Through the
Holy Spirit, Peter spoke with boldness…  “Are you asking how this man was healed?  Let
me state clearly that it was done in the name and power of Jesus from Nazareth, the
Messiah, the man you crucified but God raised back to life again… It is by the name and
authority of Jesus that this man is healed.”

Peter, John, Philip were ordinary people.  Their relationship, their obedience to God, their
trust in the Holy Spirit made them extraordinary.

Dwight L. Moody was a poorly educated, un-ordained shoe salesman who felt the call of
God after hearing the preacher Charles Spurgeon.  Moody became one of the great
evangelist during much of the nineteenth century.  He lead revivals in England and
America where thousands came to know Jesus.  

You  might be saying: “Well, I’m no Dwight L. Moody.”  God doesn’t want you to be Dwight
L. Moody.  He wants you to be you and let Him work through you by the power of the Holy
Spirit to reach that one person at whom his Spirit is already at work.  And you are the
ordinary person through whom he will either “plant a seed of the gospel, water the seed of
faith, or experience the harvest.”   Remember the song: “He is able.  He is able….able to
do much more than we can ask or think.”  

God’s will is for all people to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and be saved. That is
God’s mission.  He has invited us, like He invited Philip to be involved in reconciling the
world to himself.  Paul wrote: “God brought us back to himself as friends through the
death and resurrection of Jesus.  “God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to
come and be reconciled.  For God was in Jesus restoring the world to himself no longer
counting people’s sins against them but blotting them out…through the blood of Jesus.
We are his ambassadors.  (II Cor. 5:18-21)

What can we learn from Philip?
1) Philip was a servant.
2) God told him where to walk.
3) God told him where to stand.
4) then God simply expected Philip to tell what he already knew about Jesus… his
life, death and resurrection.
5) Just depend on the Holy Spirit.

Here’s a question I’m sure you are asking… How does God speak to me today?

In Philip’s situation God first used an angel.  But when God told Philip to “go and stand
near the chariot”  there was no angel… just a small voice in his head.

God uses angels.  He uses visions and dreams. Jacob. Joseph. Mary the mother of Jesus
had a vision of an angel, Joseph had a dream.  God can whisper in the depth of your
heart, a small voice in your head.  He uses the words of the Bible, prayer and
conversations with fellow Christians to guide you to accomplish what he wants to be
accomplished.  

For instance, Moses had no precedent for a burning bush.  He could not say, “Oh, this is
my burning bush experience. My fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had their burning
bush and this is mine.  No. there are no other such experiences of God speaking this
way.  God wants our experience with Him, and His voice to be personal to us, not to
depend on some method or technique.  The key is now “how” speaks but that He speaks.

Listen to Hebrews 1:1-2  “Long ago God spoke in many different ways to our fathers
through the prophets, in visions, dreams and even face to face, telling them little by little
about his plans.”  Did you catch that phrase… “little by little.”

But now in these days he has spoken to us through his son… Jesus.  In the gospels God
speaks to us.  When you read the bible… you are having an encounter with God.  When
you read the bible there will be times when you read a phrase or a verse… and say… “I
never noticed that before… wow! That’s good.” My friend… that is an encounter with the
Holy Spirit of God speaking to you.

In side your bulletin this morning you will find Seven Realities of Experiencing God
1) God is always at work around you
2) God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal
3) God invites you to become involved with Him in His work
4) God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the
church to reveal himself, His purposes and his ways.
5) God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that
requires faith and action.
6) You must make a major adjustment in your life to join God in what He is doing.
7) You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He  accomplishes
His work through you.