Lookout Church: The Other Side Of Obedience

Stand Alone: The Other Side Of Obedience

August 16th, 2026/Lookout Church

Passage: Acts 8:26-40 CSB

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.) 27 So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem 28 and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud.

29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.” 30 When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 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 shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. 34 The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?” 35 Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture.

36 As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?” 38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Pray:

Title: The Other Side Of Obedience

Big Idea: You rarely know what is waiting on the other side of your obedience.

Opening:

Before I preach today, I want to tell you how grateful I am to be here. Lookout Church has been an incredible blessing to our church throughout the years. There are churches that cheer you on from a distance, and then there are churches that actually get into the story with you. Lookout has been one of those churches for us.

You have prayed for us, encouraged us, housed us, believed in us and invested in what God is doing through Pinewood Church. And now, we’re in one of the most significant moments in the history of our church as we pursue purchasing a permanent church home. We are under contract on this beautiful property in the heart of the city, just two blocks from Pearl St.

When you invest in another church, you don't always get to see what happens on the other side of that investment. You don't see every Sunday. You don't meet every person. You don't witness every baptism. You don't hear about every marriage that gets restored or every kid who begins following Jesus. But you're part of those stories.

And as I've thought about what I wanted to share with you today, I kept coming back to something God has taught me throughout our journey: You rarely know what is waiting on the other side of your obedience.

When I look back over our story, there are moments that seemed small when they happened. A yes. A step. A sacrifice. Someone decided to stay. Someone decided to give. Someone decided to believe in us. Then years later you look back and realize that one act of obedience became part of a much bigger story.

That's exactly what we find in Acts 8.

THE SETUP: PHILIP'S INTERRUPTION

Acts 8:26–27 says, “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 went.”

One thing I believe, after COVID, people read this passage and thought it meant “Go to Nashville or Florida”, that’s not the south Luke is referring to here.

Luke makes this request sound incredibly simple. God says, “Go,” and the next thing we read is, “So he got up and went.” But Philip wasn't sitting around waiting for something to happen. Philip was experiencing one of the most fruitful seasons of his ministry.

He had gone into Samaria preaching Christ. People were being healed. People were being delivered. Crowds were responding to the Gospel. Acts 8:8 says, “So there was great joy in that city.”

Everything was working. Everything was growing. Everything appeared to be moving in the right direction. Then God interrupts it.

God tells Philip to leave something successful and walk toward something that appears empty. “This is the desert road.” If I'm Philip, I've got questions. “God, are You seeing what's happening here? People are getting saved. Revival is breaking out. Why would I leave?”

But God doesn't give Philip an explanation. He gives him a direction.

And that brings us to the first thing Philip teaches us about obedience.

Main Points:

1. Obedience Takes The Next Step

   1. Explanation:
   2. We usually want God to explain the plan, and then we'll decide whether we're going to obey. We want the destination, the timeline, the budget, the confirmation, the backup plan and preferably a couple of signs from heaven.
   3. But God often works differently. God says, “Take the step, and I'll show you what comes next.”
   4. Philip wasn't told about the Ethiopian. He wasn't told there would be a chariot. He wasn't told the man would be reading Isaiah 53. He wasn't told there would be a Gospel conversation or a baptism. God simply said, “Go.”
   5. And notice where He sends him. Luke specifically tells us, “This is the desert road.” This is “The Desert Road to Destiny” because sometimes we're searching for the destiny road while God is pointing toward the desert road.
   6. We assume God's will should always look like momentum. More opportunities. More influence. More resources. More certainty. But sometimes obedience looks like walking toward something that appears less promising than what you're leaving.
   7. You don't have to see the whole road to take the next step.
   8. Illustration:
   9. That's been so much of our story. We left an incredible mega church in Nashville Tennessee. We had just finished our dream home, a cabin style home on the back of 5 acres. Our best friends and family lived within 10 minutes of our home. The church was a 2 minute drive away. And the church was thriving.
   10. When God called us to plant a church in Boulder, we didn't know the whole story. We didn't know all the places we would go. We didn't know the people God would bring. We didn't know the setbacks, the miracles or the relationships God would form with churches like Lookout.
   11. We definitely couldn't see ourselves standing where we are today, under contract on a permanent church home in the heart of Boulder.
   12. There have been plenty of desert roads along the way. There have been seasons when planting there didn't make sense. Seasons when being portable was exhausting. Moments when we didn't know where we were going to meet or how God would provide for the next season.
   13. But I can stand here today and tell you: God has been faithful on every road.
   14. Looking backward, you can see His hand everywhere. But living forward, most of the time all you have is the next yes.
   15. Application:
   16. Maybe that's where some of you are today.
   17. You've been waiting for God to show you the whole plan when He's already shown you the next step.
   18. Maybe it's a conversation you need to have. A calling you've been avoiding. Something you need to start. Something you need to stop. A step of generosity. Someone you need to forgive.
   19. And you're saying, “God, show me where this ends.”
   20. Maybe God is saying, “Just do what I've already asked you to do.”
   21. Philip didn't know where the road was leading. God said go. “So he got up and went.”

2. Obedience Finds The One

   1. Explanation:
   2. Acts 8:27 continues, “There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians…”
   3. Now we begin to understand why Philip had to go. There was somebody on that road. Philip didn't know it, but God did. This man was powerful, wealthy and influential. Yet despite everything he possessed, he was searching. He's sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah 53, trying to understand what the prophet is saying.
   4. Then Acts 8:29 says, “The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go and join that chariot.’”
   5. Notice the progression. First God says, “Go to the road.” Then God says, “Go to the chariot.” God didn't give Philip steps one through ten. He gave him step one. When Philip obeyed step one, God revealed step two.
   6. And verse 30 says, “When Philip ran up to it…”
   7. I love that. He ran. When Philip gets there, he hears the man reading Isaiah and asks, “Do you understand what you're reading?” The Ethiopian responds, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” So Philip climbs into the chariot.
   8. Acts 8:35 says, “Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus…”
   9. Philip finally discovers what was on the other side of his obedience. A person.
   10. Illustration:
   11. This part of the story means so much to me because the mission of Pinewood Church is simple: Meet people where they are and point them to Jesus.
   12. That's exactly what Philip does. He doesn't condemn the man. He doesn't manipulate the conversation. He asks a question, enters his world, listens to what he's wrestling with and then points him to Jesus.
   13. Story: Stella
   14. That's why we love Boulder. Boulder has a reputation. People know it for the mountains, the university, the culture, the politics and the spirituality. But when I look at Boulder, I don't primarily see statistics or ideologies. I see people.

   15. People sitting in their own version of that chariot asking questions.

       1. People who are successful but searching.
       2. People who have accomplished a lot but still wonder if there's something more.

       3. People who may think they know what Christianity is while privately asking some of life's biggest questions.

          16. God planted us there to climb into the chariot. And that's why this building matters so much to us. It's not about finally being able to say, “We own a building.” It's about establishing a permanent Gospel presence in Boulder from which we can serve that city for generations.
          17. We see kids learning about Jesus there. Teenagers encountering God there. Marriages being restored there. Skeptics walking through the doors there. People worshiping there. People praying there. People being baptized there. Missionaries eventually being sent from there.
          18. The building matters because people matter.
          19. Application:
          20. And that's what obedience will always eventually lead us toward. People.
          21. Sometimes we're asking God, “What's my purpose?” and God's saying, “Look at who's in front of you.”

       4. Who's your Ethiopian?

       5. Who's the person God has positioned in your life?
       6. Who's the person at your workplace? In your neighborhood? In your family? At your school?
       7. Who’s your one?
          22. We can become so focused on discovering some massive calling that we walk right past the chariot God has put in front of us. Philip's assignment wasn't a platform. It was a person.
          23. And sometimes the greatest thing God wants to do through your obedience isn't to make your life bigger. It's to change somebody else's life.

3. Obedience Outlives The Moment

   1. Explanation:
   2. Philip explains Isaiah 53 and tells this man the good news about Jesus. Somewhere along the desert road, they come across water. The Ethiopian says, “Look, there's water. What would keep me from being baptized?”
   3. They stop the chariot. Philip baptizes him. And Acts 8:39 says the man “went on his way rejoicing.”

   4. Think about how many acts of obedience had to happen for this moment to occur.

      1. Philip had to leave Samaria.
      2. He had to take the desert road.
      3. He had to approach the chariot.
      4. He had to start the conversation.
      5. And one man's obedience became another man's encounter with Jesus.

      6. But the story doesn't stop there.

         5. Acts 8 is part of the larger movement Jesus described in Acts 1:8: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

      7. The Gospel started in Jerusalem. Persecution scattered believers throughout Judea. Philip carried the Gospel into Samaria. And now this Ethiopian official is traveling home with the good news about Jesus.

         6. Philip could see one man. God could see something much bigger. Obedience has a ripple effect.
         7. Illustration:
         8. Lookout, this is where I see you in this story. Every time you've prayed for us, encouraged us, supported us or believed in us, your obedience has traveled farther than you can see.
         9. There are people in Boulder who will never know your names, but they will experience the fruit of your generosity.
         10. They may never know all the people who sacrificed before they arrived. But heaven does. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
         11. Different assignments. Same Kingdom.
         12. That's what I love about churches helping churches. This isn't Lookout's kingdom and Pinewood's kingdom. There is one Kingdom. There is one Church. There is one Gospel. There is one Jesus. And when one part of the body wins, we all win.
         13. Application:
         14. This is why you should never underestimate a small act of obedience. You have no idea how far your yes might travel.
         15. The person you encourage may encourage someone else. The child you disciple may someday preach the Gospel. The generosity you show today may create an opportunity for someone you've never met. The person you invite to church may eventually lead their entire family to Jesus.
         16. We want to know the impact before we make the sacrifice. But Kingdom obedience doesn't work that way. We obey God and trust Him with the impact.
         17. Your obedience may begin with you, but it doesn't have to end with you.

PHILIP'S LEGACY

Years later, Philip appears again in Acts 21:8. Luke describes him as “Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven.” I love that Luke still mentions where Philip started. “One of the Seven.”

That takes us back to Acts 6. Before Samaria. Before the Ethiopian. Before anybody called him “Philip the evangelist,” Philip was serving tables.

He was simply faithful with what God had put in front of him.

Philip didn't chase a title. He chased obedience. And when I think about what I want the story of Pinewood to be, that's really it.

I don't ultimately want our story to be that we built something impressive. I don't want the defining moment to be that we bought a building or reached a certain size.

I want people to look back and say: They kept saying yes. When it was hard, they said yes. When it was inconvenient, they said yes. When they couldn't see what was next, they said yes. When God opened another door, they walked through it.

Because that's how Kingdom stories are written. One yes at a time.

CONCLUSION: LOOKOUT, KEEP SAYING YES

And that's my encouragement to you today. Lookout Church, keep saying yes.

Pinewood isn't the only story God is writing through this church. There are people in your community you're called to reach. There are families you're called to disciple. There are missionaries you're called to send. There are churches you're called to strengthen. There are things that may exist someday because somebody in this church obeyed God today.

Philip could see a desert road. God could see the person traveling down it.

Philip could see an interruption. God could see a divine appointment.

Philip could see one Ethiopian. God could see the Gospel continuing toward the nations.

That's why obedience matters.

Because we don't know what God knows.

We don't see what God sees.

And we rarely know what is waiting on the other side of our obedience.

Years ago, we couldn't see this moment. We couldn't see this building. We couldn't see all the people who would become Pinewood Church. We couldn't see churches like Lookout coming alongside us. All we had was the next yes.

And today we have another one. We're stepping toward a permanent home in Boulder believing that the same God who has been faithful behind us is already standing in front of us.

GOSPEL INVITATION

And maybe for somebody here today, your next act of obedience is the same one we see from the Ethiopian.

Philip told him the good news about Jesus, and he responded.

Maybe you've spent your life searching. Maybe you've been around Christianity but you've never actually surrendered your life to Jesus. Maybe you still have questions you haven't figured out.

The good news is that Jesus isn't asking you to have every answer before you follow Him. Jesus came for you. He lived the life you couldn't live. He died the death our sin deserved. He rose from the grave. And today He is inviting you to follow Him.

You don't have to understand the whole road. You just have to take the next step.

Maybe today your next step is simply saying, “Jesus, I trust You.”

If you want to make a decision to follow Jesus today, we're going to pray together. It's not this prayer that saves you. Jesus saves you. We are saved by grace through faith. But this prayer can become your declaration of that faith.

Jesus, I acknowledge that I need You.
I confess that I have sinned against You.
I believe that God 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.
Amen.