Has God called you to leave a successful life or ministry to follow Him? Has He asked those you love to leave successful lives and ministries to follow Him? Today we’ll look at what the Bible has to say about leaving.

Last week in episode 13 of the God’s word, Today’s World podcast, we looked at one man’s desire for a gift of the Holy Spirit, but his motives were evil. He desired the gift for his own glory and gain.

But we also saw that we should desire gifts of the Spirit, but we should desire them to build up the church, to support Christian brothers and sisters.

Today we’re going to look at how when we follow God, He orchestrates events that should be impossible. Events so coincidental we’d struggle to believe them if they didn’t happen to us. Our passage today is Acts 8:26-40 (WEB):

26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go towards the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”

27 He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship. 28 He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”

30 Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

31 He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this,

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.

As a lamb before his shearer is silent,

so he doesn’t open his mouth.

33 In his humiliation, his judgement was taken away.

Who will declare His generation?

For his life is taken from the earth.”

34 The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”

35 Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus. 36 As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptised?”

37 * 38 He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptised him.

39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

* 8:37  TR adds Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

So Philip had been preaching in a city in Samaria for some time, but now the Holy Spirit had a new mission for him. One which would spread the gospel all the way to Ethiopia.

But Philip didn’t know that yet. He was in the middle of a highly successful ministry in Samaria. The Holy Spirit was so powerfully at work in Samaria that Peter and John themselves travelled to Philip to support the ministry there.

Now, many of us if we were in the middle of a ministry that was clearly growing would be reluctant to leave. Why would we leave if God was obviously at work? Aren’t we supposed to jump on board with what God’s doing?

Yet here, an Angel of the Lord told Philip to go, take a long and dusty walk down a desert road, days away from where he probably was in Samaria.

If that was me, I would be scratching my head and saying, “Are you sure, God? Things are going really well here but you want me to head out into the wilderness? There’s nothing out there but wild animals and dirt. Can’t very well preach to them…”

How many of us would try to just stay where we were?

I know I wouldn’t be inclined to leave a growing ministry, one that God was clearly blessing. And indeed, I felt exactly that way just weeks after I originally wrote this message. God called me and my wife to the States, so we’re leaving a growing church on Saipan to go and do I don’t know what.

That scares me, but Brittany and I are also very clear that it’s where God is leading us, so go we are.

We chose to be like Philip, who said, “Okay, I’m gonna trust you.” And off he went, leaving behind his successful ministry and walking out into the desert.

Can you imagine the amount of faith Philip must have needed to make this decision? Not only did he need to be certain in his own mind that this was where God was leading him, but he’d also likely have faced opposition from believers in Samaria. Those also doing ministry with him.

I imagine he had people around him who couldn’t understand why he was “abandoning” a powerful ministry that he’d started to go walk into the desert. He didn’t even have a plan! He was just going to walk!

I can easily imagine the conversation.

“Where are you going, Philip?”

“Gaza, I think. Maybe. I’m taking that road, anyway.”

“Why?”

“I dunno. God told me I needed to go that way.”

“Are you sure, Philip? Maybe you imagined it? Why would God tell you to leave this ministry? It’s going so well!”

“I know, I know. But… I just have to go. Now. Okay?”

“Come on, Philip, we need you here. You’re doing amazing work and heaps of people are getting saved. Just stay, at least until we can find someone to replace you.”

“Guys, please! God is leading me elsewhere. I need to go.”

“Well, I’m praying too, and I don’t believe God is telling you to leave.”

“I’m going now, guys. Take it up with God if you have anything more to say.”

Now, this conversation is of course speculation, I have no idea whether Philip faced anything like this. I certainly hope he didn’t, however, I’m not just making this kind of conversation up, they happen today. I’ve faced this kind of conversation from other believers about ministries God has pushed me to pursue—though I’ve not faced this conversation about moving to the States, for which I’m thankful. I know other believers who have had these same conversations when they told their family, church and friends that God was leading them somewhere else.

I know people who have faced ridicule from Christians over ministries they’ve felt God leading them to.

One family in particular I know faced so much pressure from church and family—even a pastor they trusted—to stay when they knew they should go that they chose to stay.

Staying was not what God wanted them to do, and the result was an incredibly miserable year as they were stuck in a bad situation. No one won. God was wrapping up their ministry in that place and moving them to a new one and when they didn’t go where God was pushing them, their ministry still ended, and the pastor who wanted them to stay and continue ministering still didn’t get what he wanted.

There are two parts to this that I want to focus in on today.

1. We need to have the courage to leave when God calls us.


2. We need to have the courage to let others leave when God calls them.

1. We need to have the courage to leave when God calls us

One of the hardest times to move in life is when we’re in the midst of success. Whether it’s success in our job, success in our ministry, success in raising family, success in college.

It goes against our nature to abandon a good thing in favour of the unknown.

But throughout scripture God constantly calls people to abandon the known and comfortable to follow Him into the wilderness, into the unknown

In today’s passage, God called Philip to leave Samaria and the highly successful ministry he had there and take a lonely road toward Gaza.

To anyone looking on, this would seem insane. To Philip it probably even seemed kinda crazy. But he trusted that God knew what He was doing. So he went. He went prepared to give the gospel to whomever God led him to.

It wasn’t until days into his journey alone that he came upon a chariot carrying an Ethiopian… who just so happened at that exact moment to be reading a prophecy about Jesus.

If that’s not a God-ordained moment I don’t know <