God Got There First
Pastoral | September 3, 2026 | By: Ben Powers
I didn't plan the most important conversation I ever had with my son. I was saying goodnight.
He was a teenager, and that night he seemed bothered by something. He'd been reading the beginning of Genesis on his own, and it had him worried about what was going to happen to him.
So I sat down and we talked. I told him why Jesus came and why He died on the cross, and that night my son put his faith in Jesus.
I had nothing prepared. I was just there to say goodnight. God had been speaking to my son through his Bible before I ever touched the door. All I did was show up at the end of something God started.
All I did was show up at the end of something God started.
Most of us think sharing our faith depends on us. We picture having to start the whole thing, convincing someone, talking them into it. But most people don't come to Jesus needing to be convinced or pulled or dragged. Most of the time God is already working, and when we show up, we're second.
God had been speaking to my son before I ever touched the door.
That's the pattern all through the book of Acts. Somebody shows up to share, and God is already there.
Philip ran into it on a desert road. He came up on a chariot carrying an Ethiopian official on his way home after traveling weeks to worship in Jerusalem. The man was reading Isaiah out loud, and he was stuck on the passage about a servant led like a lamb to the slaughter. He couldn't figure out who it was about. Philip asked if he understood what he was reading. The man said, “How can I unless someone explains it?” He had the book open and nobody to ask. Then in steps Philip, second. He climbed in, started right there, and told him about Jesus. And before the ride was over, the man believed and was baptized (Acts 8:26-39). We all know someone like that, searching on their own and never saying a word about it to anyone.
And it keeps going. In Caesarea, a Roman officer named Cornelius had been praying to God, and an angel told him to send for a man named Peter. By the time Peter got there, Cornelius had already filled his house with family and friends, ready to listen, and Peter had never met the man (Acts 10). In Damascus, God told a believer named Ananias to go find Saul, and told him Saul was already praying and had already seen a vision of Ananias walking in (Acts 9:11-12). In Philippi, Paul went down to a river and found a businesswoman named Lydia, who was already there worshiping God before he ever sat down (Acts 16:13-14). In each case, the person came to faith, and all three times the believer showed up second. God even said it out loud in Corinth. He told Paul to keep preaching because "I have many people in this city," and He meant people who hadn't believed yet (Acts 18:9-10).
Somebody shows up to share, and God is already there.
A desert road. A soldier's living room. A riverbank. Today it looks like a commute, a dinner table, a park, a teenager's bedroom. Different places, same pattern. God was already there, and the person who showed up never started it.
None of this means it's always obvious or that the timing is ours. Sometimes we walk in and nothing is there yet. But it starts simpler than we think, usually with nothing more than a question.
We pay attention to the people already around us, at work, next door, in our own house, and when something seems off or open, we ask. We may find God has been working on that person longer than we'd guess, and what they're missing is someone willing to sit down and explain.
We don't need all the answers to do that. Philip didn't bring a sermon to the chariot. He sat down next to a man's questions and started there. That's what sharing our faith looks like most of the time, a conversation with someone God already got to.
There's a ministry at our church called Alpha that helps make this happen. It's dinner and an open conversation where anyone can say what they actually think about God, and nobody argues with them. The friend who would never come to church with us will come to dinner with us. We just sit next to them, which is all Philip did. Alpha starts soon at Scottsdale Bible. Think of the person and invite them.
Ben Powers
Cactus Groups Pastor & Alpha Team Lead
Alpha starts Thursday, September 10, at every Scottsdale Bible campus. Think of the person God may already be working in and invite them to come with you.
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