00:00: Let's pray.
00:07: Father, in your word just now, we heard Peter speak to people, identify them as having acted in ignorance.
00:22: We confess that too often we are ignorant of things that we ought to know.
00:26: So ignorant of you and your ways and your promises and your grace.
00:34: And so we ask for your mercy today that you would open our hearts and our minds to receive from your word what is needful for us.
00:45: Would you work in each one of us in a personalized, tender way that meets each one of us where we're at and helps us to see Jesus better, more clearly, more truthfully, more gloriously.
01:03: I pray that you would open us to a more wholehearted, full response to Jesus than any of us, myself included, have ever given even to this moment.
01:20: We would find him worthy of all our affection, all of our trust, all of our life.
01:26: Give us clear minds, led by your spirit, so that Jesus is glorified and honored in our gathering today.
01:40: In Jesus' name we pray.
01:42: Amen.
01:42: Amen.
01:50: Friday, I spent the day driving.
01:54: I took my oldest back to Chicago.
01:57: She graduated, and of course that means she has to go back to school now.
02:00: She's got an eight-week thing that she's doing this summer to finish off her second major, and I had to take her back to school for this project.
02:09: And so I was down driving in the Chicago area, and one of the things that caught my attention was people out in the median on some of these roads with signs asking for money.
02:21: Signs that would say, you know, this is my situation, this is why I need help, and asking for donations, for loose change, for whatever people might be compelled to give.
02:36: We might think of it as begging, and there's a sense in which that's an adequate description of it.
02:42: But the more traditional term has been alms.
02:47: In history, there is a name for giving to people in need, and it's called alms.
02:52: And we see that in our passage this morning.
02:54: In our passage, we have this man who has been lame from birth, meaning he's some way in his legs physically disabled and unable to walk.
03:04: And he's been like this his whole life.
03:05: And so day by day, he would be in a public place at the temple begging for money, asking for alms.
03:15: Because he had need.
03:16: He was not able to care for himself.
03:23: It's not a random event that's recorded for us.
03:28: You know, Paul, Peter, gives a sermon in this passage.
03:39: Luke could have just recorded the sermon and the results of it.
03:43: But he says, no, I'm going to tell you what triggered this sermon.
03:47: I'm going to tell you what happened that provoked this encounter between Peter and the crowd.
03:54: And what happened was there was a man in need, begging for people to help meet that need.
04:02: And the newly Holy Spirit-filled men of God, John and Peter, are there.
04:09: They see the need, and they step up to represent Jesus to this man and to provide powerfully a grace from God to this man.
04:24: We saw in chapter 2 that on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came in fulfillment of God's promises.
04:30: Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit.
04:32: It's now filled each believer.
04:34: And they are operating in the power and the strength and the leading of God's Spirit.
04:38: And then we saw in chapter 2, Peter's first sermon on the day of Pentecost.
04:41: And now 3,000 people end up coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
04:45: 3,000 people get saved.
04:47: We get the first megachurch in a day.
04:49: It's this amazing happening.
04:52: And now Luke says, let me tell you what happened after that.
04:57: On a normal day, Peter and John go to the temple.
05:01: Her time.
05:02: See a guy in need.
05:04: And this is what happens.
05:06: 3, 2.
05:07: A man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.
05:16: So this guy can't even get there on his own.
05:19: He has some other folks who would transport him there, lay him at the entrance to the temple, one of the entrances, kind of like somebody being brought to the entrance to a church and saying, hey, you hang here, catch the people on the way into worship, see if they'll give you some money.
05:35: And he's hoping for handouts.
05:39: And I don't look down on him.
05:40: He's got need.
05:41: I can understand with some empathy what he's going through.
05:44: I don't begrudge him for asking for help.
05:50: But I think maybe he's asking for too little.
05:54: He's looking for too little at the place of God.
05:59: Day by day, you and I walk by or drive by brokenness.
06:04: We see people hurting in countless different ways.
06:07: Sometimes it's physical health issues.
06:09: Sometimes it's family issues or marriage issues or self-image issues or weight issues or financial issues.
06:20: People in pain and heartache and brokenness and hurt and very often hopelessness.
06:28: We see it all the time.
06:30: You don't have to go far at all to find it.
06:34: And I think more often than not, people are looking for routine, mundane, temporary fixes when God may have interest in doing something a whole lot bigger, a whole lot more significant than a merely temporal, earthly fix.
06:51: I think too often we're blind to the fact that God may want to do something of eternal significance.
06:57: And when we go out and we encounter people in their need, we bring with us at least two things.
07:04: We bring God's presence with us.
07:07: We are now, according to chapter 2, temples of the Holy Spirit.
07:12: God lives in us.
07:14: 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20 says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?
07:27: You are not your own.
07:28: You are bought at a price.
07:30: Therefore, honor God with your body.
07:32: When we go out, we take God with us.
07:34: That's the first thing we bring wherever we go.
07:36: The second thing we bring is the greatest news ever conceived of, ever heard in the history of the world, in any culture, in any tongue, in any place, in any time.
07:46: We bring the gospel with us.
07:48: The news about Jesus Christ.
07:50: And if we have God's presence and the greatest news, the news that can transform lives for eternity, we have what we need to make a radical difference in this world.
08:02: Let's recognize that we have an opportunity to be used by God in extraordinary ways.
08:08: Now, Peter and John encounter this man, and they don't give him what he's asking for.
08:16: They give him something better.
08:17: Verses 4 through 6, Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us.
08:24: And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.
08:27: But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.
08:31: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
08:38: What an extraordinary thing to say.
08:43: I don't have any cash on me, but you're walking home today.
08:48: Because Jesus.
08:50: He doesn't have any money, but he gives him a better sort of change.
08:54: The guy's asking for pocket change, and Peter, by the power of God, gives him life change.
09:00: So much better.
09:02: And he does it in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
09:05: You've got to remember.
09:08: In the name of represents the person.
09:10: Right?
09:10: This is about saying, hey, I'm here as an ambassador for Jesus.
09:14: I am here representing him.
09:16: It's because of him.
09:17: It's in his power that this is about to take place.
09:20: You're walking home not because of Peter, not because of John, but because of Jesus.
09:25: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
09:27: And when he does this, there's two kinds of change that take place.
09:34: There's a physical change that happens, and there's a spiritual change that happens.
09:39: Verses 7 through 10.
09:42: And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
09:51: And leaping up, okay, that's cool.
09:57: Think about that.
09:59: This guy has been lame from birth.
10:00: He's never leaped a day in his life.
10:04: Dude can't even walk.
10:05: And as Peter lifts him up, he leaps up.
10:09: Can you picture that?
10:11: If I was 15 years younger, I would demonstrate.
10:13: This is astounding.
10:18: He leaps up.
10:21: He stood and began to walk.
10:25: I have a friend who's legally blind that likes to remind me this is a double miracle.
10:30: Not only is he healed, but suddenly he's got motor skills that he never had, never developed these motor skills.
10:35: You have a toddler, right?
10:39: Go around like this.
10:41: When our kids were younger, we had a pediatrician.
10:44: Really good pediatrician.
10:45: And she told us the story about her husband, who's in medicine but not in pediatrics.
10:50: Pointed out to her one time, I think you should check out that kid.
10:52: That kid seems really wobbly.
10:54: Like there's something wrong with that kid.
10:56: And she was like, he's a toddler.
11:00: That's called toddling.
11:02: Like they walk like that because they're learning.
11:04: That's normal.
11:05: And I just wanted to say, this is a dad?
11:08: How does he not know this, right?
11:10: But this guy has never learned to do this.
11:13: And he's up, standing, walking, leaping.
11:19: Double miracle.
11:21: Walking and leaping and praising God.
11:23: And all the people saw him walking and praising God.
11:27: And they recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms.
11:31: And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
11:36: We know this guy.
11:37: We recognize this.
11:38: This is not a plant.
11:39: We've seen this guy day after day, year after year.
11:42: We know this guy sits at this door.
11:45: And now he's doing the impossible.
11:48: This is astounding.
11:51: It's a public place.
11:52: They're at the temple.
11:53: There's lots of witnesses.
11:54: Verse 10 tells us they're impacted.
11:57: And then verse 11, a crowd gathers.
12:00: There's already a crowd because it's a public place.
12:02: But verse 11 makes it more explicit.
12:04: They're like, hey, what's going on?
12:06: And so more and more people are gathering together.
12:08: And so Peter, in verse 12, does something that's beautiful.
12:14: He deflects the glory.
12:18: Because by default, the attention is going to be on the two guys that have been part of doing this, right?
12:23: Peter and John.
12:24: Verse 12.
12:25: And when Peter saw it, the people gathering at the occasion of this miracle.
12:30: When Peter saw it, he addressed the people.
12:33: Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this?
12:37: Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?
12:43: He's like, we don't have the power to do that.
12:46: We're not the piety.
12:48: We're not religious enough to do that.
12:50: That's Jesus.
12:51: That's not us.
12:51: Don't look at us like we're impressive, right?
12:54: He's saying, mm-mm, mm-mm.
12:56: We're not the special ones.
12:58: Don't even for a moment think we're the special ones.
13:02: It's been said that Christians are beggars dependent on God's grace telling other beggars where to find bread.
13:13: We are those who have freely received and who have the privilege and joy and responsibility to tell others, Jesus is the one to whom you go in your need.
13:30: He deflects the glory.
13:32: Oftentimes when I talk to people about evangelism, about representing Jesus to the world around us, I hear concerns like, but what if I mess up?
13:41: What if I don't have all the answers?
13:42: What if they ask a question and I don't know what the answer is?
13:46: And what if I misspeak?
13:48: And what if, and what if, and what if?
13:52: I get it.
13:55: But let me point out, that's a very me-centered attitude.
13:58: I need to be sufficient for this to go well.
14:02: When we need to be God-centered, especially Christ-centered, and trust that God is sufficient to work through His people.
14:10: I read recently the Old Testament story of the prophet Balaam being rebuked by his own donkey verbally.
14:23: If God can correct somebody through a talking donkey, I'm pretty sure He can use the likes of us to get done what He wants to get done.
14:31: Right?
14:32: I've got to be at least on par with a donkey.
14:39: God can do it.
14:40: Let's rely on His sufficiency, not our own.
14:44: Turn everything towards Jesus.
14:46: That's what Peter does in the following verses.
14:48: He said, no, no, no, not us.
14:50: Not us.
14:51: Let me tell you about who it is about.
14:52: It's about Jesus.
14:53: And in the following verses, he turns the attention and gives the glory to Jesus.
14:57: He deflects glory away from them and directs glory towards Christ.
15:03: Verses 13 and following.
15:06: I want you to notice the ways that he gives accolades to Jesus.
15:11: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
15:14: Now remember, he's talking to Israelites.
15:16: So he's saying, aka, your God, Jewish audience.
15:19: The God of our fathers glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.
15:28: But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you.
15:35: And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.
15:41: To this we are witnesses.
15:42: And His name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.
15:51: And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
16:00: Over and over he's saying, let me tell you how great this Jesus is.
16:04: First of all, he comments that God glorified Jesus.
16:08: What is he talking about there?
16:09: How did God glorify Jesus?
16:11: Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God.
16:14: In our contemporary English, we talk about being somebody's right hand man, right?
16:18: Meaning, it's a position of power and authority.
16:21: This is the person that gets it done.
16:23: That's Jesus' spot.
16:25: Jesus sits at the right hand of God, the Father, in heaven.
16:31: That's glory.
16:32: Philippians 2, God has exalted him and given him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every tongue should confess, and every knee should bow, right?
16:42: This is the Jesus who's been honored by God.
16:45: He tells us that Jesus is the servant of God.
16:48: Well, at a glance, that might not seem like a big deal.
16:50: Like, well, okay.
16:51: Well, aren't we all servants of God if we're following God?
16:54: This is a bigger deal than that.
16:56: In the book of Isaiah, 700-ish years before Jesus, it describes the Messiah as the suffering servant of God.
17:08: That servant language is very, very explicit.
17:11: Chapter 53 in particular.
17:12: And Peter is telling him, hey, you know that prophecy from Isaiah that we've been reading about and thinking about and waiting for?
17:20: It just happened.
17:21: Jesus is that one.
17:23: He's the one who accomplished amazing things for God.
17:28: Calls him the holy and righteous one.
17:31: First of all, the holy and righteous one as opposed to a holy and righteous one, that's God language.
17:38: Only God can be talked about in those terms as the one.
17:43: And in contrast to common thinking in that moment, right after the death of Jesus, where he was treated like a criminal, saying, no, no, no, he wasn't a criminal.
17:54: He wasn't a blasphemer.
17:55: He didn't misrepresent God.
17:57: He was holy and righteous.
17:58: That doesn't apply to criminals.
18:00: That doesn't apply to blasphemers.
18:01: It doesn't apply to religious false teachers.
18:05: He's correcting the misunderstanding and the lies that had been told about Jesus.
18:11: He calls him the author of life, a.k.a.
18:15: co-creator with God.
18:20: If Jesus is not God, that's blasphemy.
18:23: He says essentially, Jesus is God, which is exactly where John, who's present in this situation, in this scene, exactly the way that John starts his entire account of Jesus.
18:34: John wrote the Gospel of John, and he says at the very beginning, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
18:44: He was with God in the beginning.
18:46: Through him, all things were made.
18:49: Apart from him, nothing was made that has been made.
18:55: Jesus co-created everything that exists other than God.
19:01: Because only God is not created.
19:04: Everything else other than God, Jesus had a hand in making that.
19:09: That includes everything that lives.
19:11: He is the author of life.
19:15: And God raised him from the dead.
19:17: In other words, vindicated him.
19:19: What do you do with the evil person in the Old Testament?
19:23: What do you do with the blasphemer?
19:24: You kill him, according to God's Old Testament law.
19:27: And God's like, no, no, no.
19:29: Jesus died, but he is not staying dead.
19:31: He does not belong in the grave.
19:33: God vindicated him.
19:35: And identifies that faith in Jesus' name, faith in Jesus' identity, who Jesus is, that's where healing comes from.
19:42: That's where miraculous, unbelievable, you've never seen this before kind of healing comes from.
19:49: Jesus.
19:51: He lifts up Jesus right away, over and over and over, in ideal ways for his audience with a Jewish background.
19:58: He's pulling the Old Testament scripture and saying, let me tell you how bad you just messed up, right?
20:04: Because this Jesus is glorious.
20:06: But then he shifts, and doesn't just say, Jesus is amazing.
20:09: He's like, you're not so amazing.
20:12: That's my paraphrase.
20:13: But, he shines the spotlight on their guilt in a number of ways.
20:19: He says, that this Jesus, whom you delivered over, that is, you guys were local, you guys were present as all this stuff happened.
20:31: Some of you were almost certainly in the crowd as it took place.
20:34: He says, you let a perfectly good, never messed up person be delivered over to the pagan governmental authorities so that he could be killed.
20:46: You were okay with that.
20:49: He says, you denied him in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.
20:55: In other words, this vicious, bloodthirsty, power hungry Roman leader, Pilate, looked at Jesus and said, no, I'm letting him go.
21:05: And you were worse than Pilate because you're like, no, no, no, don't let him go.
21:09: We want him dead.
21:11: That's brutal condemnation of the people present for that.
21:16: He says, you denied the holy and righteous one.
21:19: You finally had a good one.
21:22: And you said, we don't want that.
21:26: You asked for a murderer to be given you.
21:30: That's a reference to the story of Barabbas.
21:33: You asked for a murderer to be given to you and you killed the author of life.
21:38: That's an amazing juxtaposition.
21:42: They would rather have somebody who kills a murderer free on the streets than have Jesus around.
21:49: Jesus who gives life, who created life to begin with and now, in this scene, is transforming a life.
21:59: Now those are very apt things for Peter to point out to his audience in his setting.
22:06: Because they were there injured with someone when all this stuff went down.
22:09: those might not be the exact things that we'd want to share with somebody today in our context.
22:16: But you know, the folks around us today are every bit as guilty in God's sight.
22:22: We could speak to a contemporary Wisconsin audience and say to somebody that has no interest in Jesus to this point, saying, God came into the world.
22:34: Y'all have heard about Christmas.
22:35: That's about God coming into the world.
22:36: And you've ignored it.
22:38: You've ignored God writing himself into the world he created.
22:41: Doesn't that seem off?
22:45: We could say that Jesus is perfect.
22:51: He never messed up.
22:52: He's blameless.
22:52: He's sinful.
22:54: Or sinless, sorry.
22:55: Sinless.
22:56: And you treat him as irrelevant.
22:58: You don't bother with him.
22:59: You don't have any interest in him.
23:00: You're like, whatever, Jesus.
23:01: In our society today, references to God are very often little more than an exclamation or a way of swearing.
23:16: People will take the name Jesus Christ as a cuss.
23:22: They'll refer to the word God as simply a frustrated exclamation.
23:29: And more amongst the younger folks, they'll say, OMG, an acronym version of taking God's name in vain.
23:38: Really?
23:39: You really think that God should be treated with that little value?
23:44: That would be a relevant thing today.
23:48: We could also indict our own culture and people around us today, people just like us apart from Jesus.
23:55: you prefer what you can do for you to what God can do for you.
24:01: You live your life like it's all about people doing whatever people can do and God's irrelevant.
24:06: Do you realize God could do so much more in your life than you could ever do in your life?
24:11: And you're ignoring that?
24:12: You have no interest in that?
24:13: Really?
24:14: And finally, biblical word is idolatry but the concept is this.
24:19: You treat the things that God has made as more important than the things or than the God who made the things.
24:26: You treat the stuff as more valuable to you than the maker of the stuff.
24:36: There is no shortage of ways to identify our ignorant responsibility before God and our guilt and our need for something better.
24:56: I love that his sermon doesn't end here.
24:59: He goes on to extend some grace and to call them to something better.
25:04: Just as he didn't walk by the man who was lame, he doesn't just walk away from the situation and leave them in the situation.
25:11: He invites them to something better.
25:13: 17, he says, and now, brothers, speaking to his fellow Jewish people, now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
25:24: He says, I know you didn't understand all this.
25:26: I know that you didn't get what was going on.
25:33: I think that's a bit disarming, isn't it?
25:36: You know, he's just pointed out their guilt, and he says, I know you didn't understand that was what was going on.
25:40: Just as the people around us today probably in most cases don't understand just how big a deal the everyday things that they're doing often are.
25:48: We ourselves often are in that boat.
25:50: But, ignorance is no excuse.
25:55: He says, but, even though you acted in ignorance, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
26:05: He's saying, just because you acted in ignorance and you didn't know what was going on doesn't mean this was an accident, doesn't mean this was a happenstance.
26:10: God knew exactly what was going on.
26:12: This was what God said would take place.
26:14: This was exactly according to plan.
26:16: Even though it wasn't your plan, even though you didn't understand it, God did.
26:19: So don't interpret Jesus' death as happenstance.
26:24: And what needs to happen then is a response.
26:27: Verse 19, repent therefore in light of your ignorance, in light of your guilt, in light of this being God's plan and that Jesus would be God's Christ, his anointed one, that he would have to suffer in this way in order to fulfill God's promise.
26:40: In light of all that, repent and turn back that your sins may be blotted out.
26:50: Now he's talked about faith already in this sermon.
26:53: We saw that back in verse 16.
26:56: I think faith is implied here.
26:59: But he's more specific and says, I'm talking about repentance.
27:03: He does not explicitly identify faith at this point in the message.
27:08: He focuses on repentance.
27:11: It is good and right and necessary that we call unbelievers to faith in Jesus.
27:18: You don't have salvation apart from faith in Jesus, but it's also important and good and right and necessary that we call them to repentance.
27:26: Because praying a prayer, accepting Jesus into your heart, however you might want to talk about it, that doesn't mean anything if people don't actually turn away from their sin towards Jesus.
27:37: You have to turn away from your sin towards Jesus in faith, trusting that that really is the better path.
27:44: He calls them to repentance and he gives two promises.
27:48: He says, there's things that will happen if you respond rightly here.
27:52: If you do repent, your sins will be blotted out.
27:55: You won't have guilt in God's sight anymore.
27:57: And two things that will come immediately in the temporal, in this life era, so that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
28:10: Life's going to be better walking with the Lord.
28:12: You're going to be refreshed.
28:14: But then the eternal significance is that the ultimate return of Christ and the complete restoration of all things.
28:21: God is not going to leave the world in its presence form forever.
28:25: God's going to restore all things.
28:26: There's going to come a day when sin no longer has any effect on this world.
28:32: It won't be influencing people's health anymore.
28:35: It won't be breaking relationships between folks anymore.
28:39: There won't be wars anymore.
28:42: There won't be greed or exploitation or embezzlement or any such thing anymore.
28:47: That's all going to be done away with.
28:51: That's where we're headed.
28:56: Luke tells us lame man wanted a little bit of change.
29:01: God used Holy Spirit filled Peter and John to do something a whole lot better.
29:08: Instead of giving him change they changed him.
29:12: And then the crowd they got to hear all about Jesus.
29:16: And they were called to respond to Jesus.
29:19: They were called to repent and turn to the Lord.
29:22: Now we're not going to look at the details but if you skip ahead a few verses in chapter 4 you'll find out that the number of believers was increased to 5,000.
29:31: Now this is where your algebra comes in.
29:34: Chapter 2 there's 3,000 new believers.
29:38: 3,000 plus X equals 5,000.
29:40: You solve for X and you find out 2,000 people get saved through the sermon and the healing that happens in chapter 3.
29:47: What an amazing thing.
29:49: It's beautiful.
29:51: God says yeah you want to talk about Jesus like that way?
29:53: I'm going to transform some lives.
29:56: And 2,000 more people come to Jesus this day.
30:01: this crippled man is healed and as they God's ambassadors represent Jesus God does more than that.
30:13: He changes spiritually dead people into spiritually alive people.
30:18: Taking a living man who's crippled and making him walk is great.
30:22: That's impressive.
30:22: That's astounding.
30:24: But taking a spiritually dead person and making him spiritually alive is far better.
30:28: Now where am I pulling that from?
30:30: Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 says writing to Christians you were dead in trespasses and sin.
30:38: He's saying to the Christians you used to be spiritually dead.
30:41: You used to be dead in your disobedience to God in the doing of bad things that you've done.
30:47: Verses 4 and 5 that same chapter just a few sentences later.
30:50: But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.
31:02: When the Bible talks about spiritual deadness and spiritual life it's talking about your ability to have relationship with God.
31:08: Your ability to respond rightly to God and saying you were so stuck in your sin you couldn't have relationship with God.
31:15: You couldn't relate to God as you ought to.
31:18: But then God transformed you, made you spiritually alive.
31:23: That is something that God does by his grace that we in no way contribute to.
31:31: God gives spiritual rebirth which always and necessarily results in saving faith and salvation.
31:42: Every time God does this a soul is saved.
31:47: A person is transformed.
31:49: Somebody is redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
31:51: Christ.
31:52: This is God's grace.
31:54: Dead people don't make themselves alive.
31:56: There are some things I can do for myself.
31:58: That is not one of them.
32:00: And that's the even greater work that God delights to do then and now.
32:09: Will you be like Peter and represent Jesus to the world around us here in Green Bay?
32:17: Even when we were dead in our trespasses God made us alive together with Christ.
32:23: I love that.
32:24: Made us alive together with Christ.
32:26: That's what we're made for.
32:27: And that's why we've been redeemed.
32:28: To have relationship with God.
32:30: We say here at Faith Chapel that we exist to worship God by enjoying relationship with him.
32:35: You are meant to enjoy your Christian faith.
32:37: It's not a burden.
32:38: It's not a penalty.
32:39: Like oh you don't have to go to hell but life on this earth is going to feel like hell because you've got to do all the right stuff and it's going to be miserable but hang in there and you'll avoid the bad stuff in eternity.
32:48: No.
32:50: Your life will be better every day walking with Jesus than not.
32:56: Ask any of the saints in this room after church their experience walking with Jesus for any time and they'll back me up on that from their own experience.
33:04: Not just hypothetical.
33:06: Walking with Jesus is better.
33:09: Better is one day with God than a thousand elsewhere.
33:13: I think we need to stop settling for silver and gold.
33:22: Stop being content with little small provisions like the man in the beginning was just looking for a little money.
33:32: Ask what temporary or insufficient fixes are we chasing in place of Jesus?
33:39: What are you looking for God to do or looking for people to do or looking for your friends or family to do or looking for politics to do?
33:46: What are you looking for as a solution that really in the scheme of things just isn't going to satisfy?
33:54: Because God has something a whole lot better.
34:00: Then extend your hand even as Peter did to this man and raised him up.
34:06: Now you may not have the spiritual gift of healing, that's fine, but how can we like Peter look intently at the broken people in our community and offer them the hope of Jesus?
34:16: I love that we as a church are supporting people in broken situations through safe families and offering them more than a safe place for the kids, but offering them an invitation into the family of God, offering them an example of what it looks like to be connected with God and to invite them into that church experience.
34:38: I love that we're part of that and that many of you have engaged in that.
34:43: But whether you do it through safe families or through some other means, will you see the broken people around you and be used by God to bring hope and grace and good news to bear?
34:58: God, help us to be dissatisfied with small fixes, with little things that don't add up to anything in eternal perspective.
35:18: if we're choosing those things over the hope that Jesus offers.
35:26: May we represent Jesus better in our own lives, to our loved ones, even to each other as fellow believers, and certainly to the unbelieving world around us.
35:35: May we consistently deflect glory, turn the attention to Jesus, speak truth, and help them to see that there is hope for them in their need and their guilt.
35:50: And Holy Spirit, might you empower this to take place in a way where there is radical transformation.
35:57: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
36:00: Amen.