Acts 3:1-10 | The Wonder Exists for the Word

through things like summer camp, God, through outreach things like vacation Bible school and mission trips. Lord, we pray and plead that you would help us to love you better, to know you more. We love you. We thank you for your grace. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen. Our call to worship this morning is found in Exodus 15:es 1-3. It says, "Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, singing, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song and has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Let's all stand together and worship the Lord together. Come all you weary. Come all you thirsty. Come to the well that never runs dry. Drink of the water. Come and thirst no more. >> Come all you sinners. Come find his mercy. Come to the table, he will satisfy. Taste of his goodness. Find what you're looking for. For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us. Whoever believes in him will live forever. Bring all your failures. Bring all your addictions. Come lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting there with open arms. For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us. Whoever believes in him will live forever. The power of hell forever defeated now. It is well. I'm walking in freedom for God so loved. God so loved the world. Praise God. from whom all blessings flow. Praise him. for the wonders of his love.

Praise God. from whom all blessings flow. Praise him. for the wonders of his love. For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us. Whoever believes in him will live forever. The power of hell forever defeated. And now it is well. I'm walking in freedom for God so loved. God so loved the world. Bring all your failures. Bring your addictions. Come lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting. God so loved the world. Oh, how good it is when the family of God dwells together in spirit in faith and unity where the bonds of peace of acceptance and love are the fruit of his presence here among us. So with one voice we'll sing to the Lord and with one heart we'll lift out his word till the whole earth cease. The redeemer has come. For he dwells in the presence of his people. Oh, how good it is on this jour. share to rejoice with the happy and weep with those who mourn. For the weak find strength, the afflicted find grace when we offer the blessing of belonging. So with one voice we'll sing to the Lord and with one heart we'll live out his word till the whole earth sees. The redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people. Oh, how good it is to embrace his command. To prefer one another, forgive as he forgives. When we live as one, we all share in the love of the Son, with the Father and the Spirit. So with one voice we'll sing to the Lord and with one heart we'll live out his word till the whole earth sees. The redeemer

has come for he dwells in the presence of his people. So with one voice we'll sing to the Lord and with one heart we'll live out his word till the whole earth sees. The redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people. Amen. >> Well, it's great to sing to our God, isn't it? Was a beautiful song this morning. There's different ways to praise God. We can do that through song. We can do that through the preaching. We can also praise God through our giving. So, that's what we're going to do right now. Let's have a word of prayer. Father God, we just thank you for the privilege of being here. Thank you that we have the opportunity just to give back just a small portion of the blessings you have given to us. We ask that we all give freely. We all give cheerfully as you desire so the word may continue throughout the world. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. >> Amen. You may be seated. Well, our scripture this morning is from uh 1 John 4 7-12. Kind of one of my favorite verses because it's hard sometimes to live up to that verse. says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves the has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God has made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. I was rich. I remember who I was.

I was lost. I was blind. And I was running out of time. Sins separated. The brereech was far too wide. But from the far side of the chasm, you had me in your sight. So you made a way across the great divide. left behind heaven's throne to build it here inside. And there at the cross, you paid the debt I owed. Broke my chains, freed my soul. For the first time I had hope. Thank you Jesus for the blood of life. Thank you Jesus. It has washed me white. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. brought me from the darkness into glorious light. >> You took my place, laid inside my tomb of sin. You were buried for three days, but then you walked right out again. And now death has no sting and life has no end. For I have been transformed by the blood of the lamb. Thank you Jesus for the blood of life. Thank you Jesus. It has washed me white. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Brought me from the darkness into glorious light. There is nothing stronger than the wonder work power of the blood. The blood that calls us sons and daughterers. We are ransom by your father through the blood. The blood. There is nothing stronger than the wonderworking power of the blood. The blood that calls us sons and daughterers. We are ransom by our father through the

blood. The blood. Thank you Jesus for the blood applied. Thank you Jesus. It has washed me white. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Brought me from the darkness into glorious light. Thank you Jesus for the blood applied. Thank you Jesus. It has washed me white. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Brought me from the darkness into glorious light. As the deep end though my soul longs after you. You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship you. >> You alone are my strength, my shield. To you alone may my spirit heal. >> You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship you. You're my friend and you are my brother even though you are the king. And I love you more than any other. So much more than anything. You alone. >> You alone are my strength, my shield. To you alone may my spirit heal. You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship you. >> I want you more than gold or silver. Only you

can satisfy. >> You alone are the real joy giver and the apple of my eye. You alone are my strength, my shield. To you alone may my spirit yield. You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship you. >> You alone are my strength, my shield. To you alone may my spirit heal. >> You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship you. And Lord, we do long to worship you. We thank you for this moment. And we thank you for who you are, for giving us so many reasons to worship, so many reasons to rejoice, so many reasons that we can follow you. Um, just knowing that we are in your hands and that being in your hands is the best place, the only real place to be. Thank you for your love in our lives. Thank you for today. Amen. If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, please turn with me to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. Finished up uh Acts 2 last week. And uh one of the verses that we covered was uh in verse 46. It says this um and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts. One of the things that that verse tells us and it's very important for us is that the early church was together one

day at a time. And and what we're about to read in Acts chapter 3 is what happens on one of those days. Kind of a a normal day actually. Just a regular afternoon that became anything but ordinary. Before we read today, I want you to be thinking about something. Uh because we all have certain needs as we come in here, don't we? We we all came in here with different pieces of baggage, different different felt needs, right? And they they they they it could be uh that your need is a healthier body, right? We we all we all pray about health and stuff like that. And and and on behalf of my family, where's Abby? Abby, on behalf of Abigail and my family, just thank you for praying for her. Uh as she's just healing up. You want to show them your crab claw real quick? Just lift that up. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Yeah, she had a good surgery and and is recovering, but she's pretty bummed about not swimming. And so, um, but we have health needs, don't we? It might be like a big financial need. Like, you're just like, "My bank account, it can't take this economy right now." And we all said, "Amen." Could be a stronger marriage or maybe uh a relationship with a child that's really just struggling right now. And so you come in come into the house of the Lord and you you need something. You have a need and it's relief that you're looking for from whatever it is that is pressing hardest on you right now. And we look at our prayer list. You you see Abby, you see Jeff. Uh Jeff, he wanted me to uh tell you guys just on behalf of him and and Julie, thank you guys so much for praying for them. Um it it means the world. He is at home now. Tim, we were praying for you, too. Is your basement okay? Awesome. Awesome. Torrential downpours. They have a way of getting into the

house, don't they? We pray for Laura, Byron, Larry, Steve Dale and Dale McFeders. The list goes on. And and we should bring these before the Lord because the Lord, he cares about us. He cares about our needs, doesn't he? And he delights in us bringing them to him. And we have seen God answer our requests in some really amazing ways in our congregation. I I think of sitting with John Davidson several years ago. The hospital had told him that they had done everything that they could to save Sandy. Sandy in here right now? No, she's not here right now. But they said, "Call the family and uh say goodbye." And we prayed and we prayed and we prayed. And the Lord saw by his goodwill to to not take her at that point in time. And now she's still up and about with her dogs. And it's awesome. I think about walking into the ICU you with Butch and Judy and we we didn't know what was going to happen and we prayed and we prayed and God saw fit to deliver you sitting in triage with Beth and Clim not knowing just not knowing. And we prayed as a church, didn't we? I remember listening to uh the Gustosons very very close in their prayers and little Wayne's prayers and he's an enthusiastic tenacious little guy and the Lord saw fit to deliver there and we see testimony after testimony we could share about just different ways that we've seen God work even within our congregation of his faithfulness which proves to me And should prove to you, and if you're sitting there, it should prove to you as well, that God still heals, that God still works, that God still answers our prayers. But here is what I want you to keep in mind as we get into our passage. The man we are about to meet was brought to the

temple with a need. And he could name that need. And yet God, he met a need that he didn't even know that he had. And that is the story of every single person that's in this room. We come to God with our little list, with all of our needs and all of our burdens. And in his mercy, he goes deeper than our list. He goes deeper than our wants. And he shows us what our true needs are. At our camp this past week, the speaker, he reminded our teens that we can only give away what we have. And what this world needs most and what you and I need most is not simply what you came here seeking or asking for. The greatest need that we have is Jesus Christ. And so with that in mind, if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Acts chapter 3, verses 1-10. God's word, it says this. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And 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. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." And as he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them, Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." Amen. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with him, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms. And

they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. And so Lord, I just pray that you would give us a sense of awe and wonder as well at your work. We pray for our congregation this morning and you know so many of those temporal needs that we have. Lord for uh Jeff and Julie, for Byron and Laura. Uh Lord for uh so many others that we lift up to you on our list. For FA uh Lord for uh for Larry and his brother. Uh we pray for all of these different prayer requests, God. And uh Lord, we we could be here for hours just praying about those different things, God, and we know that you care about them and so we bring them before you. But most of all, I pray that you would give us a bigger view of who you are, a bigger view of what you've done uh and how you have invited us to participate in that work by being your witnesses uh here in Camden, in Camden County. God, and across the world. Lord, I just pray that you would give us uh a right view of you. I pray that you would uh speak through me this morning. I pray that you would uh help me to be clear as we talk about different things like healing, as we talk about uh uh the gospel and uh what our what our needs are. Help us God uh to communicate and to listen well to your spirit in Jesus name. Amen. >> Well, our passage begins with uh Peter and John heading up to the temple for prayer. It's uh the 9th hour, which is about 300 p.m. in the afternoon. And so, it's at the end of a relatively normal day of ministry for the apostles. Uh Peter and John, when we look in the uh book of Acts, they're oftent times partnered together. and Peter, he's the spokesperson, right, for the disciples. Um, and and they were a team designed to reach the Jews uh in Jerusalem. But then we meet a man and I want to show you uh the first point from the passage. Um my uh my

clicker is not working. So this is the first time that I've had that. Is that highlighted? Okay. So, Larry, there you go. Um, your needs are greater than you know. What do we know about this man? Well, the first thing that we need to realize that we know is that he was lame from birth. Means he was crippled. Uh, we don't know the cause of it. It could have been a c a pausy or some type of a deformity. It it it's speculation, but we know that was from birth. We know that was a disability which means uh he couldn't walk and if he couldn't walk he couldn't work and so every single day there was someone that would carry him to this gate that was called beautiful and they set him down to bed. We also know something that's not found in this passage but is found in Acts 4 verse 22. It says the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old. More than 40 years old. 40 years of dependence. 40 years of watching people walk past him into the temple. 40 years of being outside of the temple and not being able to participate in the covenant people fully. 40 years every single day and he was sitting at the beautiful gate. And that's kind of ironic, isn't it? When you think about it, here's the beautiful gate. Josephus said that was one of the most beautiful gates at the entire temple complex. And yet, right there beside it every single day was a man that was deformed. A man who had a need. A man who was crippled and lame. He was near beauty and he was near worship. He was near to the very presence of God and the community of God's people. And yet he was near it. He wasn't in it. He was close but not a participant. He was never really engaged with the life of the temple. And that is a picture of so many people even in this

room today near the church hearing the songs sitting through the sermons but still on the outside looking in because they are spiritually needy. They are spiritually crippled and they don't even know it because church attendance cannot save. Amen. >> Being in this room today does not make you whole. You can be within arms reach and still be outside. Look with me at verse five. He he fixed his attention. He asked for alms and he fixed his attention on Peter and John expecting to receive something. What do you think that he was expecting to receive? Money. Yeah. A couple of coins, few denary to make it through the day. Patrick Shriner, he says it this way that the lame man expects to merely receive some money from them, not knowing his whole life is about to change. Isn't that how we approach God? Sometimes we come to him with what we think our needs are. Three times the Apostle Paul goes to the Lord and asks for the thorn to be taken away from him. And yet God had a greater purpose for that thorn. I've shared this on occasion uh about my mom who had a an accident in 2012 uh where a freight elevator malfunction came down on the top of her head, crushed a vertebrae in her back uh and now she's incompetent. Like she were to accidentally kill someone, she couldn't stand trial. And yet God has used that suffering to sanctify her. She's she is what I would call now a godly woman. And I didn't have that example growing up. God has a purpose in our suffering and yet it's always for our good and for his glory. And and for those of us that have walked through it, we learn that each and every day in a new way, don't we? And it's hard.

We come to God with our requests and we say, "God, I need help with my finances." Or, "God, I need help in my marriage." Or, "God, I need help with my children." or God, I I the doctor just gave me some bad news. And so, we come to the Lord with almost like he's a a vending machine rather than our savior. But here's what I want you to hear is that this man, he carried his condition for so long that became part of his identity. It became a part of who he was. He wasn't a man who happened to be lame. He considered himself as the lame man at the beautiful gate. And we know some people like this, don't we? Where their diagnosis becomes who they are. If you're not careful, it can become the source of your ex existence. Where every conversation kind of circles back to your struggle, circles back to your need, circles back to what it is that you're struggling with. And so every prayer becomes about that. Every morning you remind yourself of that. In in our church, we've got people that struggle with alpha gal and MS and cancer and ALS and uh the list is long and the suffering is very real and it's tough. But I want you to hear this very clearly, Christian. You are not your suffering. You are not your suffering. Not because suffering isn't real. It's very real. Your suffering is real. But in Christ, you have an identity that your sickness cannot touch. Colossians 3:3, it tells us this. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. That is not some sort of a platitude. That is a declaration of what is most true about you in Jesus Christ. Your name, Christian, is in the lamb's book of life. If you are in Christ, that's where it is written. And your name does not have a little asterisk

beside it. That has your diagnosis Your identity is beloved. It is forgiven. It is adopted. It is free. And this matters. This matters what I'm about to say. That your identity as a Christian, okay? that no diagnosis can touch can only be found in Jesus Christ. Before Christ, your suffering might be the truest thing about you because there's nowhere deeper for you to go. So if you want something deeper and you want an identity that sickness cannot touch, you need Jesus Christ. Come to Christ. The lame man, he came looking for coins. But but Jesus had something infinitely greater for him in mind. And that brings us to the second thing that I want you to see is that your resources are greater than you think. Your resources are greater than you think. There's a story about Thomas Aquinas who was visiting the pope. This pope was not a godly man. He had uh stacks of coins uh around him and he was counting them as as Thomas Aquinas came in and the pope looked up. He said, "You see Thomas, the church can no longer say silver and gold. I have none." And Aquinas, he said, "True, but neither can she say rise and walk." >> Can't say amen. You say what? >> And that exchange kind of cuts to the very heart of this passage. Because Peter, he didn't have silver. He didn't have gold. He was not a wealthy man. But look at what he did have. Verse six, it says, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." Now, I want I want to be careful here because this phrase is sometimes misunderstood. It's not like a magical incantation, although in the Greek it kind of matches some stuff like that. But Peter's not casting a spell. The name of Jesus is not powerful because of the the sounds and the syllables, right? If you read Jesus's

name in Aramaic, it's Yeshua. Is that more powerful than Jesus? Some people in our community would say yes. But in in the Greek, it's uh Yesus. Is is that is that more powerful? What Peter is doing is he is acting as an apostle, a sent one, a messenger, an ambassador that is acting on Christ's behalf. And I want you to think about what that means because Peter and John, they went to the temple how many days? Every day. Day by day, they were going to the temple. They had likely passed this gate many times. And that man was there for 40 years. They may have seen him before. They may have given him coins before. And so why was he healed on this particular day? You ever stop to think about that? It's because Jesus chose it to happen. The apostles, they're the scent ones. That's what a an apostle literally means. and the risen Christ was acting through them to verify the gospel message to prove their ministry. And this is important for us to understand because there's some teachers that have built entire ministries around the idea that healing belongs to every single believer. That's a guaranteed possession. Kenneth Hagen, he wrote that healing is a forever settled subject and that we have what we say. And that teaching is very dangerous, isn't it? It's very dangerous. Not only is it biblically unsupportable, but it's pastorally devastating. What do you say when someone says, "I I believed. I believed. I I guess I just didn't believe hard enough." When a faithful believer prays with everything that they have and their loved one still dies, teaching leaves them with nowhere to go but to question either their own faith or God's goodness. And so it presents a a false gospel

because it subtly shifts our hope from the finished work of Christ and the security of that to guaranteed physical blessing on this side of life. What does Paul say is the most important part of the gospel? If we look at act uh 1 Corinthians 15, matter of most first importance is that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day. That's the gospel. It's a firm gospel. It's a secure gospel. Not deliverance from sickness in this life, but deliverance from sin and death for eternity. Now, let me be equally clear about the other ditch that churches can get into because we absolutely believe God heals. He heals according to his will. He does whatever he wants to because he's God. And so, we pray boldly and with faith that he will intervene, that he will work. And the Lord, he may choose to do miraculous work in in your life today with your needs and your wants and your desires. And we should ask him to we should ask because we are needy creatures. Amen. We have tremendous needs. But what we are saying is that miraculous healing is not a guaranteed outcome. The miracles of the apostles, they served a specific purpose which was to authenticate his message to prove that they were indeed messengers of God. It proved their message. It proved their gospel that they preached. In Hebrews chapter 2 verses 3 and 4, it says, "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard. While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. The miracles they confirmed the messenger. That's the purpose behind them. The messenger proclaimed the gospel and the gospel is what saves. The

gospel is the greatest need. And so what does that mean for us as a church? We don't have apostolic gifts of healing. We don't. But we do have something that the world cannot manufacture and money cannot buy. We have Jesus Christ of Nazareth. >> Amen. >> We have the Holy Spirit of God that dwells inside that resides within you. That's what you have, Christian. And no one can snatch that from you. No one can snatch you from the father's hand. No one can snatch you out of Christ's hand. And we can only give away the things that we have. The question is not about our budget. You know, I look at our budget. Everyone, how many of you have looked at our budget recently? Just show of hands. Show of hands. Yep. Yep. We're all looking at the budget. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. Okay. We look at the budget. We sweat. The greatest need is not our budget. Although if the Lord leads you to give, please give. The Lord doesn't need a fancy facility. Doesn't need First Baptist Church of Camden. Doesn't need Cody Harllo. God has no needs. We're the ones that are needy. He has no need of children's ministry programs. He has no need of guitars. He has no need of lights. He has no needs for comfortable chairs. The indicators of spiritual health are very simple. Do we have Christ? Do you have Christ? Are we full of his Holy Spirit? Because a church without Christ has nothing to offer to a world that's dying. And a church with Christ has everything that it needs to succeed,

regardless of how meager its resources might be. Do you have Christ? Fernando Ortega, he has this great song. It's a prayer. It's you know those prayer songs just like the one that we sing at the end. Who what was that one? We sing it every night. What? What? Yeah. As the deer. As the deer. Yeah. That's that's a prayer song for us as a family right? >> Yeah. He will hold me fast. Yeah. All those. But there's another song by Fernando Ortega that's just give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. Just give me Jesus. Thirdly, your mission is greater than you can imagine. Your mission, Christian, is greater than you can imagine. Look at what happens next in verse eight. He leaps up. He stands. He walks and he enters the temple with them. And what's he doing in the temple? He's walking and he's leaping and he's praising God. And I I like to think of him shouting at the top of his lungs. 40 years of being in bondage to his feet. And in a moment, his greatest need was met. Not that he received healing. Yes, they met that need, but where is it that he goes to? Everyone's recognizing that this is the man at the beautiful gate that was begging and they are filled with wonder at what happened. But I want you to think about this for for a second that every regular at the temple knew this man's face. They had walked past him hundreds of times. Hundreds of times. plenty of them had dropped coins into his hand. And now he's walking through the temple courts, leaping, praising God in the temple out loud. For the first time in his life and I want you to notice that he entered the temple with them

for 40 years. He was always on the outside of the gate, outside looking in, longing to be included but excluded, dependent on everyone that walked past. And now in the space of one verse, these things are undone. He He's not just walking, he's walking in. He's not just healed, but he becomes a part of the house of the Lord. He didn't Luke didn't have to write that down. He could have just ended the sentence at at his feet and his ankles were made strong and we would have said, "Woohoo! Amen. That's awesome." And he could have moved on. But he doesn't. He shows us a man who spent 40 years on the wrong side of a door and then is walking through it praising God the entire way in. This is not just about a leg getting fixed. This is a man who is brought into worship and he has brought into the people of God. The very things that had locked him out his entire life are gone. And that's what Jesus does. He does not stop at rise up. He brings us in. See, healing that leaves you standing at the gate and capable but still alone is not the whole Christ. It's not the whole gospel. He doesn't just fix what's broken in you. He brings you all the way home. He brings you into his community, into his presence, into his people, into the worship that you were always meant to be a part of. You Christian were called to worship. Some of you, you've been outside of of something for a long time. Outside the fellowship of the church because maybe shame's kept you from walking in. Maybe guilt. And outside real worship because you've just been going through the motion for all the years. Jesus didn't save this man so that way he could stand outside all by himself, to be healed, to be restored, and to be alone. That's not why Jesus saved him. He saved him so

that way he could walk in, leap, and praise God all the way among God's people. That's what salvation still looks like. And I want us to take a a look a closer look at the miracle as well, because Luke, he's a careful writer. He doesn't just put things in accidentally. He he describes what happened. And this is a prophet. Isaiah 35. He writes this down for us to show that this is just prophecy coming to life. Isaiah 35:6, it says, "Then the lame man, then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy, for waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert." That is a a prophecy of the new covenant of salvation by grace coming to the forefront of history. And here in Acts chapter 3, it is happening right now in front of everyone's eyes. The promises of God are not some type of a distant thing. They are a present reality. And they are not theoretical. The kingdom of God is arriving and the leaping legs of this man are the evidence of God's work. And the crowd, it can't look away. They're filled with wonder. They're filled with amazement. But here's the thing about wonder is that wonder alone cannot save. People being excited about going to a building does not save. Awe is not salvation. The crowd still needs to hear about what what's going on. What does this mean? They need an explanation. They need the gospel. And that's exactly where Peter's going to go next. And so we'll that's what we'll cover next week by the way. But what I want you to see today is that the miracle is what gathers the crowd. The wonder it it it's there to create the moment. Serves a purpose and the moment exists for the word of God. That's the pattern that we see. God works in ways that stop people right in their tracks. It catches their attention and he speaks into that amazement. And

he still does that today, not through signs and wonders like healings, but through the witness of Christians like you. There's two ways that the church gets this wrong. The first way is through a social gospel. The social gospel is that it's the church's job to simply meet physical needs. you know, you give people food or beds and show compassion and things like that and let that be enough. But a a social gospel that never presents Christ, that never presents the gospel um is just philanthropy with better PR. The prodigal son, he he came to his senses while he was wallowing in the mud. Remember the social gospel would have given him a hot sandwich and a place to sit, but he never would have been reconciled to the father. The second error is the complete opposite. The second error is the church that's so focused on proclaiming the gospel that has no interest in meeting physical needs. They treat bodies as unimportant and that the soul is supreme. Thing is is that we all have bodies. We all have needs. The model that Christ gives us is to feed the hungry, to touch the leper, to weep at the grave of Lazarus, and to share the gospel, to point to the hope of Christ. My mentor Jeff Chadwick is uh the director of the Mission Centers of Houston. This is a really cool testimony. It's a multi-sight outreach uh area in downtown Houston. and they got like six or seven locations and uh they they open up their facility for different churches to meet in their facility throughout the week and they had an Arabic Baptist church that was meeting and uh there's a large Muslim population in downtown Houston. Uh and none of them would ever come and set foot in any kind of church.

Um and they were praying about it and Amazon called and they said, "Uh, hey, we've got a bunch of things that we just need to get out of our warehouse. Uh, can you guys use them?" And he's like, "I I don't know. How much how much stuff are we talking?" He said, "It's about six 18 wheelers full of stuff." Yeah, that's a lot of stuff. And um he goes, "Uh, let let me see if I can't figure out something." So, he's praying about it and uh he's going to a meeting later that day with an African-American pastor. He's going to go visit the church and the pastor says, "Hey, I I just want to show you something real quick." Uh they walk down the street from the church. It's on the same block and it's this giant warehouse. And he says, "Uh u we're trying to figure out what to do with this place." And Jeff says, "I know exactly what we can do with this place. uh thousand volunteer hours later and six 18-wheelers full of stuff later, uh they get all this stuff from Amazon. Amazon says, "Hey, by the way, the one caveat is is that you can't sell it." Okay, that makes sense. So he calls this uh Arabic pa Baptist pastor up and says uh hey what do you think about us opening this up to the Muslim community and you you know they have free access to all this stuff from shower curtains to trash cans to spatulas to whatever. And in order for them to receive it they just have to hear the gospel. you. They just have to sit down with you. He says, "We can try it." They had 1,200 Muslims come through and hear the gospel as a result of that. That's awesome. They've they've baptized over a dozen of them. >> Amen. And and you just think it that's what it takes. Meeting real needs and sharing the gospel of Christ. That's what it takes.

A church never has to choose between compassion or the gospel because we're to offer both. >> We meet the physical needs and then we preach Christ. And the result was a crowd hungry to hear more. And that's our mission. not to choose between loving people and proclaiming Christ, but to do both with everything that we have, knowing that the wonder exists for the word and the word points everyone to Jesus. So, let me ask you before we close, what is your need today? What did you come here thinking that you needed? Maybe it's something on that prayer list. a body that's not working right, a relationship that's breaking, a financial pressure that just won't let up. Those things are real and we will pray for them. But I want you to consider that like this man at the beautiful gate, you may have come in today with a need that you could name. And perhaps you're leaving with one that you didn't know that you had. The greatest miracle in this passage is not that a lame man walked. The greatest miracle in this passage is that we have a God that died and rose again and ascended into heaven and is ruling and reigning at the right hand of the father right now. And he is calling sinners everywhere like me and like you to repent and believe the gospel. That's the greatest miracle because Acts is not a story of what Peter did. It's what Jesus is continuing to do after his ascension and he's still doing it right now. So the question is is he calling you today? Do you see your need for Jesus? Not his blessings or just his blessings, not his help to get through another day. Do you long for Christ? So come to him, repent and believe the gospel. head, heart, hand, head. God, he wants you to know that your greatest need is Jesus.

The man at the gate asked for coins. He received healing that he never thought to request. And every single one of us have a need that we can name, but underneath that request is our need for Christ heart. God. He wants you to believe that Jesus himself is your greatest treasure and that he is able to meet your deepest need. We are prone to want God's hand more than his face. But Colossians 3:3 tells us that our truest identity is hidden with Christ. That is who we are in Jesus, not in whatever issues that we're facing. And God, he wants you to come to Christ with your needs. Trust him above all of his gifts and to point others to him through compassion and the gospel. It's how we are to live out this passage. So this week, look for someone with a need. Look for someone with a need that you might be able to meet and then don't stop in meeting it like Peter. follow up that act of mercy with with an act of sharing the gospel because that's that's why our works happen is that we can go and we can open them up to a gospel presentation. So don't let the moment pass. Um take advantage of sharing the gospel. And so Lord, we do ask that you would speak to us today. Um move in our hearts, Lord. I pray that we would all gain a God-sized vision uh of exactly what you want us to do with our our neighbors that need Christ, with our our uh co-workers that need to hear about Jesus, uh with uh different friends that we might come in contact with. Lord, we just want uh to be used by you in a mighty way to to share the gospel. And uh uh Lord, I just pray that you would do that in our hearts and in our lives. We ask that you would minister to us. um that you would call us uh to take greater steps of faith each and every day. We love you. Help us to trust you. Help us to obey

you, God, in Jesus name. Amen. Let's all stand and let's respond to worship together. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will, he abides with us still and with all who will trust and oy for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and oy. Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies, but a smile quickly drives it away. Not a doubt or a fear. Not a sign or a tear can abide what we trust and oy for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and oy. Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at his feet or we'll walk by his side in the way. What he says we will do. Where he sends we will go. Never fear. Only trust and oy. Trust and oy. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and oy. I want to leave you with this uh Psalm 54 says, ' Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the upholder of my life. He will return the evil to my enemies. In your faithfulness, put an end to them. With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies. God meets us in our needs and he has equipped you to go and share the gospel. Go in peace. Thank you.