Power Point Ministries - Jack Graham

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A
little later in the program, we'll tell you how you
can get a copy of doctor Graham's book Angels. But first,
here's the message, Dancing with the Scars.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I want to invite you to take God's word and
turn with me once again to the Book of Acts
as we are studying it together the power of spiritual engagement.
That's the story of the Book of Acts, and the
Spirit of God is filling his people. The church is flourishing,
reaching people for Christ. The city is being captured with

(00:42):
the words of the Gospel. Not only are great crowds
coming to Christ, but one by one, people's lives are
being transformed. As these believers, followers of Christ are now
scattering across the city in the power of the Holy Spirit.
They are engaging people with the Gospel. They are sharing

(01:05):
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of
his name. The title of the sermon is Dancing with
the Scars. Not the popular show that you may watch
on television each week, but a man who was born

(01:27):
lay disabled, who now is on his feet in the
name of Jesus, with scarred limbs, emotional scars, hurts, hang
ups habits of the past, now dancing and leaping and
praising God, worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ, and he becomes

(01:52):
a powerful exhibit in the testimony of the case for Christ.
Look at verse one three the Book of Acts. And
Peter and John were going to the temple at the
hour of prayer the ninth hour, which was three o'clock
in the afternoon, and a man laying from birth was

(02:15):
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 he fixed his attention

(02:39):
on them, them expecting to receive something from them. But
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. And

(03:00):
he took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong, and
leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered
the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

(03:23):
He was dancing with the scars. 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 happened to him. You look at

(03:47):
this man in Acts chapter three. The Bible tells us
he's forty years of age. And every day, for day
after day, month after month, year after year, someone brought
this man who was born at birth disabled his limbs,
his legs did not work. He had a congenital birth

(04:09):
defect of some kind. He was paralyzed. He was immobile.
Every parent, of course, looks and alongs of the day
when those children take the first steps, and his parents
never saw that day. Here was a young man, a
boy who never played with the other kids. He never
chased a ball. Someone began to take him as a

(04:33):
business proposition down to the Beautiful Gate where he would
sit in this particular arena where worshipers would walk by
on their way to prayer, on their way to the
temple to worship God. And there was the assumption, of course,
that people who were on their way to worship God,
especially devoloped and pious Jews, that if he sat there,

(04:57):
that perhaps they would open their hearts compassion and give
him something, and he subsisted like that. Can you imagine this?
Perhaps you've seen beggars before, either on our own streets
here in America, or maybe you've traveled abroad, and you
know that this kind of life still exists today. If

(05:19):
you go to Israel and walk through the gates of Jerusalem,
even to this day, you see beggars definitely placed there
doing the same thing that this man was doing, crying out,
begging just to live, just to get by, just a
little money to eat another meal. So day after day,

(05:43):
this man is there, laid daily at the gate of
the temple, begging for money, and along come two men
that day on their way to church, on their way
to work. Their worship has been transformed because now they

(06:04):
know Jesus Christ, and being good Jews, they continue to
practice their Jewish faith, knowing that they have received the Messiah,
knowing that they understand the fulfillment of their faith, and
knowing that Jesus is alive and they are filled with

(06:26):
the spirit of God. And so they are on their
way to worship, and an incredible and amazing experience awaits
them there on the way to worship. And did you
know that when you come with an expectant heart and
a spirit filled life to worship the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is always something amazing, something wonderful that awaits you

(06:51):
when you go in His name. These men are witnesses.
Peter and the others have been preaching boldly, and large
crowns of the day of Pentecost had responded. But ultimately
the powerful witness of the church included not only the
public proclamation of the gospel as crowds were coming and

(07:12):
hearing the message, but they were doing exactly what Jesus
told them to do. They went out, and as they
were going, Jesus said, as you are going, wherever you go,
wherever your feet take you, you talk about me. You
tell people about Me and how they can know me.
And so on their way as they are going to worship.

(07:35):
Now they have a new sensitivity. Now the spirit of
God has given them real love and compassion for people.
Now they are responsive to the needs of people around them.
So when they're walking in the gate, and this man
is crying out, Alms for the poor, Alms for the poor,
Alms for the poor. As he's crying out, they stop.

(07:57):
Most likely, in the past they have done what any
of us do when someone cries out in need, we
go on. But this time, full of the spirit of God,
engaged in following Christ, Peter and John stop, And the

(08:18):
words of the scripture tell us that they fix their
attention on this man. They fastened their eyes on him,
and Peter said, look at me, look at us. And
he said that because think about it, a man who
every day was begging. Maybe you've seen this every day

(08:42):
begging his hands out, that his head bowed, living a
life of shame and failure and defeat. Now, of course,
we know that disable people today so often lead productive lives,
meaningful lives. And I know the stories of men and

(09:05):
women who have faced incredible difficulties and disabilities in their life,
and they've overcome them so often in the power of
faith and the power of Jesus. So certainly we're not
suggesting that every disabled person is somehow hopeless and helpless.
But this man was hopeless and helpless. He was empty,

(09:26):
and his head must have been down looking at that
same spot that same pavement, those same rags that he
was wearing every day. Is his head is down. I
love the scripture which tells us that the Lord is
the lifter of our heads. So Peter said, look at us.

(09:52):
He wanted to make eye contact with this man. So
he looks up. He sees a full of former fishermen
and he's thinking, great, these guys probably got nothing to
give me, just a couple of Galileans. While he was

(10:12):
expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, listen, I
have no silver in gold, but what I have I
give to you in the name of Jesus. Rise up
and walk And at that moment, now think about this,
Think about the bold faith of Simon, Peter and John.

(10:35):
Here's a man who's been laid here for all these years.
He's forty years of age, he never walked, and Peter
is bold enough in the name of Jesus to extend
his hand and say, all right, get up. Would you
do that? Would you walk by someone in a wheelchair

(10:57):
and say, in the name of Jesus, get up and
offer your hand, let's go. It was an incredible act
of faith. As a matter of fact, later on, when
Peter would explain this miracle. He would say, it was
faith in this name, faith in this name of Jesus Christ.

(11:19):
Whose faith was it? It wasn't the man on the ground.
It wasn't this lame man's faith. He had no faith.
Apparently at this point it was the faith of the believer,
of the Christian who had so much confidence in the
power of Jesus Christ that he knew if he offered
his hand, that the power of Jesus would do the rest.

(11:45):
It was the hand of Peter, but it was the
power of Jesus that changed this man.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
You were listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the
message Dancing with the Scars. In his book Angels, Doctor
Graham takes you through scripture to explore how angels serve,
protect and point us to the power of our Savior.
We want to send you this powerful book today to
thank you for your generous gift to help PowerPoint end

(12:12):
this current year of ministry on June thirtieth as strong
as possible. This is so important. A two hundred thousand
dollars matching grant has been offered by generous friends, which
means every dollar you give through June thirtieth will be doubled.
Call one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.

(12:36):
You can also text the word angels to five nine
seven eight nine. Don't let stress rob you of peace.
It is possible to break the destructive grip of stress
on your life and enjoy the peace and abundance God
desires for you. That's what doctor Graham helps you do
in his booklet Breaking Free from Stress. We want to
send you a digital download of Breaking Free from Stress

(12:57):
when you sign up for email updates from powerpol Today.
Just go to PowerPoint dot org, slash stress and sign
up today. Now let's get back to today's message, Dancing
with the scars.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
It was the hand of Peter, but it was the
power of Jesus that changed this man. And that's an
incredible example, isn't it? Of our own witness and what
we're to be about. As followers of Christ. We have
the most amazing, the most wonderful, the most life changing
message of all. It is the message of salvation in

(13:36):
Jesus Christ. Yes we believe God still heals, he makes
people whole. And yes, God does in his own time
perform miracles, physical miracles such as this one. Read Psalm
one hundred and three. As I have been reading Psalm
one hundred and three recently and just meditating upon it.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forgetting not all

(13:57):
of his benefits, Who forget is all of your iniquities,
and heals all of your sicknesses, your diseases, who lives
your spirit and crowns your life with righteousness. Yes, God
is still at work. God can still perform miracles of
power and grace and glory in people's lives. But the

(14:18):
greater miracle that takes place in this man's life was
not the fact that he walt, but the fact that
he became a worshiper. Here is a man that is
outside the gate. According to the laws of the Jews,
a broken man like this, a disabled man like this,
was not allowed in the inner sanctum, in the inner

(14:41):
circle of the people of Israel, in the place of worship.
And so he's laid outside the gate. He is cut
off from God, he is cut off from the worship
of the One True God, and he's helpless. He's hopeless.
He was dependent upon someone to carry him there and
lay him the day. And he's illustrative, you see, of

(15:04):
all of us who were born unable to walk with God,
unable to know and to worship God, disabled by a fall.
There was a man in the Old Testament by the
name of Maphibish Chef, and Maphibis Chef was crippled when
his nurse and when David's army was pursuing the army
of Saul. He was the grandson of Saul. The Phibish

(15:26):
Chef was a little child and the nurse dropped him
as a baby, and he was crippled in this fall.
And he, like this man, is illustrative of every person
on the face of the earth. That we have a
congenital heart defect, a birth defect, and that we cannot
know God, and we are helpless to do anything about it.

(15:47):
We are hopeless, and our future is dark, and we
have no life. We just existing. And it matters not
if you're a lame beggar or you are a phisticated
skeptic or atheists. We are all born incapacitated, incapable of

(16:13):
living life and enjoying life, no matter what pleasure you
may find. If you don't know God, if you don't
have him in your life. You're just like this man

(16:36):
laying at the gate. Beautiful. I can't ever read this
story without thinking about how many people are laid near
our gates and they're just waiting for some spirit filled
Christian to come along and in the power of the

(16:56):
name of Jesus, extend a hand. It's say, in the
name of Jesus, rise up and walk. Well, that's exactly
what happened, immediately, instantaneously. Doctor Luke, a physician who gave
us the account of the Book of Acts, actually uses

(17:18):
medical terms to describe what happened to this man. Apparently
there was a disconnection in the ankles and the feet,
and immediately this man is changed. He is on his feet.
And I love the fact that it says that when
Peter took hold of his hand, he uses a word
which says he seized him. He didn't, he didn't say, okay, careful, now, careful, careful, careful. No,

(17:43):
he he seized him and he jerked. I mean he
pulled him up. And immediately this guy jumps up and
he's walking, and he's leapy, and he's praising God. He
is celebrating recovery. You can recover in the power of

(18:07):
his name. You don't call upon just a higher power,
but you can call upon the name of the highest power,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you can be free
from your bondage. You can be on your feet, leaping, dancing,
praising God and celebrating recovery. That's what this man was doing.

(18:31):
He was dancing with the scars, all this emotional baggage,
all the scars of a lifetime, all the sin and
the failure. Now he's a worshiper. He's praising God. He

(18:52):
just said, silver and gold, I don't have what I have,
I give to you. What he wanted was money, but
he got something far better than money. He got his life.
For the very first time, I heard about a seminary
student who was preaching for his professor, and he preached
on this sermon. You know this man, he didn't get

(19:12):
what he wanted, he got what he needed. And the
title of this preacher, boys sermon was he asked for
alms and he got legs. He should get an f
for that sermon title. But he got his legs and

(19:34):
he got his life. And as a result of this
witness of these two spirit filled men who saw someone
laying at the gate outside of the place of worship.
He picked him up, and they just didn't offer a

(19:55):
handout or a help up. They gave him something far better.
They gave him the power the presence of Jesus Christ.
Because you see, these two men knew that Jesus is alive.
You have eye witnesses to the resurrection saying Jesus is

(20:17):
a live and to prove that he is alive in
the name of Jesus, stand up and walk, because what
happens now The people who had known this man, maybe
even Peter and John had known this man. Maybe they
had passed this guy on the way into the temple
scores of times. And everyone in the area knew about

(20:39):
this guy. And now he's on his feet, he's in
the temple, he's worshiping. The family is astonished. Everybody is wondering.
The Bible says they're wondering. They're astonished. They're say, what
happened here? So Peter, the bold heart, the brave heart,
stands up and preaches. And that's why what you have

(21:00):
in the rest of the third chapter of Acts, it
is the words of Peter as he preaches the gospel. First,
you've got the witness of these men, and then you've
got the wonder of the man transformed, and then you
have the words, the testimony of faith. And he takes advantage.
He seizes the moment, does this man to say to

(21:23):
everyone who's running up there wondering what's happened to this guy,
to tell them, this has happened, because Jesus is alive,
the same one that you crucified and put on the cross,
turned over to evil men to crucify him, the same
one who is the Savior and redeemer and Lord. He
calls him the author of life. He uses the wonderful

(21:46):
descriptive names of Jesus. He calls him the servant of God.
He calls him the Son of God. He calls him
the Savior and the redeemer and the author of life.
And he preaches Jesus Christ. He proclaims the gospel. Because
now this man is standing and the scripture says that

(22:09):
this man is clinging. I mean, I don't know if
he's exhausted from all this dancing or what, but it
says he's clinging to Peter. And he's standing right there,
and Peter just goes at it, and he's saying look
at this man. Look what Jesus has done in his life.

(22:35):
And here's how you can know this Saint Jesus. And
he preached the Cross, and he preached the resurrection, and
then he told them to repent and receive Christ before
it was too late. He said, you have done this
thing in ignorance. I mean, he shows them a lot
of grace. He said, you did this thing in ignorance.

(22:55):
You crucified the Messiah of the Savior. You did it
in ignorance. But now you know. I challenge you, if
you are a skeptic, if you are an unbeliever, if
you wonder if Jesus is real and Christianity is true,
I challenge you to investigate the claims of Christ upon

(23:18):
your life, because when you stand before God, you're not
going to be able to plead ignorance. We live here
at the so called buckle of the Bible belt. Churches
are on every corner. Many of these churches are preaching
Christ to the Gospel. You live in the lights. You

(23:39):
can't claim ignorance. Do yourself a huge favor and make
the case for Christ in your own life. Investigate the
claims of Jesus. What Jesus did for this lame man,
he will do for you if you will do what
this slain man good, and that is reach out and

(24:03):
touch Jesus.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
Dancing with the Scars. On June thirtieth, we will close
our books on another year of ministry, and it's critical
we end strong. That's why generous friends have stepped forward
with a two hundred thousand dollars matching grant, which means
every dollar you give by June thirtieth will be doubled.
Your gift to help meet this grant in full is

(24:26):
so important. We'll send you doctor Graham's powerful book Angels.
It's our special gift and thank you to you. This
encouraging book reveals what Scripture says about God's messengers and
how their presence reminds us that Heaven is always near.
Request your copy when you call and give today. Call
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.

(24:48):
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word angels to five nine
seven eight nine. That's Angels to five nine seven eight
And don't forget to visit Jack Graham dot org where
you can shop our east door, give a gift online,
or sign up for doctor Graham's free daily email devotional.

(25:09):
Our website again is Jack Graham dot org, and also
be sure to sign up for doctor Graham's podcast Bible
in a Year pastor what is your PowerPoint for Today?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Today, we've been talking about people whose lives were radically
transformed by Jesus and how they became exhibits of His power.
Their amazing testimonies proved to everyone around them that Jesus
was at work in their lives, and as a result,
many people came to know the Lord and Salvation in
Christ through their testimonies, through their stories. I love to

(25:42):
hear testimonies of God's work in people's lives, of miracles,
of healings, of dramatic conversions. They're always so encouraging, and
it's important for us to remember that God is in
the business of changing people's lives, and the greatest miracle
of all is the miracle of salvation. You know what,
not every person has experienced something as dramatic as a

(26:05):
great healing or a miraculous deliverance. The truth is, when
you ask Christ to come into your life. He begins
to work and he continues to work, and that is
a miracle. Each and every day He is changing you,
restoring you, making you more like himself. He is transforming
your life, just as He transformed the lame Beggar's life.

(26:25):
With all the distractions of daily life, is easy sometimes
to overlook the ways that God is working, working and
answering our prayers, speaking to you through his word, arranging
your circumstances, or encouraging you through other people. And yet
in all of this God is trying to show you
how real and how present He is in your life.
And He is giving you your own story to tell

(26:48):
with others, your own testimony of what Christ has done
in your life. The Lord Jesus is powerful and He
is powerfully at work in you. So I encourage you
to look for the daily evidence of God in your
life other people about it. Don't wait for some spectacular
demonstration of what God is doing, but just share the
way that He is loving you, ministering to you, speaking

(27:10):
to you, and his word, the daily demonstrations of His
power that are happening every single day as you look
to Him.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a
gift of ten dollars or more to PowerPoint, we'll send
you doctor Graham's book Angels as our thanks. Call one
eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven. That's
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word Angels to five nine

(27:38):
seven eight nine and join us again next time as
doctor Graham brings a message about how you can stand
strong for Jesus in the face of opposition. That's next
time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham
is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.