Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right.
So Acts 9, beginning in verse36.
So if you're new here, we'regoing verse by verse or chapter
by chapter through the book ofActs.
If you have it, say amen andwould you stand for the reading
of God's Word?
Now there was in Joppa'm.
(00:24):
Actually we're going to go backverse 31.
So the church throughout alljudea and galilee and samaria
had peace and was being built upand walking in the fear of the
lord and in the comfort of theholy spirit.
It multiplied.
Now peter went here and thereamong them and he came down also
to the saints who lived inLydda.
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There he found a man namedAnais, bedridden for eight years
, who was paralyzed.
And Peter said to him Anais,jesus Christ heals you, rise and
make your bed.
And immediately he rose and allthe residents of Lydda and
Sharon saw him and they turnedto the Lord.
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And now there was in Joppa adisciple named Tabitha, which
translated means Dorcas.
She was full of good works andacts of charity In those days.
She became ill and died andwhen they had washed her they
laid her in the upper room.
And since Lydda was not nearJoppa, the disciples, hearing
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that Peter was there, sent twomen to him urging him Please
come to us without delay.
So Peter rose and went withthem and when he arrived they
took him to the upper room andall the widows stood beside him
weeping and showing tunics andother garments that Dorcas made
while she was with them.
But Peter put them all aside andshowing tunics and other
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garments that Dorcas made whileshe was with them.
But Peter put them all asideand dealt down and prayed and,
turning to the body, he saidTabitha, arise.
She opened her eyes and whenshe saw Peter she sat up and he
gave her his hand and raised herup and then, calling the saints
and widows, he presented heralive and it became known
throughout all Joppa and manybelieved in the Lord and she
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stayed in Joppa for many dayswith one, simon, a tanner, the
word of God for the people ofGod.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Thanks be to God, thank you who here has ever been
(02:50):
seen been close to the BrooklynBridge?
Anybody?
Oh, a couple of yous, couple ofyous.
So I've crossed it one time inmy entire life and, standing in
front of this ginormous bridge,you can't help but stand in
wonder and awe, because it's anamazing, amazing structure, and
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just see it, you kind of feeltiny.
Now I have a mechanics brainsome of you get my guys might
understand that, some of you maynot meaning that I see things
that I want to know how theywork, how it came to be.
So, as I was crossing theBrooklyn Bridge, I had a lot of
(03:35):
questions, but my main questionwas how did we small humans make
this happen?
We small humans make thishappen.
Before I tell you, I'm going togive you some interesting facts
about the Brooklyn Bridge thatyou may not know.
Number one the Brooklyn Bridgeis a little over a mile long.
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At its highest point it's 272feet.
It is roughly 127 feet off thewater and it is a five-lane
roadway.
It also has a path forpedestrians and people who ride
bikes and if that was it, itwould be amazing.
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But it also carries a train andin this, the entire Brooklyn
Bridge roughly carries 121,000people across it each day, and
that's pretty amazing.
So I got me thinking as I'mriding across this bridge how
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did we do it?
Because it seems like a prettydaunting task, something that's
overwhelming, that we justcouldn't ever make happen.
So I did what all of us currentpeople above ground do I looked
it up on YouTube and I watchedthe whole video from start to
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finish, and it's veryinteresting the way we do this.
So they start with the pillars,maybe telling you that the
highest point is 272 feet.
So that's one of those pillars.
So what we do is is we actuallymake it on land, put it on a
boat, drive it out to where wewant it, and then we sink it in
the water, and then we takeanother piece and stack it on
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top, and so on and so forth,until we're out of the water.
Then we get on and startbuilding up from there.
After we do that, we anchor iton both sides of the river, both
sides of the water.
We put four anchors total twoon each side and after we do
these massive anchors, we takeindividual little cables and we
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start stringing them from theanchor to the pillar to the
anchor, back and forth, overmany, many times, depending on
the size of your bridge.
I believe for the burglarbridge it's around 100 strands
of cable Make up one of the bigcables.
After they do that, that's whenthey actually come and lay the
decking of the bridge.
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To finish it, boom.
You know how to make a bridgelike the burglar bridge Crossed
any water you want, it justtakes a lot of time.
Like the Brooklyn Bridge acrossany water you want, it just
takes a lot of time.
The very interesting thing aboutthis is, even though it was an
amazing, overwhelming task, allwe did was take the task and
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break it down and just build itpiece by piece, little by little
, to get us there.
Now we've been in a journeythrough Acts and in Acts,
chapter one, verse eight, jesusgave 12 men what I would
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consider an overwhelming task,which is to take the gospel
through all the ends of theworld.
Now, this is 12 men who are noteducated.
All they have is their timewith Jesus, and then Jesus is
about to ascend to heaven and hetells them now take it and go
into all the world.
However, against all odds, wehave seen so far in Acts that
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these 12 men are now coming upto verse 9, tens of thousands of
believers strong.
Now that's just eight chapters.
That's pretty amazing.
Well, today, the scripture we'regoing to look at, we're going
to see this to continue.
The church isn't going to stopin verse 9, but in the end of
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verse 9, we're going to continue.
Acts 9 31 it says in threedifferent places here in our
scripture today, but in Acts 931 it says so.
The church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had
peace and was being built up andwalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit.
It multiplied.
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Then in Acts 9 35, it says andall the comfort of the Holy
Spirit.
It multiplied.
Then in Acts 9.35, it says andall the residents of Lydda and
Sharon saw him, the paralyzedman, and they turned to the Lord
, adding more.
And then in Acts 9.42, and itbecame known throughout all
Joppa and many believed in theLord.
(08:48):
So with that in mind, we startedwith 12.
We're getting to chapter 9.
We're tens of thousands ofpeople.
But now let's shoot way pastthat into today, because it
didn't stop after the Bible wasbeing written.
It didn't stop at the end ofActs.
It continued into today andthat process that started with
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those 12 men in Acts, chapter1-8, is still continuing to this
day and today because of that.
We started with 12, but nowwe're at around 2.4 billion
people strong who claim to beChristians in the world.
It's making Christianity, orit's made Christianity, the
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largest known religion in theworld.
Our mission today hasn't changedFrom those 12 men.
Even though it is a hostileworld out there, we get
persecuted A little bit inAmerica.
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I'm going to say a little bitBecause if we really compare it
to Africa and the Middle East,where people are having their
lives taken on a daily basis forsaying they're Christians, it's
hard for me to stand up hereand say that we're being
persecuted to that extent, butwe're still being persecuted.
Our government on one side orthe other, our school system,
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all trying to keep Christianityout, and we're all fighting it
day to day, even to the pointthat there is the devil out
there trying to devour it fromus.
In today's text there are goingto be three vital ingredients
that I've seen for a healthy,growing church, which we should
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be striving to do on a dailybasis.
We here want to grow andcontinue to grow.
We've actually gotten to apoint where we've had to order
new chairs because we're gettingtoo big.
That is a blessing.
To grow We've actually gottento a point where we've had to
order new chairs because we'regetting too big, that is a
blessing to have, amen.
But if we want to continue togrow and to continue to get
better and bigger and to stayhealthy, we have to have three
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vital ingredients.
One we have to be a people whofear the Lord.
We have to be a people that isfull of the Holy Spirit and we
have to be a people committed tothe ministry.
It's interesting that the firstthing we talk about is walking
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in the fear of the Lord, being apeople committed to that.
Acts 9.31 says so.
The church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had
peace and was being built up andwalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit, it multiplied.
It multiplied because we werewalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit.
It multiplied.
It multiplied because we werewalking in the fear of the Lord.
(12:08):
That word fear is veryinteresting because a lot of us
tend to look at that word fearand start talking about being
scared, starting to worry?
Well, I'm here to comfort youtoday.
Starting to worry?
Well, I'm here to comfort youtoday.
If you're a believer, that fearis not the fear of unbelievers,
which is the fear of beingjudged by the Lord one day, as
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we see in Luke 12, 5.
But it is a fear of believers,fear of the believers, which
really refers to.
It comes down to reverence inthe Lord.
Hebrews 12, 28 through 29 saysTherefore, let us be grateful
for receiving a kingdom thatcannot be shaken, and thus let
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us offer to God acceptableworship with reverence and awe.
Reverence boils down to, as itsays in the scripture there, of
having a respect for God andworshiping him in everything we
do, every aspect of our life,not just here on Sunday mornings
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, which is what we tend to think.
That's what worship is.
Worship to the Lord is doingeverything we do in the mindset
of honoring and loving Christ.
Excuse me, when we do this,when we fear the Lord in
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reverence and worship, it leadsus to a sense of obedience,
obedience to his voice.
1 Samuel 12,.
If you're not familiar, is apiece of scripture that was
Samuel's farewell to theIsraelites.
The Israelites just asked tohave a king over them, and so
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Samuel has given them this finalfarewell in 1214.
And it says If you fear theLord and serve him and obey his
voice and not rebel against thecommandments of the Lord, and if
both you and the king whoreigns over you Will follow the
Lord, your God, it will be well.
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That obedience that comes fromfearing the Lord, having the
reverence of the Lord,worshiping the Lord with all you
got, leading that into theobedience of His voice, it says
it will be well.
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So why is it important that wehave this fear of the Lord?
First, because this fear of theLord gives us wisdom.
Proverbs 9, 10 says the fear ofthe Lord is the beginning of
wisdom and the knowledge of theHoly One is in sight.
Wisdom is an interesting wordbecause a lot of people like to
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put wisdom with knowledge.
My dad used to say a thingwisdom is doing the right thing
at the right time.
You can't just have wisdom bydoing the right thing.
There also has to be a timingto it.
We get that through thatobedience.
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God tells us when we need to dosomething.
Sometimes the answer is wait,sometimes the answer is now, now
.
Now, that's what wisdom is.
Second, that wisdom leads usinto a dependence of the Lord.
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Proverbs 3, 7 says Be not wisein your own eyes, fear the Lord
and turn away from evil.
If we're truly, truly a peoplecommitted to the fear of the
Lord, we can't trust ourselves.
I know that's hard to hear in asociety that's all about your
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feelings.
Do what feels right.
That is opposite the fear ofthe Lord.
The fear of the Lord says fearme, reverence in me, obey me,
not obey your feelings.
And that's hard to hear.
And yes, I'm a youth pastor, soguess what I get to do on a
daily basis?
I get to hear about feelings.
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Amen.
So if you're here, nowhere else, sometimes, your feelings don't
matter.
Amen, all right.
But why is this important?
That we fear the Lord?
In the grand scheme of things,why does this matter?
Well, number one without it,we'll lead people astray.
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As a pastor, as someone thathas to teach on a weekly basis
and has people's lives in yourhands, not fearing the Lord, not
having that wisdom, thatobedience, you will lead
somebody astray.
The growth of the church willbe stunted, but also your
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spiritual life will be stunted.
You won't grow.
Some people want to know whythey're in the same place and
they've been there for years.
Maybe the answer is you're notfearing the Lord.
Maybe that's the answer.
Maybe you're not listening towhat the Lord is telling you.
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Maybe you've got to get a sinout of your life.
Trust me, we've all been there.
Ain't none of us perfect, butmaybe that's the reason.
But it will stunt youspiritually and it will stunt
our church.
When we're talking about growththe one that all of us pastors
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have talked about in ourmeetings and we're really hard
pressed to guard against this iswe will glorify ourselves for
the growth that's happening, andglorifying ourself is not
fearing the Lord because we arenot listening to him.
We are listening to us again,but that's why we have to be
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careful.
And, lastly, we won't haveGod's blessing in our work.
Those little things that we'vebeen doing and we think are
actually making a difference.
That aren't.
Sometimes comes from us nothaving the wisdom to listen.
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But fear in the Lord is onlyone part of it.
We also have to have comfort inthe Holy Spirit.
Verse 31 again says so.
The church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had
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peace and was being built up andwalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit.
It multiplied here in ActsLuke's associates walking in the
fear of the Lord and thecomfort of the Holy Spirit as a
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yin and yang, a need in One plusone is two.
The power of the Spirit is whatthe believer has as an
insurance and confidence and aceiling in our life that we can
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lean on the Lord and take thatnext step and have that fear of
the Lord and walk it intoconfidence here in our scripture
.
At this time, the men and womenwho are going out and spreading
the gospel are in a time ofturmoil.
The Roman Empire is comingagainst them.
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The Jewish leaders are comingagainst them.
Having the power of the RomanEmpire is coming against them.
The Jewish leaders are comingagainst them.
Having the power of the HolySpirit doesn't mean we won't
have hard times, but it doesmean that God will get us
through the hard times.
And guess what, if he doesn'tget us through the hard times
and we die, praise be to God.
We'll be right there with himanyways.
So we get through them one wayor another.
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I'm just telling you the truth.
Hey, you might be on this sideor the next side.
Amen.
To have healthy growth in thechurch, we have to be marked by
the spirit.
We have to be filled with thespirit, acts 1.8.
But you will receive power whenthe Holy Spirit has come upon
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you and you will be my witnessesin Jerusalem and all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of theearth.
When Jesus says that to his 12disciples as we talked about at
the beginning, started at 12, isnow 2.4 billion, not because of
the men, but because of thepower of the spirit that was on
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the men.
If we look back at what happenedto most of them, they were
killed for their faith.
They didn't do it thinking theywere getting out of love.
They knew what was coming, tothe point that they not only saw
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it but smiled when it came andforgave those who were about to
do it and they weren't alldisciples of Jesus gave those
who were about to do it and theyweren't all disciples of Jesus,
they weren't the apostles allof them.
I mean the first one we see wasStephen, and he was a deacon.
Praise the Lord.
The power of the Spirit allowseach and every one of us to be
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able to get through thatstruggle in your life, the
hardship that's on your back andyour shoulders, but for a
purpose.
That power from the Holy Spiritis for us to be witnesses, for
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us to continue to grow andmultiply the kingdom.
It's not we check the box.
We're saved.
Now we get to sit in the pewand hang out.
Wait for Jesus as nice as thatsounds.
That's not how it works.
We have to walk in the fear ofthe Lord, we have to be filled
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with the spirit so we can becommitted to our ministries.
Oh, we hear that word ministry.
I love that word ministry.
You know why we?
I love it and I just like it somuch and this is why I love it
on the sense that it makes usall have a purpose.
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But I dislike it because a lotof people hear ministry and they
go that's the pastor's job.
So they sit back and they go oh, that ain't for me.
I'm not a pastor, I ain't gotno training, I didn't volunteer
for this.
So that word ministry, I loveit and I despise it all at the
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same time because, as a pastor,it gives me a sense of purpose.
But on the flip side, it givesme more work to do because
somebody else ain't willing toget off the pew.
Pastor Chris, click on hisheels, amen.
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When it comes to being committedto the ministry, our text, I
think, identifies three moresmall points, and I say small
with a grain of salt becausenone of them are small.
With a grain of salt becausenone of them are small.
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They may be small in action,but they are great, great in
multiplication these threethings.
Even though we're doing them,they open us up to be a vessel
for the Lord, not anything we'regoing to be able to do, but
what God's going to be able touse.
The first one of those isprayer.
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I don't care if you're a newbeliever or an old-timey
believer, everyone here can pray.
I would encourage you to haveyour own prayer closet, your own
place, to go to pray, to liftup the Lord, to lift up yourself
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, to lift up your brothers.
Verse 40 of Acts 9, it says butPeter put them all outside and
knelt down and prayed.
He prayed the man who, just afew verses earlier, saw a
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paralyzed man and said Jesusheals.
You, get up and walk.
He comes here and the firstthing he does he prays.
He gets down on his knees alone.
He puts everybody else outsideand he prays.
And turning to the body, hesaid Tabitha arise.
And she opened her eyes andwhen she saw Peter, she sat up.
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Peter did nothing.
In this instance, petersearched for guidance for the
Lord and let the Lord do histhing and because of this we see
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a great miracle of resurrectionin Tabitha, a woman that we
know very little about, see agreat miracle of resurrection in
Tabitha, a woman that we knowvery little about except for
what we find here in chapternine.
But Peter prayed.
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We hear real life, theleadership.
We here at Real Life, theleadership.
That's our focus.
We want to be a house of prayer.
We want to be a leadership teamthat constantly prays to the
Lord, searches Him, seeks Hisfavor, seeks his direction.
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I love this about this church.
Every Sunday, before we close,pastor Chris stands right here
in front of you and says if youneed prayer, come to the front.
The elders will be on this side.
If you want to be alone, be onthis side.
Churches don't even do thatanymore because they're afraid
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of embarrassing theircongregation.
Tell me, that's not silly.
You should be running to thealtar to get prayed for, not
because of what these?
Not because somebody's going toput their hands on you, but
because what miracle can happenwhen the Lord sees you humble
and praying?
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After prayer, she arises andgoes out, and that makes me
start thinking.
I tell you I'm weird like this.
Start thinking about why.
Why was Tabitha healed?
Now, the Bible's not very clearon why she got healed, but I
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did start looking at her life alittle bit, which brings me to
my second point about beingcommitted to the ministry.
She was committed to theministry.
She was committed to theministry.
Who else is described like?
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It is right here Acts 9, 36-39.
Now there was in Joppa adisciple named Tabitha, which
translated means Dorcas.
She was full of good works andacts of charity.
Man, if I get to heaven and Godsays you're full of good works
and charity, oh, I'm telling youwhat that should be a day of
excitement.
I heard a pastor tell thisstory one time.
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He was talking about the peoplethat hold the doors, the
greeters, the lady that cleanshis church, and he says I can't
wait to be there when Jesuscomes back.
He said because I'm going to beholding the door while they get
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called first, because what theydo is 10 times more important
than what I do up here on Sundayby cleaning the church, making
it presentable for everyone, byholding the door for those who
come in and just giving them ahappy hello.
That smile is so great.
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So we see Dorcas, she has goodworks and she's full of charity.
And then she gets sick and shedies.
Comes to all of us the same shedies and they put her in an
upper room.
And what do they do?
They don't start burying her.
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No, they say we heard Peter'sdoing something over here.
This lady's got is so full ofgood works and charity, we need
her back on the team.
God, you get it.
Lord, just give us a couplemore years.
We need to put her back on theteam.
So what do they do?
They send two men 11 miles awayto where peter had just
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performed that miracle and theysay peter, we need you, come on.
Peter gets up and goes and heprays and she's.
She's back alive.
And I was wondering what hergood works of charities is.
And it tells us.
Actually in the text it says so.
Peter arose and went with themand when he arrived they took
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him in the upper room.
All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing him tunics
and other garments that Dorcasmade while she was with him.
Her ministry was To help clothethe widows, to sew, to make
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clothing, and they weren'tJunkie pieces of clothing.
I mean, these ladies are soHappy For this small piece of
charity that they're showing andcrying to Peter.
You need to heal her because weneed more clothes.
Look, I got a date.
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This looks nice.
I need a pair of slacks to gowith it.
Let's go.
They're up there and they'reexcited for our acts of charity.
God healed, god brings her backto life, and then he presents
her to him.
I can just imagine that party.
I'm just saying that was a bigparty.
I'm wondering, though, if theygave her a couple days to
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recover, if they put her rightback on the sewing machine.
I'm just wondering.
My mind works that way.
I'm sorry, but I mean, when youthink about that, she was doing
what I can only imagine.
This is an assumption by Jerry,sorry, I just assumed, because
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it was so nice that she loveddoing it, and it was something
that God actually helped her tobe very good at, and she
actually made things that lastedand were so nice that they
wanted to come back from thedead.
Just imagine that.
Imagine is there something inyour life right now that
somebody would be like I wantyou back alive to do for us?
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Not I'm going to go to the guydown the street, no, you
specifically, but I just have tothink that she was using her.
God given talents and treasuresfor his glory.
I want to be like her, I wantto be able to do something so
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well that everybody's like Jerry, you can't die yet, we need you
.
Just a few more days, a fewmore years.
We got some things going on.
I'm just saying, like I said,pastor Chris said you didn't
know what you were going to get.
I'm the youth pastor.
I don't have a filter.
Bless you, but all that stuff,so prayer, our good works, the
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charity, can I tell yousomething?
It means nothing.
I'm going to say it again.
It means nothing.
Without the spreading of thegospel, we can cover, we can
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take care of all the physicalneeds in the world, but if we
don't make an eternal difference, what?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
does it matter?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
If we stop from dying today, but then they get to the
judgment and they're going tohell anyways.
What did it do?
What was the purpose?
Now, disclaimer we can't savenobody.
It's not our job.
Our job is to present.
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It's God's to save.
But that's a good thing,because I promise you right now,
if it was on me, we would fail.
I'm just honest.
That's the great thing aboutthe gospel.
That's the great thing aboutall this is it's not on me.
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God's the one that saves.
But I will say this I have topray, I have to do the works so
God can use me as a vessel.
He don't need me, I promise you, he don't need me.
I wish he did, I wish he neededme, but he don't need me.
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I'm honest.
It is useless unless we spreadthe gospel.
The church was multiplied.
It is useless unless we spreadthe gospel.
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The church was multiplied not bythe miracle, not by the
resurrection, not by the healingthat took place in Lydda.
When it says in Acts 9.35, andall the residents of Lydda and
Sharon saw him, that was theparalyzed man, and they turned
to the Lord.
They didn't turn to the Lordbecause of the miracle Acts 9.42
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, and it became known throughoutall Joppa, and many believed
what became known, that she hadbeen resurrected.
That's not why they believed,because none could come to the
Lord except through who Jesus.
So somebody had to.
Not only did God perform themiracle, but then Peter had to
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spread the gospel.
Somebody had to say the gospel,somebody had to put it out
there so they knew, so God couldchange the life.
The miracles didn't bringanybody to the Lord.
It cracked the window.
That's all it did.
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It cracked the window.
It didn't bring him in.
God has to open the door.
Being committed to ministry isimportant, but it's nothing
without the gospel.
We have to be willing to sharewhy it's important.
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We have to show why it'simportant.
The last thing I'm going to saythe last thing, but it's
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important.
I pray every night.
Me and my wife lay in bed andwe say our prayers before we go
to bed.
We pray together every nightand the first thing we pray for
is for each other.
Look, I'm honest.
Then we pray for each other.
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Look, I'm honest.
Then we pray for our children.
Then we pray for our church,then we pray for the lost, and
it's my prayer that we be apeople who fear the Lord, walk
in the presence of the Spiritand serve faithfully for the
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glory of God and for the good ofothers.
Thank you, guys.
All right.
So Acts 9, beginning in verse36.
So if you're new here, we'regoing verse by verse or chapter
by chapter through the book ofActs.
If you have it, say amen andwould you stand for the reading
of God's Word?
Now there was in Joppa'm.
(00:24):
Actually we're going to go backverse 31.
So the church throughout alljudea and galilee and samaria
had peace and was being built upand walking in the fear of the
lord and in the comfort of theholy spirit.
It multiplied.
Now peter went here and thereamong them and he came down also
to the saints who lived inLydda.
(00:46):
There he found a man namedAnais, bedridden for eight years
, who was paralyzed.
And Peter said to him Anais,jesus Christ heals you, rise and
make your bed.
And immediately he rose and allthe residents of Lydda and
Sharon saw him and they turnedto the Lord.
(01:06):
And now there was in Joppa adisciple named Tabitha, which
translated means Dorcas.
She was full of good works andacts of charity In those days.
She became ill and died andwhen they had washed her they
laid her in the upper room.
And since Lydda was not nearJoppa, the disciples, hearing
(01:27):
that Peter was there, sent twomen to him urging him Please
come to us without delay.
So Peter rose and went withthem and when he arrived they
took him to the upper room andall the widows stood beside him
weeping and showing tunics andother garments that Dorcas made
while she was with them.
But Peter put them all aside andshowing tunics and other
(01:47):
garments that Dorcas made whileshe was with them.
But Peter put them all asideand dealt down and prayed and,
turning to the body, he saidTabitha, arise.
She opened her eyes and whenshe saw Peter she sat up and he
gave her his hand and raised herup and then, calling the saints
and widows, he presented heralive and it became known
throughout all Joppa and manybelieved in the Lord and she
(02:10):
stayed in Joppa for many dayswith one, simon, a tanner, the
word of God for the people ofGod.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Thanks be to God, thank you who here has ever been
(02:50):
seen been close to the BrooklynBridge?
Anybody?
Oh, a couple of yous, couple ofyous.
So I've crossed it one time inmy entire life and, standing in
front of this ginormous bridge,you can't help but stand in
wonder and awe, because it's anamazing, amazing structure, and
(03:13):
just see it, you kind of feeltiny.
Now I have a mechanics brainsome of you get my guys might
understand that, some of you maynot meaning that I see things
that I want to know how theywork, how it came to be.
So, as I was crossing theBrooklyn Bridge, I had a lot of
(03:35):
questions, but my main questionwas how did we small humans make
this happen?
We small humans make thishappen.
Before I tell you, I'm going togive you some interesting facts
about the Brooklyn Bridge thatyou may not know.
Number one the Brooklyn Bridgeis a little over a mile long.
(03:58):
At its highest point it's 272feet.
It is roughly 127 feet off thewater and it is a five-lane
roadway.
It also has a path forpedestrians and people who ride
bikes and if that was it, itwould be amazing.
(04:19):
But it also carries a train andin this, the entire Brooklyn
Bridge roughly carries 121,000people across it each day, and
that's pretty amazing.
So I got me thinking as I'mriding across this bridge how
(04:42):
did we do it?
Because it seems like a prettydaunting task, something that's
overwhelming, that we justcouldn't ever make happen.
So I did what all of us currentpeople above ground do I looked
it up on YouTube and I watchedthe whole video from start to
(05:09):
finish, and it's veryinteresting the way we do this.
So they start with the pillars,maybe telling you that the
highest point is 272 feet.
So that's one of those pillars.
So what we do is is we actuallymake it on land, put it on a
boat, drive it out to where wewant it, and then we sink it in
the water, and then we takeanother piece and stack it on
(05:31):
top, and so on and so forth,until we're out of the water.
Then we get on and startbuilding up from there.
After we do that, we anchor iton both sides of the river, both
sides of the water.
We put four anchors total twoon each side and after we do
these massive anchors, we takeindividual little cables and we
(05:54):
start stringing them from theanchor to the pillar to the
anchor, back and forth, overmany, many times, depending on
the size of your bridge.
I believe for the burglarbridge it's around 100 strands
of cable Make up one of the bigcables.
After they do that, that's whenthey actually come and lay the
decking of the bridge.
(06:15):
To finish it, boom.
You know how to make a bridgelike the burglar bridge Crossed
any water you want, it justtakes a lot of time.
Like the Brooklyn Bridge acrossany water you want, it just
takes a lot of time.
The very interesting thing aboutthis is, even though it was an
amazing, overwhelming task, allwe did was take the task and
(06:43):
break it down and just build itpiece by piece, little by little
, to get us there.
Now we've been in a journeythrough Acts and in Acts,
chapter one, verse eight, jesusgave 12 men what I would
(07:11):
consider an overwhelming task,which is to take the gospel
through all the ends of theworld.
Now, this is 12 men who are noteducated.
All they have is their timewith Jesus, and then Jesus is
about to ascend to heaven and hetells them now take it and go
into all the world.
However, against all odds, wehave seen so far in Acts that
(07:35):
these 12 men are now coming upto verse 9, tens of thousands of
believers strong.
Now that's just eight chapters.
That's pretty amazing.
Well, today, the scripture we'regoing to look at, we're going
to see this to continue.
The church isn't going to stopin verse 9, but in the end of
(08:01):
verse 9, we're going to continue.
Acts 9 31 it says in threedifferent places here in our
scripture today, but in Acts 931 it says so.
The church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had
peace and was being built up andwalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit.
It multiplied.
(08:22):
Then in Acts 9 35, it says andall the comfort of the Holy
Spirit.
It multiplied.
Then in Acts 9.35, it says andall the residents of Lydda and
Sharon saw him, the paralyzedman, and they turned to the Lord
, adding more.
And then in Acts 9.42, and itbecame known throughout all
Joppa and many believed in theLord.
(08:48):
So with that in mind, we startedwith 12.
We're getting to chapter 9.
We're tens of thousands ofpeople.
But now let's shoot way pastthat into today, because it
didn't stop after the Bible wasbeing written.
It didn't stop at the end ofActs.
It continued into today andthat process that started with
(09:11):
those 12 men in Acts, chapter1-8, is still continuing to this
day and today because of that.
We started with 12, but nowwe're at around 2.4 billion
people strong who claim to beChristians in the world.
It's making Christianity, orit's made Christianity, the
(09:37):
largest known religion in theworld.
Our mission today hasn't changedFrom those 12 men.
Even though it is a hostileworld out there, we get
persecuted A little bit inAmerica.
(10:00):
I'm going to say a little bitBecause if we really compare it
to Africa and the Middle East,where people are having their
lives taken on a daily basis forsaying they're Christians, it's
hard for me to stand up hereand say that we're being
persecuted to that extent, butwe're still being persecuted.
Our government on one side orthe other, our school system,
(10:27):
all trying to keep Christianityout, and we're all fighting it
day to day, even to the pointthat there is the devil out
there trying to devour it fromus.
In today's text there are goingto be three vital ingredients
that I've seen for a healthy,growing church, which we should
(10:52):
be striving to do on a dailybasis.
We here want to grow andcontinue to grow.
We've actually gotten to apoint where we've had to order
new chairs because we're gettingtoo big.
That is a blessing.
To grow We've actually gottento a point where we've had to
order new chairs because we'regetting too big, that is a
blessing to have, amen.
But if we want to continue togrow and to continue to get
better and bigger and to stayhealthy, we have to have three
(11:19):
vital ingredients.
One we have to be a people whofear the Lord.
We have to be a people that isfull of the Holy Spirit and we
have to be a people committed tothe ministry.
It's interesting that the firstthing we talk about is walking
(11:46):
in the fear of the Lord, being apeople committed to that.
Acts 9.31 says so.
The church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had
peace and was being built up andwalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit, it multiplied.
It multiplied because we werewalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit.
It multiplied.
It multiplied because we werewalking in the fear of the Lord.
(12:08):
That word fear is veryinteresting because a lot of us
tend to look at that word fearand start talking about being
scared, starting to worry?
Well, I'm here to comfort youtoday.
Starting to worry?
Well, I'm here to comfort youtoday.
If you're a believer, that fearis not the fear of unbelievers,
which is the fear of beingjudged by the Lord one day, as
(12:34):
we see in Luke 12, 5.
But it is a fear of believers,fear of the believers, which
really refers to.
It comes down to reverence inthe Lord.
Hebrews 12, 28 through 29 saysTherefore, let us be grateful
for receiving a kingdom thatcannot be shaken, and thus let
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us offer to God acceptableworship with reverence and awe.
Reverence boils down to, as itsays in the scripture there, of
having a respect for God andworshiping him in everything we
do, every aspect of our life,not just here on Sunday mornings
(13:25):
, which is what we tend to think.
That's what worship is.
Worship to the Lord is doingeverything we do in the mindset
of honoring and loving Christ.
Excuse me, when we do this,when we fear the Lord in
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reverence and worship, it leadsus to a sense of obedience,
obedience to his voice.
1 Samuel 12,.
If you're not familiar, is apiece of scripture that was
Samuel's farewell to theIsraelites.
The Israelites just asked tohave a king over them, and so
(14:30):
Samuel has given them this finalfarewell in 1214.
And it says If you fear theLord and serve him and obey his
voice and not rebel against thecommandments of the Lord, and if
both you and the king whoreigns over you Will follow the
Lord, your God, it will be well.
(14:52):
That obedience that comes fromfearing the Lord, having the
reverence of the Lord,worshiping the Lord with all you
got, leading that into theobedience of His voice, it says
it will be well.
(15:18):
So why is it important that wehave this fear of the Lord?
First, because this fear of theLord gives us wisdom.
Proverbs 9, 10 says the fear ofthe Lord is the beginning of
wisdom and the knowledge of theHoly One is in sight.
Wisdom is an interesting wordbecause a lot of people like to
(15:45):
put wisdom with knowledge.
My dad used to say a thingwisdom is doing the right thing
at the right time.
You can't just have wisdom bydoing the right thing.
There also has to be a timingto it.
We get that through thatobedience.
(16:05):
God tells us when we need to dosomething.
Sometimes the answer is wait,sometimes the answer is now, now
.
Now, that's what wisdom is.
Second, that wisdom leads usinto a dependence of the Lord.
(16:31):
Proverbs 3, 7 says Be not wisein your own eyes, fear the Lord
and turn away from evil.
If we're truly, truly a peoplecommitted to the fear of the
Lord, we can't trust ourselves.
I know that's hard to hear in asociety that's all about your
(16:52):
feelings.
Do what feels right.
That is opposite the fear ofthe Lord.
The fear of the Lord says fearme, reverence in me, obey me,
not obey your feelings.
And that's hard to hear.
And yes, I'm a youth pastor, soguess what I get to do on a
daily basis?
I get to hear about feelings.
(17:13):
Amen.
So if you're here, nowhere else, sometimes, your feelings don't
matter.
Amen, all right.
But why is this important?
That we fear the Lord?
In the grand scheme of things,why does this matter?
Well, number one without it,we'll lead people astray.
(17:40):
As a pastor, as someone thathas to teach on a weekly basis
and has people's lives in yourhands, not fearing the Lord, not
having that wisdom, thatobedience, you will lead
somebody astray.
The growth of the church willbe stunted, but also your
(18:02):
spiritual life will be stunted.
You won't grow.
Some people want to know whythey're in the same place and
they've been there for years.
Maybe the answer is you're notfearing the Lord.
Maybe that's the answer.
Maybe you're not listening towhat the Lord is telling you.
(18:23):
Maybe you've got to get a sinout of your life.
Trust me, we've all been there.
Ain't none of us perfect, butmaybe that's the reason.
But it will stunt youspiritually and it will stunt
our church.
When we're talking about growththe one that all of us pastors
(18:44):
have talked about in ourmeetings and we're really hard
pressed to guard against this iswe will glorify ourselves for
the growth that's happening, andglorifying ourself is not
fearing the Lord because we arenot listening to him.
We are listening to us again,but that's why we have to be
(19:08):
careful.
And, lastly, we won't haveGod's blessing in our work.
Those little things that we'vebeen doing and we think are
actually making a difference.
That aren't.
Sometimes comes from us nothaving the wisdom to listen.
(19:31):
But fear in the Lord is onlyone part of it.
We also have to have comfort inthe Holy Spirit.
Verse 31 again says so.
The church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had
(19:55):
peace and was being built up andwalking in the fear of the Lord
and in the comfort of the HolySpirit.
It multiplied here in ActsLuke's associates walking in the
fear of the Lord and thecomfort of the Holy Spirit as a
(20:15):
yin and yang, a need in One plusone is two.
The power of the Spirit is whatthe believer has as an
insurance and confidence and aceiling in our life that we can
(20:38):
lean on the Lord and take thatnext step and have that fear of
the Lord and walk it intoconfidence here in our scripture
.
At this time, the men and womenwho are going out and spreading
the gospel are in a time ofturmoil.
The Roman Empire is comingagainst them.
(21:01):
The Jewish leaders are comingagainst them.
Having the power of the RomanEmpire is coming against them.
The Jewish leaders are comingagainst them.
Having the power of the HolySpirit doesn't mean we won't
have hard times, but it doesmean that God will get us
through the hard times.
And guess what, if he doesn'tget us through the hard times
and we die, praise be to God.
We'll be right there with himanyways.
So we get through them one wayor another.
(21:21):
I'm just telling you the truth.
Hey, you might be on this sideor the next side.
Amen.
To have healthy growth in thechurch, we have to be marked by
the spirit.
We have to be filled with thespirit, acts 1.8.
But you will receive power whenthe Holy Spirit has come upon
(21:45):
you and you will be my witnessesin Jerusalem and all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of theearth.
When Jesus says that to his 12disciples as we talked about at
the beginning, started at 12, isnow 2.4 billion, not because of
the men, but because of thepower of the spirit that was on
(22:09):
the men.
If we look back at what happenedto most of them, they were
killed for their faith.
They didn't do it thinking theywere getting out of love.
They knew what was coming, tothe point that they not only saw
(22:36):
it but smiled when it came andforgave those who were about to
do it and they weren't alldisciples of Jesus gave those
who were about to do it and theyweren't all disciples of Jesus,
they weren't the apostles allof them.
I mean the first one we see wasStephen, and he was a deacon.
Praise the Lord.
The power of the Spirit allowseach and every one of us to be
(23:07):
able to get through thatstruggle in your life, the
hardship that's on your back andyour shoulders, but for a
purpose.
That power from the Holy Spiritis for us to be witnesses, for
(23:29):
us to continue to grow andmultiply the kingdom.
It's not we check the box.
We're saved.
Now we get to sit in the pewand hang out.
Wait for Jesus as nice as thatsounds.
That's not how it works.
We have to walk in the fear ofthe Lord, we have to be filled
(23:54):
with the spirit so we can becommitted to our ministries.
Oh, we hear that word ministry.
I love that word ministry.
You know why we?
I love it and I just like it somuch and this is why I love it
on the sense that it makes usall have a purpose.
(24:15):
But I dislike it because a lotof people hear ministry and they
go that's the pastor's job.
So they sit back and they go oh, that ain't for me.
I'm not a pastor, I ain't gotno training, I didn't volunteer
for this.
So that word ministry, I loveit and I despise it all at the
(24:36):
same time because, as a pastor,it gives me a sense of purpose.
But on the flip side, it givesme more work to do because
somebody else ain't willing toget off the pew.
Pastor Chris, click on hisheels, amen.
(24:58):
When it comes to being committedto the ministry, our text, I
think, identifies three moresmall points, and I say small
with a grain of salt becausenone of them are small.
With a grain of salt becausenone of them are small.
(25:18):
They may be small in action,but they are great, great in
multiplication these threethings.
Even though we're doing them,they open us up to be a vessel
for the Lord, not anything we'regoing to be able to do, but
what God's going to be able touse.
The first one of those isprayer.
(25:42):
I don't care if you're a newbeliever or an old-timey
believer, everyone here can pray.
I would encourage you to haveyour own prayer closet, your own
place, to go to pray, to liftup the Lord, to lift up yourself
(26:07):
, to lift up your brothers.
Verse 40 of Acts 9, it says butPeter put them all outside and
knelt down and prayed.
He prayed the man who, just afew verses earlier, saw a
(26:30):
paralyzed man and said Jesusheals.
You, get up and walk.
He comes here and the firstthing he does he prays.
He gets down on his knees alone.
He puts everybody else outsideand he prays.
And turning to the body, hesaid Tabitha arise.
And she opened her eyes andwhen she saw Peter, she sat up.
(26:55):
Peter did nothing.
In this instance, petersearched for guidance for the
Lord and let the Lord do histhing and because of this we see
(27:15):
a great miracle of resurrectionin Tabitha, a woman that we
know very little about, see agreat miracle of resurrection in
Tabitha, a woman that we knowvery little about except for
what we find here in chapternine.
But Peter prayed.
(27:39):
We hear real life, theleadership.
We here at Real Life, theleadership.
That's our focus.
We want to be a house of prayer.
We want to be a leadership teamthat constantly prays to the
Lord, searches Him, seeks Hisfavor, seeks his direction.
(28:04):
I love this about this church.
Every Sunday, before we close,pastor Chris stands right here
in front of you and says if youneed prayer, come to the front.
The elders will be on this side.
If you want to be alone, be onthis side.
Churches don't even do thatanymore because they're afraid
(28:28):
of embarrassing theircongregation.
Tell me, that's not silly.
You should be running to thealtar to get prayed for, not
because of what these?
Not because somebody's going toput their hands on you, but
because what miracle can happenwhen the Lord sees you humble
and praying?
(28:49):
After prayer, she arises andgoes out, and that makes me
start thinking.
I tell you I'm weird like this.
Start thinking about why.
Why was Tabitha healed?
Now, the Bible's not very clearon why she got healed, but I
(29:13):
did start looking at her life alittle bit, which brings me to
my second point about beingcommitted to the ministry.
She was committed to theministry.
She was committed to theministry.
Who else is described like?
(29:33):
It is right here Acts 9, 36-39.
Now there was in Joppa adisciple named Tabitha, which
translated means Dorcas.
She was full of good works andacts of charity.
Man, if I get to heaven and Godsays you're full of good works
and charity, oh, I'm telling youwhat that should be a day of
excitement.
I heard a pastor tell thisstory one time.
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He was talking about the peoplethat hold the doors, the
greeters, the lady that cleanshis church, and he says I can't
wait to be there when Jesuscomes back.
He said because I'm going to beholding the door while they get
(30:19):
called first, because what theydo is 10 times more important
than what I do up here on Sundayby cleaning the church, making
it presentable for everyone, byholding the door for those who
come in and just giving them ahappy hello.
That smile is so great.
(30:40):
So we see Dorcas, she has goodworks and she's full of charity.
And then she gets sick and shedies.
Comes to all of us the same shedies and they put her in an
upper room.
And what do they do?
They don't start burying her.
(31:01):
No, they say we heard Peter'sdoing something over here.
This lady's got is so full ofgood works and charity, we need
her back on the team.
God, you get it.
Lord, just give us a couplemore years.
We need to put her back on theteam.
So what do they do?
They send two men 11 miles awayto where peter had just
(31:21):
performed that miracle and theysay peter, we need you, come on.
Peter gets up and goes and heprays and she's.
She's back alive.
And I was wondering what hergood works of charities is.
And it tells us.
Actually in the text it says so.
Peter arose and went with themand when he arrived they took
(31:45):
him in the upper room.
All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing him tunics
and other garments that Dorcasmade while she was with him.
Her ministry was To help clothethe widows, to sew, to make
(32:05):
clothing, and they weren'tJunkie pieces of clothing.
I mean, these ladies are soHappy For this small piece of
charity that they're showing andcrying to Peter.
You need to heal her because weneed more clothes.
Look, I got a date.
(32:27):
This looks nice.
I need a pair of slacks to gowith it.
Let's go.
They're up there and they'reexcited for our acts of charity.
God healed, god brings her backto life, and then he presents
her to him.
I can just imagine that party.
I'm just saying that was a bigparty.
I'm wondering, though, if theygave her a couple days to
(32:48):
recover, if they put her rightback on the sewing machine.
I'm just wondering.
My mind works that way.
I'm sorry, but I mean, when youthink about that, she was doing
what I can only imagine.
This is an assumption by Jerry,sorry, I just assumed, because
(33:08):
it was so nice that she loveddoing it, and it was something
that God actually helped her tobe very good at, and she
actually made things that lastedand were so nice that they
wanted to come back from thedead.
Just imagine that.
Imagine is there something inyour life right now that
somebody would be like I wantyou back alive to do for us?
(33:29):
Not I'm going to go to the guydown the street, no, you
specifically, but I just have tothink that she was using her.
God given talents and treasuresfor his glory.
I want to be like her, I wantto be able to do something so
(33:51):
well that everybody's like Jerry, you can't die yet, we need you
.
Just a few more days, a fewmore years.
We got some things going on.
I'm just saying, like I said,pastor Chris said you didn't
know what you were going to get.
I'm the youth pastor.
I don't have a filter.
Bless you, but all that stuff,so prayer, our good works, the
(34:22):
charity, can I tell yousomething?
It means nothing.
I'm going to say it again.
It means nothing.
Without the spreading of thegospel, we can cover, we can
(34:44):
take care of all the physicalneeds in the world, but if we
don't make an eternal difference, what?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
does it matter?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
If we stop from dying today, but then they get to the
judgment and they're going tohell anyways.
What did it do?
What was the purpose?
Now, disclaimer we can't savenobody.
It's not our job.
Our job is to present.
(35:18):
It's God's to save.
But that's a good thing,because I promise you right now,
if it was on me, we would fail.
I'm just honest.
That's the great thing aboutthe gospel.
That's the great thing aboutall this is it's not on me.
(35:40):
God's the one that saves.
But I will say this I have topray, I have to do the works so
God can use me as a vessel.
He don't need me, I promise you, he don't need me.
I wish he did, I wish he neededme, but he don't need me.
(36:04):
I'm honest.
It is useless unless we spreadthe gospel.
The church was multiplied.
It is useless unless we spreadthe gospel.
(36:33):
The church was multiplied not bythe miracle, not by the
resurrection, not by the healingthat took place in Lydda.
When it says in Acts 9.35, andall the residents of Lydda and
Sharon saw him, that was theparalyzed man, and they turned
to the Lord.
They didn't turn to the Lordbecause of the miracle Acts 9.42
(36:56):
, and it became known throughoutall Joppa, and many believed
what became known, that she hadbeen resurrected.
That's not why they believed,because none could come to the
Lord except through who Jesus.
So somebody had to.
Not only did God perform themiracle, but then Peter had to
(37:20):
spread the gospel.
Somebody had to say the gospel,somebody had to put it out
there so they knew, so God couldchange the life.
The miracles didn't bringanybody to the Lord.
It cracked the window.
That's all it did.
(37:41):
It cracked the window.
It didn't bring him in.
God has to open the door.
Being committed to ministry isimportant, but it's nothing
without the gospel.
We have to be willing to sharewhy it's important.
(38:04):
We have to show why it'simportant.
The last thing I'm going to saythe last thing, but it's
(38:32):
important.
I pray every night.
Me and my wife lay in bed andwe say our prayers before we go
to bed.
We pray together every nightand the first thing we pray for
is for each other.
Look, I'm honest.
Then we pray for each other.
(38:53):
Look, I'm honest.
Then we pray for our children.
Then we pray for our church,then we pray for the lost, and
it's my prayer that we be apeople who fear the Lord, walk
in the presence of the Spiritand serve faithfully for the
(39:16):
glory of God and for the good ofothers.
Thank you, guys.
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