Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Well, let's pray and we'll start the sermon. Lord, we
need Jesus on Mother's Day. Thank you for mothers who
give us Jesus and his name.
Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
Amen. My mother.
Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Taught me to pray in a most unusual way. As
I've said this, my mother struggle with schizophrenia during most
of my life until later in life when the Lord
delivered her from it. Really, and so she struggled with
fears that would really be off the charts for most
of us.
Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
And she struggled at a time when.
Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
We were in poverty in Appalachia and there was not
really heavy evidences in my life that God was working.
And I remember going out the door, we're getting a
little bit of feedback injury, just so you can be
aware of that, getting out the door, and as we
were going down I would go to school, going down
(01:06:35):
the road. Thank you, I go down the road, and
I just remember distinctly my mother praying for me loudly
right at the door. Oh Lord, save him from his
wicked ways, help him to make it to the Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
I'm serious now.
Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
I felt so embarrassed by that prayer that she would
pray for me in front of people. The whole neighborhood
heard it, and she could tell that I needed to
turn and do better. And she kept praying every day
I go down to That was her routine. When she
could do it well, the prayers worked, and today I
(01:07:21):
think the culture of prayer in our family was shaped
by my mother. Alexander Graham Bell once shared his take
on the wisdom of recognizing an open door of opportunity.
My mother would stand at the open door and pray
for us. Here's what he wrote. Sometimes we stare so
long at a door that is closing that we see
(01:07:43):
too late the one that is open. We don't recognize
that God is moving her life, that God is there,
that God has opened a door.
Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Prayer is the key that opens Heaven's storehouse. Friends.
Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
God never asks us to move forward in life without
a door that is ready to open up with blessings.
The lame man set at the gate called beautiful, but
his life was anything but beautiful until he met Peter
and John. His life was a raw mass, bound up
in a repetitive routine that reinforced his need to live
on the kindness of other people.
Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
He was not a giver, he was a taker.
Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
He was being carried by others to the entrance to
the temple because he could not walk through the gate
Beautiful on his own. The layman's story enacts three to one,
begins just after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Open your bibles, let's turn there, or you can use
the screen hear. The Bible says, now Peter and John
were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer,
(01:08:41):
the ninth hour. Now, friends, when you go to pray,
when you go up, when you go to the temple,
the Bible says, you go up.
Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
To the temple, you don't go down. When you go
to God, you go up.
Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
That's why in the Psalms we have these songs of
a scent going up songs, because when you come to God,
you're always going up. So if you're down, go to God,
go to pray, you're going up. Now look at verse two,
and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom
they lay daily at the gate of the temple, which
is called beautiful to ask alms of those who enter
(01:09:14):
the temple.
Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
In other word, alms in Greek means mercy gifts.
Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
Peter and John are together here just like they were
on the resurrection morning, when they ran together to the
tomb that was open to discover that Jesus was not there.
Together the tomb, they saw the raw evidence that Jesus
was alive and that he was risen. The Gospel of John,
Christ a shroud had collapsed on the slab. Christ had
(01:09:39):
walked right through it, then folded up the napkin and
put it beside it. In the last chapter of John,
when Jesus was walking with Peter along the shore of
the Sea of Tiberius, John was walking right just behind
Peter and Jesus, trying to listen in because he wanted
to be with Jesus. Peter and John and James were
(01:10:00):
the closest of the Twelve to Jesus. James died early
when Herod cut his head off a little later in
the Book of Acts, so maybe there was a special
bond between Peter and John for the years that followed,
as borne out in this treasured account of the two
of them walking together to pray. I tell you the
friends I have in life are those that pray with me,
(01:10:22):
who pray for me, and that I can pray with them.
For of the three disciples that were closest to Jesus.
James and John were brothers, but Peter was not. No
doubt Peter filled that big brother role in John's life
after the death of James. It's no accident that Luke
in the Book of Acts makes a big deal of
(01:10:42):
the fact that the two of them were walking together.
Peter and John had often prayed with Jesus in the
Mount of Olives, and now they were praying together. The
Eastern Gate often led them out of the city from
the temple to the place where Jesus prayed at night
for them.
Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Shared with you in the pulpit here.
Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
The Bible evidence is strong that the Mount of Olives
is the place where ancient Eden was, that it is
the center of the earth, and that is the spot
where the new Jerusale will be to restore Eden where
it was Christ hung out in the Mount of Olives
to pray, because that is the place where Adam and
Eve were at that is the place where the new
Eden will be.
Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
The feet of Yahweh Jesus. Yahweh will touch.
Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
The Mount of Olives at the end of the millennium,
and there the Throne of God will be planted, with
the City of God as the center of the universe,
the most important.
Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
Real estate in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
So that Eastern Mountain. Don't get your eyes off of it.
It's so significant. In fact, the evidence in Hebrews thirteen,
and also the strong historical evidence that we find in
the early Church before the time of Constantine, indicates that
Christ died at the summit of the Mount of Olives,
near the Altar of the Red Heifer. So the Beautiful Gate.
Scholars have debated about this thing. What is the beautiful Gate?
(01:11:58):
Is that in the Canner, gret Gate or the Eastern Gate,
And the evidence is it's the Eastern Gate. You see,
you come right over the top of the Mount of Olives.
You come right past the altar of the Red Heifer,
which is the Atam Heifer sacrifice. It's the one that
is the most sacred alter in Israel's history. It's the
altar for the world facing the veil of the Temple.
(01:12:20):
You come right through the ramp, you come into the
Eastern Gate to the Temple. Hebrews thirteen indicates where the
ashes were spread after the sacrifices which have been on
the Mount of Olives. That's where Jesus died. So the
Eastern gate is the beautiful gate. Contextually, the Book of
Ezekiel focuses on it as such. The Eastern gate often
(01:12:41):
led them out of the city from the temple to
the place where Jesus prayed at night for them. He
hung out in the place where Adam, where Adam sinned,
and where Eden will be restored. And so at the
hour of prayer they are together again, going in the
opposite direction to the temple to pray for others. It'd
be a good thing for every member of the church
(01:13:03):
to remember the importance of the prayer meeting in their
walk with Jesus Christ at the hour of prayer every week.
Now we have prayer meeting online, and we should have
put a little line up here, But that zoom connection
will allow you to just tap into prayer meeting no
matter where you are. And there are times I can't
be here, but I tried to come in through that connection.
(01:13:25):
And so at the hour of prayer they are together again,
going in the opposite direction to the Temple to pray
for others.
Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
It'd be a good thing for us to do the same.
Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
The Bible says it was the ninth hour, and that
was the daily hour of prayer at that time, and
Luke twenty three forty four to forty six Luke records
that Jesus cried out to God in the hour of
his despair, and guess what hour it was?
Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
It was the ninth hour.
Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Look at Luke twenty three forty four with me. It
was now about the sixth hour. And there was darkness
over the whole land until the ninth hour. And while
the sun's light failed, and the and the temple was
torn into then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father,
into thy hands, I commit my spirit.
Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
And having said this, he breathed his last.
Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
Jesus died at the hour of prayer, praying to God
the Father, on the cross of Calvary. The ninth hour
was the darkest hour in Jesus' life. It was the
hour in which the final impact of dying for the
sins of the world had made him the object of
every single infraction, every disease, every moral wound.
Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
He had lived through it in his human head.
Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
And he said it is finished, trusting God the Father
to resurrect him on resurrection morning or not, because he
was at peace with his Father, no matter what the
will of God would be in his life. It is
the hour he suffered the most, the hour he died
at last, the hour of prayer.
Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
So don't tell me that's hard for us to pray.
Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
Christ prayed through the darkest hour of his life that
we would be saved. Paradoxically, it was the our of prayer.
At the ninth hour, Jesus prayed his last prayer to God.
So much is connected in this context to the ninth
hour in the story of the Lame.
Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Man and Acts three. Based on the setting of the sun.
Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
The ninth hour in jesus day occurred at about three
o'clock in the afternoon, when the sacrifice was going on.
When Christ died, it was the passerver sacrifice. And never
forget that even in his death Jesus remembered the hour
of prayer when he prayed his last prayer to God.
With Jesus example, Peter and John were consistent in their
(01:15:34):
prayer life for this reason and many other good reasons.
In verse two, the text informs us that they met
a helpless lame man, a man lame from birth at
the gate beautiful. It's a paradox, a man lame from
birth at the gate, beautiful children have to learn to
walk in life. Remember teaching your little ones to walk, mothers,
(01:15:57):
or did you are they just kind of learn on
their own. Yeah, I remember them coming to day when
daddy daddy, and they're coming, they fall. Well, that's all right,
as long as they're coming. They do the same for mommy.
If this man had never learned to walk, he'd never
learned to crawl. They say, you need to learn to crawls,
or stay away from those strollers so you can.
Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
Learn to read.
Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
Well, it's part of the developmental part of the brain.
Kids need to learn to crawl. The Greek text indicates
that he was most likely being carried at the time
when Peter and John met him at the gate called beautiful.
When you cannot walk in life, friend, you can still
pray in life, and when you cannot come to God yourself,
(01:16:36):
you can ask others to carry or bring you to God.
Of all the places this man could have begged, to
take note of the fact that he begged at the
place which leads to the house of Prayer Ex.
Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Three Birs three. Seeing Peter and John.
Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
About to go into the temple, he asked for alms,
and Peter directed his gaze at him and with John
and said look at us.
Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
The text gives no evidence that this man.
Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Lame man, knew who Peter and John were. Like so
many others, he asked them for alms. Mercy Gibbs. At
this point, Peter takes the initiative to engage the man
who was the most needy at that time in that spot,
and he said to him.
Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Look at us looking for money? Look at us.
Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
It's another way of saying, pay attention to us. I'm
going to engage you.
Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Now. Yeah, it's something very often people are poor.
Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
You ever have a homeless person you meet and you
just put a dollar in their bucket and you move on,
but you don't engage them. I have learned to make
a point of the fact to pray for people who
are asking for money. I was at Aldi's Friday, and
I had no idea that would converge with a sermon.
There was a lady, probably Hungarian, who was out the
door who couldn't speak English.
Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
I mean, there's a chance that she's a rip off artist.
Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
You know, that can happen to But when someone's asking
for money, that's one thing. But when they have a
bag full of food, they're trying to feed themselves. That's
another I don't like feeding addiction, but I like feeding
a person. There was one time where someone asked for food, said,
we have children.
Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
We have nothing our home.
Speaker 1 (01:18:12):
That day we went through Aldi's and we bought one
hundred and fifty dollars of groceries and had to get
her friend to show up and take it home.
Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
I don't know if that she'll sell them or something.
Who knows, but.
Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
This lady was saying, I need food for my children.
She says, I need some meat.
Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
She said that.
Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
I didn't say that, so I got her some because
that's what she eats. It's not what I eat, you
hear me. I just got what would work for her,
and then I got her some other things. I got
her some bread, and I got her some groceries, got
her eggs. And when I came back out the door,
I mean, the guy next to her said, those are eggs.
They're so expensive. I got her, you know, the good
(01:18:52):
Audi eggs. I said, well, they're good for the kids,
and gave it and she looked happy as a lark.
Now I don't do that for everyone. I felt impressed
to do it for her, and then I prayed for her. See,
it's important to engage people, to treat them as people,
not just as objects. So I feel better because I
gave someone something. There are many people today who want
(01:19:14):
to be healed in life from deep emotional scars, from
failures and traumas, but they fail to pay attention to
the Gospel of John or Peter's first and second epistles
in the New Testament for the rest of the or
the rest of the Bible.
Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
And so Peter and John are said, look look at us.
Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
They're saying the same today we wrote books and New Testament.
Look at us, and let us help you in your life. Friend,
if you want to be healed in life, pay attention
to the voice of the apostles. God has given us
apostolic witness and authority through the Holy Spirit to be healed,
just like the man at the gate. Look at verse five,
(01:19:52):
and he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive
something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver
and gold, but I give you what I have in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Walk.
Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
That's what the Revised standard version says. The Greek majority
text says the basis the King James version more reliable.
In this instance, says, rise up and walk. Peter's command
is more than just a command to walk. When you
have been down all your life, you need to rise
up in order to walk. This man had more muscles
(01:20:30):
in his body than just the muscles in his legs
that were laying. He could get up to a degree
by using his upper body. He could exert force from
within himself to rise up, and then God can take
care of the walking part. I believe Peter was calling
on him to use those muscles to rise and then walk.
Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
You may not know how to walk as a Christian.
Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
But you can rise to a new life in Jesus,
and Jesus will take care of the walking part that
you have never learned to do. That you don't think
you can. Friends, the call is first to rise, then walk,
So rise up and walk. It's Peter's command to us all.
Peter invoked the name of Jesus of Nazareth as his
authority to heal the man. He say, well, by the way,
(01:21:13):
I'm God's gift of the world. I'm the greatest of
the Apostles. I'm gonna do something marvelous for you today.
He was not a bragger. He was not talking about
how insignificant he was. He was in the business of
praising the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, he said, rise up and walk. Jesus name
in Hebrew means Yahweh saves, and Nazareth comes from the
(01:21:35):
Hebrew word nat sir that means shoot. You know, like
in a garden, the shoote that comes out of the ground.
A shoot is that part of a plant that rises
up out of the ground after the seed has been
buried deep in the earth. Isaiah says that Jesus would
be the shoot from the stump of Jesse.
Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
He would be the Messianic shoot. So the man who is.
Speaker 1 (01:21:56):
The shoot was raised in the place called the shote Nazareth,
which means of the shoot. Peter can invoke the name
of Jesus to command that man to rise up and walk.
Why because Jesus died, and the Gospel says he was buried,
and then it says.
Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
Just like a sea, that is a shoot.
Speaker 1 (01:22:14):
He rows up from the grave for us all for
our justification in Romans four twenty five. There is no
evidence that this lame man immediately acted on Peter's command
to rise up.
Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
The lame man had.
Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Been down all his life. He was used to being
carried by others to get around. He was a beggar
and not a self starter in life. Thus, one might ask,
how does a loser who is down and out and
have a single ounce of emotional energy to rise up
and walk. Peter here demonstrates that he personally understands that
(01:22:52):
there are times in life when you cannot be healed
unless someone else's faith takes hold of your weak hand
of faith so you can ride this point, Peter takes
him by the hand to share with him and to
show him his personal faith in Jesus of Nazareth is
the only one who's the power to heal the lame man.
Jesus had pulled Peter up from denying him and restored him.
(01:23:16):
And now Peter has the chance to do it for
a man at the gate beautiful x three seven. And
he took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Don't
forget the sequence here Peter raises him.
Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
Up nn he's healed. In this miracle.
Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
The lame man did not rise up, or come up,
or make the movement on his own. It was the
faith of Peter engaging him. Thus faith was interactive and growing,
and when he began to rise, his faith worked, he
was healed. Peter took the initiative for him. I asked
you the sillion question this morning. When was the last
(01:23:57):
time you took someone by the hand to raise the
up so they can walk in a new life in Jesus,
where you focused on them and not yourself. Are you
in the business of putting people down or pulling them
up for that man or woman.
Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
Who needs your encouragement?
Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
Are you quick to criticize them, or steady and firm
to help them rise up so they can stand up
and walk. No man or woman has ever been healed
by a critic. No man or woman has ever risen
from discouragement because some corrector of fault sets them straight
all the time. No man or woman ever came to
(01:24:34):
know Jesus because of virtue. Signaling of chastisement or anger
or self righteous rebukes from a self appointed saint doesn't
work that way.
Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
Peter knew that this man could not get up on
his own initiative. His faith was not strong enough to
do that for him.
Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
He needed a friend to reach down to him, to
take him by the hand with his right hand, and
to love him enough to lift him up. Faith would grow,
and then he would be healed. When you lift someone
up who is down with your own hands, with your prayers,
your love, your look, your words, you're telling that man
(01:25:11):
or woman that you had faith in the Lord's good
future for them. There was no evidence of healing this
man's body until Peter lifted him up. This man was
healed because of Peter's faith in Jesus. Dear heart, there
are people in life that can indeed be healed because
of your faith in Jesus, because you pray for them.
(01:25:33):
Who are you praying for at the hour of prayer?
Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Yourself?
Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Oh Lord, just help me get the car or one.
Oh Lord, give me the job I want? Oh Lord,
you know are you praying for yourself? It's okay to
pray for yourself and others, and maybe others more than
yourself that need you to show them Jesus. The text
says in verse seven that when Peter raised him up,
immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
Dear heart, are you waiting to.
Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
Be healed in your life? You're saying well, I'm going
to wait for the Lord to work his miracle. You
can wait all your life, but if you don't rise
up by faith before you are healed, you will never
be healed. Rising up is what heals us. When we
respond to rise. God takes care of the howl. God
(01:26:25):
heals people who choose to get up by faith and
move forward in life with the help of others. Peter
had no evidence other than his knowledge of Jesus that
this man would be healed. The miracle followed Peter's faith
in Peter's action to reach out to the man, and
not the other way around. The man who could not
raise himself acts upon the command and the initiative of Peter,
(01:26:46):
who his Holy Spirit apostolic authority to heal that man
acts three eight and.
Speaker 2 (01:26:52):
Leaping up he stood. Now he like that? And leaping up,
He stood and.
Speaker 1 (01:26:57):
Walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping
and praising. Now, how does that song go? I wish
we had where we could sing it. Peter and Paul
went to pray.
Speaker 2 (01:27:07):
Hey, they met a.
Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
Lay me man on the way. Does anybody know that song?
Come up and help me sing it real quick. Let's
sing it come on, I just need help. I want
to sing that song before I get any more in
a sermon. Come on, Samuel, lead us out in that song.
Grab a mic, come here to Yeah, grab a mike
and make sure it works. Let's stand. You stand for
(01:27:29):
this song. It's a song we teach our children. Yeah,
bring kids, come up here, whoever wants to stand and pray.
Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
If if.
Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
It isn't in there, no Donald, but that's all right,
thank you. Okay, you're ready, come closer, get up here. Yeah, okay,
get us going on it. Make sure that you got
sound on that.
Speaker 3 (01:27:47):
Okay, go Peter and John waits you pray they man
go away, Yeah, zild light in the name energies and
(01:28:12):
tries rise walk. He went walking and leaping and praising God.
Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
Let's start over and leap. That's what the kids do.
Speaker 3 (01:28:29):
He went walking and leaping and praising God, walking and
leaping and praising God in the name enogiesus cries of Naza.
Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Walk. Now that worked. They helped it. That was right on.
Speaker 1 (01:28:50):
Now this slay man was yanked to his feet like
a rocket by the faith of Peter, walking and leaping
and praising God.
Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
Now, friends, we learned to walk by crawling in life.
Speaker 1 (01:29:02):
Thank you for helping me with that. This man never
learned to crawl or walk. He learned to leap and
walk by Peter's faith in hand. Peter didn't tell him
to leap, Peter told him to rise up. The man
who couldn't rise up on his own chose to leap up,
holding the hand of Peter. Peter's name means rock in Greek.
He held the man the hand of the man who
(01:29:25):
became a rock in his life, and drawing strength from Peter,
who drew his strength from Jesus of Nazareth, this man
leaped to his feet. Dear heart, if you have been
controlled all your life by a weakness, a sin, an addiction,
the criticism of others, I can speak my own life.
I grew up being highly criticized as a young person.
(01:29:48):
Now you don't have to raise your hand, but maybe
you can interact with this. I had overdoses of that,
and my self esteem was very low, and I had
a very diminished sense of self when I went to
academy at the age of fifteen. And I can't tell
you how harsh criticism can hurt a young person. Now
(01:30:09):
that doesn't mean we can't lovingly correct young people, but
not in the criticism game. It leaves a lifetime impact
on their mind. Or maybe you were struggling with a
personal failing you messed up early in life or late
in life and you remember that awful sin. Or maybe
you're struggling with a life illness or something, but you
just feel God is far from you and you just can't.
Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
Get up in life.
Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
You feel paralyzed by that deep trauma of childhood. Friend,
then take the hand of the person who is reaching
out to you in Jesus' name. Don't push that hand
back in your life, draw your strength from their faith,
and leap to your feet. God has spoken to you
through the love of that person. When you leap to
(01:30:55):
your feet, you're not begging anymore. If you have no
strength in your life, hold the hand of a godly
man or woman who loves you and draws strength from
their hand because they are drawing strength from Jesus's hand
to help you. It doesn't matter how you get healed
in life. What matters is if you get healed. God
uses people who love him to help you, people who
(01:31:16):
are filled with the Holy Spirit to love and help.
Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
You be healed.
Speaker 1 (01:31:20):
So you can become a healer in someone else's life.
So don't be picky in particular about how you are healed.
Just let God do his work through others, through their
love for you, as He wills it in your life.
Jesus had restored Peter when he fell, and now Peter's
raising up a.
Speaker 2 (01:31:35):
Man who never learned to walk.
Speaker 1 (01:31:37):
Peter learned by his own experience that you can fall,
and that Jesus can restore and heal you and raise
you up. Now Peter knew for real what Jesus could
do for him and others who are paralyzed with failure.
This man's reaction is cathartic. That's a psychological term that
Freud created. A catharisays when you let it all out,
cleansing and it's sudden. There are four faith actions in
(01:32:02):
his healing. Let's put them on the screen.
Speaker 4 (01:32:07):
Faith action number one leaping up he stood, Faith action
number two walking after he stood, Faith action number three
leaping again as he walked, And faith action number four
praising God a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:32:22):
Those are the four. You want to get your phone
out and take a picture of.
Speaker 1 (01:32:24):
Them, Well, go ahead, you can use your phones here.
Just take a picture of that slide. These are four
important steps of faith. Faith action number one, let's take
them apart one a time.
Speaker 2 (01:32:37):
Leaping up he stood.
Speaker 1 (01:32:38):
When you feel the energy of God and others to
help you, don't go negative on them and reject that
Holy Spirit energy for encouragement that comes through them for you.
Act on their faith decisively and leap up and forward
with that help that God gives you through them. When
people give of themselves to help lift you up, it
takes energy from them to do this for you. There's
(01:33:01):
a cost they pay. Give some of that Holy Spirit
energy back. By leaping up in faith to stand for God.
The text says, leaping up he stood. This is the
decisive action of faith that stabilizes the life. He stood,
his life becomes stable. Faith action number two. The text
indicates that he was walking after he stood.
Speaker 2 (01:33:22):
Friend.
Speaker 1 (01:33:22):
God doesn't raise you up so you can just stand
still in life. He doesn't heal you so you can
make no advances in life. He doesn't bring his power
into your life to keep you powerless and immobile, a
victim and useless in life. When the Lord heals you
through others in the church, he empowers you to move
forward in life. As a gift of healing to others.
(01:33:45):
You're not to be this mournful witness to pain. You're
to be a joyful witness to God's healing in your life.
Peter and John were going to the temple to pray.
Now it wasn't just Peter and John. It was Peter
and John and the former lame mad. He's no longer
the lame man. He's formerly the lame man who was
no longer a layman. He's a healed man. It's his
(01:34:07):
new title. He was walking. He was a walking, healed man,
moving forward in life to pray to God and Jesus
and to have fellowship with Peter and John Jesus Preachers
Faith Action number three. The text and acts clearly states
that he the healed man, was leaping again as he walked,
not leaping once again.
Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
The man didn't just leap once. He kept on leaping
after he was healed.
Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
Friend, God does not call on you to stay at
home in your pity and to stay down in your life.
He does not call you to stay at some certain
level in your life where you can't rise to new
heights and leap higher than you did before. God calls
when you leap to new heights, to leap higher and
hire because you have been healed and you are being
(01:34:56):
grown up.
Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
You're being that's beat English, You're growing up in the Lord.
You're going to.
Speaker 1 (01:35:01):
New heights when you leap higher and hire because of
God's grace. You get stronger and stronger because you're growing
in faith and using your faith to gain new achievements
for God. So walking and leaping and praising God. I
have a permanent ankle pain in my right ankle, but
(01:35:23):
I'm going to leap anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
I see faith action number four.
Speaker 1 (01:35:27):
He was praising God a lot because he'd been raised
up to walk, he'd been raised up to leap, He'd
been raised up to praise God.
Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
For the rest of his life. This is an experience
that is not meant to be just an event. It's
meant to be a life trend.
Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
Friend, God has not called you to an ordinary outcome
as a Christian. God has called you to joyful living
in Jesus Christ. Because He has healed you and he
continues to heal you in life. God intends that every
fiber of your weak life be filled with the healing
power and strength of the Cross of Christ and the
Holy Spirit, so you can live a joyful life as.
Speaker 2 (01:36:05):
A Christian because you are not a victim. You are
healed child of God by grace.
Speaker 1 (01:36:11):
At this point, the story shifts to the people who
saw the miracle and the grateful response of the man.
Speaker 2 (01:36:16):
Who was healed.
Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
We learned the story that faith and praised is contagious.
Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
Do you hear me.
Speaker 1 (01:36:25):
Positive attitudes based on God's kindness affect others all around you.
When you have been healed and you make advances in
your life and you praise God for what he has
done for you, you transform the lives of others.
Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
All around you for the good.
Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
Oh that God would take away from all of us
the idea that we have a hard journey with Jesus
because we are Christians. That's not a holy spirit filled journey. Now,
there are chapters in your life that are hard. Yeah,
I get it, But look, go up to the temple,
rise up, look the truth of Christ's victory in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
You have many reasons to be grateful, and so do I.
Speaker 1 (01:37:05):
And I must remind myself as I am reminding you,
that we need to grow in these things.
Speaker 2 (01:37:10):
Jesus is pure joy to know. I go through the
day and if I'm feeling down, if I think about.
Speaker 1 (01:37:16):
Jesus, I'm not down anymore. Jesus is gold worthy of
praise in your life. Why not share him with those
that you're talking about. Why be ashamed of the name
of Jesus with your work, associates and others. Pray for
people in Jesus's name, and don't worry if it looks crazy.
Like my mother, who was my mother's prayer converted me,
(01:37:37):
so maybe your prayer will do the same.
Speaker 2 (01:37:38):
It's okay to bear looking funny.
Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
In our culture for the good of others. Friends, Jesus
is wealth worth sharing with others, and Jesus is the
abundant life, worthy of walking and leaping and praising God.
I'm glad that we got up to greet each other today.
That's a good thing. We can be reverent do that.
But it's not a sin to fellowship as they are
(01:38:04):
doing going up to the temple, Act three ten and Jonathan,
thank you for the enthusiasm and that song. Yeah, thank
you x three ten. And they recognized him as the
one who set for alms at the beautiful gate of
the gate of the temple, and they were filled with
wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. The
(01:38:27):
people all around took note of the fact that this
former layman was now a changed man. That's how the
kingdom grows. Changed people through joy happiness make a difference
in the lives of other people who need changing, who.
Speaker 2 (01:38:43):
Yearn for joy and happiness.
Speaker 1 (01:38:45):
Very often, when people are healed, they stay away from
the church and the very people that God used to
heal them.
Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
Well, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
It's just the strangest thing. It's also a fatal mistake.
The walking and leaping and praising God. Man did not
make this misas the healed man knew that good men
used by God like Peter and John are worth holding
onto and learning from. In Life Acts three eleven, while
he clung to Peter and John, He's not gonna let
(01:39:12):
these guys go. All the people ran to get it
to them. In portfolio sorry the portico calling Solomon's astounded.
That's the way my translation is to read. In other words,
they were amazed in Solomon's portico. Jesus was walking in
the same portico when he talked about the shepherd and
the sheep, And now here is Peter and John as
(01:39:32):
shepherd's under the great shepherd, caring for the sheep. Peter
uses this wonderful miracle at the gate beautiful to draw
attention to Jesus, not to Peter, to Jesus, the beautiful
good news of Jesus friend. Jesus is the one who
died at the ninth hour. Jesus is the one who
went through the eastern gate up the slope to die
(01:39:54):
near the altar of the red heifer.
Speaker 2 (01:39:56):
Jesus is the reason that gate is beautiful. Jesus. This,
this is the door that's opening heaven.
Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Jesus says, I am the door, the door, the gate
of the sheep. The shepherd would sleep because he was
the door that guarded the wolves.
Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
He let the sheep in.
Speaker 1 (01:40:11):
And now Peter draws attention to the one who has
the divine credentials to truly heal anyone in life who
has a closed door, he can open it. Here's Peter's
little sermon for the people who saw the miracle. Now
you've got to let Peter finish his sermon, Acts three twelve.
Think your bible's out three twelve. And when Peter saw it,
he addressed the people men of Israel, and why do
(01:40:34):
you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us?
As though by our own power or piety we made
him walk Peter's saying that Jesus is.
Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
The hero in the miracle, and not Peter Verse thirteen.
Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom
you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate
when he had decided to release him. You see that
gate was the gate where he come from condemnation, right
up there to be crucified. But you denied the Holy
and Righteous One, and asked for a murder to be
(01:41:07):
granted to you, and killed the author of life, whom
God raised.
Speaker 2 (01:41:11):
From the dead.
Speaker 1 (01:41:12):
To this weird witnesses, the hands that hold the stars
in space was nailed to the cross of Calvary, the
hands that hold your DNA, and every quirk but John
was going through in the young adult sabiscoople today, the
power of the universe is in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
They crucified him.
Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
God raised up Jesus from the dead, just like Jesus
raised this layman up to walk and leap and praise God.
Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
That's what Peter's saying.
Speaker 1 (01:41:42):
Jesus can work miracles in your life, because Jesus is
the miracle that came to life on resurrection morning.
Speaker 2 (01:41:48):
The Gospel leads to change lives verse sixteen.
Speaker 1 (01:41:51):
And his name and name, his name by faith in
his name has made this man strong, whom you see
and know. And the the faith which is through Jesus
has given the man this perfect health. In the presence
of you, all, friend, the faith that is in Jesus
can heal you in your life from moral failure, anything
(01:42:12):
can restore you and make you blameless for the day
of God. And now, brethren, I know that you acted
in ignorance, as did also your father's. But when God
foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his
Christ is Messiah, should suffer, he thus fulfilled, repent therefore
and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,
(01:42:32):
that the times of refreshing may come from the presence
of the Lord that means the Holy Spirit revivals, and
that he may send the Christ to point it for you.
Jesus who Heaven must receive until the time for how
does it read in your Bible there until the time
for what establishing all that God spoke by the mouth
of his holy prophets From Evolk, he's directly referring to
(01:42:55):
the prophecy of Daniel eight fourteen to twenty three hundred days,
which in the Hebrew means restore, and that's what the
Greek word means here for establishing when God's kingdom will
be restored. Christ would come to the ancient days to
receive his kingdom, one name at a time, as he
confesses us before his Father and the Holy Angel, starting
with Adam to the end, and he says Heaven has
(01:43:17):
him until that event, then he's coming back. That preadvent
investigative judgment began in the year eighteen forty four.
Speaker 2 (01:43:25):
Based on the prophecies of Daniel.
Speaker 1 (01:43:27):
We are living in the toenails of human history in
the image of Daniel two. We are living just before
the judgment moves from the dead.
Speaker 2 (01:43:35):
To the living.
Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
In the mark of the Beast issue, Peter says, we
got to wait until that happens for Jesus to come back,
whom Heaven must receive. In the Greek the times the
Kraynon for restoring all that God spoke by the mouth
of his holy prophets, from of old Moses said, the
Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from
(01:43:58):
your brethren, as he raised me up, Jesus the New Moses,
the new lawgiver, who puts the law not on stone,
but on the heart. He says, you shall listen to
him and whatever he tells you, and it shall be
that every soul that does not listen to that prophet
shall be destroyed from the people. Friends, if you're trying
to fix your life without Jesus Christ, you're on the
path to destruction. But if you are clean to Jesus,
(01:44:20):
you're holding on to him, you're letting others help you,
and you're rising up to.
Speaker 2 (01:44:24):
Jesus, you will live forever.
Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and
those who came afterwards also.
Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
Proclaimed these days others.
Speaker 1 (01:44:36):
They were looking forward to the time of the outpoint
of the Holy Spirit that leads to the great investigative
judgment that will bring the coming to Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:44:43):
Verse twenty five.
Speaker 1 (01:44:44):
You are the sons of the prophets and of the
Covenant which God gave to your father, saying to Abraham,
and in your posterity shall all the families of the
earth be blessed. Here's his punchline, verse twenty six. God,
having raised up his servant, send him to you first.
(01:45:06):
Send him to you first, why to bless you in
turning every one of you from your wickedness, and he
ends as servant. Now I'm telling you he's going right
for the heart. Jesus came to bless us by getting
sin out of our life. Jesus came to bless us
with the gospel that raises us up. Jesus came to
(01:45:27):
bless us because of our ignorance. He gave us truth
and knowledge, prophetic clarity, and the gospel clarity. Peter's pretty
clear here on how to be saved and healed in
your life. You need Jesus, who is the good News.
Speaker 2 (01:45:41):
He proclaims that.
Speaker 1 (01:45:41):
God raised Jesus up so Jesus can raise you up
and all those like you who are guilty and overcome
with wickedness and sin in their lives. God wants to
bless us with Jesus. The power that raised Jesus can
and will raise you up and bless you so you
can turn learn from your wicked ways. I can turn
(01:46:03):
for my wicked ways. We all can and become walking
and leaping and praising God, kind of Christians who have
met Jesus at the gate. Beautiful dear heaven a Father,
thank you for my wonderful mother, My wonderful mother who
would go to the furniture factories and come back with
(01:46:25):
bleeding hands every day so we'd have some food on
the table, who wasn't afraid of her illness in this
one way, so that she could pray boldly for me,
and who taught me forgiveness at a level that few
people here might understand, who forgave a man who was
(01:46:45):
anything but a good father, and showed us the love
of God.
Speaker 2 (01:46:51):
And Father, I look.
Speaker 1 (01:46:52):
Forward to seeing my mother again. For all those dear
mothers here, Lord who need to know that God is
with them them buoyant faith it gets up. May they
never give up loving instead of the other kind of stuff.
And may they be the kind, caring hands and heart
(01:47:13):
that lifts our children to new heights. And Father, may
you work with fathers and others in their myths to
do the same thing. And may we be known as
the kindest people in Laurel. I pray for the good
of others, for Jesus glory and sake in Jesus name
Amen
Well, let's pray and we'll start the sermon. Lord, we
need Jesus on Mother's Day. Thank you for mothers who
give us Jesus and his name.
Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
Amen. My mother.
Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Taught me to pray in a most unusual way. As
I've said this, my mother struggle with schizophrenia during most
of my life until later in life when the Lord
delivered her from it. Really, and so she struggled with
fears that would really be off the charts for most
of us.
Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
And she struggled at a time when.
Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
We were in poverty in Appalachia and there was not
really heavy evidences in my life that God was working.
And I remember going out the door, we're getting a
little bit of feedback injury, just so you can be
aware of that, getting out the door, and as we
were going down I would go to school, going down
(01:06:35):
the road. Thank you, I go down the road, and
I just remember distinctly my mother praying for me loudly
right at the door. Oh Lord, save him from his
wicked ways, help him to make it to the Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
I'm serious now.
Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
I felt so embarrassed by that prayer that she would
pray for me in front of people. The whole neighborhood
heard it, and she could tell that I needed to
turn and do better. And she kept praying every day
I go down to That was her routine. When she
could do it well, the prayers worked, and today I
(01:07:21):
think the culture of prayer in our family was shaped
by my mother. Alexander Graham Bell once shared his take
on the wisdom of recognizing an open door of opportunity.
My mother would stand at the open door and pray
for us. Here's what he wrote. Sometimes we stare so
long at a door that is closing that we see
(01:07:43):
too late the one that is open. We don't recognize
that God is moving her life, that God is there,
that God has opened a door.
Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Prayer is the key that opens Heaven's storehouse. Friends.
Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
God never asks us to move forward in life without
a door that is ready to open up with blessings.
The lame man set at the gate called beautiful, but
his life was anything but beautiful until he met Peter
and John. His life was a raw mass, bound up
in a repetitive routine that reinforced his need to live
on the kindness of other people.
Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
He was not a giver, he was a taker.
Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
He was being carried by others to the entrance to
the temple because he could not walk through the gate
Beautiful on his own. The layman's story enacts three to one,
begins just after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Open your bibles, let's turn there, or you can use
the screen hear. The Bible says, now Peter and John
were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer,
(01:08:41):
the ninth hour. Now, friends, when you go to pray,
when you go up, when you go to the temple,
the Bible says, you go up.
Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
To the temple, you don't go down. When you go
to God, you go up.
Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
That's why in the Psalms we have these songs of
a scent going up songs, because when you come to God,
you're always going up. So if you're down, go to God,
go to pray, you're going up. Now look at verse two,
and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom
they lay daily at the gate of the temple, which
is called beautiful to ask alms of those who enter
(01:09:14):
the temple.
Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
In other word, alms in Greek means mercy gifts.
Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
Peter and John are together here just like they were
on the resurrection morning, when they ran together to the
tomb that was open to discover that Jesus was not there.
Together the tomb, they saw the raw evidence that Jesus
was alive and that he was risen. The Gospel of John,
Christ a shroud had collapsed on the slab. Christ had
(01:09:39):
walked right through it, then folded up the napkin and
put it beside it. In the last chapter of John,
when Jesus was walking with Peter along the shore of
the Sea of Tiberius, John was walking right just behind
Peter and Jesus, trying to listen in because he wanted
to be with Jesus. Peter and John and James were
(01:10:00):
the closest of the Twelve to Jesus. James died early
when Herod cut his head off a little later in
the Book of Acts, so maybe there was a special
bond between Peter and John for the years that followed,
as borne out in this treasured account of the two
of them walking together to pray. I tell you the
friends I have in life are those that pray with me,
(01:10:22):
who pray for me, and that I can pray with them.
For of the three disciples that were closest to Jesus.
James and John were brothers, but Peter was not. No
doubt Peter filled that big brother role in John's life
after the death of James. It's no accident that Luke
in the Book of Acts makes a big deal of
(01:10:42):
the fact that the two of them were walking together.
Peter and John had often prayed with Jesus in the
Mount of Olives, and now they were praying together. The
Eastern Gate often led them out of the city from
the temple to the place where Jesus prayed at night
for them.
Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Shared with you in the pulpit here.
Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
The Bible evidence is strong that the Mount of Olives
is the place where ancient Eden was, that it is
the center of the earth, and that is the spot
where the new Jerusale will be to restore Eden where
it was Christ hung out in the Mount of Olives
to pray, because that is the place where Adam and
Eve were at that is the place where the new
Eden will be.
Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
The feet of Yahweh Jesus. Yahweh will touch.
Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
The Mount of Olives at the end of the millennium,
and there the Throne of God will be planted, with
the City of God as the center of the universe,
the most important.
Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
Real estate in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
So that Eastern Mountain. Don't get your eyes off of it.
It's so significant. In fact, the evidence in Hebrews thirteen,
and also the strong historical evidence that we find in
the early Church before the time of Constantine, indicates that
Christ died at the summit of the Mount of Olives,
near the Altar of the Red Heifer. So the Beautiful Gate.
Scholars have debated about this thing. What is the beautiful Gate?
(01:11:58):
Is that in the Canner, gret Gate or the Eastern Gate,
And the evidence is it's the Eastern Gate. You see,
you come right over the top of the Mount of Olives.
You come right past the altar of the Red Heifer,
which is the Atam Heifer sacrifice. It's the one that
is the most sacred alter in Israel's history. It's the
altar for the world facing the veil of the Temple.
(01:12:20):
You come right through the ramp, you come into the
Eastern Gate to the Temple. Hebrews thirteen indicates where the
ashes were spread after the sacrifices which have been on
the Mount of Olives. That's where Jesus died. So the
Eastern gate is the beautiful gate. Contextually, the Book of
Ezekiel focuses on it as such. The Eastern gate often
(01:12:41):
led them out of the city from the temple to
the place where Jesus prayed at night for them. He
hung out in the place where Adam, where Adam sinned,
and where Eden will be restored. And so at the
hour of prayer they are together again, going in the
opposite direction to the temple to pray for others. It'd
be a good thing for every member of the church
(01:13:03):
to remember the importance of the prayer meeting in their
walk with Jesus Christ at the hour of prayer every week.
Now we have prayer meeting online, and we should have
put a little line up here, But that zoom connection
will allow you to just tap into prayer meeting no
matter where you are. And there are times I can't
be here, but I tried to come in through that connection.
(01:13:25):
And so at the hour of prayer they are together again,
going in the opposite direction to the Temple to pray
for others.
Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
It'd be a good thing for us to do the same.
Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
The Bible says it was the ninth hour, and that
was the daily hour of prayer at that time, and
Luke twenty three forty four to forty six Luke records
that Jesus cried out to God in the hour of
his despair, and guess what hour it was?
Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
It was the ninth hour.
Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Look at Luke twenty three forty four with me. It
was now about the sixth hour. And there was darkness
over the whole land until the ninth hour. And while
the sun's light failed, and the and the temple was
torn into then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father,
into thy hands, I commit my spirit.
Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
And having said this, he breathed his last.
Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
Jesus died at the hour of prayer, praying to God
the Father, on the cross of Calvary. The ninth hour
was the darkest hour in Jesus' life. It was the
hour in which the final impact of dying for the
sins of the world had made him the object of
every single infraction, every disease, every moral wound.
Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
He had lived through it in his human head.
Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
And he said it is finished, trusting God the Father
to resurrect him on resurrection morning or not, because he
was at peace with his Father, no matter what the
will of God would be in his life. It is
the hour he suffered the most, the hour he died
at last, the hour of prayer.
Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
So don't tell me that's hard for us to pray.
Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
Christ prayed through the darkest hour of his life that
we would be saved. Paradoxically, it was the our of prayer.
At the ninth hour, Jesus prayed his last prayer to God.
So much is connected in this context to the ninth
hour in the story of the Lame.
Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Man and Acts three. Based on the setting of the sun.
Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
The ninth hour in jesus day occurred at about three
o'clock in the afternoon, when the sacrifice was going on.
When Christ died, it was the passerver sacrifice. And never
forget that even in his death Jesus remembered the hour
of prayer when he prayed his last prayer to God.
With Jesus example, Peter and John were consistent in their
(01:15:34):
prayer life for this reason and many other good reasons.
In verse two, the text informs us that they met
a helpless lame man, a man lame from birth at
the gate beautiful. It's a paradox, a man lame from
birth at the gate, beautiful children have to learn to
walk in life. Remember teaching your little ones to walk, mothers,
(01:15:57):
or did you are they just kind of learn on
their own. Yeah, I remember them coming to day when
daddy daddy, and they're coming, they fall. Well, that's all right,
as long as they're coming. They do the same for mommy.
If this man had never learned to walk, he'd never
learned to crawl. They say, you need to learn to crawls,
or stay away from those strollers so you can.
Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
Learn to read.
Speaker 1 (01:16:15):
Well, it's part of the developmental part of the brain.
Kids need to learn to crawl. The Greek text indicates
that he was most likely being carried at the time
when Peter and John met him at the gate called beautiful.
When you cannot walk in life, friend, you can still
pray in life, and when you cannot come to God yourself,
(01:16:36):
you can ask others to carry or bring you to God.
Of all the places this man could have begged, to
take note of the fact that he begged at the
place which leads to the house of Prayer Ex.
Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Three Birs three. Seeing Peter and John.
Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
About to go into the temple, he asked for alms,
and Peter directed his gaze at him and with John
and said look at us.
Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
The text gives no evidence that this man.
Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Lame man, knew who Peter and John were. Like so
many others, he asked them for alms. Mercy Gibbs. At
this point, Peter takes the initiative to engage the man
who was the most needy at that time in that spot,
and he said to him.
Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Look at us looking for money? Look at us.
Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
It's another way of saying, pay attention to us. I'm
going to engage you.
Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Now. Yeah, it's something very often people are poor.
Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
You ever have a homeless person you meet and you
just put a dollar in their bucket and you move on,
but you don't engage them. I have learned to make
a point of the fact to pray for people who
are asking for money. I was at Aldi's Friday, and
I had no idea that would converge with a sermon.
There was a lady, probably Hungarian, who was out the
door who couldn't speak English.
Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
I mean, there's a chance that she's a rip off artist.
Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
You know, that can happen to But when someone's asking
for money, that's one thing. But when they have a
bag full of food, they're trying to feed themselves. That's
another I don't like feeding addiction, but I like feeding
a person. There was one time where someone asked for food, said,
we have children.
Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
We have nothing our home.
Speaker 1 (01:18:12):
That day we went through Aldi's and we bought one
hundred and fifty dollars of groceries and had to get
her friend to show up and take it home.
Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
I don't know if that she'll sell them or something.
Who knows, but.
Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
This lady was saying, I need food for my children.
She says, I need some meat.
Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
She said that.
Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
I didn't say that, so I got her some because
that's what she eats. It's not what I eat, you
hear me. I just got what would work for her,
and then I got her some other things. I got
her some bread, and I got her some groceries, got
her eggs. And when I came back out the door,
I mean, the guy next to her said, those are eggs.
They're so expensive. I got her, you know, the good
(01:18:52):
Audi eggs. I said, well, they're good for the kids,
and gave it and she looked happy as a lark.
Now I don't do that for everyone. I felt impressed
to do it for her, and then I prayed for her. See,
it's important to engage people, to treat them as people,
not just as objects. So I feel better because I
gave someone something. There are many people today who want
(01:19:14):
to be healed in life from deep emotional scars, from
failures and traumas, but they fail to pay attention to
the Gospel of John or Peter's first and second epistles
in the New Testament for the rest of the or
the rest of the Bible.
Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
And so Peter and John are said, look look at us.
Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
They're saying the same today we wrote books and New Testament.
Look at us, and let us help you in your life. Friend,
if you want to be healed in life, pay attention
to the voice of the apostles. God has given us
apostolic witness and authority through the Holy Spirit to be healed,
just like the man at the gate. Look at verse five,
(01:19:52):
and he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive
something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver
and gold, but I give you what I have in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Walk.
Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
That's what the Revised standard version says. The Greek majority
text says the basis the King James version more reliable.
In this instance, says, rise up and walk. Peter's command
is more than just a command to walk. When you
have been down all your life, you need to rise
up in order to walk. This man had more muscles
(01:20:30):
in his body than just the muscles in his legs
that were laying. He could get up to a degree
by using his upper body. He could exert force from
within himself to rise up, and then God can take
care of the walking part. I believe Peter was calling
on him to use those muscles to rise and then walk.
Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
You may not know how to walk as a Christian.
Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
But you can rise to a new life in Jesus,
and Jesus will take care of the walking part that
you have never learned to do. That you don't think
you can. Friends, the call is first to rise, then walk,
So rise up and walk. It's Peter's command to us all.
Peter invoked the name of Jesus of Nazareth as his
authority to heal the man. He say, well, by the way,
(01:21:13):
I'm God's gift of the world. I'm the greatest of
the Apostles. I'm gonna do something marvelous for you today.
He was not a bragger. He was not talking about
how insignificant he was. He was in the business of
praising the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, he said, rise up and walk. Jesus name
in Hebrew means Yahweh saves, and Nazareth comes from the
(01:21:35):
Hebrew word nat sir that means shoot. You know, like
in a garden, the shoote that comes out of the ground.
A shoot is that part of a plant that rises
up out of the ground after the seed has been
buried deep in the earth. Isaiah says that Jesus would
be the shoot from the stump of Jesse.
Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
He would be the Messianic shoot. So the man who is.
Speaker 1 (01:21:56):
The shoot was raised in the place called the shote Nazareth,
which means of the shoot. Peter can invoke the name
of Jesus to command that man to rise up and walk.
Why because Jesus died, and the Gospel says he was buried,
and then it says.
Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
Just like a sea, that is a shoot.
Speaker 1 (01:22:14):
He rows up from the grave for us all for
our justification in Romans four twenty five. There is no
evidence that this lame man immediately acted on Peter's command
to rise up.
Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
The lame man had.
Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Been down all his life. He was used to being
carried by others to get around. He was a beggar
and not a self starter in life. Thus, one might ask,
how does a loser who is down and out and
have a single ounce of emotional energy to rise up
and walk. Peter here demonstrates that he personally understands that
(01:22:52):
there are times in life when you cannot be healed
unless someone else's faith takes hold of your weak hand
of faith so you can ride this point, Peter takes
him by the hand to share with him and to
show him his personal faith in Jesus of Nazareth is
the only one who's the power to heal the lame man.
Jesus had pulled Peter up from denying him and restored him.
(01:23:16):
And now Peter has the chance to do it for
a man at the gate beautiful x three seven. And
he took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Don't
forget the sequence here Peter raises him.
Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
Up nn he's healed. In this miracle.
Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
The lame man did not rise up, or come up,
or make the movement on his own. It was the
faith of Peter engaging him. Thus faith was interactive and growing,
and when he began to rise, his faith worked, he
was healed. Peter took the initiative for him. I asked
you the sillion question this morning. When was the last
(01:23:57):
time you took someone by the hand to raise the
up so they can walk in a new life in Jesus,
where you focused on them and not yourself. Are you
in the business of putting people down or pulling them
up for that man or woman.
Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
Who needs your encouragement?
Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
Are you quick to criticize them, or steady and firm
to help them rise up so they can stand up
and walk. No man or woman has ever been healed
by a critic. No man or woman has ever risen
from discouragement because some corrector of fault sets them straight
all the time. No man or woman ever came to
(01:24:34):
know Jesus because of virtue. Signaling of chastisement or anger
or self righteous rebukes from a self appointed saint doesn't
work that way.
Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
Peter knew that this man could not get up on
his own initiative. His faith was not strong enough to
do that for him.
Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
He needed a friend to reach down to him, to
take him by the hand with his right hand, and
to love him enough to lift him up. Faith would grow,
and then he would be healed. When you lift someone
up who is down with your own hands, with your prayers,
your love, your look, your words, you're telling that man
(01:25:11):
or woman that you had faith in the Lord's good
future for them. There was no evidence of healing this
man's body until Peter lifted him up. This man was
healed because of Peter's faith in Jesus. Dear heart, there
are people in life that can indeed be healed because
of your faith in Jesus, because you pray for them.
(01:25:33):
Who are you praying for at the hour of prayer?
Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Yourself?
Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Oh Lord, just help me get the car or one.
Oh Lord, give me the job I want? Oh Lord,
you know are you praying for yourself? It's okay to
pray for yourself and others, and maybe others more than
yourself that need you to show them Jesus. The text
says in verse seven that when Peter raised him up,
immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
Dear heart, are you waiting to.
Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
Be healed in your life? You're saying well, I'm going
to wait for the Lord to work his miracle. You
can wait all your life, but if you don't rise
up by faith before you are healed, you will never
be healed. Rising up is what heals us. When we
respond to rise. God takes care of the howl. God
(01:26:25):
heals people who choose to get up by faith and
move forward in life with the help of others. Peter
had no evidence other than his knowledge of Jesus that
this man would be healed. The miracle followed Peter's faith
in Peter's action to reach out to the man, and
not the other way around. The man who could not
raise himself acts upon the command and the initiative of Peter,
(01:26:46):
who his Holy Spirit apostolic authority to heal that man
acts three eight and.
Speaker 2 (01:26:52):
Leaping up he stood. Now he like that? And leaping up,
He stood and.
Speaker 1 (01:26:57):
Walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping
and praising. Now, how does that song go? I wish
we had where we could sing it. Peter and Paul
went to pray.
Speaker 2 (01:27:07):
Hey, they met a.
Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
Lay me man on the way. Does anybody know that song?
Come up and help me sing it real quick. Let's
sing it come on, I just need help. I want
to sing that song before I get any more in
a sermon. Come on, Samuel, lead us out in that song.
Grab a mic, come here to Yeah, grab a mike
and make sure it works. Let's stand. You stand for
(01:27:29):
this song. It's a song we teach our children. Yeah,
bring kids, come up here, whoever wants to stand and pray.
Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
If if.
Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
It isn't in there, no Donald, but that's all right,
thank you. Okay, you're ready, come closer, get up here. Yeah, okay,
get us going on it. Make sure that you got
sound on that.
Speaker 3 (01:27:47):
Okay, go Peter and John waits you pray they man
go away, Yeah, zild light in the name energies and
(01:28:12):
tries rise walk. He went walking and leaping and praising God.
Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
Let's start over and leap. That's what the kids do.
Speaker 3 (01:28:29):
He went walking and leaping and praising God, walking and
leaping and praising God in the name enogiesus cries of Naza.
Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Walk. Now that worked. They helped it. That was right on.
Speaker 1 (01:28:50):
Now this slay man was yanked to his feet like
a rocket by the faith of Peter, walking and leaping
and praising God.
Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
Now, friends, we learned to walk by crawling in life.
Speaker 1 (01:29:02):
Thank you for helping me with that. This man never
learned to crawl or walk. He learned to leap and
walk by Peter's faith in hand. Peter didn't tell him
to leap, Peter told him to rise up. The man
who couldn't rise up on his own chose to leap up,
holding the hand of Peter. Peter's name means rock in Greek.
He held the man the hand of the man who
(01:29:25):
became a rock in his life, and drawing strength from Peter,
who drew his strength from Jesus of Nazareth, this man
leaped to his feet. Dear heart, if you have been
controlled all your life by a weakness, a sin, an addiction,
the criticism of others, I can speak my own life.
I grew up being highly criticized as a young person.
(01:29:48):
Now you don't have to raise your hand, but maybe
you can interact with this. I had overdoses of that,
and my self esteem was very low, and I had
a very diminished sense of self when I went to
academy at the age of fifteen. And I can't tell
you how harsh criticism can hurt a young person. Now
(01:30:09):
that doesn't mean we can't lovingly correct young people, but
not in the criticism game. It leaves a lifetime impact
on their mind. Or maybe you were struggling with a
personal failing you messed up early in life or late
in life and you remember that awful sin. Or maybe
you're struggling with a life illness or something, but you
just feel God is far from you and you just can't.
Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
Get up in life.
Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
You feel paralyzed by that deep trauma of childhood. Friend,
then take the hand of the person who is reaching
out to you in Jesus' name. Don't push that hand
back in your life, draw your strength from their faith,
and leap to your feet. God has spoken to you
through the love of that person. When you leap to
(01:30:55):
your feet, you're not begging anymore. If you have no
strength in your life, hold the hand of a godly
man or woman who loves you and draws strength from
their hand because they are drawing strength from Jesus's hand
to help you. It doesn't matter how you get healed
in life. What matters is if you get healed. God
uses people who love him to help you, people who
(01:31:16):
are filled with the Holy Spirit to love and help.
Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
You be healed.
Speaker 1 (01:31:20):
So you can become a healer in someone else's life.
So don't be picky in particular about how you are healed.
Just let God do his work through others, through their
love for you, as He wills it in your life.
Jesus had restored Peter when he fell, and now Peter's
raising up a.
Speaker 2 (01:31:35):
Man who never learned to walk.
Speaker 1 (01:31:37):
Peter learned by his own experience that you can fall,
and that Jesus can restore and heal you and raise
you up. Now Peter knew for real what Jesus could
do for him and others who are paralyzed with failure.
This man's reaction is cathartic. That's a psychological term that
Freud created. A catharisays when you let it all out,
cleansing and it's sudden. There are four faith actions in
(01:32:02):
his healing. Let's put them on the screen.
Speaker 4 (01:32:07):
Faith action number one leaping up he stood, Faith action
number two walking after he stood, Faith action number three
leaping again as he walked, And faith action number four
praising God a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:32:22):
Those are the four. You want to get your phone
out and take a picture of.
Speaker 1 (01:32:24):
Them, Well, go ahead, you can use your phones here.
Just take a picture of that slide. These are four
important steps of faith. Faith action number one, let's take
them apart one a time.
Speaker 2 (01:32:37):
Leaping up he stood.
Speaker 1 (01:32:38):
When you feel the energy of God and others to
help you, don't go negative on them and reject that
Holy Spirit energy for encouragement that comes through them for you.
Act on their faith decisively and leap up and forward
with that help that God gives you through them. When
people give of themselves to help lift you up, it
takes energy from them to do this for you. There's
(01:33:01):
a cost they pay. Give some of that Holy Spirit
energy back. By leaping up in faith to stand for God.
The text says, leaping up he stood. This is the
decisive action of faith that stabilizes the life. He stood,
his life becomes stable. Faith action number two. The text
indicates that he was walking after he stood.
Speaker 2 (01:33:22):
Friend.
Speaker 1 (01:33:22):
God doesn't raise you up so you can just stand
still in life. He doesn't heal you so you can
make no advances in life. He doesn't bring his power
into your life to keep you powerless and immobile, a
victim and useless in life. When the Lord heals you
through others in the church, he empowers you to move
forward in life. As a gift of healing to others.
(01:33:45):
You're not to be this mournful witness to pain. You're
to be a joyful witness to God's healing in your life.
Peter and John were going to the temple to pray.
Now it wasn't just Peter and John. It was Peter
and John and the former lame mad. He's no longer
the lame man. He's formerly the lame man who was
no longer a layman. He's a healed man. It's his
(01:34:07):
new title. He was walking. He was a walking, healed man,
moving forward in life to pray to God and Jesus
and to have fellowship with Peter and John Jesus Preachers
Faith Action number three. The text and acts clearly states
that he the healed man, was leaping again as he walked,
not leaping once again.
Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
The man didn't just leap once. He kept on leaping
after he was healed.
Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
Friend, God does not call on you to stay at
home in your pity and to stay down in your life.
He does not call you to stay at some certain
level in your life where you can't rise to new
heights and leap higher than you did before. God calls
when you leap to new heights, to leap higher and
hire because you have been healed and you are being
(01:34:56):
grown up.
Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
You're being that's beat English, You're growing up in the Lord.
You're going to.
Speaker 1 (01:35:01):
New heights when you leap higher and hire because of
God's grace. You get stronger and stronger because you're growing
in faith and using your faith to gain new achievements
for God. So walking and leaping and praising God. I
have a permanent ankle pain in my right ankle, but
(01:35:23):
I'm going to leap anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
I see faith action number four.
Speaker 1 (01:35:27):
He was praising God a lot because he'd been raised
up to walk, he'd been raised up to leap, He'd
been raised up to praise God.
Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
For the rest of his life. This is an experience
that is not meant to be just an event. It's
meant to be a life trend.
Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
Friend, God has not called you to an ordinary outcome
as a Christian. God has called you to joyful living
in Jesus Christ. Because He has healed you and he
continues to heal you in life. God intends that every
fiber of your weak life be filled with the healing
power and strength of the Cross of Christ and the
Holy Spirit, so you can live a joyful life as.
Speaker 2 (01:36:05):
A Christian because you are not a victim. You are
healed child of God by grace.
Speaker 1 (01:36:11):
At this point, the story shifts to the people who
saw the miracle and the grateful response of the man.
Speaker 2 (01:36:16):
Who was healed.
Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
We learned the story that faith and praised is contagious.
Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
Do you hear me.
Speaker 1 (01:36:25):
Positive attitudes based on God's kindness affect others all around you.
When you have been healed and you make advances in
your life and you praise God for what he has
done for you, you transform the lives of others.
Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
All around you for the good.
Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
Oh that God would take away from all of us
the idea that we have a hard journey with Jesus
because we are Christians. That's not a holy spirit filled journey. Now,
there are chapters in your life that are hard. Yeah,
I get it, But look, go up to the temple,
rise up, look the truth of Christ's victory in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
You have many reasons to be grateful, and so do I.
Speaker 1 (01:37:05):
And I must remind myself as I am reminding you,
that we need to grow in these things.
Speaker 2 (01:37:10):
Jesus is pure joy to know. I go through the
day and if I'm feeling down, if I think about.
Speaker 1 (01:37:16):
Jesus, I'm not down anymore. Jesus is gold worthy of
praise in your life. Why not share him with those
that you're talking about. Why be ashamed of the name
of Jesus with your work, associates and others. Pray for
people in Jesus's name, and don't worry if it looks crazy.
Like my mother, who was my mother's prayer converted me,
(01:37:37):
so maybe your prayer will do the same.
Speaker 2 (01:37:38):
It's okay to bear looking funny.
Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
In our culture for the good of others. Friends, Jesus
is wealth worth sharing with others, and Jesus is the
abundant life, worthy of walking and leaping and praising God.
I'm glad that we got up to greet each other today.
That's a good thing. We can be reverent do that.
But it's not a sin to fellowship as they are
(01:38:04):
doing going up to the temple, Act three ten and Jonathan,
thank you for the enthusiasm and that song. Yeah, thank
you x three ten. And they recognized him as the
one who set for alms at the beautiful gate of
the gate of the temple, and they were filled with
wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. The
(01:38:27):
people all around took note of the fact that this
former layman was now a changed man. That's how the
kingdom grows. Changed people through joy happiness make a difference
in the lives of other people who need changing, who.
Speaker 2 (01:38:43):
Yearn for joy and happiness.
Speaker 1 (01:38:45):
Very often, when people are healed, they stay away from
the church and the very people that God used to
heal them.
Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
Well, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
It's just the strangest thing. It's also a fatal mistake.
The walking and leaping and praising God. Man did not
make this misas the healed man knew that good men
used by God like Peter and John are worth holding
onto and learning from. In Life Acts three eleven, while
he clung to Peter and John, He's not gonna let
(01:39:12):
these guys go. All the people ran to get it
to them. In portfolio sorry the portico calling Solomon's astounded.
That's the way my translation is to read. In other words,
they were amazed in Solomon's portico. Jesus was walking in
the same portico when he talked about the shepherd and
the sheep, And now here is Peter and John as
(01:39:32):
shepherd's under the great shepherd, caring for the sheep. Peter
uses this wonderful miracle at the gate beautiful to draw
attention to Jesus, not to Peter, to Jesus, the beautiful
good news of Jesus friend. Jesus is the one who
died at the ninth hour. Jesus is the one who
went through the eastern gate up the slope to die
(01:39:54):
near the altar of the red heifer.
Speaker 2 (01:39:56):
Jesus is the reason that gate is beautiful. Jesus. This,
this is the door that's opening heaven.
Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Jesus says, I am the door, the door, the gate
of the sheep. The shepherd would sleep because he was
the door that guarded the wolves.
Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
He let the sheep in.
Speaker 1 (01:40:11):
And now Peter draws attention to the one who has
the divine credentials to truly heal anyone in life who
has a closed door, he can open it. Here's Peter's
little sermon for the people who saw the miracle. Now
you've got to let Peter finish his sermon, Acts three twelve.
Think your bible's out three twelve. And when Peter saw it,
he addressed the people men of Israel, and why do
(01:40:34):
you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us?
As though by our own power or piety we made
him walk Peter's saying that Jesus is.
Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
The hero in the miracle, and not Peter Verse thirteen.
Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom
you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate
when he had decided to release him. You see that
gate was the gate where he come from condemnation, right
up there to be crucified. But you denied the Holy
and Righteous One, and asked for a murder to be
(01:41:07):
granted to you, and killed the author of life, whom
God raised.
Speaker 2 (01:41:11):
From the dead.
Speaker 1 (01:41:12):
To this weird witnesses, the hands that hold the stars
in space was nailed to the cross of Calvary, the
hands that hold your DNA, and every quirk but John
was going through in the young adult sabiscoople today, the
power of the universe is in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
They crucified him.
Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
God raised up Jesus from the dead, just like Jesus
raised this layman up to walk and leap and praise God.
Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
That's what Peter's saying.
Speaker 1 (01:41:42):
Jesus can work miracles in your life, because Jesus is
the miracle that came to life on resurrection morning.
Speaker 2 (01:41:48):
The Gospel leads to change lives verse sixteen.
Speaker 1 (01:41:51):
And his name and name, his name by faith in
his name has made this man strong, whom you see
and know. And the the faith which is through Jesus
has given the man this perfect health. In the presence
of you, all, friend, the faith that is in Jesus
can heal you in your life from moral failure, anything
(01:42:12):
can restore you and make you blameless for the day
of God. And now, brethren, I know that you acted
in ignorance, as did also your father's. But when God
foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his
Christ is Messiah, should suffer, he thus fulfilled, repent therefore
and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,
(01:42:32):
that the times of refreshing may come from the presence
of the Lord that means the Holy Spirit revivals, and
that he may send the Christ to point it for you.
Jesus who Heaven must receive until the time for how
does it read in your Bible there until the time
for what establishing all that God spoke by the mouth
of his holy prophets From Evolk, he's directly referring to
(01:42:55):
the prophecy of Daniel eight fourteen to twenty three hundred days,
which in the Hebrew means restore, and that's what the
Greek word means here for establishing when God's kingdom will
be restored. Christ would come to the ancient days to
receive his kingdom, one name at a time, as he
confesses us before his Father and the Holy Angel, starting
with Adam to the end, and he says Heaven has
(01:43:17):
him until that event, then he's coming back. That preadvent
investigative judgment began in the year eighteen forty four.
Speaker 2 (01:43:25):
Based on the prophecies of Daniel.
Speaker 1 (01:43:27):
We are living in the toenails of human history in
the image of Daniel two. We are living just before
the judgment moves from the dead.
Speaker 2 (01:43:35):
To the living.
Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
In the mark of the Beast issue, Peter says, we
got to wait until that happens for Jesus to come back,
whom Heaven must receive. In the Greek the times the
Kraynon for restoring all that God spoke by the mouth
of his holy prophets, from of old Moses said, the
Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from
(01:43:58):
your brethren, as he raised me up, Jesus the New Moses,
the new lawgiver, who puts the law not on stone,
but on the heart. He says, you shall listen to
him and whatever he tells you, and it shall be
that every soul that does not listen to that prophet
shall be destroyed from the people. Friends, if you're trying
to fix your life without Jesus Christ, you're on the
path to destruction. But if you are clean to Jesus,
(01:44:20):
you're holding on to him, you're letting others help you,
and you're rising up to.
Speaker 2 (01:44:24):
Jesus, you will live forever.
Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and
those who came afterwards also.
Speaker 2 (01:44:33):
Proclaimed these days others.
Speaker 1 (01:44:36):
They were looking forward to the time of the outpoint
of the Holy Spirit that leads to the great investigative
judgment that will bring the coming to Christ.
Speaker 2 (01:44:43):
Verse twenty five.
Speaker 1 (01:44:44):
You are the sons of the prophets and of the
Covenant which God gave to your father, saying to Abraham,
and in your posterity shall all the families of the
earth be blessed. Here's his punchline, verse twenty six. God,
having raised up his servant, send him to you first.
(01:45:06):
Send him to you first, why to bless you in
turning every one of you from your wickedness, and he
ends as servant. Now I'm telling you he's going right
for the heart. Jesus came to bless us by getting
sin out of our life. Jesus came to bless us
with the gospel that raises us up. Jesus came to
(01:45:27):
bless us because of our ignorance. He gave us truth
and knowledge, prophetic clarity, and the gospel clarity. Peter's pretty
clear here on how to be saved and healed in
your life. You need Jesus, who is the good News.
Speaker 2 (01:45:41):
He proclaims that.
Speaker 1 (01:45:41):
God raised Jesus up so Jesus can raise you up
and all those like you who are guilty and overcome
with wickedness and sin in their lives. God wants to
bless us with Jesus. The power that raised Jesus can
and will raise you up and bless you so you
can turn learn from your wicked ways. I can turn
(01:46:03):
for my wicked ways. We all can and become walking
and leaping and praising God, kind of Christians who have
met Jesus at the gate. Beautiful dear heaven a Father,
thank you for my wonderful mother, My wonderful mother who
would go to the furniture factories and come back with
(01:46:25):
bleeding hands every day so we'd have some food on
the table, who wasn't afraid of her illness in this
one way, so that she could pray boldly for me,
and who taught me forgiveness at a level that few
people here might understand, who forgave a man who was
(01:46:45):
anything but a good father, and showed us the love
of God.
Speaker 2 (01:46:51):
And Father, I look.
Speaker 1 (01:46:52):
Forward to seeing my mother again. For all those dear
mothers here, Lord who need to know that God is
with them them buoyant faith it gets up. May they
never give up loving instead of the other kind of stuff.
And may they be the kind, caring hands and heart
(01:47:13):
that lifts our children to new heights. And Father, may
you work with fathers and others in their myths to
do the same thing. And may we be known as
the kindest people in Laurel. I pray for the good
of others, for Jesus glory and sake in Jesus name
Amen
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