So those of you who don't know
the book of acts is about the very first church that came together
and how they made an incredible Impact in all over the world
really and ultimately to us today. So let me go ahead and just read
from acts chapter 3 I'm gonna pray we'll break it down And
we'll leave here different Amen. All right acts chapter 3 verse
1 says this Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at
the hour of prayer the ninth hour and a man lame from birth
was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the
temple that is called the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms." That's for
money. Of those entering the temple,
seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked
to receive some alms, and Peter directed his gaze at him, as
did John, and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on
them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I
have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right
hand and raised him up and immediately his feet and ankles were made
strong and leaping up. He stood and began to walk and
entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising
God. And the people saw him walking
and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the
beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms. And they were
filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for this opportunity
that you've given us to hear from you, to learn of you, to
be taught of you, to be renewed and refreshed in your grace. Father, we come before you this
evening asking God that you'd open our ears and our hearts
to hear from you, God, and that you would change us and cause
us to leave here differently than the way that we came in.
We know that you're able to do that. And Father, we know that
we need a miracle, that we've gotten ourselves into situations
in our lives that we need you to intervene. And maybe there
are people here this evening that don't realize that. Don't
realize that you're a God who has intervened. And I pray, God,
that you would open their eyes, their spiritual eyes, to see
you and to see who you are and what you've done in the person
of your son, Jesus. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen.
I know probably like many of you, particularly before I was
a Christian and before I started reading the Bible and so on and
so forth, I had heard about miracles in the Bible and you'd hear about
different people talking about miracles or Jesus being a miracle
worker and so on and so forth. And I can always remember, you
know, just thinking to myself, you know, that's just, that's,
that's crazy. Like these people were super primitive or something
and just had this idea that Jesus would, you know, there were miracles
and they were, you know, weren't the smartest people or what have
you. And, and that, you know, God doesn't really perform miracles
like that. Like he doesn't do these particular
things. And then later in life, I actually
found myself in a position where I actually needed a miracle.
I actually found myself in this situation where I was like, I
remember hearing about this idea that God could perform miracles. Man, if that were true, that
would be absolutely amazing. Some of you maybe have heard
me tell a story of a friend of mine who you know, proclaim the
gospel to me, I can remember saying to him one time, you know,
I just, you know, I got this difficult time at this idea of
turning my will and my life over to something I can't see, you
know? And he looked right at me and
said, Darren, you could turn your life over to Bozo the Clown,
and you'd do a lot better job than what you've been doing so
far. And I thought, you know, and in that same conversation,
he said to me, you know, you better, you need to hope there's
a God. I know that you're having trouble
surrendering over to God and this, you want proof and so on
and so forth. But the reality is, is that don't
you realize you're in a situation where you better hope that there's
a God. Because you're in a spot that
you can't get out of in your life. And it was in those moments
where I actually went from, man, that could never possibly happen,
to what would it be like if it could? Like if God could actually
intervene in my life and do something bigger and greater than I thought
could ever be possible. Well, in this passage I read
to you, right, this is the first time an apostle, somebody besides
Jesus, in the book of Acts actually performs a miracle. Where this
guy who is lame, can't walk, he's crippled, right, since birth,
he's taken up to the temple every day to beg for money. And Peter and John, you know,
walk up to him and of course he's asking them for money, but
he heals them. And, you know, a lot of people
interpret a passage like this nowadays is, you know, that we
can do those same things. And I'm not insinuating that
God can't heal somebody in just the same exact way that this
happened, right? Or that he has to in order for
us to know that he's actually real or that he's here. But what's
actually happening here is a miracle. It's a miracle that not just
actually happened, but ultimately what it teaches is that we not
only need a miracle, but the miracle that Peter is talking
about that we need can happen today. The miracle that you and
I really need can happen. And that miracle is this. What
this miracle teaches is that God has a plan of restoration
for your life. He has a plan of restoration
for my life. That means a life of health,
of wholeness. You know, like all the areas
in our lives that we know are broken. Or, you know, like those
areas in our lives that we kind of, you know, are maybe at at
this point, but we never planned to have happen in our life. You
know, we never really, you know, maybe a decade ago or 20 years
ago when we were kids looking forward to today thinking, you
know, I think that, you know, in 2019, I'd really like to end
up at Grace Gospel Fellowship and Pontiac Mission. Like this wasn't necessarily
on the agenda. And all the different reasons
why we landed here tonight, we may not have planned, but we're
here. We're here and God has a plan. It was on purpose. God has a plan and a purpose.
And so the mess that we're able to, that many of us have found
ourselves in in life, in fact, I would argue the whole world
that's found itself in, it needs a miracle. And Jesus, the gospel,
is the miracle. So let me just point out a few
things. from this passage as we jump in here. So the first
thing I kind of want to point out is that, first of all, you
know, like I mentioned, Peter is the first apostle who performs
this miracle. And what's happening is this,
is that Jesus, God, is accrediting the apostles With his work actually
and us through the apostles. He's Accrediting them that his
work the work that jesus started when he came down here to earth
was going to continue Through them. In fact the book of acts
in chapter one it starts off by saying that you know when
uh Luke is actually the writer of the book of Acts in so for
those of you don't know right like Before the Bible was ever
totally assembled together, right? We've got in the New Testament
Matthew Mark Luke and John which those are like the Gospels those
are all about the life of Jesus and Historically what he did
and who he was and what he taught but before it was assembled the
way we have it today like in You know, let's say 50 AD right
like if you were at a church in 50 AD after Jesus's death
Right, you would have had like two volumes the Luke the writer
of Luke and the writer of Acts Those two would have come together.
The first part was Luke about a Jesus and his life the second
part the book of Acts it actually he starts off by saying hey in
the previous book I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and
to teach and Then he begins to talk about how Jesus Continued
his work on the earth through the Apostles and through the
church down to us today and And so my point is this, is that
Jesus, when he ascends to heaven, he says, hey, the Holy Spirit
is going to come down here, it's gonna come upon you, and you
will have power to actually continue to take the good news of the
gospel, to take the same power that I had to the world. And it was through some of these
miracles that like Peter and the other apostles do that accredited
them that God is with us. in the same work that Jesus was
doing, we're gonna continue to do. And that isn't necessarily
to actually physically heal people, but that was a sign that the
Holy Spirit was with them in the same work, namely, restoring
our relationship to God, would continue through them, all right? So, that doesn't mean, as I mentioned,
that that can't happen still today. But that wasn't the point
of the miracle. The point of the miracle wasn't
that we need physical healing. It was actually something more,
right? And I know that maybe you're
here tonight, and you may say, you know, I just don't believe
that God can do in my life what needs to happen. That, you know, there might be
any number of reasons why some people around here have gotten
clean, or their relationships have been restored, and so on
and so forth. But, man, they just, they weren't out to lunch
nearly as bad as I was, right? Like, I can remember going into
NA meetings and stuff like that, and I'd hear of a guy who had
gotten clean, or what have you. And I can remember immediately
thinking to myself, he must not have been getting high like I
was. Because it's not possible. It's not possible for me to attain,
for me to have what that had. If he knew where I was or what
I've done or what I've been through, he would know that there's no
hope for me. But listen, if you, yeah, that's
right. If there's a God, it doesn't
make sense. Listen, I don't want you to miss
this. If you're here and you believe in God, then that means
it's illogical and actually ignorant to say a miracle can't happen.
You know that? Now, it's one thing to say, I
don't believe in God, and therefore a miracle can't happen, right? But if you're here and you say,
oh, I think there's a God. Well, then it would only make
sense if there's a God, then that means he can perform a miracle.
Because God created the heaven and the earth. He created you.
And if he was able to create you and he was able to create
the world, then that means he can manipulate it and do with it
what he wants. Right? And so it's illogical for me
to say there's a God, but yet he can't intervene. And I know,
and my hope is, is that we all come to that place tonight where
we recognize, I need God. Not only do I need God, but God
is willing. God is willing. He can, he is
able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that I may ask or even
think. Think about that for a minute.
Beyond what you can even think. You know what that means? That
you don't even know what you need. Right? That's what it means. I don't
even know what I need. because he's able to do beyond
what I could even possibly know. What I could even possibly conjure
up in my mind, that means he knows more than what I know that
I need. Now, this is what's actually
happening though. So the apostles are accredited,
right, with the power and work of Jesus, and ultimately us through
that. But what ultimately is happening is this miracle of
Peter healing this guy shows God's vision. It shows his plan,
his vision for restoration. What I mean by restoration is
that healing, that wholeness of everything that's broken being
made whole again. Can you think of what that would
look like? Can you even begin to imagine
what it would be like for there never to have been any brokenness
ever in your life? For you and I to have never screwed
up. For other people not to have
screwed up in our lives. And what joy that would ultimately
bring. What the miracle says is that,
hey, there's a time where everything's gonna be made right. Everything
that's broken, everything that hurts, Everything that causes pain will
someday be gone and it will bring wholeness and health and Something
beyond what I can ever possibly imagine now watch when in verse
8 it says so so Peter has said to this guy in Jesus his name
rise up and walk and he actually later on in his message he so
he Heals this guy and then he begins to preach right? and he
begins to break down what's actually happened, right? And this is
one of the things he says. So in verse eight, when he heals
this guy, this guy says, in leaping up, he stood and he began to
walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and
praising God, all right? So he's literally jumping up
and leaping around. This guy who, just a few moments
ago, couldn't even walk, had never walked in his entire life,
Now his strength and muscles gets up and begins to praise
God and is literally leaping into the temple, all right? Now,
you and I read that and we're like thinking, you know, like,
Joe, he's a deer hunter. He's probably thinking, man,
shoot, that's like a deer leaping, right? I mean, because that's
actually what, sorry, Joe, I didn't mean, that was probably a bad
picture. Let me take a step back. But
literally, it's like a picture of a deer leaping. And the reason
why is like we sort of read that and I don't know what, I know
what picture you have now, but when they would have read it,
like back in the first century, right? When they read that, they
would have immediately known, hey, he's talking about this
prophecy that was written thousands of years ago by the prophet Isaiah
about what will happen when restoration begins on the earth. So watch,
in Isaiah 35, so they would have immediately connected this, right?
It says, then the eyes of light. So it's showing this connection.
The book of Isaiah, this prophet, he writes this thousands of years
before and says, hey, there's a time when God's gonna intervene
in the world. And you're gonna know when he
comes down there, he begins to intervene and begins to make
things new. All these things that are broken
and dried up and there's hurt, and there's pain, and there's
brokenness, God's gonna come and He's gonna begin to heal
that. And the way that you're gonna know that God has come
into the world and begun His work to heal is this. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the
lame man leap like a deer. in the tongue of the mute, sing
for joy, for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams
in the desert." They immediately would go, the Messiah has come,
the savior of the world, the one that we've been waiting and
anticipating on. He has come into the world. In
fact, Peter actually breaks it down in his message. In verse
20, he says, he begins to say, this healing of what just happened,
this is Jesus that did this. This wasn't me. This was actually
Jesus through me doing this. And he says in verse 20, that
the times of refreshing, right? Streams in the desert may come
from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Christ
appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the
time for the restoring of all things. So when Peter heals this
guy, what this miracle is pointing to is not just, hey, he can walk
now. It's actually pointing to God
has entered the world. And it's pointing towards something
that's pointing towards this time that we can look to when
everything that is broken is going to be healed. So when you
look at why, so Jesus, The same thing, he's walking around, right,
he's teaching people. We know that if you read through
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, things like that, right, he's
healing people. But Jesus isn't just like arbitrarily walking
around going, oh, well, look at the poor sap, you know, and
then heals people. Every time Jesus heals somebody,
he does it on purpose. And he heals them for particular
reasons, to teach a particular truth. about who He is and what
He has ultimately come to do. Jesus could have done all kinds
of things to prove that He was the Son of God, right? I mean,
He could have, like, flown around like He was Superman. I mean,
He could have, right? He was the Son of God. He had
power in His hands. He had power over creation. Right,
we know that some of the things that he did showed that that
he had that power He could have like scaled walls like spider-man
I mean fill in the blank with all the different things that
jesus could have done to prove that he had this power, right? But he didn't do that He healed
people in particular ways because all of the miracles that he did
in this miracle that peter performs shows That what is broken is
going to be made whole. And so his miracles point to
a time of restoration, of healing, of a time of wholeness. All of
the miracles, they're always alleviating some kind of trouble,
some kind of suffering, a pain that somebody is experiencing
because of sin, because things are broken, right? See, God never
intended. I know this is kind of, come
with me here for a minute. The reason why the world is the
way it is isn't God's fault. That's what the scripture teaches
us. It actually says that God created the heavens and the earth.
And he created Adam and Eve, right? And he put them in the
garden. It was paradise. It was this beautiful, perfect
place. And he commanded them what to
do and what not to do. And because of their disobedience,
the scripture teaches us that because they decided to take
life into their own hands, you know, it's sort of like us taking
the keys to the car. I'll drive, I've got this, right? And then drive the car right
into a tree. That's exactly what happened.
And he says, the day you eat thereof, the day you're disobedient,
you shall surely die. And from that point on, sin came
into the world, and brokenness came into the world, and everything
that we see that's broken and hurtful and painful in this world,
it all comes back to stemming from that itself, right? Everything,
disease, sickness, right? Drugs. all the hurt and the brokenness
that we see, right? And so that means that God is
not, listen, God is not okay with the way the world is. He's
not okay with it. And that's why he began prophesying
thousands of years ago, I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna fix this
mess. I'm gonna fix it. And everything
that's hurtful, everything that is broken will someday be untrue. So, it says that God isn't happy
with the way the world is, right? And I know that we're taught
something different, right? Like, people die, right? So,
Pastor Clark mentioned we have a good friend that passed away
this last week, and it's really sad. And one of the ways that
we try to make sense of that in this world is we say things
like, well, you know, death is just naturally part of the life
cycle. And it's just part of it. And
you know what the scripture says? No, it's not. No, it's not. There's nothing natural about
death. In fact, death is the enemy. You were never created
to die. Death is a result of sin. And
so that's why we try to mask it. We try to cover it up. We
put flowers on graves. We do all kinds of different
things and try to, but deep down in our heart, in our soul, we're
broken when we lose somebody, when somebody dies and we see
them suffer, when we see them in pain because we know that
that's not a natural thing to be happening in our lives. And
many of the things that we've gone through in this life, a
lot of the pain and the hurt that you may be in, the suffering
that you may be in now is not something that God likes any
more than maybe you do. and he actually has a plan to
restore it. And so, in as much as you and I know that
because Jesus came into the world, that someday all of this is gonna
be made whole again, in as much as you really truly believe that,
it will change the hope that you have today. See, how you
believe it all ends up How you believe it's all going to end
is going to change how you deal with what you deal with now. Think of it like this. You have
two of us in a room. You get two people in a room.
You tell them both, hey, for 16 hours a day, I want you to
do this. Just make widgets all day long.
I just want you to make widgets all day long. And it's incredibly
boring. It just feels meaningless. It just feels like you're not
getting anywhere. You're never amounting to getting
anything done or anything like that. You're just doing it over
and over again every single day, going through all the motions.
You're making your back hurt, everything else. You're tired,
you're angry, and all these other things. Now, you say to one of
them, hey, in a month, you do this for a month straight, at
the end of that month, I'll give you $100. $100, man, come on. That guy, you say, how's it going? How's it going? He says, it's
terrible. It's absolutely terrible. This job is meaningless. Now,
you take the other guy doing the exact same work. He says,
now, at the end of the month, I'm going to give you a million dollars.
You say to that guy, hey, how's it going? Not so bad. You know? I mean, I'm plugging away. I
mean, it's got its bad side. But you know, we're getting somewhere. We're pushing it, right? Because
he's not focused on the widget. He's focused on that inheritance
I got coming in a month. In a month, we're going to get
through it. It may feel like eternity right
now. It may feel like I'm not getting
anywhere, but I know what's coming at the end. And that changes
your hope in that moment. And so the fact that Jesus has
come into the world, not just to come into the world to condemn
you, but Jesus came into the world to restore you. That means
no matter what it is that you and I are going through right
now, no matter what you see in front of you that you think can't
ever be restored, the gospel tells us one day, one day it's
coming. One day that this relationship,
this person I was lost, this thing that I still grip my teeth
at at night, can't believe that I did, someday it's all just
gonna be untrue. Can you imagine that? Some of
the things that you've done in your life? I can just think of
some of the things I've done in my life that one day it'll
be untrue. It will like have never really
happened. It'll be gone. It will have no
more effect. It will have no more impact on
anybody or anything except for my own good. Imagine that. That someday my life, my body
will be completely and totally restored. But that restoration,
that healing that you and I need doesn't necessarily happen the
way we want it to. or the way we think it should,
right? Notice that right in verse six,
the very heart of the story, it says, but Peter said, I have
no, so this guy's asking for money, right? Peter said, I have no silver
or gold, gold and silver have I none, right? King James says,
but what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ,
rise up and walk. Now what's happening is, This
guy thought he knew what he needed. He had his gaze like just, this
is the best I can do. But God had something so much
more for him. Something bigger and greater
than what he could have ever possibly thought. And what Peter
is ultimately teaching, he heals this guy, watch, not to, this
is what I want you to make sure you get. He's not just healing
this guy so that he can walk and be restored from the fact
that he's crippled. He's showing that Jesus is alive
and he's well. He has intervened and he is the
Messiah. He's the one that you and I need. He says, it wasn't
me, it was Jesus. It was in his name that this
guy is walking. And then later on in chapter
four, we know that he has been changed spiritually through this. It's through this that he believes
and has faith in Christ. and that he's not just changed
physically, he's changed spiritually. And what Peter is telling us
is that, hey, you and I may think that what we need is something
real superficial. You may think that you need money. You may think that you need a
job, and you may, those things may be great, but our biggest
need is a relationship with God. that is based on forgiveness,
and based on grace, and based upon something that, left to
myself, I can never, ever attain. I mean, it's almost like... So,
in Mark chapter 2, Jesus does virtually the same thing. There's
these people, I picture it in a place like this, you know?
These guys take their buddy who's paralyzed, and they lower him
in, actually, from the roof. They do everything they can to
get this guy, their buddy, in front of Jesus. And he's paralyzed,
he can't walk, he's lame. And the guy is set before Jesus,
and what does Jesus do? He says, your sins are forgiven. Let me just take a step back
here for a minute and just tell you, I obviously don't know what
it's like to not be able to walk. But I would think if I was this
guy and my buddies finally got me in front of this guy who could
actually make it so I could walk again, and he looked at me and
said, your sins are forgiven, I'd probably go, did you not
see my legs? I can't walk, bro. And you're
gonna throw something religious at me? Did you not see my pressing
need? You know, could you do that for
me? Rather than, you know, this religious
jargon that you're throwing at me? And it's later that Jesus
actually heals him to walk. But he teaches him in that moment,
your biggest need isn't to walk. It's not. I know that you want
that, and I know that you think you need that, but there are
people walking all over the planet, and they're miserable. Think
about that for a minute. There are people, right now,
we're thinking to ourselves, I just need some gold or silver.
I need money. And Jesus is going, there's people
all over this world with money, and they're miserable. Not all
of them. but it's certainly not what makes you happy. In fact,
you can actually do the research and some of the richest, most
famous celebrities and people in this country have a greater
rate of depression and suicide than the average American citizen.
And that's just the reality, that's just true, that's a fact.
But yet Jesus, a couple thousand years ago, is saying the same
thing. You have a more pressing need.
See, first and foremost, you're a spiritual being. That's first
and foremost, that's who we are. We have a soul. And we were created
to have a relationship with God. And whenever that relationship
is broken, whenever that, that I don't, my spirit isn't filled
with God. My soul isn't filled with the
relationship with God because I'm a spiritual being. I always,
we always, as humans will turn to something else in order to
fill that void. And that's why we say to ourselves
things like, man, if I could just lose 20 pounds, then life
would be great. You know, if I looked differently,
then people would like me. And then I'd be happy. And Jesus
is going, no. You and I were actually created
to have a relationship with God because you're a spiritual being.
And that's actually the miracle that takes place. This guy, watch,
this guy is just sort of the means. See, Jesus didn't heal
every crippled person. Peter didn't heal every person
that was lame and couldn't walk, but he used this person as his
means to be able to teach and proclaim that the real need was
something in the heart. Now, what if God would do that
to you? Is it possible that God could restore you, but it's not
gonna happen, maybe the way you want it to, or even the way you
think it should, because His ways are above your ways. His
thoughts are above our thoughts. And on top of that, He knows
your need is greater than what you could ever possibly ask for.
That you and I need restoration, healing to our relationship with
God that can only happen through Him and Him alone. That's the
restoration that we actually need. How do I get it? How do
I get it? Actually, Peter goes on to say,
repent, turn away. You know, turn away from looking
to all those things that you're trusting in, that you think are
gonna make you right, and look to the only one that can make
you right. See, all of sin, right, comes
into the world because of a heart problem. And our real problem
is in our hearts. That's the real, actual issue,
right? So, I've often questioned, you know, why, I don't understand
why God just doesn't wipe out the evil in the world. Like,
why does he allow this to happen? And maybe you've heard me say
before that at one time it did, it honestly, it occurred to me,
I thought to myself, well, If God were to wipe off all the
evil in the world, he'd wipe me out. Because I've done evil
things in my life. In fact, many of the things that
we question God about and say, why does God allow this to happen?
I think if we were to truly have God sit right in front of us
and he would answer that question back to us, he'd answer right
back and say, I don't know, you tell me. And we say things like,
why does God allow war? You know, can you believe these
people over in the Middle East? They're fighting like this and
so on and so forth and this and that and everything. If you were
to say to God, why do you allow that? I think he'd say, Rebecca,
tell me why you can't forgive the person who lives next door
to you. I mean, it's just a small microcosm of two countries going
at it. But here's this person that lives
right next to you, and you won't forgive them. I think he'd say,
you tell me why there's war. Right? Or we say things like,
you know, I can't believe that, you know, why all these people
starving. All these people starving in the world. Why does God allow
these people to die of starvation? I think if he truly would answer,
I think he'd say, you tell me. You don't think that there's
enough food on this planet to feed us 2,000 calories a day,
everybody on this planet? I think he'd say, it's not a
God problem. It's a distribution problem.
Right and by the looks of me and a lot of others it definitely
a greed problem, right? I'm getting my 2 000 calories
plus song right I mean i'm getting plenty it's it's and it's really
not just a distribution problem. It's a heart problem the human
heart Is what is evil in the world but yet scripture says
that jesus The son of God, God in the person of his son came
down here to earth. In 2 Corinthians 5 21 says that
he who knew no sin became sin so that through him we might
become the righteousness of God. that because of him coming into
the world, having had a perfect relationship with his father,
right? Many people have asked me over
the years, they said, I don't understand why Jesus on the cross
says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Like he's caught
in this situation where he didn't expect, like people have actually
tried to teach this, that Jesus really thought that God would
save him in that moment and save his life. But what's happening
in that moment is that Jesus has taken on the sin of his people. He's taken everything. You know,
all those things that I was talking about that make me grip my teeth
at night? He took it upon himself. And
in that moment, when he took sin upon himself, his perfect
relationship with his Father in heaven was cut off. And God
turned his face. from his own son, at his worst
possible moment, the father turned his face from his own son to
take on hellfire. You wanna know why? So that he
could turn his face to me. So that he could turn his face
to you. And you and I who are broken, and have run from God
and looked to everything in this world to try to fix us, when
all we really needed was Him, and yet the only person who has
really done us any real good was Him. We were angry at Him
and blaming Him. He took our sin so He could turn
to us and say, be healed. You're gonna be made whole. I
can restore you. I can give you the hope that
you truly need. And it's only through a relationship that as
Jesus was torn away, we can be made perfect in Him. And so,
just as that, let me just finish up by saying this. That Peter says that he was healed
by faith in Jesus Christ. Because the real effect of sin
comes from comes from a disobedient heart, comes from a break in
our relationship with God. And I just wonder if there are
people here tonight that you've been looking for all kinds of
different things in this world that are gonna fix you, that
if you had, it would make you right, when God has allowed all
these different things in your life to bring you to this place
where you just surrender to him. and you just get down on your
knees and repent, surrender, and say to God, it's you that
I need. I can't do this on my own. I've never even believed
that you could perform a miracle. I never believed in you, but
God, in this moment, if you're there, come into my life. Give me faith to trust that you
can do for me what I cannot do for myself. And if you're here
tonight, And you're somebody who has been
restored with God, and you can say to yourself, God has given
me a new heart. And I recognize that I could
never fix myself. Maybe you're here tonight, and
you've, he was telling me tonight, he's 10 months clean. 10 months! Can you? Look. I know that there are people
in this room that are maybe 10 years, 10 months. And you can't
remember. You can remember thinking to
yourself, I couldn't imagine being 10 days clean. There were
times where we were like, I can't go 10 hours. Started to get dope
sick. But yet, here you are, and you're
10 months clean, or 10 days. That's a gift from God. That
is only something. Now, look. If you are here and
you can say to yourself, hey, God did that for me when I was
lame. Maybe it wasn't that I couldn't
walk, but I couldn't stop using. Maybe it wasn't that I wasn't
lame, but I couldn't I couldn't have a real relationship. You
know, maybe it wasn't that I was lame, but but but I couldn't
be a real brother or sister or somebody who loved other people
because I was so in love with myself. But today, I'm forgiven. I am forgiven and I don't have
guilt and shame because Jesus has taken that on. If you're
somebody here and you can say that in your heart, that God
has borne you again and he's given you a new heart, then be
like this guy. He was only a means of Peter
and the other apostles and disciples in the church sharing the goodness
of God's grace through Jesus. It was never about this guy walking. If you're here and you are clean,
like I was talking about, I hate to break it to you. I'm sure
Pastor Clark has already told you, but it was never about you.
You're sort of like living on like his glory. You're a tool,
right, in the potter's hand. You're a vessel in the potter's
hand that has just been used for his glory and to actually
share that with other people. That you might be in the vessel
to actually share that with somebody else who is broken and who is
hurting and who is suffering. Maybe it's in your family, maybe
it's your friends, maybe it's people out there that you run
into. I don't know who it is, somebody
that you'll see tomorrow and you know what? God is gonna use
you. because of your testimony, because of what he's done in
your life to save them. I always like to say the gospel
always comes into our lives on the way to somebody else. It
was never intent. God didn't, listen, if it was
just about you having a relationship with God, then he'd have just
killed you and taken you up there, right? But you and I are here
for a reason. And that reason isn't just for
us to enjoy Him, but for us to, through that enjoyment, share
that with somebody else that they could be healed. Let me
pray. Father God, thank you for tonight. Father, thank you for
this scripture that teaches us that you do perform miracles. And maybe the miracle that we
need isn't what we thought we needed, but it's the miracle
of grace, the miracle of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Father,
I pray for that faith right now that we would look to you and
trust you, that we would surrender our lives to you, and that we
would live in that hope, God, knowing that we have an inheritance,
God, that everything that, Father, not only are we forgiven, but
we can live in that hope, knowing that it will never have its lasting
effect on our lives or our relationships because of who you are and what
you've done on the cross. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.