Read-along
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Well, hello. Yay. Yeah. Let's not get too excited. Calm yourselves. You know, you ever have those moments where you have two things that you need to be doing simultaneously and you're only good at you you only really get one of them right?
And that that what do I mean by that? Let me give you example. Back when I was a youth pastor, back in the days when it was horse drawn carriages and stuff like that.
We would I I I you know, I I was I was taking a a couple of freshmen guys out because I thought they had leadership potential. I was gonna build into them and you know, because that's what you need to do. You you you you're you're their leader, but you also need to relate. So so that's kinda the two things. If you're working with students, you gotta be a friend, but you also gotta be a mentor and a leader. There's there's two things. There there's the personal,
but there's also the purposeful part of this relationship. And you need remember, you need to be both and.
And so I went out and I said, so the personal part is they're baseball players. I played college baseball. So let's go connect over, you know, hitting some baseballs at the batting cages. And then, you know, I could mentor them into being greater men and followers of the Lord. Right? Be their leader.
And so when we get there and when we go in, it's my turn to bat, the stinking helmet they gave me fit funny and it smelled funny. And so I'm like, I'm not gonna wear this. So I didn't wear it. I go, I played college baseball. This is like the 70 mile an hour kinda thing. It's no big deal. So I don't wear the helmet.
I start hitting the ball and I'm I think I'm doing pretty good. And this like 10 year old kid, I could see him a few ks down, he watches. And then he starts getting closer. And he's looking and I go, oh, I know what's going on. He's pretty impressed with my skills.
And so he gets really close, and I get out and I go, hey. How you doing? Like like, I I kinda nodded to him thinking he would say something about my skills,
and he did say something, but it had nothing to do with my skills. He goes, hey. You're not wearing a helmet. I go, so? He goes points at the sign. Helmets must be worn at all times inside the cages. You're breaking the rules. I go, so what are you gonna do about it? He goes, I'm gonna go tell on you. And I go, fine. But do you know the other rule they don't have up on the sign? He goes, what's that? I go, they have another unwritten rule that says if you played Major League Baseball,
you don't have to wear a helmet. Of course, I did not play Major League Baseball. And he looks at me and goes, yeah, whatever, and walks away. So I thought that was it. It was a simple little mess with them. The the the two freshman guys I'm trying to pour into, I just totally messed with this kid.
And but at that point, I'm like, this isn't the end of the world. This is just some fun, know. So what? Big deal. But I was like, you know, was that really the best example to just tell some kid that I played Major League Baseball just to get him to shut up? I mean, maybe not. I mean, but but you know, I'm connecting with these guys. They're laughing.
It's I'm I'm I'm doing the the personal relationship part right, but not so sure I'm I'm I'm being the the purposeful leader part right now, but it's it's not a big deal. My next turn comes around, I'm in, and all of sudden, this kid who said, yeah. Right. He starts coming closer again. And I realized,
and so did these two freshmen picked on the fact that he walked away, and he said, yeah. Right. Then he thought about it and said, maybe he did play Major League Baseball. So he starts coming closer.
And at this point while he's watching, I see him in the corner of my eye, the two freshmen pick up on it, so they start playing, messing with them. I hit a good shot. I hit it really well. And they go, oh, that looks like that home run you hit against the Yankees back in '89.
And I go then I you know, I react to go, no. That one was more to left field. I hit this one more straight away. And I go and then I would say, it's more like the one I hit against Toronto in in '90. And and back and forth, we start saying all this stuff about my Major League Baseball career, why I'm batting.
And this kid gets like wide eyed and all that. And then I thought to my little bit voice of me, he said, alright, we've messed with a little bit. Maybe I should say something.
And and by the time I was done, he had left. Apparently, he had to go. So I'm like, okay. Whatever. Not the finest moment, but it was just a little bit of fun. Who cares?
And so then we're walking out to leave. And as we're getting close to the parking lot right out the front, the attendant guy that runs places there, we gave him the bats. And he's standing there. These two guys are sitting there. This car goes rolls
around, opens up. This woman's like digging through a glove compartment, hands something to a kid. And this kid runs out and I realize it's the same kid. And guess what he has in his hand? Paper and pen. And he comes running up to me and he goes, can I have your autograph? And that's the moment where
the leader part of me and maybe just the Christian character part of me should have said, man kid I was just messing with you. And I thought about I was just about to do that when mom walked up right behind him. And I'm like, I'm holding the pen and paper, and she goes, oh,
He's so excited. Timmy, what's his name? Thank you. Timmy is is so excited because, you know, the the the other Major League Baseball player that gives lessons here, the actual Major League Baseball player by the way,
she goes, he's not nice. He was like rude to Timmy. And it's hard. Like I want him to have some positive male role models because I'm a single mom.
You would think I would have fessed up at that moment, wouldn't you? But
now I feel like I'm too far gone. I gotta turn into the skid on this one. And so I go, sure. And I go to sign it, but I go, man, I'm not using my real name. So I use my first name Bill, my middle name Joseph, so I signed Bill Josephs as my name. And I put number 17, my college number, and I go, I gotta pick an obscure name. This is California 10 year old kid. I'll pick a team no one even knows exists in California.
I put Minnesota Twins, 1987 to 1990. And I wrote it and I go to hand it to him. And and I figured, you know, Californians don't even know there's a state called Minnesota. And nobody would like the twins back then. And so I hand it to him and he goes, mom look. And she looks at me and she's like, that's his favorite team.
You would think I would come clean at that moment. But no, now it's it's like I'm all in. That's so she goes looks at me and goes, well you know, you're young. Why you're not playing? Because this was like 1993 now.
And I go, no. And and and and and and you'd think I would say, but nope. I just decided. I pointed at my bad knee and it was cut up and that's what kinda and I said, I blew my knee out and so I only played three seasons. And they go, how well did you do? And I started quoting all my stats and everything, and what I did was I just used my college stats and made made it like it was my major league career.
And I'm going, this kid is all wide eyed and so excited, and then she goes, well, thank you again for being a role model, and and and Timmy gives me a hug. And that was the worst part. And then they walk off. He says, mom, I can't wait to show my friends at school tomorrow.
And all I can imagine, he's getting beat up someday by, there was a Bill Josephs, I met him. And the worst part of it all was I turn around to see these two young men that I was personally connecting with so I can purposely mentor them as followers of Christ and leaders of the faith.
One of them's on the ground laughing so hard and the other one is laughing so hard along with the guy that owns the batting cages because they stood back there and told him what was going on so he could be a part of it too. One of those guys to this day when he texts me always says, hey Bill Josephs.
I'm fearful that's the only thing he learned from me as his youth pastor. That I did something stupid. And in that moment, I realized that I was more concerned with that personal relationship, but I didn't wanna be goofy. And I did that that I stopped being the purposeful relationship. I didn't get to the purpose.
And I was having fun, but I missed the purpose. That's what we're going look at today is we're continuing this new normal through the book of acts.
It's the called new normal because this is the beginning of the church age Jesus has walked with his disciples for years, but now he's been resurrected. He died and then he says I'm sending you the Holy Spirit. That's the new normal. So now instead of trying to follow Jesus like the disciples have done before with Jesus just walking with them and working around them God himself the Holy Spirit is now within them
same for us today. That's the new normal and it's and it's what Jesus plan all along was because by having God within us the power of the Holy Spirit
the gospel spreads huge like that first sermon. We looked at the first week when Peter gets up and preaches. It's like there's only a 120 followers three and a half years of having Jesus. There's a 120 of them one sermon. There's now 3,120 because of the Holy Spirit.
And what we're going to see today is we look at one part of Acts chapter three, which this first story actually is what links
everything else that happens in three and four is because of what we're going to look at. We're going to see how the Holy Spirit's power works in our life how the relationship with God works in our life and we're going see there's two things that you need both.
You can't have one without the other because if you try to do one without the other, you're gonna miss the whole point. And that's simply this, the Holy Spirit's power is personal and purposeful.
Meaning, when God's power comes in our life and he brings a blessing, brings a healing, does something in our life, works through our life, it's not it is very personal. God does love us. He has a plan for our life. All of that is true, But it may be for us, but what God does in our life is not just about us.
There is a purposeful aspect to what God does when the Holy Spirit works in our life. There's a purpose that he has for it that's beyond us.
And if we get locked into the what I think a lot of our Western culture has done with church and Christianity is we've made it this private little personal journey with me and God, and we've left out the purposeful part that we're supposed to be about together.
And the book of acts is showing what we're supposed to be about together. And this story, by the end of chapter four, you're gonna see that what the personal power and love of the holy spirit does ends up leading to the whole church jumping on the purpose train, so to speak.
So let's look at what what we mean by this. I just wanna walk through chapter three, the first 13 verses, and just show how this holy spirit's power is both personal and purposeful, and what that means to us. So we don't end up a Bill Josephs
out there living our faith where we're really going after one aspect and ignoring the greater aspect.
And you might be having a hilariously good time while you're doing it, but you're missing the whole point. So here we go. Chapter three. It says Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the 03:00 prayer service.
As they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Lame meant he was couldn't walk. He was he was disabled in some way. Not like how we used to say lame. It's not like, oh, man, that guy is so lame. Some of the young people like, that phrase is so lame. You're lame. But anyways, you're lame.
Each day so he he his whole life, he was born with this physical disability. So this is basically what his life has been. He begs to survive. So each day, he was put beside the temple gate, the one called the beautiful gate, So he could beg from the people going into the temple.
When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. This is where it gets different. Peter and John looked at him intently and Peter said look at us.
That's an interesting phrase because you know, this guy's been disabled. He's been lame his whole life. He has to beg and I don't know if you've seen people that do this, but it's interesting that he looked at them and they both looked at him intently Now that doesn't mean intensely.
A lot of us may be looking, we're like, he didn't like Intently meant he had this deep intention. He looked right in his face. He wanted to connect intently, which means if this guy's on the ground, it means that Peter and John probably got down when he said looked intently. They got down on his level.
And then they had to say, look at us because what do you think this guy did? He just looked down.
Because most of the time when people give to the beggar, they're like either do it out of guilt or out of whatever. They don't usually stop to talk. They just like throw away. Then like we do when you see someone on the side of the freeway and you pull off and you're like, oh, I don't have anything for me. You just try to not make eye contact.
And so what he was saying is when he looked at him and then he looked away goes no look at me. Look this this shows you that what Peter is doing is living out who Jesus showed him to be by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He's now representing Jesus. That's who we are as Christians. The reason the Holy Spirit and the church can explode like it did beyond even when Jesus was walking around because with all of us having Jesus in us, having the Holy Spirit in us, we can now be Jesus in people's lives.
We can actually do that. So what he did is he had seen Jesus do this all the time. Jesus would say, look at me. He would get down and say, look at me. What he was saying was, I personally see you.
I see you as a person of worth and value because God created you. It doesn't matter that you've been born like this. And that was really important because in their culture, you were born lame, they thought it was something that was already sin in your life or the sin of a parent. And it was like, you're just that way because your family's worse.
So he would have grown up thinking there's something wrong with him because he was born that way. And he goes, no. Look at us. That would have been a powerful moment where he was trying to say, personally, you matter.
And then after he did that, it's interesting. It says, the layman looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. So he thought, wow, these guys actually care. This is gonna be a good day. What he was thinking is they're gonna give me like cha ching. That's the eagerly. Like, I'm expecting now. I'm gonna get something.
But he did get something. Not what he wanted, not what he thought he needed, not what he expected, but what he actually needed. And so here's what what what Peter says. He goes, Peter said, I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, get up and walk.
Says then Peter took the lay layman by the right hand and helped him up. Right there before we see what happens, which is obvious, probably still on the screen,
And and and think about it. So he says, in the name of Jesus, I'm not gonna give you money. That's you know, you expected that, but I'll give you what I do have. Take my hand, and and you're gonna get up and walk. So think about that. Think about that. He
expected money, didn't get it. I used to take spoiled rich Orange County kids to inner city LA on a mission trip. One day we'd go to Skid Row, and we'd work with a ministry that bought an old Skid Row hotel and they tried to help homeless people get off the street, get job training, get this, but you had to be accountable, you had to deliver, you had to go through some programs and stuff. And and so we went out in the morning, we'd split into teams, and we'd all take some money, and we'd find someone begging for asking for money. And what we would tell them is, what we wanna do, we're not just gonna give you money, but what we wanna do is we wanna buy you breakfast, and we would love it if you would just tell us your story.
We wanna see you as a real human being, and we wanna talk to you. And then we had some information that said, hey. You can go here today. Here's his name so and so. It's right over here. They all knew where it was. And I go, you can go in there, and they will help you. And we tried to to to help them.
And there was powerful stories. I mean, a lot of and most of the life change was us hearing these stories because people would take you up on. I can't believe it. What really shocked my teams
was how many times they got cussed out by the person when they said, hey. We wanna buy you lunch. And he's like, just give me the money. And we say, no. We wanna buy you bread. Well, bleepity bleep you.
That happens a lot. Because even if you're trying to help someone, they think this is what I want. This is what I need. And you say, but this isn't what you need. I'm not gonna give you what you're asking for you. I'm gonna give you what you need. And sometimes people get very upset at that.
And it's not just lame people that are begging. It's lame church people that come to church every week too. It's us. We come to church and we wanna get involved. We go, here's what I want. And we say, no. This is I know you're asking for that, but this is what you need. Well,
most of my preaching is that. Hey, you think you want this, but you really need this. And then you gotta make a decision. You gonna get mad at me? Go find a church that tells you what you wanna hear?
But he had to reach his hand because as he grabbed his right arm and helped him up. Peter did not go over behind him. Heim looked excited. No. Get out of here. No. You're gonna walk. And, like, pick him up like this and and forced him to the top. This guy did have to make a choice by faith. Because you notice, he said take he took his hand. He helped him up.
He wasn't healed yet.
And that's how faith works. A lot of us, we want the personal power of God in our life, and then we'll put our faith. Then we'll trust. Like when God says, hey, I need you to walk into this moment. I need you to walk in generosity.
I need you to walk in service. I need you to walk in communion. I need you to walk in loving your wife like Christ loved the church. I need you to walk in respecting
your husband. I need you to walk as a person at work that has integrity even though there's moments that you don't want to. I need you to walk in this. You're like, that is too hard. And you have this idea in your head like, give me the miraculous power first, then I'll do what you said.
And it doesn't work that way. God's power comes when you act in faith. And that's what Peter it's for Peter and John. They had no idea. He didn't know what was gonna happen. There wasn't a bat phone to heaven. Yeah.
Stand him up. He'll walk. It's like they had to go, you know, I just think this is what God would do because I saw Jesus do it. He said I could do this. I think it's gonna be an opportunity for something greater. So they both had to reach their arm out. And by faith, they just do the natural thing and God brings the supernatural.
But you gotta choose the natural obedience, the natural faith. You have to do what he's asked you to do.
And then the power comes. A lot of us are stuck. You're sitting down there and you feel like a lame beggar in life right now. And you keep begging to God, begging to God. But what you keep asking for, he's saying that's not what you need. You need to trust me, take my hand, and do this. And you're like, well,
make it easy then I'll do it. And that's not how it works. So he reached his arm out and he took his arm. And it says, he helped him up. And as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk.
Then walking and leaping, and more importantly, now he's praising God.
It says, then he went into the temple with him. So it wasn't just great. I can walk now. Good. Thank you. You gave me I didn't know that's what I wanted, but thanks for giving it to me. Now I'm gonna go about my life. He got super excited. He not only jumped, he leapt. I don't know. What's the difference?
I know what jumping. Jumping is this. Right? So what's the difference between jumping and leaping? I don't know. Maybe you know what? I bet leaping is what the ballet people do. You know?
Know, isn't that leaping? Do you think he did that? I'm glad I lost some weight. That would have hurt worse if I had not hit my stool last night. I don't know how I did that, but I did. He's excited.
He's jumping, he's leaping, like this is great. It's very personal to him. God blessed him in a super personal way, but not in the way he wanted.
But once he embraced by faith God's plan, that blessing was better. Not easier though. You know what would be easier? For Peter and John just to slap a huge check-in that thing. And now he can live. Because think about it. Just because he can walk now did not make life easier. What did he have to do the next day?
He's like, I gotta get a job. I've never had a job. I mean, it wouldn't work really well for him. Everybody saw this miracle. What if he came, brought his mat on his own and sat down and started begging again the next day? People were like, are you kidding me? I'm not giving you nothing. Get up and get a job.
See God often the blessing he'll bring us, it is a powerful thing. It'll cause leaping and you'll jump, but it doesn't necessarily make life easier.
You know what it does do? It opens up the way for you to jump on the purpose train more and be used under the glory of God, the purposes of God, and you get to experience the life God built you for in the first place. It's not about just this personal gain.
The power of the Holy Spirit, the blessing in God is not about personal gain. It's a personal love. It's a personal power. Something that personally God loves you. He does. And he will do powerful things in your life, but he always connects it to the purpose that he has. And that's what happens in this passage.
Because it says all the people saw him walking. He went into the temple now. He's on the train. He joined the He put his faith in Christ. And all the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. When they realized he was the lame beggar they'd seen so often at the beautiful gate, they were absolutely astounded. They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon's Colony where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John.
And then it says, Peter saw this has happened on opportunity and addressed the crowd. See, it opened the door to something greater. And here's the cool thing. If you think God is only about your personal plan of just personally blessing you for you
and healing you and healing people, that's what Jesus' plan was. Jesus was a horrible failure. You know why? This guy had been sitting at that gate his whole life. Jesus has only been dead for, you know, a couple months, and then raised from the dead came back.
So you do realize the beautiful gate was one of the main entrances to go to the temple Guess who probably walked by this guy at least, at least five to 10 times, if not more, when he was walking on earth. Jesus himself walked right past this guy on multiple occasions and didn't stop and heal him. Is Jesus a jerk?
No. Jesus has a purpose. And in healing, there's a purpose in it. He waited because he needed it to be Peter and John by the power of the Holy Spirit because he was not only gonna bless this guy personally, he was gonna use this guy's story purposefully and powerfully to change the lives of thousands of other people.
And that's what happens.
Peter sees the moment. He gets up and he preaches. And it's crazy. And you know what? You would think in that moment some guy gets healed. Today,
we're tempted and people that do what I do, even I'm tempted at times, to jump on that personal awesomeness and do a message on this and go, hey, see, it's just all about if you just put your faith in Jesus, you're gonna heal everything you wanna heal. And what you're gonna hear is, oh, I'll get all the things I want.
And you're gonna think it's all that. Of course, God loves you. He does. Loves that. But then Peter preaches the message, be tempted to preach. And just like this man, come to me and my guys and we're gonna we're gonna heal all your hurts and we're gonna take care of every one of your issues and we're gonna do that and make it all about just the love and all that. No, that's not what Jesus that's not what Peter preaches.
If you think I throat punch as I like to say, man, I am so much nicer than these guys that preach in the bible. Because he gets this crowd, this guy gets healed. And the first thing he says to them is look. He goes, people of Israel, he said, what's so surprising about this?
And why stare at us as though we made this man walk by our own power or godliness? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of all our ancestors who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is what they taught in cemetery I mean seminary, is when you see a healing,
it's always unto the glory of God. God did it for a greater purpose, not just for that. Now you do get it to you, but it's supposed to flow through you. Lazarus, man, that guy was dead and he got raised from life. You think that's excellent.
But think about poor Lazarus. He went through the process of dying, got raised from the dead, and then he died again. You think he looked at Jesus like, really? Twice? I was in glory. I would have rather stayed dead the first time. But he needed them for a greater purpose.
We get blessed by it, but it's both and. It's not one or the other. And so Peter knows that he needs to preach the gospel. But look what he says. He says,
this is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate's decision to release him. So remember Rome, who you guys hate and you think they're terrible and evil and totally? He, the Roman ruler, actually knew Jesus was innocent and wanted to let him go, and you would wouldn't do it.
He goes, you rejected this holy righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. You wanna know what just happened? It's not a healing just to make this guy feel better.
And I can't just go, hey. What do you want? What do you want? What do you want? What do you want? This was for the glory of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Personally for this guy, he gets to leap for joy and be a part of this, but this is an opportunity for you to hear about who Jesus is, and he just came out swinging and punched him right in the throat. He just said, and you know what's really going on? It was Jesus and by his name, the same Jesus who y'all rejected and you killed.
And you know what? You don't need some private little healing unit. You need the same thing he actually got. What this man really got was Jesus. And that's what you need. That's what he opened this sermon with. No funny story. Nothing. Just and by the end of it, it says the church now grew to 5,000 just men,
not counting the women and children. So they're at about 3,000 people total in the few days later 5,000 if you do the demographics and if you just base it on our demographics of women and children to men which back then they had more kids.
You're talking 12 to 15,000 people are now part of this church in a month. The church goes from a 120 to 15,000. So once again, if you're one of those people like we need to be more like the New Testament Church. I don't trust these big mega churches. Are you kidding? Most mega churches never even reached that size.
We're half the size of that church, and that happened in a month. This guy's story was used under the glory of God, and that means like over 5,000 people came to Christ right now. And we know that's true because what happens next
is unlike the first story where everyone just celebrated and the church went on being the church, there's an in between part. That's what chapter four starts off. The the religious powers that be get really upset that that that that they're talking about Jesus.
They don't deny the miracle. They know the miracle happened. So they arrest. They bring in Peter and John, and they don't want them to talk about Jesus anymore. But they don't know what to do because they said everybody saw the miracle. They know it really happened. But they but they keep talking about this resurrection of Jesus and these religious leaders. Their their sect of Judaism at this time was that was mainly in power was the Sadducees.
And Sadducees didn't believe in resurrection.
So they were mad that he was talking about it. They didn't they knew the miracle happened. But instead of thinking by the power of God, the the same guy that was Jesus, the guy that denied him, they didn't investigate maybe they should trust God. They had their own religious idea about how they wanted to live. They were in power like a lot of us do. I wanna put together my faith the way I wanna put it together and do this and not do that. They decided to try to shut them up, but they knew they couldn't.
But they didn't want them talking about resurrection anymore, Which is weird and that's why I think they're called Sadducees. Because without resurrection it made them sad, you see? Double points. Theological dad joke right there. But they say, if you read, go read it. They go, but what are we gonna do?
If we do something to them there's gonna be a riot in the streets. You know why? Because now 15% of the population of Jerusalem is now a believer in Jesus. At this point, they're at 15,000. Jerusalem has about a 100,000. It's crazy what the power of the Holy Spirit will do
when you embrace the personal aspect that God loves you and put your faith in it. But then you see that he wants to take your story and get you on the purpose train
because that's what happens. Because they get arrested, that goes back in this chapter ends and it's on purpose, put together saying this is linked that the church itself, the rest of the church body says they started praying boldly, Not, oh God, protect us, give us what we want, do this. They prayed, may we have a bold witness like that. May we continue to reach more people for Jesus. May we have this boldness. Then says they were all in unity. They
drove Hondas in the older versions of the Bible says they're all in one accord, which is a lot it's like a clown car if they're all crammed in one accord. Second dad joke. And and they and and it says and what did it mean by unity? It meant they were in unity on the purpose.
And it says that they went around, they served, they did this. And it says they even joined in. They knew whatever it takes financially. If they had land, they sold it to give to the cause to keep reaching people. You know what? Their calendars and their checkbooks join the cause. Not out of fear over being in trouble. Not out I need to do this or God doesn't like me. They realized, man, God loves us. God does powerful things in our life, but he wants to do greater things and we get to be a part of it. So why wouldn't they jump on that train?
But a lot of us, we resist these things. We resist being the church because we are stuck in a world and a church that has told you Jesus loves you and has a personal plan for your life. That's only the first phrase, comma. But he wants to take your personal story, put you in a part of the body of Christ, and have you start being a part of the purposeful
story that God has. And you gotta choose it. And if you don't, you miss it. And one without the other, you end up with neither. You end up with this, you end up like the religious leaders. You end up with your idea of religion. You're stuck in your way. You're mad if something goes different.
Or you're like the beggar if he decided to say forget it. Just give me money or leave me alone. You see, the Holy Spirit's power in our life, the relationship in our life is very personal, but it can't be disconnected from the purposeful. Because trying to have the personal at the purposeful, there is no power.
And if you only continue to beg for what you want, you'll miss what you need.
You'll miss what you need. And I think the real heart of this is it comes from we basically have a misunderstanding about who God is.
I'm gonna put a pretty long quote up here, but only read a couple parts of it. It's from AW Tozer, A Knowledge of the Holy. Not a really long book, but thick. And he's talking about the attributes of God. Because you got to look at the attributes of God because it's important because what you think about God determines everything else. That's what he says. His first line is what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains how high or low thoughts got. So if you come and sing to God, but you have the wrong idea about who he is, you're almost doing false worship. And then he goes down to say, I love this part down about halfway through. He says, we tend by a secret law of the soul
to move towards our mental image of God. It's not just true to the individual, but churches as a whole. So meaning when you how we view God is where we start moving.
So think about why we have a hard time in the American church with really being the church and not having the Holy Spirit's power work like this. Because we have a view of God that he's just love and grace and mercy. And his plan for us is all about this personal. This personal fulfillment,
personally. You know that idea of getting personal fulfillment just for you and your own? That doesn't come from the Bible or the view of who God is. That comes from our world around us.
And then we end up with all kinds of weird things. We're like, you know what? I need to embrace this sexuality because that personally fulfills me and it feels good. But God says, no. That's not the right way. But I personally and now we've made it about personal, and if we look at a God that God really wants me to have my personal fulfillment,
you reject the other side. But he also has a purposeful plan. He does. It doesn't they they are not mutually exclusive like we try to make it out to be. He personally cares and loves and brings power, but he wants to do that. But he wants you to live out his purpose.
So when you view God wrong, and you only view one, your whole view turns. And then when you hear someone like me get up and show the scripture that that's not accurate, you gotta make a choice. You're sitting on the ground. You wanna take Jesus' hand and trust him, or do you wanna just find out a reason to be mad at me?
That's what faith is. And like I said, if if if if you view God wrong, you're gonna view how you should live wrong, you're gonna view yourself wrong, and you're gonna get it all wrong. And so it comes back to who God is, And he's personal but purposeful in what he's doing in our lives.
And if we don't get it, we'll get off key. We'll be like like my my son. He you'll be like my son. I just said all off key and messed up. That's not what I meant. Well, maybe a little, but no. Just kidding. He
he's been married a couple years, and he's been in a job where he's been going out of town a lot. So when he came back, he wanted he's only here for a few days. So he's like, we're gonna get away. And then they told us what they're gonna do, and I'm like, wow. You guys are 24 years old. You pick the oldest of old people thing to do. They went up to Sedona and I think they walked around and looked at antique shops.
And then they did a whole day. They they they booked booked passage. That's even old timey the way I said it. On the Verde Valley Railway, the train ride. And here's why I know that is an old person thing to do because my wife and I are jealous that that's what they did. So I know it's an old person thing.
And and and they took a picture of them standing in line. It's them as 24 year olds, and everybody else in line looks like they're at least my age or older. Mostly older. And and and
and but what's so funny is they sent me another picture of my daughter-in-law. She says, Jaden just found out that they get a meal on the train. He is so excited. And then they took a picture. I'm sitting here with the food. He's like, I mean you have the window and the beautiful scenery. He's like, so excited to eat.
And I'm like, you know what? The meal is a bonus. The meal is necessary. The meal is a need. The meal is something you personally you know wanted. But that's not the point of the train ride is it? The point of the train ride is to see the train. The added bonus is the food.
What if you make it about the food and not the ride? That's what what what what this this beggar, this guy on the ground would have said if he says, no, I just want the money.
I don't want the ride. I don't wanna leap. I don't wanna get on the train. I don't wanna go into the purpose of God. I just want what I want, and I want God to give it to me. But what we want is often not what we need. Could you imagine if
my son decided I want the food more than I want the train ride, and he just stayed on the train, got the food and sat there, and and and and then ate it. And then the next time he's hungry he keeps waiting for another train to come by and begging, hey give me another one of those meals. Can you give me And then like well what are you talking about? I'm barely making it here man. I'm stuck in this danky train depot.
I'm just sitting here doing nothing. Seems like my life's not gonna the least you could do is give me a meal. And that's what many of us are doing right now. You're living meal to meal,
moment to moment, crisis to crisis. Going, God, here's what I need. God, give me this. God, give me that. And the reason you're living that way is you don't just get on the train. Take Jesus' hand, and not just for that personal, but get on the purpose train. You know why? What they saw on the train is the
train that God wants his purpose will take us and we will see things we'll never see. We'll get the heights we never see. Yeah, of course. It's the Birdie Valley. You go through valleys too. You go through tough times, but you'll be on this train powered by the Holy Spirit.
A train that's empowered and lived through the context of the body of Christ. We are united together. We are hooked together. We are doing this together. Empowered by that incredible engine called the Holy Spirit.
Do you just want the meal,
or you want the train ride? That's the choice. But it starts. It does start with the personal part. You see if you if you try to try to purpose your way into a personal thing, it doesn't work. You gotta do it in this order. Personal trust, the personal relationship with God, accept his love.
And then from that love you engage in the purposeful part doesn't work the other way around. It doesn't work one without the other. That's the gospel. This whole story is the gospel. So I just want to close I want to pray with some of you
and and and and and I believe of you gonna join the over a hundred and fifty hundred and sixty some odd people have already done it. I'm gonna give you a chance to reach your arm up and take Jesus' hand and become a Christian.
What it really means to be born again because that's where it starts because when when I put my faith in Christ, that's when you get the Holy Spirit.
And I believe there's some of us in this room just like a couple 100 people you've been coming to church a long time and you've never actually surrendered your life to Jesus. You're trying to just be a good person. And so I just want to simply explain.
This story is a picture of the gospel. I want to explain what it means. How do you know Jesus and why? And it goes back to that quote I did with with Tozer
that how you see God just everything and God has attributes and you have to look at him for who he is. And so the problem is some of us think knowing Jesus just oh, yeah, he died because he loves me and it's all about me, but you understand but some people are like, don't get it. Why why Jesus? Why is Jesus the only way And why did he have to die? Why did God have to die? God's son had to die. That sounds like a a cruel god. No. It's a consistent god.
Because here is the gospel in a nutshell, the most simplest way in how to explain it. God is consistent. So, yes, god is love. God is grace. God is mercy. And God look at me and God loves you more than you even know how to love yourself. 100% true. But here's the other problem. God is the author of all life that Peter said.
God is holy. God is righteous. God is just, and God is the creator and author of all things. He is the first and last. He's the alpha and omega. He
is the king of kings. He is the lord of lords. He is the one that made us. He's God. We are not. He has been here. He's always been here. He knows every in and out. He knows what's up, and he declares the purpose and order of things that exist, not us. And he says very clearly,
I will bring my righteous justice on all sin and on all rebellion, and I am a consistent God, and all sin will be dealt with. And here's the problem. We as humans can't understand, so we either run to one of those gods or the other. But the problem is God is both and at all times,
And that's what makes him so awesome. He is bigger than us. He understands things better than us. He can be consistent. And that's why the cross. Because at the cross, God
put down his holy righteous justice. He said, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Meaning if you wanna earn a spot besides God in his presence, you have to be perfect. And there is no one perfect. Scripture is very clear. All you gotta do is walk around and you know no one's perfect.
So we have a problem because according to scripture, God's gonna judge that. He will bring absolute justice. You will stand before a holy God and you will answer for what you did with what he gave you, what you did with your relationship with him. You will answer for all your sin and all your rebellion.
And it and it says really clearly,
the punishment is death, meaning you're separated from God. Hell's a real place, but it's not where demons torture you. It's where God says, alright. You've always wanted to live without me. You've done your thing without me. You wanted to be God on your own. You get what you wanted. You're gonna absolutely live in a world created where there is no me, no not even the holy spirit, not even the indirect blessing of my creation. It's just all your own selfish you. Have fun with that.
Or you can have what I really built you for.
The problem is we can't earn it. So God himself took on the nature of men, the incarnation in the flesh because he is God alone. He lived that perfect life. He never sinned.
And so then he got on the cross and took all of our sins. You realize the punishment in the cross was deeper than just him getting nailed to something and dying. We cried out to the father. It's like he literally took on on his soul all of our guilt.
Can you imagine feeling all of the remorse guilt and shame of every human being that's ever existed? That's worse than the physical thing he went through.
And then he rose from the dead beating and said it's finished. In other words, Jesus going to the cross was a consistent God. He judged sin. He stayed holy. He stayed righteous, and he dealt with it. But at the same time, by dealing taking it on himself, He was able to love us, rescue us, show mercy to us,
and give grace to us. And the only way you're going to start this journey is you have got to confess that you are a sinner sitting under the judgment of a holy righteous God. But then embrace the fact that that holy righteous God also is perfectly loving
and did exactly what he needed to save you and you need to accept that love and that Grace and profess him as your savior and Lord. That's what's different than any other religion you've heard and a lot of churches that put Jesus on their title outside.
They make it about what you do. It's about what Jesus did. And then what we do should be a response to that love as we trust the Holy Spirit. It's not what saves us.
Have you done that? So I just want to pray and give you a chance and some people online maybe too. So let's pray, close your eyes. What I'm gonna ask is to do the same thing that Peter asked of this man. I want you to put your arm up to reach up to say Jesus, help me.
So before I pray, if you're if you wanna pray this, hold your already see hands up. Just put your hand up. Just hold them up. Keep them up while we pray. It's awesome. See all those hands around the room. Don't be afraid.
You always want to see the power of the Holy Spirit. You want to see the love of God. This is that moment. You realize right now if you haven't done this and you're in this room, God loved you enough that before time existed in his power. He made sure you were sitting here right now to hear this. That
is the incredible love and power of God. Embrace it. If that's you with your hands up, let's just pray something like this, but make it your own prayer between you and God. Just pray dear Jesus. Thank you. Thank you that you love me even though I am a sinner
who sits under your judgment and wrath because of my sin. I'm not holy. I'm not perfect. But because of your love and your grace, you came down live that life. You died on the cross for me and then rose from the dead to give me a life I could never earn.
So right now in the best way I know how I want to turn from my sin. I want to turn to you and declare you as my Savior declare you as my Lord. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the kingdom and thank you for giving me your Holy Spirit as I put my faith in you
help me to learn to live in that power and to live from that love each and every day moving forward. Pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.