SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna jump into God's Word today.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, you can turn with me to the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're turning there, this is a reminder for all for some of us that we have we are in the middle of summer strong right now, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And what is summer strong?
SPEAKER_00: This is our initiative for the summer to make sure we don't take steps backwards in our walk with God during the summer.
SPEAKER_00: We're taking steps forward in our walk with God.
SPEAKER_00: In every way, honestly, spiritually, emotionally, physically, every way, we want at the end of this summer, we have moved forward.
SPEAKER_00: If your marriage is like, oh, it's kind of out of five, by the end of the summer, I pray that it's at a seven.
SPEAKER_00: It's at an eight.
SPEAKER_00: It's moved forward.
SPEAKER_00: In your thought life, things aren't where you want them to be.
SPEAKER_00: By the end of the summer, I'm believing that God is going to take you forward, but this doesn't happen just by osmosis.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be intentional with this.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we have Summer Strong.
SPEAKER_00: So during the month of June, we were walking through the book of Joshua, and all the messages were from Joshua.
SPEAKER_00: This month, we're walking through the book of Acts, and all the messages will be from Acts.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what I want you reading during the week.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I want you reading your Bible during the week.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you just waiting for me to preach for you to open your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be reading this and opening it.
SPEAKER_00: And as you do this throughout the week, you'll find that as you read the Bible, it reads you.
SPEAKER_00: That your heart gets opened and some things begin to click and you see some things you hadn't seen before.
SPEAKER_00: So this is very intentional for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we have these summer parties as well.
SPEAKER_00: Who's been a part of a summer party already?
SPEAKER_00: I know I have.
SPEAKER_00: If you have not been a part of a summer party, you're like, what is a summer party?
SPEAKER_00: It is a summer party.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And my aim is by the end of the summer, every person in our church has been invited to or has attended a summer party.
SPEAKER_00: I want you walking through the hallways and even friends online.
SPEAKER_00: We've got summer parties happening for our online family too.
SPEAKER_00: It's been remarkable to hear everywhere from Buffalo, New York, to Washington State to Florida.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Arizona, it's been all over.
SPEAKER_00: We've been seeing uh people gathering uh together and sometimes over Zoom.
SPEAKER_00: So we're doing this uh online as well.
SPEAKER_00: But for everyone in our church, when you're walking through the hallways, I don't want you walking with your head down or just on your phone.
SPEAKER_00: I want your head up.
SPEAKER_00: Find out who you're gonna bump into, who's next to you in the cafe, who who are you picking your kids up with, and be like, hey, have you gone to a summer party yet?
SPEAKER_00: Me either.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do one and then invite a bunch of other people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make sure we're a church family that does not just sit shoulder to shoulder, but also face to face, and we know each other, all right?
SPEAKER_00: So that is the dream for the summer.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're in this book of Acts and uh for the month of July.
SPEAKER_00: And I did some study trying to figure out where the name of this book came from.
SPEAKER_00: How did it get the name, the Acts of the Apostles?
SPEAKER_00: And uh as I was doing some study, and I will not get into all the details of this, uh, I discovered that this name has really been the name of the book the entire time.
SPEAKER_00: It's always been the acts of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: It was never a book called The Comforts of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: It was never a book called The Safety of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: It was never a book called The Convenience of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: It's always been called Acts, a doing book, a moving book.
SPEAKER_00: It was a verb book.
SPEAKER_00: It was giving and praying and and serving and loving and sacrificing and worshiping, and it was it was forgiving, it was it was all a healing, it was always a doing book.
SPEAKER_00: It's never been a book that's like, hey, just sit and wait.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said sit and wait, but his design behind the sitting and waiting for the promised Holy Spirit was so that they would go and get.
SPEAKER_00: We had a fantastic leadership meeting this past Wednesday night at our Dallas campus and our Frisco campus, too.
SPEAKER_00: It's about to happen at our San Antonio campus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Oak Cliff Bishop Arts family was here at our Dallas campus, and it was remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: The room was filled with so much anticipation and faith.
SPEAKER_00: These servant leaders of this church, the serve team, showed up in force, and we said this on Wednesday night, and I'm saying it here today.
SPEAKER_00: We as a church, Shoreline City, we do not just sit and wait.
SPEAKER_00: We go and get.
SPEAKER_00: Shoreline City, we do not just sit and wait, we go and get.
SPEAKER_00: We do not just sit and wait, we we do not just sit and wait, we we go and get.
SPEAKER_00: That's the type of church we are.
SPEAKER_00: We're an acts church.
SPEAKER_00: We're a church that's believing that God can do things through us, not just for us, but also through us.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, God wants to do some things for us, but if God never did another thing for us, He has done enough in every single one of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He has been utterly faithful.
SPEAKER_00: If you even have the ability to hear this message right now, your life is better than a whole lot of other people.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God has carried you and carried me and sustained us and brought us all the way to this point.
SPEAKER_00: And since that's the case, we're not gonna dumb down Christianity to somehow make it something that is just about me and my walk with God, and that's it.
SPEAKER_00: That is not it, it was never designed to be it.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, God cares for you and God loves you and wants an intimate, deep connection with you.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, He does, but there is something in the water, there is something in TikTok and Instagram and YouTube that is trying to dumb down the body of Christ, to make the body of Christ think.
SPEAKER_00: I just sit here in my prayer closet, and it's just me and the Lord, and I'll take off my shoes and I just walk with Jesus, and then you don't do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, get off of your behind.
SPEAKER_00: You have been called to go and get.
SPEAKER_00: I have my prayer times, I take off my shoes, I'm on my knees, I lift my hands, I have my Bible, I have my journal, I love my intimate time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But if my time with the Lord does not impact my relationship with my wife, then I'm not doing it right because it cannot just be I'm good with God, but everybody else around me doesn't want to be around me.
SPEAKER_00: I need us to be a people that are so filled with the Spirit of God that it spills onto everybody that we're around.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did say, Yeah, go sit and wait.
SPEAKER_00: He did.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot get around that, but what was the purpose?
SPEAKER_00: The purpose was so that you can be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends in Samaria and to the ends of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just sit and wait, we go and get.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want us being lulled to sleep by the culture of today.
SPEAKER_00: It's not who we are.
SPEAKER_00: Acts, acts of the apostles, not the comfort and blessings of the apostles, not the not the safety and protection of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: I'm all for safety and protection.
SPEAKER_00: I pray it, I pray it for you, I pray for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: But they were not praying prayers.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at this later.
SPEAKER_00: That God just make me safe.
SPEAKER_00: And if our prayers are just about being safe, then we're missing it.
SPEAKER_00: When we uh first started the church, uh you can put these on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: These are 12 stones.
SPEAKER_00: These 12 stones are like the 12 core values of Shoreline City.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been through Join, you've heard these, or you've seen them, or maybe been on the website, uh, you'll you'll see these.
SPEAKER_00: I remember uh sitting in when we first moved to Dallas and praying through, it was before the church launched, and I was just like, Lord, you know what what are our values?
SPEAKER_00: What what are our boundaries?
SPEAKER_00: What's the culture of our church?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want it to be?
SPEAKER_00: And I wrestled through so many things, and there was no chat GPT to make it up for me.
SPEAKER_00: This was on my knees crying out to God, asking him, What did you want it to be?
SPEAKER_00: I remember the day that these 12 things, they just boom, dropped in me.
SPEAKER_00: They came to me like a songwriter would get a song.
SPEAKER_00: They just came to me.
SPEAKER_00: We preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We love people, we protect unity.
SPEAKER_00: You go all the way through all of these, every one of them is a verb.
SPEAKER_00: We serve the hurting, we speak to mountains, we see with eyes of hope, we walk in humility, we give honor, we lead like champions.
SPEAKER_00: It was not, we were never designed to be some church that just sits back and has a good little time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We were saying, God, we're on mission to make it on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just sit and wait, we we go and get.
SPEAKER_00: So if you right now have in your mindset that I go to church, Earl gives a good message, and if he's not there, it better be good, then you're falling into some consumerism that our church was never designed to be about, and I don't want our church to be about.
SPEAKER_00: There is no Earl show here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm honored to be the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, for this honor and this privilege.
SPEAKER_00: But this is Jesus' church, and there'll be a day he's coming back and he's gonna ask, How is this church going?
SPEAKER_00: I want to give it back to him and say, Lord, you gave us five pounds.
SPEAKER_00: Now we got ten towns, and it's all for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: This is not my show, it's not your show.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is at the center and on the peripheral of this church family.
SPEAKER_00: So, in order for that to happen, we got to get our minds right.
SPEAKER_00: Acts, Acts, Acts, Acts of the Apostles, not the sitting, chilling, comfort, relaxing, just me and Jesus of the apostles.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: So keep on going.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go, let's go, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even in the Bible yet.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: That's just that's just the title of the book that we're in.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3, verse number one.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read all the way through verse number 11.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't bring your Bible, we're gonna put this the verses on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to bring your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: I love that I've been hearing even more, more, and more, and more Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: It's just good for you.
SPEAKER_00: One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Now a man was lame.
SPEAKER_00: Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.
SPEAKER_00: Peter looked straight at him, as did John.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter said, Look at us.
SPEAKER_00: So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter said, Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have, I give you.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
SPEAKER_00: Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up.
SPEAKER_00: And instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.
SPEAKER_00: He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.
SPEAKER_00: When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
SPEAKER_00: While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade.
SPEAKER_00: If you're taking notes, uh the title of today's message is this just the pull I needed.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the push, but just the pull I needed.
SPEAKER_00: I almost titled it, uh titled this message, pull up.
SPEAKER_00: Pull up.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 3, verse number 7.
SPEAKER_00: You can put that verse on the screen again for me.
SPEAKER_00: I was kind of shocked by this detail that I had don't think I'd noticed before.
SPEAKER_00: And the detail is there is this man who is at the temple gate called beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: He's outside of the church and he's begging.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking for money.
SPEAKER_00: He can't work, he's not able-bodied, and in this day, he's on the peripheral.
SPEAKER_00: So he's asking for money because he recognizes that a lot of people will be walking by this spot.
SPEAKER_00: He's sitting there asking for money, and Peter and John walk up because they're going to church at three in the afternoon, real holy.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to church, and when they're on their way to church, they see this man.
SPEAKER_00: This man asked them for this money.
SPEAKER_00: Peter and John are like, we don't have any money.
SPEAKER_00: We got something else.
SPEAKER_00: I got Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now in our day, we're like, oh, I got Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's like, no, I got Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: I did not notice this before.
SPEAKER_00: The man does not get up.
SPEAKER_00: I thought he jumped to his feet.
SPEAKER_00: I thought he I saw him running and praising and dancing.
SPEAKER_00: I saw that he did that, so I assumed that after Peter said that, the man immediately did it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what happened.
SPEAKER_00: But verse 7 on there again for me.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 tells us after Peter has said this to him, he takes the man by the right hand and helps him up.
SPEAKER_00: Pulls him up.
SPEAKER_00: Wait.
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me he's healed but still sitting?
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me that he's received the word of the Lord, but he's still sitting?
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me that the man is whole, but he's still sitting?
SPEAKER_00: So then Peter goes, Hey, we already know that you're whole.
SPEAKER_00: Let me help you up.
SPEAKER_00: And he pulls this man up.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about us.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us are whole?
SPEAKER_00: Healed, saved, still sitting.
SPEAKER_00: How many thousands in balconies and online and on the floor and at our locations?
SPEAKER_00: You've met you've met the risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He's impacted your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He's impacted your soul.
SPEAKER_00: And you're still sitting.
SPEAKER_00: That you have the call of God on your life, anointed.
SPEAKER_00: He knows you by name, but you're still sitting.
SPEAKER_00: That you have been formed and born for such a time as this.
SPEAKER_00: And even though you've been through so much hell, God has still brought you all the way to this moment.
SPEAKER_00: And you're still sitting.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it takes a Sunday morning, a random day, because this man did not know on this day his life was going to change forever.
SPEAKER_00: It was another day for him just to go to church.
SPEAKER_00: But on this day, everything changed for him.
SPEAKER_00: And I was praying for us yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, God, I know there are people coming and they're just coming, and they just think it's gonna be another Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, Lord, if you would, by the power of Jesus Christ, grab a hold of some people and get them from their seated position up to dancing and walking and praising God in a way that they never have before.
SPEAKER_00: And it might not be through a microphone with me, it might be through a hallway conversation, it might be in bigs or in littles, it might be something you hear from a friend, it might not be me, but in some way I am praying today that today is the day you are taken by the hand and you get up from your seated position and begin to walk how Jesus called you to walk.
SPEAKER_00: This man right here, he only knows sitting.
SPEAKER_00: For 40 years, you can read this in Acts chapter 4 later.
SPEAKER_00: For 40 years, this man has been like this.
SPEAKER_00: He has been in a pattern, a system, a rhythm of sitting.
SPEAKER_00: This is all he knows.
SPEAKER_00: So God has to send someone to go, hey, hey, let me help you out.
SPEAKER_00: Come here, let me help you out.
SPEAKER_00: I've never done this before.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I've never been I've never been a husband that honors God.
SPEAKER_00: I got you.
SPEAKER_00: I've never been a wife that that honors God and honors her husband.
SPEAKER_00: I never come on, that's all right, come on.
SPEAKER_00: I've never been a single person that that put God first uh in his life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that life.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, I got you.
SPEAKER_00: I got I'm I've never been a business leader that that has God like in the middle of my business, it was always kind of separate from me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: I got you, I got you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me help you up.
SPEAKER_00: I I only know pornography, I only know being bound, I only know the shame, I only know that guilt.
SPEAKER_00: I only know that brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus has touched you and has saved you, come on, let me help you get up.
SPEAKER_00: Let me help you get up.
SPEAKER_00: Let me help you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm right here, I'm right here, come on, I'm right here.
SPEAKER_00: This is church, this is church.
SPEAKER_00: We don't shame people that they're seated.
SPEAKER_00: We lift up, we put out our hand and we say, I'm here to help you up.
SPEAKER_00: We don't look down on people because they're seated, we just say that's not who God called you to be.
SPEAKER_00: Since you have now been touched by the risen Savior, you cannot stay where you are any longer.
SPEAKER_00: Something has to shift in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to help.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to help at a youth camp.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to help as a Kinect group leader, I'm here to help at a summer party, I'm here to help.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let me pull you up.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you play basketball or volleyball or soccer or whatever, and somebody falls down on your team, you go over.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I got you.
SPEAKER_00: Come on up here.
SPEAKER_00: This is the type of church we've been called to be.
SPEAKER_00: Right here.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in our day and age, we want to be dead weight.
SPEAKER_00: You ever take your kids uh and try to like you're trying to discipline them or put them in bed or something like that, and they just go they go limp.
SPEAKER_00: And you're just kind of dragging your child because that that that that dead weight.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, man, we're just like, oh no, no, not me.
SPEAKER_00: God can't pick me.
SPEAKER_00: No, I made too many mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: Not me, not me, not me.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't know that you're actually in a space, in a church, filled with people that have made the worst mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus found us.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let the outfits fool you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let me hold my Bible fool you.
SPEAKER_00: I used to turn up, but God, in his grace and his mercy, he found me.
SPEAKER_00: And there was someone that helped me up.
SPEAKER_00: So now are you gonna be that helper?
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm just letting you know in our church family, we need some more people that are gonna start doing this.
SPEAKER_00: We need some more people gonna start doing this, we need some more people, and then we need more people that'll be willing to go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not okay staying seated.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not okay.
SPEAKER_00: This man, once he is healed and he jumps up and he starts walking, and he's never done this before.
SPEAKER_00: This man now has to deal with a whole nother set of problems he's never had before.
SPEAKER_00: He now has his friends, they only know the old him, not the new him.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just tell you, your old friends will have to get used to the new you.
SPEAKER_00: They will.
SPEAKER_00: They're used to you being who you used to be.
SPEAKER_00: They're not used to the new you, touched by Jesus, changed by Jesus, called by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're not used to that new yet.
SPEAKER_00: That new you yet.
SPEAKER_00: So um when we um I first got married, um first year.
SPEAKER_00: Easy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was easy.
SPEAKER_00: No bumps.
SPEAKER_00: People are like, oh, when you get married, it's gonna be terrible.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we got all these couples getting you know engaged.
SPEAKER_00: Married, and they're like, it's gonna be terrible.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not, it was beautiful, smooth.
SPEAKER_00: Second year, smooth.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, it was smooth.
SPEAKER_00: Third year, got a little bit bumpy.
SPEAKER_00: And it got bumpy because I got an opinion.
SPEAKER_00: For the first two and a half, three years of our marriage, I didn't have an opinion.
SPEAKER_00: I literally was, Onika was like, hey, you want to go watch this romantic comedy?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yes.
SPEAKER_00: You want to go eat this?
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
SPEAKER_00: I whatever she wanted to do, I just did.
SPEAKER_00: And then year three, I was like, hey.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not really doing anything that I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And she wasn't against it.
SPEAKER_00: I just never even expressed that I had I wanted to do something different.
SPEAKER_00: So she's like, You want to go see this romantic comedy?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, no.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see something get blown up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I want to see something get punched in the face.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'd like to see.
SPEAKER_00: And so I started having an opinion.
SPEAKER_00: And Onika was doing, did great with, I mean, initially, not so great.
SPEAKER_00: She was like, who is this?
SPEAKER_00: But then she got used to the new me that I had a thought, I had an idea, I had an opinion on some things that I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are 29 years later, still dancing and figuring it out and having fun.
SPEAKER_00: It's been it's been a blast.
SPEAKER_00: She had to get used to that.
SPEAKER_00: So though there will be some people on the outside of your life, some family members, some friends that'll have to get used to the new you.
SPEAKER_00: They will.
SPEAKER_00: But not only will there be some people on the outside that have to get used to the new you, can I say you will have to get used to the new you?
SPEAKER_00: That's your old patterns.
SPEAKER_00: I wrote it down like this, your old patterns will need to learn that there's a new landlord.
SPEAKER_00: There's a new landlord.
SPEAKER_00: And since a house, your life has now been purchased by the finished work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The landlord comes in and goes, Okay, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you have all these people living here?
SPEAKER_00: So that bitterness is gonna have to go.
SPEAKER_00: That unforgiveness is gonna have to go.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I love you, but porn, nope, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, okay, ow.
SPEAKER_00: Selfishness, come on, time to go, time to go.
SPEAKER_00: You doing whatever you want to with how you talk to people.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, gotta change it.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's just me.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, no, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: This is my house.
SPEAKER_00: This is my house now.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to change how you talk to people, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because life and death is in the power of your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Someone needed to uh change how you talk to people now.
SPEAKER_00: Now you're representing me, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're not representing you anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Your old patterns were used to your feelings and your emotions deciding what you do and when you do it.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, the new landlord comes in and Jesus says, I'm running this house, I love you, and I'm going to make sure this place is taken care of, but you cannot just do whatever you want to do anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a problem with this new house is that the enemy still knows your address.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So he he pulls up in the front of the house.
SPEAKER_00: Dose out the out the window.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go! You're like, uh no.
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe there's a part of you that wants to go out.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and send out the landlord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jesus Jesus stands on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Says, Enemy, this house no longer belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: This house belongs to me.
SPEAKER_00: You just keep on rolling.
SPEAKER_00: Get to stepping.
SPEAKER_00: Keep on rolling.
SPEAKER_00: This does not belong to you any longer.
SPEAKER_00: So this man who has only known this state of sitting for all these years now has to get used to a new life and a new way of life.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's interesting that Peter and John, but Peter specifically is the one that sees him because Peter understands a new way of life.
SPEAKER_00: Peter understands what it is like to be one thing and to become something else.
SPEAKER_00: He understands this.
SPEAKER_00: Peter does not exactly know what it's like to be lame, meaning physically, the Bible never tells us that he knows that struggle or that pain or that difficulty or that way of life.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible does make it really, really clear to us that Peter, even though he does not know maybe the broken body, he knows the broken spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Peter knows what it's like to sit down on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me in Luke, chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: Luke twenty-two.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number sixty.
SPEAKER_00: Luke twenty-two, verse sixty.
SPEAKER_00: Peter replied, Man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 61.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him.
SPEAKER_00: Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 62.
SPEAKER_00: And he went outside and wept bitterly.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to one of my friends and he said, uh I didn't realize that Peter and Jesus had caught eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Peter has been a follower of Jesus for these three years.
SPEAKER_00: And he Peter says to Jesus, I'm with you no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: He said that to him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: I've got your back.
SPEAKER_00: We're in this together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm your ride or die.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looks at him and says, Peter, just so you know, you're gonna deny me.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna do it three times.
SPEAKER_00: Before the rooster even crosses, three times, you're gonna deny me.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: Not me.
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then in this verse we see that Peter can't keep his promise.
SPEAKER_00: And after he denies Christ, he likes it.
SPEAKER_00: He remembers he went out anyway, literally.
SPEAKER_00: I never saw this coming.
SPEAKER_00: There's no way.
SPEAKER_00: How can this be me?
SPEAKER_00: And he's weeping uncontrollably.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter, in this moment, he can still stand physically, but internally he sat down.
SPEAKER_00: I know there are some men in our church who internally you sat down.
SPEAKER_00: There's some women in our church internally, you've sat down.
SPEAKER_00: On the outside, it looks good.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone looking at Peter will be like, oh man, he's back to fishing.
SPEAKER_00: I guess it's everything is good.
SPEAKER_00: It was not good.
SPEAKER_00: He was sitting down on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: And then when the resurrection happens and the angel talks to the disciples that are there, they say, Hey, go go tell all the disciples and Peter.
SPEAKER_00: This is in Mark chapter 16, verse number 7.
SPEAKER_00: Here is Jesus beginning the process to restore Peter, to let Peter know, even though you're sitting down on the inside right now, I'm about to help you up to become the man that you've been called to be.
SPEAKER_00: And not only does Jesus help this man back up, Jesus then fills this man with the Holy Spirit, and not only fills him with the Holy Spirit, then he picks Peter to be the one on the day of Pentecost, to stand up in Acts chapter 2 and to preach a message that what you're hearing, we're not drunk.
SPEAKER_00: It's only three in the morning, nine in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: If it was later, maybe we wouldn't be drunk.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, we're not drunk, it's only nine in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.
SPEAKER_00: In the last days, I will pour out my spirit on everybody, and three thousand people get saved in one day, and God uses Peter.
SPEAKER_00: So now Peter is looking at this guy and he goes, You're just expecting money.
SPEAKER_00: I was just expecting maybe to be pushed away, but Jesus exceeded my expectations, and just like he exceeded my expectations, he can exceed your expectations too.
SPEAKER_00: You want just money?
SPEAKER_00: I got something better for you.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk, and I'll help you.
SPEAKER_00: So now, now Peter is saying to him, if Jesus can do this for me, he can do this for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the ploys of the devil to try to get you to be so church-hurt, so offended, so bitter, so busy, that you begin to drift from community.
SPEAKER_00: And as you and I drift from community, now we don't get to hear the stories about what Jesus is doing in somebody else's life.
SPEAKER_00: But it's when you're in community, when you have a place to be able to take off your mask, where you have a place to be real, where you have a place where somebody's gonna have your back, where you have a place where you can be honest with your struggles, where you have a place that you're trying to figure out what it is to be married, but you got a one marriage class to get to go through, or a pre-marriage class to go to, or a connect group to go to, or a summer party to go to, or team to serve on.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the context of community that you and I begin to realize, oh my goodness, you used to be who, and now you're where?
SPEAKER_00: You grew up where and you're doing what?
SPEAKER_00: You went to what school?
SPEAKER_00: Man, God, you just took the lid off of my life because I saw what you did in them.
SPEAKER_00: Man, maybe you can do that in me too.
SPEAKER_00: Here's go back to Acts with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna try to end on time here.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3, verse number 11.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, while the man, Acts chapter 3, verse number 11, while the man held on to Peter and John.
SPEAKER_00: While the man held on to Peter and John.
SPEAKER_00: So he's told he's healed, he doesn't get up immediately, he's held up.
SPEAKER_00: Once he's held up, now he starts dancing and running on his own, and they come into church, but he's still holding on to Peter and John.
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
SPEAKER_00: I like that he's staying close.
SPEAKER_00: I like that there's still a connection.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there was a day uh when if you wanted directions someplace, there was no GPS whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And you it's 50-50 if you're gonna get lost or not.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of depended on you know the person who's giving you directions.
SPEAKER_00: Because they were like, uh, you didn't tell me about the stop sign.
SPEAKER_00: I you didn't tell me it was a second right, you just told me right.
SPEAKER_00: So there was a day that you did not know where to go.
SPEAKER_00: Now you know where to go.
SPEAKER_00: The GPS tells you yellow, a little bit of traffic, red, a whole bunch of traffic.
SPEAKER_00: So GPS, unless it's construction, and then it does not know what it's saying at that point in time.
SPEAKER_00: But if there's no construction, GPS is gonna get you where you need to go.
SPEAKER_00: Um, in an airport, I was just in an airport a couple weeks ago, and um there is no GPS in the airport.
SPEAKER_00: There's only those directory signs, and you gotta ask somebody for directions.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard about this uh restaurant, this fast food chain called Bojangles, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Well, I want I want to try this.
SPEAKER_00: They said the biscuits hit, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, let's go.
unknown: Jangles.
SPEAKER_00: Jangles, Bo Jangles, Jangles, Jangles, Bo Jangles, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Jangles, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, chill.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all got an opinion.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so bo jangles.
SPEAKER_00: And I I I see I'm gonna I go to look at the directory, and uh then a worker from the airport was coming by, and I was like, Well, sir, where is Bo Jangles?
SPEAKER_00: Where where is that?
SPEAKER_00: I I heard the biscuits hit, and he goes, Oh, yeah, that way.
SPEAKER_00: I go, thank you, sir.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: And I start walking, and I'm walking, and I'm walking, and I'm walking, and I'm walking.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is not right, it doesn't feel right.
SPEAKER_00: Then I checked the directory and I asked somebody else, come to find out, it's the exact opposite direction.
SPEAKER_00: This guy sent me the total wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I can't stand that guy.
SPEAKER_00: And no, God bless him.
SPEAKER_00: So I probably asked the wrong question.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just put that on me.
SPEAKER_00: So I start going back and I got the biscuit, and it was it was good.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but my my direction was totally determined by who I was listening to.
SPEAKER_00: It was all based on who did I talk to and which direction did they send me?
SPEAKER_00: Some of our marriages right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's bad, not just because like you don't know what to do, it's because you got directions from somebody, and they said, go that way.
SPEAKER_00: And you thought, okay, and you're following the picture of the housewives of whatever, and you're like, man, it's not working.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not gonna work because that's not the way to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us in our single life, the directions that you're getting, you're like, okay, let me scroll, scroll, okay, yeah, okay, yep, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Wear that, okay, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's not right.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you get a man.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you no no no no no.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you don't need you don't need the puffy lips or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need that.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be a woman of God that knows who her worth and value in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, don't get too quiet on me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, you're you're you're you're getting your directions from somebody that's trying to take you away that God's not calling you to go with your money.
SPEAKER_00: You're getting directions from they're trying to take you another direction.
SPEAKER_00: Your thought life.
SPEAKER_00: I can go down the line.
SPEAKER_00: Where who told you to go that way?
SPEAKER_00: Who told you to go that way?
SPEAKER_00: And if you kind of trace it back, you go, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I got wrong directions.
SPEAKER_00: And then here we are.
SPEAKER_00: This man is going.
SPEAKER_00: I'm learning how to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Let me hold on to Peter and John.
SPEAKER_00: Where they go, I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: The direction they're leaning, I'm leaning.
SPEAKER_00: How they how they serve, I'll serve.
SPEAKER_00: How they're giving, I'm gonna give.
SPEAKER_00: How they're trusting God, I'm gonna trust God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the beautiful piece of community and discipleship and relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be all done here with this last verse.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to read this prayer that I just thought was so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Holy Spirit inspired it to be in the Bible, so it's obviously good.
SPEAKER_00: They've been through so many ups and downs.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, in uh Acts chapter 4, verse number 23.
SPEAKER_00: It says, on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
SPEAKER_00: When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
SPEAKER_00: Sovereign Lord, they said, You made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.
SPEAKER_00: They're now praying together.
SPEAKER_00: They're praying.
SPEAKER_00: You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David.
SPEAKER_00: Why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain?
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in the city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
SPEAKER_00: They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
SPEAKER_00: Wish I had time to preach that.
SPEAKER_00: But verse 29, look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: After they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to end on that.
SPEAKER_00: Because again, we don't just sit and wait.
SPEAKER_00: We we go and get when they are faced with threats and beatings and intimidation, they are not praying, God, keep us safe and protected.
SPEAKER_00: They are saying, God, we get their threats, but now would you grant unto your service that with all boldness we may preach your word, stretch forth your hand and heal, heal marriages, and heal teenagers, and heal single people and older people.
SPEAKER_00: God, work miracles through us.
SPEAKER_00: And as they were praying that, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm praying over your lines, city.
SPEAKER_00: I am praying that our place would be shaken, and every one of us would be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be, Lord, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: If you wouldn't mind at every location, bow your head just for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Bow your heads, and you can close your eyes if you want to.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm just asking that you would have your way in all of us.
SPEAKER_00: We surrender to you afresh and anew.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us got stuck in our sitting.
SPEAKER_00: Would today be the day by the Spirit of God you help us up?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us up today?
SPEAKER_00: I come against every lie that is telling a person right now what's being said is for everyone else, but it's not for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's for everyone else's marriage, but not yours.
SPEAKER_00: It's for everybody else's single life, but not yours.
SPEAKER_00: It's for everybody else's purpose, but not yours.
SPEAKER_00: You've messed up too much, you've made too many mistakes, you've known better.
SPEAKER_00: Just sit.
SPEAKER_00: Come against that lie in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, God, today there would be an eviction.
SPEAKER_00: I pray you begin to take the things out, kick the things out that need to be kicked out.
SPEAKER_00: I ask for a cleansing of the house.
SPEAKER_00: May we as your sons and daughters be who you called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: As your heads are bowed, if you're under the sound of my voice and you've never given your heart and your life to Christ, you're on the balcony, the floor, you're online right now, you're saying, I've never given my heart and my life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe there was a time you did, but you slipped away and you've gone another direction.
SPEAKER_00: And today you're saying, I don't want to go my own way, I want to go the way of Christ on the count of three.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do something simple but bold.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to throw your hand in the air and say, Yes, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give my heart and my life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Ready?
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three.
SPEAKER_00: Just throw your hand up.
SPEAKER_00: This is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Friends in the balcony on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: I know we got friends online just saying, Yeah, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give my heart and my life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make him first.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make him number one.
SPEAKER_00: It's the best miracle, the greatest miracle.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask everyone to do me a favor, put your hand over your heart if you would not mind.
SPEAKER_00: And when everyone repeat this prayer out loud after me, say, Dear Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I admit I've made mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: And today, I give you my heart, I give you my life.
SPEAKER_00: Give me the power to live for you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: Can we lift our heads up and clap?