SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is the day that the Lord has made.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to rejoice in it and be glad.
SPEAKER_00: What a great and wonderful privilege it is to be gathered together with you in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor, let me say publicly what I've already shared with you privately.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the sacred trust.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my friends, we got a long way to go in a short time to get there.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your copy of God's word, will you join me in Acts chapter 3?
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3 is where we will spend our time.
SPEAKER_00: I understand you have spent some significant time in prayer over the last few weeks and months.
SPEAKER_00: And so my prayer is that God would kind of culminate and bring all of your efforts together that he might receive the glory.
SPEAKER_00: It's always my custom to invite the people of God to stand for the reading of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're physically able to do so and don't mind doing so, will you join me as we reverence the reading of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 3, you'll find these words recorded.
SPEAKER_00: Now Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
SPEAKER_00: And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Who seeing Peter and John about to enter the temple asked for alms, and fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, Look at us.
SPEAKER_00: So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter said, Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: Then he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
SPEAKER_00: So he, leaping up, stood and walked, and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And they were all filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The second verse says, And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried and laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered the temple.
SPEAKER_00: I simply want to use as a thought and title that will shape our exchange this morning: Ministry Beyond the Gates.
SPEAKER_00: Ministry Beyond the Gate.
SPEAKER_00: Our world is filled with ugly sights.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, all you have to do is turn on your television, walk out your front door, and staring you in the face is this ugly reality.
SPEAKER_00: Our world is an ugly place.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like every time we think we've reached the bottom and it can't get any worse, lo and behold, ugliness raises its head and we get even uglier.
SPEAKER_00: Our world is an ugly place.
SPEAKER_00: And yet within the church, there seems to be an overwhelming emphasis that rather than address the ugliness, we spend our time, our energy, and our resources fortifying and beautifying our gates.
SPEAKER_00: And I stop by here on my way to heaven just to encourage and to remind you and even myself that God is not impressed.
SPEAKER_00: God is not impressed with the beauty and expanse of our beautiful gates.
SPEAKER_00: God is concerned with the ugliness that's just outside these beautiful gates.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3 is a wonderful story that I read in your hearing.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I recited it in your hearing.
SPEAKER_00: These two men, Pastor Peter and Reverend John, these two men who heard from the lips of Jesus the command in Matthew chapter 28 to go make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And he gave them the promise that he would be with them always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: And in Acts chapter 3, we see these two preacher pastors in partnership with each other.
SPEAKER_00: They were not in competition with each other.
SPEAKER_00: They were not at odds with each other.
SPEAKER_00: They learn a lesson and teach us a lesson that we need to learn, and that is the importance of partnership.
SPEAKER_00: The importance of working together, the importance of joining our energies and our efforts and our resources together, because here is the lesson we can do more together than any of us can do independently.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing to me how many churches actually operate as though they are in competition with the church down the street, or pastors who feel that they are in competition with the pastor down the street.
SPEAKER_00: There's enough lost people to go around to fill all of our churches.
SPEAKER_00: We better learn how to work in partnership.
SPEAKER_00: But not only does Acts chapter 3 teach us the importance of partnership, but they teach us about the priority of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Your Bible says in Acts chapter 3, as the verses uh began, that these two men were on their way to the temple to pray.
SPEAKER_00: They prioritized prayer.
SPEAKER_00: They understood that the assignment that had been given to them was not an assignment that they could accomplish on their own.
SPEAKER_00: So they were partnering together, but they also understood that it was an assignment that they could not accomplish in their own strength.
SPEAKER_00: So these two men prioritized prayer.
SPEAKER_00: May I simply suggest to us that we must prioritize prayer in our individual lives, but also in the corporate setting.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, My house shall be called a house of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer must become the priority in all of our lives individually and all of our lives collectively.
SPEAKER_00: We must prioritize prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we know how to pray when we're in trouble, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We know how to pray when our backs are up against the wall.
SPEAKER_00: We know how to pray when our when we receive the negative diagnosis or the pink slip or things just don't seem to be working the way we think they ought to be working.
SPEAKER_00: But until prayer becomes the priority in each and every one of our lives independently, and we as a church collectively, we will never accomplish all that God desires for us to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: We must learn to prioritize prayer.
SPEAKER_00: But Acts chapter three, there's a third man in the text that often goes unnoticed.
SPEAKER_00: It's that nameless individual in Acts chapter three, verse two.
SPEAKER_00: That nameless, broken, desperate man who rises up this morning and he says to us, Don't forget about me.
SPEAKER_00: So in Acts chapter three, verse two, we see the strategic placement.
SPEAKER_00: This man who every day, your Bible says, was carried and laid outside the gate of the temple to ask or to beg for offerings, for handouts from those who entered and exited the temple.
SPEAKER_00: He was strategically placed outside the beautiful gate of the temple, hoping that those who entered and exited the temple might have mercy on him.
SPEAKER_00: May I suggest to you that the ugliness in your community, could it be that they have been strategically placed by the sovereign hand of God?
SPEAKER_00: That God expects you to be the agent of transformation in their lives?
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that the reason you're dealing with the ugliness of life, could it be that God has so uniquely and sovereigness placed you in close proximity to so much ugliness because God wants to use you to be the agent of transformation in them.
SPEAKER_00: Every day He was placed outside the beautiful gate.
SPEAKER_00: But when you read the text, this man had someone who loved him, someone who cared about him, someone who was so concerned about him that every day they strategically placed him outside the beautiful gate of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
SPEAKER_00: Every day he was outside the gate of the temple asking for handouts.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, it is imperative that you and I seize the opportunities that God gives to us daily.
SPEAKER_00: Because God grants us ministry opportunities on a daily basis, but many of us are missing our ministry opportunities because we don't see them as ministry opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: And we must see them as ministry opportunities and we must seize them as ministry opportunities that God, in his sovereignty, have placed you in proximity of so much ugliness because God is giving you an opportunity to be an agent of transformation in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: All I know is that every day he was there, and every day they were there.
SPEAKER_00: And on this particular day, he sees Peter and John on their way to prayer meeting as was their custom.
SPEAKER_00: And this day he asked them for a benevolent offering.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really plan on saying this, but you have to understand, these are the preacher pastors, these are the leaders of the church, these men who are leading the people of God, but sometimes even the pastor-preacher fails to see the ministry opportunities that are outside the beautiful gates, because unfortunately, far too many times the preacher-pastors are overwhelmed meeting the needs of those inside the beautiful gate.
SPEAKER_00: Because those inside the beautiful gates, they say things like this we called you.
SPEAKER_00: We pay your salary.
SPEAKER_00: We expect you to preach to us.
SPEAKER_00: We expect you to minister to us.
SPEAKER_00: We expect you to marry our children and bury our loved ones.
SPEAKER_00: We expect you to visit us in the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not careful, inside the beautiful gate will become so overwhelming to even preach your pastors that they meet the needs inside the gates but fail to do ministry beyond the beautiful gates.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I stop by here not to inform or not to not to not to not to insult anybody, but really to insult everybody.
SPEAKER_00: When I say God is not impressed with the beauty of these gates, because just outside them, ugliness is running rampant.
SPEAKER_00: And we must seize the ministry opportunities that God gives to us on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: But I've got to hurry up because that's not where it ends.
SPEAKER_00: He sees Peter and John on their way into the temple and he asks from them a handout.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps for the very first time they saw him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they saw him, but today they saw him.
SPEAKER_00: Because your Bible says Peter fixes his eyes on him, he locks eyes on him, and perhaps for the very first time, even the preacher-pastor actually saw the man beyond the condition.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes if you're like me, you see the ugliness, but you don't really see it.
SPEAKER_00: Or you pretend like you don't see it, but today Peter sees him.
SPEAKER_00: This word fixing his eyes, locking eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps for the first time he sees the emalgo day, the image of God, that this man is a man beyond the brokenness, beyond the label, beyond the limit, beyond the brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: Here is somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's loved one, somebody worthy of respect, somebody worthy of honor, somebody worthy of a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: He fixes eyes on him.
SPEAKER_00: And when we begin to see people the way that God sees people, we will be willing to stop and have conversations with you.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to hurry up.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says to him, Look at us.
SPEAKER_00: So here he is.
SPEAKER_00: This broken, desperate, nameless man sits up with expectations.
SPEAKER_00: He's expecting to receive something from them.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter drops that bombshell on him.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, I know what you want, but I don't have what you want.
SPEAKER_00: But even though I don't have what you want, I got what you need.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter teaches us the importance of using what you have.
SPEAKER_00: Peter could have said, Well, since I don't have what you want, I'm not going to give you anything.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter teaches us a very valuable lesson, and that is that if you and I would simply use what we have, then we will discover that what we have is far greater than what we don't have.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter says, I know what you want, but I don't have what you want.
SPEAKER_00: But such as I do have, I give to you.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, it's imperative to recognize that what we have is far greater than what we don't have.
SPEAKER_00: And many of us are sitting on the sidelines of life and ministry and making all these excuses of why we're not doing anything when God is simply saying all you have to do is use what you've got.
SPEAKER_00: And if you would use what you got, then you would discover that what you have far outweighs what you don't have.
SPEAKER_00: It's important to use what you have.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is what Peter says: silver and gold, I do not have.
SPEAKER_00: But what I do have, I give you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that divine conjunction butt?
SPEAKER_00: Conjunction, junction, what's your function?
SPEAKER_00: English 101 teaches us that a conjunction is a qualifier.
SPEAKER_00: It teaches, it connects two independent thoughts together and it qualifies the entirety of the statement.
SPEAKER_00: This particular conjunction is called a canceling conjunction.
SPEAKER_00: Any English teachers in here that would confirm that this particular conjunction is a canceling conjunction, which simply says, whatever's been said, cancel it out, because the essence of the sentence or the statement is really what's coming on the right side of the butt.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter says, silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it might make sense in song.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all sing Amazing Grace?
SPEAKER_00: Where's Mark at?
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all sing amazing grace in a place like this?
SPEAKER_00: It's really right there in song.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing grace.
SPEAKER_00: How sweet the sound that saved the wretch like me.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: I once was lost, but now I'm found.
SPEAKER_00: I was blind, but now I see.
SPEAKER_00: It's the butt that makes the difference.
SPEAKER_00: All the essence of the song is saying that because of God's amazing grace in my life, that God has extended his love toward me that even though I was blind and I was lost, I'm now living on the right side of the butt.
SPEAKER_00: And that may not excite y'all in a place like this, but I'm so excited to be living on the right side of the butt, I almost can't stand myself.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Then Romans 6, 23 follows it up by saying that the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All the apostle is saying that all of us, because we're sinful, all of us because we're separated from God's holiness, deserve the wrath of God's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: But God extended his love toward us, and even that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: The butt makes the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have, I give you.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Rise up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter told that man.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, he teaches us the importance of the proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is proclaiming, he is now declaring to a man who's never walked that walking is possible.
SPEAKER_00: He is now, perhaps for the very first time, telling a man who was carried and laid at the gate of the temple every day that you can live beyond your condition.
SPEAKER_00: You can live beyond your predicament.
SPEAKER_00: You can live beyond your limits and your labels and your brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, we call it evangelism because you and I must see the opportunities, seize the opportunities, open our mouths and speak to a lost and dying world and help them to see that they too can live beyond their predicaments.
SPEAKER_00: So perhaps for the very first time, somebody's not throwing him a dime or throwing him some handouts, but now for the first time somebody saw him.
SPEAKER_00: And now somebody is willing to say something to him, to speak promise, to speak potential, to speak life into him.
SPEAKER_00: May I simply be bold enough to say that the reason lostness is running rampant, not only in this community, but in every community, is because many people will not see the opportunities that God gives them on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_00: We won't see people the way that God sees people, and we're not willing to open our mouth and say anything to the people that we do see.
SPEAKER_00: But it is important for you and I to take the opportunities and open our mouths and speak hope and transformation into the ugliness that's running around us.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to hurry up and get out of your way.
SPEAKER_00: Because the transformation in this man's life doesn't happen merely at the proclamation.
SPEAKER_00: Because your Bible says that after Peter says that in verse five, in verse six, then he takes him by the right hand and lifts him up.
SPEAKER_00: Transformation outside these beautiful gates occurs when the proclamation and the ministry of our hands are united.
SPEAKER_00: Peter proclaims it in one verse, but in the next verse, verse six, he then takes him by the right hand.
SPEAKER_00: The proclamation of his lips met the ministry of his hands, and when that occurred, transformation took place.
SPEAKER_00: You don't believe me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 says, He took him by the right hand, lifting him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
SPEAKER_00: Transformation outside these beautiful gates happens when the proclamation of our lips and the ministry of our hands are joined and united together.
SPEAKER_00: Because here he is, this nameless, limited, broken, loved, manned, is seen for the first time, spoken to for the perhaps the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Your Bible says he leaps to his feet.
SPEAKER_00: His feet and his ankle bones receive strength and he leaps to his feet.
SPEAKER_00: And he begins to celebrate the goodness of God in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He went to the temple with them.
SPEAKER_00: You start ministering to them out there.
SPEAKER_00: And they will naturally enter the temple with you.
SPEAKER_00: But this man teaches us something about how you and I ought to enter into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how he enters.
SPEAKER_00: It's imperative for you and I to have the right attitude when we enter God's house.
SPEAKER_00: He comes in the door walking, leaping, praising God.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know who's singing, he doesn't know who's preaching, he doesn't know who's doing special music.
SPEAKER_00: All he knows is that perhaps for the first time somebody saw me.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody cared enough to stop and have a conversation with me.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody was willing to lend a helping hand and to help me.
SPEAKER_00: Surely that had to be God working in them.
SPEAKER_00: And he enters the temple walking, leaping, praising God.
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you showed up that way?
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you showed up with an attitude of gratitude, thinking and thanking God, walking in, celebrating the goodness of God in your life?
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you showed up like that?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he heard the psalmist when the psalmist said, I will enter into his gates with thanksgiving in my hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I will enter into his courts with praise.
SPEAKER_00: It's important for you and I to have the right attitudes when we enter into the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So transformation occurs outside the beautiful gates when proclamation and ministry is joined together.
SPEAKER_00: Transformation inside the beautiful gates occurs when the people of God begin to see the hand of God working beyond their beautiful gates.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens.
SPEAKER_00: He enters the temple walking, leaping, praising God, and all the people saw him walking, leaping, and praising God, which says to me they had already walked past him.
SPEAKER_00: They had already missed the ministry opportunity sometime in their haste to get to their favorite seat inside the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Because all of us have our favorite seats.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, most of the time, most pastors already know whether or not you're here because they look to your little section, look to your seat, and if that seat is empty, they just assume you're not there.
SPEAKER_00: God forbid you actually move that Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes in our haste to get to the temple, we missed opportunities of ministry outside the temple.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in many of our churches, if someone showed up the way this man showed up, there's already security protocol in place.
SPEAKER_00: There's already some deacon strategically placed inside the gate to say to them, you might want to go to the charismatic church down the street or the Pentecostal church, because we don't do it like that here.
SPEAKER_00: But something happened that day.
SPEAKER_00: Because someone showed up in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes in with the right attitude, walking, leaping, praising God, thanking God for the goodness of God in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people saw him walking, leaping, and praising God.
SPEAKER_00: And they knew it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And here it is.
SPEAKER_00: And they were all filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to them, to him.
SPEAKER_00: When they saw what God had done in him, it stirred up something in them.
SPEAKER_00: When you and I began to do ministry beyond these beautiful gates, and we began to see how God is using us beyond these beautiful gates and lives that are being transformed beyond these beautiful gates, and then seeing how it materializes inside the beautiful gates, it will stir up some excitement within us.
SPEAKER_00: For many of us, we have lost our joy, we have lost our awe, we have lost our amazement of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I stop by here on my way to heaven just to say to us that just beyond these beautiful gates, ugliness is running rampant.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to use you to be the light of transformation in Bernie and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: So I need to ask a question.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today and you've never placed your faith, hope, and trust in Jesus Christ, we want to extend to you the greatest opportunity there is as the ministry team now moves into place.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today and you have never accepted Jesus Christ into your life, may I say to you, you are an ugly sight.
SPEAKER_00: You are an ugly sight because God sees your sinfulness, God sees your brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: And on this morning, he grants you now an opportunity to say, I want to live beyond my brokenness, beyond my dysfunction, beyond my limitations and my labels.
SPEAKER_00: I want God to see me through the blood of his son.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you place your faith, hope, and trust in Jesus Christ, God then clothes your unrighteousness with his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And then when God sees you, he sees you through the blood of his son.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here today and you have never placed your faith, hope, and trust in Jesus Christ, we want to extend to you the greatest invitation there is.
SPEAKER_00: And that is for you to say yes to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Pastors are now standing in place, prayer staff and prayer team is ready to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here and you know you need to make a decision for the Lord, we want to give you that opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be two songs for you to make such a decision.
SPEAKER_00: But not only if you're here today and you've never placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we also want to extend to you an opportunity to the vast majority of us who every day are seeing ministry opportunities, but we've not been seizing them as ministry opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe today God is saying you ought to come to the altar and began interceding, praying for the ugliness around you.
SPEAKER_00: Because long before you talk to people about God, you ought to talk to God about those people.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe you're just asking God, God, I've got a mean coworker I've got to go deal with tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a mean boss that I've been dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe, just maybe, you have strategically placed me on that job that you want to use me.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, I need your strength.
SPEAKER_00: And so give me the boldness that I need in order to see my vocation as a ministry opportunity, to see my school as a mission field, to see my community as an opportunity for me to be the transformation in them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I know: the word of God always demands a response.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna stand together, they're gonna sing, the altar is available, pastors are standing, prayer team is available.
SPEAKER_00: How will you respond to the word of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for our time in your word, seal it to our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Now mobilize these your people to operate in obedience to your leading.
SPEAKER_00: We ask you for it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.