SPEAKER_00: Acts.
SPEAKER_00: You guys been enjoying Acts?
SPEAKER_00: All right, Pastor Joey's going to break open Acts for us here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's do it because that was a rousing response.
SPEAKER_00: Are you enjoying Acts?
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: If you can hold it together.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my word.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3, we're going to be in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And uh if you want to know where we have been, you can jump on.
SPEAKER_00: We have uh Hope City sermons on Spotify and Apple, and uh you can jump back through it and um catch up if you've been missing out.
SPEAKER_00: So we've been seeing the Holy Spirit pour out.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen Peter preach and 3,000 come to Jesus in one day.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we've seen uh signs, wonders, and miracles happening.
SPEAKER_00: The church is growing.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen that the church is having fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that last week called Koinania.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that the these new believers in Jesus are devoted followers.
SPEAKER_00: They're not casual followers.
SPEAKER_00: So if we call ourselves Jesus followers, we recognize that we are devoted to this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a casual thing that we're about.
SPEAKER_00: There's no weak sauce Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Either you are a believer or you're not.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Either you're serving him or you're not.
SPEAKER_00: And the tree of your life should be bearing a fruit that looks like something that he would produce, not that you would produce.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in chapter three, verse one, and this is what it says Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: I love that these guys, as they come to Jesus, we recognize these are all Jewish men, right?
SPEAKER_00: They did not stop being Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: They did not receive Jesus as their Savior, as the Messiah, as prophesied by the Old Testament, and then just stopped doing the Jewish life.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, going to the temple was a habit.
SPEAKER_00: They were devoted in this and recognizing that they didn't no longer need to have sacrifices made.
SPEAKER_00: But when there was a prayer time in the gathering, they kept doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until persecution pushed them out of that that they had to stop going to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: But until the persecution started, they went.
SPEAKER_00: So they were going to the afternoon prayer service.
SPEAKER_00: As they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.
SPEAKER_00: Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, Look at us.
SPEAKER_00: Then the lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter said, I don't have any gold, or excuse me, I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up.
SPEAKER_00: And as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_00: Then walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the temple with them.
SPEAKER_00: All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God.
SPEAKER_00: And when they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the beautiful gate, they were absolutely astounded.
SPEAKER_00: They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon's colonnade, where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John.
SPEAKER_00: This will be our text for today.
SPEAKER_00: I tried to debate if we could get into Peter's sermon that comes following this, but we'll get into that next week.
SPEAKER_00: I want to jump all the way back to verse one.
SPEAKER_00: Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in three o'clock prayer service.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: When you are living a devoted life, opportunities to share Jesus will find you as much as you'll find them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we look at it like, how can I be of encouragement to my community?
SPEAKER_00: How can I be encouragement to the people that are around me?
SPEAKER_00: When you live a devoted life towards Jesus, opportunities are gonna find you as much as you find them.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna find you as much as you find them.
SPEAKER_00: So on their way, this man that's been lame since birth is put by the gate.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna find out later on in Luke, excuse me, in Acts, that Luke says that he has been lame.
SPEAKER_00: He's 40 years old.
SPEAKER_00: All he's known is not being able to walk.
SPEAKER_00: All he's known is to be carried wherever he has to go.
SPEAKER_00: All he's known is a life that he doesn't get fed if somebody doesn't bless him with money.
SPEAKER_00: And so almsgiving was a part of the Jewish lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: It was taking care of the poor that was sincerely important to them in a way that they honored God.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was looking towards that act of worship so that he could be taken care of.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine that you wake up in the morning, you can't go anywhere, do anything unless somebody picks you up and takes you there.
SPEAKER_00: Your day can't get going until somebody else's day gets going.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what you know for life.
SPEAKER_00: You're waiting on the love or the care or the what whatever it would be of others to get you to wherever you need to be.
SPEAKER_00: You can go nowhere on your own accord.
SPEAKER_00: Can you begin to imagine how that feels like you're in a prison cell?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I anybody, I'm gonna say the word, and hopefully this doesn't get flagged uh by the government.
SPEAKER_00: Back in COVID, right?
SPEAKER_00: You had to stay in your home.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, don't go out anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, three days in, a lot of us were bugging out, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like every piece of gym equipment was sold out because we're like, we're getting in shape now.
SPEAKER_00: All the bikes were bought, all the frisbees.
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't buy anything that was an activity.
SPEAKER_00: Every bit of Lego was purchased, and people are going out of their mind because they can't go and do the way they want to go and do.
SPEAKER_00: And think about this man, he cannot do anything without anyone else.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking to myself, man, sometimes we read scripture and you'll read through a couple verses, and you will not consider what it was to be that person.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to consider what it is to be this man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you just to like, man, say, ah man, Joy's trying to make me feel a type of way.
SPEAKER_00: But unless we can get a deep glimpse into somebody's life, we're gonna miss out to the significance of what goes on.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It says, as they approach the temple, a man lame from birth, a man lame from birth, he's about to get healed.
SPEAKER_00: Spoilers, we know this, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've already read through it.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna get healed.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: Luke specifies the man had been unable to walk since birth, placed there daily.
SPEAKER_00: And in the honor and shame type of society, people would have recognized and seen this man.
SPEAKER_00: And because he was lame since birth, maybe they were thinking this is some kind of judgment of God because of his family.
SPEAKER_00: But regardless, people as aware of his presence, and I want to say this we see that he's 40 years old, he's been lame from birth.
SPEAKER_00: Should time have any bearing at all on if we should pray for healing or not?
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes you're like, man, I'll pray for you if you just got sick, but you've been sick for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: Your whole life has been this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll find the reasons of why not to pray for healing for somebody rather than just to act on what God's called and commanded us to do.
SPEAKER_00: You've been heal, you, you, you've been lame since birth.
SPEAKER_00: You were born that way?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's probably just how it's going to be then.
SPEAKER_00: Said no believer in Jesus ever, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like you look at it and you can't find that in the text.
SPEAKER_00: He's lame since birth.
SPEAKER_00: 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I would I would venture to say this.
SPEAKER_00: It's very likely he's been passed by the disciples before this day as they've gone to that temple to pray.
SPEAKER_00: There is a chance it's not in the text, chance that Jesus would have passed by him.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You said, Man, why didn't Jesus do it?
SPEAKER_00: This is implied.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not trying to create some theology that's not there, but I want to just say something.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that the love of God is always now.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So when is the love of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: The love of Jesus is right now.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna operate as if the love of Jesus is always right now.
SPEAKER_00: Does this make sense?
SPEAKER_00: So if I see somebody, I'm not going to wonder, is today the day?
SPEAKER_00: I'm always gonna act like and operate as if today is the day.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you keep putting it off, listen, you can talk yourself out of loving on and ministering to people for years.
SPEAKER_00: You can talk yourself out of loving on and ministering to family for years, praying for somebody for years, asking God to heal somebody for years.
SPEAKER_00: You can be like, I don't know if now's the time.
SPEAKER_00: What if it doesn't happen right now?
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like I have the faith right now.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if healing was all about your faith, then man, Jesus paid a severe price for you to get enough faith so that it could happen.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of the most amazing miracles I've seen was when I had little faith, but I operated in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: What if we were more about obedience and trying to get and fidget up this kind of immense faith, whatever that feels like?
SPEAKER_00: You got to feel the warm tinglies.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's emotionalism.
SPEAKER_00: The church is impotent to a large degree because we become emotionally driven to be obedient to God when we feel like we should be obedient to Him.
SPEAKER_00: We wait to raise our hands until a pastor says, raise your hands without understanding that the scripture says, raise your hands.
SPEAKER_00: It's a given.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: God likes hands.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't know why you like these.
SPEAKER_00: They're cool.
SPEAKER_00: They've got fingerprints on them.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are catalyst, some of them nice and lotioned up and soft.
SPEAKER_00: They're all like all of our hands, they're different, but you like them so I'm just gonna give them to you.
SPEAKER_00: You want you like hands, God?
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
SPEAKER_00: Got it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I sit and I look at this and I'm thinking, okay, man, it's a long time this guy's been showing up.
SPEAKER_00: Long time that he's experienced life with zero, zero hope that it's ever gonna be different.
SPEAKER_00: All he knew is that probably his life would be like that till the day he died, right?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he expect anything else?
SPEAKER_00: 40 years of the same routine, why would it ever shift?
SPEAKER_00: I love that um we see this.
SPEAKER_00: This honest moment.
SPEAKER_00: Each day, I love Luke's language.
SPEAKER_00: Each day, he was put beside the temple gate.
SPEAKER_00: Each day.
SPEAKER_00: I would highlight that, I would underline that.
SPEAKER_00: Each day.
SPEAKER_00: Did he have any hope?
SPEAKER_00: What was what was he hoping for?
SPEAKER_00: He's hoping for money.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's what he needed to survive.
SPEAKER_00: Hoping for money.
SPEAKER_00: Was there hope for anything else?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Hoping for money.
SPEAKER_00: Peter and John looked at him intently.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Peter and John looked at him intently.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said, Look at us.
SPEAKER_00: The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I notice when I see people or have been in communities, uh, and you're walking, and there's maybe somebody who's homeless or begging.
SPEAKER_00: Eye contact is not always the thing that comes first for most people.
SPEAKER_00: Rarely ever.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I had this this dog, this chocolate lab, that he'd get in trouble and we and we and we would get on him.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Micah.
SPEAKER_00: And Micah would do something, and Micah, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: And he would not look at us at all.
SPEAKER_00: He would look at everything in the room but your face.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And we go Micah mode when we get around beggars.
SPEAKER_00: We get around the poor.
SPEAKER_00: I look at everything.
SPEAKER_00: You pull up to you pull up to a stop sign, and they're right there begging, and you're like, adjust the mirror, change the rating.
SPEAKER_00: You touch every dial in your car.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You're not even doing it, you just you're just moving air.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that Peter looks and says, Look at us.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't have what you're asking for.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean that he doesn't care because even if you jump all the way to Galatians, Paul talks about a time when he gets to come and have time and he spends it with Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And he's hanging out with Peter and he's sharing the story.
SPEAKER_00: And and and this is what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It says they they blessed everything.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, the apostles blessed everything that Paul was doing.
SPEAKER_00: But they encouraged him in this keep taking care of the poor.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it Peter's like, keep Paul, you're doing awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Keep taking care of the poor.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me pull that up.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is in Galatians, it's in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: This is chapter 2, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Uh actually, let me back up to verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: It says, in fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul talking, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers.
SPEAKER_00: They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles while they continued their work with the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not like sometimes we're like, we think, I'm just gonna pray for you, right?
SPEAKER_00: But we as a church, I want to give you a little insider information.
SPEAKER_00: We're preparing right now, you'll get more information as the weeks come.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start something called Hope City's Closet, where we can bring in things and needs uh that are in the school system of socks and underwear.
SPEAKER_00: In some cases, there's special need kids that need diapers.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna give you a list of what's needed.
SPEAKER_00: And as a church, whenever we're in the store, we're gonna make sure that we have an active lifestyle that we're gonna take care of those who can't take care of themselves, yeah?
SPEAKER_00: And because we see this as a biblical principle.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they think I'm just gonna pray for that person.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, prayer is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: We're about to see how prayer affects and changes our life right now.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you in this, it doesn't mean it has to be either or it's both and, yeah?
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna be a both and kind of a church, yeah?
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have.
SPEAKER_00: Check this out in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.
SPEAKER_00: In the name, what does he have?
SPEAKER_00: He has the name of Jesus Christ of Nazarene, right?
SPEAKER_00: I love that he adds of Nazarene, because it reminds everybody, hey, he was born.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where he lived.
SPEAKER_00: You can go get confirmation that this guy existed.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: I love that he adds that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that is not a magical phrase to pray to get somebody to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to encourage you, when you pray for somebody, I would definitely pray in the name of Jesus Christ when you're praying for healing.
SPEAKER_00: But what I don't want you to start thinking is this is some kind of secret code that if you say it just right, they get healed.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not in the code, it's not in the words, it's in the name.
SPEAKER_00: It's the name of Jesus because we've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_00: For Jewish people, we recognize that the name recognizes identity, authority, power.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Identity, authority, power.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in the context.
SPEAKER_00: So when he's saying the name of Jesus, he's operating that this is the one who is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And oh, by the way, it says the Messiah is going to, the lame will leap.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: So I, so the authority that had the Messiah has is to see the sick healed, because he's paid the price for it.
SPEAKER_00: That is his habit.
SPEAKER_00: That is what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he is doing, that's what he will always do.
SPEAKER_00: So I am operating with the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Peter's doing.
SPEAKER_00: He comes up and he says, I don't have silver, don't have gold on me, but what I have, the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, rise and walk.
SPEAKER_00: There's debate whether get up was there, right?
SPEAKER_00: In the scripture, was that in the original text or not?
SPEAKER_00: That's that that's secondary to me because the word for sure that's in there in every single uh uh finding of this verse is walk.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean just stand up so you can get a picture taken.
SPEAKER_00: It is start walking, keep walking, be about walking, do walking.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is an active, this is a healing that is going to keep on going.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just a one-off for a show or for a spectacle.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's life is about to change.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I'm about.
SPEAKER_00: When I pray for somebody for healing, I am not about seeing a just a momentary shift in who they are or what's going on in their body or in their life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm praying for an eternal one.
SPEAKER_00: One that there would be an encounter with God deep to the soul, but also whatever the infirmity in their body is, that they would be healed totally and made right.
SPEAKER_00: So that they would start walking, keep walking, and be about walking.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are so fired up, I just can't like you're just pulling it out of me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter, check this out, took the lame man by the right hand, helped him up, and as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find out in the original uh the language, the original writing of this, these are kind of medical terms that is unique to Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's he's a doctor, right?
SPEAKER_00: Physician.
SPEAKER_00: So he's using these kind of terms of like what part of the foot and what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the detail of this because it's like, hey, we we we don't know for sure what happened, what was going on with the foot, but we know what's happening with the foot right now.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: And so he says what?
SPEAKER_00: He says the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever think about that?
SPEAKER_00: We we had a uh a young lady in our church that was in Montana and she was in a wheelchair, and uh I showed up one Sunday morning after a Saturday night service that I had to leave early from, and the wheelchair was there.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what is Danielle's wheelchair doing here?
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Oh, dude, she got healed last night.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, shut up.
SPEAKER_00: I missed it.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, yeah, I'm like, no way.
SPEAKER_00: And the next time I saw Danielle, she walks in and she has new shoes on because she's only been wearing socks.
SPEAKER_00: Because why did she need shoes?
SPEAKER_00: Just wear socks.
SPEAKER_00: It was just easier.
SPEAKER_00: But now she needs shoes because she's walking somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: And it occurred to me, I thought to myself, like, I'm like, man, it's amazing that you got healed and are walking, but you ever start to process like, wait a minute, you've been you've not been walking for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Muscles atrophy.
SPEAKER_00: So God had to strengthen and heal the muscles that had been atrophied so that she could carry the weight of her body to start walking and start moving.
SPEAKER_00: You think about everything that had to happen there.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a friend that he was recently down in Brazil, prayed for a blind woman.
SPEAKER_00: Her eyes were open.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Tell me what you see.
SPEAKER_00: And she's looking around the room and she just can't say anything because she had never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: And you're thinking about everything that has to happen in the brain to process sight.
SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I don't know how to describe it.
SPEAKER_00: But what I've heard angels are supposed to look like, I feel like I see them in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: This man gets healed.
SPEAKER_00: Legs strengthen.
SPEAKER_00: He stands up.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: Verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: Jump up.
SPEAKER_00: And then what?
SPEAKER_00: He stood there with his hands crossed and swayed.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He just like, I don't want to be a distraction.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Just just swayed sway to the music playing in the background at the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Just sway.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: This man jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk.
SPEAKER_00: You said in the name of Jesus, I could.
SPEAKER_00: He's walking.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's pacing, right?
SPEAKER_00: What else does it say?
SPEAKER_00: Then walking and what?
SPEAKER_00: Leaping.
SPEAKER_00: There's got to be something in the Bible about that, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 34, verse 5 through 6.
SPEAKER_00: Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: He is coming to save you.
SPEAKER_00: And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind, unplug the ears of the deaf.
SPEAKER_00: The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland.
SPEAKER_00: The lame will leap like deer.
SPEAKER_00: There's fulfillment of the Old Testament, even right there.
SPEAKER_00: He is healed.
SPEAKER_00: He's walking.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I saw these kids the other day out playing with the ball, and they were.
SPEAKER_00: They were jumping.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine this guy?
SPEAKER_00: He just like, is he just jumping around?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what does this look like?
SPEAKER_00: He's just getting what he's just jumping everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing like the heel click.
SPEAKER_00: I can do the heel click.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen that.
SPEAKER_00: And he is what?
SPEAKER_00: And praising God.
SPEAKER_00: Then walking, leaping, and praising God.
SPEAKER_00: He went to the temple with them, walking, leaping, praising God.
SPEAKER_00: All the people saw him walking and what?
SPEAKER_00: Heard him.
SPEAKER_00: How did they hear him?
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: No, they heard God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for healing me.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for touching my body, for strengthening my legs.
SPEAKER_00: God thank you that I have strength to dance before you.
SPEAKER_00: People heard him why he was excited about what God listened in that moment of his life.
SPEAKER_00: Hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: God met with him through a lover of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And his life radically changed in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes in the temple and worships like the sun.
SPEAKER_00: However, we know that when Jesus dies, the veil is torn so that we can have access into his presence, regardless of lame or not.
SPEAKER_00: But this man is now healed and getting into the presence of God in a way that he could have never fathomed or imagined.
SPEAKER_00: When you take into account that when you're born, you're born needing a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Something has to happen miraculously for you to be saved and made whole, yeah?
SPEAKER_00: What what what's the what's the the the the result if you live your life without Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, some people say, like, is God really gonna send people to hell?
SPEAKER_00: No, I think he's just gonna honor their wishes because if you didn't want to spend time with him in life, why would you want to spend time with him in eternity?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna honor your wish.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna honor that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna send you to a place that you chose.
SPEAKER_00: I'm respecting your wish.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So check this out though.
SPEAKER_00: What is hell?
SPEAKER_00: It's eternity separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: Weeping, gnashing of teeth, there is no leaping and dancing and singing.
SPEAKER_00: There's crying and pain and torment for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Now suppose you remember when you are worshiping God that he healed you from something that you could not heal yourself from, and then you realize, man, in his healing, I no longer have an eternity of pain and torment awaiting me.
SPEAKER_00: I have an eternity in his presence where there's wholeness and fullness of joy, where there's no more sickness or pain or anxiety or depression.
SPEAKER_00: There's no more of that.
SPEAKER_00: In his presence, there's complete and total freedom.
SPEAKER_00: What happens if you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is what I see.
SPEAKER_00: I see this guy showing me what a worship service should look like.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is it looks opposite of the majority of the church in America.
SPEAKER_00: I had a woman one time she said, I don't like it when you ask me to raise my hand because I'm very introspective.
SPEAKER_00: We're not worshiping you.
SPEAKER_00: You would you would do more than this way?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Listen right now, there's been a season where I'm like, I will take a tap on the view in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: And swaying back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, baby steps.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something the Lord changed in my heart and said, No, I want my people to worship me in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you that you have to be ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you that you have to be obnoxious.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm letting you know is when you remember what he's done for you, then it shifts the way that you encounter him.
SPEAKER_00: It shifts the way that you worship him.
SPEAKER_00: It's it it shifts the atmosphere of the room.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a somber thing where I'm gonna come in and just be like all timid.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine a room full of this lame guy who's now healed?
SPEAKER_00: And they're all just chilling and timid?
SPEAKER_00: Like just like nothing going on of any death.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even make sense.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, nobody's looking at this guy and saying, Hey, simmer down, fella.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's looking at this guy and like, hey, pop down right now.
SPEAKER_00: You're walking into the temple, can you can keep it easy?
SPEAKER_00: The astounding nature of the healing power of God did not stop when the last apostle died.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a held belief called cessationism that this there was an empowerment, a special empowerment upon the apostles, so that these things could happen to help the church get going.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're gonna read about here next week how Peter responds to everybody that's coming out because he's gonna preach the gospel again.
SPEAKER_00: And the church is gonna grow more.
SPEAKER_00: There's people that will say, Man, this is this is that was for then, and that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: The problem with that is it's gonna make a whole bunch of people liars.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you look through the account of healings throughout history, starting with early church fathers, Arrhenius of Leons speaks of healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Tertullian of Carthage speaks of healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Origen of Alexandria speaks of healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Basil the Great had a ministry where there was healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine of Hippo talks about healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Bishop John Beverly, healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Bernard of Clairvaux, I think I said that right, healings and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Amy Simple McPherson, John G.
SPEAKER_00: Lake, Smith Wigglesworth.
SPEAKER_00: People all throughout history, there's not a time you can, you can, you can't find gaps in history where God wasn't healing.
SPEAKER_00: And if you say that there are gaps, then what you also have to say is all these people were lying.
SPEAKER_00: Of Augustine walking with the now, whether this is true or not, it's to make a point.
SPEAKER_00: But he's walking with the Pope, walking through the Vatican, and uh just amazed, like this is incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Craftsmanship, this is unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: And um the Pope says, We can't say anymore, don't have silver and gold to give.
SPEAKER_00: Austin says, Yeah, but we're also not saying rise and walk.
SPEAKER_00: You start leaning on things, you start leaning on things that might bring comfort, but they won't bring change.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you start like, listen, we're gonna be a both and church, not simply because we want to to say we're gonna meet a need in one way, but we want to recognize that we want to be holistic in what God's called us to, and we're gonna meet the needs of the poor and pray for them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray for the sick, and they will be healed.
SPEAKER_00: This week was uh preparing, and every time, every time I was preparing this, Tom, I saw your face, and I know the pain you've had in your back and your body, and I could not, bro.
SPEAKER_00: I would walk.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't want to embarrass Tom, but he likes me.
SPEAKER_00: Or leave, yeah, I was like, he likes me, or he's good at pretending.
SPEAKER_00: He likes me.
SPEAKER_00: And I just we're gonna pray over Tom today.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God is gonna heal your body, and the pain that you've been feeling is gonna go.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we just pray over time right now.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we declare healing over him.
SPEAKER_00: That all the pain in his back, all the pain in his body would be gone in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Not gonna have to do any more of the nerve ablasions, none of none of the other things that have to be done to try to mitigate the pain.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we we declare right now, we pray, Lord, pour the oil of heaven out over him, over all of his joints.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, do what you do when when when when the muscles are even strengthened, where they've had to atrophy because again, it couldn't get used right.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you right now in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the power, the identity of your name, the authority of your name.
SPEAKER_00: We speak healing over Tom in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: It's not by our power, our might, our strength, but Jesus, you paid a price.
SPEAKER_00: We declare it, we speak it in the name of Jesus that every pain level go to zero right now.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, I thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Your son will rise and walk and be about walking and keep walking.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Even as I pray that over you time right now, I just as I as I prayed for you this week and the Lord kept showing me your face, I just kept hearing the word that he's an evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean you gotta get on the stage and preach to all kinds of people, but I just see you life on life, sharing the hope of Jesus with people, the truth of Jesus with people, and them coming with an radical encounter that he is real, that he does love them, and that he has died for them.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I just speak right now, just an anointing over Tom's life to minister the truth of your word, the hope of your word, the truth of your gospel, and that lives would be changed, that families would be changed, that families would be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Um I want to I want to take a moment, opportunity right now to not just talk about healing.
SPEAKER_00: We prayed just now, but I'm gonna pray more.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in this room right now and you're experiencing physical ailments, physical pain, I don't care if it's listen, we just talked about this guy had it since birth.
SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna be like, well, I've had it since birth.
SPEAKER_00: If there's something that's afflicting you and you want it to stop afflicting you, I just want you to raise your hand right now.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna pray.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else that's you've just been muscling up and you're like, I'm just, I keep fighting through it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't want you to be that person.
SPEAKER_00: I want you just to come and say, Yeah, I would like prayer.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a hip that's been bothering you and you've normalized the pain, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just let's place our hands out, ready to receive.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if that if that was you one more time, could you raise your hands?
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Sheila, can I have you just begin to walk?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lay my hands on Sheila because I'm praying for you as you start walking.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, I just thank you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Just raise your hands and they're gonna pray over you and they're gonna lay their hands on you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we just thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Healing right now in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you're touching backs, you're touching knees, you're touching ankles, you're touching lungs.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You're touching minds right now in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: You're bringing clarity of thought, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you right now.
SPEAKER_00: You're touching minds.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, God, that you're touching, you're touching joints that have been out of place, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: You're touching lungs right now.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, you're touching hips right now.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: The name of Jesus, we just speak healing, speak life, speak life, speak wholeness.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you didn't raise your hand, I want you to join in on this and be praying.
SPEAKER_00: Just speak right now, in the name of Jesus be healed.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus be healed.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, breathe deep.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, walk with strength.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus be made whole.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: The name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Just be a fire from heaven right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most therapeutic way possible that you're just touching.
SPEAKER_00: Touching these bodies right now.
SPEAKER_00: Command healing.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Command healing.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray over any children that are represented by parents in this room right now that are dealing with any kind of sickness.
SPEAKER_00: We just speak healing over them right now, even as they're in classes.
SPEAKER_00: Touch their bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Touch their bodies from the top of their head to the tips of their toes.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, be healed.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Speak that over blood conditions right now.
SPEAKER_00: Be healed in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: More Lord.
SPEAKER_00: More, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: More Lord.
SPEAKER_00: More, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Reduke any spirit of infirmity right now.
SPEAKER_00: Reduke every spirit of infirmity right now.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you can test it, I encourage you to test it.
SPEAKER_00: If it's a neck or a back or legs or breathing, whatever it is, I just encourage you to test it right now.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Just get the worship team to come back.
SPEAKER_00: Can you grab Jess for me?
SPEAKER_00: I think she's teaching the kids' class.
SPEAKER_00: They'll survive, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to finish this service.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go back and we're going to sing that the last song again.
SPEAKER_00: And as we do, I want us to approach it perhaps differently than the way that we that we approached the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Not that you weren't engaged, but man.
SPEAKER_00: A healed people, a whole people.
SPEAKER_00: People that have received Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just say this really quick too.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a relationship with Jesus, don't wait till tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wait till tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a relationship with him or you've been walking from him, I just want to encourage you right now.
SPEAKER_00: Can we just give a moment of privacy in the room right now?
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to close your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you and you're like, yeah, I want to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to live with eternity without him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be separated from him.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know what his love feels like, what is what it is to have him be the Lord and King of my life.
SPEAKER_00: There's a recognition that some of us we would all come to and we'd be like, man.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm at the wheel, it doesn't go the right way.
SPEAKER_00: So I want him to lead.
SPEAKER_00: Take control.
SPEAKER_00: Have your way.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you and you're just stirring, there's something stirring in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You almost feel it physically in your chest.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Holy Spirit saying, This is legit.
SPEAKER_00: Come on home.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand in response.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I want to pray and ask Jesus to be my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I see the hand.
SPEAKER_00: It's like no holding back, no reservation.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Family, we're going to pray together on this.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'll pray and you repeat after me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that you came, lived, and died for me, for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: And I ask for your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you to be my King, my Lord, my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I choose to give my life to you.
SPEAKER_00: All of it.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.