SPEAKER_02: How many things that we should influence in the world?
SPEAKER_02: But they seem to be no different.
SPEAKER_02: And in some ways they they're going down.
SPEAKER_02: I think about marriage.
SPEAKER_02: We should be having an impact on that.
SPEAKER_02: I think about how many elderly people, even in our church, are lonely because they don't have anyone to go eat dinner with them.
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't be like that.
SPEAKER_02: Because we believe that our act of compassion is always to put money in a bucket.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not true.
SPEAKER_01: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_02: Luke 10, 27.
SPEAKER_02: He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Pastor Steve has been taking us through a series where he's talked about the heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength, and he's asked me to come in and finish this series off with talking about loving your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_02: It's a great, great time of year to dive into that because everyone can kind of exercise that a little more than normal, but it is my conviction that we are all missionaries, all of us.
SPEAKER_02: Now we might be missionaries in our neighborhood, might not be missionaries in Africa, but we are all missionaries and we live a lifestyle of missions.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm super excited to be able to dive in and to talk about this today.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to look at Acts chapter 3.
SPEAKER_02: So if you can take your Bibles, you can open up to Acts chapter 3.
SPEAKER_02: There are literally hundreds of scriptures that we could pull out and we could talk about loving your neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: This is just one of many.
SPEAKER_02: But before we do that, before we go verse by verse, I want to just remind us of a couple of things, because I think these things cannot be missed.
SPEAKER_02: Loving your neighbor as a believer is not an option.
SPEAKER_02: Not loving your neighbor is not an option.
SPEAKER_02: You are called to do it.
SPEAKER_02: Not only are you called to do it, it should be in you because the Spirit of God is now in you.
SPEAKER_02: If you are a follower of Christ, it's natural.
SPEAKER_02: It's like athletes compete, artists create, Christians love.
SPEAKER_02: It's just, it's who we are.
SPEAKER_02: And so, 1 John chapter 4, don't have to turn there, but it says, Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone that loves is born of God and knows God.
SPEAKER_02: And he that does not love does not know God.
SPEAKER_02: Because God is love.
SPEAKER_02: So it is a natural part of who you are.
SPEAKER_02: Now there's sometimes that things are natural, and we still have to kind of figure it out.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we still have to, sometimes we have that ability, we have it in us.
SPEAKER_02: My uncle got in a serious accident when he was younger.
SPEAKER_02: He was paralyzed and he had to learn to walk again, but he had the ability to do it.
SPEAKER_02: It was natural, it was in him.
SPEAKER_02: He just had to learn how to do it.
SPEAKER_02: And he had to start doing it.
SPEAKER_02: So just because you feel like you're not good at loving, well, just start working on it.
SPEAKER_02: Because compassion's not your thing.
SPEAKER_02: Just start working on it.
SPEAKER_02: It is.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your DNA.
SPEAKER_02: So just start working on it.
SPEAKER_02: So that's the first one is that this is not an option for you.
SPEAKER_02: The second one is Matthew chapter 6, verse 3 says, do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.
SPEAKER_02: As believers, we don't do charitable acts for tax write-offs, and we don't do charitable acts for bragging rights.
SPEAKER_02: We do it because we love the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And the scripture says, if you do it in secret, he will reward you.
SPEAKER_02: And so he really encourages us to be secretive about our acts.
SPEAKER_02: We don't brag about it, we don't shout it to the rooftops.
SPEAKER_02: You just do it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the high school youth pastor at our church, so that gives me access to strong backs.
SPEAKER_02: And we had an older gentleman who was moving into his house and he didn't have the strength to do it all on his own.
SPEAKER_02: So they asked if we could reach out to some teenagers.
SPEAKER_02: We did.
SPEAKER_02: And when we got done, they he he paid them a little bit, and he gave me the money and told me to give it to them.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I love that response.
SPEAKER_02: So they were they were like, no, I don't want that.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want that money.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I appreciate that heart.
SPEAKER_02: I told them, no, here's what they said.
SPEAKER_02: They said, you don't have to pay me.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I didn't pay you.
SPEAKER_02: It was the other guy.
SPEAKER_02: Here, take the money.
SPEAKER_02: So but I but I appreciate that heart.
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate the heart that doesn't do it to be recognized.
SPEAKER_02: So it's not an option.
SPEAKER_02: You have to do it.
SPEAKER_02: You should want to do it because it's your in your DNA, and we don't do it to be recognized.
SPEAKER_02: I just need to put that out there.
SPEAKER_02: So as we begin to dive into Acts chapter 3, I want to go over a couple of things.
SPEAKER_02: I want to begin to talk about practically how you can love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: Now, your neighbor can be your children, your neighbor could be your physical neighbor, your neighbor could be someone across the world.
SPEAKER_02: Your neighbor is anyone that God puts in your path, and you love them.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to look at how we can do that.
SPEAKER_02: And so I wanted to give you a couple of ways that we can do that.
SPEAKER_02: Um, one of my favorite stories ever from Shaquille O'Neal was when he was having a really, really bad season, and he called his father, and his dad was like, son, you're not playing up to your part.
SPEAKER_02: What's going on?
SPEAKER_02: He said, Dad, life's hard.
SPEAKER_02: It's just really hard right now.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody has all these expectations of me.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Okay, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna meet you at your house, and we'll talk about hard life.
SPEAKER_02: And so he says, Okay, and so he picks him up and he drives him to a bridge where people are sleeping under the bridge.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, they sat for hours and just talked with homeless people.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, when we got done, we sat down in the car and he said, son, that life's hard.
SPEAKER_02: Your life is easy.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to ever hear you say that again.
SPEAKER_02: And it really transformed the way he thinks, the way he lived and the way he.
SPEAKER_02: That's why he does Shack a clause every year.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all never heard of Shack a clause, you should Google it.
SPEAKER_02: Alright, so here's the deal: it's Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02: If you know someone that doesn't have groceries, buy some extra groceries this week.
SPEAKER_02: Just buy some groceries, love on a family.
SPEAKER_02: And and Shaq said when he was a kid, his dad used to put the groceries on the on the door at Thanksgiving, right before Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02: They would put bags of groceries on the door, they'd ring the doorbell, and they'd run hide behind bushes and watch them open, and watch them get the groceries.
SPEAKER_02: Do that.
SPEAKER_02: Take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_02: Here's another one.
SPEAKER_02: Tip.
SPEAKER_02: Tip really well.
SPEAKER_02: Do we have any servers?
SPEAKER_02: Anyone serve?
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_02: Tip well.
SPEAKER_02: It's a thankless job until it's not.
SPEAKER_02: So listen, don't, don't ever, please don't ever, not if you go to the road, please don't ever put a track or a uh church card on the table, ever, unless it has a really good tip in it.
SPEAKER_02: Because I used to be a server and I literally had other servers throw tracks in my face because they knew I was a believer.
SPEAKER_02: They would throw tracks in my face and yell at me.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, dude, I didn't eat at your table.
SPEAKER_02: They're like, but it's your people.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, okay, all right.
SPEAKER_02: Tip really well.
SPEAKER_02: Just order.
SPEAKER_02: I have one time someone ordered a uh a$19 bill, a$19 table, and they tipped$100.
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord really used that because he was speaking to me that day about trusting him.
SPEAKER_02: And so it was really, really good.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the other thing that I want to mention is where is Phil Struska.
SPEAKER_02: Phil Struska, if you walk out of here, you will see these bags, and these bags are uh here to be filled up, and then we're gonna send them to Mexico.
SPEAKER_02: Um where go ahead and grab this mic, where these are gonna go to a uh ministry that helps orphans and other kids in Mexico, and all you have to do is just take your bag, fill it up.
SPEAKER_02: Can you tell us a little bit about the ministry where these bags would go?
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
SPEAKER_00: I have a uh brother who's a missionary in Mexico uh near Tijuana, which is about 45 minutes south of San Diego.
SPEAKER_00: Uh our church has taken a mission trip down there, and uh, I took a mission trip down there with my wife and my family one year, and there's no heat in the dorms, and we're laying in the dorms at night trying to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you you think Mexico, you think tropical?
SPEAKER_00: It's cold on the Pacific coast, and there's no heat.
SPEAKER_00: And we're sitting there shivering, can't get to sleep, and God laid it on my wife's heart to start knitting hats for these kids who don't have heat at night, just to a knit hat.
SPEAKER_00: And that grew into care packages, which then grew into a backpack ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so there's teams that go out around Christmas time to local churches in that area, and they have about three or four different small churches that don't have resources to give these kids Christmas gifts.
SPEAKER_00: So we can give them a good Christmas and support these churches in the ministry that they're already doing.
SPEAKER_00: They also do it in some orphanages, uh, they also have a dump ministry because there are people living at the landfill trying to live off of what they can find in the garbage.
SPEAKER_00: And we can help them out with it.
SPEAKER_00: This is uh I'm gonna do this to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lieutenant, Melinda.
SPEAKER_00: This is my wife, Linda.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't she gorgeous?
SPEAKER_00: The only reason I'm up here is because she hates getting on stage.
SPEAKER_00: This is her ministry.
SPEAKER_00: She does this, but we have backpacks.
SPEAKER_00: We found 160 backpacks, we've got them outside, and when you walk out the doors, they're gonna be right there.
SPEAKER_00: They've got a list right on the back with everything that you need to put in there for these kids, uh, and it tells you what to do, what not to do.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we can do this to support a missionary, four churches, two orphanages, and a landfill ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And as a church, I think we can have a tremendous outreach that way.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
SPEAKER_02: So so my desire today is to be super practical.
SPEAKER_02: So as you walk out the door, if you have the ability to fill up a small backpack, um, they will take these, we'll ship these to Mexico, and we'll make sure that these kids not only have a good Christmas, but get some of the resources they need.
SPEAKER_02: So hopefully we'll take the chance and every family can grab a backpack and fill it up.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you may be able to grab two, it's up to you.
SPEAKER_02: So uh so thank you.
SPEAKER_02: All right, let's grab our Bibles, let's go to Acts chapter 3.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 3, starting in verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: Now a man who was lame from birth, being carried to the temple gate called beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
SPEAKER_02: When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.
SPEAKER_02: Peter looked straight at him, as did John.
SPEAKER_02: Then Peter said, Look at us.
SPEAKER_02: So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
SPEAKER_02: Then Peter said, Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
SPEAKER_02: Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.
SPEAKER_02: He jumped to his feet and he began to walk.
SPEAKER_02: And then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.
SPEAKER_02: When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit and beg at the temple gate called beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
SPEAKER_02: Let's dive in by looking at verse one.
SPEAKER_02: One day, Peter and John were going to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: Now, as we began to think about how do we love our brother?
SPEAKER_02: How do we love our neighbor?
SPEAKER_02: I want to say this.
SPEAKER_02: I want to say that religious acts is not the same as getting involved in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: It's not always the same.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it can be.
SPEAKER_02: But religious acts, in and of themselves, is not enough.
SPEAKER_02: And that does not necessarily mean you're partnering with God in what he's doing.
SPEAKER_02: What I mean by that is some of you can be here today and you're not actually here.
SPEAKER_02: You're not actually engaged.
SPEAKER_02: It's that thing that you do, you show up.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in this day, they would have shown up morning, noon, and afternoon for the time of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: If you look at Psalm 55, verse 17, I think David is actually talking about this.
SPEAKER_02: He says that at evening, at morning, and at noon he cries out to the Lord, and the Lord hears him.
SPEAKER_02: Now I believe for David, those three times a day were deeply committed times to engage with his God.
SPEAKER_02: But I think the same, I think David's, the guy right beside David could have shown up, and I'm just doing my thing.
SPEAKER_02: I'm here.
SPEAKER_02: Morning, check.
SPEAKER_02: I can't.
SPEAKER_02: I'm here, here.
SPEAKER_02: Evening, here.
SPEAKER_02: Afternoon, here.
SPEAKER_02: But nothing's really happening.
SPEAKER_02: So you can engage in religious activity and not be transformed.
SPEAKER_02: The same thing is true of engaging in acts of compassion.
SPEAKER_02: You can do acts of compassion to check them off.
SPEAKER_02: We don't get any kudos from God.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus Christ died.
SPEAKER_02: He died for you and he died for me and he rose again to life.
SPEAKER_02: And when God looks at you, if you're in Christ, he sees Christ.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing you can do to get more saved.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing you can do to get more praise.
SPEAKER_02: We don't do it for those things.
SPEAKER_02: And so here's my question to you around the area of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: What is your perspective of prayer?
SPEAKER_02: Is it something that you're doing for God, or is it something that God has given to you as a gift?
SPEAKER_02: Some people would have walked in, they would have been praying, they would have done there three times a day, and if you'd have asked them to defend their righteousness, they would have said, I haven't missed a day in 25 years.
SPEAKER_02: Well, you've missed the whole point.
SPEAKER_02: You should have watched the football game instead of coming because you totally missed the whole point.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer is for you, it's God's gift to you.
SPEAKER_02: And I gotta confess to you that I'm learning to walk in that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm learning to enjoy prayer more.
SPEAKER_02: I'm, you know, Pastor Steve, I actually I'm totally digging this merge thing, man.
SPEAKER_02: I'm serious.
SPEAKER_02: I'm totally digging it.
SPEAKER_02: And I went home the other day and I just told my wife, I was like, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_02: I love this merge.
SPEAKER_02: Well, Pastor Steve told me, I got voluntoled to go into the wilderness and pray and fast for a period of time.
SPEAKER_02: And I was not, if I'm confessing, I was not looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, dude, what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_02: We're just gonna like go and we're just gonna like fast and look at each other.
SPEAKER_02: Because I all I do, I just eat.
SPEAKER_02: Like when I'm bored, I eat.
SPEAKER_02: And so I was like, I don't, listen, it was incredible.
SPEAKER_02: That prayer and that fasting time was like, wow, why do I not see the value in this?
SPEAKER_02: Why do I not do this more?
SPEAKER_02: And just, you know, Pastor Steve would say, I want you to get away for two hours.
SPEAKER_02: Just you get away, and then we'll come back and see what the Lord's saying.
SPEAKER_02: And he would give us some area to try to focus our energy and our attention on.
SPEAKER_02: And he'd say, I want you to come back and then we'll talk about what the Lord is doing.
SPEAKER_02: And when it wasn't a religious, see, I was not looking forward to doing the religious act.
SPEAKER_02: And his head was in a place where he was trying to coach us to learn to love to walk with the Lord in prayer and fasting.
SPEAKER_02: And once I leaned into that area, it's like, man, this is incredible.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I not, why don't I not do this more?
SPEAKER_02: Because when I look at it, it's a it's a religious act.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 2, 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_02: God is powerful.
SPEAKER_02: And as I began to think about this, this is a mockery to God.
SPEAKER_02: This man is here every single day.
SPEAKER_02: And if you move on over into Acts chapter 4, you'll see that he's actually about 40 years old.
SPEAKER_02: So let's imagine that he got put there when he was 10.
SPEAKER_02: That's probably being generous.
SPEAKER_02: Let's imagine he got put there when he was 10.
SPEAKER_02: And let's imagine he's 40.
SPEAKER_02: Every day, every day, they walk into the temple, and this same guy is still here every single day.
SPEAKER_02: When we truly love our neighbor in the way that God wants us to love our neighbor, we will grasp a hold of the fact that God is a restorer.
SPEAKER_02: He's powerful.
SPEAKER_02: I'm shocked at how many things stay the same in the church.
SPEAKER_02: How many things that we should influence in the world, but they seem to be no different.
SPEAKER_02: In some ways, they they're going down.
SPEAKER_02: I think about marriage.
SPEAKER_02: We should be having an impact on that.
SPEAKER_02: I think about racial tension and how church is the most segregated day of the whole week.
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't be that way.
SPEAKER_02: I think about how much the world water crisis is still a very real problem.
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't be that way.
SPEAKER_02: I think about how many elderly people, even in our church, are lonely because they don't have anyone to go eat dinner with them.
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't be like that.
SPEAKER_02: It is a mockery to the church, it is a mockery to Christ that these problems that have been staring us in the face 20 years ago, they're still staring us in the face.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing's changing.
SPEAKER_02: It's because we believe that our act of compassion is always to put money in a bucket.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not true.
SPEAKER_02: One of my mentors, he was a pastor of mine at one time, used to take me to a trailer park and he would knock on people's doors and he would talk to them and he would ask him.
SPEAKER_02: He was a millionaire, and he would knock on people's doors, he would talk to them and ask them, Do you have food?
SPEAKER_02: Do you have clothes?
SPEAKER_02: Do you have heat?
SPEAKER_02: And they would all say no.
SPEAKER_02: And I would get onto them, I would say, listen, man, they're scamming you.
SPEAKER_02: They got plenty in there.
SPEAKER_02: They see you coming.
SPEAKER_02: They're calling their cousin.
SPEAKER_02: He's here.
SPEAKER_02: That's what's happening.
SPEAKER_02: And he looked at me one day and he said, Bobby, don't ask God to use you and then complain when people use you.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Fair enough.
SPEAKER_02: But we want to see things be transformed.
SPEAKER_02: We want to see people.
SPEAKER_02: Transformed.
SPEAKER_02: We want to see situations transformed.
SPEAKER_02: And that mentor told me one time, he said, You know what my biggest problem is?
SPEAKER_02: He said, I can write a check really quickly and feel like I did my part.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, God will not let me off the hook.
SPEAKER_02: He makes me stay engaged with these people.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Gosh, if I could just write a check and be done.
SPEAKER_02: So listen, as we begin to talk about loving your brother, loving your neighbor, sometimes the best and most important thing you can do is to write a check.
SPEAKER_02: But sometimes it's not true, and you're not going to get off that easy.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you have to really be there, and we have to really love them, and we have to really spend time with them, and we have to really listen with them.
SPEAKER_02: All the things that you will see as we go through this.
SPEAKER_02: Now, one of the reasons that Pastor Steve gave me the permission to speak on this subject is because I'm now our mission's pastor, and I love that, and we're now starting to engage in that.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you know we had some meetings this week around that.
SPEAKER_02: We're starting to engage in that.
SPEAKER_02: But every good organization, whether it's a church or not a church, can tell you why they do what they do.
SPEAKER_02: And they certainly should be able to tell you what they do.
SPEAKER_02: And so one of the things that we want to think about as a church is why do we get involved in missions?
SPEAKER_02: And for us, we are a wholehearted church.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is not give 110%.
SPEAKER_02: That's actually not a thing, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: It'll sink in.
SPEAKER_02: You can only give 100%.
SPEAKER_02: But it's not about give 100%.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, get your head in the game, try.
SPEAKER_02: No, that's not it.
SPEAKER_02: It's really about be honest where you are.
SPEAKER_02: God wants your whole heart.
SPEAKER_02: Don't hide part of it from him.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't just want the pretty part, he wants the whole heart.
SPEAKER_02: And so as we begin to think about missions, we have yet to develop our missions, mission statement, but we do have the idea that we want to help people in the restoration of their whole heart.
SPEAKER_02: We want to help people in the restoration of their whole heart.
SPEAKER_02: And so if a person is hungry, we don't talk to them about the gospel without feeding them.
SPEAKER_02: Because they're hungry.
SPEAKER_02: A part of their heart, a part of their being says, I'm not listening to you, I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_02: And so we address that.
SPEAKER_02: If you're in Houston and the houses have blown down, while we do pray for you, we also help you restore your home.
SPEAKER_02: We want to address whatever is stealing your whole heart.
SPEAKER_02: So the devil came to steal, kill, and destroy.
SPEAKER_02: Am I saying I'm sound real southern?
SPEAKER_02: Steal?
SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
SPEAKER_02: Steal?
SPEAKER_02: Y'all work with me.
SPEAKER_02: Kill.
SPEAKER_02: Kill and destroy.
SPEAKER_02: Get it out.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all hurt my heart.
SPEAKER_02: We're coming to take it back.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we're here for.
SPEAKER_02: So when we look at our neighbor and we can tell that our literal neighbor is hurting, we knock on the door and say, hey, we're here to give you your whole heart back.
SPEAKER_02: We want to see things change.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to drop money in the same bucket week after week after week after week, and 20 years from now we're still dropping the same money in the same bucket, and nothing's changing.
SPEAKER_02: It is a mockery to that prayer house when people have been walking by it for 30, 40 years and nothing's happened in that guy's life.
SPEAKER_02: He's just learned to live with his problem.
SPEAKER_02: So I want you guys to begin to develop a vision for restoration.
SPEAKER_02: What's your vision for your neighbor?
SPEAKER_02: And what's your part in that vision?
SPEAKER_02: How do we love our neighbor?
SPEAKER_02: Now let's dive in.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_02: At verse 3, when Peter saw, when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.
SPEAKER_02: You ever heard the scripture that says God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ever ask or imagine?
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you have to imagine for your brother.
SPEAKER_02: Because they are so deep in their struggle, all they can think of is a surface level.
SPEAKER_02: They're not thinking about what God could do for them.
SPEAKER_02: They're just telling you what their own felt need is to the best of their ability.
SPEAKER_02: So he goes in and he's seeing this guy sitting here.
SPEAKER_02: We've all seen him, right?
SPEAKER_02: We've all seen this.
SPEAKER_02: Guy sitting here with a can and he's asking for money.
SPEAKER_02: But he's not like, sir, could I please have some money?
SPEAKER_02: He's like, can I please have some money?
SPEAKER_02: Money, please.
SPEAKER_02: And the scripture says that he sees Peter and he sees John.
SPEAKER_02: But read it.
SPEAKER_02: Look what it says.
SPEAKER_02: When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.
SPEAKER_02: Peter looked straight at him, as did John.
SPEAKER_02: Then Peter said, Look at us.
SPEAKER_02: He's looking straight at him, and he has to tell him, pick your head up.
SPEAKER_02: Look at us.
SPEAKER_02: The first thing he did was he looked straight at him.
SPEAKER_02: And if you want to love your neighbor, look at your neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: Notice him.
SPEAKER_02: Do you notice elderly people in our community?
SPEAKER_02: Do you notice them?
SPEAKER_02: Most people don't.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that we can't acknowledge that they're standing there, but it is that we don't notice them.
SPEAKER_02: By noticing someone, you stop and take note.
SPEAKER_02: Some of my favorite people in this whole church are elderly.
SPEAKER_02: Some of my favorite times to sit and talk with someone is an elderly person.
SPEAKER_02: I spoke with an elderly lady in our church, and one of my favorite memories of her was a story of when she went quail hunting, pheasant hunting, and she's just like telling her story with so much vigor, and I just came alive at that story.
SPEAKER_02: I think she got caught in quicksand.
SPEAKER_02: That story meant something to me.
SPEAKER_02: I felt like I was talking with a friend.
SPEAKER_02: But you have to stop and you have to notice people.
SPEAKER_02: You can't just walk past them.
SPEAKER_02: There's men in this church that are really struggling.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you who would consider yourself strong in the Lord and you're doing well and your marriage is okay.
SPEAKER_02: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: Your brother's marriage might not be okay, but we don't talk well, do we guys?
SPEAKER_02: Girls, y'all talk.
SPEAKER_02: And my wife will tell you, I talk a lot.
SPEAKER_02: But I don't listen.
SPEAKER_02: Like I don't notice people.
SPEAKER_02: And so I have to stop and really pay attention to someone's situation.
SPEAKER_02: I remember one of my first nights with my wife.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we were newly married.
SPEAKER_02: We were living in Nashville.
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to show her my hometown, my town.
SPEAKER_02: I showed her around.
SPEAKER_02: I was so proud of my town.
SPEAKER_02: And we went back home and we went to our house and she wasn't herself.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what's wrong?
SPEAKER_02: And she said, uh, did you see all the homeless people?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02: She said, there's homeless people everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, they didn't have blankets, they didn't have pillows, they didn't have nothing.
SPEAKER_02: They were like sleeping on the concrete.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Well, we have lots of blankets.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, no, no, these are our blankets.
SPEAKER_02: This is what you call a wedding gift.
SPEAKER_02: And she's like, no, that's not.
SPEAKER_02: So she made us take all of our blankets, even some off the bed, take pillows, and we had to go downtown and we had to give them my stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't happy about it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm honest.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh goodness.
SPEAKER_02: But she noticed, she took time to notice.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you don't even know what your neighbor's name is.
SPEAKER_02: Like your literal neighbor, the one that lives beside you.
SPEAKER_02: You don't know what their name is.
SPEAKER_02: Because you haven't taken time to do that.
SPEAKER_02: It's important to notice, but it's also important to restore.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me, Peter says.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: And for a moment, he gave this guy permission to glance his way and look him in the eyes.
SPEAKER_02: Someone told me, I don't know if it's true or not, but one of the best things you can do for homeless people is ask their name.
SPEAKER_02: Because no one does it.
SPEAKER_02: They don't get a chance to speak out their name anymore.
SPEAKER_02: We're used to just there this thing that's kind of in the way, and we give money to it.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: They're people.
SPEAKER_02: And so one of the best things you can do in loving your brother is restore them.
SPEAKER_02: I witnessed to a guy one time, he told me he was not a candidate for salvation.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what?
SPEAKER_02: He said, Yeah, I killed a man.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, So did David.
SPEAKER_02: And it was the first time that someone had told him, No, no, no, you're not.
SPEAKER_02: Brother, you're like way out in the left field here.
SPEAKER_02: God loves you.
SPEAKER_02: But he was so far disconnected because people didn't pay attention to his situation and say, that's not actually true.
SPEAKER_02: And so to be able to share with him the gospel and show him people in the Bible that had been forgiven of murder was freeing from him.
SPEAKER_02: But the first thing I had to do was know what he was in bondage by.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're all in bondage through slavery of shame if we're not careful.
SPEAKER_02: And you have to be able to stop and you have to notice people.
SPEAKER_02: So if you don't do anything else, if you don't get anything else out of this message, get this.
SPEAKER_02: Take time to notice people.
SPEAKER_02: You can't help them if you don't actually know what they're dealing with.
SPEAKER_02: Then the man looks at him expecting to get something from them.
SPEAKER_02: I won't waste a lot of time here, but I'm telling you, the world expects more of the church than the church is giving.
SPEAKER_02: It should be okay for the world to expect something.
SPEAKER_02: We say we follow the living God.
SPEAKER_02: We say that he's a God of love.
SPEAKER_02: So we should be allowed or to be viewed by the world as there's some expectations of us.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to keep going.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 6, then Peter said, Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
SPEAKER_02: You are not responsible for what you do not have.
SPEAKER_02: But you are responsible for what you do have.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I don't have any money.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Does God want you involved in this situation?
SPEAKER_02: I don't have any money.
SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe that's not how he wants you to get involved.
SPEAKER_02: You are not excused because you don't have money.
SPEAKER_02: You're not excused from serving and loving your brother because you don't have any money left over at the end of the month.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're in this room and you hear us talking about mission opportunities and things that you can do to get involved, and you think, well, I don't have any money.
SPEAKER_02: You can't stop there.
SPEAKER_02: You have to ask yourself, but what do I have?
SPEAKER_02: So silver and gold I don't have, but what I do have, I give to you.
SPEAKER_02: So the question is then, what do you have?
SPEAKER_02: Do you have time?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you have time, and others don't.
SPEAKER_02: Do you have an ear?
SPEAKER_02: Do you have the ability to be a listener?
SPEAKER_02: Could you just sit across the table?
SPEAKER_02: You ever been around somebody that just needs to talk?
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, that's a sacrifice for me.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you guys, but for me, when I have somebody, I'm like, man, they just need to talk.
SPEAKER_02: I kind of have conversations in my own head while they're talking about how much they need to talk.
SPEAKER_02: Because it's hard for me.
SPEAKER_02: It's hard for me to be a listener.
SPEAKER_02: Do you have knowledge?
SPEAKER_02: You know, anytime I'm like uh trying to fix a light socket or something at my house, I have like one hand on a uh screwdriver and I got the other, I got my ear like this, talking to my father-in-law.
SPEAKER_02: Like, do I unscrew this?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Is it gonna kill me?
SPEAKER_02: No, you're okay.
SPEAKER_02: You're okay.
SPEAKER_02: Are you sure it's not gonna kill me?
SPEAKER_02: What do you have?
SPEAKER_02: You can love your brother.
SPEAKER_02: You can love your neighbor with what you have.
SPEAKER_02: Do you have a skill set?
SPEAKER_02: Do you have spiritual maturity?
SPEAKER_02: Do you have courage?
SPEAKER_02: Can you speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves?
SPEAKER_02: What do you have?
SPEAKER_02: And that's the question you have to ask.
SPEAKER_02: Is I don't have silver and gold, but I can give this.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, Silver and gold I do not have.
SPEAKER_02: What I have I give to you.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
SPEAKER_02: Taking him by the right hand, he helped them up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know that sometimes people can be healed and not know it?
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes people can walk around with the healing and the answer, but they won't know it until you walk with them.
SPEAKER_02: You have to walk with them.
SPEAKER_02: And we don't want to make that sacrifice sometimes, but sometimes, in order to love your brother, you have to be willing to kind of hang with them.
SPEAKER_02: Because he said, in the name of Jesus, walk.
SPEAKER_02: And he didn't walk.
SPEAKER_02: So he said, No, no, no, you don't understand.
SPEAKER_02: You don't understand.
SPEAKER_02: You're healed.
SPEAKER_02: And he grabbed me, picked them up, and he's got, I can just imagine him saying, No, you're healed.
SPEAKER_02: You just have to walk in it.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, I'll help you up.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes when you're walking with a person who has an addiction problem, or a marriage problem, or a mental emotional problem, or just a maturity problem.
SPEAKER_02: I had to walk with a guy one time for two years.
SPEAKER_02: I thought I would kill him.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't learn to walk, we're going to have to part ways.
SPEAKER_02: But eventually he got it, and then he went on to be in the military.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you have to walk with a person.
SPEAKER_02: We have to be a church who's willing to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: And making disciples means we live beside people.
SPEAKER_02: We walk with people.
SPEAKER_02: We watch how they walk.
SPEAKER_02: We watch how they live.
SPEAKER_02: We are with them.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're not with them, you don't actually have compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Because you know what compassion means?
SPEAKER_02: To suffer with.
SPEAKER_02: That's what compassion means.
SPEAKER_02: To suffer with a person.
SPEAKER_02: And we don't have time for that.
SPEAKER_02: So we would far rather have the can that we can just drop and go.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not the compassion that Jesus showed.
SPEAKER_02: And we have to follow Christ with our compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: He jumped to his feet and he began to walk, and then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.
SPEAKER_02: And 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_02: And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
SPEAKER_02: Scripture says I won't read it because we don't have time.
SPEAKER_02: But the scripture says they actually came running to see what God had done.
SPEAKER_02: The crowds came running to see the work that the Lord was doing.
SPEAKER_02: I look forward to that.
SPEAKER_02: I think missions is actually that one area that the world will stop and take note of.
SPEAKER_02: They don't care about what we say, they don't care about what we sing about.
SPEAKER_02: They don't care much about the discipleship that we have.
SPEAKER_02: All of those are important.
SPEAKER_02: I would never abandon those.
SPEAKER_02: I think those are the cornerstone of who we are following Christ as disciples.
SPEAKER_02: But what people will do, what people will take notice at is when the church serves the broken.
SPEAKER_02: People note that.
SPEAKER_02: People see that.
SPEAKER_02: And when we don't do it, that's what they call us out on.
SPEAKER_02: But I will tell you this there's not an organization on the earth that does more for the hurting, poor, and helpless than the church.
SPEAKER_02: There's not one.
SPEAKER_02: It does not exist.
SPEAKER_02: So as you begin to dive in to some of that critical talk, just stop and do just a little bit of thinking and a little bit of sober study, and you'll realize the world would be in a bad, bad, bad place without the church.
SPEAKER_02: In a hurting, bad place without the church.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know that in disaster relief, disaster relief, just one denomination is the third largest disaster relief organization in America.
SPEAKER_02: Just one denomination.
SPEAKER_02: What we are allowed to do by the power of God to love our neighbor is massive, but you and I, we have to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_02: You have to join in.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when we do, our platform gets raised.
SPEAKER_02: People then start wanting to hear what we have to say.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know after this miracle happened, the church grew to 5,000?
SPEAKER_02: You know the whole thing when people say, we want an axe church.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we want.
SPEAKER_02: We want to have an axe church.
SPEAKER_02: It's like we come in here, we have a business meeting, and we walk out with an axe church.
SPEAKER_02: No, it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_02: This was actually the catalyst to what everybody calls the axe church.
SPEAKER_02: They saw this happen.
SPEAKER_02: Peter was persecuted because it happened.
SPEAKER_02: He endured the persecution.
SPEAKER_02: The church grew to 5,000, and people began to share everything.
SPEAKER_02: You might be the catalyst to what happens in our church in the world of missions.
SPEAKER_02: You might be that catalyst, but you have to pay attention.
SPEAKER_02: You have to notice people, you have to be willing to restore what's broken in people.
SPEAKER_02: You have to be able and willing to walk with people, and you can't just cash out because you don't have the money to do anything about it.
SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to The Road.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
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SPEAKER_01: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
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SPEAKER_01: Thank you for tuning in today.
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