Daily Christianity

In our Bibles this morning, we'll consider the book of Acts again. It's been a very interesting week I have experienced, a very challenging week. I decided, or I was asked to maintain a house in Tennessee for a friend, and I did that.

Four bedrooms, no, three bedrooms, two baths, a large dining living area, two hallways, a garage, ceilings, walls, trim. And I did it in four and a half days and working day and night, literally. And in the process of that, they had asked me to come and teach also at the church.

So two nights, Wednesday and Thursday, I was actually teaching some things at the church there in Muddy Pond. So needless to say, I was up early and down late, and I was expending a lot of energy. And then I drove home Friday and slept at three, got home around one o'clock.

And I was driving home and got outside of Cincinnati. You know how it is, you're dead exhausted. You're driving at night at 11 o'clock, and you're heading home.

And I'm probably three-quarters of the way from Cincinnati to Columbus on 71. And I look at my gas tank, and it's almost empty. So I stopped at the next exit, and I got some gas.

And then I was disoriented, I guess. I was just tired and thought I was heading north again, but I actually was heading south. And I drove, and this was days and half an hour's driving.

And I came across a good thing I did at one of those green signs, Cincinnati, 49 miles. I said, what in the world? So you know the feeling, you're tired, you want to get home. And now you've just taken the wrong direction for half an hour.

So that put me back to about 1.30 to get home. That was on Saturday morning. So needless to say, I was not really prepared to come here this morning until I got up this morning.

And the Lord gave me something to share with you here from Acts chapter number 3. So I'm going to ask you to turn to some different places. So we want to look at these verses. There's a number of things to look at here in Acts 3, 4, and 5. I know we've got a busy day this afternoon, but I'll try to be short.

Acts chapter 3 is the story of a man named Lame from his father's womb, and he's being brought to the temple in Jerusalem. So I want to start reading in verse 1. I want to read down through verse 12 and then comment on this story here. Let's keep in mind this is the very beginning of the church.

We've learned a little bit about church life and how it's a daily life and how they had all things common. The four pillars of church life is continuing in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. And now we come to chapter 3, starting in verse number 1. It says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

That's 3 o'clock, and it seems like 3 o'clock daily there was prayer offered up. Verse 2, And a certain man, Lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple. This man never had walked in his lifetime.

Which is called beautiful to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. He had his cup probably, and it was there daily. Everybody knew him.

He probably knew a lot of the people too. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alm. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up, stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God.

What a sight that must have been. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew that it was he which sent for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple.

And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? There's a lot of things here to unpack, and we're not going to unpack all of them.

But I do, and as I read the Bible and study the Bible, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And back in those days, they didn't have a Bible. You're very privileged.

You sit with a Bible in your lap. People in the early church didn't have a Bible in their lap. They needed to hear the Word of God.

And yes, there was probably an Old Testament in the synagogue that they could look at. But New Testament theology and teaching was not yet written, and they didn't have their own Bible. So faith came by hearing.

And so maybe faith can rise up in your heart today as you hear this story. There's many stories about God moving and healing and strengthening people. But I want to look at this one here today.

And I'm not going to try to fit the Bible into our life. I'm going to encourage you to fit your life into the Bible. It's a much better way to do things than to try to fit the Bible into our life.

Now, there's two things that have happened here at the very beginning. And they're purposed this way, but two things have happened to draw the crowds and to stir up interest in the things of the Lord Jesus Christ. Back in Acts chapter 2, I'll read to you here.

You can turn if you'd like. In Acts chapter 2, verse 5, it says this. There was dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven.

Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because they heard every man speak in his own language. God does a miracle, and that miracle is the gift of tongues. And that gift of tongues brings multitudes of people into one place.

Multitudes come together to see what's going on. What is happening here? Word has been spreading abroad, and this miracle causes people to gather together, and then Peter takes advantage of this opportunity. And he preaches at least to 3,000 people.

Many, many more were there, I'm sure, but 3,000 people are saved because of the miracle, the attraction of the miracle to the people coming together, and then the Word of God being preached, the gospel, and 3,000 are saved. Now the same thing happens here, and this is the second major miracle. This man is healed.

And it says here in verse number 12 that people come rushing together. Verse 11, they run together unto them into the porch. It is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering.

Another miracle has occurred, and a healing takes place. And if you jump ahead here to chapter 4, verse 4, it says, Howbeit many of them which heard the word, Peter preaches another sermon, and the number of the men, that was about 5,000. Boy, Peter's having some real good experiences here.

He's preached two times, two messages, and the first message he converts 3,000, and the second message he converts 5,000. So he's the leading evangelist of the day for sure. But God is helping him, and God is giving miracles, and those miracles are drawing people together, and crowds are forming, and Peter is using that opportunity to preach the gospel.

And so God is using here some supernatural sign to make a way for the preaching of the gospel. And you see this throughout the entire book of Acts. As a matter of fact, you see this in the life of Jesus, in the life of the disciples.

God yokes up supernatural signs and wonders with the preaching of the gospel. They seem to go hand in hand in the New Testament. Now, I don't want you to turn me off here, because many people have problems with signs and wonders and these type of things.

But again, I'm not going to try to fit our life into the Bible. I'm going to try to have you to fit the Bible into your life. It works out a lot better that way.

So this idea of the preaching and these signs and wonders, and you see this in the ministry and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to just read some of these verses. You can listen to me as I read them.

This is a testimony of Jesus, the cornerstone of the early church. In Matthew 4, verse 23, it says, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria.

They brought sick people and he healed them. So Jesus, if you look at his life, his ministry, he had combined the preaching of the word with miracles and signs and wonders. And that was a testimony of his life, preaching and signs and wonders.

And then the Lord commissions his disciples and he gives them the same ability. In Matthew chapter 10, as he sends them out throughout all of Israel, verse number 1, it says, When he called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them... Notice that, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. And down in verse number 7, it says, He tells them, And as you go preaching, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. And here's something important, freely you have received, freely give. Can you imagine being one of these apostles? I mean, I just like to put myself back in those days and just sit there as an apostle.

And the Lord says, Now I want you to go out and preach the gospel. But I also want you to go out and I want you to heal and raise the dead and cast out devils and all of these things, because I'm going to give you that ability. And if I give you that ability, freely you've received it, you'll go out and freely give it.

So to me, that's going to be an exciting life. I've been given these abilities and he wants me to go out and just freely give them. So it's not only the life of Jesus, his testimony, but it's the life also of these disciples and the life that they learn these three years spending time with the Lord.

Now, at the end of the three years, the Lord gives them some words. Here as he leaves, I want to read them. And those who believe your testimony as these men go out and preach the gospel in Mark chapter 16.

Afterward, he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. This is always first to every creature.

These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues.

They shall take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

And so here you're sitting, you're Peter again, you're John. This is about 50 days after the crucifixion. And the Lord is saying, listen, you guys go out and preach the gospel.

And these signs are going to follow the preaching of the gospel. And everyone who believes, these are the signs that will accompany the preaching. Then the next verse says, So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God.

And they went forth, praise God, they went forth. And they preached everywhere. Always the first and most important thing, they preached.

And the Lord worked with them, confirming the word with signs following. And so Peter and John, they've been sitting through all this. They've seen Jesus do it.

For three years they've had this privilege of doing it. And now the Lord is leaving and he's telling them the same thing is going to continue here. And so they're confident that they have an understanding.

Most of us, we don't have an understanding of this. We have not experienced this. But they saw Jesus do it.

He's going everywhere preaching the word. And, man, he's raising dead people. He's healing sick people.

He's doing all this stuff. And it's causing his fame to go all over the place. And then he gives us this same privilege to do these things.

And he tells us, Listen, I freely gave it to you. You go out and freely give. Then before he leaves, he reminds us again to go into all the world, preach the gospel, and these signs are going to follow those who believe.

So with that in mind, Peter and John, they're coming to this temple. And they have this understanding. And something I think that we need to open up our hearts a little bit more to, and that is that the healing that Jesus wants to give not only touches the spirit, it touches the body.

And the Bible talks about that. And praise God, as Brother Chris gave us the song, there's coming a day, and there is coming a day when the body is going to be completely healed. And in the redemption that is in the blood of Jesus Christ, there is complete and physical healing.

And praise God for that. But there is healing now too. I cannot deny that.

The Bible teaches us that we have a soul, and that soul needs healing. But we also have body. And these two are intricately wound up together.

They're intertwined. I like what Jesus said when they let the man down to the roof. He was a man on the cot, paralyzed.

And the Lord healed him. And the people that were there were criticizing the Lord for what he said. And he responds to them this way.

He says, the weather is easier. Think about this. What is easier? Just to say, thy sins be forgiven thee.

That's the soul. Or take up thy bed and walk. That's healing of the body.

And so I think God wants to heal every aspect of us as human beings. And I realize sometimes God allows us to go through things. But he will heal you ultimately.

And you'll get a healing. And you'll get, obviously, a new body. Here's a challenge.

This verse has always challenged me. In Psalm 103, verse 3, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. How many of us are forgetting all his benefits? The Bible says do not forget his benefits.

And here's the benefit. He forgives all thine iniquities. How many of you believe that? I hope so.

He forgives all thine iniquities. I'm planning on him to forgive all mine iniquities. And he heals all my disease.

Now, that's a hard verse for some to accept. And I believe, you know, when we pass out of this world because maybe we have diseases and we're going to die, but the Lord truly does heal all our diseases. We will have a new body.

But I don't want to compromise to that place. I want to also accept the fact that God wants to heal people. He wants to save their soul and forgive their sin.

So why wouldn't he want to heal? And so Christ, when he was preaching, he used signs and wonders. The apostles, they had the same experience. And here's something interesting.

We're going to unpack this as we go through it. It's going to be an interesting thing. I know I'm going to be challenged.

I'm sure we're all going to be challenged. There's a lot of challenging things in the book of Acts that will probably shake our theology up pretty good. But here is Jesus.

He is doing these things. Then he comes to these 12 and says, okay, I'm going to give you this power. And then these apostles go out and they start laying hands on people and give other people the same power.

So the first example in the Bible gives us is the deacons. The deacons of all people, Philip and Stephen are two of the ones that are named. The apostles lay their hands on these deacons and ordain them to the work.

And lo and behold, within a few verses, these guys are doing miracles and signs and wonders. Philip and Stephen, they're both mentioned, doing miracles and signs and wonders. Well, I'd like to just look at that for a minute.

Chapter 8, Acts chapter 8. Let's read here in Acts chapter 8. Well, let's go back and get the whole thing here. I'm going to read a number of verses here. Acts chapter 6, starting in verse number 5. They're thinking about having an ordination for deacons.

In verse 5 it says, And the same pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timion, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, and the Apostle of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid their hands upon them.

So here is the laying on of hands. Look down at verse number 8. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. So now this thing is moving not only from Jesus to the apostles.

Now it's moving down into the deacons. And men like Stephen and Philip are doing great wonders. Jump over to Acts chapter 8 with me here in verse number 5. Then Philip, here's another deacon, went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.

Here is the preaching again. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Now here's a deacon.

We might even get down to the regular old members of the church here in a minute. But here's a deacon. He is doing these amazing things.

God is blessing him with these gifts. But notice here what Simon. Simon is a man whose heart is not right with God here in chapter 8 and verse 9. But there was a certain man called Simon who was before time in the same city who used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that he himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.

Here's a man who has spiritual antennas. And they're the wrong kind of spiritual antennas. But he understands the spiritual world because he's been dealing some on the dark side.

Well, let's jump down here in verse 13. Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and the signs which were done.

This man is, wow, this is amazing. I mean, I thought I had power, Simon says. But look at this.

And it's convincing him that he's not this great one. Let's keep reading here. Verse 14.

Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. These are the same two, Peter and John, that are heading to the temple with this man that's paralyzed. Same two guys.

Who when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then lay they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

Now notice what happens here. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. Let's just be practical.

John and Peter come and they pray over these people and they receive the Holy Ghost. Something obvious happened here. And Simon looks at this and says, hey, I want that.

I want that. And he offers money. Of course, that's not a good idea.

And it goes on to say that he was in bitterness and his heart was broken down and repentant. It occurred there. But these signs, these signs and wonders, they are moving through the book of Acts.

And as we go through the book of Acts, we'll see a lot of these things occurring. They seem to be going from the Lord Jesus himself down to the apostles. Now the apostles are laying hands on others, and they're receiving these things.

And it's moving different places. But it's always along with the preaching of the gospel. Back in Mark chapter 16, Jesus said these signs shall follow them.

As you go out and preach, I'll follow behind you with signs and wonders. And I'm under the persuasion, I believe this is all in my heart, that we don't see signs and wonders like we should see because we're not out preaching the Word of God. We're not out communicating like these men were.

And I'm not going to take the time to do it. But these people, it says of Philip he was going from city to city to city to city, preaching the gospel. He said, what about his job? What about his location? What about his family? There's no mention of those things.

He's out preaching the gospel city to city. As a matter of fact, we learned this last week. They were daily in the temple preaching the Word of God.

Well, I thought about this. You just don't see that today. This is a part of Christianity that I think we're very, very, very lacking in.

And I know you've heard me say this often. But where is a Philip? Where's a Philip today? I mean, do you know anyone who is living like Philip? Anyone that is actually, today he's in Martinsburg preaching the gospel. Tomorrow he's up in Mount Vernon preaching the gospel.

And then he's over in New Haven preaching the gospel. And then he's up in Danville preaching the gospel. And you see this individual giving his life to the preaching of the gospel.

And it says here that he was in these different cities and he was living his life preaching the gospel. So preaching was at the very center of what's going on here. And as we go through the book of Acts, you'll see that to be the case.

Out preaching God's Word. So I ask that question, where is this kind of Christianity today? Let me just read to you two verses that speak about Philip here. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritan.

Anybody you know that does that? How about this? And you say, I know missionaries who do that. That's right. Any missionaries here in America? Anybody living that kind of life here in America? Acts chapter 8, verse 40, but Philip was found at Azotus and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

How long did it take him to do that? This is just to be practical. Here's a man, Philip, maybe he's 30, 35 years old. Maybe he's married.

Maybe he's not. Maybe he's got a job. Maybe he has a vocation.

He could be a carpenter. He could be a painter like me. He could be many things.

But his life has been totally uprooted, and he is now preaching in all of these cities. Maybe he's like Paul. He's a tent maker.

He's taking his business with him. One thing I do know, his daily life and his activity is preaching the gospel. Now, I think God looks down upon that and says, I can follow this guy with signs and wonders.

He wasn't a part-time guy. He wasn't a one or two people a day. He was a preacher of the gospel.

And his life was given to that. That was the main event for his life. So I just want to ask this question.

I'm just thinking about, okay, where is Philip today? Do you know of anybody whose life is given to preaching? We think of a preacher, someone like me, I'm behind this pulpit once on Sunday and maybe on a Wednesday night. But do you know anybody who is doing what Philip is doing? Does anybody know anybody who is going from city to city? And that is their daily activity is preaching the gospel. I don't know anybody.

Isn't that sad? We say we're going to follow the Bible. We're going to do like the Bible says. Well, let's do like the Bible says.

Can we have a few men who will be Philip? Can we have a few men who will be John and Peter? You don't have to be an apostle. We can be a Stephen. You can be a Philip, and we'll go on down the line.

But I just like to be real. I don't like this. I look at my life.

Okay, why can't I be a Philip? Why can't you be a Philip? See, how is God going to provide for my family? You know, the Lord sent them out, and he sent them out there in Matthew 10 and said, don't take any money with you. Don't take any gold, silver, no script. The laborer is worthy of his reward.

Oh, that's interesting. That doesn't fit our theology here in America. But I'm just trying to be honest and straightforward with us.

There were men in the early church who the Spirit of God moved upon many of them, and they were giving themselves to the preaching of the Word of God. And when God saw that heart surrendered, truly surrendered to the will of God, and God said, I'll take care of you, and I'll give you signs and wonders. And I truly believe that that's one of the great, great missing elements of church life today.

We are a Sunday-go-to-meeting crowd, and as far as religion, it tends to be a Sunday-type thing. And as far as daily in the temple and house-to-house cease-not-to-preach-the-Lord-Jesus-Christ, I mean, in the Baptist church, we had Thursday night was soul-winning night. And on Thursday night, we met together two or three hours, and we went soul-winning, door-to-door, house-to-house.

These people were going day by day. And so I think we've got a long way to come. We can raise the standard up pretty high.

And I'm not one, and I can't stand here. I'm not one to say, God, I don't know why you don't do signs and wonders like you do in the Bible. Well, I do know why God doesn't do signs and wonders, because the signs and wonders follow the preachers.

And if there's no preachers, there are going to be no signs and wonders. And that's just probably the honest truth. How many of us really are Philippans? We just say, hey, Lord, I'm going to be a Philippan.

I'm going to lay everything down, and I'm going to go out and just preach Jesus. Eight, ten hours a day, I'm going to find people and preach Jesus. And you do that and come back six months from now, and we'll see what God's doing in your life.

See what's happening. Is there anything more important than the salvation of a human soul? I don't think so. Right? And I know that's a high calling, but it is the calling that you see here in the Bible.

I can't talk about John, these apostles, and Philip, and Stephen, and these men that are mentioned here without mentioning that they are preachers. Say, well, it's not my gift. I'm not talking about gifts.

I'm talking about obeying Jesus. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. It's not just written for the gifted.

It was written for every child of God. I don't think you can go wrong. I don't care who you are.

A.W. Tozier, I have this book at home. I couldn't find it, but A.W. Tozier wrote these words. He says, miracles always follow the plow.

And creation teaches you this. You want the miracle of good tomatoes and the miracle of corn and that miracle of growth? You better get out, first of all, and plow the ground. You've got to plow and work and dig and turn things up before you're going to see any miracles.

God's not going to do a miracle for you unless you get out and plow. So the Lord says, you get out there and start plowing. You start bringing people to repentance, and plowing is to warn people of sin and righteousness and judgment to come.

You turn the soil up. You stir things up a little bit, and I'll come, and I'll do a miracle behind you. We want to have God do a miracle without plowing.

I don't think it's going to work. It doesn't work in my garden. I bought this nice tiller for the back of my tractor.

It plows the garden really good. And then we can start the miracles. Put the seeds in, and here we go.

Many miracles. Well, I want to get back here because I'm trying to look at Peter and John and what's going on in their hearts as they come here to this man. So let's look here as time is quickly passing.

Acts chapter 3, I want to walk down through this, and I want to bring out one major thing here from this story. Verse number 1, it says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man, laying 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 them that entered into the temple.

Now, this is his job. When I was in Guatemala with my wife, and most third world countries are like this, we were in Antigua, Guatemala, for our language school for three weeks. And there were people who were beggars.

That was their vocation. They stayed in the same location. Every day you'd see them in the same spot.

A woman with a little child sitting in her location with her can. She's a beggar. You go to another spot, there's the same person again.

They're begging. And so beggars, they did it every day to survive. So here was a beggar.

He sat daily right there at the gate. Now, does this beggar know Peter and John? Probably he does. If you're sitting at the gate and these people are going in day after day for years, you get to know the people.

You get to know who's generous and who isn't. Hey, John. Hey, Bill.

Hey, Sam. How you doing? So he's been sitting there. He probably knows very many people.

But there's something else he knows. This Christianity thing, rumors going all over the place. These people are generous.

They're selling their houses. We talked about this last time. They're giving.

I mean, they're generous people. So here he's sitting. Peter, John, apostles.

I'm going to get something from these guys. And so he has a desire, and it says here he has an expectation. Verse number four.

And verse three, who's seeing Peter and John about to go to the temple, ask an all. So you can see him. There was this cup.

Peter, John. Can you give me something, Peter? John. Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink.

And Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. Give me your attention. I don't know how old this man was.

Maybe he's 30 years old. Give us your attention. Look on us.

And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. I've taught this over the years, but it's, again, reminded here in this passage. He had in his heart an expectation that he was going to receive something.

And that is so important, so important for you to respond to God in faith. Faith, by definition, is the substance of things hoped for. And that word substance means it's the confident expectation.

I am going to get it. It's substance. I don't have it in my fingers, but it's as good as me having it in my fingers.

I have a confident expectation. And I like that illustration. I've used it many times here.

That woman who comes to Jesus presses through that crowd. And it says, in her heart, she said, thinking, if I can just touch his garment, I shall be healed. You know what? That's a confident expectation right there.

It wasn't, if I can touch his garment, I hope, I hope I'll be healed. Maybe I won't. Maybe I will.

No. I shall be healed. The Lord's preaching something here also this morning.

I shall be healed. You know, if you want to see God work in your life and you want to show faith in him, you need to read his word and in your heart have a confident expectation that what God said is going to come to pass. I mean, I go back to my conversion.

I didn't even know anything about the Bible. But one thing I knew, I had a confident expectation that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you looked in my heart when I was 19 years old that day, July 15th, you would have seen a young man who knew nothing about the Bible, but knew and was assured that when he prayed and asked Jesus to save him, he was going to be saved.

That's a confident expectation. There wasn't any doubt. I just believe God.

And if God says it, that's good enough for me. And that is something we all need. A confident expectation.

That is the essence of faith. So God tells us here, this man was expecting. He didn't say money.

He's expecting something. He has a heart. He's waiting.

They're going to give me something. Now, this confident expectation is the essence of what faith is. And listen to this.

It's what pleases God. Now, Brother David has two young sons. I'll use him as an example.

Devon and Wade. So Brother David says, Devon and Wade, boys, we're going fishing tomorrow. I'm going to rent a boat.

We're going up to Lake Erie. We're going to catch big fish. I don't know if your boys like to fish.

So Wade, I'm saying, Devon, I know you would do this. I'm going to use you on the negative side. Wade hears his daddy say we're going fishing, and he's confident they're going.

He gets all excited. He gets his fishing gear out, sets it on the porch, gets his lunch packed. He's all excited.

He's ready to go. And that pleases Brother David because Wade believes him. And because he believes him, he has this confident expectation.

Devon, on the other hand, he doubts the veracity of his father's word. I don't know whether he's going to take this. David says, son, you're making me a liar.

And the Bible says in 1 John, if you don't believe God, you make him a liar. You don't think I'm going to do what I said I would do? I'm not sure, Dad. I know Stephanie would never say this.

She's using this as an illustration. But when you doubt whether this is going to come to pass, what you're saying is, I'm not sure you're going to get it. And that does not please God.

And that's why this kind of a faith is important, that we honor God, and we're willing to say if God said it, I'm going to put my confidence and trust in it. So here we go. We have this man.

He has this expectation. Verse 5, he gave heathen to them, expecting to receive something of them. And here's where I want to really get to our message this morning.

Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none. But such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

Now, I believe that Peter and John already were taught by the Lord, don't take any silver, no gold, no script. You don't need any of that stuff. I'll provide for you.

And maybe they had emptied their pockets and given it away like we read last time in the last chapter. Maybe they didn't have nothing. I'm sure they did.

They weren't lying. Silver and gold have I none. We don't have any money.

But such as I have, give I unto you. Now, here's something I think that we ought to consider. You know, most churches, when they get far from God, when they start to move away from the Lord, they tend to be churches that give a lot of silver and gold.

And I think it's good to give silver and gold. I'm not saying anything against it. But in large part, that's pretty much their ministry, is let's do this help, like buying clothes or buying food.

And it moves into a social type of a gospel. It's all about silver and gold. Silver and gold.

We got plenty of silver and gold. Yeah, we'll give offerings here and there. And offerings are good.

I don't want to downplay offerings if we are also having something else to give. Something supernatural. And that's what John and Peter are going to represent here.

I don't have anything in the natural realm. I can't help you in the natural realm at this point. But I do have something that is supernatural.

And that's what I want to give you. Silver and gold. Have I not? I got a man that's calling me, my wife.

Got my phone yesterday and just kept it in the kitchen because I wasn't there. But this man, he calls me probably 30 or 40 times a day. Michael Darley.

David and I met him. We know him. I met him down in Columbus at a festival I was preaching at.

He's a homeless type of a person. But he wants money on a regular basis. And I just don't answer anymore.

I just, you know, last time it was, this is the last time I'm going to call and ask for it. Two days later, I need more. So, you know, you can get stuck in that.

You can just do that. And I don't want to downplay that. We've helped him out many times.

There's a young boy that needs a valve. We want to help them. But the Lord wants to go much deeper than that.

So Peter says, silver and gold, have I not? But such as I have, gave I thee. Now, I'm meditating upon that, and I want to ask this question. Peter says, think about this, comes up to this beggar, says, I don't have any of this.

But I have something. I'm going to give you. I have something.

Now, how many of you have something to give someone? Not physical. Say, I got some money. That's good.

I got my car or I got some clothes. If you need something, I'll give you some clothes. We learned about living with all things common.

But how many of us have something supernatural to give? You know, God gave gifts to men. Those are supernatural gifts. And those gifts were to be given to others.

So here Peter says, I don't have any money, but I have something in me that I want to give you. Silver and gold, have I none? But such as I have, give thee. And the question that kind of came to my heart is, what do I have? Peter understood he had something.

What do I have? What do I have that's supernatural, spiritual, that I can give other people to help me? So Peter says, I have something I want to give you. And it has nothing to do with the physical world. And it's everything to do with the supernatural.

So when you sit here today, there's a lot of spiritually needy people here and in the world. How can you give them something if you don't have something? And I say it this way, how can you give them something if you don't know if you even have anything yourself? Oftentimes I ask people, where is your gift, your spiritual gift? Or what spiritual graces do you have that you can give to others? I don't know what it is. I don't see how anyone can give something they don't know what they even have.

Peter understood he had something. He had something to give. So he gave it.

When you look inside of you, what do you have to give? There's a lot of people who have spiritual need. As a matter of fact, the body was formed by God that each member would supply me. So as everyone comes together and they have their spiritual inner gifts working and they give out, people can have their needs met.

A lot of times people are in churches and they don't feel like they're getting their needs met, and it's largely because the spiritual gifts are not functioning. People are not coming to church saying, I have something to give. I'm going to give you of my spiritual life, supernatural.

And you'll find, and you've seen this over the years, I've seen it, you'll find that when churches start losing the gifts and the spirit and the anointing of God, they begin to turn to the physical realm. It's all about feeding people or making food or a clothing place, and it becomes a social activity. I think that's what's happened to the Salvation Army.

Once a vibrant, spiritual, dynamic group of people, now they're simply handing out gold and silver. And churches tend to go that way because they lose the spiritual power and the blessing, the supernatural side of things. And here in the early church, they definitely had the supernatural, and they had the gifts functioning.

So I want to encourage you, don't bury the supernatural. You have a gift, a spiritual gift. And the truth of the matter is there are people here who need it.

You know that? The Bible says every joint is a supply. You might say, I don't need my arm, but I need mine. And we all need each other and the members.

So when Peter comes, he says, I don't have any silver and gold, but I do have some gift. So when I say, Brother Chris, what do you have to give? Supernatural. And I've tried to encourage us over the years when we come to church on Sunday, you ought to come like Peter and John.

Yes, you can put a little silver and gold in the offering plate back there, that's fine, but you also ought to have something supernatural to bring. Give to your brothers and sisters. So such as I have, give I unto thee.

I have this little booklet. It was given to me by someone recently, but it's the title of it, and it's all about this. Acknowledging what is in you.

And it's a little booklet. It just talks about all the things that God has given you. Supernatural things.

He has blessed us with all these spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and he has deposited them in you. And you can do the same thing that Peter and John did. I don't have any gold and silver.

I don't have any clothes for you today, but such as I have supernaturally and spiritually, I'm going to give. Well, here's something to ask. How does Peter know that he has something to give? How does Peter know that? Here's how he knows it.

I read this verse just a little bit ago. But in Mark, he sits there and he listens to Jesus. And he says, here's what the Lord says.

These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues.

They shall take up serpents. If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. And listen to this.

They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Now, Peter's sitting there, and if you and I were sitting there, and we heard Jesus say, now you go out and preach, and these things I'm going to give to you to do. If you have faith, what's that going to do to you? I'm going to go, and freely as I receive, freely give.

So Peter really had faith. Jesus said that to him. All right.

So he comes to the temple. I have no doubt in his heart. He comes to the temple, probably thinking of other things maybe.

He's a lame man. The Lord reminds him, freely you have received, freely give. He says to that lame man, look on him.

He in his heart is going to give out what the Lord, by the way, it was only about maybe 15 days, 30 days before this event, that Jesus has spoken those words. So he knows he has things. He's been promised these things.

And if you and I have been promised in the book of Ephesians, yes, the Lord's not going to come to you and speak to you audibly. They heard him audibly, but you have the word of God. And the word of God says you're blessed with many spiritual blessings.

You need to know what those are, and therefore give them out. Now, John and Peter, they had the privilege of experiencing these things already. Jesus gave them power to cast out devils, to heal sick, to raise the dead.

They'd already lived three years doing stuff, so they understood. So let me just remind you, it's the heart of the Lord that when God gives you something, that you would then give it out. Peter is expressing your faith in Jesus' word.

He knows what the Lord has given him. The Lord told him, here's what I gave you, now you go and give it. So let me ask you this, if the Lord would come to you audibly, maybe visit you in a dream, practic illustration, say, I'm going to give you the ability to go and heal people that are sick.

Okay, Lord. So the next morning you wake up, what are you going to do? You're walking in town, you see a man coming your way that's crippled. Wait a minute, the Lord just told you, last night I had this ability.

I'm going to give it out. The crippled man comes to you and says, hey, I've got something to give you. What do you got to give me? In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up.

Boom. I'm responding to the Lord by faith. Now the question is here, acknowledging what is in you.

What is in you? As a child of God, what do you have? Or what has God deposited in you? Now as we go through the book of Acts, we're going to see these individuals who have been given certain abilities and certain gifts, and they're going out and then giving them away. And I want to encourage you as we go through here to be open to respond in faith. Let's keep reading here in this story.

I don't want to take too much time here, but in Acts chapter number 3 here, it says in verse 7, and he took him by the right hand. I think that's important because Jesus said you're going to lay hands on the sick. Now this man is not healed until Peter takes him by the hand.

Let's touch each other. Takes him by the hand, says, and he lifted him up. Now there's a step of faith.

Can you come up to a paralyzed man who's never walked in his entire life and get him and pull him up? And look what it says. He took him by the right hand, lifted him up, and immediately on, I think, maybe even touching, immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. Now I believe this.

Two things happened. This man had an expectation. What's he going to give me? He doesn't have silver and gold, but what's he going to give me? His heart's open.

I want it. Peter's got the faith. The Lord gave it to me.

He told me I'm going to have it, and he just reacts to it and responds to it. And those two, expectation with faith, just boom. Here we go.

And he is healed. Verse number 8 says, and he's leaping up, stood and walked. Now this man never learned to walk.

You know, every one of us has to learn to walk, and I believe that's why this man is still holding on. In verse 11, he held on to Peter and John. His legs were fine, but he never learned to walk.

You know, we all have to learn to walk. We crawl and we walk. This man never was a baby.

He never learned to walk. So he's got these maybe 30, 35-year-old legs that now he's going to learn to walk one step at a time. Well, I want to also bring out in verse 6 something that I've talked about here on numerous occasions.

It says, then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. So that phrase, in the name of Jesus Christ, simply means in the place of Jesus.

In the place of Jesus. I saw Jesus for three years do these things. Now the Lord is gone, and he told me to go in his name.

Go in his name. So I'm here in the place of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Peter says, in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk, he's simply saying, in Jesus' place, rise up and walk.

Do you know that we have the privilege of going in Jesus' name, actually standing in his place as his ambassador, as his hands, as his feet, and doing his work. In my name. So these two things, an expectation of the man to receive something.

That's the lame man. And the faith of Peter to stand in Jesus' place and to believe his word. To really believe and to know that he had something to give.

And that's something that, boy, I just struggle with that. I would love to just break out of unbelief. Because knowing in my heart, fully, God said it.

He's given it to me. Go and use it. Okay, let's just keep reading here and I'll finish.

So verse 8 here, he was healed. He just never learned to walk. Verse 9 says, and all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he who sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple.

And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering. So this massive people floods.

Now how many of you, when a massive people comes together, a few thousand people, you think, oh, this is a great opportunity to preach. You know, Peter did. Not only on the day of Pentecost, but also here.

Verse 12, when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we have made this man to walk? It's not about us. I do not take any credit for this. He's got a good part here.

It's nothing to do with me. As a matter of fact, it's nothing to do with my holy life. It's nothing to do with me personally, no power of mine, no holiness of mine.

But it's all because of one person, the name of the Lord Jesus. You know, a lot of people are proud and unsure. Some people would feel like this.

They would want to make sure everybody knew it. Well, I've been living an awful holy life lately. All this.

Our church is so good. We have healing. We're so much better than everybody else.

This is a self-righteous pride attitude. But Peter has nothing to do with it. Not me.

I'm just... Stuff is given to me. I'm just standing in someone's place. And there's no glory for me.

So they glorified the Lord. And this is going to bring about another sermon that Peter is going to preach. And there's going to be 5,000 people saved through this one.

And so this is the early church. This is what's going on. I believe this is the picture that God is intending to give us.

I know some of you like to look at the Moravians or like to look at the Anabaptists or like to look at the German Baptists. But I'd rather go back and look at the perfect example of this is the Holy Spirit-filled beginning of the early church. Let's copy its pattern.

And follow its way. So the word of God is to bring faith. And I trust it's bringing faith to you.

But I want you to acknowledge what is in you. What is in you? If God has deposited something in you and you're not giving it out, so be sure to give it out. I know this.

Give and what will happen shall be given unto you. So let's close today's word of prayer. May the Lord help us.