 Let's take a moment and dive straight into the Word of God. If you have your Bible, let's go into Book of Acts chapter 3 and verse 6. Book of Acts chapter 3 and verse 6, and it says the following. Then Peter said to the man who was lame laying at the beautiful gate, he says, silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. This is a very, very famous and very known scripture. I want us to know one thing about Holy Spirit is when Jesus came on this earth, he said that Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father. And Prophet Joel, Prophet Joel prophesied about 800 years before the coming of Jesus that the Holy Spirit is going to come on this earth and that everything is going to be changed. Actually, Prophet Joel will be really proud today knowing that his prophecy is hanging on the wall in our church, right there. In the last days, God says I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Jesus comes 800 years later and says what Prophet Joel said is coming. And I'm going to make that happen. This prophecy was not an exaggeration. This prophecy will become a reality. Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father. Can somebody say amen? If you're taking notes right down to Holy Spirit is the petition of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus said not only the Father promised him, but I will ask the Father remind him and petition him. Make sure that promise will become a reality. The scripture says when Jesus went to heaven, his job in heaven, typically be a Christian thing that Jesus' job in heaven is to prepare heaven for us. But the Bible says that Jesus' job in heaven is to intercede for us, not to prepare heaven for us. Because if he's preparing heaven for us, it doesn't make sense in a way that people who died before us, they went where? Unprepared heaven? No, they went to heaven that is prepared. Heaven is ready for you and it's prepared. But Jesus in heaven is praying and his first prayer was, God give them the Holy Spirit and God answered that prayer. Can somebody say amen? Right down number three, the Holy Spirit is the purpose of salvation. When Apostle Peter finished preaching his first sermon in Acts chapter two verse 38, he says the following, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Typically, this is how it's heard in churches today. Repent, get baptized and you will receive the gift of eternal salvation. Apostle Peter preaches the first sermon after which three thousand people give their lives to Jesus and he says, I want you guys to repent, means change your way about God. Secondly, you have to do is right away you have to get water baptized. You have to get baptized into water to show to the world you are following Jesus. This will bring forgiveness of your sins so that you will get a gift of the Holy Spirit. Most of us think salvation is to help me get to heaven. The Bible says salvation is to help you first get the Holy Spirit. Heaven is later, Holy Spirit is now. Heaven is when you die, Holy Spirit is when you get saved. The purpose of your salvation is not just a ticket to heaven, the purpose of your salvation is the invitation of the greatest person who is on this earth today. That person is not Bill Gates, that person is not Barack Obama, these men are powerful influential, these men are not the makers of the world they influencing. Holy Spirit is and salvation invites him in. Can somebody say amen? Acts chapter 3 continues the story of Apostle Peter and John walking into the temple and the Bible says they meet a man who was laying at the temple and who was a beggar. He was homeless or he was very poor and he was begging for money. The scripture says the reason why he was begging for money is not because unemployment was high and there was no jobs. It wasn't because he was fired from his job and he could not find an employment. It was because he was lame in both of his feet. It's not that the man didn't have his feet, he didn't have his legs, it's that his legs did not carry him. His legs did not walk and he was a lame beggar. He was not sitting somewhere by a grocery store. He found a beautiful place by the church at the gates and they carried him there every single day and he would beg people for some donation. Apostle Peter and John walked seeing him being lame. They approached him and Peter and John did not have the funds with him because they gave to the church probably and he said to him, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus he lifted him. He says I want you to get up. The man got up and instead of laying and begging he went around dancing and leaping and praising God. And this was a miracle. God still does miracles and he wants to do miracles today. He wants to do miracles in our life especially for people who are at church, close to church or have some kind of a connection. But in just few minutes I want to just bring a thought from this verse that applies to us as Christians that could be also in the temple. And we'll title this thought the lame Christian. And the lame not meaning crazy is stupid. The lame meaning somebody who has something at his disposal he's currently don't know how to use. Lame Christian is someone who spends his life laying instead of leaping, begging instead of commanding. Lame Christian is someone who gets dragged instead of bringing others. Lame Christian is someone who has the legs that supposed to carry him but he is carrying them. Lame Christian is someone who has everything he needs inside of him and does not know how to tap it. Lame Christian is someone who is constantly asking for something from someone not knowing his bigger need is not what he's asking is something else. If you take notes I'll just write a few notes down and then I just want to share that thought in those points. The lame man is someone who is at the temple, has legs but his legs don't carry him. I want you to, this is not theologically correct, to imagine what legs meant to that man, Holy Spirit is to you. He had legs but didn't walk. Many people have the Holy Spirit but do not walk in him. Point number two, having legs does not mean you know how to walk. You had legs the first day you came out of your mother's womb but you learned to walk months later. The moment you receive Jesus in your heart on that very day you have all of God, the Holy Spirit in you but for some people it takes months, years and for some people they become like that man, already adults, record of coming to church but not really knowing what it's like to tap into the resource not in heaven, not at the White House or welfare but inside of him called the Holy Spirit. Having legs does not necessarily mean you know how to walk. Having the Holy Spirit does not necessarily mean you already walk in him. Most of the things come into our life in the package, if you get a vacuum or you get a TV or if you get a table it will all be disconnected and when you get it into the house you will say, I asked for a table, I got piece of wood and that's exactly how it comes to the Holy Spirit. God gives us the Holy Spirit but many times it is our duty, it is our job to learn how to walk in the Holy Spirit we have or else we live our life caring him instead of him caring us or else we live our life and these legs this man had to carry they were not designed for him to carry his legs. Legs are given to men so that legs will carry the man, not the other way around but for many people Holy Spirit is just someone they carry but it's not someone that carries them. Point number three, no one is born walking, we learn to walk or else we end up perfecting the skill of crawling. The Bible divides Christian life into two categories, walking or crawling. Walking is the Bible says walk in the spirit, crawling is when we crawl in the flesh. Flesh is not necessarily smoking, drinking and immorality. Flesh is simply a life of a Christian that has everything of God but using none of it. Life of flesh is having the Holy Spirit but constantly leaning on you, your efforts, your education, your connections, your influence constantly being defined by your weakness and your strengths instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to carry you through. Life in the flesh is also life in the sin, life in compromise, life when you come to church when you want to, life in the flesh is when you do when only it's good to you but the moment something goes against your feelings you drop it and you leave look for another church another pastor that does not offend you, life in the flesh. We have a lot of people who crawl it's completely fine if you're two months old but it's not fine if you're 20 year old. If you've been in church longer then these pews that's not fine and most of us will learn how to crawl a lot better than to learn how to walk. Point number four, when you don't know how to walk let someone who does give you a hand. When you don't know how to walk let someone who does give you a hand. When the lame man was laying there he had legs but didn't use them. Two men walked up to him who had legs but used them and they said we won't give you legs you have them but we will give you something we have and the Bible says as they let their hand down and they picked them up in that very moment strength came into the legs he already had and now this man is doing with his legs what apostles are doing with theirs anytime you have something inside of you the Holy Spirit the resources of God the power of God the promises of God but you are not tapping into it your life is not being affected by it you need someone who is tapping into it to give you a hand through a book podcast a message that's why the church is so important is so that a pastor is so that a minister who is walking in the very things you already have you just don't walk in them yet not to say I am better than you and not to give you legs you already have them but to give you a hand give you a revelation and information about what you already have and something kicks in a strength comes in a confidence comes in that God can do with me what he did with him with her and you begin to walk and you begin to leap as well almost every experience you would have with God will be preceded by someone who had that experience first and shared his hand with you sometimes a book that you'll read I even mentioned to you when I was inspired to give that funds it was because I was inspired by someone's life who gave his house away his cars and everything when I read that story Holy Spirit used that story to lend me a hand out of my situation I remember a moment when I've had tremendous touch by the Holy Spirit when I was listening to the tapes from from Argentinian revival for a whole week I would listen to seven tapes on Argentinian revival and I would have just these amazing encounters with the Holy Spirit right here in this sanctuary but you have to understand when you don't know how to walk you can just simply beg there you just don't miss your John and don't miss your Peter don't miss your mentor don't miss your pastor and don't miss someone who already is walking because you have the same thing that anybody else does and God places within them to reach out to you and lift you up but many times when John and Peter passes by we are not there to meet them somebody say man next point your biggest need is not to learn to beg your biggest need is to learn to walk but not whatever you are begging others for your biggest need is to learn to walk but not whatever you are begging others for did you know that this beggar at the gate named beautiful never once asked anyone for healing he only asked people for money he thought his biggest need is lack of resources his thought his biggest need is the fact he needs gold and he needs silver an apostle Peter came and at first it seems like Peter is disappointing him because he's saying what you are here for I won't give you what you are really asking for I don't have but you've been sitting here so long that you don't know really what you need what you really need and why you are really begging is because of something I can give you sometimes we are so focused on the symptoms of our problem instead of the roots of our problems that when God ignores the symptoms and goes to the root we get offended and we stop the whole process and say God stop that give me gold and silver and God says I want to give you something more I want to teach you to use what I already gave you your legs your biggest need this year is not to get a breakthrough in your finances your biggest need this year is not to get a breakthrough in your relationships and finally find someone you can date and marry that is not your biggest need that is gold and silver your biggest need is to learn how to walk in the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit life is endless breakthroughs when you have legs you can have gold anytime you want to when you have legs you can work when you have legs you can go to school when you have legs you can get married when you give legs you can have a family but if you get a little slice of gold and you still don't know how to operate what you got it's a matter of next month and you will be needing another piece of gold hoping somebody will be merciful enough to share with you your biggest need is not even a miracle but a relationship and let us recognize that today can somebody say amen you know I think last year actually a year and a month ago when me and my wife we took that decision and we recognized our need our need was spiritual our need was the fact that we felt like we didn't see salvation in our church and I did not see healings in my personal ministry when I prayed for people and it bothered me and that was my need and I remember when we gave a large sum of money there was our savings that we're supposed to give for our house that we're supposed to put a down payment to buy land our plan was that in four years we'll save forth forty thousand dollars we'll purchase a land and then we'll get a loan because we'll have the equity of the land we took the first year of ten thousand dollars and we gave it away and I remember when I came to the ministry that we gave this away in Ukraine and I presented to the pastor and I said I just wanted to bless your ministry but secretly I have a need I want to see salvation I want to see healings in our church and I remember he looked at me and he said that is not your main goal and I said that is my main need he said your biggest need is that you need to know the Holy Spirit I said well I already have and I know all that I need to know about the Holy Spirit you have the legs that they don't walk and you're asking for gold asking for salvation and for healings was like asking for silver and gold it's precious things but not the most important things the most important things was to learn to walk in the Holy Spirit I already had nobody gave me the Holy Spirit Jesus did that no book can give you the Holy Spirit no pastor can give you the Holy Spirit no church can give you the Holy Spirit only Jesus gives you the Holy Spirit but you need the book you need the pastor and you need the church to learn how to walk in the Holy Spirit Jesus gives you and I remember when that pastor prayed for me and he prayed for that that I will know the Holy Spirit more that I will begin to just at least get an introduction to who he is though I knew I knew him and and that journey began it was slowly but surely I started to just pay attention to my conscience started to just just really just watch over myself and as a result we started to see more salvation we started to see more healings the interesting part is this is the few months later there was land for sale close to church he can put up the picture of just a bare land you probably draw by this place this land was for sale and my father he found it on Greg's list and he said hey there's wonderful land and I was like man look so good close to church close to my wife's work the only problem is I ain't gotten any stash and that's what I'm like man I should have not gave that away so good place to invest in and praise God for the Holy Spirit and praise God for good dads and then my my dad he said I'll loan you the money and he loaned me the money I was able to scrape up some and stay still owed him fifteen thousand dollars a few months later we got the bank and all of this stuff and next thing that happened is that we build a house if you can put up the picture of the actual house so you can drive by and see that that's my cassa but the interesting part is that how a miraculous this happened because I gave that up so that I can get miracles turns out I didn't need miracles first I needed the Holy Spirit first miracles came as a result in my wildest dreams I would have never thought last year at this point of my life something like this could happen the craziest part is this when the house was completed I borrowed money from the bank was about 160 thousand dollars for building of this house this included taxes builders fees and all of the other things that will cover it if you do construction or you have any idea about remodeling or building something you know this any money you plan you're gonna spend you always have to add a little bit more on the top and so I kind of expected that that's what's going to happen because we will probably want something a little bit nice or something this something that but secretly I had a dream and this was the dream is when I finish building the house and I get the last penny from the bank at the same time I'll be able to save enough money from building the house that all of the debt I owe to my father we paid off it's a wild dream people said I'm crazy people said that cannot happen and that doesn't happen it happened yesterday on December 5th during my prayer practicing fourth dimension I wrote all to father left zero permits zero land but this was actually how much I owed him yesterday 5000 for permits 15 something was like well it where's this get that keeps his money don't worry it's his equity don't line up to borrow money from him and 21 total this was the actual and for a month I kept this in my prayer looking at it looking at it looking at it and anytime somebody would do something on the house and in the bid they said 4000 but they bring us the receipt for four and a half I would go back here and I said God I need you to help me you don't have to Lord but this would really really appreciate I remember when few months ago we gave the car and I was thinking I'm a fool I could have sold that and help me pay off my dad's debt but I said Holy Spirit 3000 is not going to help me to pay off that debt but it will help me to sow a seed so you can help me I remember when about three weeks ago I calculated and I came up that it's gonna be even zero and I started crying in my office because in my wildest dreams I never thought that could be possible where $15,000 could be just like that paid off and you can go into your house debt free what I've learned is this you don't need gold first you need to know how to walk in the Holy Spirit my desire for this year is not more breakthroughs my desire this year is Holy Spirit more of him and the last point point number six once you learn to walk you will leap and never go back to crawling somebody say amen once you learn to walk you will leap but never go back to crawling Holy Spirit is not something we are on little topic for a season you know how sometimes you talk about for something then you kind of move on walking is not something you did for a season and then you moved on even when you stopped learning to walk you didn't stop to walk and I made a decision I'm asking you to make yours you don't ever go back to a life where Holy Spirit is not in charge you don't ever go back to a life where Holy Spirit is not leading and filling and guiding you because that life is a life of crawling and once you taste and once you experience the Holy Spirit can use you encourage you touch you save people through you heal people through you and heal you personally it does something inside of you recognize this life is better than crawling this life is better than paring and this life is better than being bored in church this life is better than being just mediocre inconsistent this life is the life that Peter had John had other men and women in this world have heard a testimony that really inspired me this week it was actually last week my pastor shared how there was one young man an uncle who was at the home group and during a home group while they were praying for their friends and family like we do of the ones that we want to see saved he was praying for his relative it was his knees and he was praying for her salvation just for her life for her salvation breakthrough for many many many months already and in during that prayer he just received this just this desire and this picture and this goal that in 30 days she will get saved he wrote it down and she will get saved in 30 days well the only problem was that at that current place current time this wonderful young lady happened to be in the place where they teach the people about the way of life call it the jail right and so she was not in a place to be saved because she was completely in jail not only he wanted her to be saved in 30 days while she was in jail but he was convinced in 30 days she will move back to living with her family something she has not done in years he kept that as he kept believing and praying for that and trusting the Holy Spirit is going to make that happen and this man was convinced i'm not perfect for the Holy Spirit to even use that through me things actually on the outside only got worse and last miracle catch was the 30th day and this beautiful young lady not only she was here she gave her life to Jesus and moved back with her family does that mean that this makes all the stuff go away this just simply means this Holy Spirit is not something you should try you should learn and walk and never go back to crawling and only develop to leap to jump and to go further but never shrink back and somebody say amen i want us to pray for this year want us to pray for us that this will be the year where we walk where we run and we soar with the Holy Spirit and where we see the impossible the gold the silver the miracles the healings the breakthroughs in our finances the breakthroughs in our relationships we see breakthroughs in our home groups because of the Holy Spirit you're not going to be a lame christian no more somebody say amen everything you need you have inside of you it's called the Holy Spirit he shifted the world through Jesus he can shift the world through you or he can just be like the legs of the lame man do you get brought to the church these legs you carry what they're supposed to carry you