 Let's begin reading here in the book of Acts, chapter 3, we're going to look at verses 1-10 as we've started and again looking at the book of Acts together. So we'll look at verses 1-10 here in Acts chapter 3. So I'll begin reading at verse 1. Read to verse 10, we'll get into our study. Luke writes now, Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple. And seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. Fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us. And we gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, 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. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he leaping up stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. What an amazing story, huh? Don't you wish it was true? It is. It is true. And so we have an opportunity today to look at this particular incredible miracle, a miracle that occurred here in Acts chapter 3 that is just amazing. I'll share some things with you as we get into this and a couple of personal things that relate to this particular chapter. But let me lay a foundation for you. And then what we'll do is we'll pick up and look for some application. We know that at this time as we enter into chapter 3 that God has been manifesting his presence and his power and he's been doing so through the apostles. It's stated in chapter 2 verse 43 that fear came upon every soul. Many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. So God is manifesting his presence and power through the apostles. And the result of that as we've been going through the book of Acts and we've arrived now at chapter 3, the result has been that the church is growing and it is gaining favor with great numbers of people. Now during this time, the believers were still going to the temple. Again, look at verse 46 of chapter 2 and it says, continuing daily with one accord in the temple. So at this time, the believers, the Christians were still going to the temple. And that's because they'd never considered themselves anything other than Jewish. You know, even to this day in Israel, it's been this way for a long time. If a Jewish person claims to be a Buddhist, they're still regarded as being Jewish. If a Jewish person claims to be an atheist, they're still regarded as being Jewish. But when a Jewish person comes to faith in Christ, they are immediately regarded as Gentile. But that's not the way it was in the early church. That's not true. That's not factual because in the early church, the Jewish believers never considered themselves anything other than believers. So in my lifetime, I became familiar with a term called completed. And there are those who are Messianic Jews, who are also referred to as completed Jews, meaning that they have been completed in Messiah in Jesus Christ. So in the beginning, there was no problem with them going house to house, as well as going to the temple. They continued to do so because they considered themselves Jewish. They were in no way considering themselves to be anything other than that. You see, Jewishness is recognized as being connected to God by faith. In Romans, when Paul was writing in chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, Paul said it like this. He said, a man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly. And circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. And so it's a matter of the heart. And so because they were Jewish, they continued meeting in the temple. And that's what we're seeing here in chapter 3. They're going to the temple, even as it says in verse 1, that they went together to the temple at the hour of prayer, which was the ninth hour. Now the Jews had three daily times of prayer. They would pray at 9 a.m., at 12 noon, and at 3 p.m. Psalm 55 verse 17 speaks of these three times of prayer, where it says, evening and morning and at noon, I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. And so they're going now to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, or three o'clock. And that is the time of the evening sacrifice. So the evening sacrifice was accompanied by prayer of the congregation. And they are at what is called the beautiful gate. Now it was called the beautiful gate because it was beautiful. Josephus tells us that the gate was made of Corinthian bronze and was plated with gold and silver. It was on the eastern side of the temple mount, separating the court of the Gentiles from the court of the women. The gate was 65 feet high and was so heavy it took 20 men to move it. Now at this particular gate called beautiful, there's a man, this man who had been crippled from birth. And when we get to chapter 4, we'll see at verse 22 that he was over 40 years of age. He's at this particular gate because charitable giving was important to religious Jews. In Proverbs 19 verse 17, it reads, he who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward him for what he's done. And so he knew that religious people were generous people. So as Peter and John are about to enter the gate, the man looking at them asks them for some money. And so what we have is an opportunity of seeing how the apostles respond to this kind of need. And what we also see is the practical application of the ministry as they come into contact with needs. There's a writer that I've appreciated over the years. His name is Warren Wearsby. Some of you have read his books and all. And Warren Wearsby once said this. He said, ministry takes place when human needs are met through divine resources, through the use of loving channels to the glory of God. So what we see is one, we see a man who has a need. He's crippled, he's unable to support himself. Two, we see that there's a need for divine resources because only God's power can heal him. Third, we see how God uses the apostles because they're loving vessels of the master. And fourth, we see that God receives all the glory because this man is going to be healed and he gave God the praise and the people were amazed. And so as we look at this, I want to develop it a little bit further by saying a few things out of verses one through three. Notice again, Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer. So that establishes something for us. These were people who were in the habit of praying. That gives to me some insight into them in that they were disciplined individuals. If you want to grow in the things of the Lord, you need to have spiritual discipline. Sometimes we think that all we need to do is pray and say, God, make me wise. And as we're playing Game Boy or whatever, we become much more wise. So we're asking the Lord to give us something but there's a spiritual discipline that's involved if you're gonna progress in the things of the Lord. And so these were men who not only had fellowship day by day in homes and all, but they also made sure to have regular attendance in the temple so that they during the time of prayer could go and worship the Lord and lift up their petitions and the things that they would pray about. So obviously prayer should be a regular aspect of our walk with the Lord. We have informal times of prayer. When we're simply calling upon the Lord, you do that out of habit, you do that all the time. It's conversational, isn't it? There's times that you will find yourself just speaking and you realize you're praying. I have that habit, I'm sure that all of us do in one way or another, you know, you're driving. Just make sure when you're praying and driving that you keep your eyes open. But as you're driving and praying, you can have conversations with the Lord. There are informal times that all of us have. We simply take the moment to call out to Him. We also have established times of prayer when we will pray, if you will, in a corporate way, we do that sometimes here when we have prayer meetings and all, we have prayer meetings actually throughout the week in various ways. And that's called corporate prayer. And that's because prayer is part of the life, is a very large part of the life of somebody who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 18, verse one, Jesus said, we are taught through Jesus that men ought always to pray and not to lose heart. And Paul told us in 1st Thessalonians 517 that we're to pray without ceasing. And so prayer is the habit of a godly person. And so as they're going, they're going together to the temple at the hour of prayer. Something else I want to point out is about these two men. Notice with me that they have a fellowship because they together are going and their fellowship is built on their mutual love of Jesus Christ. Here's something for you that I think is extremely practical, but is something that very often is missed in our lives. It's so very basic. If you want God to use you, and I hope every one of us does, cultivate relationships that build you up in your walk with the Lord. Cultivate relationships that build you up in your walk with the Lord. Learn to distinguish friendship from ministry. Some people get mixed up with that. Friendship, when you have friendship and fellowship it's built on the Lord. Friendship is the kind of relationship that helps you to develop into a better person. A friend is an individual that you can come to, you could pray with, you can speak to about the things of the Lord and you can edify each other in those kinds of things. But you also will have people that you love dearly who are more ministry. They're more ministry than friends. And I had to learn that a long time ago as a young believer. I wanted to have deep relationships with people and I discovered that some people you can have a deeper growing relationship with and then others you'll love them to pieces but you have to be on your guard with them because they don't always edify you. I've had friends, some who were close for a time in my life, people I love very much, especially when I was younger in the Lord. And I can still remember there were occasions when I wanted to visit with a friend but when I would pull up in front of their house I would actually stay in the car for a moment and I would pray I'd say Lord help me to be a witness to my friend who is a Christian. Help me not to get sidetracked by the things that he'll say and the things that he does because it's easy for this person to influence me in a direction that I really ought not to go. And I don't know if you relate to that at all but that was very true in my life because especially as a new believer I wanted to grow deeper in God. I didn't want to be a shallow Sunday only Christian. I wanted to be used by God. And I was a new believer and when I met this one particular person that I'm referring to I was two and a half years old in the Lord, three years old in the Lord and this person had been raised in a church. And so he was very dear to me and he was very close to me in many ways and I loved him as a dear friend at all but I came to realize that his desire to walk with the Lord wasn't the same kind of desire that I had and at one point I saw him as a very dear friend but later in our relationship I began to see him as a very important ministry. And I would pray and I'd say God help me to be a witness even to the one who claims to know you and has had relationship with you many years longer than I have. Know the difference between a friendship and a ministry. Some people don't and you get confused but you need to know the difference. In the case of John and the apostle Peter they were mutual ministers. They were apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ and their fellowship was built on the relationship that they had in him. Amos chapter three verse three says it like this can two walk together unless they are agreed? There needs to be a unity of heart in this and so prayer as they went to pray became the pathway to an opportunity that we're gonna see in just a moment. And so as they're entering in here into the temple at the hour of prayer the ninth hour verse two there's a certain man lame from his mother's womb whom they had laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called beautiful to ask alms from those who entered the temple. So we're told that this man was regularly placed at the entrance of the temple and he would ask alms of those who were entering in. Now alms isn't a word that we use today very often. Alms is speaking about gifts. Really the literal translation is acts of righteousness. In Deuteronomy in chapter 15 verse 11 it says there will always be poor people in the land therefore I command you to be open handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land so you give them alms because they're acts of righteousness you're open handed to them. Proverbs 11 25 says the generous soul shall be made rich and he who waters shall be watered also himself. And so the Jews were raised in the word of God which taught them generosity. And so in the case of this man he had a prime spot. He was in an area where the pilgrims were the people the worshipers would come walking in and that was his regular place. And the temple was a very good place for him to beg to ask of alms because the worshipers who were entering in could give an alms to him and feel good or if used to give him an alms and feel pretty guilty. And so as he's there and he's asking alms of those who enter verse three he says seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple he asked for alms. And so he sees these two men entering into the area and he just does what he does he just says can you give me something? Well notice what happens verse four fixing his eyes on him with John. Peter said no, no he didn't say that. Peter said look at us. So he gave them his attention expecting to receive something from them. Seeing Peter he asked for an alms, an alms fixing his eyes verse four on him with John Peter said look on us. When he said that look at us that's a voice of authority and one commentator said it also had a tone of promise. So the man looks up expecting to receive something. One of the ministry principles you can get from verses like this is to always remember that when people come to services they always come with expectations and they always come with needs. And proper ministry helps people to differentiate real needs from unreal expectations. So what we're supposed to be doing even when we gather here is to give people what they really need and what people really need is hope in Christ. But this man hears a voice of promise. He has an expectation to receive something. And notice Peter in verse six what 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. I was talking to Jared our worship leader about this verse. How many of you have heard the song, the words of the song, there's a song. How many of you have sung this particular song? 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 you would do that. Silver and gold have I none. You know, and you'd clap. And I was talking to Jared about that and I said, you know, that's a song that I sang when I was 20 years old, around 20 years old. And I said, when I first got saved, okay, I'm gonna relax and give you a story. You ready? Here we go. When I was first saved coming out of the background I came out of which is pretty much the same kind of background most of you came out of. Not all of you, but most of you. I knew very little about God. I knew very little about the Bible, very little about a variety of things that were Christian. I just wasn't raised in that environment. And so for me everything was new. And because I had taken drugs and alcohol and I'd done that for a few years from 15 to 20 I lost a lot of my childhood. And a lot of us hippies did. We lost our childhood because one of the things that I get concerned about especially even today here in our time when we're legalized in marijuana and things like that the thing that bothers me, one of the things that bothered me about that there's so many other things is the fact that when I used to smoke a lot of marijuana I started, I lost all ambition. I lost the capacity to have concentrated conversations. There were so many things that were going on in my life that I realized now I lost about five years of my life. Five years that I should have been maturing and growing. Five years that I should have been setting expectations, setting goals. Five years that I could have been using to go to school and to accomplish various things. And I lost it because for me, especially the last year or so before I got saved was just a blur. It was a waste, it was just a lot of drugs and just a lot of drinking and I did not mature. I did not grow up. When I was 20 years old, I had the emotionality of a 13 year old. I didn't have the capacity to actually think things through and discuss things that had the requirement of experience in life and maturity and through working jobs and learning. I didn't have any of that. I was so busy just drinking and laying around and not working, I didn't grow up. I had no growing up for five years. So at the age of 20, I was emotionally about 15 at the most. I lost five years of growing up. And so when I got saved, I got saved in this rush of God moving in a revival through a movement that was called and has been called the Jesus movement. And when that happened, I wasn't the only hippie that was getting saved. There were tons of people my age and younger who were getting saved, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, young people getting saved. And many of us were hippies and many of us were dopers and many of us never grew up. And so when we got saved, one of the things that started happening, and I was sharing this with my music minister, was we began singing songs. And one of the ways we learned Bible verses was the newborn believers were actually taking scriptures and putting them to music. And there are so many songs that actually are Bible verses that I grew to know as a brand new believer. That's how I started memorizing scripture just by singing. This was one of those verses. We used to sing it at Calvary Chapel when it was a small group of people before it was the thousands it grew to, when there were hundreds of kids, but not multiple thousands like it eventually became. 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, walking and leaping and praising God, walking and leaping and praising God in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And so I asked Jared, do you know that song? And he said, oh, I learned it as a kid. Oh, that's true because it became a children's song. It became a children's song. It wasn't a children's song. It wasn't when it first came out. It was a song adults sang because there was a movement of the Holy Spirit that was grabbing hold of Biblically illiterate people and we were being taught scripture by singing the scriptures, by singing them. That's how it worked. And that is how it continues to this day to work. And I can still remember being seated on carpeting or seated in a front room or wherever it may be. And this song being sung and us clapping our hands and singing what is today referred to as a children's song was actually a song that was sung by newborn babies even though we were 18, 19, 20 and 21 years old. And it was telling us something about the God that saved us. A God that meets your every need. A God who is able to use men to reach into another person's life and to lift them through faith. You'll see this in a moment. I'll develop this further so that they can actually walk and they can leap and the result will be praising God and the people being amazed. Peter was saying, listen, I don't have any money on me but I have something that you need much more than money. I've got Jesus Christ. I've got the gospel and the power of God is resident within me. It's not things that we need. Somebody once said the best things in life are not things. We forget that sometimes. It's not hard to. We live in a material world and we live sometimes in such a way that we think that things really do matter. And it doesn't matter if you're a Christian or not a Christian, you can succumb to sometimes the pride of having things. And I think the Lord is wonderful because he has a way of convicting me if I start floating in that direction. If you start thinking things are important or reflect who you are. Marie and I in another couple went to a hotel for a night many years ago now. And it was up in the mountains by Twin Peaks and we were gonna spend the night at a hotel. I think it was a Hilton. Not to me, the name Hilton. Man, that's really the Hilton. It's different than Motel Six. Right? We're gonna stay in a Hilton, right? So Marie and I go into the lobby and I look at her and she's carrying our clothing in shopping bags, two of them matching luggage. And I got embarrassed. I got embarrassed. I look at her, what are you doing? Shopping bag and she's just like, what are you doing? Oh, that embarrasses me. This is a Hilton. This is a Hilton. And you got two bags. Oh, I'm sorry, baby. You know, it's just easy, you know, just we could get it. Oh, well, we came back months later for a second time. Guess what? She was carrying the stuff in bags again. And I looked at her. True story. This is a true story. I asked, what are you doing with those bags? I told you, I'll buy some luggage. She said, well, look, read the bag. It said Nordstrom's. We got class. We got class. So the Lord has been trying to teach me a simple lesson. He's so good to continue teaching it that any time I start moving in the wrong direction, there's a nice little lesson that'll teach me. Oh, really? You're really Hilton, huh? Nordstrom bag. Yeah, you're really something, aren't you? The Lord has a way of doing that, you know? But the bottom line is, and I really do like it, the best things in life are not things. And that's what the apostle Peter is simply saying. Silver and gold, I don't have. I don't have enough money to feed you the rest of your life. You will be here tomorrow and the next day and the next day. I don't have enough money to give you so that you don't ever have to beg again, but I have something much better than that. I have something within me that I want to give to you and it's much more precious than money. I have a message, and the message I have to give to you is a message of life because we worship a God who works wonders. And so one of the things we learned from this is that we need to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit. Because in this particular case here, we're seeing God move and he's doing so through the power of the Spirit in the life of the apostle Peter and all. And so one of the things I want to learn to do as I read this is to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the things that I've wanted to do and I've done over the years is to discover and then to exercise the gifts that God has given to me. And if you are not aware of your spiritual gifts because every believer has at least one. What you need to do is you need to seek the scriptures to see what the gifts of the Spirit are. You can look into different places and find the gifts of the Spirit as they're mentioned. For example, just read through First Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14 and begin to look and see the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are mentioned there. You can read First Peter chapter four versus 10 and 11 and you'll see the mention of what are called spiritual gifts. When Paul was writing to the Romans in chapter 12 verses six through eight, he said this. He said, we have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it's leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. I was speaking to somebody just the other day who was saying, I'm not quite sure. As a matter of fact, what am I saying the other day? It was today and they were talking about gifts. And I said, you know, one of the ways to know your gift is to consider what it is that you do, that you love doing, that produces spiritual fruit in somebody else. And I said, another way to know your spiritual gift is to have somebody that you respect tell you what they see. And so as I was speaking to this person, I said to them, I see in you a generous spirit. I see a helping attitude and a compassionate heart. And those very well, maybe your spiritual gifts. So what is it that you do that you love doing that produces fruit? See, there are some people who think they have a gift of teaching, but nobody wants to stick around to hear him teach. I kind of figure they may not have the gift of teaching. They may have the gift of boring, but they may more likely don't have the gift of teaching. And so be very careful to evaluate. There's nothing wrong with saying, you know, this is what I love to do. I love to study. Listen, if you believe you're a teacher, you're also a student. If you're a person who wants to lead, you're also a follower. So there are ways that you can begin to discover the gifts of the spirit in your own life and you will have at least one gift. Everyone has at least one gift, but they usually will run in what are called gift mixes. You'll have more than one gift in operation. In a moment I'll show you this in the life of the apostle Peter. But you can have, when you're born again and you open yourself to the Holy Spirit, when God begins to pour upon you, he also gives you spiritual gifts. You know, it's a very exciting thing when you begin to discover the gifts that God has given to you. It is a very, very exciting thing to be used by God. You know, Pastor Chuck used to say this and I loved the way he said to us. He goes, I know when God is moving through me because I can listen to my tape later on and get blessed by it. He says, I know that was God's speaking through me, not like God's a ventriloquist using his mouth or anything like that. What he was doing is he was just inspiring his thoughts and giving to him proper words that could be spoken in such a moment. And that's how the Lord works. And there are times I'm sure that you have spoken to somebody perhaps on the job and you've shared with them and you just sense the presence of God. You know the Lord is there right. You know God is moving. You know, you take an offering. No, you just, I see that hand. No, it's just, and isn't it, I get excited about this, but isn't it a blessing? It is, what is more edifying and exciting than to know that you've been used by God himself to do something for the Lord. There's nothing more exciting than that. Nothing because God used you, God used you and look what God did. What a blessing. And so that's what's taking place here. And there are times that the Holy Spirit wants to move more, but we may be stifling him. So we need to be aware of those things. It's like what Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter one when he said in verse six, for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the lane out of my hands. Fan into flame, rekindle it because sometimes the embers may be dying out a bit. So make sure that you stir up the gift of God within you and be used by God. And that's what's taking place here. They're walking into this through this beautiful gate. There's this man who's been there for some time. He's over 40 years of age. He begs from that particular spot all the time. And these men are walking past him. As he sees him going by, I don't know how he would have spoken to him. It could be like, you know, there's so many going in and I just kind of say something. Can you give me something? And the apostle Peter stops and looks at him and he says, look on us. The man looks up, oh man, someone's going to give me something. Silver and gold, I do not have. Then get out of here. But what I do have, I'm going to give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I say, rise to your feet and walk. Can you imagine the moment in the name? When he says in the name of Jesus, that's another way of saying by the authority of Jesus himself, by the authority of Jesus Christ, I'm speaking to you right now. And as that takes place, the man is healed. As you look at this, notice how it says in verse seven, he took him by the right hand, lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, praising God. Various gifts are in operation working together as what I refer to a moment ago as a gift mix. There's that supernatural faith that the apostle Peter has and it does require supernatural faith and not presumption. Look at us and then reaching down and taking him by the hand and beginning to pull him up. You better have God's faith at that moment. You better have supernatural faith because that's cruel if you don't. And then you see a miracle taking place, a miracle. The man is going to experience a supernatural work of God, a work that was not done by human means, but by God himself. So a miracle occurs and then the healing, that physical healing, all of this working together. And so when he reaches down and takes him by the hand and begins to lift him to his feet, we need to remember that this man has been crippled and doesn't have balance. He doesn't have balance. See, we who can walk, and I thank God for the ability to do so, we who can walk don't realize that we had to learn to do that. It took time, it was a process. We had to learn how to stand. We needed to learn how to balance ourselves. We needed to learn how to balance ourselves. We needed to develop a sense of equilibrium. And all of that takes time. This was instantaneous. This man is being drawn to his feet, his ankle bones, then all from his ankles all the way up, all the way through his body is receiving this immediate healing. And he's not only walking, but he begins to leap. And then he begins to praise God, walking and leaping and praising God. Walking is one thing. But, you know, I got grandchildren for kids. I didn't see them just crawl and then suddenly get on their feet and then jump across the room. I mean, it took some time for them to learn to do that, right? So this is an amazing miracle. It's so amazing that the people of verse nine saw him walking and praising God and were filled with wonder and amazement at what they had seen. And this particular miracle is an act of confirmation that they have been anointed by God. You see, Jesus in Mark 16 verse 18 was speaking concerning the signs that would follow those who believe in. He said, they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. And so when that took place according to verse 10, it says, they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Can you imagine what that would have been like at that moment? They knew who it was. They were filled with amazement. They were filled with wonder. Do you think God still does stuff like that? You know, I do, I do. I've been asking the Lord lately to bring my faith back to when I first got saved. It's funny, some of us who have been walking with the Lord for a while, I can't tell you how many times I've prayed for someone to be healed and I don't take personal responsibility for healings and I don't take the blame when they don't occur. It's not my job to do that. But at the same time, Lord, I believe you. I believe you are the Lord. You are the God who heals. I believe that the Lord is saying to me and maybe I say it out loud to us as a church to develop more expectation for him to move. God help us. God help us in these last days because the church, we need to remember that the God we serve is a miracle working God. We need to remember that. That he is a God, amen. Amen. He is a God who heals. He is a God who is there. He is a God who provides. And when the apostle Peter was there and God supernaturally just provoked him to this action, this wasn't some carnal thing on the part of the apostle Peter. This was a divine moment that God was using this man in and he realized and I'm sure he appreciated it. As a matter of fact, we'll see that next time we're together and we look at the rest of this passage. But one of the things that when I first got saved that I want again was this expectation that my God can do amazing things whenever he wants to. I was taught that. I believed that and somewhere along the line it seems that I forget that and I want to come back to that. I want to be in the place where I say, you know God, you are able. Let's just trust you to do what you say you can do because either I'm going to trust you or I'm going to just give up because bottom line is, is I'm teaching people that you are a God who is there and if I don't believe that, but guess what, I do believe that. I just need to be refreshed in that myself that the Lord will move because God does that. No, I'm not going to go into any hospitals and try and pull people out of beds. Come on, I'm not going to do that. I just believe that we're getting that I can and maybe many are getting apathetic and lacking faithful expectation that God will actually move. We're living into time when I believe very strongly that God wants to move. He wants to move. But I have to get out of his way so that he can do what he wants to do. And as I was going through this, the Lord was reminding me the fact that he is a God who is able and I want to remember that. Again, we remember that these are people that went together to a temple to pray because they're in fellowship with one another. These are people who had a habit of prayer. These were people who sought the Lord in prayer and actually expected God to move. One of the things that I should say is this, there are, if you want to be used by the Lord, and I mentioned this earlier, but I want to say it a second time in a different way now. If you want to be used by the Lord, we do need to develop a habit of prayer. It is the mark of the early church. We do learn to pray without ceasing, but what I discovered that some can do is some can use prayer as an excuse not to serve the Lord. They'll say things like, I prayed about it and the Lord didn't lead me to do that. And sometimes we can actually use prayer as an excuse not to expect God to move on. When our church was probably six months old or so, I was sharing with the congregation and I remember saying this. I remember saying to the church, what would you think of me? If I told you that yesterday I was driving and there was on the side of the road, a car that was pulled over and there was a young mother with two small kids in the back seat, you could see the kids' little heads. And this young mother was trying to change a flat tire and I could see her as I was pulling up and going past her. And I saw her struggling holding on to the different implements you used to do that. And I said to the church, what would you think of me if I told you I saw this woman in need and I prayed about it and God said, just keep going. I said, what would you think? Well, my church was vocal at that time. They used to talk back to me. So they talked. That's wrong, Pastor David. I said, but you wanna know something? That's how a lot of us are in our prayer lives. We ask God for the things we want to do and we don't hear him when he tells us what he wants us to do that we don't want to do. And the way we do it is we spiritualize it by saying, I prayed about it and God said, no. When in fact, we're using prayer as an excuse to not serve him. Do you wanna be used by the Lord? Don't make excuses. Just say like I say, I hear my Lord, send me. I wanna be used by you. I wanna do something for your glory. One of the things that I'm really aware of is that we don't have that much time. We don't. We only have a set number of days. So we need to learn to number our days. We need to be aware of the moments and we need to be seeking God for the opportunities to use those moments for his glory. And one of the things the church needs to remember is that when you do that, God shows up. These people, Peter and John were in a place where the Lord could use them. They were in fellowship with him. They were in fellowship with each other. They were in fellowship with other believers. They were men of prayer and God gave them an opportunity to be used by him. And so that means that I should be ready to minister when given an unexpected opportunity. I should be ready. Like it says in 2 Timothy 4, verse two, be ready in season and out of season, in an opportune time or in a time that doesn't seem to be opportune. You see, if we're gonna be used of the Lord, we need to be prepared and we need to be willing to be used. Ultimately, what God does is he will give us opportunities and then we're used by him. And through that opportunity, we can point people to the one who can minister to them. And the result will be that God receives all of the glory. Remember this, serving God is not to simply satisfy ourselves. Serving God is to honor him. And so when we get out of the way and allow God to use us, people will see God and not necessarily us. And there's a couple more things and I'll close with these two thoughts here. One, we need to remember the timing of the Lord. Keep in mind that Jesus undoubtedly passed this man many times because Jesus was in the temple many times, but Jesus did not heal him. God has a season and a time for everything. And rather than Jesus healing him, what Jesus did is he used men to do that so it could bring glory to the one who actually did the healing. We'll see that next time. And then secondly, and I already mentioned this, all the people saw him walking and praising God. And we need to remember that miracles do not save, but they certainly point to the Savior who does save. And we will see that Peter used this miracle as an opportunity to preach the gospel. You see, these amazed people need an explanation as to how this happened. And that's where teaching and that's where preaching come in. Miracles do not save you. They draw your attention to the one who does. Keep that in mind. What will save you? When the word of God is proclaimed and explained and the Holy Spirit convicts, he draws you to himself. Miracles draw your attention, but the gospel proclaimed provides salvation. So miracles are used by the Lord as a sign to give you a direction, to move in a certain way. Then the explanation is given. And that's what Peter's gonna do. Why are you looking at us? As if it were through our own power, our own goodness that this man you see before you has been made whole. I want you to know it wasn't us. It's in the name of Jesus Christ. So he uses that miracle as an opportunity to tell them about the one who saves because this man, though he can walk, is still unsaved. And what good does it do a man if he's completely capable of walking and still walks straight to hell? He needs the gospel. He needs to be saved. And that's what we're gonna see happening next time we get together.