How Can God Use Someone Like Me? | Acts 3:1-10 | Dustin Aagaard

Cross Point, welcome to church. You made it, you made it here today. Won't you stand to your feet? My name is Cheryl, and I just wanna welcome you here. Well done, well done. If you're joining us online, welcome, welcome. We're glad you're here. Ladies at God Behind Bars, we love you. You're a part of this church. You matter to us and to God. And as a church, we have been reading through the book of Acts. It has been powerful, insightful, rich, amazing. And today we're gonna learn about a man who came to the temple and he was healed. I believe he was about 40 years old and he was healed. And let's see how he responded to that healing. In Acts 3.8, says he jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. Now, if God has done something for you today, let's praise God by singing, raising our hands, bowing, clapping, shouting as the music goes. But if you need healing today, if you need physical healing, if you're in search of healing for your heart, broken history, even just your human brokenness, God has the ability to heal you today. And your response, those of us needing that healing, we just reach out for him.

Who remembers the woman who touched the hem of his robe? It was healed. She pressed on through the crowd and God healed her. Jesus healed her. And so today, let us respond to his healing power. Let us celebrate what he has done, what he's doing now and what he's yet to do, amen. Couple of us wrote this song called Touch. I had cancer in my body at the time and now I'm cancer free, thank you, Jesus. Another co-writer that wrote this song was healed of a gluten allergy in February. I'm telling you, nothing is too small for the Lord. If you've got something that just ain't right today, let me tell you, God is in the healing business. So let us seek him, the miracle worker himself. We seek you today, Lord. We're reaching out for you. Let's sing. ♪ Is to believe there's a miracle for me ♪ Sing that again. ♪ Is to believe there's a miracle for me, oh ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch, just a touch can handle this all ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch, just a touch can make me whole ♪ ♪ Just a touch can make me whole ♪ We're believing, Lord. ♪ You said to just believe ♪ ♪ And you said to ask for anything ♪ ♪ And even if all that's left is to receive ♪ ♪ There's a miracle for me, I believe it, I believe you, Lord ♪

♪ Just a touch, just a touch, just a touch can handle this all ♪ ♪ Can handle this all ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch, just a touch can handle this all ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch, just a touch can handle this all ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch ♪ ♪ Just a touch can make me whole ♪ ♪ Lord, you can make me whole ♪ ♪ Just a touch can make me whole ♪ Yes, Lord. We're believing, Lord. We ask you in Jesus' name that you would come and heal us, Lord. We come to you believing you can. We trust your timing, Lord. Come on, church. ♪ If you will, if you won't ♪ ♪ I've got nothing else to lose ♪ ♪ I'm pressing in, I'm pushing through ♪ ♪ I wanna see what you can do ♪ ♪ If you will, if you won't ♪ ♪ I've got nothing else to lose ♪ ♪ I'm pressing in, I'm pushing through ♪ ♪ I wanna see what you can do ♪ ♪ I'm reaching out through the crowd ♪ ♪ If I have to crawl my way to you ♪ ♪ Take my fear, take my doubt ♪ ♪ I wanna see what you can do ♪ ♪ The time is now, I feel your power ♪ ♪ I believe that it is good, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You're my healer, all I want is just one touch ♪

♪ All I want is just one touch from the healer, from the healer ♪ ♪ All I need is just one touch, oh I need it ♪ ♪ All I need is just one touch, oh I need it ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Oh Jesus. ♪ Sing just a touch, just a touch ♪ ♪ Just a touch, the hand of His will ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch ♪ ♪ Just a touch can make me whole ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch ♪ ♪ Just a touch, the hand of His will ♪ ♪ Just a touch, just a touch ♪ ♪ Just a touch can make me whole ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus can make me whole ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, only Jesus can make me whole ♪ ♪ Only Jesus, Jesus can make me whole ♪ God wants to do something special in this room today. Let's receive all that God wants to do. ♪ You are here, moving in our midst ♪ ♪ You are here, moving in our midst ♪ ♪ I worship you, I worship you ♪ ♪ You are here, you are here ♪ Come on. ♪ You are here, you are here ♪ Can you lift your hands and sing, come on. ♪ Moving in our midst ♪ Whatever you need is in the room, come on. ♪ I worship you, I worship you ♪ ♪ You are here, Lord, you are here ♪ ♪ Working in this place right now ♪

♪ I worship you, I worship you ♪ ♪ For you are a way maker, miracle worker ♪ ♪ Promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God ♪ ♪ That is who you are, hallelujah, you are ♪ ♪ Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper ♪ ♪ Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are ♪ ♪ You are here, touching every heart ♪ ♪ I worship you, I worship you, I worship you, oh yes ♪ ♪ You are here, and you're healing every heart ♪ ♪ I worship you, oh we worship you, I worship you, oh yes ♪ We worship you Lord. You are here. Eternal life. I believe He's doing it right now. He's doing it right now. That's why we worship the Lord. You are here. Lifting every heart. That's why we worship Jesus. That's why we worship Jesus. He is the way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God. That is who you are. That's why we worship Jesus. Come on. Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God. That is who you are. That is who you are. We believe it today. That is who you are. We receive it today. That is who you are. We worship you Jesus. That is who you are. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And whether you feel it or see it or not, God is moving in this room, in this house right now. Come on, let's sing it in faith. Come on, church. Oh, it's true. Doing it right now. Yeah. You never stop working. Oh. You never stop working. Yeah. Yeah. You never stop. You never stop.

You are. We believe it. We believe it. You are the way. Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God. That is who you are. Oh, you're strong and mighty. You're always faithful. You're always making a way. Always making a way. Good in the morning. Good in the afternoon. Good in the evening. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. Woman, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are. I'll sing it again. Woman, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are. I gotta tell you all, we're supposed to sing another song right now, but I just feel led that I should tell you four testimonies. Cheryl's been healed of cancer. Kristen, as of two days ago, got healed of back pain, two days ago. 30 minutes ago, she's healed from wrist pain, 30 minutes ago. I don't think God is done working in the room. Can I just extend my faith to the room? If you have something going on in your body that's a physical problem.

If you need healing in your physical body, I want you to raise your hand in faith. I wanna see if you need healing. Okay. God is able and willing to heal physical bodies. I don't know when and how he's going to do it, but I know that we can ask our good father for good gifts today. And if you need healing in your body, I want you to ask him. I'm gonna pray with you, but I want you to ask, Father, will you heal and touch my body? And as we sing this chorus a couple more times, I believe we're gonna see healing in the room. You may not feel it, you may not see it, just like we sang, but I know God is able and willing. And in his timing, in his way, and according to his plan and the cross that bore all of our sickness, he is gonna do something special starting in this moment. Come on, stretch your hands high if you need healing from the Lord. If you're watching online and you need healing where you are, God behind bars, stretch your hands too. God can work anywhere at any time. Hallelujah, in Jesus' name, I release healing and freedom for the people of God who need it today. And as we sing again, Jesus, I ask you by the spirit of God to send your healing down on your church in the name of Jesus.

Who believes that God can heal your body? Woo, I believe God can do it. I believe he can do it. Come on, let's sing it again. Oh, you are. I believe he can do it. I believe he can do it. My God. Come on, stretch your hands high. Stretch your hands high and receive God's healing. You are the. I believe it, I believe it, you are. That is who you are, sing. You're the healer. You're the deliverer. You're able to do it. We praise you for it, Lord. We worship you, Jesus. We worship you, Jesus. That is who. That is who you are, yeah, oh. Jesus, we praise you in advance. Even if we don't feel or see it, we know you're able. And we praise and worship you. Come on, if you trust that God is able and willing, can you give him a big clap of praise? Come on, praise him before you see it. Praise him before you feel it. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Amen.

Well, good morning and welcome to all of our CrossPoint campuses. Welcome to Nashville, welcome everybody else as well as well as our friends with God behind bars. We are so grateful that you are here and if this is your first time with us, we are honored that you are here. My name's Dustin Agard, I serve as one of the pastors here and just want to welcome you, so grateful that you are here. We've been looking at this book of the Bible called Acts and today we're gonna be in Acts 3. But before we dive into Acts 3, I just want to ask you a question. Have you ever been in a situation where what you had was not enough? Where you looked at what you needed and you're like, that's not gonna work. Maybe it was your bank account, you opened up your bank account and went, nope, that's not enough. I heard some amens. Come on, preacher. Maybe you open up your calendar and you're thinking, man, I wish there were more hours and a day. Or maybe you got a really good leadership opportunity and you just thought, I don't have what it takes. I don't know if you've ever been in any of those situations but a lot. A lot of times I think we tend to focus on what we don't have and God's not worried about what you don't have.

What God is asking is for us to surrender to him what we do have. And that's what we're looking at in Acts chapter three. There's a story of a guy named Peter and John and they don't have enough. They don't have enough money. They don't have enough power. They don't have a building. They don't have enough anything. They have one thing that seemed to be more than enough. And that one thing was the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit in their life ended up being way more than they ever needed. If you have a Bible, you can go ahead and turn to Acts chapter three. We're gonna be in verses one through 10. Acts three, one through 10. If you don't have a Bible, we're gonna have it on the screen as well. Let's dive in. One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now, a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, look at us.

So the man gave him his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold, I do not have. But what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up. And instantly, the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Before we dive into today's message, I just wanna pray for us. Let's pray. God, thank you for what you did in Acts 3. What a great reminder that we don't have to have everything. We just have to surrender what we do have. Thank you for being a God that sees us. You see us, you notice us, you care for us, you have compassion on us. When we can't even get up and walk, you see us and you love us right where we are. God, I pray, would you come and would you speak to each and every one of us? And God, before we even go any further,

you need to know that our yes is on the table. Whatever you would have us do, we say yes, because that's what it means to make you our Lord and our savior. It's in your son's holy and precious name we pray. And everybody said, amen, amen. Hey, I wanna unpack this verse by verse. So if you're with me, we're gonna be in Acts 3, verse one. Let's go ahead and look at verse one. It says, one day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. So in this custom, there were three different prayer times throughout the day. There was nine, there was noon, and there was three. As a matter of fact, last week, Pastor Kevin gave an incredible message. If you missed last week, I wanna encourage you to go back and listen to last week. And he talked about how Peter preached a sermon at the nine o'clock service. And it was so powerful, the Holy Spirit came down, that 3,000 people got baptized that day, just like that, boom. Well, last week, we didn't see 3,000 people get baptized, but we did see 26 people at Cross Point get baptized. Come on now, let's go. I love that. I love how you keep taking steps toward Jesus. I love it.

So that was the nine o'clock service, that prayer time. Then there's a noon, and then there's a three, and the three o'clock's where we're at. That's their prayer rhythm. As you heard, the campus pastors, we have our own prayer rhythm. The first Sunday of every month, we have a prayer gathering at all the campuses except Nashville. At Nashville, it's every Tuesday, 11 to 12. We wanna invite you. If you've never been to a prayer meeting, I wanna encourage you to come. You don't need to register, you don't need to sign up. It's casual, but it is life-changing. It is powerful. That's their prayer rhythm. This is our prayer rhythm. I love how in this text, it says that the miracle didn't happen in the service. It happened on the way to the service. I don't know about your car rides to church, but my car rides growing up, and as a parent, I needed the miracle to happen on the way to church. Maybe that's just me. We're scrambling, we're stressing, we're yelling at each other as we go to hear a sermon on patience. We get all the kids in, and we're taking off to church. We think everybody's ready.

I look in the back seat. One of my kids has no pants on. He's holding a Pop-Tart, a Nerf gun, and an iPad. I sometimes think you can tell who the parents are when they come to church. A lot of people come in casually or they come in smiling, they're ready, and parents show up to church like they just survived a hostage negotiation. They're like, man, we made it. So parents, if you are here, in all seriousness, I wanna say thank you, thank you. I mean, seriously, genuinely, thank you for being who you are. It might be the hardest day of your week, but it is the best spent time of your week, getting them here to let the power of the Holy Spirit work on their life, and I love that. Here's one of the things I love about God. God doesn't wait for your life to become peaceful to show up. He shows up in the chaos. He shows up on the way to where you're going, not just where you're going. God shows up on the way to service. You start taking steps toward him, and he's already there. Let's go to verse two. It says, now a man was lame from birth, was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those

going in to the temple courts. I have several questions with this text. The first one is this. Why did he choose to get placed in that place? Think about it. He wakes up and he's like, I need money. I need to go where the best opportunity for money is, and he thinks in his head, I need to be around Christians. Why? Because Christians are called and have a reputation for being compassionate and generous. And he says, I need to be around them. I love that. The next question I have is, how did he get there? He got there because somebody picked him up and put him there. Which brings me to another question. How did you get here? Somebody picked you up and brought you here. You did not get here on your own. We are all turtles on a fence post. If you're not familiar with this saying, that turtle did not get there on its own, I promise you that. I don't know how it got there, but I'm gonna guess a teenage boy had something to do with it. Listen, we are all turtles on a fence post. We did not get where we are on our own. Maybe it was a coach, maybe it was a parent,

maybe it was a sibling, maybe it was a boss, maybe it was a teacher, maybe it was a grandparent, a relative, maybe it was a pastor, a youth pastor, a volunteer. We did not get where we are on our own. It has taken a village. That doesn't minimize whatever you did to get here. It's just, we didn't get here on our own. God has given us the church, other people to encourage us, to point us to him along the way. And here's my encouragement, a couple of things. One, find out who those people are. Go back and remind yourself who they are and go back and thank them. Doesn't matter how long it's been. It could be years, it could be decades. What a beautiful thing just to go back and say, hey, thank you, I didn't get here on my own. You believed in me, you prayed for me, you encouraged me. You were the first person to invite me to church. You were the first person to show me what a godly marriage looks like. Whatever it is, just go back and thank them. And then the second thing I would encourage you to do is to be one of them. Not just to thank them, but then to go, who am I picking up and carrying and laying down at the feet of Jesus? And in Acts 4.22, it says that this man was laying from birth, was over 40 years old.

So imagine, over 40 years old. Different people have been picking this man up for over 40 years. I wonder if maybe you've been picking somebody up for years. Maybe it's somebody you care deeply about and you used to pick them up and place them at the feet of Jesus, but at some point, the journey got too long. It got too hard, it got too hopeless. And so you no longer pick that person up because you didn't think God was gonna change your life. I wanna encourage you today, God's not done with their story, God's not done with your story and you're not gonna be a part of them. Would you go back and pick them up and lay them at the feet of Jesus? Would you keep praying for them? The story is not over. Why? Because Galatians 6.9, let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Do not give up in bringing our friends to Jesus. It is not your responsibility to change their life, it is your responsibility to pick them up and lay them at the feet of Jesus. I wanna introduce you to my pops. This is my dad, I love my dad. Ever since I was a kid, my dad's been a great guy. He's been a great dad,

just not somebody that knew and loved Jesus. And so I've been praying for him for years. I've been trying to pick him up and lay him down at the feet of Jesus for decades. Why? Because of Luke 18, one. Always pray and never give up. Always pray and never give up. Let's keep going. Verse three through six says, when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, look at us, which I just think is funny. Like, look at us. Do you think we have any money? So the man gave him his attention, expecting to get something from him. Then Peter said, silver or gold, I do not have. And if it were me, I would've just blurt, I would've just like interrupted. Said silver and gold, I do not have. I would've said, well, we take Venmo and Zell. I just would've. And I would've interrupted the story and he wouldn't have been able to finish the sentence and I would've missed the blessing, which is, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

You see, one of the things I like about this story is that Peter and John, they didn't see a problem, they saw a person. You see, it's a lot easy when we see somebody that we don't know or understand to see people as a problem and not a person, but the mark of a believer is we see everybody in the eyes of God, that everybody is created in the image of God. And they saw this person not as a problem to be avoided, but a person to be loved. Even though they didn't have what the man needed, they didn't avoid him. They loved him right where he was. At Crosspoint, we are praying for renewal in the church, revival in the city, and awakening across middle Tennessee. Question is, how do we do that? That's a big vision, that's a big prayer. How do we do that? By reaching millions of people? No, no, by loving and seeing and caring for the one person right in front of you. You see, Peter and John didn't heal millions of people, they healed just this one that was right in front of them. They saw a person, not a problem. Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Listen, may we stop focusing on what we don't have and begin to surrender to God what we do have.

This story in Acts 3 reminds me of a story in Matthew 14 of Jesus. And my head and my heart just goes to Matthew 14. Jesus is in the middle of this healing service, he's healing people left and right. And towards the end of the service, it kind of dies down. They're getting ready for dismissal and then he turns to the disciples. Jesus says, there's over 5,000 men and it says there's other women and children. So this is a large crowd and they're about to dismiss. And right before they dismiss, Jesus is like, hey, disciples, I got a plan. Instead of dismissing them, why don't you feed them? Like this is a lot of people. I want you to imagine Pastor Kevin coming up and preaching at the end of the service. It's a big Easter, we got tons of people, every campus, end of the service. He's like, hey, Dustin, instead of dismissing, instead of that, let's do lunch for everybody. I'd be like, hey, boss man, that's a great idea, love it. How are we gonna do that? He's like, I don't know, go to the fridge and figure it out. Like this is gonna take way more than we can do. We need teams, we need strategy, we need organization. Kroger's about closed, I don't know about DoorDash, we can't do that. Like this is a massive thing and Jesus says, hey, listen, let's not focus on what we don't have,

what do we have? He says, well, we got five loaves and two fish. Jesus says, bet, bring it to me. And he takes the five loaves and two fish. Listen to what he does. He looks up and he thanks God for it. When you can thank God for something when you already know it's not enough, that's powerful. When you can take what you have when it's not enough and thank God for it, that's powerful. And Jesus thanks God for it even though it's not enough. And then when they say amen, they pass it out and it multiplies. So much so that they end up collecting leftovers. That's what God does. God can do a lot with your little. I think about this all the time. One way or my life, I feel like I'm lacking something and what God wants us to do is to give him what we do have, not complain about what we don't have. Maybe you're like, man, I don't have as much time with my kids as I wish. What if you gave what you did have with your kids to God and asked him to bless and multiply it? Maybe you're thinking, man, I don't have as much money. Maybe you take what you do have and you ask God, God, would you take this? I surrender it to you. Maybe you don't have enough experience in your field as you wish, you take what you do have.

and say, God, I give you what I have, would you bless and would you multiply and see what God does? You see, I think one of the godliest things you could do this week is to do an inventory of everything you have in your life, from your health to your relationships to your stuff, everything, and just write it down on a sheet of paper and then just slide it across the table and give it to God. And say, God, this is yours, I surrender it to you. I'm not making a list of what I don't have, I have a list of what I do have because you have been so, so good to me. And whatever I have, it is yours. Would you take it and would you bless it and just see what God does? You see, when you do that, what you are doing is you are setting yourself up for a story. Anytime that you follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit, you're gonna have a story. As a matter of fact, this is how I check myself. This is how I check to see if I'm following the Holy Spirit. I'll ask myself every now and then, do I have a story? And if I don't have a story, chances are I haven't been following the Holy Spirit. Let me give you an illustration. This is my daughter Darby, she's 17 years old. And Darby is right now on a mission trip. She's on a mission trip serving on mission.

Absolutely incredible, precious girl. Now, my family, we just moved here in the fall. And so my daughter had already made a commitment to serve with the church that we were at. And then when she got here, she wanted to go and serve on a mission trip with Crosspoint as well. So she was wanting to go on two mission trips, which is a big deal. So we come here, it's gonna cost a lot of money. She says, hey, I wanna go on both of these mission trips. What do you think? And we're like, well, that's a lot of money. That's this, that's that. And she could have said, you know what? I don't have that much money. I don't have the friend community yet to raise that much money. As a matter of fact, all of our relatives, none of them live in Tennessee. They all live in Orlando, which is where we moved from. She could have made excuse after excuse after excuse. Instead, she didn't look at what she didn't have. She said, what I do have is a calling, a heart, and free time this summer. And I'm gonna give it to God and see what he might do. So she put together a fundraiser. We live in front of a park, and so we get some traction. And she put a table at the end of our driveway where she sold iced coffee and some baked goods. And she just put it out there.

Now, mind you, we don't, we're new. We don't know what God's gonna do. But I live in Dixon. Shout out to the Dixon campus. Y'all are rock stars. I live in Dixon. Can I tell you one of the reasons why I love Dixon? One of the reasons why I love Dixon is because of people like Kathy. Kathy is our mail lady. And we have a really, really long driveway. And at the end of our driveway is where the mailbox is. That is where most mail people stop and put it in the mail. Kathy, the first week, she doesn't put it in the mail. She drives up our very long driveway. Now, I'm from the city, so I don't know what's going on. I'm like, what's happening? She hand delivers our mail because she simply wants to meet us and introduce herself and say, welcome to the neighborhood. Come to find out, Kathy is on fire for Jesus. She loves Jesus. And she sees this as her ministry. And she's radiant, she's glowing, she's got the joy of the Lord. First time she met my wife, they're talking for 15, 20 minutes because that's just who Kathy is. So we're having this fundraiser.

And my daughter is at the end of the driveway and Kathy comes by to deliver the mail. And she asked, what are y'all doing? And so my daughter says, hey, we're raising money to go on mission and this and that. And she's like, oh, that's so awesome. And she was excited and then she was discouraged. And she said, but I don't have any money. And I said, it's okay, you have something more powerful than money. You have prayer and we would love for you to be praying for us. And so she committed to be praying for us. And she went on her way. And I didn't know anything after that, but come to find out what she was doing is she left our house and she went on her lunch break so that she can get to the bank before it closed. And then she came back and she gave my daughter a very kind and generous gift for my daughter to be able to go on a mission trip. Now, here's the thing. My daughter could have said, I don't have this, this and this, and so I'm not even gonna sign up. Or she could have said, I have this and God's gonna have to show up. And God's like, watch what I'm about to do. You don't have community? I'm gonna send a mail lady that you don't even know yet to deliver you money to go on mission.

I got you. I got you. And what she taught my daughter at 17 is that for the rest of her life, my daughter now has a story because she followed the prompting of the Holy Spirit. When you follow the Spirit, you're gonna end up with a story. For the rest of my daughter's life, she's gonna think when she doesn't have enough and God's calling her to step out, because God's gonna provide. And so I don't know where God is calling you to step out, but he's not gonna give you everything before he calls you to step out. It's in stepping out. that you exercise faith, and he goes, watch what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna bring different people, I'm gonna bring a Kathy, I'm gonna bring a this, I'm gonna bring a that. And can I just tell you a couple things about Kathy? One, everybody now wants to be on Kathy's mail route. Okay, I know that. But I already got her locked in, she ain't leaving Dixon. And two, Kathy, if you're watching, I just wanna say thank you for being a bright light in a community. You radiate Jesus, and we are so grateful for how you love him. Come on, so grateful for you, Kathy, truly, so good.

Let's keep going, verse seven, it says this. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. This is fascinating to me. You see, this is the first recorded miracle in the early church. Jesus had miracles, he was doing miracles. He died, rose again, showed himself to hundreds of people, and then he ascended to heaven, and he said, I'm gonna leave you with the Holy Spirit. But this is the first miracle in the early church. And so I just want you to imagine the conversation with Peter and John. Just think about this, this is just in my head. Peter goes to the guy, he's like, hey, stand up and walk it, but John's like, hey, Peter, quick, sidebar. What are you doing? Like, that was Jesus's thing. I don't know if we can do this. Peter's like, I know, I don't know either, but he said we could do greater things than he did, let's just give it a shot. That guy doesn't know if this is gonna work, I don't know. And John's like, what if it doesn't work? And Peter's like, what if it does? Can you imagine the faith it took Peter to look him in the eyes and say, stand up? We just read it like it's nothing. That took such incredible faith. He wasn't sure what it's gonna do.

I wonder if you have the faith to activate a gift to bless somebody else, but out of your uncertainty, you've been sitting on the gift. And God's calling you to stand up and exercise your gift. You see, I think it took Peter and John a lot of faith, but I also think it took the man. It says that he jumped up. You know how much faith it took for him to actually get up? How many people probably tried to say he was healed? Well, hey, if you would just eat right, if you would just pray harder, if you would just do this, then you would be healed. And he had to actually exercise faith in that moment. I think some of us, some days, you and I, we need to exercise the faith to receive a miracle. And maybe that's you today, but others of you, you need to exercise the faith to deliver a miracle. And I don't know which one you are each day, but I think one of the two, we all have to exercise some sort of faith. You see, the miracle happened in Jesus' name and in Peter's availability. The miracle happened in Jesus' name and in Kathy's availability. The miracle happened in Jesus' name and then fill your name in that blank, in your availability. What gift are you sitting on that if activated might bring healing to somebody else? Maybe you came to church and you saw somebody that maybe was alone or felt lonely

and you invited them to lunch and they experienced community for the first time since moving to Nashville and they found healing because of your hospitality and in Jesus' name. You thought you were just giving a compliment to somebody, but they were ready to quit. They found healing in Jesus' name and your encouragement. You started a group in your home years ago and now people are still following Jesus. They found healing in Jesus' name and in your leadership. Some miracles may be waiting on the other side of your obedience. You ever think about that? Some miracles may be waiting on the other side of your obedience. And I don't know if you know this, but you have the power to heal others. It's what Proverbs tells us. Proverbs 12, 18, the words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. You have the power to heal, to encourage, to bless other people. And I would encourage you when you are praying, would you give God the space to show up in ways that you are not expecting? Would you give God the space? He can be out of the box. What do you mean, pastor?

Well, the man was praying for coins and God gave him legs instead. Maybe you're praying for comfort, but God wants to give you courage instead. Maybe you're praying for easier. circumstances, but God wants to give you greater grit. Maybe you're praying for more money, but God wants to give you more contentment. Is God allowed to do something out of the box? Don't miss what God wants to do because you're stuck in what you expected him to do. Let me say that again. Don't miss what God wants to do because you're stuck in what you expected him to do. Let's go to verse eight. Says, he jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. This man is excited. He is loud about his healing. Listen, when God heals you, we should be loud about it. Rescued people should not be shy. The greatest story ever told is God's love for you and me, how he sent his one and only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for my sin and shame so that I could have eternity with him. That's the greatest story ever told. You know what the second greatest story ever told is? Your story of rescue and redemption. That's the second greatest story ever told

is how God has rescued and redeemed you. And if you've never shared your God story, I wanna encourage you, take time this week, write it down on one page and be able to deliver it to somebody in 60 seconds. If you can deliver your God story to a waiter or a waitress or somebody at the grocery line, that means if you can do it in 60 seconds, you can do it in six minutes, 60 minutes. That's the second greatest story ever told. Listen, your story has power. Let's keep going, verse nine and 10. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him. You see, what happens is God gets glory by your story. It says they were filled with wonder and amazement. He wasn't shy about it, he was walking around praising God and God got the glory. When God rescues you, let that be known. Share about your rescue. Psalm 107 too, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I shared with you earlier about my pops how I grew up praying for him, picking him up and laying him down before the feet of Jesus week after week, month after month, year after year,

decade after decade. And finally, God gave me an opening to share the gospel with my dad. However, my dad, like many people, thought that he was too far gone to be rescued and redeemed. And he'd just tell me, he said, "'Dustin, you don't know all the sin of my life.'" I said, I don't have to to know all the great sin on the cross. And some of you, you might be in that same boat. You think that you have to have it all figured out before you can begin a life with Jesus. And my dad wrestled with that for a little bit and finally the Holy Spirit broke through and my dad said yes and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ not too long ago. Come on now, come on. And my dad said yes to Jesus, but you can still tell that the enemy was trying to keep him down and keep him quiet because he didn't feel like he was worthy. He still had his BC days, before Christ days, like we all do. And the enemy wants to trip you up over those and to keep you down. But rescued people share their story. Rescued people are proud about it. And so my dad, we would talk about getting baptized and he would just say, I don't know,

because he felt like he had to be a certain kind of worthiness, especially being a pastor's father. He felt like he had to have all this knowledge and all this experience as a Christian to go public with his faith. And so he was nervous to talk about God or to get baptized. And so we wrestled with this for a long time and we talked back and forth, prayed about it. Last summer, my family, we went on a family cruise because that's where Jesus is. I don't know if you know that. Some of y'all that don't know what I'm talking about, that just means you've never been on a cruise, okay? We went on a family cruise, there was 18 of us. It was my brothers, my nieces, nephews, my parents, we all went on a cruise. We'd been planning this family cruise for a long time. Year, year plus. And my dad called me two weeks before the cruise not everybody in my family knows Jesus. And my dad said, hey, Dustin, I have an idea. What if I got baptized on the cruise? That way the whole family would have to watch. I said, Bob, that would be amazing. Yes, sign me up. And so. We go on this cruise, and my brother Dwayne and I, on an island called Perfect Day Cococay. We got to baptize my dad in front of hundreds of people.

Come on. And there is no amount of money that I would not pay for this next picture. This picture right here is a picture of me and my dad. We're about to celebrate one year anniversary of that, that moment. Happened last June, and I would pay any amount of money for that moment. And it was decades of praying, sometimes hopeless, sometimes heavy, sometimes hard. Sometimes hopeless, sometimes heavy, sometimes hard. That was the second day of the cruise. Fast forward to day four. We are now in Cozumel, Mexico, and we cannot find my dad. We lost him. We are literally doing a silver alert in Mexico. We can't find him. My dad is not fast, but apparently he's sneaky. We're seriously, we cannot find my dad. We're looking, I mean, it's becoming, we're getting worried. And finally we find him in a Mexican tattoo parlor. Like, hey pops, what you doing? This is what he said. He said, I want everybody to know about Jesus. And I realized the only people that know about my faith were the people on that beach. I said, so what do you wanna do? I wanna get a tattoo. And so I said, pop, I love your energy.

Love it. Let's put a pin in this. Let's get back to the States, and I'll take you to a tattoo parlor in Orlando. And so my parents, my daughter and I, we went to a tattoo parlor. They all got tattoos. And my dad gets tattoo, I think we got a picture of it here on his forearm, of the date, as you can see, we're coming up on the anniversary. He wanted everybody to know about his coming out, his love for Jesus, June 16th, 2025. And he gets a tattoo. And what you need to know about my dad, he is as traditional as it gets. Like right now, I promise you, he's listening to Elvis and his recliner. Like he is traditional, okay? So the fact that he got this tattoo is a big deal. He got excited for about 60 seconds, and then he put his arms down, and then he got frustrated. I said, pop, what's wrong? He said, well, I want everybody to know about my faith and about Jesus. I said, I know, that's the tattoo. He goes, but it's on the inside of my arm, and they can't see it that well. I said, what are you gonna do?

He said, I'm gonna get another tattoo. I'm like, what? Oh, what? Oh, are you serious? What are we doing? So he got another tattoo within like minutes. He gets this tattoo on his ring. Why? Because people are loud about their rescue story. If the Lord has redeemed you, then say so. My dad went from not understanding the grace of God to sitting on it to now wanting everybody to know of the grace of God. That is what our God does. If the Lord has redeemed you, then say so. God gets glory from your story. You're not bragging on you, you're bragging on him. I used to be this, and God came, and now I'm totally different. I'm not perfect, but I am redeemed by the grace of Jesus. Listen, can I tell you when my dad's life changed, when everything turned around, is when he stopped thinking about what he didn't have and he started surrendering what he did have. He wasn't thinking, hey, I don't have this, I don't have that, I don't have this information, this, I don't know about this about God or the Bible. It was when he surrendered everything he does have. And so if that's you today, stop making a list of what you don't have.

Stop making lists of how you're not good enough and start making lists of things you will surrender to God and things will begin to turn around. And the second thing I want to encourage you to do is if you have set down a prodigal son or daughter, would you go back and pick them up? And would you not put them down until you see the miracle happen? Because I love my dad's story, but can I tell you, I don't think I can do it. Can I just tell you, that is not uncommon. God does this to so many people. And he wants to do it to you. He wants to do it to your family, to your friends, to your neighborhood, to your office. May we be a people that pick people up that can't walk spiritually on their own and lay them down in front of Jesus and just say, what if God can do it? Let me pray for you. God, thank you for being a God that rescues and redeems. Thank you for being a God that sees us at our worst and yet loves us more than anybody else. Thank you for being a God that looks at our BC days and doesn't count them against us. Thank you for being gracious and kind and compassionate and slow to anger. Thank you that you take people like Kathy and you light them on fire in a small town in the middle of Tennessee.

Thank you that you take people like my dad who was on a journey, on a journey of knowing and discovering you and going from maybe a little bit unsure to knowing you but unsure about coming public to now he's got, he's just tatted up telling people about you. What a beautiful picture. And to know that his story and our story is not done. So God, we love you. We thank you. We praise you. It's in Jesus' holy and precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Hey, Crosspoint, thank you for being with us today. Pray that y'all have a great week. We'll see you back next week. God bless y'all. Thank you.