Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's been like for you in
Speaker 1: the last year, as we've all been like renegotiating our lives,
Speaker 1: not negotiating with God, but just trying to figure out
Speaker 1: where our life is pointed and just bring it down
Speaker 1: just a moment. There may be a lot of you
Speaker 1: who are going through something that's very disorienting and that
Speaker 1: may be very negative. There may be some of you
Speaker 1: that are going through something and it's actually been a
Speaker 1: positive change for you. And one thing that I know
Speaker 1: for all of us is that we don't always get
Speaker 1: the chance to brace for impact when changes come in
Speaker 1: our life, positive or negative, and that's what makes it
Speaker 1: really challenging. So I want everybody in this room to stand,
Speaker 1: and if you're able right where you are, I want
Speaker 1: you to stand, and I want to read my scripture
Speaker 1: for today because I'm so excited what God gave me
Speaker 1: for us to study together for our Bible lesson the
Speaker 1: scripture is Acts chapter three, verses one through sixteen. And
Speaker 1: I'll give you a moment to find that and just
Speaker 1: be open. Just be open and be attentive and be respectful.
Speaker 1: God doesn't waste words, so you know, really value what
Speaker 1: he gives you today. He might say one thing that
Speaker 1: changes everything. I'm just telling you I've had that experience before,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it wasn't even when I was looking for
Speaker 1: some dramatic thing from God and just whack thud copal
Speaker 1: like the comic book to Say, Acts chapter three, verse one.
Speaker 1: One day, Peter and John were going up to the
Speaker 1: temple at the time of prayer three in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: Now a man who was lame from birth was being
Speaker 1: carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was
Speaker 1: put every day to beg from those going into the
Speaker 1: temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter,
Speaker 1: he asked him for money. Peter looked straight at him,
Speaker 1: as did John. Then Peter said, look at us. So
Speaker 1: the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something
Speaker 1: from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold I do
Speaker 1: not have, but what I do have I give you
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk And
Speaker 1: verse seven says that Peter took him by the right hand,
Speaker 1: helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles
Speaker 1: became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
Speaker 1: Then he went with him into the temple courts, walking
Speaker 1: and jumping and praising God. All the people saw him
Speaker 1: walking praising God. They recognized him as the same man
Speaker 1: who used to sit begging at the temple gate, called beautiful,
Speaker 1: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what
Speaker 1: had happened to him. While the man held on to
Speaker 1: Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came
Speaker 1: running to the place called Solomon's colonnade. Came running to
Speaker 1: them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. And when Peter
Speaker 1: saw this, he said to them, fellow Israelites, why does
Speaker 1: this surprise you? Why you stare at us as if
Speaker 1: by our own power or godliness we had made this
Speaker 1: man walk. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the
Speaker 1: God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You
Speaker 1: handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him
Speaker 1: before Pilot, though he had decided to let him go.
Speaker 1: You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that
Speaker 1: a murderer be released to you. You killed the author
Speaker 1: of life, but God raised him from the dead. We
Speaker 1: are witnesses of this by faith in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: This man, whom you see and know, was made strong.
Speaker 1: It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord that has completely healed him. As you
Speaker 1: can all see, I'm going to tell you my title.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a controversial one, but I want
Speaker 1: you to shout it at the top of your lungs.
Speaker 1: It's only a one word title. Look at somebody next
Speaker 1: to you and say, surprise, be seated, surprise. I was
Speaker 1: watching your reaction to that. I wish I could see you.
Speaker 1: You like surprises, Raise your hand in the chat. If
Speaker 1: you like surprises, raise your hand in the room. If
Speaker 1: you like surprise. See I like surprises that I like?
Speaker 1: Is that fair enough? I like surprises that I like.
Speaker 1: If you like surprises, raise your hand in the chat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't like to be surprised. Just shoot your hand up
Speaker 1: real quick, just real quick, y'all. Raised it slow because
Speaker 1: you don't like anything surprising. Even the raising of your
Speaker 1: own hand is like your brain was managing the speed
Speaker 1: of your hand. You're like, we're going to go up now.
Speaker 1: In response to the preacher's question, or remember, one of
Speaker 1: my best friends is named Craig Grochelle. He pastors a
Speaker 1: church in Oklahoma. Of course you know him. He's been
Speaker 1: here a million times. I look up to him so much.
Speaker 1: But a few years ago I thought he was too
Speaker 1: stressed out. So I went to go see him. But
Speaker 1: I want to surprise him. The reason I wanted to
Speaker 1: surprise him is because he is such a control freak.
Speaker 1: And I asked his permission to share this illustration. I'll
Speaker 1: ask forgiveness afterwards, because I knew if I said can
Speaker 1: I come, he'd go, ah, I got this, I got that,
Speaker 1: I got the other blah blah blah. And I got
Speaker 1: to preach for seventy five million people out there in Russia,
Speaker 1: things like this that he does. And so I said, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I got to drink a protein shake, I
Speaker 1: got a bench fresh seven hundred pounds. He's just so efficient,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, I'll just go. So Jessica
Speaker 1: Mitchell on our staff. She reached out to the assistant
Speaker 1: that worked in his office and just showed that we
Speaker 1: were coming, but don't tell him. So I go on
Speaker 1: the airplane. It's something that we used to do for
Speaker 1: those of you that are watching this into your twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. And then when I got there, the gentleman
Speaker 1: that picked me up from the airport that was on
Speaker 1: his staff, I said, where are you gonna sneak me in?
Speaker 1: He goes, h, well, he kind of knows you're coming.
Speaker 1: I said, well, how does he know I'm coming? They said, well,
Speaker 1: we told him because he didn't like surprises. And this
Speaker 1: is what I said in my head, all right, and
Speaker 1: this is the transcript that didn't make it voice to
Speaker 1: speech thing. It was just a text in my head.
Speaker 1: I thought, well, dummy, you're not his friend. I'm his friend.
Speaker 1: I didn't come out here because he liked surprises. I
Speaker 1: came out here because he needed one. Dummy didn't say
Speaker 1: that much too. I'm a man of God and I
Speaker 1: don't say things like this. I have a filter of
Speaker 1: things like this. But it was funny to me how
Speaker 1: they thought that just because he didn't like surprises meant
Speaker 1: he didn't never need surprises, you know. And I knew
Speaker 1: if I told him I was coming, it would stress
Speaker 1: him out. So I knew that the way to really
Speaker 1: support my friend in a stressful season was to show
Speaker 1: up and give him no choice about what what's he
Speaker 1: gonna do? Kick me out when I show up at
Speaker 1: the door. So when I saw him, I was angry.
Speaker 1: I said, surprise, you know what I'm saying. The next
Speaker 1: time I went out, I didn't tell anybody I was coming.
Speaker 1: I got on the airplane, send him a picture of
Speaker 1: the board and passed and I said, uber, are you
Speaker 1: picking me up at the airport? I didn't ask because
Speaker 1: I know just because he doesn't like surprises doesn't mean
Speaker 1: he never needs surprises. So when we get to Acts
Speaker 1: chapter three, and when I say turning your Bible to
Speaker 1: Acts three, like I just did a minute ago, our
Speaker 1: scripture is Acts chapter three. There are many people who
Speaker 1: listen to me preach who are like, okay, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Speaker 1: numbers due to run me, Joshua Judges, WHOA I'm not
Speaker 1: seeing an axe acts as axe? This is going to
Speaker 1: be a good one. Is this about like a battle axe?
Speaker 1: Are going to be? You know? They never heard this
Speaker 1: story before, so they're probably going to get the most
Speaker 1: out of it. The people that will have a hard
Speaker 1: time hearing this with their heart are the people who
Speaker 1: know it in their head. So shot again, surprise. Well,
Speaker 1: we have an ongoing argument in my house because my
Speaker 1: wife is very jumpy again. She only has two flaws.
Speaker 1: This is this only other flaw she has other than
Speaker 1: the one I told you about last week. She only
Speaker 1: has two flaws. She's so skittish and it angers me
Speaker 1: to no end because I have to walk around my
Speaker 1: house like some sort of secret ninja, you know, like
Speaker 1: have to sneak around my house so as not to
Speaker 1: scare her. And I tell her when when I walk
Speaker 1: in a room and she jumps up, I go, I
Speaker 1: live here? Am I allowed to live here? It's so uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: like having to sneak around like the burglar in the
Speaker 1: house that I bought. Love you, Hollyanna, but it's just weird.
Speaker 1: I live here, I live here. I live here, and
Speaker 1: I can't just move around and do what I want
Speaker 1: to do. So of course, the parallel is that a
Speaker 1: lot of times in church, when God actually shows up,
Speaker 1: we kind of act like we didn't expect it to
Speaker 1: begin with, and I'll show you this in the text
Speaker 1: from the Teachers of the Law and the Saddresses and
Speaker 1: the Temple Guard, because when Peter did a miracle, they
Speaker 1: threw him in prison. That's what happens in this text.
Speaker 1: But before we get to that, let me back all
Speaker 1: the way up to the beginning, because there are several
Speaker 1: surprises in this passage that may not be apparent to
Speaker 1: the naked eye. First of all, you might be surprised
Speaker 1: to see Peter and John hanging out together. To begin with.
Speaker 1: You might be surprised that they would get along because
Speaker 1: they are completely different. They are completely different. And our
Speaker 1: expectation is that God is going to bring people into
Speaker 1: our life that are similar to us. That's called a mirror.
Speaker 1: You can buy that at lows. You don't need people
Speaker 1: in your life that always just reflect back at you
Speaker 1: your same exact preferences and prejudices, reinforcing your biases. God
Speaker 1: will bring people into your life that He will use,
Speaker 1: and it will sometimes surprise you who he uses. So
Speaker 1: Peter and John are somewhat surprising to see together because
Speaker 1: Peter is boisterous and John is I have a hard
Speaker 1: time with people like John when I was reading the passage,
Speaker 1: you might not have noticed he didn't do anything. I
Speaker 1: won't take time to read the whole thing again because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna clock budget here today with you.
Speaker 1: But but I promise you read the whole thing. Well,
Speaker 1: he did one thing. Okay, I don't want to overstate it.
Speaker 1: He did one thing. John did one thing. Verse four.
Speaker 1: Peter looked straight at him, as did John. This guy,
Speaker 1: this guy. The only the only part that he had
Speaker 1: in the passage that I can see is to look
Speaker 1: at the man who's asking for the money. He didn't say, oh, Peter,
Speaker 1: don't worry about you left your wallet back at the
Speaker 1: day I got my wallet here. No, he didn't grab
Speaker 1: the left hand while Peter grabbed the right hand. No,
Speaker 1: he didn't look at Peter and say you can do it, Peter.
Speaker 1: It's just like you said, Jesus do with the blind eyes.
Speaker 1: And when we went the issue of blood, no encouragement, no, nothing,
Speaker 1: just looked at the man that Peter looked at. But
Speaker 1: I I wonder if it was John's perspective that Peter
Speaker 1: needed that was different than his, that enabled him to
Speaker 1: be in position to experience God's power. So you might
Speaker 1: be surprised. Somebody say it out loud, you might be
Speaker 1: surprised who God uses in your life. God has done
Speaker 1: some of the biggest things in my life through people
Speaker 1: I didn't like. No, I won't give you a list.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to name names. But some of the
Speaker 1: biggest things God did in my life he did through
Speaker 1: people I didn't even really enjoy hanging out with. And
Speaker 1: the problem with us is, you know, God wants to
Speaker 1: bring somebody into our life, but if they don't exactly
Speaker 1: match the specifications of the friends that we think we
Speaker 1: want or of the people that we think usually the
Speaker 1: people that we think we need, God to send her
Speaker 1: to the people who already think what we think. So
Speaker 1: why would God send something that we already have plenty
Speaker 1: of Peter and John. I was surprised they were still
Speaker 1: hanging out because they were so competitive. They have a history,
Speaker 1: you know, Peter and John, they were partners in a
Speaker 1: fishing business and they became fishers of men and Jesus,
Speaker 1: and they had some adventures together. They had history together.
Speaker 1: Peter and John not only ran to the tomb together.
Speaker 1: And check this out. How different opectives are and how
Speaker 1: God can give you a person that has a different
Speaker 1: perspective than you in order to help you see something
Speaker 1: that you would have been tempted maybe to, just like
Speaker 1: you would have completely missed it. When they got to
Speaker 1: the tomb and it was empty, they were surprised. Why
Speaker 1: were they surprised? He spent Jesus spent. Well, I guess
Speaker 1: a dead man rising from the grave is surprising, but
Speaker 1: after all they've seen him do I know is kind
Speaker 1: of obvious, but this is exactly what he said he
Speaker 1: would do. So when the stone was rolled away when
Speaker 1: they got there on Sunday, they were shocked by it.
Speaker 1: When the women came back, because the women had the
Speaker 1: ability to believe something that the men couldn't believe. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if that says anything about how God
Speaker 1: uses sometimes, you know, people or whatever whatever whatever. The
Speaker 1: men were like the official disciples, but the women were
Speaker 1: the ones who went to the tomb. All right, now,
Speaker 1: y'all are a little too loud on this point. When
Speaker 1: John got there, he got there first, but he didn't
Speaker 1: go in. When Peter got there, Peter went in, but
Speaker 1: he didn't believe. So God used John, who stood outside
Speaker 1: the tomb at a distance, to believe Peter was wired
Speaker 1: to believe it when he sees it. John stood out, John,
Speaker 1: I got to give you an idea of the differences.
Speaker 1: Why is so surprising? John at the Last Supper, when
Speaker 1: Jesus was saying, one of you is going to betray me,
Speaker 1: leaned back on Jesus's chest and said nothing. Peter said,
Speaker 1: not me. Even if you die, I'm gonna be right here.
Speaker 1: If the wheels fall off, all right with you. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, Jesus. I'll cut off an ear, I'll cut
Speaker 1: off a head, I'll do anything but let the cock
Speaker 1: crow three times, and Peter's denying him like he never
Speaker 1: knew him. Is surprising that God would use two people
Speaker 1: who were so different and use them to do something
Speaker 1: so amazing as perform the first miracle since the birth
Speaker 1: of the Church that we witness in the Book of Acts,
Speaker 1: Peter and John together. If you are more like John
Speaker 1: than Peter, that's okay. It will shock you some of
Speaker 1: the things that God will use about your personality that
Speaker 1: you think mean that he can't use you. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to stay there long because it really not
Speaker 1: my message. But that surprised me that it was Peter
Speaker 1: and John together because they seem like polar opposite. So question,
Speaker 1: are you open to who God wants to use in
Speaker 1: your life or do you have a wish list that
Speaker 1: looks more like something that you should handt a Santa
Speaker 1: than something that you should pray to Jesus. And if
Speaker 1: they don't match the exact specifications of who you thought
Speaker 1: God would use, can you be open to a surprise?
Speaker 1: A surprise? Some of the best work I ever did
Speaker 1: in my life was with people that I didn't see
Speaker 1: it on the surface, but see, here's what they're doing.
Speaker 1: They're going up to the temple at the time of
Speaker 1: prayer three in the afternoon. You got your nine am prayer,
Speaker 1: you got your twelve noon prayer, you got your three
Speaker 1: pm prayer, and they're going to the temple. That surprised
Speaker 1: me because the temple was the old system. So now
Speaker 1: they're preaching the gospel Jesus has ascended to heaven. The
Speaker 1: context of this is that the day of Pentecost has
Speaker 1: already come. Peter preaches this amazing confrontational sermon. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been like a YouTube popular sermon. It wouldn't have
Speaker 1: got a lot of clicks or views or comments or anything.
Speaker 1: Like that. But it was very effective because when he
Speaker 1: preached that, the Holy Spirit demonstrated with power. Everybody say power.
Speaker 1: Don't say it real timid, say power. That's better. That's better.
Speaker 1: When you say power, say it from your diaphragm, say power.
Speaker 1: And now, all of a sudden, the Spirit's power was
Speaker 1: a demonstration of what Peter preached, and God did an
Speaker 1: amazing work. Three thousand came into their number that day.
Speaker 1: Now in Acts chapter three, as the church is growing,
Speaker 1: this this sect that was considered like almost like a
Speaker 1: cult of Judaism. These two leaders, two of the appointed
Speaker 1: designated leaders from the twelve Disciples. They're going up to
Speaker 1: the temple, which is where they used to worship. But
Speaker 1: they have a new understanding that Jesus, God's Messiah, who
Speaker 1: wasn't a new religion. It was the fulfillment of what
Speaker 1: God already started. Stay with me, there's going to be
Speaker 1: a payoff to all this back I'm giving you. When
Speaker 1: they go up to the temple at the time of prayer,
Speaker 1: they are doing what they always did. And at this
Speaker 1: point in the text we get a picture of sometimes
Speaker 1: how we are in between two things in our life.
Speaker 1: We are in between two things in our life. There
Speaker 1: is the old thing that we used to do. There
Speaker 1: is the old thing, the familiar thing, the nostalgic thing,
Speaker 1: the comforting thing, and then there is the new thing,
Speaker 1: which is true. But in between the two sometimes you
Speaker 1: have to have a new belief in the same temple,
Speaker 1: a new belief in the same system. So they're going
Speaker 1: to temple like they always did. They're going not only
Speaker 1: to temple like they did once a week. They did
Speaker 1: this every day. In the Jewish culture. It would not
Speaker 1: be unusual to hit all three prayer services. You might
Speaker 1: have been there at nine, and twelve and three. So
Speaker 1: they are doing something that is very familiar to them.
Speaker 1: When God, when God gives them what we would call
Speaker 1: an interruption in their schedule. Now, let's watch this verse two.
Speaker 1: A man who was laying from birth was being carried
Speaker 1: to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put
Speaker 1: every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
Speaker 1: Now let's kind of get in the middle of this situation.
Speaker 1: He's moving toward his spot by the gate. They're moving
Speaker 1: toward their spot in the temple. And what's amazing about
Speaker 1: what happens next is that in order for the miracle
Speaker 1: to happen, both parties had to be open to a
Speaker 1: divine surprise. Are you open to divine surprises? Some of
Speaker 1: us aren't. In fact, I was imagining this modern day.
Speaker 1: You know, I've preached this text a few times, so
Speaker 1: I was imagining, like, how would it look in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one? And as I played it out, nobody got
Speaker 1: healed in the passage because everybody was looking at their
Speaker 1: phones on the way into church. The whole miracle had
Speaker 1: just stopped right at verse three. It was Peter and
Speaker 1: John going in and the man was going to a spot,
Speaker 1: and nobody got anything because nobody was looking for anything
Speaker 1: except something that was inside, something that wasn't even real.
Speaker 1: And what we like about this, while I can do
Speaker 1: my weekly rent against the phones that I'm addicted to
Speaker 1: as well, while we do this, what we like about
Speaker 1: it is it's predictable. It's predictably miserable, but it gives
Speaker 1: us something to go to where we can know exactly
Speaker 1: this is available to me. So now now, if I
Speaker 1: live my real life, I might be surprised. I don't
Speaker 1: like to be some unless I like the surprise. Ordered
Speaker 1: the prize, Customize the surprise so this is the God.
Speaker 1: We want this to Jesus. We want God, let me
Speaker 1: customize the surprises that I want you to send into
Speaker 1: my life today. And when I realized about the Temple
Speaker 1: of Us, all of the people who were leading in
Speaker 1: the temple were surprised when God actually did something. But
Speaker 1: it was his house. Now walk around into Holly, this
Speaker 1: is my house too. Can I move from room to room?
Speaker 1: And you're not freak out when something actually happened in
Speaker 1: the name of Jesus. They were surprised that God had
Speaker 1: the audacity to move in his own house. Can God
Speaker 1: move in his own house? Can the pother tell the
Speaker 1: clay what to be? Can God switch things around a
Speaker 1: little bit? Can God give you a blue wind instead
Speaker 1: of a red wind? I mean, can we start small?
Speaker 1: Some of us just don't like any surprises, so we
Speaker 1: structure God right out of our prayer life. Peter probably,
Speaker 1: Peter probably wouldn't have stopped to see the man if
Speaker 1: it hadn't been for quiet John, and the man probably
Speaker 1: would not have received this healing. Now, he definitely wouldn't
Speaker 1: have received it if he insisted on getting what he
Speaker 1: asked for in the first place. Now here's why This
Speaker 1: matters to you because right now you are in the
Speaker 1: process of, if I can put it this way, you
Speaker 1: are trying to decide whether to embrace what life has
Speaker 1: surprised you with or fight it. Just like this man.
Speaker 1: He was paralyzed from birth. Side note, you are not
Speaker 1: stuck with what you are born ass right, right, Jesus
Speaker 1: is bigger than your genetics. Side note, the man in
Speaker 1: this passage was forty years old. So now what we're
Speaker 1: about to see happen is God is going to give
Speaker 1: this man something that he gave up on a long
Speaker 1: time ago. And I know what that feels like, because
Speaker 1: the longer that you live, the less surprisable you become. Right,
Speaker 1: you start out when you're like, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was twenty five years old as a pastor, and I
Speaker 1: would see something, I'd be like, they would never betray me.
Speaker 1: I hadn't said that in a while, right, Or I say,
Speaker 1: I don't want to make it all negative. I would
Speaker 1: say something like, well, I could never change this habit,
Speaker 1: and then I did. I did. You won't believe this.
Speaker 1: I do two leg days a week now in the gym.
Speaker 1: Y'all give it up. That's a big deal, now, I
Speaker 1: like this man. I am forty one years old and
Speaker 1: I have lived to see some things that I never
Speaker 1: thought would happen, good and bad. I told Buck when
Speaker 1: he started training me when I was twenty eight. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't do legs. Just like my mom has this thing.
Speaker 1: Ah don't merge, Ah don't merge. Ah don't merge. She
Speaker 1: does this whole bit about it. You can ask her
Speaker 1: sometimes she has this traffic thing. Ah don't merge. She
Speaker 1: will drive seventeen hours to get to Walmart so she
Speaker 1: doesn't have to merge on forty five. But it's a blessing, Okay,
Speaker 1: a small town. So, but the longer you go in life,
Speaker 1: you get things like, oh, that happens people do that.
Speaker 1: I missed an opportunity, y'all, and I kicked myself about it.
Speaker 1: I should have wrote my parenting book before my kids
Speaker 1: were born. I could have written such a good book.
Speaker 1: Could have been seven hundred and thirty three pages about
Speaker 1: what to never do with the child, and what to
Speaker 1: always do and what kind of kids grow up God's
Speaker 1: way to flourish in the courts of our God. Should
Speaker 1: have wrote it before I found out. You know that
Speaker 1: life will surprise you man, life will surprise you. People
Speaker 1: will sure enough surprise you, and you get traumatized. It's
Speaker 1: weird because like certain people on my phone, they gave
Speaker 1: me bad news once, so I'm scared to see their
Speaker 1: name at all anymore. Oh, no, can you relate to
Speaker 1: this at all? This is a term in for the
Speaker 1: people over age ten. And then you become less surprisable,
Speaker 1: You become more cynical, you become more jaded. You call
Speaker 1: it discerning, but that doesn't change what it is. Right.
Speaker 1: You can put a briar's label on a can of spinach,
Speaker 1: but it's still okay, it's still spinach. So in this
Speaker 1: passage you got to give a lot of credit to
Speaker 1: how much Peter has grown by this point in his ministry.
Speaker 1: And really the credit goes to the Holy Spirit, because
Speaker 1: in Peter's own mind, he was probably the least surprised
Speaker 1: the disciples. He was surprising because he would do the
Speaker 1: stupidest thing that you could imagine and think that he
Speaker 1: was doing something good for Jesus. But did you know
Speaker 1: that Peter was actually shocked when Jesus went to the cross.
Speaker 1: Not only was he shocked when he rose from the dead,
Speaker 1: he was shocked when he died. What did you think
Speaker 1: he came for? He told you this over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. One thing I was reading this week,
Speaker 1: I was just studying all about Peter. I just went
Speaker 1: on this Peter binge this week, and I was looking
Speaker 1: at all the different things that Peter said and did,
Speaker 1: and he talked a lot, and sometimes when he would
Speaker 1: say something. One time, Jesus took them up on the
Speaker 1: Mount of Transfiguration, and you can look this up later.
Speaker 1: It's really cool. He went up there and Jesus was
Speaker 1: talking to Moses and Elijah about his departure, because he
Speaker 1: was getting ready to go to Jerusalem, where he would
Speaker 1: pay the price for our sin as the sacrificial lamb
Speaker 1: of God that was slain before the foundation of the earth,
Speaker 1: the very purpose for which he came to say, save
Speaker 1: his people from their sins. And he's going to do that.
Speaker 1: And Peter is sleepy, so he doesn't really listen. But
Speaker 1: as soon as he wakes up, he starts talking, and
Speaker 1: it says something so weird. In the Bible, it says
Speaker 1: that Peter started saying, let's build a shelter up here
Speaker 1: for you, a shelter for Moses, A shelter for Elijah?
Speaker 1: What was he trying to do keep Jesus from coming
Speaker 1: down that mountain and going to the cross. And in
Speaker 1: a parenthetical insert, the author says he did not know
Speaker 1: what he was saying. In other words, he didn't know
Speaker 1: what he was talking about. For everybody who is arrogant
Speaker 1: enough to speak about what other people should do in
Speaker 1: challenges that you have never faced, I just want to
Speaker 1: warn you with this, life will surprise you. Okay, So
Speaker 1: if you're a new pastor and you're saying, well, my
Speaker 1: church will never you don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: If you're a new uh, a new husband or a
Speaker 1: new wife in my marriage, we will never write your
Speaker 1: marriage book while you are still engaged. Better yet, write
Speaker 1: it on the first because life will surprise you and
Speaker 1: it will take away all of your answers and you
Speaker 1: won't be able to write your book. And the real
Speaker 1: challenge of faith. Watch this. This is the part that
Speaker 1: freaked me out. The real challenge of faith is not
Speaker 1: to be more certain. It is to stay surprisable. And
Speaker 1: yes that is a word in Miriam Webster. You can
Speaker 1: cross check me while I preach from the text stay surprisable.
Speaker 1: See the thing about the man in the passage. I'll
Speaker 1: sit down. I gotta teach the thing about the man
Speaker 1: in the passage. He wasn't expecting to get healed. In fact,
Speaker 1: this is a unique miracle that God chose to launch
Speaker 1: the church because usually when Jesus I see people they
Speaker 1: asked to be hell. Peter is so obnoxiously proactive he
Speaker 1: doesn't even ask the man, are you looking for a
Speaker 1: life change? Because the moment he gets up and walks,
Speaker 1: he can't beg anymore. We don't think about this stuff
Speaker 1: in the Bible, like the man jumps up and walks. Now,
Speaker 1: what if he's gonna do this miracle in a consider
Speaker 1: it way for all interested parties. He's just say something
Speaker 1: like this, Hey man, about this time next week, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna come by. I got something for you. I got
Speaker 1: the name of Jesus I served under. Yeah you heard
Speaker 1: abou him? Yeah, yeah, rose from dead. What he's gonna
Speaker 1: do just like he got up out of the grave,
Speaker 1: You're gonna get up out of here, But you wanna
Speaker 1: line some stuff up for a comeback, because like who
Speaker 1: dropped you off to day? Your friends will You're not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to take you home. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: Peter has spent three years. You gonna remember this. He
Speaker 1: spent three years apprenticing under the Savior who specializes in surprises.
Speaker 1: Oh you didn't know that. No, Jesus Christ is the
Speaker 1: same yesterday, today, and forever. He's stable. That's right. You
Speaker 1: can count on him. He won't change, he won't leave you.
Speaker 1: But he's surprising. And there's nothing in the text that
Speaker 1: indicates that the disciples liked it, but they must have
Speaker 1: needed it because he would put them in exact situations.
Speaker 1: I wonder who's there right now. He put them in
Speaker 1: exact situations where he could have given them some notice,
Speaker 1: like watch this. He's God, he knows. When we get
Speaker 1: to the other side, there's gonna be five thousand men
Speaker 1: with all their wives, with all their children, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna be hungry, not only for healing, but
Speaker 1: they're gonna need some food. Some boys call the catering service.
Speaker 1: Let's pack some barbecue. Well, I'm going over to Jewish place. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna do some sandwiches, some whatever. You
Speaker 1: know the point. But Jess didn't do any of that.
Speaker 1: Why Why did he surprise them? With a knee. I
Speaker 1: got a better one. I was praying earlier. This won't
Speaker 1: be on the sermons, so if you're watching it later.
Speaker 1: It was during the worship I talked about the woman
Speaker 1: at the well in Samaria and the reason that that
Speaker 1: was on my mind. Give them John chapter four. I
Speaker 1: sent them to this last minute. It said that Jesus
Speaker 1: was talking to a woman and his disciples went out
Speaker 1: to get food, and they were surprised to see him
Speaker 1: talking with a woman, but no one asked what do
Speaker 1: you want or why are you talking to her? I
Speaker 1: learned this, what you are surprised by tells me a
Speaker 1: lot about what you have assumed. Wow, what surprises you
Speaker 1: tells me what you assumed. I had a series of experiences.
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you about this. The other day,
Speaker 1: I was writing music with somebody and they said something
Speaker 1: that at first I thought was a compliment. And I
Speaker 1: thought after I thought about I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: think that was a compliment. They said, I'm so surprised
Speaker 1: you're so creative, and I mean, I've got an ego
Speaker 1: just like everybody else. I didn't like the way when
Speaker 1: I thought about it later. First of all I heard
Speaker 1: was you're so creative. But then when I thought about
Speaker 1: I'm so surprised. I wanted to go back and ask them,
Speaker 1: but I didn't see him again. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to ask him. Maybe i'll see him again, ask him.
Speaker 1: Why were you surprised? What about me made you think
Speaker 1: I wasn't creative? I've done stuff, do stuff. I don't
Speaker 1: know why they were surprised by that? What did you
Speaker 1: think about me? What did you think of what? I mean?
Speaker 1: Why would that surprise you? I don't know. It was
Speaker 1: weird to me. This other guy, this is what we
Speaker 1: were talking about. And it was the word actually that
Speaker 1: got me. He said, you're actually a nice guy. I said,
Speaker 1: just pray for people, you know. It was the word
Speaker 1: actually that got me. As like, against all odds, I
Speaker 1: expected the exact opposite. He expected to get something from them,
Speaker 1: but his assumption was that what they had to offer
Speaker 1: was money. They went to church expecting to pray. Neither
Speaker 1: party was expecting a miracle. Can God surprise you or
Speaker 1: do you assume so much about him? Like sometimes we're
Speaker 1: surprised that God is actually a good God because we
Speaker 1: assumed that what we heard about him growing up, Like
Speaker 1: in some churches. I'm just being honest. In some pulpits
Speaker 1: God turns out to be the pettiest character in the
Speaker 1: whole story. So then to actually find out that he
Speaker 1: is who we said. He is, the God of Abraham,
Speaker 1: the God of Isaac, God to Jacob, the God of
Speaker 1: his Covenant, abounding in love to a thousand generations. We
Speaker 1: can't imagine that we're actually surprised to see the face
Speaker 1: of Christ, that he would talk with a woman that
Speaker 1: others would ostracize because we assumed that we knew what
Speaker 1: he was. You know, what you're surprised by tells me
Speaker 1: a lot of what you've assumed to begin with. I
Speaker 1: wonder what you've assumed about you, because by the time
Speaker 1: you're forty, you pretty much got it figured out what
Speaker 1: your limitations are. This is my spot, this is my gig,
Speaker 1: this is my deal. This is what I do. This
Speaker 1: is what I have to do to feel good. This
Speaker 1: is what I have to do to get what I want.
Speaker 1: That hadn't happened by now, it'll never happen. Notice a
Speaker 1: word in the text instantly verse seven, Acts three. Instantly
Speaker 1: the man's feet and ankles rus straw. You mean to
Speaker 1: tell me that what was four decades in the making
Speaker 1: that had crippled the man and limited him was undone instantly.
Speaker 1: Don't misunderstand what I'm about to tell you because I'll
Speaker 1: balance it too. But hear this, it can change like that.
Speaker 1: I know you're scared to shout because like see, we
Speaker 1: heard stuff like that before and then we were surprised
Speaker 1: that we still struggled with it later, especially if you
Speaker 1: came into a relationship with God that was kind of transactional.
Speaker 1: Pray this prayer, get Jesus to forgive you. You won't
Speaker 1: have to fry and burn with Hitler. You can go
Speaker 1: to heaven when you die. Oh, y'all are so shocked.
Speaker 1: They're so churchy, so surprising. Oh that's what we heard.
Speaker 1: That's what we heard. We were surprised by struggle. So
Speaker 1: you know your sins to the cross, Like I went
Speaker 1: to this youth camp one time. We actually wrote out
Speaker 1: our sins, which for a teenager you're doing really embarrassing stuff,
Speaker 1: so you have to use code for a teenage boy.
Speaker 1: The most specific you can get is lust. That's like
Speaker 1: level two and specificity. So you just put that down.
Speaker 1: Come over here to the guys. I feel judged over here. Okay,
Speaker 1: but but you nail it to the cross, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I nailed my sin to the cross, and then the
Speaker 1: Lord forgave me. And you get home. Surprise, here's lust
Speaker 1: right where you left it. But I nailed it to
Speaker 1: the cross. Surprise. He got in the car. He came
Speaker 1: right out with you. He's in your blood, boy, expecting
Speaker 1: to get something from him. And Peter said, watch this.
Speaker 1: Silver and gold I don't have, but what I have
Speaker 1: I give you. The Lord told me to tell you
Speaker 1: you don't know your own strength. You don't know your
Speaker 1: own strength because you always stop at your weakness. You
Speaker 1: don't know your own strength. I saw Graham try to
Speaker 1: wrestle Holly the other day. She says, stop, you don't
Speaker 1: know your own strength. You're gonna hurt me. You don't
Speaker 1: know how strong you are. You're gonna hurt me. And
Speaker 1: I walked in and I said, boy, you want to
Speaker 1: wrest somebody, let's wrestle. Yeah. I thought about myself. I thought,
Speaker 1: if I'm Peter and the guy asked me for money
Speaker 1: and I don't have it, I'm probably just gonna say
Speaker 1: silver and gold have I none? I'm going to church
Speaker 1: right it was what he said next. It was what
Speaker 1: he said next that demonstrated the power of the Gospel.
Speaker 1: It was what he said next, like he was surprised
Speaker 1: that this guy cut him off at the temple gate.
Speaker 1: He didn't expect to see this man. God wasn't I mean,
Speaker 1: how strategic is God of all the people going to
Speaker 1: church at three pm that day? First of all, maybe
Speaker 1: Peter missed the twelve pm so he'd be at the
Speaker 1: three pm. You ever think about how God works things
Speaker 1: out in your life, Like you don't see these things,
Speaker 1: they seem coincidental, but they're really connected. And so this
Speaker 1: man's being carried at the time that they are carrying something.
Speaker 1: What they are carrying is going to keep him from
Speaker 1: ever having to be carried again. At the same time, coincidence.
Speaker 1: God is most strategic when you are most surprised. They
Speaker 1: could have gone to church and prayed. That would have
Speaker 1: been exactly what they expected. They could have made it
Speaker 1: to the three pm service just like they expected. And
Speaker 1: I don't think it would have made acts three Let's
Speaker 1: try it out. Peter and John were going to the
Speaker 1: temple courts at the time of the Praier three in
Speaker 1: the afternoon and they had a good prayer. It's just
Speaker 1: for me that doesn't hold the same interest as the
Speaker 1: story that I read you. And yet, like, is God
Speaker 1: doing in your life right now this intersection where you're
Speaker 1: completely caught off guard, But he's not. He's If he
Speaker 1: had told Peter there was going to be a man
Speaker 1: at the gate, Peter would have grabbed his wallet. Then
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have gotten healed. Then Peter couldn't have used
Speaker 1: him to preach and say Jesus did this. Then two
Speaker 1: thousand new converts wouldn't have been added to the church.
Speaker 1: Then Peter wouldn't have got thrown in prison with John
Speaker 1: because the authorities didn't know what to do with him,
Speaker 1: because they were surprised that God actually moved in his
Speaker 1: own house. Then they wouldn't have had the faith in
Speaker 1: the boldness to pray together and bond together as the church.
Speaker 1: Then they wouldn't have gone into the persecution with the
Speaker 1: strength of knowing that God can do anything. God, at
Speaker 1: least in my life, and what I understand about the
Speaker 1: spirit of God is most strategic. That this man is
Speaker 1: coming up to his spot at this time. All of
Speaker 1: the things that had to happen to get them there
Speaker 1: at the same time. The man thought he was going
Speaker 1: to get some change, and he did just not dimes
Speaker 1: and quarters and nickels. Right. I hadn't studied this, But
Speaker 1: do they still have a change shortage? When the pandemic started,
Speaker 1: you couldn't get change in a restaurant or in a store.
Speaker 1: Church has had the same problem for years. It was weird.
Speaker 1: I went to Target and I was like, waiting for
Speaker 1: my change. They're like, oh, we don't do change anymore.
Speaker 1: A lot of churches. I mean, the man comes there
Speaker 1: every day and nothing ever happens, and you hear sermons
Speaker 1: and Bible studies and all that, and no change, no change,
Speaker 1: no change, because because we don't like to be surprised,
Speaker 1: so we want God to change stuff without changing us.
Speaker 1: And that's not how he does it. Are you surprisable?
Speaker 1: I was praying God, What do I tell him? He said,
Speaker 1: tell him, stay surprisable, Stay surprisable. Keep some room in
Speaker 1: what you plan for your life, your kids, and for
Speaker 1: all the trajectory where if God wants to do something
Speaker 1: a little different. This is the lesson Peter learned. So
Speaker 1: by the time he's gotten to this point in his ministry,
Speaker 1: he's full of the Holy Spirit. He's seen the empty tomb,
Speaker 1: he's been restored when he left Jesus at the cross.
Speaker 1: He's no longer surprised at his own weakness, but he's
Speaker 1: confident in God's strength. He's no longer surprised by his
Speaker 1: own weakness, but he is con confident in God's strength.
Speaker 1: Now that's a whole Turkey word for somebody. Stop being
Speaker 1: so surprised by your weakness. It's there, it's always going
Speaker 1: to be there. You are but dust. The King James says,
Speaker 1: you are nothing more than a breadth and a vapor.
Speaker 1: But God's word is eternal, and he lives in you.
Speaker 1: That's why Peter said, why are you looking at us?
Speaker 1: We didn't do it. We just accessed the power of
Speaker 1: one who could stay surprisable some of y'all do. Y'all
Speaker 1: want the marriage seminar part. Stop thinking you completely know
Speaker 1: what your wife would and wouldn't want to do. You're
Speaker 1: so boring, You're so boring. You're no longer like I'm
Speaker 1: telling you man, like I've been married a lot of
Speaker 1: years now, how many it's coming up on? Twenty? Yeah,
Speaker 1: nineteen years? Well, yell or like ya, you're in trouble.
Speaker 1: You didn't remember how many years you've been married. I'm
Speaker 1: up here saying a lot of stuff. She doesn't care.
Speaker 1: But when I tell you I've never loved being married
Speaker 1: to her more, I'm so glad I didn't confine her
Speaker 1: to the first version of what I thought. I knew
Speaker 1: my wife was wine. The first thing she told me
Speaker 1: at the North Greenville cafeteria that I remember is I
Speaker 1: would never want to marry a preacher. Surprise. Well, I
Speaker 1: never I'll never do I'll never preach. I mean, I'll
Speaker 1: support you. She's good, right, she's good. Right. She surprises herself.
Speaker 1: She I saw. I called her watching herself back preaching
Speaker 1: the other day. She said, Oh that's good. Have you
Speaker 1: surprised yourself lately? You've got to surprise yourself, not only
Speaker 1: surprise your spouse, like oh, I gave you six flowers
Speaker 1: instead of four this year. Not only that stuff. Something
Speaker 1: you need to surprise yourself. Just do something that, even
Speaker 1: if it's small, that you didn't think you could do.
Speaker 1: I'm a night person, go to bed, I'm a I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm a I'm a morning person. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Just like ah, wild and crazy, I'm sucking.
Speaker 1: I normally get it grilled. I'm gonna get it fried. Ah,
Speaker 1: I'm full of surprising. I'm crazy, right. I like to
Speaker 1: preach different ways. I like to write different songs. Somebody
Speaker 1: told me one time I wrote a song that had
Speaker 1: some rock in it, and they were like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: black people wouldn't like that. The person who told me
Speaker 1: was white. How do you know what black people would like?
Speaker 1: And not like like there's one person, Stop telling me
Speaker 1: what somebody else would not want, or like like you've
Speaker 1: figured out people. I told a man one time, I said,
Speaker 1: we couldn't have video campuses, and the only way my
Speaker 1: preaching works is if people are in a room with
Speaker 1: me while I'm preaching. Surprise. One day I walked in
Speaker 1: and nobody was allowed to come to church, and and
Speaker 1: all I had was the thing I didn't think I
Speaker 1: could do. Surprise it worked. You might be surprised. But
Speaker 1: now that sounds real cool. When Peter's saying it in
Speaker 1: verse twelve to the leaders, this man gets up and
Speaker 1: walked and he's like, why are you surprised? Why does
Speaker 1: this surprise you? Will? Come on, Peter, when you first
Speaker 1: met Jesus and you caught fish, it freaked you out
Speaker 1: so bad you fell at his feet and said, go away, Lord,
Speaker 1: I'm a sinful man. When he said I'm going to
Speaker 1: the cross, he said never, Lord, don't happen to you.
Speaker 1: When they actually arrested him, you were so surprised you
Speaker 1: went and coward to a servant girl who said you
Speaker 1: were one of them. This is something that takes us
Speaker 1: a little time. And what happens like you get conditioned
Speaker 1: to certain things, and if you have enough of the
Speaker 1: negative or the dysfunctional things, you'll be surprised by the good. Now.
Speaker 1: I think that's helpful sometimes, right like I think sometimes
Speaker 1: we ought to be more surprised and less entitled. When
Speaker 1: Rick Bowling first gave me a bonus check, he said,
Speaker 1: you're getting a Christmas bonus the first church I worked at,
Speaker 1: I hugged him a bear, hugged him. The amount of
Speaker 1: money today it was so small compared to what things
Speaker 1: are today. It wouldn't register like that. I wouldn't hug him.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, thanks man. And what got me into text?
Speaker 1: I just was reading this again. And when you come
Speaker 1: to the Bible with fresh eyes, it's amazing. God is
Speaker 1: wanting to surprise you in your Bible, in your life,
Speaker 1: in your relations and ships. He's the god of surprises.
Speaker 1: He's he's talking to a woman at the well. He's he's,
Speaker 1: he's he's doing amazing things. For feeding, feeding multitudes with
Speaker 1: with little meager fish. Captain Bee's uh supplies long John
Speaker 1: Silver's supplies. He's surprising, But sometimes we're not surprisable. Because
Speaker 1: it said that the man, once he was able to walk,
Speaker 1: he went with them in the temple Courts verse eight, walking,
Speaker 1: jumping and praising God. Say that walking, jumping, praising God.
Speaker 1: It caused such a commotion that everybody was was amazed
Speaker 1: that this man that they used to see sitting was
Speaker 1: now doing what walking jumping, praising God because he wasn't
Speaker 1: expecting to walk. There's a praise that comes out of
Speaker 1: somebody who hasn't learned yet to take God's gifts for granted.
Speaker 1: How many people went to the temple that day, why
Speaker 1: weren't they jumping? Because when you've always been able to walk,
Speaker 1: when you've always had provision, when you've always had a
Speaker 1: roof over your head, when you've always been well fed,
Speaker 1: when you've always been taken care of, you stop being
Speaker 1: surprised by it. One of my friends said that you
Speaker 1: exchange appreciation for expectation. You start expecting people to do
Speaker 1: for you what they don't have to do for you,
Speaker 1: and that is very dangerous. So every time I preach,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised that God actually uses me, and
Speaker 1: I think that's good. I don't ever want to get
Speaker 1: to the point where I'm like, well, I mean, I
Speaker 1: know my Bible, of course God used me. I mean what,
Speaker 1: I'm anointed, I'm appointed. No, I want to stay surprised.
Speaker 1: I want to stay surprised, like every once in a while,
Speaker 1: I just want to take a deep breath and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that was like a premium breath. I know, you can't
Speaker 1: walk around all the time just praising God for every
Speaker 1: breath and being, you know, skipping through Walmart and things
Speaker 1: like this. I'm not talking about being weird, right, But
Speaker 1: there is a lesson in the fact that of everybody
Speaker 1: who walked into the temple that day, the one who
Speaker 1: had never walked before, his feet barely touched the ground.
Speaker 1: When you first got certain blessings from God, when you
Speaker 1: first started being used by God, when you first got
Speaker 1: on elevation staff, your feet barely touched the ground. So
Speaker 1: once in a while you got to remember that it's
Speaker 1: a blessing just to be able to walk. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a blessing just to see another day. It's a
Speaker 1: blessing just to survive. See, you will really understand this.
Speaker 1: You will really understand this. If you ever went through
Speaker 1: a season where you thought you wouldn't make it, And
Speaker 1: if you haven't had that season, you won't understand. But
Speaker 1: if you had a season where you were living off
Speaker 1: of alms, where you were begging for something to make
Speaker 1: it to the next day, but he got you off,
Speaker 1: snatch you up his mighty hand, his right hand, his
Speaker 1: hand of authority. Hit the name of Jesus came to
Speaker 1: you in your begging place. You know what it means
Speaker 1: to jump. You know why we call the church's elevation.
Speaker 1: You know why we praise him. You know why we
Speaker 1: smile with all of our teeth closed in our right mind.
Speaker 1: Blessed to be in the number one more day, Stay amazed,
Speaker 1: stay surprised. Jump every once in a while. Every once
Speaker 1: in a while, you have to jump everywhere, But every
Speaker 1: once in a while, just jump, Just jump, Just jump
Speaker 1: for joy. Every once in a while, just appreciate the
Speaker 1: fact that the lane will leap like a deer, and
Speaker 1: that God did that for me, and you've always been
Speaker 1: able to walk. You can't really appreciate it because you
Speaker 1: stop being surprised. God wants to surprise you. Does this
Speaker 1: in strategic ways, and God is never more strategic than
Speaker 1: when you are most surprised. Peter had no plan to
Speaker 1: preach that day, and he preached a sermon so powerful
Speaker 1: because God planted somebody at the gate. Surprise, surprise. Now,
Speaker 1: later in his life he gives us a perspective in
Speaker 1: One Peter four. He says that just like God surprises
Speaker 1: you with great gifts and opportunities, right, he said, dear friends,
Speaker 1: don't be surprised at the fiery trial. This is first Peter,
Speaker 1: this is the same guy. He kind of has this thing.
Speaker 1: He's like, why are you surprised that God is healing
Speaker 1: this man? This is what Jesus came to do. You
Speaker 1: should know it more than anyone. You recognize the man,
Speaker 1: but you didn't recognize the Messiah. So you are surprised
Speaker 1: when God actually shows up because it does not look
Speaker 1: like what you put on your list. Are you there
Speaker 1: right now in your life? He said, don't be surprised
Speaker 1: by the favor. Don't be surprised by the fire. Don't
Speaker 1: be surprised when God strengthens you. That's what he's there for.
Speaker 1: He gave you his spirit. Don't be surprised when you struggle.
Speaker 1: And above all else, don't let your struggle keep you
Speaker 1: from accessing your strength. Silver and gold I don't have,
Speaker 1: or what I have I give you. And his feet
Speaker 1: and ankles became strong because Peter said the same Jesus,
Speaker 1: that you killed the author of life, God raised from
Speaker 1: the dead. I like to imagine sometimes that the devil
Speaker 1: through a big party after Jesus died and the sky
Speaker 1: grew black, to tell us die it has finished. He
Speaker 1: thought that Jesus gave up. I like to imagine what
Speaker 1: it was like Sunday morning when he was standing there
Speaker 1: with the keys of death, hell and the grave. Surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1: I want you to stand up right where you are,
Speaker 1: and I want you to throw your arms out just
Speaker 1: like this and tell the devil's surprise. You hit me
Speaker 1: with your best shot. You formed every weapon against me.
Speaker 1: You thought you killed my confidence by having people reject me.
Speaker 1: But surprise, you thought I would die in the Valley
Speaker 1: of the shadow of death. You thought I would curse
Speaker 1: God and die. But surprise. You thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be the end of me. You thought you'd picked
Speaker 1: my marriage apart. You thought you snatched my kid. You
Speaker 1: thought getting them on drugs would get me to stop
Speaker 1: praying for them. But surprise, because it's about the backfire.
Speaker 1: Because the same man that sat there begging, what's the
Speaker 1: one that started a revival in Jerusalem? Surprise, Surprise, you're
Speaker 1: stronger than you thought. You weren't. Surprise didn't kill you,
Speaker 1: made you better. Surprise you weren't ready for it. But
Speaker 1: it's here, Surprise, and into the hands of the God
Speaker 1: of surprises. You have the opportunity now to place all
Speaker 1: of your uncertainty and all of your insecurity. God said,
Speaker 1: I want to surprise you. Every once in a while,
Speaker 1: when I get overwhelmed by too many choices, I'll tell Holly,
Speaker 1: Or if it's a leadership thing, I'll tell one of
Speaker 1: my staff. Just surprise me. I don't even want to choose.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to choose. It's just too many options.
Speaker 1: Just surprise me, Holly. You'll say you want this to
Speaker 1: eat or that to eat, or the other to eat.
Speaker 1: I'll be like, just surprise me. I thought, what a
Speaker 1: great prayer to pray to God for all of us
Speaker 1: who have been surprised by life. If Peter and John,
Speaker 1: the most unlikely Kobe and Shack combination and Gospel history,
Speaker 1: can be interrupted on their way to prayer by a
Speaker 1: paralytic man who asked for money, but God healing to
Speaker 1: the point, remember this, Remember this in verse eleven. After
Speaker 1: he jumped up and was healed, the Bible says that
Speaker 1: the man held on to Peter and John. And you're wondering,
Speaker 1: what's the point of holding on to them if your
Speaker 1: feet and ankles are strong enough to hold yourself up.
Speaker 1: It's because he wasn't ready for this. You weren't either,
Speaker 1: and God knows that. So when you get to that place,
Speaker 1: you know where you say, this is something I never
Speaker 1: saw myself doing. This is something I never saw myself
Speaker 1: dealing with. Just turn your palms to your father like
Speaker 1: this and say, surprise me God. No, I want you
Speaker 1: to walk into confidence this week like Peter learned to
Speaker 1: walk in He didn't get it at first. We don't
Speaker 1: get it at first. But to know that when I'm
Speaker 1: most surprised, God is most strategic. Let's get this in
Speaker 1: our spirits. God said, you need to have a surprisable spirit.
Speaker 1: You need to not get so cynical about things that
Speaker 1: you just write everything off and push everything away. And
Speaker 1: just in the name of being guarded, you miss God.
Speaker 1: So say this. God is most strategic when I am
Speaker 1: most surprised. So Lord, I'm praying today for those who
Speaker 1: are in a surprise me season, not that they would
Speaker 1: like it. Maybe we need it. Maybe we need it.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking for something bad to happen to me
Speaker 1: or anybody else. I like the good surprises God, and
Speaker 1: I want all of those, but even for the thing
Speaker 1: that I didn't ask you to do. Like the man
Speaker 1: in this passage, help me to reach out and take
Speaker 1: hold of what you brought me. Surprise me, God, surprise
Speaker 1: me with the facet of your goodness and provision. I
Speaker 1: didn't see this week. Surprise me because I'm too overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: I don't know this way, that way, I don't know.
Speaker 1: We don't know anymore. The menus to be the world's
Speaker 1: too complicated, the inputs are too great, the noise is
Speaker 1: too loud. So surprise us. May we be filled with
Speaker 1: wonder and amazement. May people barely recognize us this time
Speaker 1: next year, Maybe leap for joy when we think about
Speaker 1: all of the things that you've done for us. God,
Speaker 1: some of us have been sitting at a gate so long,
Speaker 1: but you are trying to make us a gate for
Speaker 1: something that you want to release. Surprise us, Use us, God,
Speaker 1: would you use us to surprise somebody else, somebody who
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting their day to be made? We just we
Speaker 1: come around this idea of why are you surprised by this?
Speaker 1: We're not surprised by suffering, but we are expecting of glory.
Speaker 1: We are resurrection people. We give you praise in this
Speaker 1: moment in Jesus' name. I just want to take a
Speaker 1: moment and tell you one more thing. I know I've
Speaker 1: preached a long time, but just send me one more minute.
Speaker 1: God did the greatest thing in Act chapter three, at
Speaker 1: the gate, not in the church service. I don't want
Speaker 1: you to limit your experience of God's presence just to
Speaker 1: sitting and listening to a message. You know, I want
Speaker 1: you to expect God to surprise this week. Expect God
Speaker 1: to surprise you with opportunities. Expect God to surprise you
Speaker 1: with maybe some challenges that He gives you to make
Speaker 1: you stronger, expecting to surprise you with some blessings, some
Speaker 1: people to be good to you, just strengthen joy and
Speaker 1: peace that you didn't even know where it comes from,
Speaker 1: but you know who it comes from. I'm praying for
Speaker 1: you for God to surprise you this week. I'm very,
Speaker 1: very grateful. I don't count it lightly. The privileged to
Speaker 1: minister God's worked to you and stay surprisable. God has
Speaker 1: amazing things in store for you. Thank you for subscribing
Speaker 1: and we appreciate you and love you so much. Until
Speaker 1: next time.