An Encounter with Jesus: A Crippled Beggar

Oh, good, good morning. How's everybody doing? You doing good?

If I haven't met you yet, my name is Morgan Butcher Blessed me,

one of the pastors on staff here at Venture Church. If this is one

of your first times, or maybe you haven't been here in a little while,

our lead pastors, Pastor Brandon and I are on a three month sabbatical

right now, and you are joining us. I think this is week three

of their sabbatical, so you're stuck with me. Sorry about that. I'm

excited to be here and pumped for us to be able to continue through our

series titled Encounters with Jesus. Before I do that, you just saw that

video about our revival night that is happening tonight. Pastor Jeremy Johnson is gonna

be here. He's been here all weekend hanging out with our youth students at

Youth Con. That came many How many of you? How many of your

kids were at Youth Con this weekend? Come on, let's go. I

heard already from Pastor Johnny that we had over twenty students give their life to

Jesus this week. This God doing incredible things through that ministry and that event

and honestly, it'll be great to hear from Pastor Jeremy tonight, six o'clock.

Right here, Get here a little early, Grab a seat. It's

gonna be full. It's gonna be an incredible night. We always look forward

to revival nights. But let's dive in. You're ready, Are you ready?

Okay, I'm ready, You're ready. I had a fun weekend hanging

out with our Men's ministry at Men's Conference. If you didn't come with us,

shame on you. You should have been there. You could have been

there. We would have loved to have you, and we'll love to have

you next time. But we had an incredible time. Man, there's something

powerful about standing in a room with seven hundred men, seven hundred plus men

just singing and crying out to God. There's just something incredibly powerful and moving

about that. And I got the same chills at conference that I just got

standing right there as we were singing that last song. Here's the reality is

that God is worth worshiping. Amen, And I'm excited to continue to do

that this morning as we dive into Act chapter three. If you have your

Bibles, you can open up with me. There we're in the series titled

Encounters with Jesus, and we've been looking at various stories throughout scripture where one

encounter with Jesus changed everything in a person's life. I was thinking of when

I encountered Jesus for the first time. I was a junior in high school,

just a punk kid, just like I know some of you know me

now and you're like, there's no way. Actually, you're probably like,

yeah, I could see that. Yeah, No, Morgan was not the

greatest kid in the world. But I'll tell you what, man, one

encounter with Jesus, and all my testimony, everything changed, Everything changed.

My life was never the same after I met Jesus as a junior in high

school at Little Westminster Community Church in Troline, Washington, met a pastor's son.

He brought me into their church, brought me into their home, embraced

me like family, introduced me to the person to Jesus, and my life

has never been the same. And maybe here this morning and you've experienced and

you can remember when you first encountered your relationship with Jesus, when you first

made that first relationship with Jesus. I know, for as a young kid,

I was a different person. I had a new hope, I had

a new purpose. I had forgiveness to walk away from my past into this

new life that Jesus was offering me. Amen. And today we get the

opportunity to look at scripture and see another incredible life changing encounter with Jesus.

And so, like I said, if you have your bibles, open up

to Acts chapter three, where we find the story of Peter accompanied by the

disciple John healing a cripple Bigger. And my Bible is titled Peter Heals the

Cripple Bigger. Let's dive into scripture. I want to pray for us and

then we'll get going. Are you ready, Okay, here we go.

One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time

of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was

being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful. Just to clarify, the crippled

man's name was not Beautiful. The gate was called Beautiful, okay, where

he was put every day to beg from those who were going into the temple

courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them

for money. I imagine he said, hey, buddy, give me money.

I don't think he said that, but Peter looked straight at him,

as did John. Then Peter said, look at us. So the man

gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said

this, and maybe you've heard this line before. Silver and gold I do

not have. But what I have I give to you in the name of

Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk says. Taking him by the hand, Peter

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. And when all the

people saw him walking and praising God, they recognize him as the same man

who used to sit bagging at the temple gate, called beautiful, and they

were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened. Let me pray for

us, Father, God, We thank you so much for your word that

is alive and active and ready to change our life. And so this morning

I pray that as we look at your scripture, as we dive into what's

happening in your in your word, God, that you would just move something

in our hearts. God, that you would give us new perspective of who

you are, and that you would make us different people. As we walk

out of this room in Jesus name, and everyone said, Amen, this

is an awesome story. Right, Let's be honest. There's some days that

you wake up and you open your Bible and you read the story of Scripture

and you're like, okay, well tomorrow should be good, right, okay,

right, And then there's stories like these that are just captivating. Right,

there's so much happening. There's so many cool things happening and really quiet.

Obviously, we can see that this man's life was changed forever through this

encounter with Peter and John. When we read the story, we can see

some really obvious things happening here. We can see that this man was broken

right. It says that he couldn't walk on his own, he was carried

to the temple gates. Other obvious things. We can see from the stories

that this man was begging for help. He needed help and assistance to make

it to the next day. He relied on other people to make it to

the next day. And lastly, we see that this man experienced nothing short

than an absolute miracle of God in his life, and for the first time

he stood up on his own two feet. It's an incredible transformative story of

Jesus healing power. But can I tell you, when you take a closer

look at what is happening in this story, there is so much more going

on. There is more than just a broken man. There's more than just

a man needing help, and there's more than just one miracle taking place.

And here is what I have learned about walking with God for some time and

how God works in your in my life. It's that oftentimes, while we

are so focused on what God is doing right now, what things are going

on in our life, what struggles we're facing, what tensions we're facing,

the obstacles and the day to day life that we're facing. Oftentimes we are

so focused on what God is doing in the now, and we fail to

realize that God is actually preparing the way for something even greater that we cannot

currently see because we are so focused on what is happening right in front of

us. I don't know if you've experienced God doing this before in your life,

but it seems like so often while we are focused on what God is

doing in our current reality, what's happening in our workplace, with what's happening

in our family life, with what's happening in our marriage, with what's happening

to our kids, our health, our finances, our struggles, our tensions,

on and on and on that we don't even realize that God is simultaneously

orchestrating something fall a greater than we could ever ask or imagine. He is

both ministering to us in the present and paving the way for the future.

Amen. And it's in these moments I'm reminded of who our God is.

It's the same thing that he declares about himself and Isaiah fifty five when he

says his thoughts are not our thoughts, he says, my thoughts are not

your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. How many of you are

thankful that His ways are not your ways? How many of you are thankful

that his thoughts are not your thoughts? Amen? He says, no,

no, no, no, no, My thoughts are greater, My ways

are greater. This is who our God is in church. I don't know

who needs to be reminded of this morning, but his ways are higher,

His ways are greater, His perspective is greater. His vision is greater for

your in my life than we could ever ask or imagine. He works and

operates in our lives in a way that goes beyond what we can see or

imagine from where we currently stand. And today we're gonna look at this text,

and we're gonna look at the scripture and see how in the midst of

what is happening in scripture when we read over it, how God is actually

operating and working on a level far greater than we can even see. The

first difference between what we see versus what God sees from this scripture is that

where we see brokenness in this man, you know what God sees. God

sees the opportunity for beauty to happen. He sees the opportunity for something beautiful

to happen in this man's life. Look at what it says. Again.

In Acts one, we're introduced to this lame man. They were going up

to the temple at the time of prayer three in the afternoon. They and

now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful,

where he's put every day to bag from those going into the temple courts.

When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for

some money. We're introduced to this lame man, and know that doesn't mean

he has bad dad jokes, although maybe he did. I don't know.

I didn't meet him, never met him before, but I know I have

bad dad jokes. So you're welcome. This man was crippled. He couldn't

walk. He was dependent on others for help, and in this day and

age, there was not aid to be given to these kind of people.

These people would be left to defend for themselves. They would be dependent on

the help and then the security and the giving of those around them. It

says that he was crippled from birth, literally from his mother wounds. He

wasn't dropped as an infant, he didn't suffer an accident as a child.

He was born this way. He was born broken, and this would have

meant that he was dependent on everything. Even from this story, we can

see that he was dependent on having people that were heading to the temple for

worship carry him from wherever he was living to the gates of the temple door.

He was dependent on them bringing them bringing this man to the place where

he could receive gifts, where he could beg for money. We also see

that literally he was dependent on the donations the gifts of people entering the temple

courts. Literally to just make it to the next day. This man was

dependent on other people. And because this man was broken, he was never

allowed to enter the temple gates. He was always sat right outside the gate

of the temple. Some of you might be asking why was he not allowed

to go into the temple, and that's a great question. I'm so glad

that you asked that question. Well, this was a levitical law that had

been passed down from generation to generation to generation. We have to go all

the way back to the Old Testament, the Book of Leviticus, chapter twenty

one to read how the Lord gave Moses instruction of how to operate in places

of worship, and part of that loss stated that no person of defect,

who was lame, blind, disfigured, was to give an offering to God's

altar. So this man would sit outside the gates and beg for money,

or perhaps in your translation it uses the word alms would beg for alms.

Alms were gifts that were given to the needy. He was literally the homeless

man with the cardboard sign on the exit of the highway. Right, this

was his identity, This is who he was. This was this man's life

every single day. And now the temple courts. He was sitting by one

gate, but there would be multiple gates that you could have entered the temple

courts from. But scripture says that this man was laid at the gate called

Beautiful every day. This was one of the main gates that happened to be

the largest of the gates entering the temple. It was made of the most

expensive bronze, located on the east side of the temple, facing the sanctuary.

Most of the other doors leading into the temple they were made of other

precious metals like silver and gold, but this one was made of pure bronze.

And you can imagine it being on the east side of the temple,

right with the sun rising in the morning, and how the sun would rise

up and crest over the hills and shine on this giant bron's door, and

it would be beautiful to see. The glow of the gate would be absolutely

gorgeous, and people would come every day to these gates just like this gate

beautiful to praise God in the same way that the Psalmist wrote in Psalm one

hundred, verse four, enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with

praise, Give thanks to Him, bless his name. People would do this

every day, but not this man. This man was laid at the gate

and went no further. And so every day he would be placed at the

gates of the temple. While others would walk in and enter in to worship

God. While others were inspired by the beauty of the gates and the beauty

of the temple, every day he would sit outside and be reminded of his

brokenness. Literally, his brokenness was a barrier for worship. I don't want

to spend too much time here, but I really sensed this morning as I

was going back over that somebody needs to be reminded this morning that your brokenness,

your sin, does not discount you or discredit you from being in the

presence of God. You have full access to the Father. But this man

was reminded of his brokenness every time he sat in front of this gate.

His brokenness was unmistakable, and people would walk by this gate every day and

see the same broken man and friends, let me tell you, when we

see brokenness, can I tell you what God sees? God sees an opportunity

for something beautiful. It almost seems as though that God was setting the stage

for something beautiful to happen in this man's life. And this says that Peter

and John approach the gates about three o'clock. Maybe in your translation it says

the ninth hour. It is this hour was designated in Jewish tradition as the

evening. To me, one of two sacrifices that were held daily inside the

temple, and they would regularly gather the li largest crowds of the day.

People would go into the temple every day to worship, but it was these

two times in the day times of sacrifices that the largest crowds would gather together.

And it says that Peter and John approached the gates and saw this man

being carried and set before the gate, which means this that this man hadn't

been there begging all day like probably would have been normal. Instead, this

man was just arriving at the gates at three o'clock in the afternoon for the

second to meet. How do we know that. It says that as Peter

and John were arriving, they saw the man coming up to the gate and

being laid down. Which is strange because the evening to me, the second

to meet, would have been the last prayer gathering of the day. So

this man only has one opportunity, a short amount of time to gain gifts

from people that are coming in the temple. It would have been more likely

that he would have been there all day, but on this day he was

there just for this moment. So here's this lame man begging for alms,

almost like a broken record. You can hear his voice right Alms, alms

for the poor. He would say. Every single day he would beg and

verse three says that when he saw Peter and John going into the gates,

he cried out in that same voice that he did every single day, alms,

alms for the poor. And this is what it says happens in verse

four. You guys with me today. Verse four says Peter looked straight at

him, as did John. Then Peter said, look at us. So

the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then

Peter said, silver or gold, I do not have but what I have

I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Walk And

so Peter, taking him by the right hand, helped him up, and

instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. When we read the story,

we see brokenness. But friends, when we see brokenness, God is generally

looking at our lives and saying, no, no, no, no,

I see something beautiful that's about to take place. Difference in perspective that we

see between what we see and what God sees from the story is that we

see a man that's in need of help. But God is setting up the

story to bring something even greater. He's setting him up for healing. This

man was begging and hoping for coins. He's hoping for a little bit of

money, a little bit of food, whatever he can get to help him

make it to the next day. He was looking for just a little bit

of help to make it to the next day. And you know what,

I realized, Church, this is so relatable. Maybe you're a better person

than I am, maybe you got your life together better than I am.

But I know that I am so guilty of this because how often do we

live our lives saying things like, man, if I could just make it

to the weekend, if I could just make it past this big project,

or if I can just get past this season, if I can just make

it through this turmoil in my marriage, if I can just make it to

this thing, if I could just get a little raise, then I will

make it to tomorrow if I can, if I can just if I can

just make it to tomorrow, then everything will be okay. How relatable is

that in life right fighting for the things that will help us make it to

tomorrow. Man if I can just get a little more, if I can

just squeak by this season, then I'll be okay. And hearing me friends,

When we do that, we are failing to acknowledge the reality that we

have put the thing that we really need in life on the back burner of

our life. We are paying attention to the thing that is right in front

of us and failing to recognize that there is a broken part of our life

that we are dismissing that only God can fill. We're saying things like,

man, if I can just make it to tomorrow, if I can just

do this, and all the while God is sitting in our life saying no,

no, no, no no. I have what you need, and

my thing that I want to give you is not temporary, it is eternal.

And so here is this man begging for the thing that's going to get

him to tomorrow. Every day this man would sit at the gates and utter

the same things, alms alms for the poor, and typically donors would walk

in to the temple gates and quickly file through and maybe flip him a coin

on the side, barely giving him a glance. But on this day,

Peter and John are approaching the gates as this man is just being sat down,

and he says alms alms for the poor, and it says that Peter

fixed his eyes on him. I love that says that Peter gave him his

full attention. This was not going to be a happened chance interaction. He

wanted this man to know that he had his attention. Peter fixed his eyes.

In the Greek they used this word ateneiso. It means to look intently.

I probably just butchered that, by the way, but it means to

look intently. This man had Peter's attention, and Peter looks back at him

and he says, look at me. He said, give me your focus.

I don't want you to miss what God is about to give you.

It says the lame man gave him his attention. But can I tell you

that translation doesn't do it justice. This man had a better posture to receive

than what that scripture gives us. The word used in Greek is this word

apayo, and it means to fix your attention with expectation. This man expected

to receive something in this moment. And at this point you figure, okay,

well, this guy's this guy's thinking that he's about to get a fat

water cash, right, he's gonna get the thing that he's been begging for.

He's gonna get a fat gold coin purse or something. He's gonna get

a ribi steak slap before him. Would that'd be nice? Man? I

don't come on. Now, he's gonna get what he's been asking for to

help him make it to the next day. And he's sitting there with expectation.

He's got the expectation that this is gonna be a generous offer. There's

no way this man would have asked for my attention if he wasn't just about

to give me something. And some people might read this and be like,

well, what a fool, right, He's not even asking for the thing

that he really needs. Here he is broken and lame and a beggar,

and he's just asking for scraps. And while ultimately that may be true,

and ultimately maybe he is not focused on the thing that he truly needs for

his life. I think this word apaiho is so so crucial in the texts

to fix our attention with expectation. And here is why, friends, It's

because expectation is a companion of faith. Expectation is a companion of faith.

Think about it. Here is this broken, begging man, and the scriptures

give us this glimpse of faith in this man. It's a small faith.

Maybe it's even believing for the wrong thing, but he expects to receive something

that he's asked for. Friends, hear me say this. If you take

nothing away from today other than this, hear me say, God is pleased

even with your small faith. He can do more with your small faith than

you could ever imagine. It's a small faith, and friends, this directly

relates to your my prayer life. In the way that we ask, in

the way that we seek, in the way that we knock on God's door

in prayer. Listen to me. There may be times in your life where

you are asking God in prayer for something that is less than what God ultimately

desires to do in your life. But can I tell you God isn't concerned

with the accuracy of your needs? Why because He already knows what you need.

How often do we base the needs of our life on what is right

here when God is saying no, no, no, no. The thing

that you need in your life is something that I haven't even give you the

opportunity to see. It's something that I'm paving and it's coming down the road,

but you don't even know to be asking for it yet. Our needs

are focused on what is right in front of us. But God sees a

need that is far greater for this man's life. What He's most interested in

not the accuracy of our needs. What he is most interested from us is

if we have the faith to believe that what we ask for could be given

to us by a good, good Father. If there is an expectation that

when you seek the will of God, the miracles of God, the provision

of God, that He is faithful to answer your prayers, Jesus said to

himself in Matthew twenty one twenty two, and whatever you ask in prayer,

you will receive if you have what faith, just a small amount of faith,

just enough faith to expect that when we seek the will of God for

our life, that he is faithful to return. This man expects in this

moment to receive money to help him make it to tomorrow. But what he

doesn't expect is that he's about to receive something so much greater than he could

ever imagine. Verse six is at the heart of this passage silver and gold

I do not have. I imagine, man, you gotta just like close

your eyes and imagine this scene. Silver and gold I do not have.

And he's making Peter is making this statement as he's looking at the begging man

and the beautiful bronze gates right in front of him. Silver and gold I

do not have. And I imagine Peter is looking at this begging man and

these giant, towering bronze doors above him, not made of silver and gold,

constructed out of solid bronze, unlike any other gate in the city,

and he's thinking, this beggar is about to experience something beautiful himself. Peter

looks at the man and he says, plainly, silver and gold I do

not have. But what I have I give to you in the name of

Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

In the name of Jesus. Peter commanded this man to walk. The reference

that Peter makes to the name of Jesus is not by accident. We've talked

about this before in other sermon series that we've done. But in Hebrew,

your name was so much more than a label. It was so much more

than just a broad identifier like I would give to one of the like that

we have from birth. We know each other by this name. But in

Hebrew the name meant so much more. The name carried with it meaning,

It carried with it purpose, It carried with it identity. It carried with

it this own personality and a future and a purpose for a person's life.

And so when Peter says in the name of Jesus, he is speaking to

the authority and the power of who Jesus is. So catch this in a

real sense, then this crippled man doesn't just encounter Peter praying over him.

This man is encountering the person of Jesus through the ministry of Peter. Peter

grabs this man's right hand, he lifts him up, and as the man

felt new strength surging through his feet in his ankles, it says that he

jumps to his feet, and he begins to walk around, and he begins

to realize that he has just experienced a miracle from God. It says in

verse eight that he jumped to his feet, he begins to walk, and

then look what it says. It says, then he went with them who's

them, Peter and John. He went with them into the temple courts,

walking and jumping and praising God. Friends, don't miss the significance in this,

because this man enters the gates for the first time in his life.

Before as a lame bigger every day he sat at the threshold of worship that

he could never enter. He was lame, he was blemished, he was

denied access to enter the inner courts. And so now he has not only

received physical healing, but friends, he has found so much more. He

has found spiritual acceptance. He has been granted the opportunity to walk into the

presence of God. For the first time in his life. This isn't just

a story of a physical healing. This is a story of spiritual breakthrough for

this man's life. For the first time he was deemed worthy to enter the

house of worship see church. This is what I'm saying. This man thought

that he needed help, but God was setting something up through this man's life

that was so much greater. In fact, it was so big that it

wasn't just happening to this man. He wasn't just ministering to this man in

this moment. Because if we read ahead in the Book of Acts, this

theme of the broken and the unworthy being given access to God will repeat itself

over and over and over and over through the Disciples. Those who were rejected

as unworthy for worship in the old religion of Israel would find full acceptance in

the name of Jesus, whether a lame beggar, an Ethiopian eunuch, a

woman, a gentile. It would be through the name of Jesus that all

people would not just be helped, but they would be given full access to

the person of Jesus himself. Friends, hear me say this morning, God's

ways are higher where we see a broken man. God sees a beautiful opportunity.

Where we see a man who is in need of help, God sees

the opportunity to bring not just healing of flesh, but healing of spirit.

And the last thing that we see through the story is where we see one

man standing at the end of it, dancing and praising God in the temple.

What God has been setting up this whole time is an opportunity for the

masses to see for the first time. Acts chapter nine or chapter three,

Verse nine says this. It says that he jumps up and he begins to

walk into the temple, praising God. And it says 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. The very name

of Jesus healed this man's life, gave him the ability to do what he

had never done before in his life's stand up. And because he could stand,

he could walk, And because he could walk, he could walk into

the temple courts on his own two feet and praise God himself for the very

first time. But do you know what he was doing simultaneously while that was

all happening. He wasn't just healing this man. He was setting up this

man's testimony to be the very sign for people everywhere to see that Jesus was

still alive, that the power and the authority of Jesus was still there for

all the world. I don't know if you know this, but today's Pentecost

Sunday. Pentecost Sunday is the day that we look back on Acts chapter two.

Acts Chapter two is the portion of scripture where Jesus has already been crucified,

already been buried, already been resurrected, and he ascends into heaven.

And as he ascends into heaven, he says, I am leaving you,

but I am leaving behind you power. I'm leaving you behind your advocate,

the Holy Spirit, who will fill you. And Pentecost Sunday was the day

in Acts chapter two when the disciples and all the other believers were gathered in

the Upper Room and they prayed, and they began speaking out in other languages,

and the Spirit of God fell over them and filled them with power.

And you have to wonder after this happened. I wonder what they were thinking.

I mean, Jesus is gone, the one who performed all the miracles

that they witnessed, the one who did all the miraculous signs and wonders and

multiplied multiplied fish and bread, and healed people and raised Lazarus from the dead,

the same man who did all the miracles that they'd ever seen. I

wonder if they were sitting there and wondering, are we ever going to see

that stuff again? I wonder if the people who didn't even believe in Jesus

were wondering, wonder what that was all about? And here we have an

Acts chapter three, the first recorded portion of scripture after Jesus has already ascended

to heaven, and we see this miracle taking place. He wasn't just healing

this man. He was setting up the opportunity for people to see that he

was still alive. People would see that through the Disciples, through people just

like me and you, his name and his power would still be made known

throughout the whole earth. This was a miracle. This was the first miracle

since witnessing Jesus be crucified and buried. The Lame Begar at the beautiful gates

who started dancing in the temple courts. It was this miracle that would open

the floodgates of momentum for the Church of Jesus to be built on Peter and

the disciples and you and me and friends. I'm just here to tell you

this morning that God's ways are higher. He is doing so much more.

When we are so focused on what's happening right in front of us, and

we're so focused and overwhelmed on all the things going on in front of us,

God is paving away for so many more miracles to happen. God's ways

are higher. This one singular encounter with Jesus would not only change this lame

beggar's life forever, but it would begin to clear the way for Jesus to

be made known throughout the world through the people's testimonies of yours and mine.

Where we see a good story, God is writing script that is far greater

than we could ever imagine. Amen and friends. I didn't even know how

to end this message this week. I'm gonna be really honest with you.

I don't have like a respond to this alter call. Come down here,

we'll pray for you. I don't have that, But you know what I

have. I have a heart that read this message, that read this text

and literally sat back and said, thank you God, that you are the

one that's in control. Thank you God, that your ways are not my

ways, that your thoughts are not my thoughts. God that where I get

so distracted with what's happening right in front of me, God, that you

see away from my life that I cannot currently see right now. Maybe this

morning, you're here and you are hearing this story, and you're here today

and you need the hope and the reminder that while God is ministering to the

one, he's also ministering to the masses. That while he's working in your

life, he's also working in the life of your child, friend, your

family, your relative. Maybe you're here this morning and all you see when

you look at your life is brokenness. It's a mess. You're constantly struggling

with the anxiety and the depression and the sin that's filling your life and all

the things that make you feel broken and unworthy. And friends, I'm just

here to tell you where you see brokenness, God sees beauty, and he

wants you to recognize that his ways are higher where you are so distracted.

Right here, God's got a way, He's paving it out. And so

here's what I want to do. This morning. I asked the band to

come back out and lead us in worship because I feel like the only proper

response to understanding and seeing that God is in control of our life is to

simply stand there and say, thank you Jesus, thank you, that is

you who are the ruler of my life. Thank you that you are in

control when I feel like I have no control. And so I want to

ask you just to stand on your feet this morning with and the band's going

to begin us back into a song of worship. And I actually do want

to just give you this opportunity. Would you just bow your head and close

your eyes really quick. Maybe you're here this morning, and you would say,

Morgan, you know what, that's me. I needed this reminder this

morning. I needed the reminder that although I may not feel like I am

in control, although I am so overwhelmed with what is happening right in my

current face, I needed the reminder that I can trust God with my future.

If that's you here this morning, would just lift your hands so I

know who I'm brand for. Thank you, thank you, thank your hands

up all over this room. Thank you, thank you, thanks, thank

you, thank you, thank you. Maybe you're here this morning and you

would say, Morgan when you mentioned the brokenness man, Marian, you know

the brokenness that I feel in my life, the weight that I feel in

my life, the things that I feel like are just chaining me back.

You needed the reminder that when God looks at your life, he doesn't just

look at those things. Your brokenness does not discount you, friends, from

being in the presence of God. And you need to be reminded this morning

that when God looks at your life, he sees something beautiful. He sees

a beautiful opportunity for your life that goes beyond the brokenness that you might feel.

If that was you, would you just lift your hand up just so

I can pray over you this morning. Thank you, thank you, thank

you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Can we do this

morning? Can we just lift our hands to God this morning? All across

this room, Can we lift our hands Father, God, we thank you

for who you are. God. It is the response of our heart to

simply stand in amazement and wonder in awe of how good you are in our

life. God. And I pray right now this morning, God, where

there are many in here who are so overwhelmed with the things that are happening

right in front of their face. God, I pray that you would give

us the perspective God that says that you are the one that is getting controlled,

that your ways are higher, your thoughts are higher, your ways are

greater. God, we say this morning, we trust you with our life.

God. I pray for the ones who are in here feeling like they

are in shame from their brokenness. God, and I pray this morning you

would give them the eyes to see themselves the way that you see them.

God. And when you look at your life, you don't see somebody unworthy.

God, you see the opportunity for beauty to arise up in this place.

And so Father, I pray for healing. I prayed for restoration,

and I prayed that this morning on we would simply say, God, we

love you, We look to you, and you are the author and perfector

of our faith. In Jesus' mighty name. M