ACTS: History is Watching

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Hey Church, welcome to Church at Home.

We are so, so glad that you're here.

You may notice that this is a little bit different.

I want to let you guys know that we're coming with you from a live studio audience.

Come on, church, let them hear you.

Let them hear you.

Let them hear you.

This is like my first time preaching in front of people in a very long time.

I feel nervous like I've never done this before.

So wherever you're engaging this, whether you're you're checking us out at the gym, maybe in your car, or maybe at home with your family, thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your family.

And we want to thank you and invite you to be a part of ours.

Now, before I get into the message, I want to give us a quick update as to what's going on here at Celebration Orlando.

You know, in the beginning of the year, God gave us this amazing vision.

You guys remember that vision about taking ground?

And we believed that 2020 was going to be the best year yet.

We began to even have series talking about taking ground and believing that God was calling us to take ground in our community and we wanted to have an impact in the community.

We believed that God was calling us to take ground in our homes.

We wanted to see the divorce rates go down and families restored.

We believed that God was calling us to take ground with the next generation and abroad.

We had this amazing vision of all the things that God was going to do when we were off to the races in January.

It was powerful until March came.

That's when COVID-19 hit.

And then for the past three months, we've been living a life in quarantine.

And I know for all of us, we've been trying to figure out what that all means.

If you're anything like us, we had to pivot and we had to adjust and start doing church from home.

We stopped being able to see all your smiling faces and engage you guys every Sunday and in community as well as in our groups.

But a very interesting thing began to happen.

I began to hear about some testimonies that were happening right here in Orlando.

I began to hear about how people for the first time ever were gathering with their families and worshiping God in their homes.

That was interesting to me.

I began to hear other testimonies, testimonies such as people who had been uh disconnected from family members and sometimes with with their siblings and people from work.

And somehow through this, through this isolation, that the God began to soften hearts and people began to engage, and you begin to see these friendships being restored.

I began to I began to even hear other testimonies, testimonies about how there have been couples that were on the verge of divorce.

And they just gave this one hail marry.

They said, you know what, we'll just try to do communion in our homes.

And as a result of doing communion in our homes, that marriage is still together and it's even beginning to thrive now.

We begin to hear testimonies from people who have not been impacted by the virus.

People who who God has tremendously blessed, and as a result of that, they've been able to really give in this time.

And what we've been able to do is meet the needs of the people here at our church and in our community.

To date, right now, because of your generosity and because of your commitment, we've been able to provide more than 8,000 meals right here in Orlando alone.

In addition to that, yeah, we can clap for that.

We're here, we can we can clap for that.

In addition to that, we've we've also seen relationships restored, we've seen houses and homes coming together.

We've we were able to partner with all these other organizations making a difference.

We even partnered with a local coffee shop and we're able to provide coffee for all of those on our front lines, as well as providing meals.

What I'm saying to you is that even though we were quarantined and isolated, that somehow the mission of God continued to move forward.

That somehow we were able to see that God was still able to do the thing that He called us to do.

So I will say this again: we are taking ground because the very thing that God had put on our hearts about taking ground in our community, the things that we believe that God was telling us to do when we're taking ground in the homes and taking ground abroad, God has been doing that, and it's only because of you guys' faithfulness.

And it's all been done in just three months.

We could have never done that in our own strength.

So it looks as if our vision wasn't delayed, somehow God was able to accelerate it.

But here's what I know I know that we're in phase two here in Orlando, and we're wondering, okay, we're beginning to see things open up a little bit more.

The gyms are opening up now, and just a couple of days ago, my wife and I we went out to a restaurant for the first time to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

Come on, girl.

Um in a restaurant, eating together without our kids around.

Praise God.

It was it was a blessing.

But it was our first time actually being out, and we were beginning to see like this relief come.

I went to the store yesterday and there was toilet paper as long as the eye could see.

It gives us the impression that is that things are beginning to get back to normal.

So I know for many of us, we're wondering, well, what does that mean for our church?

When are we gonna begin to gather again?

That's a that's a great question.

So here's what I want to do.

I want to draw your attention to something.

I'm pretty sure everyone that's connected to our community already knows this.

You guys know that we have two amazing locations here at Celebration Orlando.

We have our downtown location and we have our college park location.

And both of those locations respectively meet inside of some amazing schools that we've been partnering with.

We're talking about Edgewater High and Howard Middle.

Now, what I want you guys to know is that we're working in partnership with them, and as of right now, they have not opened the schools up for us to be able to meet in them as of yet.

Now, we're in communications with them and we're working through a plan, and so as soon as we have an update on when we can begin to gather again in our schools, we will be the first ones to communicate that to you and you will know.

But in the meantime, I want you guys to know that we are working on some alternative plans.

Alternative plans such as beginning to partner with venues like where we are right now, so we can continue to begin to foster our community.

In addition to that, we're gonna be opening up our offices, or we're gonna be able to have uh worship nights and team nights and prayer gatherings and care.

We're gonna use these as opportunities for us to bring our community together while still doing everything we can to keep everyone safe.

I just want to say this to you guys: church is never canceled, and God always seems to find his way.

And so, what I'm excited about as we go into this new season, we're gonna continue to serve God, we're gonna continue to stay engaged, and we're gonna continue to strengthen our community.

But I can't do it without you.

So there's a couple of things that I want you guys to do with me.

Here's the first thing I want you to do.

The first thing I want you to do is pray.

Just pray with us, pray with us and pray for us.

We're still believing that God is gonna show us our permanent location where we're gonna be able to worship and have our offices simultaneously.

In addition to that, we're also believing that God is gonna be able to work amongst our community because we do have many of us who have been furloughed or or maybe have lost our jobs altogether.

So pray with us with our community, believing that God is gonna show up and truly be um the provision that He has shown that He is so far.

In addition to that, here's the other thing I want us to do: stay engaged.

If you haven't done so already, I would love for you to go into the whole story Bible reading plan and read that alongside of us.

It's a great resource that will strengthen your faith, it will keep you connected to our incredible community.

I promise you it'll truly be a blessing to you.

But don't just stay engaged with the Word of God in that context, but we also want you to stay engaged with community.

We're gonna start launching our equip nights and we would love to see you there.

In addition to that, we're gonna have sisterhood and some gatherings with our men and all types of other events, sub-30.

We are gonna continue to do everything that God has assigned us to do, and we would love to see that you stay engaged with us.

Even and even when it comes to, even when it comes to your giving, because all the things that we've been able to do in this community, we couldn't do it without you.

And we know that God has given us a much broader vision, and we are looking forward to partnering with you.

But in addition to that, you can also stay engaged by serving.

You know, Serve Day is coming up, and we would love to see you participate and be a part of us as we are going out and showing love to the city that we absolutely love.

But here's the third and final thing I want to ask that you do with us.

Just share.

Maybe you're you're sitting at home with your family and and you're watching church at home and God is doing some incredible things, share it with us.

Maybe you have a need and you you want to have community come around you.

Please share it with us.

Whatever that looks like for you, please begin to share it with us so we can come alongside you and we can celebrate with you.

We truly believe that the best days are ahead and we do not want to take a single step without you.

I said this many times, and I'm gonna say it one more time.

Church is never canceled, and I'm so grateful that you guys are part of our community.

Now, if you have your Bible, I want to invite you to join me in the book of Acts, chapter number three.

In its own unique way, I think that we're in a season now where we're studying the book of Acts, and I think it's a perfect segue when we consider how the early church functioned, how they navigated through opposition, how they were able to navigate through some challenges.

And I believe that as we go through this series, that we're gonna continue to be enlightened, but also have some things that we can begin to rethink as God begins to reveal Himself.

Up to this point, we've we've talked a little bit about the day of Pentecost, the day that God gave us the Holy Spirit, and through that it empowers us and equips us to do the very thing that He's called us to do.

And one of the first things that we saw in Scripture is how it says that they had all things in common.

There was unity, there was community, they were all in it together.

And so last week, Pastor Charlie and I had a powerful conversation on the topic of race because that is the relevant topic of the day.

How can we all come together from different backgrounds and different dynamics, but recognize that we're all called to the body of Christ and we can have all things in common?

If you haven't had a chance to check that out, I want to encourage you to do that.

But we want to pick up right here at Acts chapter number three.

And the reason why I want to focus on this is because this is the first miracle that takes place in the new era of the church.

This is the first miracle, and I believe that there's some patterns in here that we can identify that can be an encouragement for us.

So here, starting at verse number one, it says it this way it says, Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, or three o'clock.

And a man lame from birth was carried, whom daily was laid there at the temple that was called Beautiful Gate, to ask alms of those who were entering the temple.

Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and they and they said, Look at us.

And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and he raised them up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong, and leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entering to the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

And all the people saw.

But something that stands out in this text to me is that over five times it makes reference to seeing and observation, gazing.

There's something in those ten verses that I believe God is drawing our attention to when it comes to how we look at things.

If you're taking notes, I want you to write this message title down.

History is watching.

Let's pray.

God, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for your community.

I thank you for times like this where we can begin to gather because we know that you're in the midst.

So, Father, I pray.

I pray for open eyes that we can see you.

I pray for open ears that we can hear you, God.

And I pray for open hearts that we can receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

So, this is the first time that I've preached in front of people in quite some time.

So I'm going to engage the crowd real quick.

So, those who are watching home, just imagine that there's about a million people in here because of course they would want to come and hear me preach.

But here, I want to ask this question.

Just by a quick show of hands, y'all can't see it, but trust me.

Um, if I were to ask you, are you a fan of musicals?

Would you could you put your hands up?

I just want to see who I'm talking to in here.

Wow.

That's like more than half the people.

Like, I'm I'm impressed.

Like, I like whether high school musical, Daniera, I'm looking at you, I see you over there.

Um, you have no idea.

Like, I was tortured with that as I as a young man.

God help us.

But I would typically say that musicals are not my thing.

However, my wife has probably changed that a little bit because in my household, everything is a musical.

Every day, at any given moment, she can break out into song, but that's another message for another time.

I love you.

But please don't sing at six in the morning.

Okay, so so ordinarily I would typically say that no.

I'm not a I'm not a musical type guy.

However, a couple of years ago, I was introduced to this musical, and dare I say, it it very well may have changed my life.

I know that sounds a little bit dramatic, but but but listen, I'm telling you, it's the absolute truth.

It's this incredible musical called Hamilton.

Okay, somebody, some they know you know what I'm talking about right here.

Let me tell you something.

I cried grown men tears with Hamilton.

Thug tears.

I was gonna get it tattooed on my cheek.

It was that it was that serious for me.

Because it is such a dramatic, emotional roller coaster when you begin to kind of look into the life of this man, Alexander Hamilton.

It would it was just mind-blowing.

And here's what it does: it takes two of probably like some of my favorite things and puts them together.

That's hip-hop and storytelling.

You put those two together, man, and I'm dialed in.

And there's some things that I love about the way that Hamilton was depicted, at least in this play.

See, the thing that was so powerful is that it talked about his work ethic.

I love seeing that this was a man who immigrated to America, but he he became a politician, he became a law writer, he became an economist, he was a financial guy.

He he really was like really responsible for building a lot of the structures that even to this day that we benefit from.

So when you actually are watching this play and seeing his hustle, there's even this song that talks about how he lived his life as if he was running out of time.

You're moving like you're running out of time.

There's a sense of urgency in everything that he did.

Everything he did, he felt like I don't know what tomorrow will bring, so I gotta move with a certain level of urgency.

Now, as we're talking about this musical, there's moments when I want to begin to reflect on myself, though.

Because imagine if we as the church functioned with that same energy.

Imagine if we served as if we were running out of time.

Imagine if we gave like we were running out of time.

Imagine if when we saw the broken amongst us, that we didn't just turn a blind eye to it, but we began to engage them as if we were running out of time.

You see, what I love about the book of Acts is that they had no idea of when Jesus was going to return.

As far as they were concerned, he could be coming back next week.

So they lived their life with this profound urgency to fulfill the mission that God had given them.

When you look at the book of Acts, which serves as our blueprint for how we do ministry and how we function, we see that they were always looking for opportunities to expand the kingdom and declare the name of Jesus.

Even when they faced opposition, God was able to use it and turn it into these powerful opportunities.

And when we look at this particular passage right here, this first miracle that takes place after the day of Pentecost, there's a couple of things that I want to highlight that I think can be an encouragement, but that can also challenge us just a little bit.

The first thing that I noticed is that it says that Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray at the hour of prayer.

Now there is a tradition within the Jewish context that they would they would worship God in prayer three times a day.

And those were kind of like offerings, and you can kind of see that stuff in the book of Exodus and Leviticus.

But the point was there was a rhythm and a pattern to their life where they didn't just happen to worship God, but they had a discipline in when they began to engage the presence of God.

We were going to worship Him in the morning, we're going to worship Him in the afternoon, and then they even had these evening prayers.

So at three o'clock, that was considered like their evening time of going to prayer.

I think there's something to be said about when we can have an appointed time in which we engage the presence of God.

I know we live a world of conveniences right now, and I by all means will never say that that we have to do something at a certain time, but I will say, I think there's power in our discipline when we can say that this is my time that I dedicate to worshiping and serving God.

See, what we know about the temple is that the Bible says that Peter and John were approaching the temple, and what's so powerful about that is when you actually study the temple's architecture, you'll see that the stairs were very uneven, that some stairs were tall, that some stairs were shorter, some stairs were a little bit broader.

And the idea of the development was not that that was a mistake, they did it on purpose because they wanted people to be mindful of how they walked as they were walking into the presence of God.

Don't get familiar with the way that you walk because the steps are not going to always be the same way.

Be sensitive in how you walk.

Well, the Bible tells us that we are the temples of God now.

And imagine if we were the people that began to be mindful of how we walked when we navigated through pain and suffering.

Instead of us just kind of have our normal stride, but we recognize that as the temple of God, there's a responsibility for us to be mindful of how we pivot and how we walk.

See, for Peter and John, as they were going up into the temple at the appointed time, there was also another man who was there at the appointed time.

We're not given his name.

The only thing that we are told is that he's lame, that he was paralyzed, that and he was born in this condition.

And then later on in chapter 4, we actually learn that he is 40 years old.

That means that for 40 years he's he's learned how to function with this dysfunction.

See, back in those days, if you were paralyzed, if you were sick, or if anything was an invalid, or you were isolated from the community.

Now, the the the Jerusalem nation, they had this idea of how they would care for the poor.

And so it was very regular for someone to be standing outside and and asking for alms or asking for a handout.

But for this man, he's been doing this for 40 years.

This has been the life that he was given.

And I want you to see that he this was from birth.

He didn't make a decision that put him in this condition.

In other words, his biggest affliction was something that he was born with.

Have you ever felt like you were just born into some scenarios that you never even asked for?

You were just born into a broken home.

You were just born into poverty.

You were born into a scenario where you know that I was born into a situation that already puts me at a little bit of a disadvantage.

And for this man, he had to learn how to function with his dysfunction.

And the best thing he could do is have some friends that that maybe on their way to go and pray, they would drop him off at the front door in hopes that someone would see him, someone would notice him, someone would recognize him, someone would care for him enough and be able to just give him a couple of just a couple of dollars.

That's all, that's all he wanted because he couldn't get up and work on his own.

I find it a little bit ironic that every single day that this man is sitting at a gate called beautiful and his life was anything except that.

That he's sitting on the outside of the temple because of his brokenness that he was not permitted to go into.

Isn't it interesting how sometimes we could be in such proximity of our blessing but still feel as if we're falling short?

Isn't it something how sometimes we could see some things and we're wondering, we would just wish we could grab a hold of it, but it seems like though it's in my sight, it's still out of my grasp.

It's in moments like that we can get frustrated, but I want to encourage every one of us in here.

I believe there's moments where God keeps things in front of us to inspire hope and not to allow us to go into a place of depression.

So look around at your scenario, and maybe you're seeing that the grass is greener on the other side.

It's not for you to retreat from where you are, but it's because God is going to plant a seed inside of you that's gonna allow you to flourish, so don't give up and don't lose hope.

This man is sitting outside of the gate called beautiful.

And the Bible declares to us that Peter and John are walking up, and as he sees him, they see, they see this man, and the man yells out, alms for the poor.

That was a convenient and typical phrase it would say, alms for the poor.

That word alms just help.

Can you help a brother out?

I'm in this broken condition, can you can you help me out?

And what we see here is that that the disciples, they saw him.

Now I want to I want to pause and talk about that for a moment because there's there's something powerful about this.

Because I don't know if if for them they had a flashback moment.

That they flash back and think about what Jesus said to them in Luke chapter 6, when Jesus says to them, Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Maybe that's something that motivated them to stop.

I wonder if they remembered when Jesus said these words at Luke chapter 4, verse number 18, when Jesus says this, that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has anointed me to proclaim the gospel, the good news to the poor.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Maybe that was something that that caught that caught their attention.

Maybe, just maybe, they were reminded by what Jesus said to them at Luke chapter 10, looking at verses 30 through 37, where they hear the story of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And if you guys remember, that's the narrative where it talks about how when the religious people came by, they actually distanced themselves from the pain of the people that were around them.

They were on the other side of it.

Isn't it interesting how when we look at the suffering that's in the world sometimes, that the people that are the most distant when they should be stepping up the most are those who claim that they know God.

They begin to back up a little bit, they become to get a little bit distanced, they don't want to get involved, they don't want to get their hands bloody, so to speak.

Maybe they thought about that.

But whatever the motivation was, there was something inside of them that compelled them to pause, to stop, and to take a look.

Now, here's the thing about this.

The Bible says that when they saw them, that they stopped.

Now, here's the thing about eyesight.

Eyesight is a powerful thing.

Especially when we're talking about giving eye contact.

It's a it's a powerful thing because once you lock eyes with somebody, it's it's an invitation to begin to engage.

There's never a moment that I feel more uncomfortable when it comes to eye contact than when I am going to the outlets or going to the mall.

You guys know what I'm talking about with all of those like little vendors that are in the middle.

All I'm trying to do is get down to the Nike outlet.

But I know I gotta walk past 25 vendors, and I'm trying my best not to lock eyes with any of them because I know the moment that I do, they're gonna try to sell me the Sega Genesis, they're gonna try to sell me a vacation, bubbles, oil from oil from Israel, and all of it somehow has CBD oil in it.

I don't know why, I don't even know what that means, but somehow it has all of that in it.

And I'm just trying to make it to the next destination.

I'm not even trying, I can't.

Okay, here's confessions from a pastor.

I have manufactured so many phone calls on site.

When I see that, I'm like, okay, let me get on the phone, because maybe if I'm engaged in a conversation, they'll leave me alone.

Because when you look when you lock eyes with somebody, it becomes an invitation to engage.

Maybe that's why when we're riding down the street and we see the homeless man, we look the other way.

Maybe that's why when we hear people crying out about the suffering that they're enduring, we look the other way because maybe inside of us we know that if I lock eyes, if I look at it, if I pay attention to it enough, it's going to require me to engage and do something about it.

See what we see here is that for the disciples, that they looked at this man and they saw him.

They saw his brokenness, they saw his struggle, and the God on the inside of them compelled them to respond.

The God on the inside of them did not allow them to be content with seeing the brokenness of this man.

They knew that they had to step into the situation.

Now, the man, of course, his request was for a little bit of change.

But what Peter says to him is one of these things that should be a staple of our faith.

Because Peter was well aware of what he didn't have.

He said, Silver and gold have I none.

I'm quoting that from the King James Version.

That's my upbringing.

Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.

See, Peter, he knew what he knew what he didn't have, but he didn't stop there.

And I think sometimes before we begin to engage some of the problems that we see, we begin to take inventory of what we don't have, and it can paralyze us from doing what we know that we can do.

But what Peter says is I don't have, I don't have the solution, but I got the answer.

I can give you more than what you're asking for.

What Peter does in this moment is that he sees the man, he recognizes where he's at, he knows what he's asking for, he said, Well, I can't give you that, but I can give you Jesus.

That should be encouragement for some of us.

That we don't have to do this in our own strength.

That when we see the suffering that's happening in our community, we need to take that burden off of our shoulders and get Jesus involved.

What Peter does, he said, in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.

What he was trying to communicate is saying that I'm not doing this in my own strength.

I don't have the ability to fix your legs.

It is nothing I can do.

You can actually even see this in Peter's speech in the next chapter.

But what Peter was simply saying is that I am in the name of Jesus.

I want us all to be encouraged in knowing that this is not some holy incantation or an exclamation point at the end of a prayer that somehow gets it through to heaven.

No, what he was saying in the name of Jesus, he was saying that I am in the name of Jesus.

And because I am in the name of Jesus, the person of Jesus is in me.

So when I speak, I'm not speaking from my own authority.

I'm not speaking from my own wisdom.

I'm not doing this in my own strength.

I am doing this as if Jesus is speaking through me in the name of Jesus.

Get up and walk.

I think for so many of us, we're trying to do things in our own strength according to our intellect.

But if we could begin to retreat inside of the person of Jesus and allow him to speak through us, we can trust him with the results.

See, when our actions are in the name of Jesus, they will bear fruit that lasts for eternity.

To act in the name of Jesus means to act from a place where we are united with Jesus in love.

It's coming from a place of Jesus' power.

But the beautiful thing is, the beautiful thing is that Peter didn't stop there.

He could have simply said a prayer and kept it pushing.

I got to get in here for prayer.

In the name of Jesus, get up and walk.

Okay, I'll catch you on the inside.

But what Peter does is he stands there, he prays with the man, he declares Jesus over the situation, and then the Bible says that he extends his right hand.

The right hand means that he was in close proximity, but right hand is a position of authority.

It is a posture of community.

That even after he's spoken to the situation, that Peter stayed there to help this man get his stability.

I think so often in an effort to make a difference in our communities, that we can do charity and it's really not showing care.

I'll give a donation, but I'm not going to come back ever again.

But what Peter is demonstrating for us is that even after we speak into those moments, can you stay there and actually help the person to take a stand?

And here's the powerful thing that happens: the man stands up.

It says that immediately his legs were made strong, but Peter extended that hand first.

He helped the man come to his feet.

The man who had never walked before, somehow, supernaturally, the muscles that should have atrophied, all those things that God miraculously fixed it.

And it says that when Peter reached out to grab him, he stood on his feet.

And what the scripture tells us is that he stood there, then he began to walk, and then he began to praise.

And Peter was with him every step of the way.

I believe what God is compelling the church to do in these moments is that when we look at the chaos and the suffering that's around us, is not only do we see it and hear the cries, not only do we bring Jesus into the equation, but we extend the arm.

We help people stand up, we help them to get stable, and then we walk it out with them.

This is what caring looks like.

This is what ministry looks like.

This is what the mission of the church is supposed to be.

For us to hear the cries of those who are suffering, for us to recognize the pain and the condition they're in, to bring Jesus and get him involved, to extend a hand to help them take a stand and walk them into the place that God is calling them to be.

This man who once was isolated, sitting on the other side of the beautiful gates for the first time in his life, was able to walk in, and he walked in with Peter and John.

How powerful is that that when the people of God take their rightful place, stepping into those moments and not allowing distance to be a part of our equation and reaching out and helping people take a stand that is going to allow them to go into places they've never been before.

Here's the thing I want us to understand.

The Christian mission is a willingness to respond to the needs of those around you.

That is the thing that makes us distinct.

That is the thing that makes us unique.

And hear me on this.

God will never ask you to do something that you don't have the capacity to do.

He knows what you're capable of doing, and he expects you to do that.

You don't have to do everything, but God has given us all the capacity to do something, and he requires each of us to at least do that.

Peter stayed and he walked with this man through his suffering and allowed the miracle to take place, and they praised God together.

See, as I as I prepare to close, I find myself really drawn to Luke's writings as of lately.

Many of you guys may know that the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were initially written to be kind of together.

Right now they're separated in our Bibles between the Gospel of John, but the idea initially was that these were written together.

And here's the powerful thing about Luke's writing that I love so much is that Luke, he wasn't there.

He didn't walk with Jesus.

He wasn't one of the original disciples.

In fact, we actually don't hear about Luke even coming into the equation until Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

So what we learn from Luke's writing in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, what we learn is that Luke actually does an investigative research to collect information so that he could begin to now write based off of eyewitnesses.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

This is a little bit different than having someone tell you a story.

Luke says, I want to go and talk to people that were there.

So he actually goes on his journey and begins to begins to have interviews with all the people that have seen everything from the gospels all the way up through the book of Acts.

Because Luke was talking to people that were there, who were watching, and who had seen it.

Luke wasn't going off of first-hand knowledge, he was going off of the people that were there that had seen it.

Which means this: that when this miracle took place, that there was somebody that was watching it all unfold.

And I want you to envision for a moment this moment where Luke then says, Tell me what happened.

What did you see?

I saw Peter and John stop when they saw this man.

I saw Peter and John declare the name of Jesus over this man.

I saw Peter lift that man up.

I saw Peter walk with this man.

I saw that man go in praising God, and I saw that this became a catalyst where over 5,000 people gave their life to Christ as a result of that one simple act.

I saw it, and that is what Peter was able to walk through, and that is what Luke wrote.

Why is that so significant?

Because I think that without us even recognizing it, there are people that are watching how we respond to things.

There are people that are looking to see how do you respond?

You see, in the Hamilton play, towards the end, there's a part where it just gets me all in my feels.

Because there's a phrase that's in one of the songs where it says, Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

History has its eyes on you.

History is watching you.

And someone's going to tell your story.

That someone is looking and they're going to be able to watch how we respond to moments, and that is going to be able to tell the story of how we function in moments like this.

History has its eyes on you.

I think as a father and as a husband that my legacy has its eyes on me.

And it's my responsibility to live in a way that they can then begin to model and emulate and go further than I ever could.

History, it has its eyes on us.

And church, I truly believe that we're entering into a season where history has its eyes on us.

They're watching to see how we are going to respond to the stuff that's happening in the world today.

Are we going to continue to be the religious folks that allow politics to determine what we should care about and distancing ourselves from the suffering of others?

Or are we going to be the people that steps up the same way that they did during the civil rights era?

Standing on the front lines, marching with those who have been marginalized and who are suffering.

History, it has its eyes on every single one of us.

What is your response?

How are you going to respond when you begin to see the suffering around you?

History has its eyes on us.

Are we going to be people that distance ourselves?

Are we going to be people that declares the name of Jesus?

See, in our own strength, we can't fix it.

In our own strength, we can't fix racism.

In our own strength, we can't fix broken marriages.

In our own strength, we can't allow people to get healed.

But in the name of Jesus, if we can find ourselves retreating in the name and person of Jesus, that somehow that power begins to flow through us, that boldness activates something inside of us, and we begin to step into places with the righteousness that God has given us.

So in the name of Jesus, I declare that we're going to begin to see marriages restored.

In the name of Jesus, I'm believing that we're going to see families begin to get unified in the name of Jesus.

I'm believing we're going to see sick people get raised up and healed.

In the name of Jesus, I'm believing that by the time my granddaughters are my age, racism is not even a thing.

In the name of Jesus, I'm believing that God is moving amongst his people and that we are on the crest of a revival, but history, it has its eyes on us.

And my question is, what are we going to do?

Are we going to be a people that shrinks back and is waiting for it all to get sorted out?

Or are we going to take our rightful place as the ambassadors and representatives of Christ, stepping into those moments, declaring the name of Jesus in unity with an expectation that God is going to show up and do something?

Let's not be the people that look away.

Let's not be the people that distance ourselves.

But let's take the same posture that Peter took.

We hear you.

We see you.

I'm going to declare Jesus over this situation.

I'm going to stand with you and we're going to walk in this thing together.

God, I thank you.

I thank you so much for our community.

And I thank you for what you invite us to be a part of.

And Father, we declare in your name, not in our strength, not in politics, not in the government, but in your name, we are going to see revival and we're going to see people healed.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you so much, Pastor Keith, for that encouraging message.

I know it was inspiring for me, and I hope it was for you as well.

You know, Pastor Keith talked about boldness.

And maybe you're sitting there thinking right now, well, I don't have boldness to help someone alongside me.

Maybe your first decision and one of the boldest decisions that you can make is to follow Jesus, to make him your savior, to make him your Lord.

You know, the Bible says that we've all fallen short of God's glory, and we all need a savior.

It also says that if you believe uh in your heart and you confess with your mouth that you will be saved.

So I just want to invite you to repeat this prayer after me just as a sign of faith.

Lord Jesus, I admit that I have sinned and I admit that I need a savior.

Father, I uh confess with my mouth and I believe in my heart that you sent your son Jesus to die for me.

I make you the Lord of my life.

It's in his name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

And if you've just made that decision, we would love to celebrate with you.

You can text the word decide at 25101.

We want to send you some resources and some next steps for you.

Yeah, right now, church, we're gonna go into another time of worship and a time to spend as a family, and that's through communion.

Now, the early church would often participate in communion to help uh instill unity within the body, and that's what we're doing here, and that's why we're doing it every week, is to come alongside one another at the table and to promote unity amongst ourselves.

And if you just made that decision to follow Jesus, this is a great next step for you right now.

So if you need to pause the video and grab your communion elements, you can do so.

But uh, we're gonna go ahead and take the bread.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it and he said, This is my body which has been broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the bread, Sherry.

On that same night, he took the cup and he said, This is the cup of the new covenant, and it's my blood that was shed for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the cup.

Father, we proclaim that this isn't just a ritual, but it's a remembrance of what your son did for us.

God, we ask that um we would continue to do this in remembering the price that was paid for our lives.

Lord, we thank you for your church and we thank you for your body and your blood.

It's in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, if you have any praises or prayers, we would love to know those as well.

We want to celebrate with you and also pray with you during this time.

You can text over Connect25101 and let us know any praises you have, and let us know any prayers you have as well so we can pray with you as a church.

Yeah, we love you guys so much.

Thanks for tuning in this week.

We'll see you next week.

Thanks again for listening.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

We'd love for you to subscribe to our podcast and review and share what you've heard today.

If you'd like more content like this, or you'd like to connect with us, go to celebration at orl.org.

We hope you join us next time.