How to Help When You Don't Know How | The Wild Work of Godl

Well, good morning and happy flannel season to everybody in the entire church and all around the world.

It's the flannel season, and I'm so excited.

Anybody else excited with me?

I saw some of you.

I walked around, saw some other flannel bearers in the room and online.

Maybe if you're in uh you know online watching, just seriously type the word flannel in the chat if you're wearing a flannel right now.

We want to know, all right?

Welcome everybody.

If you are with us online and or in person, grab your notes out.

It's gonna be a great day as we're in part three of our series, The Wild Work of God.

And I do have a question for everybody.

As we start out, I want to, I really, really want to know.

The question is, what would you do?

Let's look at this picture right now.

What would you do?

Hmm.

I mean, not only what do you do, what have you done, but what would you do if you were confronted with a need that was like right there in front of your face?

And I'm sure that the scene that you just looked at is very common, right?

It's very common in our world, it's very common in our country, it's very common in our city.

And we all have to decide what am I gonna do when something appears right in front of me and it's as though somebody is asking something of me.

Sometimes it's as though God is asking something of me.

We all we all have a tension in that.

Part of the tension that we feel is um I'm in the middle of something, right?

I'm I already committed to something.

Um we part of it is I I don't know the right thing to do right now.

I'm not sure how to actually help, you know.

Like if somebody's holding a sign that says help, are they asking for money?

If they're asking for money, should you give them money?

Is that good?

Is it helpful?

Is it harmful?

What's the right thing to do?

Sometimes it's like I don't have anything to give in this situation, and or at least I feel like I don't.

And what I honestly uh struggle with is this is that I'll get confronted with a need, maybe similar to that one, maybe different than that one, but my my instinct is I start assessing, I start evaluating what I have to bring.

And I start assuming what the need really is.

And then I see the gap, and I see I do not have what it takes to solve this problem.

So I step back.

There's this thing in my life that I've wrestled with my whole life called hesitation.

And I know I'm not the only one, but I hesitate because I I say this to myself if I can't, if I can't fix everything, I won't do anything.

And I was reminded of the little boy in scripture that Jesus allowed to be a part of a problem.

The problem was there were 5,000 people, actually, there were 5,000 men plus uh families.

So it was like 20,000 people were gathered and there was no food.

And this this little boy saw the problem.

It's as though he saw the cardboard sign, said help.

He knew everybody needed lunch.

What did this boy do?

He he looked in his little lunch pail and he's like, problem solved.

I have five loaves and two fishies.

And he just walked over to Jesus, like, here you go.

And I always think that's so funny because I would have probably been in the scenario of like hesitation because I've been like, this is ridiculous.

I have nothing to give, is what I would have almost assumed.

Look at my look at my resources, look at the size of the problem, and gone, mm-mm.

But today we're gonna talk about how God has already given you everything you need to say yes to the opportunities he's bringing you.

And though it might not be everything you think is gonna be required to solve the problem, we're gonna we're gonna see from Acts chapter three that it is what God's gonna use to bring a miracle that becomes the wild work of God.

That's the series that we're in, the wild work of God.

Today's message is how to help when you don't know how.

Because you're gonna be confronted this week with problems that you don't know how to solve, and I am too.

And there's gonna be an expectation from the Lord, and some of them, not all of them, because not everything, not every problem that comes to you is something that you are supposed to act on.

You gotta discern, right?

There's wisdom there.

But on the ones that he's calling you to do, there's an expectation, there's a stewardship, there's an accountability for being a part of it.

And uh, most people want to help, but uncertainty, hurry, low confidence, and sometimes the presence of other people can keep them from action.

This is very interesting.

A 2026 American Red Cross survey found that 80% of Americans believe CPR and AED training is important, but only 25% feel confident they could act in an emergency.

So there's a gap between people who say, oh, it's super important.

And I can and I can help with that.

Um there's a classic 1973 experiment where researchers recruited 40 Princeton theological seminary students, and each student walked between buildings and encountered a person slumped in a doorway.

So 40 students, they had planted a person slumped in a doorway.

He was coughing and apparently needing help.

Some students were told they had plenty of time.

Others were told they were late and needed to hurry.

Among those in the low hurry condition, 63% offered help.

Among those in the high hurry condition, only 10% helped.

The sharpest detail is this: some students were on their way to give a talk about the good Samaritan from Scripture.

And the subject of their talk did not significantly predict whether they stopped to help.

But hurry did.

Isn't that interesting?

Sometimes we're just like, I'm busy, God.

Don't you see?

And that becomes our excuse.

There are two traps that I want to encourage you to avoid are these is of avoidance, like you see a problem, someone says, I need help, you avoid it, or assumption.

You see a problem and you're like, I know exactly what that person needs.

Because that's a surface level assessment.

And we're gonna talk about that today.

The wild work of God says, I will stop, I will see, I will listen, and I will let Jesus lead me into his work here.

So we're partnering with God.

Now, whether you're here today and you're already a follower of Jesus, maybe you're somebody who's walked with God for a long time, maybe you you've got lots of experience, or maybe this is your first time in church, in a church building ever in your entire life, or it's your first time ever tuning in to a church service or a religious service.

Either way, I know your heart beats to be part of a solution.

You want your life to matter.

And that is true of all of us.

And God thankfully has wired us for that and provided the exact perfect scenario in your life and mine right now for us to experience just that very thing that we can help, we can make a difference.

I want you to grab your Bible.

If you have a paper Bible here today, um, and you know what's funny?

I know that the the likelihood that you have a paper Bible today is truest of the youngest people in our church because there's this resurgence of paper Bibles with the youth group at our church.

They just won't put up with the digital Bible, it seems like.

I always get ashamed if I have my my Bible app out and the students are having a Bible thing or something.

But anyways, if you have a Bible, open it up.

If you have a phone, pull up the Bible app.

I'm gonna read you some verses from Acts chapter three that are not in your notes today, okay?

So I want you to listen this same passage we're gonna go back through again, but I'm gonna read the whole thing right now.

It's about Peter and John.

It says, Peter and John, this is verse one, went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service.

As they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in.

Each day he was put beside the temple gate, the one called the beautiful gate, so he could beg from the people going into the temple.

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

Now let me just pause and I'll frame it up.

Okay, so Peter and John, uh, the church had just started, the message of the gospel had just been preached, that the the three thousand people had just been baptized and added to the church, and we were at the very beginning of the church, and then it says, now Peter and John were walking toward the temple, and they saw this guy who who kept every day being placed there to beg so that he could eat.

Says Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, Look at us.

The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money.

But Peter said, I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have.

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

I mean, Peter was doing the Peter thing.

He was just, he was doing his thing where he was inviting God to work a miracle in this guy's life.

It says, Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up.

And as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.

And he jumped up, he stood on his feet, he began to walk, and then walking and leaping and praising God, he went into the temple with them.

I mean, there a miracle happened right then.

The guy wants money, Peter goes, Don't have any of that, but be healed.

The guy gets healed, jumps up, and he's walking into the temple with them.

All the people, verse 9, saw him walking and heard him praising God.

When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the beautiful gate, they were absolutely astounded.

They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon's colonnade where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John.

I mean, Peter and John called on the power of God to heal this guy, he was healed, and now he's like grabbing onto him and won't let go.

That's the picture.

Verse 12, Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd.

People of Israel, he said, What's so surprising about this?

And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?

For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of all our ancestors, who has brought this glory to his servant Jesus by doing this.

This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate's decision to release him.

You rejected this holy, righteous one, and instead demanded the release of a murderer.

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead, and Peter says, and we are witnesses of this fact.

Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed, and you know how crippled he was before.

Faith in Jesus' name has healed him before your very eyes.

Now, if Peter in that moment had responded that the way I sometimes do, this wouldn't have even ended up in Scripture.

This wouldn't have ever happened.

And so I'm learning to release my grip on my control and to let God use me, even in ways that sometimes I feel like I'm not always ready for.

So I want to walk you through today what I believe is going to be super helpful for you.

It's six movements that we see in Acts chapter three.

So I broke this down into six things that I saw happening in there that I think you and me can learn from and actually imitate.

Because you don't need to solve the whole problem.

You don't need to solve the whole problem.

You got to give what you have and point people to Jesus.

So this starts with the person in front of you.

Ready to take some notes?

Here's six movements that you and I can emulate in our lives when we're called on to help, but we're not sure how.

First thing, approach.

Approach people in need.

Approach people in need.

You see that sign, help.

And the way that we follow what Peter and John teach us here is to approach people in need, like to go toward them.

Now I have a toolbox here that I'm gonna open up, and I've got some tools in here that I just wanna use as kind of illustrations of what this could actually look like.

So I got my shoes in here, okay?

Here's some shoes.

All right, so so approach people in need, you know, like you're gonna walk towards them, like you're gonna actually go toward them.

You're gonna you're gonna run to the problem, you're gonna run to the need.

You're you're not gonna run away from it, you're gonna you're gonna approach it because God is calling us to be these people.

You know, in Ephesians chapter six, the apostle Paul gives us something called the armor of God.

And there are six pieces of armor.

We'll go into that at another time.

But one of them is called the shoes of peace.

And he does that because this is how we take the gospel into the world.

You take the gospel into the world by approaching the need.

We're some of us are like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, right.

And and God's going, oh no, no, no, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Like, go toward the need.

You see the sign, go toward the need.

And and and all of us, everything in us is going, like, what if I don't?

What if I can't?

What if I, what if they, you know, and we're asking all these questions, and God says, Would you just get your butt over there to the need?

That's where I want you.

That's the first thing that we learn.

Approach, approach it.

Approach people in need.

In Acts chapter 3, verse 2, these, these, this is these are the summaries of what I just read you, the big chapter of Acts chapter 3, little summaries.

Acts 3:2 Acts 3 · chapter mention

In in verse 2, it says, As they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in.

So interesting to me that they were coming into a place that they knew was ripe with needs.

This was the temple in Jerusalem.

There were always people there in need.

It was a place of spiritual need.

Uh, I think it's so interesting how sometimes people react to the church, and I mean the church like all around the world, I also mean our church, when they come sometimes and there's needs.

And I think one thing that historically, you know, we've all gotten messed up is to think that the church is somehow a hotel for saints.

The church is somehow like supposed to be where it's prim and proper, and nobody has any needs, and nobody will ask for anything, and nobody dresses differently, and nobody acts differently, and it's just this big uniform bunch of robots, right?

That is the furthest thing from what even the gospel paints the picture for.

What we know is that the church is supposed to be a hospital for sinners.

And so, is it okay that among us right now are many of us in need?

Yeah, the whole point of the church.

The church is not a building, the church is a body.

And one thing that we're noticing as we've been blessed with an opportunity to move our church because God's been doing so much work, he's opening the door for us to continue to welcome more people into his family.

We're so excited about it.

The one thing we're noticing is that the place that he has picked for us to move to is a great example of this.

There are so many needs right around that space.

This this building is situated between Aloha High School and Mountain View Middle School.

I mean, and every day that I go over to the parking lot, I notice needs.

It's like, wow.

And it reminds me that he's so, he's so in charge of this whole thing.

He's he's he's so wise.

He's got us moving exactly in the right place at the right time.

It's a very exciting time.

It's a very exciting thing.

But a lot of times we know it's it's one thing that's gonna stop us from getting involved.

What is it?

Hurry is the most likely culprit to getting in the way of God doing his wild work through you and me.

So here's a prayer.

I'm gonna give you a prayer for each one of these points.

Okay, there's six of them.

Here's the first one.

Jesus, interrupt my hurry.

Jesus, interrupt my hurry.

Now I want you just to say this one out loud with me, because it's gonna be hard.

It's gonna be hard for you to say that because you're inviting God to do something that might be uncomfortable.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Jesus, interrupt my hurry.

Oh, wow.

Because if we could be people who are actually present when a need comes to us, you know, and we have the mental and the emotional and the spiritual wherewithal to go, how can I help?

That's the first, that's the first step to approach it.

Second step, you can write this down in your notes, is acknowledge the person, not just the problem.

Acknowledge the person, not just the problem.

Now, my wife, Melissa, is here and she is really good at one particular thing.

And that is that, well, she's good at so many things.

I mean, I shouldn't, I should, I should make sure I say that.

She's good at so many things.

Babe, I'm gonna make a list later of all the things you're good at.

It's a lot.

I don't even know where I'm gonna find that much paper.

Okay, so yeah.

It's a lot.

One of those many things, she just said, nice save.

One of those many things is that when we are downtown Portland or anywhere where we see a lot of maybe people in need, or we see uh people who are houseless or whatever, one of the things that she has repeatedly done in models, I think, for our family, is that she will always engage with those people.

She'll always engage with them.

And what she does is she she pauses, she gives them eye contact, and she says, Hi.

And if she has the chance, she'll ask their name.

Because what as Dale Carnegie says, the sweetest sound to any person in any language is the sound of their name.

Where you're personalizing.

This is a person, right?

This is a human being who's going through a need, but they're a person with a name and a story and a heart and a and a dream, and and finding out those things about people.

Oh my gosh, that's like the magic.

It's the magic that God can God can work through.

That alone can be such an amazing thing.

And what it says in Acts chapter 3, verse 4, it says, Peter and John looked at him intently.

Acts 3:4

I want you to do that right now with your labor.

Neighbor, just look at whatever it means for you to look at them intently, do it right now.

Some of you have angry eyebrows right now.

You know, what does it mean?

It says he they looked at him intently.

I don't know, but I know that he caught that.

Okay, he caught that.

And and you can tell by what it says next.

It says, and Peter said, look at us.

When you find somebody who's in need and you look at them, what's their tendency?

Yeah.

Why?

There's this sense of shame.

And how do we call that out of people?

How do we call that away from people?

How do we call them out of that shame?

Look at us.

Look at us, look at me.

I I want to engage with you.

You matter to me.

You're a human being made in the image of God.

Look at me.

Peter and John are going, look at us.

And I think that's so powerful.

So powerful to go, what's the next need that God's gonna present to me?

And could I show people their value?

Could I just show them their value?

Because this week, at school, at work, in your neighborhood, at the store, wherever you go, you're gonna be confronted with need more needs than you could respond to, right?

But in those moments, how do you show people the dignity like my wife does to people when she meets them, and they and they just kind of start to melt a little bit in a good way.

And it's this endearing, dignifying thing to go, you're a human with value because you were made in the image of God and you matter.

So look at us.

That's what Peter and John say.

So here's the prayer you can write down if you want to.

Jesus, help me to show people their value.

Jesus, help me to show people their value.

This series we're going through, we're comp we're pairing it with uh our midweek motivation podcast, where we're diving deep on something called the blessed tool.

And the blessed tool is the way that you actually put all this stuff into practice.

So this week we're gonna talk about the L of Blessed, B-L-E-S-S.

The L is listen, to listen.

How do you listen well to the people that God's put in your life?

And if you don't already have our app, please get that.

The QR code is right on the front of the program today, or it's online as well.

But get the app, because the app at the top of the app today has the blessed tool.

It's a way that you personally can actually know your neighbors and you can engage with people, and you can start to work this process where I'm gonna begin with prayer, that's the B, and then I'm gonna listen.

Really important.

The third thing in your notes is this is assess.

Assess beneath the surface, that you would say, I'm going to assess beneath the surface.

And sometimes it takes a little bit of, you know, work.

Like you're gonna go, I gotta take a closer look at what I'm seeing.

How do I assess beneath the surface?

Because just because I saw a cardboard sign that says help on it, I don't even know what the real need is.

I could make some assumptions, right?

Our two, our two greatest temptations, avoidance and assumptions.

I could make some assumptions.

I could be like, hmm, I think they just, I think they just want cash and they want me to think they're gonna spend it on food, but they're gonna buy drugs.

Right?

That's what your assumption could be.

Or your assumption could be if I give them this money, it's gonna help them, it's gonna solve all their problems.

But the question is, what's the real need?

Cess beneath the surface.

In Acts 3.5, it says the lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money.

There's a thing that people call go away money.

You ever heard of that?

Go away money is when you don't want to deal with the deeper need.

So you throw a$10 bill at somebody.

Because you'd rather not make eye contact, you'd rather not know their name, and you'd rather not ask a question.

But in our case, I think in our lives, what God is asking us to do is go take a minute and assess the deeper need.

Because what Peter and John found out was this guy didn't need money, he needed to be healed.

He needed his dignity back, he needed his strength back, he needed his legs back, he needed to be able to go get a job and work and and fulfill his purpose in life.

He needed to know that God was real, he needed to be an example of a miracle, all of that.

And so Peter, thankfully, I mean, what here's the thing.

Sometimes we're broke because God doesn't want us to lower ourselves to the place of just giving somebody a resource because he's got something much more valuable.

So Peter's like, well, lucky for you, we don't have any money.

Because if we did, we probably would just give you money, but instead we're gonna give you something so much more valuable in the name of Jesus.

Rise up and walk.

Right?

This guy jumps up and his whole life changes.

And it triggers something that happens after this that you're gonna read about as we go through the rest of the book of Acts.

But um here's the prayer Jesus, give me your eyes to see what you see.

Jesus, give me your eyes to see what you see.

Because if we can see what he sees, we'll offer what he offers in his name.

And that is always better.

It's always better.

I think one thing that we see happening with a lot of people in our world is loneliness.

Loneliness leads to lots of other problems.

Isolation leads to a lot of the world's problems around the world and locally, you know, even in our homes and in our neighborhoods and in our in our actual communities.

Isolation, you know, isolation drives people to do things that aren't helpful and are destructive.

And what we can offer so much of the time is community.

Somebody might come to you and say, I'm struggling with this and I'm struggling with that, and I need help with this and I need information about that.

And you might be like, I am overwhelmed and I don't know what to do.

One thing you can do, invite them into community.

Here's something we can offer the body of Christ.

Because, you know, I might answer a question and be like, I can't help you, but we can help you.

I don't know the answer, but we probably know the answer.

I don't have the resource, but we probably have the resource.

And that's exciting to think that it's not all on your shoulders.

It's a we thing.

That I think is one of those deals where we go assess beneath the surface, and what we find sometimes is loneliness, and what we were able to do is offer community.

We can all offer that.

The fourth thing in your notes is this: address the deeper need in Jesus' name.

Address the deeper need in Jesus' name.

Now, this is beyond the shoes, and it's beyond the name tag, and it's beyond the flashlight.

This is, oh yeah, this one.

This is really special.

This is the tiny hand right here.

Because, you know, because every time I've gotten involved in some deeper need, I've always felt so inadequate because I'm always like, oh, like, oh man.

Okay, you're asking me for help, and it's gonna be embarrassing how little I have to offer.

So many times I feel that way.

It's gonna be embarrassing how little I have to offer.

And again, back to the boy with the five loaves and the two fishes, or here in Peter and John's situations, like, we don't have any money, but I do have faith.

I do have a mustard seed.

And Peter's going, I do have a mustard seed.

And so I'm gonna address the deeper need in Jesus' name.

And I don't know what that's gonna look like in your situation, but I know it's real.

Peter said, I don't have in verse six, I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I do have in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.

Get up and walk.

And that's all he needed.

You know what?

All you need is a mustard seed.

All you need is a mustard seed.

Enough faith to believe that God puts you in the right time at the right place with the right resources, and that you do have what you need, and that he is asking you to give it.

And address the deeper need in Jesus' name.

In many ways, this has been happening with our project that we're doing, with this building that we're we're getting ready, and we're so excited.

And if you haven't heard, we're our aim is to try to be in there for Christmas Eve.

And uh, we're so excited to we're pushing for that, okay?

As we speak, there's a paint crew over there right now that um is painting the building.

And um the whole outside we think this week will be painted, which will be amazing.

But um there's been a women's group.

Oh, the many, many groups have been going through.

I want to point out the women's groups that have been going through, and we want to say thank you.

So I think there's a picture of the women's groups that have been going through.

This is one of the groups, all right.

And these guys, just give them a hand, okay?

They've they've been doing some amazing work.

I mean, the auditorium is primed, the uh the holes have been patched, you know, the stuff is getting organized.

So much work has been done over there, and um, it's because people show up and go, I I might not be able to do plumbing or electrical, I might not know, you know, how to grind the cement floor, I might not know the buttons.

Here's what I can do.

I can organize or I can paint or I can, and so groups of all kinds have been coming through and doing that.

And I think that's the way that God works.

He does his wild work as we go, I don't have everything, but I've got something, and I can give that.

That's how we address that deeper need in Jesus' name.

Here's the prayer you can write down.

Jesus, help me give what I have.

Jesus, help me give what I have.

Number five in your notes is this is avoid the spotlight.

Avoid the spotlight, which some of us, you know, maybe that comes more naturally to some of us, but what is this?

Anybody know?

A reflector.

It's off my bike.

I gotta remember to put it back on.

Uh but this is a reflector, and a reflector exists for one purpose.

It is to is not to shine light.

It doesn't actually shine any light.

There is no light inside of a reflector.

It's like the moon, right?

The moon exists for one reason and one reason alone.

It exists to reflect the light of the sun to God's most special creation, us.

That's why the moon is there.

No light source in and of itself, only a reflector.

And in many ways, that is what um this is my candy cane, just fell in my pocket.

Just in case you wondered what that was.

I I always use candy canes for my throat on Sundays, so now you know my secret.

This reflector is like you and me.

And it says in verse 12, Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd.

Peter saw his opportunity.

He's like, ooh, ooh, ooh.

They're about to thank us for what happened.

They're about to try to give us the glory.

He's like, wait, wait, wait.

People of Israel, he said, what's so surprising about this, and why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?

He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

He's just like, shine the light away.

He's deflecting.

He's deflecting.

I've got a friend named Nate that is so good at this.

Every time that I, if he ever does something for me, which he's very kind and very generous, and sometimes I'll get a gift or he'll solve a problem or whatever.

And I'm always like, thank you so much.

And he's all he always says, thank God.

That's what he always says, thank God.

He's this reflector.

He's like, I'm deflecting.

I'm not gonna let you, I'm not gonna let you misallocate the glory.

I I want you to know, thank God, he's deflecting.

And this is what God is trying to get you and me to do.

And so I'm gonna ask you to write this one down.

This is gonna be another tough one.

Jesus, help me, help my ego to stay out of the way.

Jesus, help my ego to stay out of the way.

Ego is a nasty ruiner of the wild work of God.

It will destroy the wild work of God because it always tries to put us in the way, either because we feel so insecure about ourselves or we feel so puffed up about ourselves.

Either way, we're dead in the water, and God can't work through that.

So, Jesus, help my ego to stay out of the way.

Last one in your notes, assign.

Assign credit to Jesus.

Assign credit to Jesus.

We got to make sure that not only are we deflecting uh the glory, but that we're pointing it in the right spot.

That we that we do what Peter and John did.

They said, Oh, it's Jesus.

Oh, it's the cross.

Oh, don't be mistaken.

It's not not only is it not me, it's Jesus.

It's Jesus.

Acts 3.16 says, Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed, and you know how crippled he was before.

You know.

He's like, There's only one way that this guy could have been healed.

And that way is called Jesus.

And Peter's like, I'm boldly proclaiming to you that this is the only way that would have happened.

It was Jesus.

It's the cross.

The next time that God uses you in a special way, not only are you and I responsible to make sure that people know it's not me.

We're responsible to make sure they know who it was, who it was.

If you step out and God does something special through you, you're you're responsible like Peter was to say it's Jesus.

You know, that if we could, if we could say the name of Jesus, if we could point people to the cross, if we could make sure that they know that the reason our life is better, the reason why we have hope and peace and love, the reason why we know is because Jesus died and he was buried and he rose again.

It's Jesus.

That we would that we would just be people who are very, very faithful, like Peter was to point people to the cross.

There's no surprise that right after this whole incident, not only had 3,000 people come and said yes to Jesus, not only was the church off to a roaring start, but it accelerated massively after this.

Because Jesus himself said, When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.

And a lot of times we're so busy trying to make a name for ourselves or being embarrassed about ourself or whatever, and he's and he's just like always waiting for us just to do the one thing.

He's like, just lift me up.

That's all you gotta do, just lift me up, and I'm gonna draw all people to myself.

So here's the prayer.

Jesus, give me the boldness to point to the cross.

Jesus, give me the boldness to point to the cross.

I was at the gym this week.

Yeah, you can clap.

It's cool.

I'm just kidding.

I I'm I'm working on it, you guys.

I did get to the gym, like not very many times this week, but I was there.

And so was Chuck.

Chuck was there.

I walk in the door, and Chuck, he's back here today, he was there.

And I don't Chuck is now I realize Chuck is the pastor of crunch fitness.

I walk in the door and I see Chuck, he's like bouncing all over the place.

He's talking to this person, he's talking to this person, he sits down on a machine for a couple seconds, and then he just goes talks to somebody else.

And he comes over to me, he goes, Hey, I want you to meet these two people over here.

And I'm like, Chuck, I'm in the middle of something.

And I didn't say that.

But uh, so I go over with him and and he's like, Look, this is my pastor, we're part of this church, and we're moving in, he's like, we're moving into this building next door.

And um, and I meet, and Chuck introduces me to Chuck, this other Chuck.

Anyways, he's got this whole crew of people that he's shepherding over at Crunch Fitness.

He's like encouraged, he's like the encourager.

And I saw every time Chuck would would approach somebody, you know what they did?

They smiled.

Because they're like, the happy guy's coming to see me right now.

The guy that makes me feel encouraged is coming to see me right now.

And I thought, that is so special.

I love it.

One of the things that I know we want is we want the goal in all of this is for people to encounter Jesus, right?

If you if God's gonna do his wild work through you and he's gonna help somebody even when you don't know how, the goal is that they will encounter Jesus.

And I think that's something important for all of us to pause and reflect on.

Have I encountered Jesus?

Am I encountering Jesus?

Where am I with Jesus?

Where's my relationship?

And I always ask the question, I'm gonna ask it again, is what's your next move?

What's your next move?

You know, where are you on what we call the mountain range?

Are you on the mountain of Jesus where you really need to take that step to believe in him today?

Are you on the mountain of community where you really need to be in the body of Christ and connected and engaged and actively participating and contributing and inviting others into it?

The community mountain?

Or are you on the mission mountain where you're taking that outside the walls of the church, outside the faith, to people who are looking in, who are maybe they're the one holding the sign.

And where are we on this journey?

If today your decision is to say yes to Jesus, I want to lead you in a prayer.

So would you all bow your heads with me right now?

Father, we pray that you would just be strengthening and guiding each one of us.

And as we reflect on what we see in Acts chapter three, first of all, I want to thank you that you have a purpose for all of us.

That you that the reason we're here is for you to love us and then to shine your light to others.

Thank you that you called us to such a high purpose.

Thank you that we're not an accident, that nobody here is an accident.

Every person here was created with love by you for a purpose and for an eternal relationship with you as their loving creator and savior.

I pray that that would just soak into our bones for a minute.

God, thank you for loving us.

Thank you for giving us Jesus.

Thank you for giving us community.

Thank you for giving us a mission.

I pray that you would guide us today as we want to put into practice what we learn.

Lord, I pray for those who are ready to say yes to you right now.

If you're here and your heart kind of just beats a little faster when you think about having your sins forgiven and having a future with God, knowing that you're here for a reason and that you're not alone and that God hears you when you pray, and he's going to be with you.

If you've never said yes to Jesus, if you don't know for sure your relationship with him, I want to invite you to echo these words back to God in your heart and mind right now.

Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for saving me.

I believe in you.

Your life, your death on the cross, and your resurrection.

Forgive me of my sins.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Lead me.

And teach me to follow you.

And I ask it in Jesus' name.

Lord, I pray for those today who are just saying yes for the first time.

What a what a gift.

Lord, I pray that they they would be like that guy that was healed in the scripture we just read, that they just feel like they could jump to their feet and they're dancing with joy because you've given them new life.

Lord, we pray that you would open the floodgates of heaven and pour out your spirit and and give us all a chance to be a part of the wild work that you're doing in the world.

We thank you for that, Lord.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.