Sunday Service – House on the Rock Church | Pastor Paul Adefarasin | Water Walkers Series Part 12

Acts 3:1-12 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour (3pm). And a certain man ……… And Peter …. Look on us. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, … and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up, stood, and walked, and enters with them into the temple (where he could not normally go), walking and leaping and praising God….. and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him ……. His name was not known but he’s called my his affliction. 

There’s an unexpected power move that will shift my whole world. 

Here is a man who has never walked before, run or stood. He has never experienced what he sees others do and here he is expecting to get a hand out, but that’s not what he gets. He is strategically located where he gets the riding up out of his doldrums and into a phase of his life. 

Ephesians 3:20-21 God is able to do exceedingly abundantly far above what we can think or imagine. 

God’s glory lives inside of us. God doesn’t dwell in brick and mortar but in the human life that has surrendered to him by faith. Here is a man we see in our text, waiting by the gate beautiful, begging for alms. He is void of glory just like the physical temple were he is begging at us void of God’s glory. 

But there’s a move about to come to pass in his life that he is not anticipating or thinking about, but that will completely transform his life and also bless those around him who witness the miracle, and believe in the God that is able to do exceedingly abundantly, far above all we can think or imagine.

David is the descendant of Judah, though the rejected one, yet he’s the one God chose as king. I am the chosen generation and I come from the gene of Christ, chosen by Him through my faith in Him. 

God has done so much good in my life. I cannot but praise him even though he allows me to pass through trials, he’s still faithful to bring me out it and still glorify himself in me because the evil days will pass and Gods glory will shine through and bring the scriptures to pass in my life. He’s the tenth generation of Judah, after the glory departed from Judah and David doesn’t know this, until the day the prophet Samuel came to his house to anoint a king. He raised all his boys to be kings cause Samuel with his prophetic eyes, mistook all of them to be kings. Raise your children to be kings. The Oil refused to flow on any of the heads of his brothers because when something is yours, nobody can take it away from you. The stone that the builders have rejected will always become the head corner stone. David was ruddy and good looking and they were all standing until he waltzed in because this was tradition. David was an unexpected choice. 

I believe God and I refuse to believe that my circumstances can stop Gods glory in my life. God is still in control of my life even when I lose control. He may let hell have their day in my life but it’s only for a season because joy will come in the morning.

God calls me his guy just like he called David. 

God uses him, even after he lost his glory, and developed a stutter. 

God also did it with Gideon and Paul of Tarsus. 

Our God is a supernormal God and and extraordinary one. Get ready for the unexpected. 

We live in troubled times. People are bribing recklessly and everyone you encounter is corrupt. We are going backwards and our systems and institutions are broken. It’s going to take more than a good leader to fix Nigeria. It will take the glory of God to fix Nigeria. What a reckless nation that is ruining the opportunities of our country.

Israel is oppressed with the opportunities in their own country, where they are citizens but oppressed by another country. They’re now a colony of Rome, governed by the Emperor and held captive by religion which they use to control them. It is is this stage that they are when Jesus is born to them. A move is coming that they’re not even aware of. The move starts with the birth of Jesus. Isaiah 61:1- Jesus is the word, after he’s born, he disappears and we don’t see him until he’s 12 and goes to the temple to inform them that he is the word, then he disappears again until he’s 18. In his government, he attests to them that he is not ordinary. He heals the blind, raises the dead, and performs many miracles to confirm his authenticity.

GOD IS SAYING TO YOU - DON’T CRY ANYMORE BECAUSE SOMETHING UNEXPECTED IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN TO YOU. 

God is in the business of doing unexpected things. Jesus went about doing good. He did unexpected things and it is his nature to do unexpected things. God came by influence of the heart and not by rule of law. Acts 1:6

Luke 24:21- but we trusted that it had been he (Jesus) which should have redeemed Israel …. 

Jesus arose on the third day after he was crucified and buried and lives forever more. 

The temple was called Herod’s temple so it is a temple without the glory of God. Also the lame man lying by the temple gate was without the glory of God. 

John 14:12,16,17 …… he that believes in me, the works that I do ……. The power comes. 

⁃ Sanctify you by my blood until you’re habitable by the holy spirit 

⁃ I’ve modeled your life so you can be like me 

⁃ After I’m gone, you can do all that I’ve done and even greater, because I send you another who will be with you, the Holy Spirit. 

Acts 10:38- 

We are as creative as God is. He is creator but we are creatives. Jesus goes to the temple and tells His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the comforter comes. At the day of Pentecost, the heaven opens and God pours down His Spirit on all of them Acts 1:8- 

In our text, Peter and John, disruptive apostles, go around disrupting things. They approach the temple of Herod to disrupt further and the miracle of the lame man is an unexpected miracle. Nobody expected it. Jesus movement in spite of His physical absence is even greater because His Spirit is alive in His disciples. God use me as your vessel unto glory. Meeting Peter turned the lame man’s life right side up. His life of forty years was turned around completely. The only reference for how he is described is by his affliction. He is carried and taken to the gate of the temple daily, to beg for alms. He is referred to by his condition - THE LAME MAN. He is only lame in his feet, not his hands or other parts of his body, yet he is dysfunctional in his whole body because of a small part of his body that is lame. One little area of his life affected his whole self concept. His whole life is made lame but only one small part of his body being lame. 

One little thing in your life - rude mouth, anger issues, arrogant, stiff necked, mental disorder, bad past, bad stench of evil, abuse in your past, can affect your entire life and wreck your hopes and dreams. Everybody has one thing that is dysfunctional in your life but you learn to mask it. 

1. Accomplices - they cater to your needs. Keep you where you are, so that you don’t rise, but they help you stay where you are and even benefit from the alms you get. There’s a coping mechanism we create when we are disabled so that we can work around it - set up furniture to help us move around. These people don’t want you to improve and they want you to remain needy. Because they are benefiting from your disability. These people will never help you get out of your problems but will trap you in a dependency system so that you can continue to be tied to them. Coping mechanisms are cycles that are repeated over and over again until you break them. Peter and John broke the cycle. We all make adjustments to cope with our dysfunctionality. The Accomplice is a codependent. They are those people you have selected to support you, in your crippling state and are designed for you to never rise. They are your fan club. They are counting on you to be lonely, needy and dependent. They give you handouts that is enough to subsists, but not enough to help you rise out of your dependency. 

2. Apostles - they lift you up from the doldrums you find yourself in. They give you hope and remind you that you’re better than where you are. Recognize that you’re disruptive apostolic, sent by God. Apostles are those sent on assignment to conquer territories, after spending time with the assignor. Apostle is a governmental term used by Rome - you can’t be sent until you have first come to the master and learnt from him, so that when you move, you’re walking in the divine

We adjust to accommodate what is wrong with us. Why marry someone that triggers you to anger and causes you to lose your temper and do what you shouldn’t. A man’s honor is most important to him. Respect is how a man interpretes love while attention and affection is how a woman interpretes love. God wanted to bless the lame man so much that he brings his glory to a place that didn’t have glory. Acts 3:4-7. Peter asked him to rise. Life is demanding of you to rise from where you are. Don’t stay with those accomplices that keep taking you to the same place to beg for alms. Peter not only asked him to rise, he lifted him up with his right hand. Accomplices put you in a trap but Apostles will lift you up. I want a hand up and not a handout.  My brokenness is where God has filled me up with His power. 

3. Amazement- People will be amazed by the move of God in your life and glorify God. When they begin to see the great things that God is using you to do. God is about to do things in your life that will amaze everyone. It will be amazing if your problem was a public one because 

4. Astonishment - this is where they were confounded and didn’t know what to do. They knew the lame man and were astonished by the miracle. Astonishment will characterize your life such that people will wonder at what is happening in your life. God is unexpectedly going to do astonishing things in my life. 

God is about to break the cycle of accomplices in my life, so that I will rise to the amazement and astonishments of everyone. Don’t accept handouts anymore, but don’t refuse hand ups. Bless those who help you rise out of your downtime. 

RISE AND GO BEYOND HANDOUTS. Stop coping and breakthrough. 

LORD SEND ME MY OWN PETER AND JOHN THAT WILL ME UP THROUGH THEIR APOSTOLIC MIGHT AND FAITH AND BREATH STRENGTH INTO MY WEAK LIMBS SO I CAN LEAP, WALK AND STAND AS I NEVER HAVE BEFORE. I am glory conscious and will walk in Gods divine mercy and grace. Amen