Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community, and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there, and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this has blessed you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast.
[00:00:28] Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
[00:00:59] Well, good morning, friends. You know, the other day, I got a text message from a person, and I did not know who this person was, so I just looked at the message, and I saw that there was a picture there. And the picture had, like, you know, a picture of a book and a paragraph had been highlighted. And so, yeah, this person sent me this. I was like, oh. And I read the context of it, and so I thought, oh, this is good stuff. Really great. So I just responded really quick because I had gotten a couple of messages, and so I was like, you know what? Great stuff. This is awesome. It's great. It's wonderful. And then I was like, the day had gone by, and I'm like, you know, what that paragraph said was really pretty cool. Let me go back and look at it and let me see what's up.
[00:01:43] And so I went back, looked at the picture, and I realized that the.
[00:01:47] The picture of the book was actually my book. Yeah, it was my book. And the paragraph was something I had written. Yeah. And what's crazy is that I sent this person, and I did not know who this person was. I just sent them all great stuff. So insightful. And it was my own stuff. Yeah, it was my own stuff. But as I think about it, sometimes I look at my life, and there are parts of my life I go, I'm not quite sure how I'm actually living this life.
[00:02:16] You know, there are moments in our life when we can just stop and go, wow, wow, I did this. I don't think we do this enough.
[00:02:25] And so I believe that today God wants to remind us of that reality, that there's a God working inside of us doing supernatural stuff. Wants to do supernatural stuff. And it's gonna be amazing for us to just stop and consider, yes, God, you're doing this. Here's why I say this, because the Book of Acts, we've been in a series and where I'm doing part two of this, and we're actually covering chapter three and four, and it's a story of Peter and John and also the disciples, all the other disciples. But when you read the Book of Acts, I wonder at sometimes I wonder, man, have they ever stopped and considered, wow, all the things that God has allowed them to accomplish because of his spirit within them? Because obviously they didn't get the Book of Acts. You know, we got it, but they did all this stuff. So let's jump into chapters three and four. Now, here's the thing. When you read the Scriptures, sometimes you go, you know what? Yeah, I'm reading. This sounds good. It works for me. And this is what happened. And there are times where we do do read the Scriptures, just literally, but then when there are stories involved, when there are other things involved, what you have to do is you have to realize that there is so much more going on in the story. And God uses Scripture. He uses Scripture to remind us that there's so much more that you can get from Scripture. So chapter three and four has so much more. In fact, I believe, as I was reading this, it can be really kind of summed down to like, five, ten, five statements. Five statements that I believe will change our lives. Now, I'm not just saying that because I believe the reason why these five statements will change our lives is because these are five statements that we struggle with.
[00:04:14] And yet we find, and we're gonna see, that God wants to reshape these statements and, in fact, infuse truth in them because of what he has done. What has he done? Well, he has given us full access to the Spirit of God. He's given us full access to his very spirit. That's what Easter did, guys. Easter opened up the way for us to have an open heaven relationship with God, filled with his own presence, His Holy Spirit. And so he wants to speak to us through that. So five statements. Okay, you guys ready for this? Five statements. The first statement is that I'm not stuck. I am not stuck.
[00:04:55] See, I believe sometimes we struggle with that. Like, it's hard for us. We're like, I'm stuck at this. I'm just stuck in life. Are you stuck in life? Do you find yourself going, I just don't know. I just don't know? I kind of. I'm just stuck in this debt. I'm stuck in this. I don't know, this relationship. I'm stuck in the season of life. I wanna remind you that you are not stuck. That's what I get. As we start reading church chapters three and four of Acts. Here's why I believe this. So when we pick it up. Acts, chapter 3, verses 3 through 8 says this.
[00:05:30] They talk about a story that describes an interaction that Peter and John, Peter and John had with a guy. And this guy happened to be lame. He did not. Couldn't walk. And he was this guy who was always hanging out in the temple because he was. He used to. He begged for food and beg for money. Cause that's how he needed to survive. And so while this is happening, Peter and John are going into this temple. Now why are they going into the temple? They're going to this temple because after the resurrection of Jesus and after, you know, as we kicked off Acts, we realized that the Holy Spirit hit the disciples. I mean, it just did some amazing things in among them. And one of the things that started happening was that they began to spread the message of Jesus all over. And so temples, going to, visiting temples, telling them about Jesus was one of the things. So Peter and John go into this temple, they see this guy, and here's what happens. It says here, when he saw Peter and John, he being the guy, right, who was begging for money, about to enter, he asked them for some money.
[00:06:44] He asked him for what Money? Yes. Peter and John looked at him intently. And Peter said, look at us. I can imagine, you know, if you're doing any kinds of sales, if you don't, if you, you know, if you're. I can only imagine if someone's like in his place, you know, begging for money. You get used to rejection, right? You get used to this.
[00:07:07] But Peter says, look at us. Look at us. And then the lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting. Expecting what? Money, of course, because he was asking for money. But then Peter said, I don't have any silver or coin or. I mean, silver or gold for you. I don't have it. And you know, it reminds me of every time, like people ask me if there's someone asked me for, you know, can you spare some change? And I'm like, I don't carry change. I mean, it's a real thing. I don't carry change. They ask me for cash. I'm like, I don't get any cash, man. I'm so sorry. So maybe he was just expecting that right. He was expecting, ah, okay. It's another thing. I don't have any. I don't have any. But Peter does not stop there. He says, silver or gold, I don't have. But he says, but I'll give you what I have. What do you have? He says, in the name of Jesus the Nazarene, get up and walk. Get up and walk. I mean, I don't know if Jesus. If Peter knew what he was doing. Cause, I mean, come on, we've all said some things, like. And then thought about, like, what did we actually say? You know, we've said some things and we're like, oh. Or we agreed to something, or we did something. And then you stop and go, okay, I can't believe I'm actually saying this. I think. I think. I think Peter, there's a good chance that he just kind of said this and he was hoping it would.
[00:08:26] I don't know what he was hoping. Or possibly, possibly you see a picture of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in. In our lives. He wants to work through us. And all of a sudden, he gets bold enough and he says, hey, I'll tell you what I do have. I do what I do have. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk. And then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did this, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet and began to walk.
[00:08:58] Then walking, leaping and praising God, he went into the temple with them. This crazy thing happened. So he walks into the temple with them, and there's all kinds of things that take place. We'll get to that. But let's talk about this idea of being stuck. See, I believe the lame man obviously represents us being stuck. He was stuck. He was stuck in his disability. He was stuck as being the guy. His identity was his disability.
[00:09:25] Now I've got dysgraphia and dyslexia, and it is a disability and it's an issue, but it's not my identity.
[00:09:37] But I can only imagine, like, if you're this guy who cannot do this, you're always the beggar. You're that. And he was asking for what's connected to his identity. What he was asking for money to survive. And I get that. But I wonder if he was just stuck. Cause God is saying, hey, I don't have what you want, but I do have what you need. I do have what you need. And what you need is you need healing more than you need money. I wonder if we're asking God for the right thing. Sometimes I wonder because we've been stuck for so long, we could think, this is as long. This is as good as it gets. This is my life right now. And so our prayers are connected to where we find ourselves stuck in. We're like, just help with the rent. Just help me with this. Just give me some money. And what we might not need is money we might not need. We might need is actually peace.
[00:10:25] Peace of mind, not just money in our pockets. I wonder if we don't realize it, but we are stuck. And we find ourselves stuck. And when we do that, we find ourselves not praying the right things.
[00:10:41] And so often we go. I just. I'm not quite sure. I'm not quite sure if I can ever get out of this. And I believe God wants to speak to us about that getting done. Because here's what God did. God, right there. He healed two people, not one. He healed the lame man, obviously, but I believe he healed something in Peter's life.
[00:11:00] He healed him. Why? Because this is Peter's first miracle.
[00:11:05] Yeah, I mean, this is the first one. I mean, this Peter, his identity was stuck as the guy who denied Jesus. He was the he. Peter is the guy who was like, you know, who. Who. Who was who.
[00:11:18] I mean, he went. He.
[00:11:21] He doubted even the women when they found. On Easter Sunday morning when they found the tomb empty. He doubted that. He's also the guy who went back fishing. He went back to fishing, went back to his life. I mean, he's not the guy, you know, like, he's not the most stellar disciple. And yet here, what we see is Peter is now becoming and being transformed into a different person. A person that now is bold enough to say, no, I don't. Not just know him. No, no. That's not denying Peter.
[00:11:57] I'm the guy who wants to act like him. And I'm saying that in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. And, man, it worked. It happened. And I believe that day, God healed two people. I wonder if we were stuck in our ways of life or we're just stuck in something and God's reminding us, hey, because of the Holy Spirit, now you are never stuck. You're never stuck. Let me give you the second phrase again and again. I'll tell you, these phrases I believe are so important, so make sure you write them down. Number two, is this my past? My past does not define me. My past does not. Does not define me. As we move through this story, you realize, like Again, God is using Peter and John to remind, to show us how our past do not need to define us. So they go in, right? And some people are like, I can't believe it's the lame guy who been healed. Other people are like, I'm not quite sure if this is actually true. They're doubters. There's all kinds of things happening. And then Peter again does something that, that he was not comfortable doing, but he does it. In Acts 3, verse 12, we read Peter, it says here, saw this opportunity and addressed the crowd. And he said this Peter, he said, people of Israel, he said, what is so surprising about this?
[00:13:24] Why stare at us as though we have made this man walk by our own power or godliness? Like, we did not do this. There's something else in play here. You think we did this? We didn't make up this thing. We did not make this up at all. And then he keeps on going. He says, this is the same Jesus. Like, this happened in Jesus name. I did it in Jesus name.
[00:13:48] So this is the same Jesus, by the way, whom you handed over and rejected before. Pilate despised Pilate's decision to release him.
[00:13:59] You. Yeah, you and you. And back there, you, you rejected his holy, the Holy righteous one, and instead demanded the release of what a murderer. Remember Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. You guys did that.
[00:14:13] You killed, uh, oh, next level here, he's like you. You remember that? You remember what you just did? You killed the author of what? Life itself. But, but God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses to that fact. Basically, you did this and you messed up. So I can't even tell you the sins you guys have committed. Now, I wonder right there, God is shaping Peter. Because what God does not do is he does not treat us based on our past. He does not. He refuses to treat us based on our past. And right now, right here, I believe that God does something that he's like, no, no, no, your past does not need to define you. And so Peter is the guy who denies Jesus. Peter is the guy who's done a lot of things wrong. And then he does what we all do when it comes to our sins. We remind ourselves and other people about our sins. So he's reminding them, he's like, you did this, you did this, you did this, you did this. So this is apparently his first sermon maybe. And now he's like coming off like, pretty harsh. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, as if the God's Holy Spirit just began to like, speak to him. Nudge him a little bit. He changes his tone in like two verses. Verse 17, he says this. He says, friends, Friends. Yeah, friends.
[00:15:34] And then he goes. All of a sudden he says, I realize. I realize that you and your leaders did to Jesus.
[00:15:44] What you did to him was done in ignorance.
[00:15:48] But God was fulfilling all the prophets.
[00:15:53] All what the prophets had foretold about the Messiah, that he must suffer these things. But now he says, now, repent of your sins. Turn to God so your sins may be wiped away.
[00:16:06] Be wiped away. All of a sudden, he changes his tone. He goes, oh, you know what? Hey, friends, friends. Sorry about this, okay? I know what you guys did was out of ignorance. You know what? All of a sudden he got reminded that even God has saved him from with grace. And he said, you know what?
[00:16:25] Yeah, I should not do this. I shouldn't remind you of your past, because God does not do that. See, God does not remind us of our sins to shame us. People do. People do.
[00:16:38] What does God do with sins? Well, he doesn't remind of our sins to shame us. He reveals our sins to redeem them, to redeem us. That's what he does. He's redeeming Peter right now as he's using the guy who ran away. He's using him to bring in the kingdom.
[00:17:00] He's doing that. And then he says, he talks about this idea of like, repentance. Says, now just repent. And the word repentance is really about direction. It truly is about direction. And so what he's saying is, here's what I want you to do. I just want you to understand that, you know what? Regardless of what you've done in your past, all you have to do is now move forward in Jesus name, towards him. Cause here's what the past does. The past wants us to go back. It wants us to go back always. It drags us in the past in the back. Why? Because that's where regret is. That's what shame is, right?
[00:17:39] But God's calling us to the future. See, that's why your past does not need to define you. Because your past cannot lead you into the future of what God has. Because your past has no hope. Your future has hope.
[00:17:57] Your past sins can be forgiven. And God does not do that. I remember having a conversation with the person who's convinced, like, was like. Or not convinced, but had so much angst about their dad. Her dad had committed suicide. And she was wondering if he was going to be in hell because of that. And I said, no, that's not true. You won't believe the amount of people I've talked to that sometimes convince themselves, like the reason why they can't get pregnant is because of the sins that they've committed.
[00:18:31] I'm like, God doesn't do that. If he held our sins, I mean, if he held us, if he treated us based on our sins, we would not move anywhere. There would be no hope.
[00:18:43] He does not do that. And because of his spirit, your past does not define your. You Third, my life matters. My life matters. Your life matters. That's the third statement you need to know, because so often we struggle with, does my life matter? Well, as we go through these chapters, what you see, you go through these stories, you find that God's reminding us that your life matters. You know, I find myself being so much happier sometimes when I'm away from my phone.
[00:19:21] You know what I'm saying? I do. And then when I get back to my phone, I feel like I catch up to everything. I'm like, ah, I don't know. I think, honestly, I think sometimes I think that my life was so much better without, like, social media. You know what I'm talking about? Without social media, it was great. Why? Because in social media, I can't help but compare my life and experience to everybody else's. You know, I just can't help it. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh, what do I do? What do I do? What am I doing? And my life doesn't matter, and what am I doing? It doesn't make much of a difference. And look at so and so, and look at so and so, and look at so and so. And all of a sudden I just go, ah, can't do it.
[00:20:00] But see, I believe. The next chapter in the Book of Acts reminds us that when we're doing God's work, our. Our life matters so much more than we know.
[00:20:13] I know we are tempted to believe that we're supposed to live this epic life.
[00:20:18] No, you're just supposed to play an epic part in the epic story. And that is just you and I playing the part that God's called us to play. And here's what we find. Peter stepping into. It says here, chapter four, verse eight. It says, then Peter, filled with, you guessed it, with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of our people, we are being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man.
[00:20:48] Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to you all and all the people of Israel, how he was healed, but he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, the man that you. Yeah, you crucified, but now whom God raised from the dead.
[00:21:08] For Jesus is the one referred to the Scriptures where it says, the stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. And then it says this. He says, and there is salvation in no one else. God has given no other name under heaven which.
[00:21:27] By which we must be saved. If you ever heard that verse, it's a verse that people have used out of context in terms of, like, not exactly in context. Because here, as the passage says, Peter is talking to the rulers and elders of his people. His people meaning Jews. And when he says there's no other name, what he's talking about in this whole passage is he's talking about the fact that Peter people used to measure or connect their worth and value to their spiritual heritage.
[00:22:03] They connected. They were under the name of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There's verses about being at the table of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And here Peter is saying, hey, I just want you to know your life matters not because of all those things. No, no, you. Your life matters because of what Jesus did. And now because what he did, you have access to the Holy Spirit. He was filled by the Holy Spirit, it says here. And he spoke to them. And that's why that verse is in here. This idea about the stone that the builders rejected. The builders were the Jewish people, the rulers and elders of his time. They rejected what they were, builders.
[00:22:47] But the stone that they actually rejected was Jesus.
[00:22:52] And that became the cornerstone. He's saying that is the cornerstone. That's why there's no name under heaven that we should link our lives to. So you cannot.
[00:23:03] It's so much bigger. He's saying, hey, your life matters not because you come from a certain lineage. Your life matters because of Jesus. Your life matters because of him. Because there's no name under heaven that which might be saved. And the word saved is healed, fulfilled. A sense of wholeness is so much bigger. So even though our minds say, hey, my life doesn't matter, your life matters tremendously. More than you could think. All you have to do is just remember that you have to link your life.
[00:23:38] You have to remind yourself that your life is a part of.
[00:23:43] Of a bigger story.
[00:23:45] Your part you're playing here in this life, it's connected to a bigger story. And all you gotta do is just jump into that. Okay, Number four. Number four.
[00:23:54] This is a good one. The Number four says this. I can face this. I can face this. I can face this. I don't know what you might be facing, but I'm sure there's an inner narrative that says, I don't know if I can face this. I don't know if I can do this. I don't. I don't know if I can do this. Some of us have thought that, right? I don't know if I can do this. I don't know. I'm not. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You, my friend, can do this. Here's why not. Because you've got so much power inside of you. No, no, no. There's more than that.
[00:24:26] Because you've got the Holy Spirit inside of you. And here is this nugget we find here in Acts, chapter 4, verse.
[00:24:36] Verse 14, it says, the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John.
[00:24:47] They were amazed. So the story continues where they're like, Peter and John are doing these things, and they're like, they're amazed by this. They're amazed by this. And why were they amazed? Because it says here, for they could see. They could see this, that they were ordinary men. Ordinary men with no special training in Scripture. They're like, they knew these guys are not that smart. I mean, is it.
[00:25:10] Isn't it sad that, like, you're written down in history, Peter and John, nothing special. Nothing special. But then they kept on going. It says here, but they also recognize this, that these men had been with Jesus. They'd been with Jesus.
[00:25:27] See, here's what. Here's what fear, anxiety wants us to do. Fear, anxiety wants us to disqualify ourselves. That's what it wants. Like, if you wanna face something and be like, I can't do it. Cause fear wants us to forfeit. It wants to forfeit the fight before it even starts. It wants us to forfeit.
[00:25:48] And I don't know about you, but sometimes I've realized in my life that when I have to face something, I face it because there's so much. I face it with knowing that I've got so much ambiguity. There's so much unknowns, uncertainty. But when I face it, here's what I feel. I feel his presence under pressure.
[00:26:08] See, I feel his presence. I feel his peace under pressure.
[00:26:12] See, if you're just with him, right, your problems, your stuff in your life is gonna recognize that you've been with Jesus. You can face the things in your life, and if you are face to face with him on the daily.
[00:26:28] That's the key to it. The key to it is just.
[00:26:33] I mean, honestly, you know this. I mean, sometimes to get whatever, you get what you want. It's not about what you know, it's about who you know. And here it's about, you can face this because you know Jesus, you have God's spirit inside of you. So can you face this? Can you do this on your own strength?
[00:26:52] No. Is it connected to your smarts? No. Just like Peter and John, ordinary men, no special training, nothing special about them. Only one thing special about them is that they spend time with Jesus. What would happen to our fears if we confronted them with the presence of the one we spent time with? It would change everything.
[00:27:16] Okay, lastly, I am not alone. I am not alone. That statement needs to.
[00:27:24] It's a statement that we have to remind ourselves. Why? Because there are times in our life that we just go, I'm just all alone. You feel alone in your grief. You feel alone in your disappointment. That's huge. Because people don't really understand. Sometimes you just feel alone.
[00:27:42] And here, as we end this chapter, it reminds us that we don't have to be alone. We don't have to be alone. You can face the stuff through the power of the Holy Spirit, but you don't have to do it alone.
[00:27:55] And so as we follow the story of Peter and John, what we realize is that they get arrested and then they're let go, but they're been threatened not to talk about Jesus. And so they kind of go back. And what they do is they huddle up with their community, with their people, with other people, and they begin to pray. And it's shocking to what they pray for because, I mean, could you imagine if you'd just been arrested? Things are happening. You're starting this movement. Jesus is gone. Holy Spirit, within you, God, miraculous things are happening. What would you pray for? Here's what they prayed.
[00:28:34] Now, now, Lord, O Lord, hear their threats and give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power. May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.
[00:28:53] After this prayer, the meeting place shook.
[00:28:58] And they were filled with one, the Holy Spirit. They're filled with him. Then they preached the word of God with boldness. All the people were united in heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own.
[00:29:22] So they shared everything they had.
[00:29:25] There was no needy people among them because those who own lands and houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give them who are in need. Like, this is the beginning of a revolution. This is the beginning of a movement. You could see what's happening there. But don't miss this. You see, even though they were facing these other rulers and persecutions, they were not facing them alone. They were not alone.
[00:29:53] They were not just filled with the Holy Spirit, but they were not alone because they surrounded themselves with people. They were together. They were together. The early believers, they didn't just share their beliefs, you know, oh, this is the same thing. We believe the same thing about Jesus. No, what they did was they shared not beliefs. They shared burdens, resources. They shared their lives with each other. It's a big difference. It's huge. It's a game changer. So if you find yourself, like, all alone, maybe that's because you've chosen isolation. But you gotta understand your courage exists in community. It's so much more powerful when you do it in community. See, you cannot fulfill God's plan for your life without community. You can't do it. You can know more about Jesus. The guy said you can. You can read the Bible. You can get degrees on the Bible.
[00:30:47] Yeah. But you cannot live a transformed life in a sense where you are building God's kingdom. You are part of what he's doing, a part of the movement without being connected to other people. That's why in Mosaic we say, join a small group. Get in a group, go to ministry events. Get connected. If you're watching this and you're not connected, don't do it alone. You don't have to do it alone. You're like, I'm all alone.
[00:31:14] Maybe you're choosing to, but you don't have to be alone. Like, even your body, your body, your nervous system regulates itself. You know how?
[00:31:23] By strong social bonds. Yeah, your body. You're wired for community. You're wired to have people around you. Now, here's the thing. Your spirituality also needs it, too. Your soul needs spiritual community around you. And that's why it's so important to find the not just people at your gym, not just people at work.
[00:31:43] No church community. Be a part of a church community. That's when you realize that you are not alone.
[00:31:49] You are not alone. And guess what? You'll also realize that you can face this. You'll also realize that your life matters. You'll also realize your past doesn't define you, and you're not stuck. And so that's my prayer for us. My prayer. This.
[00:32:07] This morning is for us to just believe that or allow ourselves to believe that, because so many times we don't.
[00:32:14] I know one of these statements, if not all of them, is gonna speak to you. So I wanna pray for that. I wanna pray that over you, and I pray that you believe these.
[00:32:24] See, let me tell you, the reason is, is because Jesus has opened up heaven for your.
[00:32:33] For you to receive the Holy Spirit. You.
[00:32:35] You have God's spirit inside of you. You have people surrounding you. You have a God who loves you. So let me pray for us.
[00:32:44] Lord God, I just thank you so much for this message. I pray that, God, it would be more than a message. It would be truth that would come against the lies of the enemy. God, I pray that you remind us, you remind us by the power of your spirit that because of your spirit, we. We are not stuck. Our past does not define us. Our lives matter, God. And we can face this. We can face whatever that comes our way.
[00:33:11] Because we are not alone, God. I pray that you would solidify that in our hearts and minds. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:33:23] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:33:29] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
