Lifting Up Our Brother

Acts 3:1-11

[Read Scripture]

Intro:

(Have a cardboard sign with “Homeless, Please Help”)

· How many of us have seen someone like this? How does it make you feel?

o Should we give to them?

· Some drive some really nice cars.

· Well, there are many people who are waiving a sign in front of us, it might not be a cardboard sign, but a sign by what they say or how they carry themselves.

· Now that is some of us here today, saying I need help, but people keep passing you by.

· Or, that’s you maybe you are seeing people in need and you do nothing.

A Man with a Need (1-4)

· Each day, this man was brought to the temple entrance and laid there begging for money.

· We are not told how many people passed him by, but he was laid at a place where you would expect people to help.

· How many times have you been stopped at a light, and right beside your car, there is someone begging?

· What do you do? Roll up the window, lock the doors, and just keeping staring out the windshield not turning your head, right?

· We try to ignore their situation.

· It is so easy to be like those in the Good Samaritan Story, that walk on the opposite of the road.

· We ignore the surface, and when you ignore the surface, we forget that there is a soul right there.

· Now the same holds true for so many other people you encounter, we just go through life and ignore them.

o Ignore them because they are not part of our social group

o Ignore them because they talk or dress differently

o Ignore them because they live less privilege as ourselves

· The fact remains, these people have souls that have a need. I wonder how many people entered into that temple and ignored that man laying there at the entrance?

· What we need to do, is just what Peter did here, he looked at the man, he fixed his eyes on him. He saw the man’s situation. Friend, that is what we need to do today, quit looking at ourselves, and starting looking at these people around us.

· We are in a world where people have needs, and the need is Jesus.

We Need to Give our Faith (5-7)

· Peter and John are going to the temple, they have and encounter, and what does Peter do? He doesn’t give him money. That is what the man wants, he gives him what he needs, faith.

· Look at verse 6 – let me paraphrase this, I don’t have money to give, but I can give you Jesus.

· What does Peter do at this point? He sticks out his hand. Peter had faith to know that the Lord could meet this man’s situation, by sticking out his hand.

· You know, a lot of people talk about their faith, but you don’t see it.

· James 2:18 “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works”

· Friend, faith is more than sharing, it is also about showing. Words can be heard, actions can be seen.

· Are you a giving person? Many like to receive, but few like to give. Friend, Christ wants us to be a giving people. A person that gives of our faith to others.

· If you say you’re a Christian, then show it. Give your faith to people.

Your Faith can Change Others (8-9)

· This man takes Peter’s hand, and what happens, he is healed and able to walk. A man whose life was changed because of Peter’s faith.

· Now what would have happened if Peter’s faith was wavering?

· You remember when he stepped off the boat and took his eyes off of Jesus, he began to sink into the waves.

· Peter’s faith had not always been where it needed to be. Here is a man who has been asked to help, who had wrestled with his faith, sticking out his hand.

· What if the man took Peter by the hand and nothing happened? Well, that can happen with us.

· Have egg on our face. Peter had struggled and failed in his faith before, but here is the reason that this man was restored. Peter let go and let God.

· Peter cannot change this man’s situation, nor can you change someone else’s life, but if you let go and let God, let your faith be shown and extended, then God can change that person’s life.

· Now some of us are like Peter, but we all need to be like the beggar in the story, People saw the change in his life.

· God had worked a miracle in this man’s life and people saw it. Now if God has touched you, are you like this man? Are you going around and praising God?

· There was no need for this man to go and sit back down where he was at. Oh, he could have gone back to that life, but there was something better in his life now that he didn’t want too.

· If God has touched your life, don’t go back to where you were, get on your feet and start going for Jesus.

Are We Making People Wonder?

· When people saw what had happened the scripture says that people wondered with amazement.

· Are we making people wonder about what God has done in our life?

· You know, Peter and John were just going to church, but they impacted people on their way.

· Isaiah 35:3-6 “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

· Are you strengthening the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees today? Is your faith where it needs to be, are you lifting others up or are you leaving them laying by the wayside? Are you feeling ignored, hurting and lonely, needing help, well Jesus is here, and he is ready to raise you up.