Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Father God, we thank you for being here.
We thank you, Lord, that we can share communion together.
We thank you that our dear brother, PB, Pastor Bill Devlin is in the house.
You brought him in to us today.
Thank you for that, Lord.
And we're going to have communion together.
And, Lord, thank you that your word always speaks.
And you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So, Lord, as we open up your word, we ask you, Lord, to just penetrate
our heart and our mind so that we can really just discern you in the
Scriptures, in Jesus' name, amen.
Yeah, that was great.
You know, I'll tell you, the big takeaway I texted Jamie after I watched
the service and the big takeaway from me, you know, I love what he
said towards the end.
He said, you know, I used to pray, Lord, just pour down your spirit,
just like you did in Pentecost.
Just anoint me, Lord, with like new gifts of the spirit and all this.
And just like, just, just pour your spirit down upon me.
And then he heard in the inner core of voice, and I'm paraphrasing a lot.
Okay.
You'll have to listen back yourself.
But then he says, but you know what?
I heard the voice saying, why don't you release what I've already given you?
And I'm like, that's, that's so true.
I mean, he's poured so much, he's invested so much into you.
And he's saying, just release it.
Just start pouring it out to others.
Amen.
And so now we're going to look at Acts chapter three and only the
first 11 verses of it, and we're going to be looking at a miracle,
the first recorded miracle.
We know that there were miracles, you know, of course, before the
ascension of Christ, but after the ascension of Christ, we read
last week that there were going to be a lot of signs and wonders happening.
And in fact, if you can put that up, hi Tammy, you're running PowerPoint.
Good job today.
If you could put up Acts chapter two verse 43, and we, we skimmed over this
last week that they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and
fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers, and then fear
came upon every soul and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles.
You know, by the way, when you look at those two verses, you can actually
see really five foundational things in the Christian lifestyle, those two
verses wrap it all together.
And I'll show you in that, first of all, the word of God, you know, back
then they didn't yet have the new Testament written, but the word of God,
they drew from the old Testament.
The next thing, fellowship, right?
Getting together, not only believers, but also just making sure we're
interacting with the world to bring the glory of God, right?
The next thing, breaking of bread, communion, which we're doing today,
praying, praying for one another.
And then finally signs and wonders, good works.
You know, we always think of signs and wonders as miraculous healings
and they're wonderful, but you know what?
Signs and wonders are someone getting saved, someone just
surrendering their life and saying, I need Jesus Christ.
That is a miracle.
Do you realize that?
That is the greatest miracle.
That's greater than any healing of the body because when your
soul gets healed, it's eternal.
And so right there, and those five foundations, actually, I just
want to mention is we have cell groups that we gather together.
Um, and they, they cover these five foundational concepts of Christian
life, and it's so good to really stay, uh, engaged in, in all parts
of Christianity.
Am I, am I reading the word enough?
Am I in fellowship enough?
Am I in communion, you know, have actually having communion
with other believers and am I praying enough and am I seeing
good works done through me, the fruit of the spirit pouring
out through me, you know, am I experiencing the fullness of
being a believer because we need all of those things operating
in our lives to really live that abundant life.
And if you want to talk more about that after the service, I'd
love to talk to you about these cell groups and really just
growing in these areas because, you know, Bible studies are awesome.
They really are, but why not experience the fullness of what it is
to be a believer?
We have a great life.
So anyway, so these signs and wonders were starting.
And of course they were starting before Christ even was crucified.
He anointed his disciples to do these things, but now it was spreading
out and these signs and wonders were happening.
And Jesus told his disciples, the last supper, you know, you should
be glad that I'm going to heaven to be with my father because when
I do, the Holy Spirit will come down upon you and he will
anoint you for many things.
And in John 14, 12, he said just this, most assuredly I say
to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will
do also and greater works than these will he do because I go
to my father.
So we can expect amazing things to pour out from us to others in
our lives and people that we come in contact with.
And also just before Christ ascended probably the last couple
days or so in Mark chapter 16, he told his disciples these
things and these signs will follow those who believe in my
name.
They will cast out demons.
They will speak with new tongues and they will take up
serpents and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no
means hurt them.
And you know, all these things I've actually seen and
experienced or been part of and they will lay hands on the
sick and they will recover.
And that's what we're going to look at today, a healing, but
these signs and wonders yet.
Did you ever say, Lord, I want, I want to experience these
signs and wonders pouring out through me with the Lord saying
that, you know, these are things that can operate in our
lives.
And so we're going to read now about the first documented
healing through the hands of Peter and really laying hands
on the sick.
You know, we do it regularly here.
In fact, at the end of the service, we're going to have
prayers up here.
And if you're sick, if you have ailments and you would
want prayer, we're going to have a prayer team up here that
you can come up and receive prayer for those things.
And we believe that the fervent prayer of a believer
accomplishes a lot.
Do you believe that?
Like prayer accomplishes so much.
It's the fuel of the kingdom of God.
It really is.
And so anyway, without further ado, uh, I left my glasses
somewhere.
So anyway, Oh no, I didn't look at this.
I'm more equipped than I thought they're in here
somewhere.
Bear with me.
Just say hi to that person next to you.
If you didn't already, they're stuck there.
They're okay.
All right.
Ready?
I'm still in denial that even need these things, but
that's okay.
All right.
So acts chapter three, verse one, we're only going to
stop a couple of times.
So don't get annoyed.
Okay.
Ready now, Peter and John went up together to the temple at
the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
So let's just stop there.
You're like, Oh, really?
But just for a minute.
Okay.
Again, there's only a couple of stops.
Okay.
But so they, they went into the temple for prayer at
the time of prayer.
And you know, it's really neat is if you study like
the Jewish tradition and so forth, they met for
prayer three times a day at 9 AM, 12 PM and 3 PM.
And they would meet together and you could see this
format in David's life, in Daniel's life, praying
three times a day.
And so they, they did this, but what's amazing is
that they had just gotten saved and baptized in
the Holy Spirit.
Okay.
And yet they still continue to do the things that
they knew were right.
They didn't suddenly say, I'm going to reject all,
all tradition, those things that the Lord
implanted in their lifestyle.
They say, well, that's still for today.
And so they went in to pray.
And when I was thinking about this, the time
from 9 AM to 3 PM, you know what happened during
that time also, Christ was crucified.
He was crucified at 9 AM at 12 PM.
The land became dark, pitch dark for three hours.
I mean, people were saying, what is happening?
I mean, this is like, this can't be an eclipse.
This is something deep and dark.
And then at 3 PM, the earthquake, he gave up a
spirit and the lights came back on.
And we see this whole picture.
Isn't it amazing that it lines right up with the
times of prayer, because Lord, the Lord was
fulfilling all the old things of traditional of, of
everything in the Jewish heritage, pointing to the
Messiah, and now he's saying it's for all of you.
And so, so they, they continue to do that and to
pray and now let's move on to verse two.
And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was
carried whom they laid daily at the gate of the
temple, which is called beautiful to ask alms from
those who entered the temple, who's seeing Peter
and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms.
So here's this beggar at the temple that his
family would bring, and they would lay him right
there at the door of entry.
And thank you, Tammy, right there.
And this, this, this gate, okay, which they
call the, the gate called beautiful was actually
called Nikkeinor, aren't you glad I took an
attempt at that, but Nikkeinor, and it was a
temple, it was the gate that led from the
courtyard of the, of the Gentiles.
You can see that's, that's all them.
Okay.
And if you're a Gentile, you got to stay out
here, but then the gates were opened.
Okay.
And you went in and first it was the court
of the women, everything was still segregated
in a sense, right?
And that was the courtyard of the women.
And then you went even deeper if you were a man.
And then of course, if you were a priest, you
went even deeper into the temple and so forth.
So this man was laid right here.
Okay.
So that he could beg from all the Jews going
in to worship God.
And when you think about what a strategic
place to be placed, right?
Um, you know, first of all, people are
going in, okay, to worship God.
Okay.
So as they enter, okay, they're thinking,
well, like, look at this poor guy, like here.
I mean, I, you know, I can't just walk past him.
Okay.
I'm going to praise God.
And yet this poor guy, he needs something, you
know, so it's a great place to give.
But if you even were, were calloused enough
to walk past him and go in and say, I don't
see him, I don't see him.
Okay.
And now you're in your worshiping God,
you're feeling so glad about everything.
And you're so grateful for your life and so
forth, and now you're coming out, I don't
see, that's hard, that's more difficult even
to walk out without giving him something.
Right.
So he was strategically placed in a perfect
place at the gate called beautiful.
You know, this gate, they say it could
have been as much as 75 feet high, this
doorway, okay.
And the doors were Corinthian brass.
They just glistened in the sun, you know,
and they were just beautiful.
And so that's why they call it the gate
called beautiful.
And as people went in, they would give him
money.
And so Peter and John were walking by and
they saw him.
And let's take another look at more of
the temple, just so you can get a better
picture of this.
So this would have been right there.
There's 15 steps.
Okay.
All the Gentiles were out here and out
here, and, but this was where he would
have been laid.
And this is called the Solomon's porch or
portico.
And you'll see this in verse 11, when they
went out there and started preaching with
the beggar that would be healed.
Okay.
This is a model.
If you could tell, this is actually,
this model is in Israel.
If you ever go to Israel, you could see
this and here's a walkway.
So this is very tiny because this
walkway, if a person was standing there,
they would look like a mammoth giant.
Okay.
And we actually stood there and looked at
the whole model, very cool.
And so, so that's the picture of it.
And so here we have this beggar at the
gate, and I found this cool painting.
Well, it's not the real painting, but
it's a photo of it, of this picture
painted sometime in the early 1700s of
this picture of, you know, of Peter and
John, and of course this beggar.
And, uh, as, as they speak to him.
And so, you know, as I was thinking
about this, right, he's, he's laying at
the doorway, okay.
So that he can get something as people
come in or come out, but he didn't crawl in.
I mean, if you're right there, why not
be brought in to the courtyard?
Okay.
And we can hypothesize many different
reasons, but here's what it reminded me of.
So our church gets a plethora of phone
calls throughout the year.
And we get calls from complete strangers.
Okay.
And they say my rent's behind, um, or
they say, you know, do you have any of
those food cards and, and constant,
you know, phone calls needing things.
And so, you know, we want to be good
stewards of God's money.
We don't know who they are, what
they really need.
We don't know anything.
So, and I start talking to them.
Well, do you belong to any churches?
Well, no, you know, okay.
Well, can you come in and let us meet you?
Okay.
Well, that right there kills about
95% of the requests.
Okay.
They can't even come once to meet us.
Okay.
And I'm getting somewhere with this is
that their issues could, could be
resolved by just coming into church and
meeting believers and meeting with God.
Do you realize that so many of our
problems we are in so much lack and need
because we refuse to enter in according
to God's design approaching him with
accountability, see just writing a check
or given a bit, we do it.
Don't get me wrong when people are hard
up and you know, we don't put strings
attached to all these things, but we
would rather give them something
formative in their lives that actually
transforms their lives, help them
transform their spirit, their soul, and
their actions that would truly change
their lives, but just handing them
something is like putting a band-aid
on a missing limb.
You know, it just, it doesn't accomplish
what God really wants to accomplish.
And it's sad because the church many
times has shifted to this humanitarian
giveaways without any accountability.
And it's, and it's not God's design.
If you notice, he taught for three days
before he fed the people.
Do you realize that?
He didn't start with the breakfast.
Three days, they were about to drop.
Then he's like, maybe we should
give him something to eat.
Okay.
And then the other time was a full day.
Okay.
And then you didn't hear about it anymore.
In fact, he even rebuked them.
You're only following me for the bread.
Do you remember that?
So I think sometimes our perspective
of Jesus just giving away, giving away
with no accountability is not Godly because
it doesn't truly transform the lives.
We have the government to do that.
Unfortunately, right?
Because there's no accountability
there at all.
Okay.
I'm not getting political by the way.
I'm just telling you the truth.
Right.
So anyway, but so, so, so
here we have this gentleman and he's
asking, he just wish he would come in,
you know, because things could really
change for him if he had just come in
and met with the Lord.
But anyway, he's meeting the
Lord through Peter and John.
So let's read on.
So where are we?
Verse four.
And fixing his eyes on him,
meaning Peter with John.
Peter said, look at us.
And so he gave them his attention
expecting to receive something from
them. And then Peter said, silver and
gold, I do not have, but what I do
have, I give you in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
And he took him by the right hand
and lifted him up and immediately
his feet and ankle bones received
strength. And so he leaping up,
stood and walked and entered the
temple with them, walking,
leaping and praising God.
And all the people saw him walking
and praising God and verse 10.
And then they knew that it was he
who sat begging alms at the
beautiful gate of the temple.
And they were killed with their
killed. They were not killed.
They were filled with wonder and
amazement at what had happened to
him. And now verse 11 is where
we'll end now as the lame man
who was healed, held onto Peter
and John, all the people ran
together to them in at the in
the porch, which is called
Solomon's greatly were greatly
amazed. Sorry, I'm botching this
up the reading a little bit.
I've been up since three thirty.
You just can't go back to sleep
and you're like, but anyway, so
so here is this beggar.
And what's really cool is, do you
notice like he's hanging on
to Peter and John, not for
balance.
He didn't need to be balanced
because he already stood up.
He was hanging on to them for
love, for gratitude, for like,
man, I don't want to go
anywhere away from these guys.
These guys in introduce me to
the real power of God.
And so he's just going to follow
them from then on.
And that's so awesome to see
that. But let's rewind a little
bit and just show up on the
screen.
Acts chapter three verse seven.
He took him by the right hand
and lifted him up and immediately
his feet and ankle bones
received strength.
You know, what I thought was
really interesting and important
there is that Peter actually
took him by the hand.
Did you notice that?
Now, a lot of times in scripture
that doesn't happen.
OK, in fact, you know, Paul,
while he was walking along, he
saw someone who who had faith
to believe in healing.
And he said, get up.
And he got up.
Jesus did that to remember when
he saw the the the gentleman
with his mat at the portico,
I mean, the pool of Siloam.
And he's just like laying there,
you know, day after day,
year after year.
And every time the stirring of
the water, everyone gushes
towards there because the first
one in gets healed.
We're not going to get into
that today.
But you know, but he would just
lay there and he could never
get to the water in time.
He couldn't get past everybody.
And then Jesus, in fact, let's
show that I love this section.
John chapter five verse
six to eight.
Then Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he already had been
in that condition for a long time.
He said to him, do you want
to be made well?
And the sick man answered him,
Sir, I have no man
to put me into the pool.
And when the water is stirred up.
I'm sorry, but when the water
is stirred up, but while I am
coming, another steps down before me.
Jesus said to him, rise,
take up your bed and walk.
In other words, he's like,
get up, get up.
OK, so sometimes the Lord
just says, get up.
You already have what you need.
But sometimes we need some
help getting up, right?
And in this case, this man
needed Peters assured
so you could do this.
You can get up.
Let me help you up.
You know, we all need
some help sometimes, don't we?
We all need mentors.
We all need people to pray over us
and to and to show us
what success and healing
looks like in our lives.
We all need that, you know, in fact,
I love this quote from Henry Ford.
Sorry, Tammy, I'm all over
the place up there.
But did you ever see this?
In fact, it's on one of
the Ford commercials,
whether you think you can
or think you can't.
You're right.
I put that up sometime in the past.
But isn't that so true?
As a man thinks, so is he right?
And if you think you're already right,
because if you don't think you can.
Right. Sometimes we need encouragement
believing that we can.
You know, even Henry Ford had a mentor
and you know who it was?
Thomas Edison.
Yeah, the inventor of light bulbs.
He was working for his company
and he started talking about
these fuel combustion engines
and and, you know, and Thomas Edison
is like, sounds great.
You should pursue that, you know.
Who knows how else he helped him
get to where he was?
But like we all need someone
to believe in us, to believe
what God wants to do in us now,
whether it be physical healing.
But I'm really have more of a focus
today on life healing,
transformative living.
In other words, believing that I already
have everything I need to achieve.
I don't need anything else right now
to accomplish everything
the Lord wants to do in me.
And I just believe that
whether I'm limping, crawling, whatever.
I have what I need today
to accomplish what the Lord has for me.
I don't need any more.
I don't lack.
No matter what I do or don't have,
I don't lack.
You remember, even even Paul said,
you know, sometimes I had a lot,
sometimes I had a little.
And here's a guy
who had scars all over him, OK,
who probably could barely see
from being beat so many times
and his optical nerve
probably being damaged.
I mean, he went through
a thing or two.
If you ever see his resume
of punishment, it's long and lengthy.
Right.
And yet he said, through all of this,
I could do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.
I don't need more.
People always think that
that has to do with like
winning a boxing match
or or something like that.
No, it has to do with
being able to endure
and actually succeed
through any life's circumstances.
We can do exactly what we need to do.
Do you believe that?
Yeah, because not all of us
are going to be healed.
Not all of us are going to be
some of these ailments
in our tents here in this world
are all going to be fixed.
And you know that some things
for one reason or another may stay.
OK, but guess what?
I have what I need.
I have everything I need to succeed.
I don't need more.
Neither do you.
You could pray for more.
Lord, I really want this.
I really, Lord, please just help me.
You know, if you can help me,
if you can heal this in my body,
and that's totally just
to pray for those things.
In fact, if you don't pray
for those things, it might
reflect some doubt.
Don't doubt.
OK, pray for everything.
But you have what you need.
According to God's will,
you have it already.
Because if we're just going to pray
and pray and pray for something
that for one reason or another,
the Lord has just allowed it
to persist in your life.
And you're not going to start
anything else until this happens.
It's going to be possibly
a lot of wasted days
or years of your life
while you're waiting for something
that may not happen.
You have what you need.
Now, the Lord, he chose
to heal this beggar.
You know, he was looking
for a hand out.
But he got a hand up.
Amen.
Like, that's the problem
in this world, everyone
like everyone who calls
our church and everything just
can I have, can I have, can I have?
And they're just looking
for something that is like a band aid.
Dude, you need a brand new life.
You don't need a bandage.
You need a whole new life.
You need a new heart.
You need everything.
Forget about the band aid.
You need every you don't need a meal.
You need a new life.
That's what you need.
That's what this world needs.
And unfortunately, people are even
coming to the church for the hand out.
But the Lord wants to lift us up.
I love what he says.
If you if you humble yourself
beneath the mighty hand of the Lord,
he does what?
He lifts you up.
Amen.
This man was just looking for so little
and he got so much.
I think we can't satisfy for the temporal things.
We don't even want to be satisfied
with physical healing.
We want it all.
Lord, I want everything.
I want to be everything you want me to be.
I want to be the temple of the Holy Spirit
moving in power and might able to walk on water,
whether it be physical or symbolic.
I want to be able to walk through the fire
and not burn.
I want to be able to cast out the demons
and people's life.
I want Lord, I want it all.
Don't you want it all?
Why are we so satisfied with temporal things?
I want eternal things.
We don't fix our eyes on the temporal.
We fix our eyes on the eternal.
You know, when we keep our eyes on things
that are not yet,
and I don't want to sound like Kamala Harris
for a minute, okay?
What then?
But we keep our eyes fixed on things that are not yet,
but believe they will be.
They happen.
Because we create through our faith.
We create through what we believe God is going to do.
You know, I believe that the Lord
is going to bring peace somehow,
some way over in Iran.
I'm going to believe it.
And I know there's a lot of evil and conspiracies
and all this stuff, you know?
But I want to believe that God wants to bring unity
and salvation to the Muslims.
Why not?
They're so fervent after a false God.
How fervent will they be after the real creator?
The real Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
And then Israel, you know,
they're still rejecting the Messiah.
What if the Lord does something here and now?
But you know what, if he doesn't,
we Christians have to stay the course
and stay on track tethered to Jesus Christ.
You know, our hope is not anchored in Donald Trump.
Our hope is not anchored in Israel.
Our hope is not anchored in even peace in the Middle East.
Our hope is not anchored in any of that.
Where's our hope anchored in?
Jesus Christ behind the veil,
where our forerunner is,
our author and finisher of our faith.
Amen.
You know, hallelujah.
You know, we can't get anchored in the situations of today.
We just can't.
It's just going to pull us down to the lower depths
if we get dragged into this,
if we're tethered in heaven.
I always love this picture, really,
of like being suspended from the things in this world.
Because we're anchored in heaven.
Whatever happens down here, all right,
I'm hanging above it.
I'm hanging.
I'm just hanging out here, okay?
Yeah, I see that, I see that, I see that.
But guess what?
I'm not anchored to any of it.
I'm anchored from above.
Amen.
And then we can truly see things clearly
and say, okay, I get it.
All right, I see this.
Yeah, this doesn't look right.
That doesn't look right.
But he looks right.
He's always right.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He never changes.
The things down here will continue to change.
They'll continue to be evil.
Sometimes they'll continue to start getting good.
But guess what?
We know there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth.
We got to keep our eyes fixed on eternity
and keep the kingdom of God.
That's where our, we're citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
That's where we're from.
Right now we're in exile, in a sense, on this planet.
But we could still thrive.
That's what always struck me
that the Lord allowed Israel to thrive in exile.
Did you ever realize that?
They thrived.
They didn't want to go back home.
And like God said, oh, I treated them too well out here.
They don't want to go back now, okay?
He said, no, no, just settle in there
because eventually you're going to go back home.
Well, the Lord is going to bless us here
and even more so beyond, amen?
We'll just finish up and we're going to have some communion.
I hope I wasn't all over the place.
I feel like I was, but you know,
are you tracking me a little bit?
Praise God, amen.
Thank you, Lord.
See, the Lord can use a donkey.
But I just wanted to show you, again,
this last word that in Acts three, nine to 10,
and all the people saw him, again, the beggar,
but now he's walking and praising God, okay?
He's praising God.
And then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms
at the beautiful gate of the temple,
and they were filled with wonder and amazement
at what happened to them.
You know, we all have a testimony.
We all have one.
If you don't, perhaps you don't know the Lord yet
because once you give your life to the Lord,
you're going to have a testimony.
Looking back at how dirty and rotten I was.
Really, Jill can give an amen to that.
No, please don't.
No, but really, I mean, we're all,
like no one's better than anyone else.
You ever think about that?
It's level ground at the foot of the cross.
No one deserves anything.
It's Jesus Christ who did it all, right?
And so when they saw this beggar, I'm like, what?
Praising God, he's that dirty guy.
And look at him.
And we thought that it was all the sin
in his parents' lives or his life.
That's why he's crippling all.
But look at him.
Like he's praising God.
You know, that's your life.
When you suddenly are born again
and you're praising God and you're saying,
man, I have a new life.
I am a new creation.
Walking in the newness of life.
That's you when you come to Jesus Christ
and surrender your life.
That's you, amen?
Amen.
So we're going to have communion now
as the gentlemen start passing that out.
And why don't we have the worship team come on up?
I know it's a little bit early, but...
Pastor, will you come on up, please?
I'm going to give a little intro.
Most of you know PB,
the Indiana Jones of the gospel, I call him.
Oh, yeah.
See, Frank never heard that identity idea.
Come with me.
Yeah.
To Nigeria, Northern Nigeria.
But PB is just a dear friend of ours
and we've known him for years and years.
And he'll be preaching sometime soon.
And when he comes, he brings fire
because of the things that the Lord brings him through.
Somehow you're still never burned.
You smell better and better, do you know that?
You smell like Jesus.
More and more each trip you take.
Let me give you a mic, hold on.
Praise the Lord, Lansdale Life.
Great to be with you.
Let's give Jesus a hand clap
for what he's doing here this morning.
Amen, amen, hallelujah.
I am just in from Northern Nigeria.
I was there to rescue eight children.
There were 16 children kidnapped
by the Islamists six years ago
in order to Islamize them and convert them to Islam.
And went there with the authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Went there a year ago and a mob showed up
and they wanted to stone me to death.
And as we take the Lord's supper this morning,
oftentimes people say, well, what's a Christian?
Here's a definition I want you to memorize today.
You know what a Christian is?
It's one beggar telling other beggars
where to find bread, amen.
I'm just a beggar, amen.
Begging for the Lord's grace.
And as you take the bread and the cup this morning,
remember that communion has a past influence in your life,
a present and a future.
And as I stood in the midst of that mob
that were ready to take up stones to stone me
on March 19th, 2025, straight up raw and uncooked.
And you know what I said?
I was here with my two Nigerian team leaders.
I said, Lord, as the mob was gathering
and they were shouting, let's stone him, let's stone him.
And there I am dressed like this.
And that's why I like to dress like this pastor
because I want to stand out a little bit, amen.
For Jesus.
And I just closed my eyes and I said, Lord,
if that's how you want me to go,
if you want me to enter in to the communion of St. Stephen
and be stoned to death.
And I said, Lord, my life is not my own, amen.
And your life is not your own.
For us to live as Christ, to die as gain, amen.
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.
And the life that I now live is we take the Lord's supper.
I live by the grace of the Son of God who loved me
and gave his life for us.
Do you believe that Lansdale life?
So we remember the death of Jesus Christ.
That's the past influence in our life.
And what's the current that we can be empowered
like release when you first made the intro,
release that power within me.
You know, you have the power right now,
the same power in your chest
that raised Jesus from the dead.
You got it.
And that's why as that mob was gathering,
and I said, Lord, if you want me to join St. Stephen,
I'm ready.
And then we prayed against spiritual wickedness
in high places.
We prayed against principalities and powers
and rulers of darkness in high places.
And we stretched out our hands to three of us
and we said, Lord, deliver us from evil, bang, bang.
And the Lord delivered us from evil that day
in order to live another day.
And we took authority in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I go on death-defying missions.
And if you want to come with me,
I'll pay for a one-way flight.
We'll get you fitted before you leave.
And man, I only take man,
make sure you have a lot of life insurance, amen.
Your wife will be very, very happy, amen, hallelujah.
But we live for Christ.
So the current is the power of Christ released in us
as we take the bread and the cup, amen.
And then what's the future?
Well, you're taking the bread and cup this morning
to remember Jesus is coming back, amen.
And it might be today, amen.
Can you imagine what if Jesus came
at like two o'clock today?
Are you ready?
Amen, are you ready?
Okay, you sound ready if you're not ready.
See Pastor Chris afterwards.
You can get your ticket punched today, baby.
Come on, up in here, up in here.
If you don't know Jesus,
you can get your ticket punched today
by the blood of the lamb slain before the foundations
before the world was laid down, amen.
And it's also a time for those of you who are believers,
it's a time to examine ourselves.
Lord, you heard the message this morning.
When you take the bread and cup,
you should be like that beggar.
You should leave out of here to your car,
walking and leaping and praising God.
My sins are forgiven, amen.
We should walk and leap and praise God.
We should be leapers.
John the Baptist was a leaper, right?
He was a womb leaper, amen.
He left an Elizabeth womb
when he heard the message of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So are you leapers?
Yes.
We wanna be leapers and praisers and walkers, amen.
I know Pastor Chris, you're a leaper, amen, amen.
So let's examine ourselves.
Let's just close our eyes
and before we take the bread and the cup.
You know, Jesus is the bread of life.
As Pastor Chris said, we are nothing without him.
And so you're taking the bread
that is a symbol of his body
and the sustenance and the bread.
As you take that bread into your mouth,
it should remind you that everything you have
comes from Jesus the Messiah.
In our hands we bring nothing,
but in his hands he brings everything.
And so the word of God says for,
and this is Paul,
I've received of the Lord something
that I'm also gonna say to you.
And here's the good words,
that the Lord Jesus, the same night
in which he was betrayed, he took bread.
And when he had given thanks to the Father
and to those in the upper room, he broke it,
which was a symbol of what he would do
in a few short hours.
He broke the bread and he said,
and we say to you, take eat,
this is my body which is broken for you,
this due in remembrance of me.
So let's take the bread together.
And then after this same manner, Jesus took the cup.
And you know what the cup is?
The cup is a symbol of God's holy wrath.
And Jesus would drink the cup of God's wrath
till the very bottom, drink it to the dregs.
Jesus did it so we wouldn't have to, amen?
And so Jesus says to his disciples,
this is the cup of the New Testament in my blood.
This due you as often as you drink it
in remembrance of me.
So let's drink the cup together.
Remembering that Jesus, the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords, God becoming man,
he drank the cup of God's wrath.
So as our eyes are bowed, as our eyes are closed
and our heads are bowed, and our eyes are bowed too.
Lord, thank you for this gift
of the past remembrance of your death.
And thank you for the present remembrance
that we have the power of the Lord Jesus Christ
to do signs and wonders, hallelujah.
And Lord, it's also a reminder of your future coming.
So we give all honor, glory, praise and adoration.
Lord, fill us to overflowing.
Help us to be done with discouragement.
Help us to be done with depression.
Help us to be done with despotency.
Help us to be done with distress and live as believers
in the new life of Jesus Christ
because we have taken the bread and the cup.
And we pray this in the name of God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
in Jesus' mighty name, we pray.
And all God's little people and little beggars shouted.
Amen.
Whoo!
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God and discuss his word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.
Thanks for joining us at 11 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.