Transcription
This morning, we are in for such a treat! We have a man of God all the way from Dallas, Texas. He is not only one of the funniest preachers you'll ever hear, but also a very powerful minister of the gospel. Could we take a moment and honor Pastor Robert Boudou? He comes to share the Word.
Wow, good morning, Church! Is anybody glad to be in the house of God today? Do you like who you're standing next to? Because if you don't, you have time; you could change your seat. Come on, give somebody a high five before you take your seat. Tell them, "It's on today! It's on today!"
Wow, I am, uh, I'll say what I always say: I'm ridiculously Red Bull excited to be back at The Belonging. This is pretty incredible for me. I kind of have a rule as I've been traveling: if I come to a space the first time, you're a guest; if you come back the second time, then you're part of the family. So since I was at The Belonging conference, I hope you know I'm a part of the fam. I'm your cousin from the great country of Texas.
I just hope and pray that you know how incredibly special this house is. This is not ordinary; this is extraordinary. I was just at the front in the first service, and this service almost made me ugly cry during worship because of the presence of God that is so tangible here. I just pray you never take it for granted. I pray you always honor it.
You should always honor your leaders, your pastors. In fact, I think we should just give honor where honor is due. Thank God for Pastor Henry and Alex Seeling! Come on, y'all can do better than that! Two of the greatest people on the planet.
It's just crazy how much being here this weekend is socially teaching. It has just been building my faith, and we love you guys. Man, I feel like preaching if y'all feel like hearing the Word today. Is that cool?
I want to jump straight to it. Would you go with me to Acts chapter 3 today? Acts chapter 3, and I want to look at just a few verses of Scripture here, verses 1 through 10.
Acts chapter 3, starting at verse number 1 and landing at verse number 10. While you're looking for it, how many of you have never heard me preach before? I can't see your hand if you ain't never heard. Oh Lord, that's almost everybody!
Okay, quick disclaimer: there are some preachers who are very calm, very quiet, very stoic and sedate as they stand behind a pulpit or a circular table to softly pontificate the processes of philosophy, eschatology, and soteriology. It would be considered uncanny and boisterous for you to say anything while they're sharing. But the Lord has deposited deep recesses of their heart, soul, mind, and spirit. I am one of those preachers, okay?
Let me let you know right now: I'm a hollaback preacher! Alright? So if you feel anything I'm saying over the next six and a half hours that we have together, come on, you can say "Amen," say "That was good!" Even if it's not good, say "Amen!" You may think it's good, and it'll get better.
Alright, Acts chapter 3, we'll start at verse number 1 and look at what it says. It says, "One day..." Mmm, it's already good! "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon."
Now, a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.
Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us." So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get a little something-something from them. Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have." The first thing out of Pete's mouth was, "Bro, I ain't got it."
See, I found that's actually where a lot of people get stuck. A lot of people get stuck because they're fully aware of what they do not have. I found that the enemy is really good at reminding you of what you don't have. Are y'all gonna leave me out here by myself in Nashville? Come on! How about the only one ever just been scrolling through the gram and heard the enemy in your ear saying, "You ain't got that! You ain't got to like that! You ain't never gonna have that! You don't even got the credit score for that!"
He loves to tell you what you do not have. But I'm so glad that Peter didn't stop at what he did not have. Thank God for the punctuation, comma! But what I do have, Peter said, "I got something."
Would y'all help me preach at this service? Just look at the person next to you, look at them even if it's awkward, say, "Neighbor, you got something!" Some of y'all didn't even look at your neighbor. You know I can see you! Come on, don't be bougie! Come on, encourage your neighbor! Tell them, "You got something!"
Yeah, let me beat you up about what you don't have. How many know God has given you something? It might not be what somebody else has, but you got something that God has given you to do what He's called you to do.
Whoo! What I do have, I give you. And Peter goes, "I'm not giving it in my name, but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!" Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up. Instantly, the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. And when all the people saw him walking and praising God, they said, "Hold on, wait a minute!" They recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Can you say "Amen"? Got a man here who is stuck at a gate called Beautiful. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he gets up. I want to talk to you today using this as a title: "The Beauty of Being Stuck."
Would you bow your heads? Let's pray as we go on to this. Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for your presence. I think of every person here today is not here by accident. God, they're here by your divine providence.
Holy Spirit, speak to our hearts today. Our hearts are open, our minds are receptive. We want to receive from you. And Jesus, by faith, I thank you that this time next year, I will not be in Nashville; I will be watching your team, America's team, the Dallas Cowboys, in the Super Bowl because we finally got a new coach! In Jesus' name, everybody said, "Amen!"
I pray for everything you got to declare some things. The beauty of being stuck. Has anybody in here been to an airport lately? Can I see your hand if you've been to an airport lately? Look at all these hands! World travelers!
If you lifted up your hand, then you are fully aware of the fact that what I basically just asked was, "Has anybody been to purgatory lately? Has anybody been through hell and back lately?" Come on! You know it can sometimes be very stressful to travel.
Okay, I know this after about, let's see, 16 years now in full-time traveling itinerant ministry, and I'm encroaching upon some like three million miles flown. I am fully convinced, fully convinced, and if you really want to test your faith, just book you a flight!
Okay? Book you a flight! If you're in it and you really think you're full of the Spirit, philosophy, and rhetoric, then come holla at your boy because it is hard indeed! Fabulous!
Straight back to the Bible says, the Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness. Don't forget the last one: self-control. If you are a believer, then that fruit should be evident in your life.
However, if you're here today and you're like, "Robert, I got all that fruit," but you've never flown before, how do I say this? I don't believe you! Okay? I do not believe you because the airport is designed to suck the fruit of the Spirit out of you!
The whole airport system is orchestrated to make you lose your sanity and your Christianity! People, people, lost baggage! The lost baggage claim test is really just a test to see if you won't say words that you're not supposed to say!
Yes, yes! The reason the person behind the counter is moving at a glacial pace and is typing one word per minute and seems to be undisturbed and unprepared by the fact that you paid them a fee to lose your bag is because that person wants to get on the inside when they make you go off in public and speak in a tongue that needs no interpretation!
Come on, what real people am I talking to? You just heart travels! So over the years, I won't bore you with all of them, but I have developed what I call Robert's Rules of Flying. Okay? There's a lot of them, but I'll just give you one: I do non-stop flights only!
Alright? I am NOT about that connection life! Just take me from Dallas to my destination! The problem with that rule is the reality that there are just some places in life, if you're gonna go, you will have to stop and make a connection.
Oh, that'll preach! I might say that again later! Oh, the challenge for me, typically, is when my departing flight is late and I gotta connect in another city. And when I land in that city, I have 1.5 minutes to get to the next gate.
And then to add to that, I land at gate A1, but my connecting gate is Z-99! So I have 1.5 minutes to get to gate C! Nothing! T9! People, at this point, I only got three options, okay? I can miss my flight, and that ain't gonna happen.
I can call for that cute little cart to carry me there, and that ain't gonna happen! I'm a grown man! Or I can put my Orangetheory fitness to the test and run all out with everything I got like Forrest Gump to get to the gate!
This happens all the time! I'm running with everything I got just trying to get to the gate! But sometimes, while I'm running, I will see something in the distance. I will see something that reminds me of the goodness of our God.
I will see something that lets me know that God is still in the miracle-working business. I'll see something that lets me know that God really can do exceedingly abundantly above all you may ask or think.
I will see one of those, wait for it, moving walkways! Those moving walkways! I'm about to have church because I love me a moving walkway! Because to me, the moving walkway is just like having the favor of God on your life!
Because, come on, you know if you just walk in on that moving walkway, it will expedite your journey! It'll get you there quicker than you could have in your own talent or your own strength!
I love me the only issue with the moving walkway are the people! Yo, just why can't an Aspie? I'll talk about this right here!
Wow! The world would you be standing with your big old suitcase that should have been checked? Why are you so short on a shoe that nobody's talking about? Okay, yeah, yeah! You all might vote in 2020!
Take care of these people who are standing! My frustration with you people who are here today is, uh, my issue, please hear my heart, my issue with you is not that you're standing. That's cool! If you were standing in any other place in the airport, I would be fine with it.
I just think my frustration stems from the fact that you have brought stagnation on a mechanism that was created for movement! Yeah, yeah! My frustration comes from the fact that you have brought stagnation and stuckness to something that was actually designed to move you further and faster!
And anytime you have stagnation in a place that was created for movement, you will always have frustration! Oh, always! Come on, this is traffic!
See, I don't mind sitting down for an hour looking out of a glass window, listening to the radio or some music if I'm in my house. Let's get rid of the vibe! I don't want to do it when I'm in my car!
Come on! How is it I can sit on my couch in the same spot for hours and get a good Netflix series in? But if I'm on the runway on the plane and we've just been sitting on the runway for about an hour, after a while, this chocolate brother will try to hijack that plane just to get you up this thing a little bit!
'Cause if I'm on the runway, I want to take off! If I'm on the elevator, I want to move to the next level! Because stagnation in a place created for movement always produces frustration!
I'm wondering today if the reason many of us get so frustrated with our lives is because our lives have become stuck and stagnant when God created us for movement!
Oh, could it be possible, even plausible today, that the reason you're annoyed with where you are is because your life has become stuck, still, and stationary when God actually created you for movement?
You do know that God is a God of movement! He's always trying to take you somewhere! He's trying to take you from faith to faith, from strength to strength, from glory to glory!
Come on! I hope that's why you even came to church today! Not to have another cute service, but you know that God is actually preparing you for a place that He's already prepared you for! He is always moving somewhere!
Come on! The Bible says that the steps of the righteous—whoo! I love that! The steps, not the stuff! The steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord!
Why are the steps ordered? Because God is a God of movement! I love that one of the first things God actually shows us in the book of Genesis is that He is a God of movement!
Genesis chapter 1! Something like, "Give us a scripture for Robert!" I'll give you the scripture! Genesis chapter 1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters."
The first thing God revealed, even in creation, is that I am a God that moves on your behalf! In fact, to me, creation was just the commencement of a symphony where God, the cosmic conductor, just pulled out His omnipotent baton and began this melody of movement!
Because everything He made had to move! Everything He created had a cadence; it had a pace to it! Now, one thing got the luxury of stagnation! Everything He made had to move!
He said, "Let there be light!" Boom! The whole solar system in place! And once everything was said, He goes, "Oh yeah, now can't be still! Get to moving!"
And all of a sudden, everything in creation, everything orbited, everything started moving! Even right now, the earth is moving! You know we're moving right now! You can't even feel it, but we are moving right now!
See, that's why you gotta stop judging what God is doing in your life based off of what you feel! This has nothing to do with your feelings! Everything about Trump! Hey, God is still moving!
We don't see it! It's why everything He made had to happen! Boom! Said, "Let there be water!" And the water had to move! He said, "Your water, you can't be still!" That's mosquitoes! Kids move!
Water and the river started moving! Every animal He made had to move! Said, "Let there be a cheetah!" Told the cheetah to get to moving! Can you see that cheetah move?
He created a turtle and had the nerve, the audacity, to tell a turtle to get to moving! The turtle was like, "God, I'm an introvert! I really don't want to come out of my shell!" He's like, "You still gotta get to moving! You ain't got to be as fast as the cheetah, but still get to moving!"
The turtle! He created man, breathed into him the breath of life, and guess what? Man's heart started doing! Everything had to move!
That's why still today, when you go for your checkup, hear that there's something wrong in your body, oh, I'm just thankful that my pulse is still going! That I still have another day! God is a God of movement!
People, two-thirds of His name is "Go!" Yeah, I'll get that tomorrow! He defeated death, hell, and the grave! He's about to ascend back up to heaven! The disciples are looking at Him before He goes like, "Hold on! Can we like get some closing words, like a great commission?"
He's like, "Oh, don't want a great commission! I go into all the world and preach the gospel to every living creature, making disciples of every nation!" God is a God of movement!
The challenge is, the problem, the tension is that God is a God of movement, but humanity, you and I, we got this tendency and this propensity to always get stuck!
Have you noted this about us? Oh, we always get stuck! I mean, time I like saying, I'm talking my stuff! Like, you generally sit in the same section or the same place! Sometimes, where you go somewhere, somebody will go to the same four restaurants!
You're naturally, yeah, every week! Some of you don't even know that the coffee shop right around the corner from the one you go to has much better espresso, and you'll never know!
I'm not saying you shouldn't have routines, but some of us just get stuck in our routines! This sickness of stuckness is like intrinsic within our DNA!
In fact, I would even argue theologically that all that is wrong with the world today is because humanity got stuck! Oh yeah! Adam and Eve, they didn't just keep it moving; they got stuck at the wrong tree, listening to the wrong voice!
So they made the wrong choice, and we are still reaping the ramifications of a decision they made when they got stuck! My text today, Acts chapter 3, we got a man who was no doubt stuck!
But I mentioned Adam and Eve, which is Genesis chapter 3, because how many know there is a synergy between Acts chapter 3 and Genesis chapter 3? Oh yes!
Because in Acts chapter 3, if we look at it just at a micro level, you'll see a man who is lame—excuse me, lame from birth—outside of the temple gate, the presence of God, begging until one day Peter and John, filled with the Holy Spirit, raise him up!
But if we really broaden the scope of this text and look at it from a macro level with Genesis chapter 3 in line, I submit to you that this man is really just a picture of the spiritual condition of humanity!
Because all of us spiritually are lame! And we were lame spiritually from birth! You know you were born lame, spiritually speaking! You were born so lame! I mean, lame!
Some of you are like, "I love, I'm a good person!" No, lame! You are poor, hard lame! And I'll prove it to you! Nobody had to teach you how to lie! What class did you take on selfishness? No!
And you perfected the art of just being born! This is what sin did! It made us narcissistic, individualistic, selfie-saturated, egocentric people! We were just born lame!
We had no access to the presence of God because of sin! So really, Peter and John raising this man up is a picture of the power of the cross that raised us up!
Come on, somebody! And now we can't approach the throne of grace with confidence! Anybody thankful that you don't have to be a spiritual beggar, but you have access to God now that you're a daughter, you're a son of the Most High God!
There is a synergy between Acts chapter 3 and Genesis chapter 3! But in Genesis chapter 3, when Adam and Eve took a bit of forbidden fruit, in that moment, all of humanity got stuck!
I don't know, this isn't really how it is in the Bible, but I'll just give you insight into how my exegetical imagination works. I think when Adam and Eve took that forbidden fruit and all of humanity got stuck, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit immediately called an executive Trinity team meeting in heaven!
It was three people, one all at the same time! You know, however that works! And they looked down, and God the Father, Holy Spirit, and Jesus were there, and they looked down, and God the Father goes, "Y'all see what I see? They're stuck! You know they can't get themselves out! So what do y'all gonna have to do? Go down there and get them out!"
And immediately, Jesus looks at the Holy Spirit and goes, "Well, can't nobody move like you! So why don't you go to hell? Don't fillet Jesus! Come on, you know I'm a captain to you!"
Matthew chapter 1! Don't try to jack up the Bible! Jesus taught you to save you of the Word! You go down there and get him out! And Jesus is like, "You're right! You're right! I'm tripping!"
And Jesus gets on the balcony of heaven, jumps off the balcony of heaven! It was a 42-generation jump, but He lands in the womb of a virgin named Mary! I'm a Christmas!
And all of a sudden, Mary starts having morning sickness, and she calls her fiancé Joseph and says, "Boo, I gotta talk to you!" And he's like, "Yeah, we need to talk! Why you been so distant lately? You don't want to get married anymore?"
Just give me your hand! Give me your hand! Takes Joseph's hand, puts it on her stomach, and Joseph goes, "Whoa! Something just moved!" She goes, "Yeah, that's what He does!"
All of a sudden, there is tension in the relationship! So Mary calls her pregnant cousin Elizabeth and says, "Girl, I gotta see you!"
And Mary takes an Uber to her pregnant cousin Elizabeth's house, and when she steps out of the Uber, pregnant, she meets her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, and they both waddle up on each other like two penguins in Alaska meeting for the very first time!
"Girl, you ain't gonna believe this! I have not felt my baby move in months! But as soon as you got out of that Uber, girl, my baby started moving around like it was one of the Holy Spirit!"
I don't know what's only inside of you, but it's making my baby move on the inside of me! And Mary goes, "Yeah, that's what He does!"
"Oh girl, I cannot believe you took an Uber down here! Girl, you are pregnant!" And Mary goes, "Yeah, yeah! The Uber driver was weird too!"
And Elizabeth goes, "Really? What was his name?" Mary goes, "John!" Elizabeth goes, "Hey, I like that name!"
Fast forward 30 years later, John the Baptist is baptizing people in the Jordan River, and please believe that the water is still moving from the same cadence of creation!
The dude in the water, because he looks up in the distance and says, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world! He's the one that I was telling y'all about! Please believe I'm baptizing you with water, but he's gonna baptize you with fire and with the Holy Spirit!"
And all of a sudden, Jesus and John meet in the water, and one of John's disciples, Loki, goes, "Yo, you notice dude?" John's like, "Yes, I knew this dude is the dude!"
Crazy! Here's the first time we met! The first time we met, we were in water, and now we meet again in water! This must be a destiny moment! I have to decrease so that He may increase!
You know the story! He baptizes Jesus! The heavens open up! Jesus starts moving in the earth, healing the sick, raising the dead! He goes to the cross, defeats death, gets up from the grave, defeats death!
He ascends back up to heaven, and the true executive team meeting is reassured! And the Holy Spirit and God the Father look at Jesus and go, "Man, you killed that thing!" And Jesus goes, "I did the best that I could!"
And then they look at the Holy Spirit and go, "You know what? It's on you now!" Holy Spirit's like, "I know, I know!"
And the Holy Spirit gets on the balcony of heaven, drops off the balcony of heaven, but lands in the upper room in chapter 2! And suddenly, a sound like a mighty rushing wind begins to fill that place!
As they all began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance! And God dynamite power! I just gave you the whole Bible in like 10 minutes right there!
But no, it's cool! Just sit there in that upper room! They were Peter and John! Peter and John go, "Well, we just got power to be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!"
I said, "We better start at Jerusalem!" Peter and John started walking together to a prayer meeting at church! Can you see them? Peter and John together just walking to church!
Peter and John! Great question! Why are these two dudes still hanging together? You realize they don't have to kick it anymore! Jesus has already ascended to heaven!
The only thing that really connected them was that Jesus hand-picked them! He selected them! Why in the world are Peter and John walking to a prayer meeting at the church together?
You realize they're a walking contradiction! Oh yes! One of these things is not like the other! Peter and John! First of all, Peter is much older! John is younger!
21st century John is walking, checking his Snapchat! Peter's still on Facebook! Peter and John walking together! What did the boy just a walking contradiction?
John's a lover! Peter's a cutter! John's personality is very pensive! He's an introvert! He's to himself! He thinks before he speaks!
Peter is an extrovert! He's gonna say something crazy and be like, "My bad! I shouldn't have said that!" What in the world are Peter and John doing together?
When John got ready to express his love and loyalty to Jesus, he would just put his head on the chest of Jesus! He loved to cuddle with Jesus! When Peter got ready to express his love and his loyalty to Jesus, hope I put on a knife, a switchblade, and cut a dude's ear all the way off!
Jesus had to hear the real quick-like! Peter, what are you doing? He's like, "I don't know about them, but I'm with you, Jesus!"
I wish how a gangster and Gandhi are walking together! Today is gonna be a good day at The Belonging!
[Music] Maybe that's the point! Maybe that's the point! It's a method to my madness! You understand that the healing of this lame man is actually the first miracle after the birth of the New Testament church!
So I submit to you this is not an ordinary miracle! This is actually a prototype miracle! By which God is trying to show the church the pattern through which His power moves!
And perhaps the reason they're walking together as a walking contradiction is because God is still trying to get the church today to understand that what the culture calls a contradiction, the kingdom calls collaboration!
Oh, come on, somebody! What the culture sees as the greatest place of division and contradiction, how many know in the kingdom of God it is actually the greatest place of collaboration?
We're lame people can get up and be restored! What the culture calls a contradiction, in the kingdom it is collaboration! And this is a trick of the enemy to get the church to focus on the contradiction!
Democrat, I'm a Republican! You bet! I'm white! You all of them! Y'all trying to get us to focus on the contradiction so that we will never collaborate as the broken people restored and healed and transformed!
Don't like, 'cause you want to hang out with people that walk like you, think like you, vote like you! But our power is not in our similarities! Our power is in our differences!
And in spite of our differences, if we could color happen, I wonder what God would do! I'm telling you, I'll never forget before I proposed to my wife, Taylor, who is super fun!
I had a pastor who I actually really looked up to! I'll never forget at a conference, he pulled me to the side and he said, "Hey, Robert, I hear you're about to propose to Taylor!" I said, "Yes, sir, I am!"
He goes, "Oh, you don't! She's white!" I said, "Ah, yes, sir, I noticed!" He said, "You can propose to her if you want, but just know it is gonna limit the scope of your ministry!"
He said, "You could propose if you want, but this is America! Yeah, there's gonna be places you won't be able to preach in, places you won't be able to go!"
And I remember what he said only because I have seen, to the grace of God, Him opened up doors literally around the world for me to preach the gospel on some of the biggest platforms in the world!
And I think about what he saw as a surface-level contradiction has actually been the greatest place of collaboration for God's grace and beauty to be displayed and be preached!
That ain't the shouting part! Here's the shouting part! Can I show you our little humans? Can I show you America's next top models? Little love! You missed it! We made that!
Oh yeah, I didn't do that by myself! That was a collaboration! Look at the beauty that came out of a collaboration in spite of a surface-level contradiction!
And often I wonder how many beautiful things we never see manifest in the world because we're focused on contradictions instead of realizing the power of collaboration!
Isn't it crazy that the first miracle after the birth of the church was a collaboration between one disciple that had a big mouth, Peter, and another disciple that had a big heart, John?
And perhaps it was John's compassion that noticed the lame man, but it took Peter's courage to say, "Hey bro, get up!" Hey, nobody feeling sorry for you! Kids, I still got a knife in my pocket!
Homey, kids! Like Peter, love collaboration! Nation can't just talk about Peter and John! Come on, they're not the stuck ones!
I gotta talk about this lame man who is stuck! Whenever I preach a passage like this, you know what I'll do? I will sit like this because I want to feel, even if it's just for a moment, who I'm preaching about, what they had to face!
Come on, can you think about even in our current context today? We don't understand what many of our disabled brothers and sisters have to face! Can you imagine in biblical antiquity? No hover rounds, no wheelchairs!
It was the epitome of being stuck! Somebody dropped you off! You better get comfortable! You gonna be there for a while! And I thought about this man that the only thing that didn't work in his life were his legs!
Everything else worked! His mind worked! His ears could hear! His eyes could see! Homeboy probably had good teeth! All of those things worked!
But all of that was affected by one thing not working! And me crazy how one thing can affect everything! Some of you in here, let me cut your New Year's resolution list short!
Something like, "Oh, I got all this drama! I got all these problems!" Now help me know just one thing! Your bad attitude is affecting every area of your life! Your procrastination is affecting every area of your life!
Because one thing can affect everything! And all of a sudden, he finds himself stuck! Whenever you're stuck, you start developing systems of stuckness!
It's not doing what you do to get around 'cause you're not ever gonna get up! You start having stuck conversations with other stuck people! 'Cause how many know when you're stuck, the only other people you talk to are stuck people?
You know why? 'Cause lame recognizes lame! So you still have a stuck conversation! Like, "April, what you gonna do?" "That man, I'm probably gonna lay here for a little bit!"
What you gonna tell ya? Same thing! You stuck conversations with stuck people! The conversation now gonna be the same conversation four months from now! Just going through life but not really living it! Just stuck!
But some of you have been stuck, but you've experienced the power of God raised, and you are! Come on, anybody ever been stuck but had God raised you up to a point that you say, "I will never be the same again! I'll never think that way again! God actually has more!"
What was I living at that level? He will raise you up! When you've been stuck with stuck people, and you try to go back to those same relationships with the people who are stuck, but the conversation don't make sense anymore!
You're trying to figure out what in the world did I ever have in common with you! You try to figure out how they're still doing the same thing! You still trying to go to the club! You 45 years old!
You ever just seen people just start, and then they got the nerve to look at you and go, "It seems like you changing!" Mm-hmm! It's a bad thing!
Yeah, it seems like you change! And something different! As if that's a bad thing! How many you know that is the point of life? To be changing!
I do not want to be who I always was! I want to be everything that God has created and called me to be! Come on, is anybody in here? This is my year to be changed! To be transformed into who God saw when He called me!
You better believe I'm changing! Oh, and people, would you give God some praise? Hallelujah! I'm changing!
Yeah, I noticed what I said! That's not me anymore! I am changing! Hashtag changing all day, every day!
I seem like you change! Yeah, it seems like you stuck up! I'm not stuck up! I'm just up! You're stuck! That's why we don't have anything to talk about!
Systems of stuckness! Think that drama drew me to the text about this man! All that was my intro!
Hey, Jimmy, two attacks! The Bible says this man got dropped from the temple gate every day! Dome! Instead, they dropped him in the church parking lot every day! Not just on Sunday! Not just on a Tuesday night! Every day!
So he got dropped every day! That means there are two people in this passage of Scripture that nobody ever talks about! I preached this text! I never talked about them!
But if he got dropped every day, there are two people in this text that nobody ever talks about! And guess what? They are here at The Belonging today!
I'm gonna bite the most age to come real quick! Come on, go real fast, real fast! Because everybody talks about Peter and John! Everybody talks about the lame man!
Now come, nobody talks about Billy and Bob! 'Cause he got dropped every day! Do you know what every day means? That means Sunday they would pick him up! Pick him up, Professor!
They would drop him off in front of the church! Over here! After they dropped him off, he would hold out his cup and beg! They would go to work, do whatever they had to do!
They would come back about five o'clock, pick homeboy right back up! After they picked him up, they would drop him off at his house! And then Billy and Bob would go back home!
That's Sunday! Monday morning, ding-dong! Here come Billy and Bob! Pick him right back up! They would drop him off in front of the church! He would hold out his cup and beg!
They went to work, did whatever they had to do! Came right back about five o'clock! Hold up! He's been begging all day! You see what I see? That cup ain't empty!
Yeah, you should get your cut! Come on! You've been working hard! Come on, homeboy! Uber and Lyft ain't free! Get you a little bit! 'Cause it's not that much!
Put some back! Come on! I'll be like, "Yes, yes! There you go! Now that you got your cut, now pick him back up!"
Oh, and he's lighter now! Hey! And drop him off! And I know Billy and Bob are whistling on their way back home that day!
And the reason I brought Billy and Bob up here is 'cause now I want you to see that we have a sick system that has developed because somebody who's stuck!
We have collaborators to his stuckness! How many know at this point Billy and Bob don't want him to be healed? Oh, they don't want him home! It would affect their pockets!
And the reason I brought Billy and Bob here today is to speak to somebody who is stuck to tell you that whenever you're stuck, there will always be Peters and Johns in your life who are trying to pull you up into what God has for you!
Even if it's uncomfortable and you don't like it! But there will also be Billys and Bobs who don't want you to be healed! Who don't want you to be broken! Who want you to stay broken!
'Cause they have developed a relationship to your brokenness and to who you were! And how many know whenever you are stuck, you gotta start checking your circle and the people around you!
And make sure there's nobody that's become the beneficiary of my brokenness! Oh, I know something! You can't say "Amen" 'cause you're sitting next to Billy and Bob, and that's cool!
Just look at me! A boy ain't blinking! Morris posed! So I know! I'm just saying! When you're stuck, check your circle!
'Cause we'll find out that that system went on for 40 years! Can you imagine? 40 years of getting picked up, holding out my cup, making a few bucks, giving them their cut, and going back home!
For 40 years! How many know after 40 years, you're just a robot going through the motions? Get picked up, hold out my cup, make a few bucks, give them their cut, and go back home!
You know you're stuck when you stop looking up! No hope! Going through the motions! Get picked up, hold out my cup, make a few bucks, give them their cut, and go back home!
Is that why God created you? No! He came that you might have a life and life more abundantly! And some of you had to be here today because just like that man, God is trying to wreck your system!
He is trying to break your routine of just going through life and not living it! Is there anybody in here that says, "I am tired! I'm just going through circles! I am ready to step out of being stuck!"
Thank God for one day! Because even after 40 years of being stuck, one day Peter showed up in his life! [Applause]
Will give you the entire trajectory! "Get up and walk! Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you! In the name of Jesus!"
Is there somebody in here? And there's really power in that name! In the name of Jesus! Get up and walk! That man got up! He started jumping and leaping and praising God!
But the whole miracle started when Peter said, "Look at us!" He had to get his attention! Just like God wants to get your attention!
Some of you, what you're facing right now is simply God trying to get your attention! Because if He can get your attention, then He can exceed your expectation!
But He's gotta get your attention first! Break your system of stuckness! Got his attention! "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you! In the name of Jesus! Get up and walk!"
He started jumping and praising God! Went all the way into the church where they were having a regular kumbaya service! You see him? They have a regular church in the temple!
And here comes this dude who just got his legs jumping in! Somehow, oh yeah, I can see the stuck-up boos! You believers know about, "OMG! Wow, he's excited!"
"Yeah, I didn't really take all that! You can worship like this! Thank you, Jesus!" You wanna know the beauty of being stuck?
The beauty of being stuck is you can get up! I don't care how long it's been! You can get up! Here he is jumping, praising at Hanukkah, and they're judging him!
Somehow, wow, I wish you would calm down! What is wrong with him? He isn't! What, you all seen those feet before?
I would say they recognized him! That's the same man who used to sit begging! You wanna know the beauty of being stuck?
The beauty of being stuck is not just that you can get up! The beauty of being stuck is that God, in His grace, will make sure that the same people who saw you in your lame season will see you in your leaping season!
Oh, don't ever let the enemy beat you up about people knowing your junk! Oh, what's your tear? Gotta let that bad news go!
When He would, DeAnza, when He shifts it, when He changes it, they recognized you as the same one! Come on! Gotta let them see you in your leaping season!
Somebody need to give some praise right now! The people that saw you depressed are gonna see you with joy! The people that saw your marriage falling apart are gonna see it restored!
Oh, when you get home, Acts chapter 4, I start a revival in that city because of that man's stuckness! Thousands got saved! Peter and John used him as the first illustration!
They just said, "Look! Because look what God did! That's what God wants to do in your life!" But you gotta give Him your attention so He can exceed your expectation!