(Acts) Being Used by God

Tonight we're going to look once again at the third chapter of Acts and also looking at a large portion of the fourth chapter of Acts because they really go together. There's one event that is being recorded in both the third and the fourth chapter. We just sort of looked over the third chapter last week, but I want to get the continuity of this event and then draw some things out of the event that occurred that I think are applicable for us today.

So let's pray together and then we'll do that. Father, we pray as we are here now before your word. Lord, again, thanking you for the privilege of being able to study it together.

Lord, we pray that you would really speak to us tonight. Lord, you want to use us. We know that.

Lord, you've told us that in so many different ways and Lord, the world is in great need of truth. And Lord, we have the truth. And so speak to our hearts tonight about how we might be used by you as others have in the past.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So as we come to the third chapter, we come to the record of really the second major event that occurred in the history of the early church.

The first major event, as we studied already, was the day of Pentecost, the spirit of God being poured out and all of the events that happened surrounding the outpouring of the spirit, the gathering of the people, the the proclamation of the gospel by Peter, and then the response of the people, 3000 souls being added to the church that day. And so now a little bit of time has passed. We're not sure how much, but I'm sure it wasn't all that long.

And then we come to the next major event that occurs, and that is the healing of this man that's spoken about here in the third chapter. And so let me read to you. Bear with me as I read through the chapter and then on into the fourth chapter and just sort of put yourself back there and get yourself just in the picture of what was going on at that time.

So now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the third hour or excuse me, being the ninth hour and a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful to ask alms of them that entered into the temple, who seen Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms and Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give by thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and he lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength and he leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple.

And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man, which was healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, you men of Israel, why marvel at this or why look so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness, we had made this man to walk the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers have glorified his son, Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of pilot when he was determined to let him go.

But you denied the holy one in the just and desired a murderer to be granted to you and killed the prince of life whom God has raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses and his name through faith in his name have made this man strong whom you now see and know. Yes, the faith, which is by him, have given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it as did also your rulers.

But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all of his prophets that Christ should suffer. He had so fulfilled repent, therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the time of the restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him you shall hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you, and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.

Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days. You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our father, saying unto Abraham and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed unto you. First, God having raised up his son, Jesus sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from your iniquities.

And as they spoke unto the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them being grieved that they taught the people and preach through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and they put them in jail until the next day, for it was now evening. How be it many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand, and it came to pass the next day that their rulers and elders and scribes and Annas, the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem.

And when they had set them in the midst, they asked by what power or by what name have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them, You rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to this impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him, that this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at not of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. And perceive that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus and beholding the man which was healed, standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men for that? Indeed, a notable miracle has been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it, but that it spread no further among the people.

Let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than to God, you judge, but we cannot help but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people for all men glorified God for that which had been done for the man was above 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had taken place. So there it is. The whole account, this man is healed miraculously and rejoicing.

And God is blessing. And yet, sadly enough, these religious leaders, they come onto the scene and they're troubled by this. How did you do this? By what name or what power has made this man well? And so there we see Peter and John standing boldly and proclaiming that it was by the name of Jesus and then indicting those men that they had crucified him.

But yet God had raised him from the dead and that he is the stone that they, the builders, had rejected. Now, as we look at this story, the thing that I want to emphasize to you tonight has to do with the people that God uses. And I want you to notice that out of the whole story and the event that occurred, the men that were opposed to the work were not only opposed to it, but they were absolutely amazed that something like this could be done through the men that were standing before them.

And we read here that when they perceived that Peter and John were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They could not believe it, that these two common people could have possibly been the instruments through which this obvious miracle happened. But then they took note and they remembered that they had been with Jesus.

And as we consider tonight being used by God, you know, there's a great need out in our world. It's just absolutely amazing how many people don't know the truth. You know, I think sometimes we sort of take things for granted because we have been blessed so exceedingly here at Calvary Chapel and here in Southern California to a large degree.

We've been so blessed with great churches and with radio ministries. And there's, you know, there's all kinds of exciting things going on all the time, outreaches and different kinds of events. And there's Christian coffeehouses you can go to here, there and everywhere.

And, you know, all of this stuff is just such a part of our local culture that I think a lot of times we just sort of think that this is the way it is everywhere. But it's not. It's not like this at all.

As a matter of fact, once you get out from this hub, it gets a lot different real quickly. And there's a tremendous need for the truth of God's word to get out to people. And one of the most effective ways to get the truth of God's word out to people is to get churches planted in communities.

I just came back this afternoon from right up on the Canadian border. And actually, I flew out of Vancouver this afternoon, British Columbia. And as I was driving there into the airport from Washington, I was driving over with a Canadian pastor.

And I'd spend a few days or some time with a church up there, a good friend of mine, and then with about seven or eight Canadian pastors and just talking about the ministry and talking about, you know, the needs and so forth. And these guys, you know, they were just crying out for help. They were saying, come on up to Canada.

We need Calvary Chapel. We need the kind of ministry that's happening through the Calvary Chapel ministries. We need people to come up and teach the Bible because we just don't have that sort of thing going on in our country.

They were begging, pleading, please tell Pastor Chuck to come on the radio in Canada. And, you know, as I was with him and just talking and listening, I thought, you know, as is always the case, the harvest is great, but the laborers are few. There's such a tremendous need.

But here's the thing that we all need to know in regard to that. God has a plan and he wants to use every one of us. And the primary qualification for being used by God is the one qualification that was noted by these guys here.

And this was it. They took note that they had been with Jesus. That was what really qualified Peter and John to minister.

That's what qualified them as apostles. That's what empowered them to do the miraculous thing that they did. They were men who not only had been with Jesus, but they were men who were presently with Jesus and Jesus was with them.

And what I want to do is we look back over this third and part of this fourth chapter is I want to look together at the characteristics of these men who were with Jesus. And this is really what we're going to expect to see in our own lives as we are with Jesus. And, you know, I was teaching a group of people today and we were talking about marriage and family and we were talking about all of those related kinds of subjects.

And, you know, I really felt impressed by the Lord to to emphasize the simplicity that's in Christ and the simplicity of the gospel and the simplicity of God's instruction to us. And and, you know, in talking about marriage and family and all those things, you know, God hasn't made it complicated. He's made it really easy.

He's just given us a few basic things to do. And if we follow his instruction, we will have great experiences in our marriage. We'll have great family experiences.

We'll just have a wonderful time because that's what God's into. And likewise, the same thing is true when it comes to ministry, when it comes to service to the Lord. It's not a complicated thing.

It's not that you have to go through years and years of rigorous training, that you have to become a seminary student and go through a graduate program and all of that. And then maybe you'll be equipped at some point to be used by God. That's not the way God works.

That is not the way God worked throughout the history that's recorded for us in the Bible. And it's not the way God has been working in the subsequent history. God takes ordinary people and he uses them.

And that's what we see with these two men here. And notice again, in verse 13, now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceive that they were unlearned and ignorant men or they were untrained and uneducated. You see what they realized about Peter and John and what baffled them was that these guys are just ordinary guys.

And they were, weren't they? They were fishermen. They were just ordinary guys, people from everyday life that Jesus got a hold of and worked in their lives. And then he gives them power to go out and lay the foundation of his church.

And that's the Lord is working still to this very day. He's just looking for ordinary people. He's looking for anyone that'll be interested in volunteering for the job.

And what we need to understand is that being with him then qualifies us to do the work that he wants us to do. That's a qualification being with him. And so as we go back and as we look over this, we're going to see certain characteristics that really result from this one thing.

They result from being with Jesus. And if you are with Jesus in the sense that they were, if you spend time with him, if you make him the priority in your life, if you make the things of the spirit the priority in your life, then you'll find that these characteristics will be manifest in your life. And you will find, believe it or not, that God will be using you in similar ways to how he used Peter and John to spread his kingdom today.

And you never know what God will do. You never know what God would have in store. He might send you to Canada to help in spreading his gospel there.

He might send you to Europe. He might send you to Africa. He might send you to Asia somewhere.

Who knows what he'll do? He might send you to a new place of employment where he gives you a ministry right there. The point is this. God wants to work and he's chosen people like us through which to do his work.

And it's being tight with Jesus. It's being close to Jesus. It's seeking the Lord and loving him.

That's what really equips us to do the work. Now, as we look back over this story here, there are five things that I want to point out to you that stand out about these guys. And the first thing is found in the first verse of the third chapter, and that is that they were obviously men of prayer because they were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer.

And this is one of the characteristics of a person that's going to be being used by God, people that pray. Do you pray? Do I pray? Do we pray in faith? Do we pray believing that God really wants to do something? That's the kind of people that are used by God, people who just believe the Lord wants to do something and they don't take into consideration all of the difficulties of it or all of perhaps even the seeming impossibilities. They just say, you know, Lord, I just believe that you could do something.

And I trust you and I pray that you would be with us as we take this step of faith and as we move in this direction. And, you know, amazingly, God honors that. God blesses that.

But sometimes we make it so difficult. We make it so complicated. And rather than praying, we instead we plan and we strategize and we do all of these other kinds of things.

And yet we don't see much of anything happening. God works through people who pray. And as you pray.

God will work through your prayers. God will work as you pray for your friends, your loved ones, as you ask God to work in their lives. Be confident God will work in their lives.

As you see a situation that needs to be fixed, that's a situation that's bad as you pray about that, you can have confidence that God is going to be working in regard to that particular thing. And as you look at people that God has used, whether it be people that are mentioned in the Bible or people that have been used by God after the time that the scriptures were written during the period known as church history, what you see consistently is that people that are being used by God are people that are praying. Because when we're praying, we're communing with the Lord, we're having that contact with him and we're getting that direction from him.

We're getting that instruction from him. It's through prayer that we we get counsel and we really, in a sense, sort of tap into the mind of the Lord. And so as you think about being used by God, remember that prayer is a key part of that and develop a prayer life, pray consistently, be faithful in prayer, go to the Lord in prayer.

Doesn't matter what it is. It might be something that just seems so huge that nothing can happen with it, or it might seem to be so insignificant that you don't want to bother God with it. But, you know, there's no such thing.

Either direction, whatever the case in everything, we ought to be going to the Lord in prayer. And of course, if we're people who are close to Jesus, then prayer is our means of communicating with him. And we're going to be developing that we're going to be cultivating that prayer life as we just talk with the Lord, as we just.

Commune with him. So these guys were men of prayer, and that's indicated by the fact that they were going to spend some time in prayer here. But then the next thing that we see about them is that they were also men of faith.

So they didn't just pray and not do anything else, they prayed and then they acted, they moved, they stepped out. And that's a characteristic of a person who's in tune with the Lord. If you're in tune with the Lord, you're going to be trusting the Lord.

You're going to be taking steps of faith. You're going to be believing that God wants to work. And we see that here as they encounter this man, we see that Peter, rather than, you know, just reaching into his pocket and pulling out a couple of shekels and throwing them in to the guy's hat or whatever it was that he had.

Instead, he stops and he says, no, you know, God wants to do something in this person's life. God wants to do something far beyond what this guy is even expecting. And Peter says, look at me.

We don't have any silver and gold, but what we do have will give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk. And Peter reaches down and he grabs this man and he pulls him to his feet. Peter took a major step of faith right there.

But, you know, if we are going to accomplish something for the Lord, anything we do have to take steps of faith. Because, of course, there's great opposition to serving God, isn't there? And we can't let those seeming obstacles, though, deter us. We have got to take steps of faith.

We've got to just step out and say, Lord, I believe in your call. I believe in what you want to do. As I was talking to this fellow today, this Canadian pastor who was taking me up to the airport, he's pastoring in a place called the Sunshine Coast.

I didn't know there could be such a place up there, the Sunshine Coast, but that's what they call it. But we were talking about the city of Vancouver itself, the city of a couple of million people. And I mean, to me, I look at a population mass like that.

I think, man, that's a place where you want to get a church started. And so we were talking about that a little bit. And he was saying, well, you know, I've been thinking about that.

And some people actually in North Vancouver have have come and visited our church. And they've said we'd love to have a Calvary Chapel in Vancouver. And, you know, if you're ever willing to come over and a Bible study, then we would love to open up our house.

And, you know, so he's telling me all of this stuff. And then he says, you know, he says, well, what do you think about that? And I said, I said, you need to go do it. He said, what? You think so? I said, no, I know.

So you need to go do it. Take a step of faith. See what the Lord will do.

The invitation has been given. Now you just step out and see what God will do with that. And he was excited by the end of our, you know, little drive to the airport.

He was excited about a new step of faith. And that's how the work of God is expanded. That's how the kingdom advances.

That's how progress is made in the spiritual realm. It's made by faith, by taking steps of faith and steps of faith are steps that we take based upon God speaking to us through his word and God speaking to our hearts about things that he wants to do. Now, here's something that you need to know.

There will always be obstacles to faith. There will always be reasons why. This thing might not work.

There will always be even suggestions that might even come into your mind that you shouldn't try to do this. This is crazy. Now, can you imagine what might have gone through Peter's mind just a few seconds before he stepped out and grabbed this guy by his hand? I mean, I'm sure that there were thoughts in his mind like you better not do that.

You're going to grab him by the hand and nothing's going to happen because there's always opposition to steps of faith. But you just have to step through that opposition. And as you step through it and as you believe God and as you trust God, you find that God will work, God will honor that.

And that's when the Christian life gets so exciting, when you're living by faith, when you're taking steps of faith. The great example in the Old Testament, one great example of taking these steps of faith, you know, kind of going against all the odds was when Jonathan one day was reasoning as as the Israelites were in their constant conflict with the Philistines. He began to reason one morning when he woke up, he thought, you know, God doesn't need the whole army to deliver these Philistines.

He could do it by one man. And so Jonathan decided to just sort of take a step of faith and he told his armor bearer what he was thinking. And his armor bearer said, well, you know, you're right.

God doesn't need the whole army. He could use just one man. Whatever you do, I'm with you.

I'll follow you. And Jonathan said, OK, well, let's let's take a step of faith and let's see what happens. And so they go up against this battalion, these two guys, and they have a complete victory over them.

And the amazing thing is, as they go up and have this victory, then the Israelites see the victory that is being wrought through Jonathan and his armor bearer and their faith is bolstered. They're encouraged and they start taking steps of faith. And that's how it works.

Somebody takes a step of faith. God honors it. Other people see it and they get inspired.

They say, I want to do that, too. And so as you take those steps of faith years ago when God called us to leave our church that we've been serving out for so many years and go start a fresh new thing in London. That was a big step of faith we had to take.

There were all kinds of obstacles to it. There were all. Sorts of reasons why it didn't seem like the wisest thing to do, but there was that sense of calling by the Lord and all of those other things were things that we just had to say, you know, God is able to overcome this.

God is able to get us through this. God is able to deal with these obstacles and we just have to trust him to do it. And we took that step and God blessed.

He honored that step. And sometimes I think about that. I think about what a great time that was.

And then other times I think, well, what if we wouldn't have done that? Oh, we would have missed out on such an exciting time. But there there was that element of faith. We didn't know, you know, for absolute certain.

That. This is what we were supposed to do. We had a good sense that God was calling us, but a lot of times you don't know for certain until you've actually gone and done it.

And then you look back with hindsight, which is 2020. You say, yeah, the Lord called us. But there's that step of faith that has to be taken.

And maybe God has been putting something on your heart. Something's just been stirring there. Something's been brewing and you're thinking about it.

But then those other thoughts come in like, oh, no, that wouldn't be the Lord, because look at this obstacle and that obstacle. But that's the way God works. And he allows those obstacles to be there.

And he calls us to take steps of faith against all the odds so that when we succeed, we'll know that it wasn't us who did it, but it had to have been the Lord. And so God gets the glory in the whole thing. So as you grow in the Lord, as you walk with Jesus, guess what? He's going to give you opportunities to take steps of faith.

He's going to call you to take steps of faith. And like Peter, you're going to find yourself getting out of the boat. And walking on water, but you say, well, wait a second, people can't walk on water, right? They can't.

But. When the Lord calls you to do something. When he calls you to what seems to be impossible, he gives you the ability to do it.

So don't be afraid to take those steps of faith. And so we see in them that they were men who took steps of faith. And then as we go on in the story, we see that as a result of this healing, people had gathered around and there they were wanting to really elevate and exalt the apostles themselves.

They wanted to give them the credit for the miracle that had taken place. But as we read there in verse 12 of chapter three, Peter said, Why look so earnestly on us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man to walk? And the point that we see here about these guys is that they were genuinely humble men, men who are interested in the glory of God, not in glorifying themselves. And that's another characteristic of a person who God uses of a person who spends time with Jesus.

That's a person who is humble. It's a person who recognizes that if any good thing is going to come out of anything they do, it's going to be because of the Lord. And these guys immediately took the attention from themselves and they put the attention back on the Lord.

And that is characteristic of those who are going to be used by God. You know, the ministry is one of those things where. Any kind of ministry, one of those things where Satan can come in and try to, you know, appeal to our flesh because we have done something great or, you know, can get us kind of off on a pride trip thinking that we're something special.

And there is that danger that exists. God is very wise and very careful. Being with my friend this past few days up in northern Washington, he was also part of our team in England.

And he was with us in London for about a year. Then the Lord sent him up to northern England to the area of Manchester, and he passed for the little church up there. And it was the hardest ministry years of his life.

And he used to call me all the time, just miserable and trying to escape the call of God, always wanting to leave just because it was difficult. And I'll tell you, I used to go visit him and I would thank God with everything in me. God had not called me to the place that he lived because it was tough.

And yet I was talking to him the other day and, you know, the Lord's blessing their ministry and good things are happening. And he was just telling me how sometimes he has to pinch himself because it's so good. And he appreciates so much what God is doing.

And I said, you know, Ken, do you think you'd appreciate it as much if you hadn't had those experiences in England? And he said, you know what? If I hadn't had those experiences in England, I'd be so prideful over what God's doing that I'd disqualify myself for the minute from the ministry. And he could see in those difficult times how God was doing a work so that when God did do, God was doing a work in him so that when God did a work through him, he wouldn't be tempted to take the glory for it. And a lot of times the Lord is not able to work through us until he really has worked in us, because if he worked powerfully through us, it go to our heads and we'd be taking the glory for it.

And it wouldn't be long before we were just completely disqualified from ministry. But you see, the more you're with the Lord, the more you spend time with Jesus. You learn that if any good thing is going to happen, it's going to have to be the Lord.

It really is. Because we learn about ourselves being with the Lord, we learn about how sinful we are, how pathetic we are, how needy we are. And then when he does something, we just turn around, say, Lord, this had to be you.

And that's where these guys were at at this point. But, you know, it took them a while to get there as well. They didn't get there overnight.

As you go back into the gospels and as you look at the three years that they spent with Jesus, there were those times when they struggled with the same things that we struggle with. And Peter had to go himself through a major breaking process before he could get to this point. I'm sure had the Lord done something as powerful as this through him earlier, he might have said something a little bit different than what he said here.

Instead of denying that it had anything to do with with their own power or holiness, he might have taken some kind of credit for it. But yet the Lord had brought him to this place, and that's what happens as we spend time with the Lord. He brings us to that usable place by bringing us to a realization of who we are and what we're really like.

And then as we go further into the account, the next thing we see is that. As Peter takes the advantage. When the people gather together to preach the gospel, we see that Peter.

Goes right through the scriptures himself. Now, I'm I'm certain that Peter didn't have a Bible in his hand at this point. He was walking around with a scroll in his back pocket that he enrolled and started, you know, reading to the people.

The point is this Peter. Like everyone that's used by the Lord, Peter was a man who had hidden God's word in his heart. He had hidden God's word in his heart, and so he says in verse 22, for Moses truly said unto the fathers and then he goes on and he says, and all the prophets from Samuel and then he goes down further and he quotes from Genesis.

So here's a man. And again, let me remind you. And I pointed this out in the last day, but let me emphasize it again.

Here is a man who is a fisherman. What qualified him for ministry? Well, from the human standpoint, how could he be a minister? He's a fisherman. But you see, the qualification was the call of God upon his life.

And again, I want to emphasize that. That God takes ordinary people from everyday walks of life. It's like we pointed out before how he took Amos from following.

He was a herdsman and a farmer, and he took him and he used him as a prophet. And, you know, think about David, the great and mighty King David, who was also the sweet psalmist of Israel, who wrote a large portion of the scriptures, writing the majority of the Psalms. David was a shepherd boy.

And as you go back into the Bible, and this is where I think we need a fresh reminder of this again. And this is one of the things that I think is the beauty of what God has done through Calvary Chapel, what God is doing through Calvary and what these guys up in Canada were telling me that they long to see is the ministry given back into the hands of the common people, just the average Joes, just the ordinary. People that are fishermen and things like that.

But that's what Peter was. He was just an ordinary guy. He was a fisherman, but he was a man who hid God's word in his heart.

And we see that he had a working knowledge of the scripture so he can freely just draw upon the scriptures as he needs to and apply them. You know, I have been so blessed on so many occasions by people who were not in the ministry in the sense that we generally think of it, they weren't pastoring a church necessarily or they weren't a missionary per se. But you know what? There are people who just spend time with the Lord.

They know his word. And as they would share from the insights that they've gotten from the scriptures, I get blessed. Sometimes I actually get sermon material from them.

They don't even know it. But if you ever have a conversation with me, watch out, I might be quoting you, because what will happen is when somebody knows the word and they love the Lord and they share that God speaks. And I find myself at times, like I said, I mean, really getting ministered to as people are just sharing with me what God is showing them from the word.

It's a beautiful thing. But that is one of the characteristics of people that God uses. He uses people that know his word, people that love his word, people that are devoted to his word, people that believe his word and meditate on it and apply it to their lives.

And, you know, these are the wisest people in the world. These are the people that ought to be running the government. Truly.

People that really know the Lord and really know his word because they make the wise decisions, they make the right decisions. And then as we move into the fourth chapter, carrying on with the story, there's one other thing that we notice here, and that is in verse eight. Peter was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit is again.

That's really the qualification for ministry. The amazing thing about the Christian life and the Christian ministry both is this. God says, this is what I want you to do.

And hold on. I'm going to come upon you to enable you to do it. That's true of the Christian life.

God says, this is how I want you to live. But I recognize that you can't do it yourself here. Let me come and live in you and I'll do it through you.

God says to those he's calling to different kinds of ministry. This is what I want you to go out and do. Don't worry.

I know you can't do it yourself. Wait for me. I'm going to come upon you and I'll get the job done that way.

Remember, Jesus said to these men, he said, go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But wait first in the city of Jerusalem until you receive the power. So as we think about serving God, I think one of the first things we probably think is that, you know, I'm I'm not qualified for that.

How can I do that? Well, here's the good news. God will fill you with the spirit. He'll pour his spirit upon you and empower you.

And this is the way the Lord works. This is what he loves to do. He loves to do this.

He loves to confound the wise with foolish things. He loves to take weak and contemptible things in the eyes of proud man and take those weak and contemptible things and use them to further his plan and purpose. He loves to do stuff like that.

It's just something God delights in doing because God resists the proud and he likes to humble the proud by taking those. People that seem to be totally insignificant in the eyes of the world. And work through them.

When we left England, the Lord raised up our good friend and assistant pastor Alwyn Wall to take over the church and Alwyn is a musician. Some of you know him because he's been here and he's done music for us. But in England is an interesting place, even to this very day, even though things have changed a lot over the years, there's still sort of a class system in England.

And among many of the ministries. There and especially among those in positions of leadership, there was that class thing that was, you know, to a certain extent, in effect. And so.

You know, a person from the working class. Would never even think for a moment to minister to people or rub elbows with or have any connection to people in the middle or upper class in the society. And because of that hardcore class system that's existed, even to this day, to some extent, in just conversations with Alwyn, my friend, you know, he shared with me about his own timidity in the ministry because he came from a working class background, because his father was a minor.

Instead of a lord. Or instead of, you know, somebody in a in a middle or upper class position, and and that has been something that has, in a sense, intimidated him in regards to the ministry. But yet God, as I look at what God's doing with him right now, he's doing what he's just delighted to do.

He's taking the son of a minor, this working class person, and he set him right smack in the heart of the capital of England. He's got him right between the prime minister and the queen. And he's got the fastest growing church in London, and I know why God's doing it to humble the prideful.

To baffle those who are wise in their own eyes and all of those men in ministry over there who have been through the seminaries and have all the degrees and, you know, look down their nose at anyone who isn't of that particular class they're having to look on in amazement and wonder. And much like these guys here. Saying these are uneducated and ignorant men, how could God be doing this? But he is.

Because that's the way he works and that's the way he's going to keep working. God has never changed his method. He's going to continue to work this way.

And we need to realize that because that makes us all candidates to be used by the Lord. And, you know, every time I leave here. Go out and travel around.

And once again, the Lord really provokes me in regard to getting the ministry out from here and into other places. And, you know, this is a great church and a great ministry, and God has done tremendous things through it for so many years. But I think he wants to keep doing it.

And there's still a lot of wide open turf out there, so to speak. There's still tons of places where they do not have a church where people can go and have someone stand up and open the Bible and faithfully teach them the word of God without any compromise. There's so many communities like that just in our own country.

But then you get outside of our borders and it's just the sky's the limit. The whole world is like that. And one of the things that I am firmly convinced of that God wants to do here is once again, stir things up and having equipped people and trained people and fed them through the word to send them out.

And, you know, God has brought some great men here. And he's brought John and he's brought Don. Of course, Pastor Chuck has been here for all these years.

But you know what? He hasn't brought this team of people together so we could all just sit here and go, man, don't we have the greatest church on earth? Boy, oh boy, we are getting fed. We are getting glutted. That's not why he's done it.

But the reason he's done it is to feed us for sure. But it's to feed us and equip us so we can get this same message out beyond our own borders and out into the desperate world that is crying out for truth. There are Christians all over this country, Christians all over Canada, Christians all over Europe.

Who just would like to have a church that they could go to and learn about the Lord and invite a friend to come and not be embarrassed by it or ashamed of it or something like that. There's tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Christians in that boat, because so much of the church today, unfortunately, tragically has dropped the ball, has moved away from what the objective is supposed to be, according to the Bible. And I believe that God, like he has been doing through Calvary Chapel.

I believe that in the future, in the near future and on into however much future we have, God wants to keep equipping and keep sending people out to minister to those. Poor sheep that don't have shepherds, and so perhaps there are some even here tonight that God would be speaking to. And God's preparing you.

God's calling you might not be right now, but you just have a sense that down the road, the Lord's setting something up. Go with that. Believe that.

Commit yourself to that. Seek the Lord. Pray.

Be a person of faith. Study his word. Get to know the scriptures.

Be filled with the spirit. Stick tight with Jesus. And he's going to do some good things in your life.

He's going to do good things through your life. And we have a wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord in this generation. And man, let's do it.

Let's go for it. Like these guys did, because they, like us, they were ordinary men. They were ordinary men with this one qualification.

They had been with Jesus, and that's all you need. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that that's what we need, Lord.

And that's all we need is your stamp of approval. And being with you. And so, Lord, as we consider the kind of people you use looking at these two men, Lord, we just want to say, here we are, Lord, use us.

And Lord, maybe there are some that have been sitting here getting fed for years and years and years. And it's time to put into practice practically the things that you've given them over the years. Lord, stir up hearts, give us vision.

Help us to be people of faith. Thank you, Lord, for this great opportunity that we have here to grow, to be enriched. Lord, to learn, to study, to be established.

But we know, Lord, that you want to do something with that in our lives. You want to take it beyond us to others. And so, Lord, may we just be open to being used by you in whatever way and wherever you might want to use us.

We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.