Rooted - From Brokenness to Beautiful

Welcome to South Sub Church. We are so glad that you've decided to worship with us today. Whether you're in the room right now or watching from home, wherever it is, we're just so glad that we get to spend this time together and worship the Lord together as one. Here at South Sub Church, we believe we are one church with two expressions of worship, but we have one mission to bring people to Jesus Christ and together become passionate followers of him. Another way that we worship is through our tithes and offerings. And here at Southsub Church, we believe that we give the Lord back what he gives us. And there's a couple ways that I want to invite you to do that this morning. One is giving online at southub.urch/give. Another way is by texting the number that's on the screen right now. Or there's an envelope in your seatback pocket. And here's what I want to invite you to do. No matter what gift you give, big or small, we believe that whatever we give, the Lord multiplies that and we are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we are right now. If you're new, we invite you to fill out a connect card. We would love to get to know you, pray for you, and find a way for you to get more connected with our church. And if you're watching us online, make sure you leave a comment wherever you are. Maybe you're going to the mountains, maybe you have a soccer game to go to. Whatever it is, we're just so glad that you've decided to join us for worship. You picked a great week to be here. Let's jump into God's word together. Let's worship him today.

Well, good morning again and especially good morning to those that are guests here today. Whether you're in the room with us here today or maybe you're watching us online, we are excited and just blessed that you are here, part of us and just worshiping with us here today. Um, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had an incident or something in your life that just at first it seemed really really annoying, but then it turned into an amazing blessing? I asked that question and going back to this morning here at South Sub Church and the fire truck came and we're all just going, "Oh my goodness, we don't have time for this. This is not we what we want." And there was a little three-year-old boy that was at our trunk or treat yesterday and is actually Kenan, our student director's son, and he came dressed up as a fireman yesterday. So, you can imagine when everybody's being annoyed by this interruption, here's this little three-year-old in his little costume for for Halloween was coming to real life. The full firet truck came, four or five firemen, and he just looked up there and thought, "This is really, really good." Now, maybe it wasn't a firet truck, and maybe it wasn't you and your Halloween costume, but we've all had those moments that some interruption that we just thought was so annoying, so uncalled for somehow turned into just a good blessing. Well, today we're going to continue our study in this series that we're calling Rooted. And if you're just joining us, it's a 10-week series that we're doing, and we're looking at different spiritual steps in our life, spirit, different spiritual practices that we can implement in our lives in order to become more rooted in our spiritual lives. And we've been doing that by looking through the life of one of the apostles, one of the disciples, and his name is Peter. And we're going to continue that study today. So, if you have your Bibles or the scripture will be here on the screen, you have it in the handout that you have there. But we'll be reading in Acts chapter 3. And here's what it says in Acts chapter 3 as we look at this interruption that actually seemed annoying, but turned into a great blessing. And it says this in Acts chapter 3:1. Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service. As they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the temple gate and the one beside the temple gate, the one that was called the beautiful gate, so that he could beg from the people going into the temple. And when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. And so, let me give you a little context of going what was going on. Back then, 2,000 years ago, they didn't have any kind of governmental program. If you had some kind of disability or physical challenge, you were just left on your own. There was no check coming in the mail. There was no assistance coming your way. You just had to figure out life yourself. And so, individuals that had some kind of physical disability, such as this man that we read about in the story, that was lame from birth. The Bible says his only hope of surviving was begging. But because he was lame from birth, he had no way to get anywhere to actually beg. And so it became his practice that every day somebody would pick him up, probably carried him on a mat and they would place him somewhere in order to beg. Well, this gentleman, although his legs didn't work, his mind still worked really well. And he figured out the best place to get money was in front of the temple. And that's because people would come in throughout the day. It's not like our churches today that we might be here one or twice a day or once or twice a week. They would come several times during the day for prayer. They would come several times a day to offer up their their worship and offer up their offering. And so he had people lay him in front of the temple and it was his perfect best place to beg for some money so he could survive from day to day to day. And one of the reasons he figured out it was good is not only was it busy, people would come in and they would feel the need to give. That was kind of one of their righteous acts to do. And so I want you to go to this scene. Here's a man that's laying on the floor as people walk up into the temple. And as they walk by, he's going, "Do you have a dime? Maybe a nickel, maybe a quarter. Can somebody just give me something?" And you've seen beggars on the street. You've seen homeless people. And most people never stop. And so here was a man that was not only physically lame. He was probably also emotionally shamed. Probably never looked at anybody in the eye. He probably just used his hand more to try to get some money from somebody, hoping somebody might slow down just enough to give him something. Maybe somebody on that particular day felt sorry enough for him that they would help him out. And on this particular day, he's not the temple. The Bible says it's three o'clock and Peter and John, two of Jesus disciples come walking by and he held out his hand having no idea who they were, having no idea that they had spent three years following the Messiah, having no idea that they had seen a proof of his resurrection from the grave. and he holds out his hand a nickel, a dime, a quarter, just a little something so I can have dinner tonight. And the Bible says this that Peter and John stopped where they were and they looked at him. And you can read more this these verses later today to see the whole story yourself. But the Bible says this that Peter looked at him and said, "Man, look at me." And I've always always wondered, I've read that scripture, why did Peter, why did John stop and have the man look at him? whatever they were going to do that we're about to discover, he didn't have to have face-to-f face contact. But here's I have this sneaking suspicion. Peter, as he said those words, wanted to take away the man's shame. He didn't want him to feel just like another project, just like another just generosity initiative. And he said, "Look at me." And then he said maybe some of the most powerful words that you will ever read in scripture. In fact, I know they're not just powerful in the scripture. If you ask this man, this lame man, if he was here today, he would say the most powerful word words he ever heard in his life. And as they said, look at me. This is what was said by Peter. He looked at the lame man and said, "I don't have any silver. I don't have any gold for you. But what I have give, what I want to give you, I will give to you in the name of Jesus of Nazarene. get up and walk. Now y'all, we read that story now and we're reading a post and we've maybe heard it before in Sunday school classes. Maybe you've heard a sermon before and you're going, I love this story because I know it's going to happen. But if you think about the narrative in the real life account, here's this man, all he wants is a quarter. Like his job, his life is to beg. He's so dependent on everybody for everything in his life. Just a quarter, just a dime. If you don't have anything, just keep moving because I got to go to the next person. And Peter looks at him and says, "Gold and silver I have none, but what I have I'll give you. In the name of Jesus, get up and walk." I wonder when the man heard those words, is he going, "Yahoo! That's what I've been waiting for." Or or did he think, "Really? Do you not know this the way I've been my whole life? Do you not see my brokenness? Do you not see I'm not like you? Do you not see that I can't just get up and walk? But the Bible says that Peter after saying those words reached down and took the man's hand and helped him to stand for the very first time in his life. Now, can you imagine what's going through the man's mind? Like his legs had never stood erect. He had been carried. He'd been laid. He had been moved his whole entire life. He could never do it on his own because he was so broken. And here he was all of a sudden Peter reaches down and he stands for the first time. You wonder did he stand legs kind of wobbling? Did he stand strong going, "Oh, is this what it feels like?" And then the Bible says that what happens next? He went from never standing, never walking, never doing anything on his own with his legs. And the Bible stood said said as Peter stood him up he stood up erect and then he started taking some steps and then it says he kind of started jumping a little bit and then it says he started dancing. As I was preparing this sermon I thought I can step and show you and I can kind of jump and show you but if I start dancing this whole thing's going to pot right now. So I'm not going to show you how that works. You just got to imagine yourself on that one. But there was enough commotion. Now, so far what we know is taking place is that there's this conversation between Peter and John and this man and he's being healed and he's standing up and he's never done this before. There's excitement. There's jubilation. There's all kind of emotions going on here. And then people started looking because remember it's a busy temple. There's people coming and going all the time. In fact, the people that stop and notice this man standing probably recognize him because he's the same man that's been there day after day after day after day. He's the same man that maybe they stepped over at times to get up so they could go worship God. Maybe he's the same man that every once in a while they reached in their pocket and gave him some loose change. And they're seeing this man lame from birth standing up, jumping, stepping, doing a dance, and they're going, "Oh my goodness." And as you read the passage, and I really encourage you to go home to let today and read the whole entire passage, you sense that they're going, "Dude, y'all come over here. Check this out." And people started coming from inside the temple to see what's going on. So now all of a sudden, instead of just having this little conversation, this little personal healing between G or between Peter and John and this man. Now all of a sudden, you got this humongous crowd watching and paying attention. And the Bible says something really, really interesting. Acts chapter 3 verse 12 it says this. Then Peter saw his opportunity and he addressed the crowd. Peter saw his opportunity and I think to myself, what kind of opportunity did Peter see? Maybe the opportunity he saw that Peter knew the crowd and he knew it was a bunch of people that were very religious. They did the right things. They went to the temple daily. They prayed daily. They may even stopped and give a dime or a quarter or a nickel to this man. He knew their their their outward actions, but he knew they were religious on the outside, but had missed the relationship with Jesus on the inside. Maybe that was the opportunity that Jesus saw or that Peter saw. Or or maybe Peter saw people that were like, "Huh? They're leaning in. They're really curious, but somehow their curiosity is still, could we say, mixed with a little skepticism, like I knew that man couldn't walk and now I see him walking.

Is there something going on that I need to know about? Or maybe, just maybe, they looked and they saw a thought to themselves, if that man Peter can do it for him, I'm broken. Maybe not my legs are broken because these people are all standing up watching, but maybe every person in the crowd that's paying notice that this is where Peter saw the opportunity, they knew somehow in themselves they were broken. broken spirits, broken hearts, broken relationships. And so they're paying attention going, "If this man was broken, they healed him. Maybe Peter could heal my own brokenness." But the Bible says that Peter recognized the opportunity. And again, I want you to go home and read the whole chapter. Acts chapter 3. It's a great, great chapter. But let me just kind of summarize what takes place. It's Peter sees the opportunity opportunity and he's going, "Okay, folks, let me just kind of clarify something for a second just so you'll know. This man was lame and now he's walking, but it's not because of us." Okay? It's not because I got some special power that I did something special for this man. It's not about me. And he said, "We healed him in the name of Jesus." The very Jesus that many of you were there when they crucified him several weeks earlier. that Jesus, the one that you killed, the one that you put in the grave, but the one that rose again three days later, that's where the power came to heal this guy. And then Peter goes on to say this in Keith's little summary of it. And the same healing that this man just received in his legs, Jesus offers the same healing to every one of us. I wish I could have been there that day. I bet you could have heard a pin drop to people just listening. I mean, for one, it's not every day that you see some man that been lame his whole life and he's get up and walking. But somehow in this opportunity that Peter saw, I think he saw beyond their outer circumstances and Peter saw inside their hearts and he did see that everyone was broken and he wanted to give them a message of hope. You know what's interesting about this story? It's as much a story about a man being healed 2,000 years ago as it is a story today. Now, I can't see inside your hearts. I would never claim to do that. And if someone's here and you've got some physical part of your broken of your body broken, don't don't think I'm about to have a healing service here. But here's why I wonder if it's a story about today. Because just as the crowd had brokenness in their own lives, then I have a sneaking suspicion that there's brokenness in this room today. We come in here and I laughed and kind of joked earlier, this is not a place for perfect people. But somehow when you come to church, people think you need to button it all up and look perfect. But reality, we really are all broken, aren't we? There's broken relationships in here that need to be restored. There's broken dreams in here that need to be somehow found again. There's broken finances in here. There's broken health in here. We have all kinds of brokenness in here. Right? And here's what I know. The same power that healed the man's brokenness 2,000 years ago has the power to heal our brokenness today. Now, Peter, the guy that we've been studying in this series called Rooted, he had a contemporary, another one of the apostles, his name is Paul. And Paul did an amazing job of going, let me just kind of summarize for you how the brokenness is taken care of in our lives. If you're taking notes, I'm going to give you some fill in the blanks here that you can take home and and look at and kind of think about in your own life. But here's how I would say if you ask the question, I am broken. How can my brokenness get fixed? Here's how I would say it would work. First of all, here's what the Apostle Paul would say. Every p person is broken in need of God. Every person is broken in need of God. In Romans chapter 3:23, and this is what Paul wrote in in this in this book of the Bible in the New Testament, he says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." See, I don't know if you're broken, your heart's broken. I don't know if your emotions are broken. I don't know if your dreams are broken. But here's what I do know. The Bible says we're all broken spiritually. That because of sin, when we disobey God, God wants a relationship with us. But when we sin, whether it's a small sin, a little sin, big sin, it doesn't matter how we classify the sin, that sin separates us from God. And we have a broken relationship with God. And so, every person in this room is broken. And every person in this room is in need of God. Here's the second thing Paul would say. And the consequences of being broken is spiritual death. The consequences of being spiritually broken or spir of being broken is spiritual death. Like I said, sin causes the brokenness. And it's not just coming a little separation. Oh, God, I kind of feel a little apart from you. No, the Bible says this, when we sin and it breaks our relationship with God, he is spiritually alive and our brokenness makes us spiritually dead. In fact, Romans 6:23 says this, "For the wages of sin," the thing that we deserve because of our sin, the thing that we deserve because we broke that relationship. The for the wages of sin is death. Now, you may be coming to church going, "Oh, I came to church to kind of be encouraged. That does not sound very encouraging." Okay, that's the reason they're not just two notes to fill in. There is a few more notes to fill in because here's what the next one says. Jesus provides hope for our brokenness. For the wages of sin is death. But that verse goes on to say this. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, what we deserve is not what we have to get. What we've earned is not what we have to be paid. Here's what Jesus did. He came in and says, "Yes, you are broken because of your sin, but I will die on the cross, and you deserve that death. I will die on the cross and I will give you eternal life. You can have relationship back with me. In fact, it says this for your the fifth your next one, your fourth fill in the blank. Jesus died while we were broken. Romans 5'8 clarifies. It says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Let me pause there just for a second because I think this is where so many people that are trying to understand God, so many people that may come to church and kind of kick the tires a little bit. So many try people that are trying to figure out this whole Jesus thing and you're going this is where we get a skew. Because here's why you think, "Oh, I made mistake. My sin broke my relationship with God. I'm spiritually dead." Well, to get back, then I got to work really hard. You see, we live in a performanceoriented society and everything we get, we think we have to work to get. But here's the good news about Jesus is we might have earned spiritual death. Our sin might have broke us away from God. And that's what caused our brokenness. But while we were still broken, Jesus died for us. Do you realize how good news that is? like in your mess, he died for you. In your sinfulness, he died for you. He's not sitting around going, "Yeah, I'm Jesus and I'm God and I'm up here." And if they started doing a little bit better in this part of their life, and they changed this part and they made some changes over here and they start making some adjustments, then I think maybe I'd welcome back into my family. He's going, "No, no, no." God says, "I love people. I love you so so so much that even in your mistakes, even in your choices, even in things that you're doing and you don't have your act together, he goes, "I will still send my son Jesus to die for you. I will make the initiative. I will take the first step and I will do whatever it takes to bring us back together."

And then look what the next one says. that healing from our brokenness because right we all need healing. We all need help. Healing from our brokenness simply comes from Jesus. I believe. See, sometimes people over complicate it. Well, I need to do this and I should say this and I need to go there and I'll probably start doing this one and I need to say this. And we so over complicate what it means to have faith in Jesus. Here's what it means to have faith in Jesus. Jesus, I believe. I believe that you're the son of God. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. I believe that you rose again three days later. Jesus, I believe. Let's go back to our story. Here's a man that's broken on the sidewalk. And Peter walks over and says, "Gold and silver, I have none, but in the name of Jesus, get up and walk." And all he had to do when Peter reached out his hand is just believe. And when he began to rise up, when he began to stand up, when he began to go, "Woo!" and he believed, and that's when he was healed. There may be some in this room today, there may be some that are watching online right now, and you're like, "I'm broken." And spiritually, I understand clear right now for the first time in my life that I am separated from God because of my sin. And this angst that you feel on the inside, this emptiness that you feel on the inside, this void that you feel on the inside is because the God is not a part of your life. Do you realize this? God is taking a finger a hand to you at this very very moment and said, "Get up and walk." Not physically walk, but get up and spiritually walk. God is doing the initiation. You're not having to go look for him. He's coming to find you. Think about the man on the map for a second. Even if he wanted the healing of Peter, he had heard the stories of Peter. He had heard the stories how Jesus through Peter can heal people and they'd been over there and over there and maybe Peter's down the street preaching. Even if the man wanted to be healed, could he have been healed? No. Because he's so broken, he can't do anything. Peter had to come to him and initiate the healing. Here's the good news. Even in mine and your brokenness, even in our sinfulness, Jesus still comes to us and holds out his hand and he initiates it. And all that we have to do is simply say, "Jesus, I believe." And you may be here today, you're going, "That's a good story." like haven't been to church for a while, but like that's a good story and that's a good story for those folks over there and that's a good story for those folks over there and that's a good story for somebody else. But Keith, you just don't know my life. And I would respond, you're exactly right. I don't know your life, but I'm not the one offering the healing. Remember when Peter looked at everybody and said, "Hey, it's not me. I just want you to know who was it." He goes, "It's Jesus who healed this man. Jesus knows your story. And could it be that Jesus brought you into this service? God brought you into this line online with us today just to hear that God loves you so much that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross because you are broken and separated from him. He sent him for you to bring you back together in relationship. And all that it takes to have a relationship with God, to go from unseparated or go from separated to unseparated is simply say, "Jesus, I believe." In fact, your last fill in the blank says this. Spiritual healing is available to anyone who believes. Anyone. If you're writing notes, put that in there and circle that and put a big line around it. Anyone who believes. Romans 10:13 says, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

And today's been exciting day at South Sub Church because we have the dedication of of Samantha and Jesse with little Rowan. And although we can't secure Rowan salvation because that's a decision he needs to make when he's old enough to say, "Jesus, I believe." The excitement of a mom and dad says, "But we're going to teach them all that we can to know that." But we also have another class, a couple exciting things. We have a couple of people here at our church that are going to get baptized today. And here's what you need to understand. The baptism doesn't save them. The baptism is expression of what Jesus already done on the inside. But both our individuals being baptized have said, "Jesus, I believe." And if you're here today, I want to give you that same invitation. If you recognize that you're apart from God, if your sin has separated you from God, it's simply saying, "Jesus, I believe his salvation is open for everyone. For the lame man that couldn't walk, Peter reached down. For the one sitting out in the temple when he was preaching, he made it clear for everyone. But he's making it clear for everyone in this room as well. Jesus, I believe. Will you pray with me? Father, thank you that you make it simple. Forgive us when we over complicate, that we make our religion so complicated that we miss you sometimes in the process. That's about a relationship with you. And so today, Jesus, I pray if there's anyone in here in this room watching online that just simply needs to pray. Jesus, I believe. I pray for their spiritual healing today. I pray for their salvation today.

And Father, we just trust you and we walk with you. And we pray this in your holy name. Amen.