Get Up and Walk!

Text for this week's sermon at The River: Acts 3:1-11

The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

Ellensburg is full of them. They are everywhere you look.

Seattle has them too... so does Kansas City, and New York, and Pittsburgh, and Seoul, and certainly in Shanghai.

Tragically, every city and town and village and neighborhood in the whole world has an overabundance of them. In fact, they are by far the majority in terms of world population.

What am I talking about? Spiritual cripples.

People who don't know the Truth of salvation through Jesus Christ.


Oh, they know about Jesus... at least in the Western hemisphere. They know the "fable" about the baby in the manger... the "fairy tale" about feeding 5,000 people and walking on water... the "myth" that he was crucified, then raised from the dead. They know the sound bytes... but they don't know the real Truth of God's amazing grace.

Ya, they've heard how they need to be "saved" and "born again" or risk going to hell. Many of them have read the Bible (or at least they've started Genesis a few times), and a good number of them have attended church at one time or another. They've been introduced to the religious aspects of Christianity.

  

But here's the sad truth. Though some may experience a little taste of real life here and there...  most people never encounter the fullness and brilliance of Jesus Christ the Author of Life.. and our divine healer.

Physically, they may be fine... at least most of people. But spiritually, they're stuck... immobile... thoroughly and completely handicapped. They have legs, but they simply don't work... they have no strength, and they don't function as they were designed to do. Sin has crippled all of us.


They need to be healed... and healing is available. But I'm convinced most people don't even know they're crippled.They're too busy trying to make it on their own to even think to ask for help. Too proud to acknowledge their need. Too busy trying to make a buck, like the beggar in this story. Too intelligent to believe Jesus is for real. Too enlightened to buy this religious garbage.

Christianity... i.e., faith in Jesus is just a crutch for weak-minded wussies... right?


And so they live their spiritual lives in a state of perpetual stasis... worshiping the creation (i.e., themselves) rather than the Creator, who longs to set them free, and give them the ability to walk and run and jump and dance.  He has the power to transform lives, but nevertheless, He won't heal anyone who lacks faith... anyone who refuses to ask for help. 

What a shame. We were designed for mobility and freedom... but so many people on this earth are content with living the life of a hopeless beggar. We were designed to live in fellowship with God, but instead, many scoff at the idea of "organized religion" and choose to remain spiritually motionless.

This past weekend, I got to see men of all shapes and sizes, all ages and stages, all degrees of religious backgrounds... get up and truly dance before God.

I've never encountered a more beautiful thing in my whole life. Grown men... strong men... proud men - becoming utterly and completely broken by their spiritual crippled-ness. Coming to terms with the ugliness inside their soul, and crying out to Jesus Christ for healing and transformation.


And heal them He did. Like watching popcorn pop... I watched in holy awe as one man after the other got up and confessed his sins... the heavy duty, ugly, acts and attitudes that completely controlled their lives... and as they offered their heart and soul up to God, He poured out His Spirit on everyone in attendance. You couldn't see Him, but trust me, everyone felt His holy presence. And we felt His forgiveness... and for about a four-hour period... every man in that place felt thoroughly and completely alive - thoroughly and completely healed... thoroughly and completely loved. I don't think any of us wanted the service to end.

It's as though we all heard the voice of God telling us, "In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

I want to experience that kind of reality more often. Oh God, I want to hear your voice more often... become immersed in that kind of healing more often.

I don't care if the world thinks we're damn fools... I don't care if they think Christians are stupid or weak or gullible. I don't care if they like me or hate me. I don't care if they confuse godly love with judgment and condemnation. I just want to see spiritually crippled people who recognize their great need to cry out to the Lord and become healed. I want to give hope to those who hunger for real life... eternal life. I want to be an agent of God's divine touch. I want to see God's powerful hand at work in my world... in my town... in my church... in my family... in myself.  Frankly, I want to be like Peter and John... brave enough and more than willing to boldly proclaim the healing power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to anyone who will listen... regardless of what it may cost me. Ya, I just want to keep dancing till He returns.

What about you?