7-13-25 Study of Acts Chapter 9:32-35 Marks of an Effective Personal Ministry Part 1b

➡ This Bible study focuses on the book of Acts, specifically Acts chapter 9. It emphasizes the importance of being active in faith and not waiting for signs from God. The study uses the story of Abraham’s servant, who was tasked to find a bride for Isaac without specific instructions, to illustrate that God guides those who take action. It also highlights that our priorities should place God first, as our position on God’s list is reflective of His position on ours.
➡ The city of Light was a crucial stop on the trade route between Egypt and Babylon, similar to how towns are spaced along highways in Texas for travelers to rest. The term “saints” in the Bible refers to all followers of Christ, not specific individuals, and there is no hierarchy among them. The Catholic Church’s interpretation of saints as special individuals to be venerated is not supported by the Bible. The Bible emphasizes that all believers are equal in Christ, and there is no need for a hierarchical system among them.
➡ The text discusses the biblical story of St. Peter and Cornelius, emphasizing that saints should not be worshipped. It also highlights the importance of personal ministry, using the example of Peter healing a paralyzed man named Anas. The story underscores that faith and obedience are crucial in spiritual healing and that effective ministry focuses on individuals, not masses. The text concludes by stating that God can use any situation for His glory, regardless of whether the person involved is a Christian or not.
➡ The text emphasizes the importance of faith and obedience in Christianity. It suggests that true faith is like building a house on a rock, which stands strong even in storms, while lack of faith is like building a house on sand, which collapses easily. The text also highlights that any good deeds or achievements are not our own, but are the work of God through us. Lastly, it encourages us to focus on glorifying Jesus Christ, not ourselves, and to rely on His strength, not our own.
➡ The text emphasizes the importance of prioritizing Jesus Christ in everything we do, as this will attract heavenly blessings. It highlights that an effective personal ministry is based on the exaltation of Jesus Christ and the rejection of personal glory. The text also stresses that Jesus is not a ‘turn on’, but a ‘turnaround’, meaning a complete change of direction in life. Lastly, it underscores the need for obedience and action in faith, as these lead to blessings and glorification of God.
➡ The text talks about the importance of prayer and listening to God’s word. It shares a story of a miraculous healing through prayer and emphasizes the need to always be alert and open to God’s messages. It also highlights the belief that everything happening in the world is under God’s control, including healing and change. Lastly, it expresses gratitude for God’s blessings and guidance in life.

Foreign. This is our Sunday morning Bible study and it is focused on the book of Acts. And we’re. We started this subject last week and we’re going to finish this part of the subject up and we’re going to take probably just a little over an hour on, on this because we’re going to finish up the concepts from last time. And it’s important for us to finish this up because I, I can’t get into part two unless until I finish this, because the foundation of part two is predicated on this last part. So that’s the reason why we’re.

We did this ran out of time last week and we’ll finish it up this week. So we end. We’re into Acts for those of you who follow the scripture. We’re into Acts, chapter nine and verses 32 through 35, and part two is from 36 to 43. So as you can see it, this thing flows from one to another in the same type of manner. So we ended last time talking about Abraham’s charge to his servant to go select a bride for Isaac. And we, we focused on this because, number one, there was no instructions as to what the bride should be.

All Abraham, Abraham needed to do was to protect the bloodline. And he sent his servant back to his family the. In the area where his family was with a charge of select a bride for Isaac and this servant. The reason why we went through this is because the servant had no means of understanding or had no means of, of. Of having instructions as to what the bride should look like or be able to do or whatever the charge was. Just go find my son abroad. And we talked about this because we were talking about not having all of the answers at the time of your calling or of whatever you’re to be doing today.

That basically what we need to do was to move because God doesn’t use those of us who sit on a couch. God only uses those that get up and get going. And that was the purpose of looking that. Looking at that part last time. And I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna read from Genesis 24:27, because it said it gives us sort of the, the basis of this is, blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham. Now this is the servant talking. Who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and of his truth. He’s saying God is superintending this deal.

God’s in charge. So all God wants you to do is just like we talked about before we came in the record session. He wants you to just take it step by step by step, one foot in another. But you gotta get going. So then comes this little statement which is just a really potent statement. He says, I being in the way the Lord led me. I’m not sure if you got that. So you know who the Lord leads to? Successful ministries, the people who are already moving. He says, I being wandering around all over this place.

God just put me where he wanted me to be. And if you go back to Acts 9, that’s how it works. I being in the way the Lord led to the right house. And he said, and there was the girl. Matter of fact, she was at the well, if you recall. And that’s significant because it represents what life water. She was at the well. And what the servant did was ask for a drink and she gave him a drink. Symbolic of what? Christ’s salvation for us. Now, if you want to be used of God, you got to get up and get going, do something, go in some direction.

It might be the wrong direction, but if you just go in the direction that you’re feeling, then you’re led. God’s going to turn you around if he needs to turn you around. You got to get active in what God is doing. You got to be involved in what it is that the Spirit of God is doing. Remember that you’re not going to be led by the Spirit if you’re not being sanctified. Right? Because you only get led through Jesus Christ’s spirit if you’re sanctified in Him. Don’t just sit around. Some people are completely idle. They’re twisting their thumbs, waiting for a sign of what am I supposed to do? And then they even question, what am I supposed to do? By give me another sign or make sure that I understand that this is really what you want me to do.

See, they have no. If you do that, you have no commitment to active ministry. Priorities in life are everything else. Remember, you’re a steward over those priorities because God gave you those priorities. So your first allegiance needs to be to God. Now, let me just put it simple for you. If God is third or fourth on your list, your third or fourth on his two. Remember, you have to anoint God before God anoints you. So if he is 34th on your list, and that’s when you get around to actually doing what you’re supposed to do, then he’s going to have you third or fourth on his list because you’ve chosen that position.

If in terms of the priority of your Life, God is 25th, then when he needs a job done. You’re 25th on his list. And what does that do? It takes you out of the blessing flow. And if he ever gets down that low and gets that desperate, he just might use you. But you see, God uses his priority ministries for his people who put him in the correct, proper place. Now, believe me, I being in the way the Lord led me is a valid principle. It’s not. This is not a commandment from God, but it’s one of those principles that God uses.

That servant was going in the right direction. He was moving because his master told him to move. And God led him where he wanted him to be and fitted him with the right kind of thing. And it’s God’s people who are already active in what God is doing that find themselves getting new ministries all the time. And there are other people who are detached from what God is doing. And we talk about how needful things are and what the ministries are, and they don’t even know what we’re talking about. Why? Because they’re detached. Remember, if you don’t have the connection with God, God doesn’t have a connection with you.

Therefore you’re gonna. You’re totally lost. There’s no way that you would understand. You have no ability to understand it. They’ve never even in it enough to find out. One foot on one side, the other foot on the other side, and they ride the fence more to the evil side than the good one. Guy said it this way. Some people make things happen, others watch them happen. And some people don’t know anything is happening at all. Peter was moving and it came to pass he was going around everywhere. God zap him into what, Lydia? Right where he wanted him.

And now if you’re active in doing what God’s doing, if you’re caught up in the mainstream of God’s business, then you’re going to find so many ministries, your life is. Is going to be absolutely enriched beyond what you could even dream about. Now, if you’re too busy doing your thing, then you may not even know ministries exist. Why? Because you’re not focused on the right stuff. And it might not only be because you don’t know, but because God isn’t too sure. You are very useful in there anyway, especially in terms of strategic things. God’s ministry is not about just doing something.

God’s ministry isn’t about planning. It’s about strategic thinking. It’s about how would you go do what he’s asking you to do so that he knows that you’re Working with him, just like you would build a business. That’s what this, the whole process is laid out just like that. If you want to start a business, you have to what you got to think about it, you got to plan it, you got to put it on paper so you can understand what you’re. It’s there in front of you. You’ve got to commit to it, you got to fund it.

You got all this stuff, right? Well, that’s God’s ministry as well. He provides you all the tools, but he provides you what the tool that’s between your ears to think. And that’s important. So go back to verse 32. It came to pass as he passed through all three quarters. He came down also to the saints who dwelt at Lydia. This is Peter. Now he arrives. There is a little group of believers in this town called Lydia. And Lydia is an interesting town, by the way. It’s very historic, it’s very old. In the Old Testament it was called Lod Lo D.

And it’s still called that today. And if any of you have ever been to Israel, you’ve been there because that’s where the airport is. It’s about 10 miles east of Joppa or Tel Aviv. And so Lot is very, very old, an ancient town. And in this time it was very, very, an important city because it was right in on the area of the trade route between Egypt and Babylon going east. And a lot of the goods that were dropped off at the seaport of Joppa went to Jerusalem right through Light. So it’s a very important city, like a mainline town in Texas.

When you go up the old highways, you would find cities about ever 10 to 15 miles. All right, I go from Greenville to Tyler up what is called U.S. 69. And we pass through towns about 11 to 15 miles all the way that 80 mile trip, because those were the towns of trade. You were able to get to one town because you were on horseback or you walked. You were able to get to one town and then you had to rest. And then you were able to go to another town. And that another town was created to provide you the facility of resting.

And that was. That was part of what Lot is. Lloyd was in this trade route, very important part of doing trade. Now there were some saints there. And I just want to give you a little footnote here, which is not part of this teaching, but I’m going to give it to you anyway. There are many of us who have been saved in recent days and months or. And especially out of the Roman Catholicism when we read the term saints. Now I, I can’t really pass it by without speaking to this point for just a moment because I it there’s.

The term saints is quite differently understood from scripture when it’s looked at, from the way the Catholic Church speaks of it. They speak an entirely different vernacular, an entirely different context than what the Bible does. And when you hear the word saint, you immediately think of what Thomas or Peter or Andrew or some of these saints, and on and on and on they go. Now I want to give you just for a brief moment, just so that you can see and understand what saints are. The word saints in Greek is hegius H A G I O S.

And that’s the word that’s used here in this Scripture simply refers to what all Christians. It is, it is a, it’s a group identifier of all of the believers that follow Christ. So saint is a category, not a specific person. There is not a hierarchy of super pious people, people canonized by God. There are some canonized by the Church, the Catholic Church, but none of them are canonized by God. And even the Church isn’t too sure from time to time. Sometimes they’re a saint and sometimes they’re not because they’ve been decanonizing some that were formerly canonized.

But God canonizes nobody. So therefore, when you HEAR the word St. Augustus, you know, saint, whoever that the Roman Catholic Church has identified as being a saint, that’s not of God’s system. That’s a Luciferic matrix. That’s, that is created by the Church. There is no hierarchical position of believers. Right? Because in Scripture it says we’re all one. One, we’re one, we’re together, we’re not. We don’t have a hierarchy. The only hierarchy basis we have is in the leadership position of the Church. And really that’s pretty laid out. Just much like marriage. Christ is ahead of the church.

Christ is head of the marriage, man is next in line, then the woman and children fall underneath that. That’s what the church is. So family is just part of the Church. The body is equal. We are all one of another. Remember, we’re attached. There are no saints that are above other saints. Why, you may ask? Basically because positionally we’re all perfect in Christ. There’s really no need of hierarchical system if everybody is what perfect in Christ, right? That’s sanctified in him. And when he’s talking about being saints there, he’s talking about our position, not our spiritual condition.

Sainthood is a Positional thing, not a conditional thing. And so all Christians are saints. For example, the word Hagius appears in Ephesians 1 and 4, where it simply says this accordingly, as he hath chosen us. What? Chosen us? All Christians. He didn’t say, I chose Jim or I chose Billy Ruth. Right. He didn’t name us. He said, because he. He hath chosen us as a group, all Christians in him. And that should be. That’s what we should be, saints. A holiness, a righteousness. Then over in. In Colossians 1:21, the same thing is indicated as well. You were once alienated, enemies in your mind by wicked work.

You have now been reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you what saints Holies. We are saints who love Jesus Christ. All Christians are saints. There are no special ones. So those of you who walk around with your nose in the air that says, I’m above everybody, look at me. Remember. Remember Esther. She did that. What did her cousin say? Hey, sis, you better get your act together. Because if God doesn’t choose you, he’s going to choose somebody else. And you’re not going to be in this position. You are. All of us are saints.

Now, I’m. I’m not less than any other man. I’m not less than Peter. I’m not less than Paul. In the eyes of God. I am equal because I am what in Christ. I live my life in Christ. And so when I pray, I do not need to pray to them. That would be redundant. There’s no different. They’re no different to me. I can pray directly to God through Christ. Now, Rome tells us that special people are designated with certain honors by the Church and that they are to be venerated, they are to be honored, they are to be worshiped as sort of a super Christian who have.

And. And in with God and with Christ. And we need to approach them. Catholic Church prays to the Mother Mary. Why? Because they think that she has some power over her son to go tell her son to do that, much like that of this physical life. That’s not true. If we read from Ludwig Art, which is the basic Catholic theology book, it says it is profitable to venerate the saints in heaven and invoke their intercession. That is what is known in Catholic theology as absolute, the doula. It goes on. Holy Scripture does not explicitly refer to the veneration and invocation of saints.

That’s really interesting. If the Scriptures don’t talk about it, why are they. Do they do it? Anybody ever just Logically walk through this and say, why does this happen in any church? Guys, I said, always look at your church’s process. Because in their doctrine, you need to determine if it’s scriptural based, and if it’s not scriptural based, then you’re in the wrong church. Foreign. The Bible doesn’t tell you to do it. Now you say, where do they get it from? Because their church councils are equal to the scripture. That’s the position that they have made them.

You hearing what I’m saying? The Roman Catholic Church councils, because they write these edicts, okay? Their councils have placed them at the same position of that which is told to us by scripture. That’s the tradition of the church. It goes on to say this. Our right to do this. Now we’re talking about Lulu Cott’s books on the Catholic theology. Our right to do this, that is to invoke and venerate saints, can be deduced from the veneration offered to the angels in holy writ. In other words, the Catholic Church says because we are to worship angels. Do you get this? The Catholic Church.

We’re to worship angels. Where in the scripture does it tell you to worship angels? We are instructed to worship angels. Or because angels are worshiped in the scripture, we therefore can’t also worship glorified saints. Now, there are several problems with all of this. And problem number one is the whole book of Galatians is written to prove that you shouldn’t worship angels. Apart from that, if there is any possibility of. Apart from that, Revelation 22:8 says this. And I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I heard them and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel.

Here’s John going to worship an angel. Then saith he unto me, don’t do that. That’s the free translation of this. But this is what the angel says. For I am thy fellow servant of thy brethren. Ah, where did we come from? I’m getting goosebumps now. Where did we come from? We came from being an angel. Before we born born in this physical body, we left our seat in heaven, joining this Luciferic matrix to get a physical body to be able to go home. Well, the angel is telling John, I am your brother. Don’t worship me. You’re just like me.

And don’t pray to them. No, do not. The Roman Catholic Church says we have the right to worship saints because of the fact that we have the right to worship angels. The Bible says we don’t even have the right to worship angels. So how can we deduce from that? We have the right to worship saints. Now, let’s take it a step further. If ever there was a saint in the Catholic church, it’s Peter, St. Peter’s Cathedral. Oh, but now wait a second. Peter’s sainthood is magnified and glorified and so forth and so on, beyond imagination. And yet I want you to see.

And Acts chapter 10. What happened? Peter came to Cornelius. Cornelius got carried away with Peter. Verse 25 of Acts 10. And Peter was coming in. Cornelius met him and fell at his feet and worshiped him. There’s all corneas kissing Peter’s feet, worshiping Peter. Peter says unto him, stand up. What are you doing down there? Corneas it up. I am myself just a man. Now, if ever there was to be anybody who should the. Who should be taught from the Bible to worship that you should worship the saints. I don’t know what in the world they would do with that, with that chapter in those two verses.

Nor do I know what they do with the case of the Apostle Paul. Remember, they wanted to make gods out of them and worship them too. Paul says, don’t you do that over in chapter 14. That’s recorded. Oh, no, here’s another one. The Council of Trent even went further in. In Catholic theology and permitted that saints bodies be worshiped. And so there was a veneration of, some say saints teeth and certain other bones and all of this kind of stuff. In 787, the Council of Nicaea said they would worship images of the saints. And so the churches are dominated with images and dashboards and pens and metals and all these kinds of things where you see these images.

And of course, you have this Statement in Exodus 24, Thou shalt have no graven images. The whole theology of the saints is wrong. It’s unscriptural, it’s unbiblical. And so when we talk about the word saints, we need to be sure that we understand it in a biblical frame of reference. That’s only the reason I introduce it this way to you, because some of you who are new believers are still working on the process of getting out of the Catholic religious system of order might need clarification at this point. So I want to go back to now to verse 33 in Acts, chapter 9.

So Peter was available, and he’s moving. And that’s the first thing about effective ministry. You’ve got to be involved or you’re not going to be in the spot where God wants you, wants to use you. Verse 33 says this. And there he found a certain man named Anas who had kept his bed eight years. Now, that doesn’t mean that he made his bed. Women say, I can’t get my husband even to keep my bed made for a week. I have problems with that sometimes. But anyway, it means that he was sick of the palsy. He was in bed, paralyzed for eight years.

The word palsy is parallel, okay? P A, R A L U, O. It’s Greek. And it’s a word from which we get our word. Paralytic. Paralytic. And it basically has to do with a disease that is characterized by the extreme loss of power of motion due to some kind of damage to the motor centers of the brain or the spinal cord. The paralyzed, it’s just a typical paralysis. And it was always very serious, especially in those days when they had no treatment for it. And it was usually permanent. And it was progressively deteriorating. So this man was really sick.

And everybody in the city knew it because it was eight years long that this guy was in bed. But there’s about to be a marvelous miracle take place when Peter shows up. Because Peter. Peter has been available and moving and involved. He comes face to face with a fantastic opportunity for a ministry. Oh, think ministry. It’s not about going out and get. It’s about ministering to one individual, just one. I want you to think about that. Do you think your calling might be to a whole lot of people or to an event? No. Your ministry is one to one.

To one to one. And the upshot of this miracle that day in Lydia was the fact that it says in verse 35 that everybody in Lydia and Sharon turned to the Lord. He ministered to one person. And from that ministry to that one person, the whole town of Lydia and Sharon were safe. You go minister to the town. You minister to one individual. Those of you who have stage fright because you can’t seem to be able to get up in front of people or talk to the crowd. Your ministry is not that way. Your ministry is one on one.

That’s all you need to focus on. And as God builds you, your ministry might turn into something much larger in number. But the scripture says you only come to Christ one on one. Now, here’s one guy who affects one personal ministry with one other man. And because of that, multitudes, thousands literally came to Jesus Christ. Believe me, personal ministries can have repercussions. It isn’t only effective when we talk to big masses of people. It’s also effective when we get involved with individuals. So specifically, since Peter had apostolic miracle power. His personal ministry was very potent. But there we see the first principle of effective personal ministry, and that is involvement.

He was involved. Now the second one, that is as far as, oh, we’re going to close this out. I wrote this for the last time. But the second one was Christ exaltation. Peter was exalting Christ. Believe me, any kind of ministry that is going to bear any fruit and have any kind of effect on anybody is going to be that which lifts up Jesus Christ, not ourselves. And I love this. In verse 34, Peter said unto him, Peter arrives in Lydia, goes into the bedroom of Anas. Peter says, jesus Christ maketh thee well. That’s all he said.

And he says, arise, make your bed. And what did he do? He arose immediately. Just got up and made his bed. Now, I want you to catch a couple of things here that are so should be so thrilling to us. First of all, the word arise. It’s amazing, but even in the miracles of Jesus, there was a response of faith demanded, whoa, wait a second. Christ healed a lot of people, but the healing was their soul. And they had. And they had to have a response to him of faith. And in that response, physically, they were healed.

You get the process. Spiritually, you’re sick. Physically, you feel it. Spiritually, you get whole. You have a response of faith in that healing of your spirit. And from that faith comes what physical healing? He didn’t just go in and go zap and oh, Anas shot up out of the bed. Anas had to exercise his will in response to the statement of Peter, True faith always responds. Self assessment time. And we had a lengthy weekly discussion on faith worsers. And so here again, he’s given the opportunity to do an act of his will. Remember Jesus with the man, he put the saliva on clay and put it on his eyes and made the guy go clear across town to wash it.

That was a test of faith. Anywhere along the line he could go, go. He went directly from the mud on his eye. Price directed him to wash it off. And because of that faith, he was able to what physically see. And so this man obey. It says that at the end of verse 34, he arose immediately. That’s a dominating word in the book of Acts. The word immediately. It pops up everywhere in the book. Peter was doing things immediately. Paul was doing things immediately. This guy is doing things immediately. Again, we’re talking about maximizing opportunity. There’s no weight.

You should be doing things immediately. And when you’re obedient, you’re not obedient. To yesterday or tomorrow. You’re obedient. What now? In the present? So he was immediately obedient. True faith obeys. And he was. It didn’t say that he was a Christian here. It says nothing about that. Well, perhaps he was. The Bible doesn’t tell us. And perhaps because he was, his faith was strong. Perhaps he isn’t. He was not. But at that point of hunger to know the truth, he believed and was healed. Ah, let’s talk about this a moment. It’s important to understand that God is in control of everything, right? Both good and bad.

We talked about that last week. It’s important to also know that God uses whatever he chooses to use. For what? The glorification of him. Here’s a man. Scripture doesn’t tell us that he’s a Christian or not. Scripture doesn’t say anything about that. All it showed was that he wanted to know the truth. Speeder spoke to him in truth, told him to do something, and he believed in what Peter was telling him. Faith. And he did it. And in the process, he was healed. But we don’t know if he was healed as a Christian or not. God uses evil process to glorify him.

What happened when this. When Peter spoke to him, two cities, thousands of people came to know Jesus Christ. You know, over in Matthew chapter seven, we have a distinction between the faith that really responds in obedience and the faith that says it does not matter. And that’s in Matthew 7:24. Therefore, whosoever heareth these things of mine and doeth them, get off the butt and go. That’s the key. You don’t only hear it, you do it. James says, don’t be a hero only, but be what a doer. He says, I will liken this man who hears and does to a wise man who builds his house on the rock.

And rain descendeth, the floods come, and the winds blew and beat upon the house. It fell not for for it was founded on a rock. You see, we’re only founded on the rock when our faith issues are obedience, validating it is it as true faith. And anyone that heareth these things of mine and doeth them not, you know, like the man who built his house on the sand, a foolish man. The rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew. Be beat up house, and it fell, and. And great was the fall of it. It’s not talking about a house.

It’s talking about your heart. Your. Your heart is the house of God if your beliefs are built upon the rock. Christ told Peter, I want to Build my house on the rock. Then you’re going to be whole in times of trouble. You’re going to be whole all the time. But especially when you look for wholeness in times of trouble. If you built your house on the mechanism of I want to live both on the rock and on this, you know, in the system, make a system and you built a house on the sand. And therefore in troubling times you’re going to fall.

The next verse says this. The whole crowd was astonished at this teaching. They were stunned at the crash of the false disciples house. True faith is founded on one principle. It’s called obedience. Now we see that principle. And so he gave him a chance to obey and respond in real faith. Now a second thing comes to mind when Peter said, make your bed. Now in the Greek there are two different kinds of verbs here. Point action verbs called orest, A, O, R, I, S, t and continuous action verbs called linear L, I, N, EE, A, R.

For example, linear is make your bed. Every time in the Bible you hear about a healing or Jesus Christ is involved. It is absolute, complete healing, always complete. And so he says, you make your bed. And that guy got up and made his bed. The cure was not total, it was complete. The man would make it up his bed for good. Conversion, transformation, that whole part of life was done away with. He lived in that bed for eight years. Now he’s not living in that bed. He went from what, exchange old to exchange new. Transformation. Exactly what you should be working on in your self assessments, your sanctification process.

Jesus Christ maketh the well. That’s a great statement, not only for what it says, but for what it doesn’t say. It is Peter’s disclaimer to any power at all. You got to see what he’s really saying here. He doesn’t come in there and say I’m here to heal you. Who does Peter want to exalt? Not Peter, but Jesus Christ. So it is so true. And maybe we’ve, and I know we’ve talked about it many times, but we’re going to say it again. No ministry ever has true fruit that is not set for the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

At the moment that you begin to think that you can do it, you’ve completely disqualified yourself from any fruit. It only took Lucifer to think in heaven that he was going to what, overthrow Christ? And he sinned immediately. What do you think you’re doing when you say I want to do, do this? That so disqualifies you from any fruit and basically any relationship with Jesus Christ, you’re now completely disobedient. You know, we need to be so consistently reminded because our stupid pride and our self generated ability and activity gets in the way of what God wants us to do.

Whatever is being done to his glory, Remember everything, everything that goes on in the life of a follower of Christ and to those who, who are non believers still goes to glorify His Son. You know what Paul says in Ephesians 16, which you’re not there yet, but we’re getting there. He says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You have no strength elsewhere. Ephesians 3:20. This is, this is your, your home run verse. This is your, your touchdown verse. This is where the rubber meets the road. When you’re dealing with a Christian Life who’s 3:20 says this now unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all, you can ask or think according to the power that worketh in you.

It’s not you, it’s him. And then the next verse says this unto him, be glory in the church. Oh, the glory is not ours. It’s not ours at all. We own nothing. We are nothing. We talked about that last week. We’re just stewards of what he gave us to live with until we go home. We can’t say I did this for the Lord and I did that. Oh, let me, let me. Was a conversation this week. Somebody had said to me what they had done for somebody else in helping them. I in turn ask a question.

Where did you get the power to do that? You cannot do anything for the Lord. You can’t do anything for the Lord. Remember, he’s the one that gives you the faith. Not only does he give you the reconciliation, the salvation, the transformation, he gives you the faith. It’s only what the Lord did through you. Anything you try to do will be undone first. Peter 4:11. You know, Peter says this. If any man speak, let him speak as the or oracies of God. If any man minister, let him do it as the ability which God giveth, that the glory may belong to Jesus Christ in everything.

That’s the battle you fight. You know, you think you get to the point where you’re going to, to do it in your own flesh and doing it in your own strength. And it’s, it’s a wipeout. The effective servant only wants to lift up Jesus Christ. Paul had the same kind of a disclaimer at the end of Romans. Listen to what it says in Romans 15:17. I have therefore that of which I may glorify Jesus Christ. Then he goes on to say, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me.

That’s really interesting because the only good things that ever come out of his life were what Jesus Christ did. So he says, I’m not going to talk about the stuff that I do. Oh, bragging, you lies. Like to brag about what you do. I get it. You need some pat on the back because you’re not getting it elsewhere. Well, you’re looking at all the wrong places to get that pat on the back. So he says, I’m not going to talk about it, the stuff that I do. And then he goes on, and here’s what Christ did through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God.

Hey, I want to tell you about what the spirit of God is doing. Ego dies hard. I don’t know in your life, but it does in mine. It really dies hard. Alpha male, grew up having to figure out life. It’s I. He dies very hard with me. I have to talk to myself every morning about remembering to be humble. But Peter didn’t want any followers of Peter. He said, jesus Christ makes you well. Disclaimer disclaiming any power Christian. The only power you have is in Christ’s power through you. As long as you think you’re doing it on your own, you will forfeit that power and its fullness.

Look at verse 35. This is great. Oh, this is so good. And all that dwelt, and that’s a general all, not inclusive of every human being, but it means a total populace. All that dwelt in Lydia and Sharon saw him. Now, Sharon here is not the name of a girl. It’s the name of a valley from Joppa clear north to the tip of Mount Carmel, a long valley of many miles between the mountains in the Mediterranean Sea. And it’s. And it’s a. It’s a beautiful fertile valley even to this day. It’s that way and that whole valley.

The gospel just went north. And as a result of the rising of this paralyzed man. And watch, it says, and all that dwelt in Lydia. And Sharon saw him and turned to not Peter, turn to the Lord. There are a lot of people who’ve left a trail of followers around the world, but they’re not the followers of Jesus Christ. They’re the followers of some man. Paul says, be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. Listen to John 12:32. And Jesus said this watch and I, if I be lifted up, will draw what all men to me.

Oh, what does that say? If you exalt Christ in your life, being obedient, sanctified in him and in everything you do, you exalt Christ first. What is he going to do to you? He’s going to draw all of the heavenly blessings that Ephesians 1:3 has given us to you. You don’t have to manifest, and he’s going to manifest them for you. Now you see, if you want to draw men to Christ, then you’re going to have to exalt him. Because if you’re looking for your exaltation, you may get some people following you, but they won’t be His.

A really effective personal ministry is based upon a total absorption and preoccupation with the exaltation of Jesus Christ. And a good way to do it is to continually disclaim anything of your own verbally, as Peter did. Just continue to face the fact that you have nothing to offer. And they turn to the Lord. Aren’t you glad that nobody’s gotten messed up with Peter? Aren’t you glad that they didn’t start a Peter culture? Now they tried to start a cult in Corinth. Apollos, I’m a Peter. And then the pious ones, I’m of Jesus, and Paul lambast them from one side to the other.

But Peter didn’t start a Peter culture. They turn to Jesus. And as a footnote here, that really should hit home to you. They turn to the Lord. The word turn kind of rings in my mind. Turned. That’s a common word today. Have you ever heard somebody so will say that, oh, they turned on to drugs. Oh, I’m turned on to you. Sex really turns me on. Or is Jesus a turn on? Jesus is not a turn on. Jesus is a turnaround. He’s not a turn on. He’s a turn around. You stop, turn, turn around and go the other way.

That’s the turnaround, right? You go from your old to your new self, through the transformation process of getting a new. I was sitting talking to unbelievers. I remember this story in my past. And as I said in the midst of them, I wanted to take time to talk to them. I had spoken, I. I had spoken this during a class that I had taught at a school. So I had spoken to this group for many, many weeks. And in my, in my school, teaching doesn’t matter where I’m at. I’m going to teach Christ as part of that.

Okay? Just like in my business classes, all the principles of business is based upon biblical principles. So I make sure that they understand the source of the truth. And we had a wonderful time doing that. There was all kinds of people in there. I was teaching at University of Phoenix. I had doctors and lawyers. This is a business class. I had doctors and lawyers. I had education personnel, I had people from business, all in this class. So it was a good round amount of people. And so I sat down the last night and I just said, I want to have a conversation.

Let’s just talk. You, you now got the materials. You’re gonna, you’re gonna all pass. Don’t, don’t worry about it. You’re all going to pass. Because it all done exceptionally well. And their projects that were focused, 50% of the whole grade were already turned in. And I had read the majority of them and it was out to, to another group of people to read because I always wanted to do that, especially in business plans and stuff. So they get a real knowledge from not just me, but a lot of other people. And I was asked this question.

Why do you get so uptight when somebody gets excited about Jesus Christ? I wasn’t taken back by that. I kind of figured that this is where, this is where it was going to go. And so it, I was already prepared for the, this type of questions. And so it was very easy to explain. And all the other things in your life, this is how what I answered. All the things in your life are just an addition to your life. What is so offensive about getting excited about Jesus Christ is you’ve got to crucify your ego. Paul says, I die daily.

Recogn. Recognize you’re a vowel sinner. You’ve got to be broken. Reject everything you’ve lived for. That’s your old self. Turn around and go God’s way. And that’s offensive to a lot of people because they do not want to give up themselves. When I said that, the group got very quiet. I said, Jesus is not a turn on. He’s a turnaround. And aren’t you glad that they turned to him? When I read the part about Peter in Acts. So if you want an effective personal ministry, you got to do two things. You got to get involved in what God does.

He’s doing already. He does. He starts where you’re at. Remember that you don’t have to go. He starts where you’re at. As long as you’re obedient to him and you’re working in your sanctification to be sanctified. In him. He works where you’re at. You don’t have to figure out, you got to get to some place before he starts with you. And the second thing, meaning you got to move. And the second thing is, is you’ve got to live your life to do one thing to lift up Jesus Christ. So what are we actually gone through in this complete first session? Now we have all the Old Testament examples of how the prophets, the saints were used by God in furthering his glorification of his Son by moving.

And we understand now in the New Testament the outcomes that exist by faith when you’re obedient to Christ, you got to get involved, you got to move, you got to go in a direction in the direction of God’s. What God’s already doing might not be the right direction at that time for you, but as long as you’re inside doing something that God’s doing, he’s going to direct you to the right place. And you have to live your life in the glorification, edification, exaltation of Jesus Christ. Any questions? Comments, Jim? Yes, ma’, am, I do. And Jesus, through Peter, was doing what Jesus does.

He was healing him. But Anais had to do something. He had to take part in that. And the first thing was he had to believe those words. Had he not, he would not have been healed. And it’s the same with salvation. We believe in our heart. You know, Romans 10. Jesus has already paid the price, but we have a part to play, and that is believe. And, and there was another thing in your teaching, Anais. Again, he had to do exactly what Peter said. He had to believe, and he had to do what Peter said. And that word immediately is kairos.

It is an opportune time. And Anais had to do it in that moment, that opportune moment, or he would have missed his healing and most likely that opportunity would have never come around again. And that speaks volumes to me as a child of God, is that when God tells me to do something, it is a kairos moment. And I must, as you said, I have to move or I’m going to miss that. And I will miss the obedience that I could have shown to God and the blessings that cut that come with that and the strength that I grow in from, from being obedient.

But that, that’s what jumped out at me today. Well, you’re absolutely right. Just think about that. Just, just if we, if we walk through what your words you just said in a process manner, the conviction. Think, Think about this. The conviction period of Time it takes for us to get to the moment of salvation could be years. This guy was convicted for eight years. When the conviction is understood to what the truth really is, reconciliation happens. And it doesn’t happen over a period of time. It’s instantaneous. That’s the immediacy of this. And when we hear God’s words and we act upon it, as you said, we honor God in that process.

But what have we done, really? We have anointed him by being obedient. And remember what happens. You anoint God first, he’s going to, not you next. And whatever it is in the blessings of heaven that he gave us, Ephesians 1:3, you’re going to get an abundance of those blessings. For what? Anointing him, being obedient. And he gets the glory. He gets the glory. And oh, by the way, you don’t have to work for manifestation because you just anointed him and he’s going to give it to you. You’re not calling it down from heaven in a prayer.

He’s saying, oh, here, let me just. Let me give you the fire hose and see how much you can catch. That’s what happens. And two communities turn to the Lord and receive salvation. And I can’t even imagine the hundreds of thousands in history that have been won to the Lord from that one act. You know, right there. Peter. Peter was obedient, but an is had to be obedient also. You know, it’s amazing God can do. Yep, yep, good point. Anything else, guys? Nope. Sure. So, Jim, well, so we just have to plant the seed. Right. And then.

And then. Well, I don’t know how to put that into words. Your job is to plant the seeds and pray for. Pray for them afterwards. Okay. That’s all. And. And our position of prayer sometimes is very important. Yeah, we already. We talked about that in the discussion on prayer. Okay. Okay. You know, that’s the most exalted position of prayers. And a prone position on your face. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to. I recall two stories about that. I recall Tony Evans and his senior support pastor going into the room of a teenage girl at the hospital who had been completely.

Who had terminal. Just terminal. And they took off their coats and ties and laid on the floor in a prone position around her bed and prayed. That girl’s alive today. Yes. Okay, that. Thank you very much for that. I look at it as this. My job is to do, or my responsibility to him is to do whatever he’s asking me to do, even if I think it’s silly. Or even if I think it’s not going to be received, I. I look at it, that’s my responsibility and that it’s God’s business what he wants to do with that, you know? Yeah, it’s.

It’s important. It’s important to know that you have to be listening. Okay. Reason why we’re dealing with a discussion now about hearing the word of God is because you need to be in a constant state of listening. Okay? And it’s what you listen to that matters, because it is your own thought process, surrounded by this matrix system of man that causes doubt to exist. When you’re being spoken to, you got to remove all that. And that removal is your thoughts. Yes. And you always give him all the glory, right, Jim? You got to be thinking the things of above and not from the things in this earth.

So you need to be. You need to be constant state of alertness of what’s going on around you and be in a constant state of listening to that. Anything else, guys? Okay, let’s pray. Father, thank you again for coming to your word this morning. Thank you for being present with us, Father. We. We always seek the truth from you. We always want the truth from you. But sometimes it’s very, very difficult to not only understand it, but to believe it and apply it. We ask that you work with each one of us in our own way through the sanctification process of applying the truths from Scripture into our lives.

And we ask that basically, you continue to guide us in that endeavor, have us seek out exactly what you’re telling us through revelation. And may we be ever doers of your Word in order to represent the exaltation of you to this world. And in doing so, we anoint you, we love you, we bless you. And in turn, the scripture says, you bestow on us all of the abundance of heaven. We thank you for that. We thank you for the opportunity of being one of your followers, and thank you for your son. We thank you for all of the things you have done throughout history and before the Foundation World to create this simulated physical environment that we’re experiencing.

We know, we love that. Go with us through it this week. May we understand that the conditions of the change that this world has experienced is all controlled by you. And through your hands, we will see the fruits of what you have put in place over these so many years. For those that have sickness in their families, we ask that basically, you give. You give them a healing hand, you give them peace and joy, that you’re in total control over the situation and. And health is right around the corner. We ask that basically, you watch over those that are healing from surgeries and stuff and things.

And we just want to give you continue the glory of working with them, giving them a positive mindset to bear the pain. And the pain is exemplary of healing that must go on. So, Father, we bless you for all those things. Thank you for forgiveness of sin. Thank you for son dying on the cross, for reconciling the world. Back to you, my father. Most important, thank you for what you’re doing in our individual lives collectively as a church, in support of the brethren. Yes. All these things in your son’s name.
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