Luke: 00:07

Pastor Cameron's going to come up here, and he's going to give us the sermon for today. Let's pause together as a community to let's pray over the preaching of the word together. Heavenly Father, as we open up your word together, I ask that you would speak to us through the preaching of your word, that your Holy Spirit would enliven your word, that it would cut to our heart, that we would hear the message that you have for us today. I pray that pastor Cameron would be in submission to both your word and your spirit this morning, that he would be here to preach and deliver the message that you have tasked him with giving. In Jesus' name we pray.

Luke: 00:52

Amen.

Cameron: 00:54

Amen. Good morning, Conduit. It's good to see you this morning. It's humid season, so it's the season of air conditioners. Bring your blankets because the AC will be on in here.

Cameron: 01:17

I in preparation for this message today in just continuing in our series in the book of Acts, I was reminded of a movie. Watched it a few years ago. Watched it in the theater, actually. You may have seen it. The name of the movie was Oppenheimer, and it came out in, like, 2023.

Cameron: 01:40

And it follows the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer. And in one particular scene where he gets kind of where he gets this moment of clarity about who he has become and who he is supposed to be. If you're not really familiar either with the story or with who Oppenheimer is in general, he, J. Robert Oppenheimer was recruited by the US government as a scientist to run the Manhattan Project, which was, of course, the quest to develop atomic weapons for the military.

Cameron: 02:17

But he wasn't a soldier. He was a scientist. And as he got more and more into the Manhattan Project and developing these weapons, he started to feel kind of this pressure from military leaders around him, from the kind of propaganda machine that was the world wars and and began to forget a little bit of who he was at his core. There was one day in particular where he showed up to the Manhattan Project, to the site where they were developing these weapons, not in his, you know, like white lab coat or his suit, his like scientist's deer, whatever they wear, you know, But he he showed up in a soldier's uniform, an army uniform, with a different kind of attitude and a different kind of perspective about his work. And while, like, just the switch in his clothing and his uniform felt like you saw it or it happened like in a snap of a finger, his colleagues kind of recognized this as the culmination of many slow compromises of his morals, of his professional ethics as a scientist, shifting him away from the work of being an honest scientist to being just a soldier who was there to create something to defeat an enemy.

Cameron: 03:57

And one of his colleagues, in the midst of this kind of tense conversation, criticized Oppenheimer's new self imposed identity as a soldier and and wanted to appeal to his sense of scientific ethics and questions around the morality of such a thing as developing atomic weapons. He looked in in this particular scene, he looked at Oppenheimer in the eyes, and referencing his relationship with the army, he simply said to him, Oppenheimer, they need us for who we are. They need us for who we are. What he was referencing is Oppenheimer's quest to be something different than who he truly was and how the army did not need another soldier. What the army needed was a scientist who thought differently, morally, and ethically asked more difficult questions.

Cameron: 05:13

Just like Oppenheimer did and does, it sometimes is really not very difficult for you and I to forget who we are and what we actually have to offer the world that we live in. It seemed easy for Oppenheimer to just become a soldier, to just switch from scientist to soldier. That's what his environment wanted from him. His environment was purpose built to create a soldier. But the call from that friend and colleague was to remember that he was actually something he had actually had something else to offer, and that something else was exactly what the world really needed in that moment.

Cameron: 06:03

This is the same message. Oppenheimer's lesson that he learned is the same lesson that the church can learn, that you can learn, that we can learn together. The world needs us for who we are. Amen. Yeah.

Cameron: 06:30

It's perfect timing. Yeah. The world needs us for who we are. Or maybe slightly different, but with the same general meaning, the world needs what we have. The world does not need more of what they already have.

Cameron: 06:53

They need more of what we have. They don't have what they desperately need. In the book of Acts, Peter and John showed up in a situation, not as this crippled man wanted them to show up, but as he needed them to show up. They became not what the man wanted, but they definitely were what the man needed. They need us for who we are, church.

Cameron: 07:36

Let's read the story from the first 10 verses of Acts chapter three and see how Peter and John showed up to be exactly who they were needed to be in the moment. Acts chapter three, starting at verse one, says, Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called The Beautiful Gate, to ask for alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms, and Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them.

Cameron: 08:40

But Peter said, I have no silver or gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms.

Cameron: 09:20

And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. So I'm gonna walk through this these verses in in somewhat of an order here. The story is pretty simple in terms of, like, there's not really any hidden meaning behind it. There was a man who it says in verse two was crippled from birth, he was carried by people, friends, family, we don't know, carried by people to the temple gate, one of the temple gates, the gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. Now this man wouldn't have been allowed to be in the temple, wouldn't have been let into the temple because of a physical deformity or of or being crippled, and so he was isolated for from much of what was the religious and even cultural life of the Jewish people.

Cameron: 10:28

But what want to get from this verse here, from verse two, is just the understanding that this was not a new phenomenon or a new thing that this man was experiencing in that moment. It wasn't a temporary, like, oh, I have fallen on hard times. I'm crippled. I'm begging for money, silver, gold, alms. I need help because of the situation that I'm in.

Cameron: 10:56

It's not it's it wasn't temporary or environmental. This was the story of this man's life. This was the beginning of this man's life. This was the middle of this man's life. This was the present of this man's life.

Cameron: 11:12

This man lived in an utter state of dependency and brokenness. From birth, he was crippled. Every single day, he had to be carried and laid at the temple gates. All he knew, all he understood, all he experienced was despair and poverty. All he experienced was disdain from those walking by and the loneliness of having no real community.

Cameron: 11:49

And in verse three, it says that he saw Peter and John coming into the temple, and he asked them for money. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. Verse four is very, very specific in what Peter said to him next. Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, Look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something.

Cameron: 12:29

Some of your translations may say something like this, He directed his gaze at him. Other translations will say, Peter looked intently at him. Peter looked straight at him. The kind of the thrust or like the ultimate power or meaning of the statement is that Peter wasn't just looking, like, generally at a person. He was fixated, eye to eye, straight looking directly straight at us.

Cameron: 13:02

It's like when you when you get in front of a person, right, and you grab their cheeks. Don't ever do this. Okay? Don't don't ever do that. Like, do it with your kid or something like that in a moment of tenderness.

Cameron: 13:19

Okay? Or or with your your spouse or something like that. Alright? But, you know, you you you grab their cheeks and you look at their eye you look in their eyes. Right?

Cameron: 13:28

And that's kind of the that's kind of the idea that we're that that the the text is trying to communicate here is Peter was like, he stared, he looked intently or directly at him like, Look at us, he says. Look at me. Don't miss it here. Now listen, for his entire life, this man probably just nonchalantly propositioned passerbys for money. Whatever they could give.

Cameron: 14:13

But what is most likely the case, as is the case in our life and world a lot of times, is that he was probably so familiar to everyone that was walking by him that day that he just became part of, like, the background of the life that they were living. As they were going about their religious practices, they were heading into the temple court. He was just like the the white noise of their life. Always there, never seen. Always heard, never listened to.

Cameron: 14:52

They didn't even really notice that this man was there anymore and certainly not what state he was in. And I'm guessing, because this happens to people in life, I'm guessing that he probably felt the same way. This is just normal for my life. This is just who I was created to be. This is just what I am.

Cameron: 15:20

This is who I'm just meant to be. I'm just meant to fade into the noise of everyone's life and beg for what little they may toss my way. But the interaction with Peter and John was different, presumably, than any other interaction that he had had, certainly that day, but it seems every day. The man was no longer just a part of the background noise of the religious observance or practice that they were in. He was not just an extra in some kind of drama of their life that they were participating in.

Cameron: 15:59

He was seen. Truly seen. Not just noticed, not even just sympathized with, but connected with, engaged with, not just greeted, but engaged. Listen. If we want to reach the broken, we must be willing to see them and connect with them.

Cameron: 16:46

If we want to reach the broken, we must be willing to both see them and engage with them. To refuse to allow them to become a part of the background noise of our life, the world's life, or the church's life. Stopping what we are doing to look at them. Listen, this takes a number of different things from us, okay? Or this requires a number of different things from us.

Cameron: 17:29

What does it take in order to begin to see and connect with the people around us? The broken who need what we have, need what has been given to us by faith. It's not really it's not really complicated. K? Number one thing it takes is it takes an intentionality of our hearts.

Cameron: 17:57

It it takes a decision on our behalf to intentionally see and connect with people. Let me say it this way. You have to want to do it. You have to want to do it. Evangelism, out of raw duty, does not connect people to the heart of the Father.

Cameron: 18:26

You may you may win a person over with a apologetic or religious argument, but unless you minister to them out of the overflow of God's saving work in your life, they aren't likely to experience the same transformation in theirs. It takes a desire to want to see and connect with the broken around us. You have to want to. Wanting to is the first part of kind of like a two step thing, is that not only do you have to want to and take it make an intentional decision to see and connect with people, you have to be willing to be inconvenienced in your life in order to do this. You have to be willing to inconvenience your schedule in order to receive the divine appointment that God has for you that day.

Cameron: 19:29

This is this is often where our intentionality and our desire kind of crisscrosses with follow through. I want to. I would like to. But man, like, I just gotta get to that place. I gotta get over.

Cameron: 19:47

I gotta get to where I'm going right now. I got things I gotta do. I don't know if I have the emotional energy that I feel is gonna be necessary for me to have to have this type of connection and engagement with this person. I don't I don't know. I have to I have to guard myself.

Cameron: 20:13

Right? I have to protect. I'm protecting my man, in the name of boundaries, we say no to the Lord's divine appointments all the time. You know, Jesus emptied himself. Right?

Cameron: 20:29

Jesus gave up every divine and authoritative prerogative that he had and became a humble servant even to the point of death to reach those who are far from God. The very call of Jesus to follow Him is not a, Hey, come follow me into perfectly aligned and compartmentalized boundaries for your life. The call to follow Jesus was a call to put your own life to death. Pick up your cross, Jesus says, not your fancy religious symbol. Pick up your cross, an instrument of your own death, putting to death your own conveniences and plans so that you may pick up the plan and purposes of God in your life.

Cameron: 21:23

If you want to connect with people who are far from God in a way that sees them and engages them, you have to want to do it and you have to be willing to give your life for it. You gotta be willing to have your life inconvenienced in such a way where you understand the divine appointment as the thing that God has called you to in this moment. And if we have lived a good portion of our lives, maybe not intent not not maybe not intentionally like this, right, but just kind of naturally like this, just doing our own thing, concerned about our own schedules and our own boundaries and our own sense of like self. There like, the intentionality helps. The willingness to be inconvenienced helps.

Cameron: 22:20

But understand this, it requires a movement and an act of God upon your heart to change your vision to see what's around you. It requires a willingness to allow the Holy Spirit of God to change what I see, Lord. Change what is like what magnetizes to my heart. Give me a burden for the things that I have not seen around me, Lord, what that breaking burden your own heart. And so we must, yes, work.

Cameron: 22:59

We must do this with intentionality. We must be willing to be inconvenienced, but we also must ask God to open our eyes to the person that he wants you, me, us to see and connect with this week. And if you're willing to do those three things, if you're willing to pray that prayer, Lord, would you open my eyes to help me see one person this week that you want me to see and connect with? Like, that's one of those what I that's one of what I call, like, a dangerous prayer. Dangerous in the sense that, like, God is so eager to answer that with so much gusto and aggressiveness that you're probably He's probably going to make you Like, He's probably going to impress that upon your heart before you leave this room.

Cameron: 23:52

And there's someone here that you need to see and connect with. Someone at lunch you're going see and connect with. Someone in your own home that you need to see and connect with that has just kind of been filtered into the background noise of your life. Verse five, it says that the crippled man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. This is so powerful.

Cameron: 24:27

Like, this this was this was a was a purse this is a very personally convicting portion of scripture and sermon for me. K? But this verse in particular hit me like just like a ton of bricks. The general question here is like this man who was crippled from birth, broken, lonely, in despair, outside of community, never seen, never actually engaged with or connected with, was looking at these two men of God expecting to receive something from them. The question maybe being, what do the broken expect to receive from those who are filled with the Spirit of God?

Cameron: 25:16

What do broken people in your life expect to get from you? What do the broken expect to receive when they come into your presence? Judgment about their brokenness? Ridicule at their ignorance, shame at their sin, A religious platitude or some kind of expression of shallow generosity? Seriously, do the broken experience the healing balm of God's grace in our midst?

Cameron: 26:07

Or is it just another place where they fade into the background noise of a religious gathering and religious people? What do they expect to receive from us, to get in that moment? Peter in verse six was like, I mean, like, this feels like kind of like a double barrel shotgun. He was waiting for it, waiting for this moment. He says in verse six, he's expecting to receive something from them, but Peter said, I have no silver and gold, But what I do have, I give to you.

Cameron: 26:54

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk. I don't have what you are asking for, Peter says, but I do have what you need. Well, knew in that moment what that man needed was not actually silver and gold. What that man needed in that moment, at that time, was power from on high. He needed what Peter had.

Cameron: 27:28

He needed who Peter was. See, the world had offered this man silver and gold his entire life, and he still lay begging on the floor. What Peter was to offer him, the world never did and never could. That in the name of Jesus, the lame shall walk. That in the name of Jesus, the blind shall see.

Cameron: 28:01

That in the name of Jesus, the broken will be made whole. That in the name of Jesus, the forgotten will be seen. What Peter had is the same thing that you and I have, the name and authority of Jesus Christ that brings healing and life to the broken. See, like Oppenheimer, we can get wrapped up in an identity that doesn't belong to us and try to give the broken. All of our little tricks, tips, and life hacks to being a more moral, ethical, good, religious person.

Cameron: 28:49

But the world and the broken people of our lives do not need one single ounce of that. The world needs us for who we are. The world needs us for what we have, redeemed and made new, spirit filled witnesses to the power of Jesus Christ. What we have to offer the world is significant. We can offer to the world everything that the world offers to itself, and it will continue to be broken, crippled, and laying on the floor.

Cameron: 29:44

See, when we offer the world everything that we have without Jesus, we actually give them nothing. Everything without Jesus equals nothing. But if they give the world nothing with Jesus, we give to them everything. Everything without Jesus equals nothing in people's lives. Nothing with Jesus equals everything in people's lives.

Cameron: 30:32

This was exactly what this man experienced. The world had continued to give him what he thought he needed, and still he laid in the same state he's always been. And the one person, the one people who saw him and connected with him and with a heart of intentionality, with a willingness to be inconvenienced in his life, with eyes that see the broken and the hurting, Peter and John offered them the one thing that he actually needed but never got, healing in the name and power and authority of Jesus. This is an important part too. Notice how, I don't wanna say how, notice the way in which Peter speaks to this man and how his healing comes about.

Cameron: 31:24

He says, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. This is important. In the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ. We often pray in the name of Jesus.

Cameron: 31:52

Alright? I pray in the name of Jesus. Why? Because you don't want me praying in the name of Cameron. That may that name means very little.

Cameron: 32:08

Right? But there is a name that is above every other name. Right? Yeah. There is a name at which every knee bows and every tongue confesses that he is Lord.

Cameron: 32:25

There there there is a name that is above every other name. Paul says this in Philippians chapter two verses nine through 11 about Jesus. It says, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It is the name of Jesus.

Cameron: 32:57

Now listen, a name is not just the way people refer to you. The name was the display or the evidence of authority and power that is vested in that person. It's kind of like when you're a kid, not you guys, of course, and you got in a fight with another kid. Right? And you like, you're trying to beat each other up, and then one of you is like, well, my dad could beat up your dad, and that somehow that somehow was enough to win the fight.

Cameron: 33:44

Right? It didn't matter if you got your butt kicked. My dad can beat up your dad, and that's all that really it was a way of drawing on the authority and power of a name that was not your own, but that you could mention. K? Sometimes, a helpful illustration for me in this regard is for I mean, most almost almost everyone will recognize this in some way, shape, or form.

Cameron: 34:14

Like, you recognize the shape. You recognize the color. You recognize that it's reflective. Right? You recognize that it is a badge.

Cameron: 34:22

K? And then if someone in law enforcement comes up and kind of shows their badge in a situation, what what is the general response that's like that is that is received with? It's not like a, oh, there's a shiny, bright metal object in the room. We must respect the shiny, bright metal object. It it's not the object that is representative there.

Cameron: 34:53

Right? The object represents the authority of all that lays behind it. It simply sits as a visible or an audible symbol of the authority of the law. Right? And that there is a whole system of power and authority that sits behind and underneath it.

Cameron: 35:15

The name of Jesus brings down the power of heaven to bear on earth. Okay? It is the it it it is, in a way of speaking, the badge that declares the authority of God. It is the name that is above all other name. It's what it represents, what stands behind it, the force that it brings to bear upon the situation.

Cameron: 35:45

See, Peter and John weren't here in this moment giving this man their own spiritual power, operating under their own strength or their own intellect or their own giftedness, their own articulation, their own understanding, their own anything. They merely in this moment, both merely and powerfully were conduits of God's power. It was the Holy Spirit of God living in them, that they had been filled, being activated through their faith in Jesus Christ. And Peter says this in verse 12 of Acts chapter three, When everyone is amazed at what has happened, while he clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly astounded ran together into the portico called Solomon's. When Peter saw that everyone was stunned that this man, who they'd always seen as crippled, was now walking, they were like, What happened?

Cameron: 36:53

What happened? Who did this? By what power? And what does Peter say? In verse 12, Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made this man walk?

Cameron: 37:12

Peter says, Let's get it straight right now. It is the name of Jesus that has healed this man. It is the name of Jesus who has saved this man. It is the name of Jesus who has brought wholeness to this man's life of brokenness. And he goes on to say that very same thing.

Cameron: 37:28

He doesn't leave it up to guessing. In the next verses, verse 13, all the way through, I think, 19 or so, 16, It says, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses, and his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see now, and the faith that is through Jesus has given this man perfect health in the presence of you all. So Peter was like, Hey, you