Raise Your Expectations | When God Exceeds What You Ask | Acts 3:1-10 - Dallas Herndon

It says, one day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going in to the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked him for money. Peter looked straight at him as did John. And Peter said, look at us.

Look at your neighbor and say, at us. Look us. So the man gave them his attention expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly, the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with him into the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. My friends, this is the word of the Lord this morning.

Let us pray over God's word. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We pray you would breathe life into us, that it would be like a good meal, that it would nourish our souls and our spirits. Spirit, help us to hear what you were saying through this text and to us specifically this morning.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, everybody said, amen. Amen. When you woke up today, what were you expecting today to be like? When you got out of bed, six or seven or eight, what was your expectation of how the day was gonna go? I know Christina had a odd night last night. Right? She had a a drunk driver hit her car in the middle of the night. Right? That's probably not what you were expecting to wake up to. Right?

But what were you expecting? Were you expecting to have the same breakfast, same news, same routine? Look. Routine's not bad. Discipline is good. I know brother Nutter gets up early every morning and has a routine of how he does stuff. That's a good thing. But when was the last time you woke up with a sense of excitement, with a sense of expectation that today might be different? When was the last time that happened to you? Like, you really felt in your soul, man, today might be special.

I don't know why. But you were expecting something different. I mean, when you go to the doctor, what are you expecting? Right? Are you expecting another report? Another prescription? Another comment from the doctor that says, we'll just manage this. Is that your expectation when you go to the doctor? When you walked into church today, when you walked in those double doors back there, what were you expecting today? Another song?

Another sermon, another talk? Just another Sunday? Maybe even another fake smile. People ask you how you're doing, and you say, I'm doing good. You are lying under your teeth. Right? Because showing up is one thing, but expecting God to move and heaven to break in is something completely different. What was your expectation? Look in your neighbor and say, expectation. And this story in Acts chapter three, sister Greenman, most of us are like the lame man.

We've been sitting in the same place, asking for the same thing, in our same condition, with low expectations. And then right there at the gate beautiful that day, through two men named Peter and John, God meets him there, and his life is never the same. Amen? It's never the same. This story takes place sometime after Pentecost.

It could be days, it could be weeks, it could be months. We don't know. Other than the only thing we do know is this, Peter and John, two of Jesus' original disciples who are still following Jesus, praise God, are on their way to prayer meeting. They're on their way up to the temple courts to go to afternoon prayer at 03:00. And on your way there, you had to pass through a gate called Beautifuls, the name of the gate.

And what an ironic name for this gate. Am I right? Because beyond the gate was the temple courts where people would do what? They would pray. They would seek God. They would seek his face. They would call upon God together. Right? Heaven church meeting, heaven prayer meeting there. And in front of this gate called Beautiful, there was people like this lame man, someone who was disabled.

He wasn't just the only one there. This place was the place for people who were disabled, people who were lame, people who were blind, people who were ceremonial unclean, people who had leprosy, and they had to sit at this gate. They couldn't go in the temple courts according to the Old Testament law. They couldn't go in there to prayer meeting. They couldn't go to church.

What an ironic thing to call this gate. Am I right? And what's funny is Peter and John weren't the only ones who passed by this gate this day or every day. Hundreds, if not thousands of people passed through this every single day, would pass by this gate called beautiful and see a not so beautiful situation going on in front of the gate. See all these people who were unclean, hurt, disabled, and they couldn't even go in.

Let's just pause right there before we get too far into the text. How many of us, like this man, sit in our own situations and our own dysfunctions and call it youth? Some of us have some mess in our lives, and we just sit in, and we just accept this is my reality. It will never change. We sit day after day in our bitterness, in our trauma, in our anger, in our sadness, in our pain, in our mess, and try to act like it's beautiful.

Not knowing that we can't even go in there to fix it, hopefully. We have to just stay right here and sit in our mess. There's so many of us who just accept the mess in our lives as normal and reality, and we just live our lives that way. I will always be this way. Have you ever said that? I will just always be this way. I'll always get angry with my spouse. I'll I'll just always do this. Right? We learn to live there.

Not only that, the people around us in our own lives know that we live there too. Look at this right here in Acts three two. It says, now a man who was lame for birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to bed. It said he was being carried, and he was put here every day to bed. Man, there are some people in his life who accepted his reality that we will always be this way, and they enabled him.

They said, look, you're always gonna be like this. We'll drop you off. You can get your you can get your hand out, and you you can panhandle. We'll pick you up later. These are friends and family who accepted his situation instead of trying to encourage him to maybe do something about it.

Because I imagine this man had heard about Jesus the healer, and perhaps his friends and him didn't have the faith to go find Jesus, the healer, while Jesus was doing his ministry. Right? That's conjecture. I don't know that for sure, but we know for certain that his friends and family are taking him to this gate every single day to do the same thing, to sit in his mess, but call it beautiful. Makes us call into question who our friends and family are.

Right? Who are the people you're really doing life with? Who are your friends? Are your friends taking you to your place of dysfunction or are your friends trying to get you out of your dysfunction? Right?

Do we have friends that are, like the scriptures say, are iron sharpening iron, or are we just two people just conversing about our problems together? Right? This man who found himself in an awful situation being lame and just accepted the reality he lived in, and his friends had accepted that reality as well. And on this particular day, as he sat in his beautiful dysfunction, he asked these two gentlemen for some money before they went up to pray. This is what it says in verses four and five.

You can look at the screens with me. Peter looked straight at him as did John. Then Peter said, look at us. This is me to my daughter when she's not listening. Look at me. Right? I'm talking to you. I'm your dad. Right? Look at us. So the man gave him his intent gave them his attention expecting to get something from them. And I can imagine this was not common. Right? People knew that there was gonna be people at the gate begging, asking for money. Right?

And probably without even thinking, the people who had walked by would just drop a couple of coins and not even think about it. This is kinda like us. We pull up at a stoplight somewhere in Downtown Roanoke or somewhere around the city, and there's someone asking for money, and you don't even engage with them. You just hold a dollar out the window, then you put it up quickly. Right?

You don't even think about it. And these people are not even thinking about it probably. And he had gone used he had grown used to that. He was just looking for some money to buy some food to get them that day. And so he's just asking everybody for money.

And I'm assuming no one's ever really looked at this man in his face and looked at him as a person. He just sat there with his hand out. No one's gonna get something from somebody. And on this day though, for whatever reason, Peter being compelled by the spirit says, look at us. Look at your neighbor and say, look at me. Look at me. I see. Look at me, he says. Look at us. And the man, important to hear, so it says, so the man gave them his attention.

Say attention. It's very important. This is important. Because sometimes we'll be praying for God to move in our lives. We'll pray in private, Lord, I want you to move. Lord, I want you to use me. God, I want you to do this in my family. I want you to do this in my friends. I want you to do this in my church. Do this in my city.

And then when god starts speaking to you, you don't pay attention. You don't heed his voice, and you're like, that, no. I'm just brushing it off. It's not god. God wouldn't ask me to give the man at Cricket Wireless a message in tongues a few weeks ago. That was me. I was at Cricket Wireless trying to fix a phone, And the lord dropped in my spirit. You need to get this man a message in tongues right here. I'm like, what? I'm just trying to fix my phone.

Go home. You know what I'm saying? But when god speaks, do we give him attention? Most of us are like this lame man. We just start holding our hand out. We're like not expecting anything but expecting just a little. But it's important this man realized something was different. And he looks at Peter and John. He fixes his eyes. He fixes his gaze.

That's what the word means. To fix one's gaze. He's fixed his gaze on Peter and John. And he looks up and he's expecting something, but he doesn't get what he's expecting. I love it. He says that he was expecting to get something from them. He was expecting money. Right? What he was asking for. He said, hey, can I get some money?

I'm trying to buy some bread. Right? And and and that's not what he got that day. That's what he's expecting to get. He has low expectations, and that's how again, let's just pause there.

He was expecting to get something from them. Because of his condition, my friends, he was conditioned to have low and superficial expectations. Most of us pray such prayerless, weak prayers. We ask God for surface level things because we have no expectation for something greater. We ask him for the bare minimum.

We stop asking God to heal our marriage and we just pray, I just wanna make it through the day. You know, don't don't don't heal this thing so that it could be healthy and fruitful. Let's just see if we can make it through this Monday. We stop seeking God for purpose and we just settle for normal. We stop asking God to save our kids, and we just pray, God, would you just bless my kids and say, Lord, would you save their souls from eternal separation from you?

We lose faith and expectation for that. We stop praying to God for the best, and we settle for the mundane. For some reason, because of the way life has handed us, thanks, we start believing for the bare minimum. And that's what that man had done for years, just asking for the bare minimum. Just a little money. He had other needs. Obviously, he couldn't walk. He couldn't work. He couldn't go to prayer meeting. He had an issue, but he just settled for asking for just the superficial bare minimum.

But on this day, he had no idea who he was talking to and what he was asking for. He couldn't have expected what happened next. Let's read verses six and seven together again. It says, then Peter said, silver and gold I do not have. Let's pause there.

Silver and gold I do not have. Translation, sorry mister, I'm broke. I don't got no cash in my pocket. If you remember, Peter was like a lowly fisherman, and he obviously had was decent at it. He was able to make some money, but he, by no means, was probably rich.

And Peter just upright says, silver and gold, I don't got money for you, man. And I wonder as before that comma happens in this sentence and the miracle happens, I wonder if the man just deflated. He's like, oh, man. Another guy that is only has a credit card now. You know? He's got a square at down. He's like, no. I don't have cash. I don't have any coins. Silver and gold, I do not have.

I don't have that. And so many of us focus on what we do not have instead of what we do have. If you ask me for a bunch of money, I'm gonna say silver and gold, I do not have. Right? That's okay. He says, I don't have this. I don't have this to give you, but I do have something to give you. Right? Amen? He says he says, but I what I do have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walked.

Taking him up by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly, the man's feet and ankles became strong. Wow. He doesn't have silver or gold to give the man, but he gives the man exactly what he really wants deep down. This man, all he probably wants to do is have a normal life where his legs work and he can go around, he can go to prayer meeting, he can he can enjoy his life. And that's what he gets that day.

And let's just pause. This is really crazy. Paul Peter says, but what I do have, I give you. What does he have to give him? Healing. In Jesus' name. He had that. He didn't have silver gold, but he had the healing power of Jesus Christ in his hands. You see, Peter had done this before. If you remember back in Luke chapter nine verses one through two, Jesus had sent the apostles out to cast out demons and to heal people of sickness and diseases.

Right? But he had done this before. He had he he was empowered by the spirit previously in his life to do a thing. And then after the day of Pentecost, remember, the day of Pentecost that happened the chapter earlier in Acts chapter two, now Peter's walking with the baptism of the spirit, with fire, with power. Right?

And this is what I love. It says in Acts chapter three sixteen, Peter tells us, by faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is in Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him as you all can see. Some scholars, some theologians will say that the apostles were super special. And I will agree, they have very special lives.

You read this, you read the lives of the apostle, you're like, that's different than my life. That's special. Right? There's some particular powerful grace that's transpiring, but what happens is, we look at Peter or we look at John or we look at Paul, we look at any of the apostles and we say, well, that's not for us. I'm not an apostle. That's not for me. I'm not supposed to do things like that. Right? And let me just be crystal clear. Peter was a man.

Filled with the spirit no less, but he was a man. He wasn't super special. There wasn't some special thing he was born with that he had that we don't have. It was that Peter knew the source of his faith. Peter knew Jesus, and he knew Jesus well.

He had spent three and a half years walking around Israel, helping Jesus heal the sick, declaring the kingdom of God. And Peter, even after denying Jesus right before Jesus would die on a cross for our sins, Peter is still following Jesus, and Peter knows Jesus. That's why later in the story in chapter four, the religious leaders are really upset at Peter and John because they say, man, these men, these uneducated, unlearned men have been with Jesus. These men haven't been trained like we do in the scriptures, but they have spent time with Jesus and it's obvious. They know god's word and they operate with god's power.

So, Peter says, I give you what I have to give. And that's what I love about this. Peter's relationship to the risen and ascended Jesus who has all authority. Right? What does it say in Matthew twenty eight nineteen and twenty?

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And Peter knows that God who has all authority. And because he knows Jesus, because he knows the heart of God, because he has compassion on people just as Jesus had compassion on people, he's able to look this man in the face who's been lame for only God knows how long, and he's able to say, I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus, walk. He helps the man up, and that work instantly, Euchus, he instantly is strengthened, and he's healed just like that.

I tell you what, that man at that beautiful day that day, I bet he wasn't expecting that to happen on this brisk Tuesday. I bet he was not expecting that to happen. This man didn't come expecting a miracle. He's expecting money, and God met him anyway in God's sovereign grace. And thank God that he meets us in our low expectations.

Amen? Have you ever just not wanted to, like, go to church or go to a prayer meeting? You're like, it's just gonna be another prayer meeting. I'm gonna be tired. But when you do go, God meets you and you're like, I'm so glad I came. Right? I remember the story. It's a true story. It's my story. It was when I was in bible college living in Texas, I was going to a church called Uncommon Church, and then we're having this guy named doctor Luke Holter.

He's this prophetic dude, and he was gonna be at that service that night, and there was this girl I worked with at the general office, and she was like, hey, you gotta come tonight. This prophetic dude's gonna be there. I'm like, I'm good. He's probably kooky. I I would rather just stay home with my wife.

We could do homework and just, you know, just chill. I don't wanna go. And she kept bugging me about it. It kept really on my nerves because I just really felt this resistance. Like, I don't wanna go to, like, this Thursday prayer meeting and hear this prophetic dude.

It's just gonna be weird. So I go home that night, but I and I can't stop thinking about it. And service already starts. We only live like three minutes from the church. Had to tell my wife, I'm like, I really feel like I need to go, but I don't wanna go.

It just it's gonna be weird. And she's like, you should probably just go. So I listened to my wife, gentlemen. I listened to my wife, and I get in the car, and I drive over to Uncommon. Service had already started, and at that point, you you probably won't believe this.

My hair was up to my shoulders, had this awesome, like, tie dye shirt on. I was really in a cool phase of life, and I tried to slip into service discreetly, which I'm six two, long hair, got this I I I I I I it it was a bad setup. I really should've held on a cloak or something. So I tried to slip in the service, sat in the seat that was kinda off to the side. I didn't want anybody to notice me.

I just kinda wanted to be there to see what happened just to say, hey, I went. I'm glad I went. Praise God. It's not like three minutes that I sit down, he goes, the man with the long hair and tie dye shirt. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Shoulda cut my hair and changed my shirt. He said, you you man that just came in, stand up. So I stand up. He says, come to the front, Wendy. So I walk up to the front, and he begins to give me a prophetic word.

He begins to give me a word from God, a word of wisdom, and it is so accurate. The church body knew me well and everything he said resonated with me and with the audience, with the congregation. They're like, yes, that man is not off. He called me a kingdom trash man. Whatever that's supposed to mean.

But I knew what he meant and it resonated with me so deeply and I had all my friends there gather around me and pray and it was one of those powerful moments in my life. One of the things I'll never forget, god god just literally met me there and I had no expectation for it. Right? I didn't wanna go. Remember, I felt resistant.

I had low expectations. Yet, God met me there even though I didn't have much faith or expectation. So imagine this, my friends. If God will meet us in our low expectations, in our dysfunction at the Get Beautiful, If God will meet a college student with long hair, with low expectations, how much more will he meet us if we have high expectations? Amen.

If we have faith that he will meet us there. Amen? Ephesians three twenty says what? Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. Now, to him who is able. Look at your neighbor and say, who is able? Who is able? How much more? This is not prosperity gospel either. I'm not just saying, hey, if I have expectation, god's gonna give me a million dollars, it's gonna happen, alright?

We're probably asking with the wrong heart, with the wrong motives, and god loves us so much. He's not gonna answer that prayer because we're praying with the wrong motives. But how much more if I say, god, I need you to save my friends down at Kroger that I've been getting to know. They are far from you. They don't like you.

They don't know you. God, would you holy spirit, would you work on their heart and have this expectation? You have this faith. Just faith is a must receive Jesus. You just have a little faith that it could happen. What happens if we bring up our expectation, bring up our faith instead of just having this low expectation? Because I can guarantee every single one of you here in this room today, there's something that you wanna see happen in your life. Right? You have dreams. You have desires.

You have prayer things that you've been praying for very hard for a long time, and you're losing expectation. You're losing faith. But what I love about this story, as we're prepared for Pentecost, as we celebrate Pentecost here in a few weeks, this story reminds me I must raise my faith and raise my expectation. Then God can meet me and do immeasurably more than all can than we can all ask or imagine and believe. Not only can we expect god to do greater things to us, I want you to catch this.

Ready? God, it's not only god doing greater stuff to us but it's god doing greater stuff through us. And I mean that. Again, I was talking about this at Bible study the other day. I love getting presents. Who loves getting presents? Raise your hand. My wife loves presents. That's her love language. If I give her a coffee and a little cute Danish and a some flowers, she likes that.

She loves gifts. And I love receiving things. I love when God speaks to me. I love when God touches me like I told you earlier. I love when God wrapped his arms around me, I didn't even ask for it. But you know what's even more fun? When you get to be on the end of giving it to somebody. When God's working through you. Because it said that it is more blessed to give than to what? To receive.

And all of the times that there's times in our life where we just need to receive. You go through a hard time in life, you just need to receive from God. Right? And you need your brothers and sisters to come around and pour into you. But what's even more fun is when you get to do it the other way around.

And that's what this story shows me because the late man is the one on the receiving end who had low expectation and god met him there. And Peter and John who now have high expectations, they've been walking with Jesus, they saw him, The risen lord raised from the dead. He's they spent time with him. They saw him do miracles. They have a high expectation and god moves powerfully through them to bring healing and to restoration to this man.

This story reminds us we have to expect God to do greater to us and through us. And here's what I love though. Let's finish this passage. What is the proper response to God showing up and blowing up your expectations in your life? What say what happens?

It says it says here in Acts three nine and ten, when all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. When God moves in your life, what's the first response? You get up and you go to prayer meeting to praise God. That's what he does. He had never been able to go into the temple courts to praise God.

And on the day God meets him, the day God brings healing to him, he gets up and goes straight into the house of God, leaping and bounding, and saying, look what God has done. And everybody's like, oh my goodness. We've seen that man. We've given him silver and gold for years, and now he's here with us? What has happened?

I love what it says in Isaiah thirty five six. It says, then the lame will leap like a deer, and the mute tongue will shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. When god moves in your life, when he answers the prayer, when he does the thing, when he meets your expectation, you're filled with joy. You can't help to let it out.

This is you testifying to what God has done. That's why I love prayer requests, and I love praise reports. Because we get to testify, I've seen God move. And when you're testifying, when you are praising god for what he's done, people take notice. Others take notice.

That's what's so important about this passage because when he walks into the temple gate, the people were amazed and filled with wonder at what had happened to him. His his healing was able to testify to the people that god has moved and then what happens? I love this. What happens after the story? Verses 11 through the rest of the passage in Acts chapter three, do you know what Peter and John do?

They get up in front of everybody in that temple court. They get up in front of everybody in that temple meet in in that temple place for prayer meeting, and they get to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. And it wasn't just words because they had seen god move in power. Now, he gets to proclaim with words. That's why Peter says and again, in Acts three sixteen, he makes it clear.

By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see was now made strong is in Jesus' name and that the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him. Because of this miracle, because of this powerful act of God, it leads people back to the cross, It leads people back to Jesus. It leads people to salvation. Because if you see a man who've been lame for years, leaping and bounding with joy, you're gonna know why and how it happened, aren't you? And then Peter and John are able to testify to the risen and crucified lord, to the same group of people who killed him and he's able to tell them, put your faith in Jesus.

Basically, we're not that special, but it's because we have faith in this guy named Jesus that this thing can happen, and this thing can happen for you too. Amen? Amen. Let's wrap this up. So here's the call today. We've read this passage as we meditated on as we broke it down. I want you to put your faith in Jesus. Sounds simple. Might sound silly because I've heard it said it's it's not about the amount of faith that you have. It's about who's your faith, who who your faith's in, right?

It's about the person who holds your faith. And so some of us today have faith for a little and some of us have faith for a lot. It doesn't matter if you have little or a lot, God can use it if we place our faith in Jesus to do greater to us and through us. And here's the thing. I don't want you to read this and say, that's not for me.

If it's in this word, it's for you. One of my favorite preachers named Francis Chan has really has really tried to hit this home. This is not just a narrative that we read and say, oh, that's good. Goosebumps, that was awesome. This is for you.

This could be you. This could be you at Kroger seeing someone, you're moved with compassion, and you just ask them simply, hey, I don't know if this makes sense to you, but do you wanna be healed today? And perhaps God, in his miraculous power and grace, will move through you that day and bring healing to that person. You can do that, brother Jeff. You can do that, sister Connie.

You can do that, brother Matt. He wants to use you. So many of us live our lives devoid from the real purpose of life. It is to know God and make him known. The great commission is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, and teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.

We're supposed to be giving our lives to the great commission. We're not just living lives. It's not about just getting to know God. It's about getting to know God and sharing God with others so that others can know the glorious savior that we have come to know. And I stand before you this morning as one who has been touched by God way too many times that I can count.

He has brought me out of darkness. He's brought me out of the pit of despair. He's healed me of depression. He's healed me of addiction. I can testify to you today, he can do the same thing in your life and the lives of people around you. But we must do this. We must raise our expectation that God could use you and wants to use you and wants to do it through you. Amen? Amen. Do you bow your heads with me and close your eyes?

You're welcome to stand if you want because we're gonna worship and sing one last song to our glorious savior. Or if you wanna stay seated, that's fine too. It doesn't matter to me. Just lock in and focus for a moment. Because what I love about this story is that God meets this man at this gate, and he can meet you today at your gate.

He can meet you right where you are. You don't have to be cleaned up. You don't have to be prettied up for God to save you and move in your life. You don't have to get the sin out of your life, then come to Jesus. You come to Jesus and he'll get the sin out of your life.

And so this morning, this holy moment, if you can sense something in your spirit, in your heart, God's just calling you to him. You don't really have words for it, but you know for some reason that you are a sinner and need a saving. Today might be the day of salvation to you for you. He wants to meet you at the gate today. And perhaps you're here today and you're feeling, Lord, I wanna raise my expectation.

Lord, I wanna raise my faith. Lord, I wanna believe that you want to do more for me and through me. And you just need prayer to be strengthened by the spirit. We wanna pray for you today. So if you fall in that category where you are wanting to respond to Jesus coming to the gate today, I wanna invite you.

Just come up to the come up to the front for prayer. Or if you just need prayer to be strengthened by the spirit, to raise your expectation, to raise your faith, we wanna pray for you as well. All I ask is that you wouldn't respond. Lord, we love you and we thank you. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.