How God Uses Ordinary Obedience|07.13.25|Go.Make.Baptize. pt4

I wasn’t ready for the phone call that morning when I saw that I had multiple missed calls from my mom. My parents were supposed to come out to visit a week later, so I wasn’t sure what the issue was and why I was waking up to multiple missed calls.

But I figured it must be urgent, so I called her back. As soon as I heard her voice, my heart stopped.

I know I heard the words, but I didn’t HEAR the words, you know? She was trying to tell me that my dad had passed away suddenly in the night from an unexpected heart attack.

All I could think about was that he was 61 years old. And I was supposed to talk with him about a book that he had shared with me.

The next couple days were a blur of connecting with family, friends, trying to plan a service. Trying to hold it together.

And one set of friends asked if they could stop by. Two young sisters in their twenties that Megan and I had been mentoring.

When they showed up, with a plate of some chocolatey dessert, I was numb. But they didn’t press. They didn’t rush to speaking. They didn’t ask a bunch of questions. They sat outside with Megan and me. Sometimes letting the silence stretch.

To this day, I can’t tell you what we talked about. But I remember them as being there for me. I remember feeling better afterward.

It wasn’t their words, or their dessert, that gave me a little piece of healing. It was them just being there for me.

Maybe you’ve experienced that before. Maybe you’ve been on the other side of that. You go to the funeral visitation, and the whole time you’re lining up, you don’t know what you’re going to say when you get up to the family.

“I’m sorry for your loss” seems so…cliche. But what else could you say? But then you get up to them, and just being there is enough. Your presence says, “I’m here for you.”

Sometimes that’s all it takes. Because God’s healing power often shows up through our faithful presence.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about today: the fact that God WANTS to work through YOU to bring hope and healing to others.

And these last few weeks, we’ve been looking at how Jesus’ earliest followers were trying to live out his command to go and make disciples, to join in his work of helping people become apprentices of Jesus in every area of their lives. And we’ve looked at how God is always at work ahead of us, inviting us to reach the One that he is putting in our path.

And last week, our youth director, Mike, shared an incredible message with us about how God is able to make a way and bring transformation to even the least likely people.

[Scripture Ref]

And today, we’re going to look at how God WANTS to work through you to bring hope and healing to others. So turn with me to Acts chapter 9, which can be found on p98 of the New Testament in your black, seat-back Bibles.

As you’re finding it, this passage picks up with Peter, one of the main disciples of Jesus. He’s gone from being too cowardly to admit that he knows Jesus when he was arrested and put on trial… to being the one who is filled up with the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to preach boldly to thousands of people.

And now, we’re going to join him as he travels out from Jerusalem to connect with and encourage other followers of Jesus. Let’s read together…

[Acts 9:32-42]

[Acts 9:34]

Peter is travelling and he finds himself in a town called Lydda, which is about 40 miles NW from Jerusalem, and he meets a man named Aeneas, who has been paralyzed and bedridden for 8 years.

And I love how Peter speaks in this: “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up.”

I mean, it’s just so bold. So matter-of-fact. And notice that he’s not saying HOW or WHEN the healing will take place. He just knows that Jesus is a healer. And wherever there is hurting, Jesus can bring healing.

But the way he talks to Aeneas, you can tell he has faith that Jesus will do it right then. He knows that the healing power comes from Jesus, not himself.

But also notice how Aenas has to have faith too, right? Because unless he trusts what Peter is saying, he’s not going to get up. He had to believe it before he obeyed.

But he did. He got up immediately.

[Acts 9:35]

And all the people who lived there saw him…and turned to the Lord. They saw the healing and OF COURSE it prompted a response in them. They were amazed. They were flabbergasted. They were filled with faith and it caused them to turn to the Lord in faith.

And that makes me think: what if he didn’t let them see? What if he kept his healing to himself? What if he was too scared or insecure to display his healing?

[blank]

There are some of you listening to me right now who have experienced healing in your life because of Jesus. You’ve overcome an addiction. You’ve seen a broken friendship repaired. You’ve experienced and shared forgiveness.

But if no one knows about it… If we keep it hidden… it won’t help other people’s faith. Aeneas was the one healed, but everyone else who saw it were the ones who turned to the Lord because of what they saw.

[Our story]

Your story builds faith in others. And God WANTS to work through you to bring hope and healing to others.

Peter’s life story involved him seeing Jesus do incredible things, and he had the faith that Jesus could do more of the same, and God worked through Peter to bring healing to Aeneas.

And because Aeneas trusted and obeyed, his story of healing then got to build faith in all the people who saw him. God worked through Aeneas to bring hope to everyone in the area.

And neither of them performed some big, complex action. Neither of them spoke a beautiful sermon or argument for the grace of God. Peter just went to be with Aeneas…just like my friends who came to be with me after my dad passed.

And it was Jesus who brought the healing, the comfort.

As you’re listening right now, where do you see the need around you? Who is God prompting you to be present with? Because he WANTS to work through you, and he’s nudging you all the time to join in where he’s already at work.

[Acts 9:36-37]

Well, word gets out even beyond the town where Peter met Aeneas, because our narrator takes us to Joppa, which is 15 miles away on the coast, where we find out about a follower of Jesus named Tabitha. She dies, but I just love the one-line obituary she’s given:

“She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.”

Don’t you want people to say that about you when you’re gone? That’s a legacy I’d like to leave.

[Acts 9:38-39a]

Well, they go and fetch Peter, asking him to come right away, and Peter obeys. He’s willing. Just like in the last few stories we’ve looked at together, God doesn’t give the whole plan or all the steps. He gives a command, an invitation, a nudge, and then waits for us to obey. We take one simple next step in faith, and then we find out what’s next after that.

[Acts 9:40]

Peter gets there, and everyone is gathered and mourning, reflecting on Tabitha’s past. But the first thing Peter does is clear the room. He removed the hopeless atmosphere.

Then he kneels and prays. He seeks God first. We don’t know what he prayed. It could have been, “Okay, God, now what?!” It could have been, “Please God, help me know what to do.” It could have been something else.

But he seeks God first before acting.

Then he says the same thing he said in the last town, “Get up.” And she does! She opens her eyes, sees Peter, and gets up! Raised back to life because of the healing power of Jesus.

[Acts 9:41-42]

And so Peter helps her up and shows her to everyone, very much alive! All the people who had been gathering around talking about all the things she had accomplished in her life, assuming that there were no future things ahead for her, now get to be amazed at the fact that God raised her back from the dead!

And news gets out to the surrounding area about this incredible miracle from God, and MANY believe. Many put their faith in God because of what had happened.

[Our story]

Just like with Aeneas, a story of hope becomes a catalyst for faith. Because our story helps build faith in others! And we aren’t the ones who bring the power to make change in the lives of others.

Peter didn’t perform magic or have some complicated prayer ritual that only he knew how to do…he OBEYED God when God nudged him.

Aeneas didn’t do anything to earn his healing…he just responded to what Peter said and trusted God’s power and obeyed him and stood up.

Tabitha DEFINITELY didn’t do anything — she was dead!

Don’t you see? God doesn’t need YOU to be powerful for his power to work through you. And God’s power isn’t LIMITED by our weakness or lack. All God wants from us is a willing heart.

Remember, God’s will is like the current of a river, moving along and carrying us along to the destination he intends. And what we do or don’t do doesn’t diminish or change the current of the river.

But…we can fight against the current and get caught in the brambles on the shore, or we can work WITH the current and move even faster down the river towards where God is leading us.

God just needs us to be obedient to him. God just invites us to trust him and take that one next step when he gives us that nudge.

[God wants to]

Because the truth is that God WANTS to work through YOU to bring hope and healing to others. That’s actually how he’s planned to bring about his work of restoration and reconciliation in the earth.

And I wonder if most of us have conditioned ourselves to think that we CAN’T be part of God’s work like that because we see ourselves in the crowd…in the “audience”?

And then we read these stories in Scripture and we don’t see ourselves in them. Instead, we think the example and inspiration is for someone else. Not me. That’s for an apostle. That’s for a pastor. That’s for a missionary.

That’s for someone who knows the Bible better. That’s not for me.

And so we put these stories and the commands of Jesus up on a pedestal; we keep them at an arm’s distance. Because we think, “that could never be me…”

“No, I can’t be involved in things like that, I can’t help other people follow Jesus, I can’t be bold with my faith…not until I get my life together a bit more.”

Or, “Man, I WISH I could be a part of a move of God like that…maybe after I finish reading through the entire Bible.”

And we can talk ourselves out of it, or keep ourselves from connecting with the story and connecting with the challenge by saying, “I can’t do that until…” and add whatever we want to that blank — whatever we think we need to achieve before God can work through us.

And so we believe the LIE that there is something missing in us, something lacking, that is keeping us from participating in God’s work.

But that is a LIE because God’s power is not diminished by our weakness. In fact, the apostle Paul tells us that God’s power is made PERFECT in our weakness. His power is on DISPLAY in our weakness.

That’s why I’m telling you today that God WANTS to work through you to bring hope and healing to others. And he’s not standing there with his arms crossed, waiting for you to get your life together before he can do his work.

All he needs is willing obedience. All he needs is your “yes.”

And if we start to believe that and LIVE it… if we start to take simple next steps of obedience when we feel God nudging us… it’s going to transform our church and our community.

Can’t you see it? God wants to transform you! God is transforming US… he’s taking us from being folks who ATTEND church and he’s transforming us into active APPRENTICES of Jesus. He wants to transform you into an everyday missionary in the regular rhythms of your life.

And as he does that in your life — in our church — it’s going to be an answer to the prayer we say every week as we say, “Our Father…” because it’s going to bring HEAVEN into kitchens, and break rooms, and front porches, and conversations all across the Sauk Valley.

Because it’s going to be God’s power at work through everyday people who are obediently SHOWING UP with boldness and presence and pointing to the hope we have in Jesus.

Because the truth is that God deeply loves Sterling, and Rock Falls, and Dixon, Polo, Morrison, P-Town, Galt, Como, Milledgeville, Tampico, Ashton, Franklin Grove.

The Lord deeply loves the Sauk Valley, and he wants each and every man, woman, and child who lives here to experience his love and hope and the life that he offers.

Jesus loves our community even more than WE do, and he wants to work THROUGH YOU to introduce his love and hope and healing and joy and reconciliation to the people who live here: our friends, our families, our neighbors.

And once we believe that — that God WANTS to work through us — we’re going to see our own stories of joy and boldness increase. We’re going to see more and more of our friends and family showing up in church, having spiritual conversations at the store and the gym and the front yard, and we’re going to see more and more of the kingdom of heaven here in the Sauk Valley.

Because Jesus would leave the 99 to reach the lost one, and so will we. And if each one of us is consistently praying for our “One,” the person we know who isn’t connected to Jesus or church, God is going to be giving us opportunities to reach them.

And if we take anything away from our story today with Peter and the incredible miracles, God often LOVES to bring hope into situations that don’t have any. God WANTS to bring healing to places of hurt.

And I can tell you first hand that God IS moving in these incredible ways here in our church community. God is healing marriages. God is bringing reconciliation to parents and kids. God is healing kidneys and cancer. God is bringing hope where folks have been hopeless for a long time.

And he wants to work through you to bring that hope and healing to others. So what do we need to do to partner with God in this?

[Open your eyes]

You need to be on the lookout. You need to open your eyes to situations of need that are around you and you need to ask God how you can be present with them.

Who in your life do you know of that is hurting, or stuck, or stressed out? Who do you know that is in need of healing?

Maybe that person is your One — the person you’ve been praying about that isn’t connected to Jesus yet — or maybe it’s someone else that God is putting on your mind because he wants to bless them through your presence with them!

I mean, imagine if we made it a habit in our normal everyday activities to keep our eyes open and looking for need. And imagine if we made it a habit of asking God how he might be inviting us to bring hope to that need. And imagine if we made it a habit to WILLINGLY take that next step of obedience…

I think we would see God move in powerful ways MUCH more frequently! I think miracles of God, big ones and small ones, would become much more commonplace for us!

In both of our stories we read today of Aeneas and Tabitha, Peter responds to their situations simply because he SEES A NEED. He goes to Lydda and sees the need of a paralyzed man.

And others come and get him and bring him to Joppa because there is a need — a woman just passed away.

So do you want to step into God’s will for your life? Do you want to be the type of apprentice of Jesus who obeys his command and takes the Great Commission seriously?

Look for a need. Look for some hurting. Look for a situation that needs healing.

[Who’s Your One?]

Maybe it’s someone who feels lonely and God wants to heal their loneliness. Maybe it’s someone who feels overly stressed and God wants to heal them of that stress and give them peace. Maybe it’s a physical sickness that God wants to bring healing to.

What WE need to do is look for somewhere that needs healing. And the simple next step after we see some need is to pray. To pause and ask God, “How can I point them to hope?”

Ask God to give you a next step. Maybe the way you offer hope is through a kind smile. Maybe it’s by sitting with them and offering our presence. Maybe we share an encouraging Bible verse.

Or maybe the way God wants you to offer hope is going to be something much more bold or much more action-oriented. But God will put it on your heart, and he’s asking you to simple OBEY him and do what he’s telling you to do.

Because God WANTS to work through you to bring hope and healing to the people around you.

So what feels dead or hopeless in your world right now? Who around you needs to hear God say, “Get up!”

Open your eyes to the need around you — and ask God how you can bring hope. Because miracles happen when we say yes. And Jesus is inviting you to join him in his work of spreading his love to our community. Isn’t that good news?