Gate Beautiful Acts 3:1-11.
There was a man who was laid daily at a gate called beautiful. The bible says that this man was lame from his mother’s womb. I have often thought that his history has effected his destiny. We don’t meet him as a child we meet him as a grown man. But the bible takes the time to mention that this condition goes beyond his childhood to the time he was in his mother’s womb.
This is the reason that I think people should get to know each other because when you see me as I am today you don’t know how I got to where I am today, what I went through to get where I am today. So if you are going to get to know me today you are going to have to know a little bit about me as I am the some total of my past experiences. It took a lifetime for me to get where I am and will take a lifetime to get where I am going.
If you meet someone today who is angry and bitter, they didn’t come out of the womb that way. Something happened in their life to bring them to this place of anger and bitterness. So you can’t deal with the fruit you must get to the root. Is there anyone in here who can understand that the reason you are the way you are now is because of something that happened in your past? Not blaming anyone, not making excuses or pointing fingers at anyone. I’m just saying, it’s cause and effect, that if this happens it effects that, that if you go through this it creates a dilemma. But when you’re really in trouble there you are looking back at your life and saying Lord, I wish this didn’t happen or that hadn’t happened, if that didn’t happen I would have been further along. That alone is pressure, to live under the weight of unavoidable incidents and accidents for which you had no control over and there you are stuck in a dilemma that you didn’t create but something happened to you along the way. You don’t have to tell anyone what happened you may not even know all that did happen but you know something happened. I was along my way and something happened. I was headed for a goal but something happened, I had a hope but something happened.
Something happened to this man and found him laying at the gate called beautiful. Isn’t it odd that the gate would be called beautiful, the gate is called beautiful but the problem is ugly. Have you ever had an ugly problem in a beautiful place. Look at the dichotomies of life you can have a ugly problem in a beautiful place, isn’t it amazing how it can be the best of times and the worst of times all at the same time. It just depends on what you look at. If you look at the gate it’s beautiful if you look at the condition it’s ugly. Isn’t it crazy how you can live with mixed emotions, just when you’re getting ready to shout something reminds you of how ugly this period of your life is. Just when you’re getting ready to give up something reminds you of how beautiful a part of your life is. He’s stuck in the dichotomy of life.
In some ways this is the best time of your life, you’re smarter than you have ever been before, you know more than ever before, your more mature than you were before, in some ways it is a good time in your life. But on the other hand, it is a bad time in your life. There are some areas under attack in your life, there are some areas breaking my heart, causing me pain, there are some areas causing me trouble. What do you do when your good time runs into your bad time? What do you do when one part of your life is going up and another part is going down? What do you do when your stuck and everybody is walking passed you, going about their business? Cause you know people will pass you, in fact, there are people who will walk over you. If you haven’t had a problem you won’t know what I am talking about, but, if you get into trouble people will walk passed you. As long as you can clean yourself up, take care of yourself, take care of your own business, take care of your bills, you’ll have a lot of friends. As long as you’re picking up the check after dinner anybody will eat with you. But when you start bouncing checks, losing money, lose your house, lose your car you’d be shocked how those same people will walk passed you and go on with their life.
This man is stuck in a doorway, in a gateway, in a passageway where people are going on about their business. Have you ever felt like life was passing you by. And their they were passing him by and he has become so institutionalized, so used to this happenstance that he has become used to them passing him by.
Expectation has a lot to do with fulfillment. You get what you expect. He has come to the point that he expects them to pass him by because he understands that he is limited. Hope flew away along time ago. Dreams, he stopped having them when he was a boy and realized his fate, his lot in life, was in the hands of strangers. His resources were based upon the acts of kindness from strangers. His limitations have effected his economy.
When you are limited it effects your economy. The more you can do the more you can make. The less you can do the less options you have. He has a limitation in his feet that effects his economy. He isn’t blind, he can see, he’s not deaf he can hear, he can touch and use his hands, but because of this one problem it has effected everything. The worst part of this is that he has never seen life any other way. The frustration of seeing where you want to go, hearing the call to come somewhere else, being able touch something different; but, unable to move into something new. If somebody goes blind, they might not be able to see today; but, they can remember yesterday. At least you can remember what a sunset looked like, so when I say sunset you have a picture in your mind even if you don’t have a picture in your eye because you can remember how things used to be. There are some people who all they have ever known was trouble. They’ve never had a wonderful life all they have seen was turmoil and confusion. Because you can’t get a picture in your mind you can’t conceive it. Because you have nothing in your background that has ever let you see anything positive, anything powerful, anything great. You shout over the ideas we talk about but the reality is hidden from your view because from your mother’s womb all you saw was trouble, all you ever saw was pain and so you have developed a system of survival that is built around your limitation because one thing about man is we adapt to our environment. If you put us in Alaska we will adapt to our environment. If you put us in the desert we adapt to our environment. If you put us in the ghetto we adapt to our environment. If you put us in dysfunction we adapt to our environment. This man has an adaptation to his condition. He’s got a cup, some people who help him get to the gate in the morning and take him home in the evening and he makes a living according to the limitations he lives in. What is worse is that he is positioned in the gateway of a miracle, in the passageway of supernatural experience with God, right in the doorway of a life changing experience. But he is stuck at the gate called beautiful and all kinds of spiritual people are passing him by going into the church to get what they need from the Lord while he is stuck working a game, working an angle, working a racket trying to survive at the gate called beautiful.
But the bible says it was the hour of prayer. Thank God for prayer. Prayer will get you out of a difficult situation, prayer will get you out of a dilemma, prayer will get you out of your crisis, prayer will get you out of your trouble. When you can’t do anything but pray, you’ve done a lot. If you would stop murmuring and complaining and get down on your knees, flip your plate over and start fasting, get yourself up and say I’ve been here too long, I’m tired of crying, I’m tired of feeling sorry for myself, I’m tired of making excuses why I’m in this mess, and start saying I’m going to get my breakthrough, I’m moving ahead, I’m moving forward. I dare you to do it. In fact I like just being in a praying atmosphere. You don’t even have to be the one praying but if you get around somebody who really knows how to pray; prayer will lift you when you’ve fallen, prayer will catch you when you’ve lost your grip, prayer will stop you from going overboard, prayer will bring you out. In fact with all do respect when I’m going through trouble I’m careful who I get around. I don’t mind helping you on Sunday when things are going good but when I’ve had a bad week and all hell is breaking loose I don’t need to sit beside just anybody, I need to sit beside somebody who can help me. I need somebody with an anointing. I need somebody with some power. I need somebody with some breakthrough. Excuse me if I don’t seem to want to hear about your mess I got too much of my own, I need somebody to encourage me. I need someone to strengthen me. I need someone to help me. I need somebody to build me up.
Atmospheres make a difference, you see candle lights and hear soft music it creates an atmosphere, you engage in praise and worship it creates an atmosphere. Get yourself around some overcomers it will help you to overcome. Get yourself around some winners it will help you to win. Get yourself around people who think big it will help you to think big. Get around a loser, you will lose. Get around negative thinkers you will think negative. Get around small thinkers you will think small. Get around sick people you’ll get sick. It’s in the atmosphere. It does matter where you go to church.
It does matter where you worship. It does matter where you lift your hands. It does matter where you cry out to God. I may be lame but get me in the right atmosphere, I may be weak but get me in the right atmosphere, I may be blind but put me in the right atmosphere.
God ordering his steps, put the lame man at the gate at the same time He told Peter and John to come up to the temple. At the same time the church was packed full of worshippers. God will let you be at the right place at the right time with the right people to get what you need from the Lord. The bible says, Peter and John went to him and said look on us, maybe you couldn’t have always said look on us, cause maybe you weren’t where you are right now because just a few chapters ago Peter was cursing, just a few chapters ago Peter was hiding, just a few chapters ago Peter was fishing, just a few chapters ago Peter was trying to get away from his ministry, but something happened. A miracle had occurred in his life, a breakthrough had occurred in his life and he said I’m straight now, look at me, I had a revival, I had some yokes broken, I had some doors open, if you need something from God look on us. What I couldn’t handle before I can handle now. What I couldn’t handle last month I can handle now. What was driving me crazy last year isn’t going to bother me this year. I can handle it.
Look on us. The bible says that he looked on them expecting to receive something. He didn’t quite have the faith to expect to receive a miracle. Still operating in the practical, perhaps envisioning money; but one thing is for certain he expected something to happen. If you want to provoke God to move on your behalf you got to expect to receive something. I don’t know exactly what it is, I am not exactly sure what is going to happen, but I am going to expect God to do something. That’s what gets you up and out of that bed on Sunday, not some religious routine, but an expectation that God is going to do something and you don’t want to miss it. Something may change, something may get rearranged, carry me if you have to just don’t let me miss my something from God. Something happens when you sacrifice, something happens when you press your way, something happens when you fight your way, something happens when you step over your flesh and say, “though you slay me yet shall I trust in you.”