“Lord Jesus, true fulfilment in life is in You, in Your habitat. We are complete in You. This is our message to our world, which is hurting. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Act 3:6 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, rise up and walk.”
As Peter and John were moving this lame man from sight to faith, they made him take his eyes off the material things of life. II Corinthians 4:18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. The lame man had to know that silver and gold was not the solution to his predicament.
Yes, when people are in need, we must help people with their material requirements. James 2:14-17 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? (15) If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, (16) and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? (17) Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
I John 3:16-18 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (17) But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? (18) My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
This lame man needed material support but Peter and John told him that they do not have the resources to give him all that he needed but the resource that they had was a complete solution for him.
As we help people with the material resources that they need, we must also, simultaneously, move people from sight to faith in God. Matthew 10:8-9 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. (9) Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts,
The Lord gives us the right balance for ministry. Gold and silver is not our solution for the predicament of our world but we give people true healing and deliverance, which is in Christ Jesus.
This was how Apostle Paul did his ministry. II Corinthians 6:10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
The church is to make many rich with the true riches, which we have in our habitat in God. This requires people to turn from sight to faith in our Lord Jesus.
Our Lord emptied Himself and identified with man’s poverty. From the place of man’s predicament, He provided the way for humanity to experience true riches, in Him. II Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
Jesus is our fullness. The lame man had to come to Jesus and experience fullness in life. Colossians 2:9-10 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; (10) and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
To cross over from sight to faith is a difficult bridge for many people. Our eyes keep going back to the material or financial. Money has the capacity to captivate our hearts. We may seem to be very spiritual, outwardly, but internally, money drives the choices and decisions in our lives. The story of the Rich Young Ruler illustrates this point. The extremely dangerous fact about money is that the love of money can take us away from our relationship with God or our habitat in God.
The church in Laodicea had to be warned of this matter. They had to take their eyes off the material or financial and have true riches in God. Revelations 3:15-18 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. (16) So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. (17) *Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— (18) I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
The Laodicean church was instructed to anoint their eyes with eye ointment so that they can move from sight to faith.
The message of the church to the world is to move people from sight to faith. The world will question us if we have moved from sight to faith, ourselves, or are we those who have a plank in our own eye but are seeking to remove the speck from someone else’s eye?