6 November 2005
U.S. Army Chaplain (MAJ) Ken Harris
CP Walker Multicultural Gospel Service
Taegue, South Korea
BIG IDEA: A Christian is spiritually stronger and more powerful in prayer when he has someone (such as an accountability partner) to hold him accountable for his actions and behaviors.
REFERENCES: Amos 3:3 KJV (Can two walk together, except they be agreed?); James 5:19-20 MSG (My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back
20 and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God); Acts 3:1-8 KJV (A Lame Man is Healed); Acts 4:1-22 (Peter and John trial in front of the Jewish Council); Ecclesiastes 4:9-10-KJV (Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up);1 Corinthians 1:10-KJV (Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment); I Thessalonians 5:11-KJV(Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do); Matthew 18:19-20 KJV (Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them); Luke 24:12 GW (But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He bent down to look inside and saw only the strips of linen. Then he went away, wondering what had happened ); Luke 5:10 GW(James and John, who were Zebedee’s sons and Simon’s partners, were also amazed. Jesus told Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will catch people instead of fish.”); Galatians 2:9 GW (James, Cephas, and John (who were recognized as the most important people) acknowledged that God had given me this special gift. So they shook hands with Barnabas and me, agreeing to be our partners. It was understood that we would work among the people who are not Jewish and they would work among Jewish people);
I. ANNOUNCE THE PERICOPE: Acts 3:1-8 (KJV)
II. READ THE PERICOPE: Acts 3:1-8
III. READ THE TEXT: ACTS 3:1,4 KJV (Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us).
IV. PURPOSE: To encourage the hearers to become spiritually stronger and more powerful in prayer by choosing an ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER to hold them accountable for their actions and behaviors.
V. Sermonic Theme: “Better TOGETHER”
VI: Introduction:
… The Bible promotes fellowship. At the very beginning (in Genesis 2:18 GW), during the Creation of Man and Woman, God say that it is NOT Good for Man to be ALONE. In other words, it’s not good for Mankind to live isolated and separate. Instead, it’s GOOD FOR Mankind to live in fellowship.
And obviously we can’t fellowship by ourselves. For it takes at least two people. At the same time, I contend this morning that one CAN WORSHIP with a CROWD; but one can’t TRULY fellowship with a crowd. Because True Fellowship happens in a small group of people.
That’s why Jesus had a small group of twelve disciples. Jesus’ ministry modeled fellowship with Tsemed – Sem-med - (a Hebrew Word which means: a yoke or team of at least two people).
*********************TAKE 5 BEATS********************
MOVE 1: In the Bible, the Greek word for fellowship is “koin-o-nia”.
a. It means to be as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ.
b. For real fellowship takes us beyond simply socializing, or studying together, into deeper levels of serving together, and, at times, even suffering together.
c. All of which, I believe is the antidote to the pervasive loneliness, un-answered prayers, and spiritual weakness that haunts so many Believers in the Church.
*******************TAKE 5 BEATS ********************
MOVE 2: In contrast, my brothers and sisters, several years ago God gave us the ministry of Deacon-In-Training (D.I.T.s).
a. At the time, we had no idea that others in our civilian community - around the world – had also been given something similar.
b. The objective of the Deacon In Training Ministry (as we understood it) was simply to immediately incorporate would-be servers, Ordain Deacons, Ministers, and Elders under one umbrella for training, and accountability purposes to the body of Christ; and one to another.
c. In other words, as the Church Body grew larger in number, it would also grow smaller in fellowship in order to discourage alienation and loneliness in The Body of Christ.
d. All of this were to be done while encouraging and nurturing fellowship. Because fellowship is important as we relates to one another, and with the Holy Spirit. For there is POWER in TWOs!
********************TAKE 5 BEATS********************
MOVE 3: For don’t you remember the Bible says, in Matthew 18:19-20:
a. … if any … two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, … it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
b. There is POWER in TWOs!
c. For the Scriptures says, in 2 Corinthians 13:1b - KJV, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
d. My brothers and sisters, there is POWER in TWOs!
e. It was the Prophet Amos that beg the question, in Amos 3:3, by asking, Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
****************TAKE 5 BEATS************************
MOVE 4: For who can ever forget, that it has already been said, in Deut. 32:30 KJV, that one CAN chase a thousand, and two … CAN … put ten thousand to flight …
a. There is POWER in TWOs!
b. Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 2:8-12 - Elijah take his robe and strike the waters of the Jordan.
c. While others observed the waters of the Jordan parting so that Elijah and Elisha could cross over on dry ground.
d. They did not witness Elijah’s incredible departure, but they realized that he was gone when Elisha returned alone.);
e. Moses and Aaron (they were used to deliver God’s people from bondage);
f. Joshua and Caleb (they only saw the giants from a divine perspective); Paul and Silas – Acts 16 – they were together when Paul cast the demon out of the fortune-telling slave girl).
*******************TAKE 5 BEATS**********************
MOVE 5: Now, in our text today, we find that the “THE HEALING OF A LAME MAN” occurred through the FELLOWSHIP of TWO.
a. This time the two were Peter and John.
b. For don’t you remember Peter and John had been accountability partners for quite some time.
c. Like, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen – they hung-out together.
d. They were fishermen.
e. One can even imagine that at times they spent long hours together fishing on the banks of the rivers.
f. In fact, you may recall that it was Peter and John who had prepared the Passover Feast.
g. And it was also Peter and John who, on Easter Sunday Morning, ran to the tomb to verify Jesus’ Resurrection.
h. Now, they’re on their way to prayer TOGETHER….
i. Note: Break-down the scriptures … and tell the story of the Healing of The Lame Man in contrast to those that are crippled emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially.
********************TAKE 5 BEATS *********************
CELEBRATION:
There’s POWER in TWOs … we’re “Better TOGETHER”…
Better TOGETHER … We’re Better TOGETHER …
