1. Introduction
2. How to live in the power of God’s Kingdom
1. Acts 3:1-16 ¹Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.²And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.³When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms.⁴But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!”⁵And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.⁶But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”⁷And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.⁸With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.⁹And all the people saw him walking and praising God;¹⁰and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. ¹¹While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.¹²But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?¹³The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.¹⁴But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,¹⁵but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.¹⁶And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.”
1. God uses any Christian who is willing to be used by Him!
2. John 5:1-19 ¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.³In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters;⁴for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.⁵A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”⁷The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”⁹Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.¹⁰So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”¹¹But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’”¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?”¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”¹⁵The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.¹⁷But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” ¹⁸For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. ¹⁹Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”
1. The key to walking in the power of the Kingdom of God is learning to do what the Father is doing in each situation you’re in!
3. John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.”
1. James 4:8a Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
4. It’s not enough to say the words of the Kingdom of God, we must also do the works of the Kingdom of God!
1. Eph. 4:11-12 ¹¹And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.
2. Isaiah 55:8-9 ⁸“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. ⁹“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
3. Prov. 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
4. Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
5. Deut. 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”
5. The key is relationship with God !
3. Conclusion

(Unless otherwise indicated all Scripture verses are in the New American Standard Version.)