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[ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ But thy royal banner ♪ ♪ We must not suffer, Lord ♪

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♪ From victory unto victory ♪ ♪ Hail, thou nimble, healing ♪ ♪ Hail, every foot from his vanquished hand ♪ ♪ Christ is Lord indeed ♪

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♪ Stand up, stand up for Jesus ♪ The trumpet call of age, For to the right he conflicts In this his glorious day.

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Ye that are mean to serve him Against unnumbered foes, Join his chants in sainthood And sing his praise out loud.

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Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Let him in spirit alone. With young Augustine David, He cannot trust alone.

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But on the Gospel of the King's Christ he will be free. ♪ And losing all for danger ♪ ♪ He will not pass again ♪

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♪ And the glory of the Savior ♪ ♪ Will not be long ♪ ♪ His gain and joys of health ♪ ♪ Shall taste the winter's all ♪

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♪ And in the home of the brave ♪ ♪ For all of us shall be ♪ ♪ We with the faith of holiness ♪ ♪ Shall be eternally ♪

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- Speak to our hearts, O God. We ask in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ. Amen. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

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Acts chapter 3 and verse 6. Standing for Jesus. of our text are uttered by Peter, the preacher, to a professional beggar situated in the sacred precincts of the temple.

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His presence is familiar to those who frequent the temple worship services. He has a particular place where he meets and greets those who pass that way. It is near the beautiful gate. He's just a poor beggar, a cripple, one whose limbs are paralyzed.

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We need not speculate about how it happened because Luke, the beloved physician, has already examined or diagnosed the case for us, he's a cripple. Not because of an accident, not because of anything he did individually.

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His is a genetic problem. Something that is due to the heritage of the race. He was lame from his mother's womb. He has legs that are made to stand, but he cannot stand.

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He has limbs that are made for walking, but he cannot walk. He is lame. He suffers from estrangement. He's separated from his parts.

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These parts are connected to his body, but they do not cooperate. They're not coordinated with the body so that they do not function as they ought.

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His feet and ankle bones do not function in connection with the other part of his body. But all he did was to be born. This is the man's situation.

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It seems to me that this man's condition is a descriptive analysis of the problems that plague humanity. Consider South Africa, for example.

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Millions who are victims of the ruthless and oppressive segregated system called apartheid. They're denied justice in the courts. They're denied an equal opportunity.

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And all they did was just to be born. That's the condition of many today who suffer from poverty. All they did was to be born.

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This man is a cripple, a parasite, a professional beggar who is brought daily to the beautiful gate of the temple. And near this beautiful and magnificent temple with all of its gorgeous splendor is the spectacle

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of ugliness, a spectacle of poverty, a spectacle of misery. Here he is on his pallet, his bed, begging for a hand up. He's down. His condition is one of dead-end expectations.

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It is expressive of what we have today in our urban strife, in the unemployment that we face and the homelessness that plagues our community and our nation and the hunger that runs rampant throughout the country. Peter and John on their way to the temple to participate in prayer service. This service is scheduled for

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three o'clock in the afternoon. And this professional beggar asks of them a gift, alms. He holds out his cup expecting to receive from them some coins. Now he's done this for many years. This is his way of life. He has cultivated the art of begging. He's a professional beggar. That's probably why he has this particular

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place. Beautiful Gate was probably a place where more people came through that particular gate, more traffic. Now you see this man as he holds out cup in in hand, waiting for them to put some coins in. But Peter answers, he said, "Look on us, man, look at us.

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"See, you ought to be able to tell by our appearance "that we're not wealthy. "We have no bank account, no expensive clothes. "Look on us.

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"Silver and gold have I none, "but such as I have, give I you. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

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Now problems facing the poor and the minorities in our country cannot be solved by silver and gold. It's nice to have silver and gold. But a dreadful sickness is not cured merely

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by spending more money on it. You know, one of the criticisms facing our national government now is tax and spend, tax and spend. And we have evidence all around us that just spending, throwing more money at a problem

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doesn't mean that the problem is going to be solved. Many problems facing us today will not be resolved by civil rights laws. You know, we still have many, many problems as a people. Nearly half of all of our households are headed by women compared with other households.

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Fifteen percent of the dominant groups' households are in that category. Seventy-eight percent of working males in the dominant race have jobs. When we look, and I looked just a few days ago at the situation in the area that encompasses this church,

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it is the highest unemployment percentage in the city of Austin, 17%. Now the rest of Austin has about 5%, but we have 17%. Look at the educational level and we find figures very much like that.

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And all of this all around us sort of testifies, my brothers and sisters, of the lameness that exists at the beautiful gate. Right, right, right here, near the beautiful capital, just a few steps away, a few blocks if you please, but lame, near the beautiful gate. You look at an educational level, you know, it's similar. And right, right here, under the shadows

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of what we call the University of Texas and St. Edwards University and Houston too. With all of that right under the shadows, right at the beautiful gate.

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We have these alarming statistics. Well, we've become somewhat preoccupied with a lot of what I call false issues. One of the issues we talk about,

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most people don't understand it, prayer in the schools. And we get all caught up about that. And that's really not a government issue. That's an individual issue as to whether you wanna pray.

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You know, we ought not put that on the backs of the school. That's not where that belongs. You can pray in the school as much as you want. I prayed a whole lot of times when I was facing examination.

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Yes, sir. I didn't have to ask anybody about that. I was praying. Lord, get me through this.

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Yes, sir. You know, well, we talk about the issues of praying in the schools. We talk about the issue of abortion.

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And here, we had people lying down on our streets here some months ago, all that sort of issue. That's a personal issue. No matter how you try to legislate that,

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that's a personal, that's an individual issue. But all of these things that I've talked about that really have to do with the shaping of young lives for the future, somehow those things go unnoticed.

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This lame man, right at the gate called beautiful. So, Jesus has come. He has lived, he has suffered, he's died, he's risen again. And here these poor preachers are saying to this poor beggar,

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in the name of Jesus. >> This resurrected Lord, in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. That's a proclamation.

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Rise up and walk in the name of Jesus, in the authority of Jesus, in the power of the resurrected Lord. Rise up and walk.

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In other words, stand up, man. Get up from your bed. Rise up from your fallen state. Get up from the clutches of despair.

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Stand up. Stand up on your feet. Stand up right. This is a cherished gift.

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Stand up. You know, it takes a special power to stand up. And the older you get, the more you realize that. Take some special energy to get up, get up, to rise up.

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And it takes special courage in order to stand for something. I think it was Martin Luther King who said that you must stand, a man must stand for something

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or he will fall for anything. Stand for something or fall for anything. Take special courage. I remember a number of years ago we were having an election in our convention and it was a very, very controversial election.

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Who was going to be president? That was the issue. And there was one who was running against the incumbent and he had canvassed the country as to who would be president of the convention. We met in Richmond, Virginia that year and Reverend E.V. Hill and I were roommates. And we stayed up practically all night agonizing over the election as to which way we were

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going to vote. And Dr. Lucas, who was president of the state convention, had said, "You can vote any way you want to vote, but remember you've got to come back to Texas. Well that sent chills through our bones. And we talked and we talked.

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Hill said I'm gonna vote this way. I said I'm gonna vote this way. And so we came next day to the time of election, that crucial moment. And there were some people who wanted to get out of voting.

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You know they wanted to be non-committal. committal. Dr. Sands was presiding at that time. He said, "Everybody stand! Stand! You've got to declare yourself! Everybody must vote! We want to know where you stand in this election!" Nobody could hide. So the tellers, some had volunteered to be tellers so that they could escape. They said, "We already stand!" He said, "Well, squat!" [laughter]

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Everybody must declare. Well, that taking a stand involved a great deal of anguish, a great deal of anger that he take that stand. Well, every time you take a stand on an important issue, it requires courage. It requires some extra strength in order to stand up and say, "Here I stand.

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I can do no other. Rise up! Can't you hear Martin Luther? When he has the courage to stand up against the the leaders of the Catholic Church, he faces the threat of excommunication, he faces all kinds of reprisals, but he stands up and he said "Here I stand, I can do no other.

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"I've gotta stand here for my convictions. "I've gotta stand for what I believe in Jesus Christ. "Here I stand." Rise up!

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- Yes. - Rise up. I don't know whether we can visualize exactly what's really happening in this situation,

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but let's look at the situation in a little more depth. You see, it's three o'clock in the afternoon. This man is on his way to prayer meeting in the temple. Now the temple is under the control of Pharisees, scribes, leaders, these people who've been

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against Jesus. They just saw to it that he was crucified. But at this early time, those who were Christians were still worshiping in the temple with those Judaizers.

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They were still going to the temple just as they'd been doing before Jesus had died and risen again. So here, he goes into the temple. He rises up and walks into the temple,

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this place where people have crucified Jesus, this place where they have falsely accused him, this place where they've misunderstood him. He goes into the temple.

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He has the courage to stand in the midst of these people and say that I accept Jesus Christ as Lord of my life. of my life. Many times people don't have the courage just to stand for what they believe, stand for their convictions, stand up for him, stand for what's right.

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You've seen people, you know, they know what's right, but when you start asking them said, "Well, I don't know." Because they want to be favored by both groups. But he said, "Stand up. Declare yourself. Stand up for Jesus. Affirm your being." You know, they're conflicting voices seeking to dominate our thoughts and our

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actions so we have to stand for what we know to be true. Young people have to stand. And always temptations say go this way, go that way, but stand for what is right, stand for what you know to be true. So this man that was once carried on his palate. He's been doing that all the days of his existence, but now he responds to

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the divine word, "Stand up, stand up." Oh, don't be blown about by every wind that blows. Stand up. Stand up for truth and righteousness. Stand up. Stand up for this Jesus of Nazareth who was misunderstood even by his own countrymen. Stand up! Maintain courage and be true to your convictions. Stand up. Stand up because in

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him there is power for your weakness. In him there is support. So Paul says in writing to the Ephesians, "Having done all to stand." Stand against opposition, stand against the devils, stand against the experiences of that evil day, having done all to stand, and when all of the smoke is cleared from battle, let it be said

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that you are still standing. So don't stay where you are. Just stand. Well, you know, it's a wonderful thing to stand up.

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But it means even more if I were to take the next level there of walking. He stands. You know, some people say, you know,

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I've been standing here for-- I took my stand 20 years ago, and I'm still standing right there. They haven't moved. But to stand, he not only stands, but he walks.

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He's making progress. He's moving toward an objective. So he walks into the temple on his own. He's able to support himself as he goes into the temple.

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And not only does he walk, but it says that he is leaping and praising God. Oh, what a wonderful experience it is to praise God going into his temple,

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not only walking, but leaping and saying, "Praise be to God." Well, that's what it means to take a stand for Jesus, no matter what others may do,

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but to praise God every day of our lives, through our convictions, through our love, through our loyalty. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

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Praise Him, all preachers here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly folk. Praise God, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. As we sing now our hymn of invitation,

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we extend a privilege to the church. The door of the church is open. We invite you to come unite with the family of God here at Ebenezer by a letter by Christian Spirit of Truth.

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(soft piano music) (piano music) ♪ I'm resting on the open plain ♪ ♪ New lights are gaining every day ♪

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♪ Oh, to pray the hours I overcome ♪ ♪ Oh, can't I feel a loyal crown ♪ ♪ Oh, lift me up, I'm bound to stand ♪ ♪ I've made no effort, see, no effort ♪

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♪ Oh, I am brave, and I am proud ♪ ♪ Oh, can't I feel a loyal crown ♪ ♪ There are yet no pleas I to stay ♪ ♪ When hell's so bright and fears dismay ♪

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♪ Though some may dwell in peace above ♪ ♪ I pray my aim is higher now ♪ ♪ Lord lift me up I'm at your stand ♪ ♪ My faith on earth and strength on land ♪

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♪ Oh, I am glad that I have found ♪ ♪ The plant my freedom I am proud ♪ ♪ I want to live above the world ♪ ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪

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♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪ The land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪ I'll lift me up and let you stand ♪ ♪ And make no man your slave alone ♪

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♪ Oh, I am made and I am found ♪ ♪ For man's life we hold high above ♪ ♪ I want to sail the outposts high ♪ ♪ And catch a gleam of glory bright ♪

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♪ But still I pray till heaven I'm found ♪ ♪ I'll be here till I am found ♪ ♪ Lift me up and as I stand ♪ ♪ I'll make the heavens in a world ♪

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♪ Higher way than I am found ♪ ♪ Walk at my feet until I am found ♪ [MUSIC] [INAUDIBLE]

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