06/26/2023
By Pastor Vinnie Cappetta
"The Power of Offering Jesus: A Story of Transformation"
"Remember, it is not your weakness that will get in the way of God's working through you, but your delusions of strength. His strength is made perfect in weakness! Point to His strength by being willing to admit your weakness." - Paul Tripp
On June 11th, Pastor Joe quoted this saying to introduce his sermon about Peter and John, who had no money to offer a lame man but gave him something far more powerful—the name of Jesus, which was enough to heal him.
During one of my summer breaks from college, I had the privilege of visiting the impoverished neighborhoods in our city on Saturdays, inviting families to join us for church each Sunday. After visiting a family that regularly attended, as I tried to leave their multifamily house, something prevented me from doing so. I heard a commotion upstairs and a whisper urging me to go upstairs, which I did. I knocked on the door, and it was opened by one of the strongest kids I had ever met. He introduced me to his sisters and mother, and the family decided to attend church with me the following day. Little did I know what was about to unfold.
The Holy Spirit was working in the life of that boy's little sister, and she placed her trust in Christ and was baptized. However, she was sick and had tubes inserted into her body, which required us to carefully wrap her to prevent water from entering the wrong places. In our church, the organ would play as the individual prepared for baptism. I remember waiting in anticipation for this girl to emerge. It felt like she would never come out of that changing room; it seemed as though the organist had to play through the entire hymnal. Finally, she emerged, and our pastor immersed her in the waters of baptism. As she rose from the water, she embraced a new life with Christ.
At the end of the summer, when I returned to my out-of-state college, I lost touch with that family. Partway through the semester, I received a call from my pastor informing me that the girl had passed away due to complications from her illness. My mind flashed back to that day in the hallway of that three-family house when I almost walked away, thinking that I didn't have much to offer the people living there. But I offered them what I had—Jesus—and that made all the difference.
