WEBVTT 00:00:04.009 --> 00:00:15.452 Well, we've been going through last few weeks talking about the vision we've had for the new year and we've been using a few words, three words specifically that you may have heard. 00:00:15.452 --> 00:00:20.490 One is the word encounter, then the word jubilee and the word prepare. 00:00:20.490 --> 00:00:27.003 Encounter speaks about being open to what the Holy Spirit is doing, is transforming work in us. 00:00:27.003 --> 00:00:35.814 Preparation is our celebration that God is giving us freedom and that our lives is becoming more like Christ. 00:00:35.814 --> 00:00:39.731 We get free as we let God do His work in us and then prepare. 00:00:39.731 --> 00:00:58.012 Last week you know, if you were here Neil spoke about how important discipleship is, that we pass along and show others who don't yet know the Lord or maybe are just struggling or walking to grow in their faith, and then we pass it on, help them pass it on to someone else. 00:00:58.012 --> 00:01:03.470 So those are all important things and this is what we have set out there for the new year. 00:01:03.470 --> 00:01:09.963 Question is, how do we embrace these things and grab hold of them for this coming year and make them practical? 00:01:09.963 --> 00:01:23.103 And I think, as I set with the elders in the fall time in September, we were discussing these issues and I think we, as elders, we kind of we kind of sense this is going to be a critical year. 00:01:23.103 --> 00:01:28.311 I don't know about you, but I think we all are kind of just thinking that that might be the case. 00:01:28.311 --> 00:01:49.593 This is a critical year for us in so many ways, and we just need to get ready for what we see on the horizon, what we sense may be coming Dark clouds that don't look too encouraging, but you know what we're in Christ and Jesus said take heart, I've overcome the world, and we can be confident in that. 00:01:49.593 --> 00:01:53.209 And you know, none of us know what's coming. 00:01:53.209 --> 00:01:58.540 None of us knows what's going to be in this year, but you know what we can know, what God tells us, all we do. 00:01:58.540 --> 00:02:21.210 We look back at the last two years, though, and we see where we've been headed, so that might give us a little bit of clue, because in the last two years, if you think, if they've shown us anything is that we are living in a pretty dark time, dark on the horizon, and things destroy the normal peace and security that we've known for so many years. 00:02:21.210 --> 00:02:41.530 So now I think you know, I'm just thinking we probably are just holding our breath of wondering when the next form of a lawless act or law is going to come into place and we just wonder from day to day because it seems like it's coming almost faster than we can keep up with something new every day on the news or wherever. 00:02:41.530 --> 00:02:43.604 So where is the church in all this? 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:54.688 The church has been right there, but in a lot of ways, to be quite honest, we've agreed with the culture and we've compromised the biblical principles that we've been taught. 00:02:54.688 --> 00:02:59.408 And so I just have this question what has happened to us? 00:02:59.408 --> 00:03:01.824 What has happened to us? 00:03:01.824 --> 00:03:23.549 You know, if I think about what Jesus taught us, he said that, as our role in society should be, is that we are to be salt and light Salt as a preservative and a flavor to society, and light in a dark place, and so we can't afford to give those things up. 00:03:23.549 --> 00:03:33.390 Jesus said, if you remember, if we lose those things, that we have nothing to offer to those and we might as well throw those things out because they have no effect. 00:03:33.390 --> 00:03:35.706 We don't live them out like we should. 00:03:35.706 --> 00:03:50.127 I don't know exactly what Jesus means with all that, but I know it's not good and you know it was said in the early church, the early Christians, and you remember this phrase they turned the world upside down. 00:03:50.127 --> 00:03:59.152 Do you love that I don't know about you, but I haven't been to many or heard too many churches that have been turning their world upside down. 00:03:59.152 --> 00:04:06.443 I mean, I think we're doing a great job, but you know how many of you know you can always go deeper, can always go deeper. 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:19.509 I heard one well-known pastor say that a realistic assessment would have to concede that the opposite has occurred the world has turned the church upside down, and Christians have allowed it to do so. 00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:24.375 You know, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to kind of realize that we are. 00:04:24.375 --> 00:04:38.050 We're living in uncertain times, and as I read Proverbs 22, for example, there in verse three it says the prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. 00:04:38.050 --> 00:04:46.769 And that doesn't mean we stick our heads in the sand, but what it does mean is that we are wise and that we're careful about how we live in this world. 00:04:46.769 --> 00:04:49.704 And so there's a precedent in scripture. 00:04:49.824 --> 00:05:01.790 I believe that we should be making such assessments so that we can know how to live our lives before a watching world and we can be effective purveyors of the gospel, so that we can be what he's called us to be. 00:05:01.790 --> 00:05:07.149 But to do that is to get rid of all the distractions. 00:05:07.149 --> 00:05:09.324 We got a lot of distractions. 00:05:09.324 --> 00:05:28.932 I mean, if I, if I'm driving down the road maybe you're one of these people and I see someone weaving down the road and I think I tell my wife, they're on their phone, they're on their phone that's not only dangerous in a physical sense but it's also dangerous spiritually to be distracted. 00:05:28.932 --> 00:05:48.870 And so over the next few weeks we're going to be talking to, I guess, go extend our series a little bit going to the scriptures to see a church that I would say is firing on all cylinders, spiritually firing on all cylinders, and we would say this is the kind of church I'd luck to be a part of. 00:05:48.870 --> 00:05:51.848 I'd love to be a part of a church like that. 00:05:51.848 --> 00:06:02.822 So today I want to take a brief look at that church and see what they were doing, how they were focused and what was obviously taking place in their midst was the very presence of God. 00:06:02.822 --> 00:06:05.209 Fascinating account here we're going to see. 00:06:05.209 --> 00:06:08.899 And then I want us to look at how they took all these practices. 00:06:08.899 --> 00:06:16.245 We're going to look at the first one today and see what they were doing to devote themselves to the things that mattered to God. 00:06:16.860 --> 00:06:19.547 So let's read about it in Acts chapter two. 00:06:19.547 --> 00:06:22.906 You want to turn to Acts chapter two, versus 42 through 47. 00:06:22.906 --> 00:06:27.564 This will be familiar passage to many of you and let's just read it together. 00:06:27.564 --> 00:07:12.252 It says and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. 00:07:12.252 --> 00:07:15.144 So you can picture this, this cell. 00:07:15.264 --> 00:07:19.273 What was, I think, at one point after Jesus resurrection? 00:07:19.273 --> 00:07:29.326 A frightened little church of 120 people secretly hidden away in the upper room praying for and waiting for the Holy Spirit to be given. 00:07:29.326 --> 00:07:36.961 And then, when Peter comes and he preaches his famous message in a few verses prior to this get this. 00:07:36.961 --> 00:07:44.435 He shares the gospel and in one single day, 3000 people come to Christ. 00:07:44.435 --> 00:07:47.747 And it says they were cut to the heart by the scripture. 00:07:47.747 --> 00:07:50.406 And they ask what shall we do? 00:07:50.406 --> 00:07:51.362 What must we do? 00:07:51.362 --> 00:07:56.228 And Peter tells them repent and believe, repent and believe. 00:07:56.228 --> 00:08:04.125 So here's the question how do you get 3000 new converts who have really, they don't know much at all, except they've trusted Christ? 00:08:04.125 --> 00:08:13.086 How do you get them to begin to make an impact such that it turns the world upside down and they themselves experience the very presence of God? 00:08:16.201 --> 00:08:24.887 You know, when I was a kid and I was playing literally baseball and played on a few teams and every once in a while we would have a losing streak. 00:08:24.887 --> 00:08:27.451 Nobody liked it, nobody liked it. 00:08:27.451 --> 00:08:28.273 We wanted to win. 00:08:28.273 --> 00:08:38.624 But occasionally that would happen and after two or three games our coach would come to the team and he'd say guys, we're going to have to fix this, and what we're going to do? 00:08:38.624 --> 00:08:43.164 We're going to go back to the fundamentals, the things we learned at the very first. 00:08:43.164 --> 00:08:45.327 We're going to go back and we're going to relearn them. 00:08:45.327 --> 00:08:46.625 And so what would we do? 00:08:46.625 --> 00:08:55.649 We would practice, we would practice, we would practice the fundamentals, you know, say people, say practice makes perfect. 00:08:55.649 --> 00:08:57.787 And that's not quite right. 00:08:57.787 --> 00:09:00.628 No, perfect practice makes perfect. 00:09:00.628 --> 00:09:04.634 And so when we do the things according to the way God wants them to do it. 00:09:04.634 --> 00:09:09.650 We are devoted to the right things in the right way, with the way that God has taught us to do them. 00:09:09.940 --> 00:09:14.120 So let me give you some basic observations to begin with on this passage On a church. 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:16.368 I just say it's the church with the right stuff. 00:09:16.368 --> 00:09:19.022 It's a church with the right stuff, the number one. 00:09:19.022 --> 00:09:20.066 Let's look at this one. 00:09:20.066 --> 00:09:22.985 First one the secret of their devotion was love. 00:09:22.985 --> 00:09:26.164 What did they, what did we need to know that? 00:09:26.164 --> 00:09:31.610 They knew it's that the secret of their devotion was love. 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:34.128 Jesus said these words. 00:09:34.128 --> 00:09:35.605 He said in Matthew 22,. 00:09:35.605 --> 00:09:42.086 You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 00:09:42.086 --> 00:09:49.605 This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 00:09:49.605 --> 00:09:54.182 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. 00:09:54.182 --> 00:10:00.268 So Jesus is really summing up all the old and new, the Old Testament, and he said this is the commandment given by God. 00:10:00.268 --> 00:10:06.971 It's the first and great commandment and at its core is this is a decision to give your whole heart to God. 00:10:06.971 --> 00:10:09.407 He said love the Lord, your God. 00:10:09.407 --> 00:10:10.602 How do you do? 00:10:10.602 --> 00:10:15.902 How do you do that with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind? 00:10:15.902 --> 00:10:21.649 And the second one how do you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself? 00:10:21.649 --> 00:10:25.625 That's a tall order, and Jesus called us to that. 00:10:27.020 --> 00:10:28.947 And here's the thing. 00:10:28.947 --> 00:10:35.431 And the truth is this that you give love by first receiving it. 00:10:35.431 --> 00:10:39.067 You give love first by receiving it. 00:10:39.067 --> 00:10:45.245 We love, the Bible says, because he first what he first loved us First John 419. 00:10:45.245 --> 00:10:50.626 So we can't ride a check If our bank account is empty, right. 00:10:50.626 --> 00:10:55.782 So God fills our bank, he fills our love tank, our heart. 00:10:55.782 --> 00:11:01.107 He gives a deposit of love inside of us so that we can love other people. 00:11:01.107 --> 00:11:03.847 And without that being there you can't love people. 00:11:03.847 --> 00:11:06.869 So when we come to Christ, he gives us his spirit. 00:11:06.869 --> 00:11:11.784 And his spirit, it says, he gives us the love that comes from God. 00:11:11.784 --> 00:11:14.726 And so that's how we begin. 00:11:14.726 --> 00:11:16.788 You give love first by receiving it. 00:11:16.788 --> 00:11:19.801 How did God do that First? 00:11:19.841 --> 00:11:34.208 John 4-9 says by this the love of God was manifested, that is given in us, not just to us, but in us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. 00:11:34.208 --> 00:11:43.469 And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and set his son to be the propitiation for our sins. 00:11:43.469 --> 00:11:45.539 What is that word propitiation? 00:11:45.539 --> 00:11:50.783 It means that Jesus satisfied the wrath of God that was upon us. 00:11:50.783 --> 00:11:57.504 He went to the cross, he paid our sin debt and he set us free, and so he paid that debt. 00:11:57.504 --> 00:12:01.548 You give love by first receiving it. 00:12:01.548 --> 00:12:03.506 Have you received Jesus this morning? 00:12:03.506 --> 00:12:08.485 It's all important if you're gonna be a person who is able to love. 00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:13.765 The second thing we see there is, the secret to loving is living loved. 00:12:13.765 --> 00:12:25.567 Now, one thing I know is that if I know the person who has saved me loves me to the uttermost, has unconditional love for me, it doesn't matter what happens to me, because everything is filtered through his loving hands. 00:12:25.567 --> 00:12:33.529 When you know that you're accepted and you're fully loved by God, you can feel free and confident to love other people. 00:12:33.529 --> 00:12:44.907 See, most of the time we're so focused on ourselves, we lose sight of the other person, and but we can be free in that when we live loved like he talks about. 00:12:44.907 --> 00:12:46.787 So here's the thing on this first point. 00:12:46.787 --> 00:12:53.091 The starting point in all our devotion, then, is first to receive God's love, to receive God's love. 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:57.451 Here's a second observation about this church. 00:12:57.451 --> 00:12:58.783 They knew this. 00:12:58.783 --> 00:13:03.126 I believe, and we need to know it is that the outcome of their devotion was grace. 00:13:03.126 --> 00:13:26.149 The outcome of their devotion was grace Later, in a couple of chapters later, in chapter four, verse 33, it says great grace was upon them all, not just a few, but on them all, which means the Holy Spirit was at work, he was doing things that they couldn't do themselves and God was visiting them in amazing ways. 00:13:26.539 --> 00:13:30.967 Let me give you these six wonderful effects, and I'm just gonna give these two. 00:13:30.967 --> 00:13:33.006 These are all effects of God's grace. 00:13:33.006 --> 00:13:43.687 The first one is an atmosphere this is in verses 43 through 47, an atmosphere of holy awe that set the tone for their gatherings. 00:13:43.687 --> 00:13:50.128 In other words, they had a credible, reverential fear of God when people came on to meet with them. 00:13:50.128 --> 00:13:55.229 In fact, people were afraid to meet with them because God was doing things that they couldn't explain. 00:13:55.229 --> 00:14:09.427 And that brings us to the second one amazing signs and wonders that revealed God's presence and power that came through the apostles, and then vital community that was occurring, that which was formed by the Spirit. 00:14:09.427 --> 00:14:12.024 We were gonna talk about that in a couple of few weeks. 00:14:12.304 --> 00:14:17.205 The word coignee you're gonna find out what coignee really is, but they were experiencing it. 00:14:17.205 --> 00:14:21.341 And then loving general vital community formed by the Spirit. 00:14:21.341 --> 00:14:24.447 Then loving generosity toward those who had needs. 00:14:24.447 --> 00:14:29.969 They recognized people who had needs and they met those needs sacrificially. 00:14:29.969 --> 00:14:35.304 Then an attitude of gratitude and celebration for what God was doing. 00:14:35.304 --> 00:14:39.326 I mean, you would go in there and I'm sure their worship servers were off the chart. 00:14:39.326 --> 00:14:41.543 You would wanna been there. 00:14:41.543 --> 00:14:45.424 And then, finally, daily growth through the power of the gospel. 00:14:45.424 --> 00:14:47.827 Every day someone seemed to come to Christ. 00:14:47.827 --> 00:14:51.806 Does that sound like a church you'd like to be a part of? 00:14:51.806 --> 00:14:56.446 Or a church maybe you'd feel comfortable to invite your friends and family to? 00:14:56.446 --> 00:14:58.625 Yeah, me too, me too. 00:14:59.399 --> 00:15:03.671 Some might say, well, that was then and this is now. 00:15:03.671 --> 00:15:05.886 I mean, do you really expect that to happen in our day? 00:15:05.886 --> 00:15:09.245 Here's the thing I think God's the same yesterday, today and forever. 00:15:09.245 --> 00:15:14.889 He can do whatever he wants to do if we get ourselves in the position to receive His grace. 00:15:14.889 --> 00:15:25.167 When we begin to devote our hearts and minds and our whole self to the living God and do the things that matter to him, he will respond in grace. 00:15:25.167 --> 00:15:26.825 That's always true. 00:15:26.825 --> 00:15:34.227 So when we pursue kingdom realities or kingdom priorities, we can expect to see kingdom realities. 00:15:34.227 --> 00:15:41.070 To say that again, when we pursue kingdom priorities, we can expect to see kingdom realities. 00:15:41.070 --> 00:15:46.687 And that's really all, folks, all about aligning our heart with God's heart. 00:15:46.687 --> 00:15:49.725 And he just shows up. 00:15:49.725 --> 00:15:50.929 You know, here's an interesting thing. 00:15:50.929 --> 00:15:57.886 I think God has already shown up because this verse has already been heard today from different things. 00:15:57.980 --> 00:16:05.927 Judy read this in her scripture reading and I think our worship team shared it this morning, but this is the verse from James 4-8. 00:16:05.927 --> 00:16:11.386 That, you know, god's at work when he repeats this things over and over in our time together. 00:16:11.386 --> 00:16:17.546 James 4-8 encourages us draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 00:16:17.546 --> 00:16:24.128 That's a promise and all it's saying is come a little bit closer, come a little bit closer. 00:16:24.128 --> 00:16:40.589 See, our goal is to be with God, face to face, and verse John talks about that fellowship that those who know Him deeply can experience together and see when we incline our heart toward God in the things that he loves, and he sees, he responds. 00:16:40.589 --> 00:16:44.563 He just responds and we can expect it, we can encounter Him. 00:16:44.563 --> 00:16:47.807 The result is that he treats us better than we deserve. 00:16:47.807 --> 00:16:50.365 Right, and that's called grace. 00:16:50.365 --> 00:16:53.647 That's called grace and there's power that comes from this. 00:16:53.647 --> 00:17:06.147 It comes upon us in the degree of the grace is conditioned on what it's conditioned on how close we're willing to come right, our willingness to draw near and encounter Him. 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:13.672 Jesus said it like this seek the kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need. 00:17:13.672 --> 00:17:22.968 So don't be afraid, little flock, for it gives your Father great happiness to give you the kingdom you want God to give you the kingdom. 00:17:22.968 --> 00:17:25.007 You want Him to give us the kingdom. 00:17:25.007 --> 00:17:29.104 Then begin to devote your heart wholeheartedly to the living God. 00:17:29.104 --> 00:17:40.326 And then here's a third thing I observe here, and that is something they knew that we need to know this early church, the pattern of their devotion was simple. 00:17:40.326 --> 00:17:43.347 I really liked that it was simple. 00:17:43.347 --> 00:17:50.265 They devoted themselves to four things here the apostles teaching, the fellowship to the break and the bread and the prayers. 00:17:51.420 --> 00:18:05.470 You know, as I was praying through this message this week, I just got a sense of a this doesn't happen very often just a picture of something that felt like it was worth, worthy of giving you sort of an analogy. 00:18:05.470 --> 00:18:16.707 And it goes like this there's this story of a man who decided to take his young, four year old son to the zoo, and so they got in the car, they got to the. 00:18:16.707 --> 00:18:36.887 They entered the gate and as they were walking along, they were looking at all the places and, hand in hand, just walking along, and all of a sudden his little four year old son saw the monkeys and broke away and pulled away from his father's hand and this father caught up with his son and they were both standing there in front of the monkey cage. 00:18:36.887 --> 00:18:52.026 And the little son didn't know it, but the dad had brought a banana and he pulled it out of his pocket and maybe not that he should have, but he threw the banana into the monkey cage and guess what happened? 00:18:52.026 --> 00:18:54.930 The monkeys went crazy for this banana. 00:18:54.930 --> 00:19:05.364 They were fighting each other, calling each other, biting each other, pulling each other's hairs, hair, and they were just, they were having a cage fight, let's just put it that way. 00:19:05.364 --> 00:19:16.465 And so they were watching all this, he and his little son, and they were just mesmerized by it and he didn't realize it. 00:19:16.465 --> 00:19:35.962 But his little four year old son kind of slipped away and walked down to the polar bear exhibit and he slipped through the bars and he walked down the embankment and sat down right in front of the water there and as soon as his father realized that his son was not there anymore. 00:19:35.962 --> 00:19:50.346 He quickly saw that he was over and he had made his way through there and as fast as he could he tried to rescue his son, to do what he could do before that bear would tear his little son limb from limb. 00:19:51.875 --> 00:19:53.140 Now here's the analogy. 00:19:53.140 --> 00:20:20.637 In the same way, the church, the guardian of salt and light in our culture, has become so distracted by the monkeys fighting in the culture of wars around us that we have lost sight of what's most important, and that is our intimacy with the God who knows us, the living God. 00:20:20.637 --> 00:20:23.465 And we've lost something. 00:20:23.465 --> 00:20:30.299 We've lost something that makes us distinct before a watching world. 00:20:30.299 --> 00:20:38.762 See, the Bible has warnings for us of being distracted by the things that don't matter but seem to catch our attention so often. 00:20:40.595 --> 00:20:41.458 You think about these. 00:20:41.458 --> 00:20:48.162 In the parable of the soils, for example, jesus tells us parable because he's telling the secrets of the kingdom. 00:20:48.162 --> 00:20:51.803 In the parable of soil, there's one soil that represents the human heart. 00:20:51.803 --> 00:20:52.939 The other three are all. 00:20:52.939 --> 00:20:56.163 They all don't grow anything. 00:20:56.163 --> 00:20:59.003 The plant fails because of distraction. 00:21:00.575 --> 00:21:08.883 And then we all know this one Jesus is at the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and Martha is up busy serving. 00:21:08.883 --> 00:21:10.821 She's just making sure everything's done. 00:21:10.821 --> 00:21:12.662 And where is Mary? 00:21:12.662 --> 00:21:16.701 She is sitting at the feet of Jesus and Martha is upset. 00:21:16.701 --> 00:21:19.260 It's like get over here, tell her to get over here and help me. 00:21:19.260 --> 00:21:26.200 And Jesus says Mary's, she's chosen the better part. 00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:31.846 She's sitting at my feet getting to know me better. 00:21:31.846 --> 00:21:37.563 You're worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is necessary. 00:21:39.734 --> 00:21:42.943 And then I think of what Jesus said in Matthew 24. 00:21:42.943 --> 00:21:50.561 And he's talking about the end of days and he says as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man comes. 00:21:50.561 --> 00:21:52.622 Everybody will be eating and drinking. 00:21:52.622 --> 00:22:03.104 And I'll just paraphrase the idea is that we will not be prepared when he comes if we live like that, distracted lives, instead of being prepared for his coming. 00:22:03.104 --> 00:22:04.398 And this is a problem. 00:22:04.398 --> 00:22:07.461 Isn't it For the church to be distracted? 00:22:07.461 --> 00:22:20.516 Because if the enemy can't get you defeated, he can get you distracted and you'll fail to do what he's sent you for and what he's called you to See. 00:22:20.556 --> 00:22:33.598 The tax for us, I believe, for us as the bride of Christ, is to be ready when he comes, prepared for him to arrive and to be about his business, not about our busyness, and we're just too busy. 00:22:33.598 --> 00:22:44.440 So can I make a plea for simplicity, to so order your lives that you do the things that matter the most. 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:53.599 That takes a little bit of effort because we got so many irons in the fire and often they keep us from doing the thing that God wants us to do the most. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:23:00.481 Well, here we see that they're being devoted to these things. 00:23:00.481 --> 00:23:01.424 These four things. 00:23:01.424 --> 00:23:04.363 It really just invited God's grace. 00:23:04.363 --> 00:23:05.700 Let me read them to you again. 00:23:05.700 --> 00:23:08.523 Think of these as conduits, if you will, of God's grace. 00:23:08.674 --> 00:23:10.181 Number one the apostles teaching. 00:23:10.181 --> 00:23:12.663 That is the word of God. 00:23:12.663 --> 00:23:17.405 Second, the fellowship, which is spending life together. 00:23:17.405 --> 00:23:18.500 You're gonna find out what that means. 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:19.438 That word, koinani. 00:23:19.438 --> 00:23:29.798 As I said, the breaking of bread, which I call worship, plus there's things that kind of go into that include a few things, and then the prayers. 00:23:29.798 --> 00:23:31.960 So those four things. 00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:35.065 So this is what we're gonna be speaking about in the weeks to come. 00:23:35.134 --> 00:23:47.982 So this morning I wanna kind of just look at the first of these, which is the word, and I think the order here that he gives about what they were devoted to is important, because everything flows out of the word. 00:23:47.982 --> 00:23:50.501 We've heard about the primacy of the word. 00:23:50.501 --> 00:23:52.161 It comes first for a reason. 00:23:52.161 --> 00:24:00.325 So let's look at it about their being devoted to the word it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. 00:24:00.325 --> 00:24:05.778 You know it used to be said a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. 00:24:07.635 --> 00:24:14.502 I don't hear that so much many times now, because most of the time our stuff is online and many people don't have a newspaper. 00:24:14.502 --> 00:24:25.020 But more than that, what we get in the news and the media is often a little more than propaganda. 00:24:25.020 --> 00:24:39.660 It's typically full of lies, and so the problem is that we have no reliable source outside of our little cultural place where we can get the truth. 00:24:39.660 --> 00:24:45.987 But last night I was listening to a guy who was. 00:24:45.987 --> 00:25:05.500 He was a former Border Patrol agent, an ex-Green Beret, a medical doctor, and as I listened to him online, he was talking about the border problem and he kind of got the idea this guy's a Christian and he gave his assessment of what he thought was really going on. 00:25:05.500 --> 00:25:13.123 And as I listened more and more, I just said to myself this guy is speaking truth, because he was speaking biblical ideas. 00:25:13.123 --> 00:25:21.402 It sounded like the Bible and you say well, is that possible to make those kinds of assessments about what in the world is going on? 00:25:21.402 --> 00:25:23.421 You ever asked yourself this past year. 00:25:23.421 --> 00:25:25.339 What in the world is going on? 00:25:26.454 --> 00:25:39.321 Well, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians, 2, 15 and 16, listen to this the spiritual man, the spiritually material Christian, judges all things, questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals. 00:25:39.321 --> 00:25:47.103 Yet, as himself judged by no one, the unbeliever cannot judge and understand the believer's spiritual nature. 00:25:47.103 --> 00:25:52.000 For who has known the mind and purposes of the Lord so as to instruct him? 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:57.103 But we have the mind of Christ to be guided by his thoughts and purposes. 00:25:57.103 --> 00:26:00.676 And so Paul here is quoting a portion of this. 00:26:00.998 --> 00:26:03.445 Verses are quoting Isaiah, the prophet. 00:26:03.445 --> 00:26:06.262 Who can know what God is up to? 00:26:06.262 --> 00:26:07.486 Is basically what he's saying. 00:26:07.486 --> 00:26:14.922 And the answer he gives is those who are spiritual, those who are Christians, those who have the Holy Spirit living inside of them. 00:26:14.922 --> 00:26:25.943 That means every Christian, every person who knows Christ, has the ability to have discernment about what's going on in your world, and because you have the Holy Spirit living within you. 00:26:25.943 --> 00:26:30.921 So to be spiritual is to live for Christ and think like Christ. 00:26:30.921 --> 00:26:37.022 So let me read that passage again from the message and just see if you can kind of get a grab hold of this. 00:26:38.095 --> 00:26:47.741 This is a paraphrase from the message that he says the unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can't receive the gifts of God's spirit. 00:26:47.741 --> 00:26:50.913 There's no capacity for them. 00:26:50.913 --> 00:26:53.531 They seem like so much silliness. 00:26:53.531 --> 00:27:01.013 Spirit can be known only by spirit God's spirit and our spirits in open communion. 00:27:01.013 --> 00:27:09.294 Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God's spirit is doing and can't be judged by unspiritual critics. 00:27:09.294 --> 00:27:13.809 Isaiah's question is there anyone around who knows God's spirit? 00:27:13.809 --> 00:27:20.673 Anyone who knows what he's doing has been answered Christ knows and we have Christ's spirit. 00:27:21.464 --> 00:27:28.852 And so you think about this early church and these 3,000 believers who just really didn't know a whole lot in terms of Bible knowledge. 00:27:28.852 --> 00:27:41.932 They understood the absolute necessity and priority of putting themselves in the Word, important and committed to the Scriptures. 00:27:41.932 --> 00:27:43.670 And you know, think about it. 00:27:43.670 --> 00:27:47.595 Wouldn't it have been amazing for you and I just to kind of been a fly on the wall? 00:27:47.595 --> 00:27:59.348 I mean, these guys are teaching and preaching the very words that were passed on to them by the living Christ, and to hear what they were saying, that would have been amazing. 00:27:59.348 --> 00:28:15.731 Well, let me give you 4 vital realities that I think it will change the way you and I take in the Word this year and if you just embrace them and it's just a matter of devoting yourself and devoting your heart wholeheartedly to these things that we'll be talking about. 00:28:16.105 --> 00:28:19.314 What did these believers know that we need to know? 00:28:19.314 --> 00:28:24.388 And the first one is that the apostolic word is the Word of God. 00:28:24.388 --> 00:28:33.138 The apostolic word is the Word of God, first, or 2 Timothy 3 says all Scripture is God breathed. 00:28:33.138 --> 00:28:35.451 All Scripture is God breathed. 00:28:35.451 --> 00:28:36.769 All means all. 00:28:36.769 --> 00:28:44.615 It means both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and the statement that is God breathed is we. 00:28:44.615 --> 00:28:49.613 It means that God breathed it out, and we use the term inspired. 00:28:49.613 --> 00:28:51.731 It sounds a little backwards, doesn't it? 00:28:51.731 --> 00:29:00.310 But inspired means God expressed it, he breathed it out, and everything that God says there's a creative power in it. 00:29:00.310 --> 00:29:14.534 He created the world with His Word, and so what you have when you open the book called the Bible is both the Old and New Testament, or what they're, the very words of God. 00:29:15.045 --> 00:29:15.748 Do you believe that? 00:29:15.748 --> 00:29:17.073 I think they did. 00:29:17.073 --> 00:29:18.731 No other book that's ever been written. 00:29:18.731 --> 00:29:19.487 Think about this. 00:29:19.487 --> 00:29:23.210 It comes on a par at all with what the Scripture is. 00:29:23.210 --> 00:29:25.711 It's not even remotely on the same level. 00:29:26.545 --> 00:29:29.053 So when you open the book, god is speaking. 00:29:29.053 --> 00:29:30.589 God is speaking. 00:29:30.589 --> 00:29:34.935 That means it has divine authority over your life and my life. 00:29:34.935 --> 00:29:38.214 When God speaks, the old commercial EF button. 00:29:38.214 --> 00:29:39.148 You should be listening. 00:29:39.148 --> 00:29:41.230 When God speaks, you should listen. 00:29:41.230 --> 00:29:49.308 So one's response or lack of response doesn't change the fact of the nature of Scripture it is God's Word. 00:29:50.065 --> 00:29:57.757 So I think the teaching of this early church if you had been there, it was not a casual laissez-faire experience. 00:29:57.757 --> 00:30:02.773 I mean they were intently listening because they knew God was speaking and they wanted to hear. 00:30:02.773 --> 00:30:09.627 It wasn't like the latest Ted Talk or the latest novel put out by the New York Times or the Best Seller. 00:30:09.627 --> 00:30:16.919 No, this was on a par far above human philosophy and human thought. 00:30:16.919 --> 00:30:18.310 This was God speaking. 00:30:18.310 --> 00:30:23.053 They knew God was speaking and so they were devoted to it on a daily basis. 00:30:23.053 --> 00:30:28.208 Ever thought of this as that you can't wait to get along with God in the morning? 00:30:28.208 --> 00:30:32.772 Because simply not because you're having to say well, I checked off my devotional today. 00:30:32.772 --> 00:30:38.055 This simply is I want to hear, I've got to hear from God. 00:30:38.055 --> 00:30:40.470 That's the right motivation. 00:30:40.470 --> 00:30:48.336 And because that's true, I just have one question how carefully are you listening? 00:30:48.336 --> 00:30:52.530 How carefully are you listening? 00:30:53.525 --> 00:31:06.310 See, this early church was devoted first of all to the Word, because they knew it is the Word of God and secondly, they knew the Spirit of God transforms us by the Word of God. 00:31:06.310 --> 00:31:09.814 Notice what it says in 2 Timothy 3, 16. 00:31:09.814 --> 00:31:16.092 And it says there it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 00:31:16.092 --> 00:31:18.451 Now that could be a little bit confused. 00:31:18.451 --> 00:31:20.792 What does all those things mean, those different terms? 00:31:20.924 --> 00:31:39.490 And it helped me, I think, at one point to kind of put an analogy in my mind about kind of picturing myself on a hike somewhere in the Smokies and then imagining myself getting lost, which would be horrible if you've ever been up there and you've ever had that experience. 00:31:39.490 --> 00:31:42.069 That almost happened to me one time. 00:31:42.069 --> 00:32:01.328 I was hiking with a buddy and I was at a point in the trails near the end of the day and we got to the fork in the trail and lo and behold, as we got there we were expecting to have a sign that pointed us back to the car and we found that someone had ripped off the signs on both of the signposts. 00:32:01.328 --> 00:32:16.590 So we didn't know which direction to take and the only way that we could figure it out was we looked at the sun and began to well, we need to go that direction, because that's the direction the sun is going down and that's the direction where our car is. 00:32:16.590 --> 00:32:25.834 And so here's an analogy for us the Word of God is speaking and it tells us the right way. 00:32:25.834 --> 00:32:28.112 It tells us the walk this way. 00:32:28.845 --> 00:32:35.830 And so if we take those words, it's useful for these things, for teaching, in other words, it shows us the right path to be on. 00:32:35.830 --> 00:32:51.028 It shows us the right path to be on, it's useful for rebuking, that is, it warns us when we're off the path, it convicts us and it exposes our error and the error of our culture. 00:32:51.028 --> 00:32:58.674 And then it says for correcting If you're off the path, it guides you back on the path. 00:32:58.674 --> 00:33:01.147 The Holy Spirit will guide you when you're off the path. 00:33:01.147 --> 00:33:06.346 The Holy Spirit, if you have scripture, he can lead you back to the place you need to be. 00:33:06.346 --> 00:33:15.454 And then it says for training and righteousness it gives us the skills necessary to navigate a godly life. 00:33:15.454 --> 00:33:18.690 Those are all useful to us. 00:33:18.690 --> 00:33:20.035 By knowing the scripture. 00:33:20.035 --> 00:33:23.715 Jesus said when the spirit of truth comes, what is this job? 00:33:23.715 --> 00:33:26.053 He will guide you into all the truth. 00:33:28.842 --> 00:33:35.553 So it's important, it's critically important, that we believe that the Bible is not only inspired, but it's also something else. 00:33:35.553 --> 00:33:36.577 It's inerrant. 00:33:36.577 --> 00:33:41.256 That means it is without error in its original autograph. 00:33:41.256 --> 00:33:43.102 You say, well, we don't have any of those, do we? 00:33:43.102 --> 00:33:46.361 No, we have no original copies of the original riotings. 00:33:46.361 --> 00:33:47.503 But guess what we do have? 00:33:47.503 --> 00:33:54.227 We have many copies written during the lifetime of those who knew the apostles. 00:33:54.227 --> 00:34:04.252 And if I had to show you, there are thousands of manuscripts, 19,000, maybe more manuscripts that are copies. 00:34:04.252 --> 00:34:12.481 And if you looked at all those manuscripts you would not find anything that's significance, that would change your mind about the book that you hold, called the Bible. 00:34:12.902 --> 00:34:15.766 You can be confident that what you have is the Word of God. 00:34:15.766 --> 00:34:23.164 So it is a reliable thing. 00:34:23.164 --> 00:34:28.184 It is reliable as a standard by which we can measure and guide our life. 00:34:28.184 --> 00:34:29.650 You can trust it. 00:34:29.650 --> 00:34:32.400 The Spirit of God transforms us by the Word. 00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:40.445 So, like the early church, if you want to encounter God the way they did, we must know that this Word is the Word of God. 00:34:40.445 --> 00:34:44.385 We have to know that the Word can transform our life. 00:34:44.385 --> 00:34:47.157 And then, thirdly, they knew something. 00:34:47.157 --> 00:34:50.050 We need to know that God's Word is transcendent truth. 00:34:50.050 --> 00:34:56.400 When you've got a culture, who's saying, well, that's your truth and my truth, no, there's a, that's a truth beyond your truth. 00:34:56.400 --> 00:34:59.068 You just don't know it yet, right? 00:34:59.068 --> 00:35:01.476 So Paul is talking here. 00:35:01.496 --> 00:35:25.422 An example that I give is first, thessalonians, and it's the Thessalonian Church and Paul is talking to them and he says that we also thank God constantly for this that when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the Word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God which is at work in you believers. 00:35:25.422 --> 00:35:32.086 That that word in you believers would be better, said you who believe, and we're gonna see that. 00:35:32.086 --> 00:35:35.802 But the Word received and the Word for accepted, there are different words here. 00:35:35.802 --> 00:35:39.670 You received it and you accepted it. 00:35:39.670 --> 00:35:49.686 Received means that it was passed on as sort of a tradition from the apostles to the next generation to the next generation. 00:35:49.686 --> 00:36:00.306 And we hear Paul saying it like this guard the gospel because it's a, it's a deposit given to you that you have to watch over and care for and not distort. 00:36:00.306 --> 00:36:04.302 That's an objective way of looking at the truth. 00:36:04.302 --> 00:36:06.126 He said you received it objectively. 00:36:06.126 --> 00:36:08.922 It was outside of your personal experience. 00:36:08.922 --> 00:36:19.768 But he goes on to say and, by the way, that the objective sense of Scripture it would have been true whether they accepted it or not the Bible is still truth, whether you accept it or not. 00:36:19.768 --> 00:36:22.338 So here's the thing. 00:36:22.338 --> 00:36:25.632 He goes on to say that their attitude toward the Word it mattered. 00:36:26.376 --> 00:36:30.333 This is talking about our approach to Scripture and how you hear God's Word. 00:36:30.333 --> 00:36:35.170 He is thankfully says that they actually accepted it for what it was. 00:36:35.170 --> 00:36:42.130 It was the Word of God, and the Word accepted there means welcomed or embraced. 00:36:42.130 --> 00:36:58.800 Welcomed or embraced, you know, when I was just starting out as one of the elders a few years ago, neil was kind of leading the elder team at that time and one of the things he would say and you guys will remember, he would say come on home with me now when we get done. 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:00.385 Come on home with me now. 00:37:00.385 --> 00:37:08.422 And what he meant with that is just I love you guys and I want you to, I want you to feel free that you can, you can connect with me anytime. 00:37:08.422 --> 00:37:13.641 That's the way I received it and that's the way we need to think of the Word. 00:37:13.641 --> 00:37:15.769 Come on home with me now. 00:37:15.769 --> 00:37:18.320 Have you let the Word come home to your heart? 00:37:18.320 --> 00:37:18.820 Today? 00:37:18.820 --> 00:37:26.704 It can change everything when the Word of God comes into us, comes to us objectively. 00:37:26.784 --> 00:37:30.938 I said we should accept it subjectively, in the right way. 00:37:30.938 --> 00:37:39.710 We should welcome it, and so when we talk about the Word of God, we talk about it being, as I said, the Word of God is transcendent truth. 00:37:39.710 --> 00:37:43.065 It means that it originates from outside ourselves. 00:37:43.065 --> 00:37:47.382 It's not subject to all the things that are going on down here. 00:37:47.382 --> 00:37:51.900 In fact, it's outside human realms and it doesn't come from a human source. 00:37:51.900 --> 00:37:55.726 It doesn't come from human philosophy, it comes from a God Almighty. 00:37:55.726 --> 00:38:03.248 So it's a higher authority than what we would give to a human Word. 00:38:03.829 --> 00:38:12.847 And then, finally, fourth thing, something that they knew, that we need to know, this early church, is that God's Word makes sense of life. 00:38:12.847 --> 00:38:24.061 God's Word makes sense of life, he says in Hebrews 412, the writer there, for the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. 00:38:24.061 --> 00:38:28.820 It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. 00:38:28.820 --> 00:38:32.347 It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 00:38:32.347 --> 00:38:37.605 So there's some things that we need to see in that verse. 00:38:37.605 --> 00:38:46.632 The first is that this Word is life to us by the Spirit, god's Word, as I said, it has creative power in our lives. 00:38:46.632 --> 00:38:49.630 It can get in and it can do things where nothing else can. 00:38:49.630 --> 00:38:52.563 It's like a surgeon's scalpel. 00:38:52.563 --> 00:38:55.010 It can get into the depths of us, in our heart. 00:38:56.356 --> 00:39:05.324 Make me think of, you know, when Jesus following as erection, he encountered two of his disciples walking down the Emmaus Road. 00:39:05.324 --> 00:39:12.789 That road is about two miles long, from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and he was walking and talking in deep conversation. 00:39:12.789 --> 00:39:24.324 The disciples were discouraged, they were disappointed because they thought things were going to happen and they it appeared that Jesus had died and was no more and their vision and dreams were gone. 00:39:24.324 --> 00:39:25.867 And Jesus was talking to them. 00:39:25.867 --> 00:39:35.012 And eventually they get to the end of the road and they arrive at these two disciples home and these disciples say well, let's get close, it's the end of the day pretty much. 00:39:35.012 --> 00:39:38.251 Why don't you just stay and have dinner with us? 00:39:38.251 --> 00:39:48.164 And it says in this account, in Luke, when Jesus had taken his place at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 00:39:48.164 --> 00:39:52.402 At this point their eyes were opened and they recognized him. 00:39:52.402 --> 00:39:55.148 Then he vanished out of their sight. 00:39:55.148 --> 00:40:05.463 They said to each other didn't our hearts burn within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us. 00:40:08.048 --> 00:40:10.554 This is why we must preach the word. 00:40:10.554 --> 00:40:16.291 The Bible says preach the word, and our elder team tries our best to do that. 00:40:16.291 --> 00:40:35.378 We don't, hopefully, give our opinion, but here's what I've learned over the years that people tend to be hungrier for God's Word than they know, and when they actually get the word they can't believe that they were starving. 00:40:35.378 --> 00:40:48.601 You can go to a lot of places where many people who teach God's Word will give the word a little tip of the hat and maybe ad averse, and then they ever return to it again. 00:40:48.601 --> 00:40:53.242 Don't be a part of church like that that doesn't teach the scriptures all the way through. 00:40:57.489 --> 00:41:19.353 You know, for me it was probably the greatest privilege to sit under during my college days a man who preached God's Word like that, and it was interesting because, as we, he would preach from the old in the New Testament and every Sunday he had the Bible out and he would the whole sermon. 00:41:19.353 --> 00:41:31.003 This is the phrase he used turning your Bible to, turning your Bible to, turning your Bible to turning your Bible to, and so the whole time was seeing what God's Word said. 00:41:31.003 --> 00:41:59.289 And it was interesting because as we began to engage ourselves and what was being shared, the Holy Spirit would often and and it wasn't just me, many of those college students would get lost in the conversation they were having with the Spirit of God, based on what God was saying through the scriptures and you know, what would happen is we would sort of kind of wake up and realize the pastor was farther along in the sermon and we had missed three-fourths of it, because we were in communion with the Spirit of God. 00:41:59.289 --> 00:42:13.552 It was interesting because many times the pastor would, would preach and he didn't necessarily preach an evangelistic sermon but almost every Sunday people were saved. 00:42:13.552 --> 00:42:15.880 You say, how does that? 00:42:15.880 --> 00:42:16.561 How does it happen? 00:42:16.561 --> 00:42:19.110 Well, I don't know, that's the Spirit's job, not mine. 00:42:19.110 --> 00:42:27.429 I just know that if we're faithful to preach the Word of God, he will be faithful to return it to us in ways that will benefit us. 00:42:27.429 --> 00:42:47.304 You know, I think of this, I think of if you were describing this church, you might say, well, that looks like a revival, but you don't need a revival if you're already vived right. 00:42:47.304 --> 00:42:58.309 So they were devoting themselves to these things we're talking about the first being the Word and they were vived every Sunday. 00:43:05.541 --> 00:43:08.949 Jesus said in John 6 it is the Spirit who gives life. 00:43:08.949 --> 00:43:11.481 The flesh is no help at all. 00:43:11.481 --> 00:43:16.934 The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 00:43:16.934 --> 00:43:33.873 So not only is the Word of God life to us, it is active in us through faith and the word active in those verses actually means effective, powerful, capable of producing a result. 00:43:33.873 --> 00:43:39.860