Speaker 1: Wow, okay, I think the children can leave now, right, am I right?
Speaker 1: I didn't forget this time.
Speaker 1: Children can head on out.
Speaker 1: My name is Randy.
Speaker 1: I'm just so glad that I get to be here.
Speaker 1: My wife is Sherry, here on the front row.
Speaker 1: We switched with James.
Speaker 1: James is downtown and I'm out here today.
Speaker 1: So just so thankful for all of you and many of you have been here since early this morning with the setup crew or the other duties that you've been doing so faithfully here and God's using you and I'm just so thankful James is doing my job, teaching our group downtown about fasting today, right, because you learned all about fasting last week, right?
Speaker 1: So they'll listen to him and then they'll all go down to cracker barrel and talk about what that means in their life.
Speaker 1: Let me give you a little back story of what you just saw with my friend AJ.
Speaker 1: Aj and his older sister were adopted out of an orphanage in another country years ago by a couple that specifically were looking to get hearing impaired children to rescue out of a really bad situation, and they did that, and not too long after, coming back over to the States to live and to learn about how to be Americans, the mom died and it left dad to somehow raise two children hearing impaired, children with other needs, to other physical needs and to figure that out.
Speaker 1: So through the years he has done that, they have turned into young adults.
Speaker 1: Aj is 22 now and it has just been recently that dad has remarried, and so AJ has decided I'm going to give this lady a chance to be my mom, and it has opened up his life.
Speaker 1: And so, rather than stay at home because he's hearing impaired and he can hear, but he can barely hear he has decided to venture out and go to church with his mom and his dad, and that has led to having the courage to.
Speaker 1: A few months ago he went with them to their small group, to their life group, and, as you would expect, aj is now a rock star over on Central Avenue.
Speaker 1: That group has just and they're all two or three times his age and they all have just engulfed him here's as a pastor.
Speaker 1: How, why AJ?
Speaker 1: The AJ's and many like him who are special need of one reason or another in our church and you have some here too I think too we need AJ.
Speaker 1: This church needs AJ, and this church needs a young man, bradley, who is wheelchair confined.
Speaker 1: We need another one, craig, who's 26 and now in a wheelchair.
Speaker 1: Life expectancy is winding down.
Speaker 1: We need those guys because God brings young men and young women like them to churches to test the metal of those churches, and he just watches to see how these churches including us handle those people.
Speaker 1: And one reason I'm so grateful for y'all and downtown is you've passed that test and AJ is a better man now, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: Aj now comes to worship where he absolutely would not be caught dead, because he felt so embarrassed and so out of place that he sits there now in the third row and he takes notes, actually, and then he goes to Sunday school and he does the same thing.
Speaker 1: So glory to God, for that right Fits pretty well into our topic.
Speaker 1: Today is all about community.
Speaker 1: We need each other, right?
Speaker 1: Let's pray.
Speaker 1: Father, we do need you.
Speaker 1: We are only as good as our surrender to you.
Speaker 1: We're only as good as our obedience to you.
Speaker 1: So may we submit ourselves to you for these next several minutes, just well enough to start to do those dangerous prayers that begin with whatever, lord, whatever.
Speaker 1: So just speak to our hearts and our minds today and please come, holy Spirit, amen, what's good to see you.
Speaker 1: We are in Acts, chapter two, so if you've got your Bible or your device, thank you for bringing that.
Speaker 1: Acts, chapter two, verses 42 through 47.
Speaker 1: We're in a series.
Speaker 1: James and I are doing the same topics generally each week.
Speaker 1: This week we get to talk about community and I think it's never been more timely in our culture than to talk about that, because we see what's going on, don't we?
Speaker 1: We see how people are not handling certain social aspects well at all.
Speaker 1: We have never been in a time period when trust level is lower across the board.
Speaker 1: We can go.
Speaker 1: We can go to politics.
Speaker 1: You know what's going on there.
Speaker 1: The only thing that the two political parties have in common right now is neither one particularly likes their candidate.
Speaker 1: Right Trust level, and it's not just here.
Speaker 1: Go to Canada, you go to Japan, to the emperor.
Speaker 1: Go to Germany, you go to Spain, all of those countries that are getting ready for elections.
Speaker 1: The approval ratings of their candidates is at an all time low.
Speaker 1: We can go to schools, especially the higher institution, higher learning institutions Trust level is abysmal.
Speaker 1: Non-profits, churches it has never been so low.
Speaker 1: So without trust, there's not a whole lot of social interaction on a deep level that is going to happen.
Speaker 1: But yet we are created by our, our God, to be social creatures, aren't we?
Speaker 1: And we know what's happening with anxiety and depression and suicidal tendencies, and all of that today.
Speaker 1: So what's the deal with the trust Now?
Speaker 1: We're in a Christian organization, we are Christ followers, or I think the majority of us in here are.
Speaker 1: We're told that we got to love everybody, right?
Speaker 1: So just because we're supposed to love everybody, or we're supposed to just automatically trust everybody?
Speaker 1: Well, shakespeare said love every wrong everyone.
Speaker 1: Trust a few do harm to no one.
Speaker 1: It's a great motto to live by.
Speaker 1: And if you're a parent, how many dads in the room?
Speaker 1: Well, the first time the doorbell rings and that neo-nazi skinhead is coming to call on your 16-year-old daughter, there goes trust right, there, right, there is no more.
Speaker 1: Of course not, but I think you would also agree if we love but we also don't trust, and sometimes it's for good reason, that's an incomplete relationship, correct?
Speaker 1: That relationship is never going to go past surface level.
Speaker 1: Here's the issue with a lot of us today, and we don't like to talk about this because it's too easy to blame other people for our lack of trust.
Speaker 1: A lot of times we don't get attached to groups and get from those groups exactly what we need friendship-wise, bonding and social-wise because we don't trust ourselves.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be the dumbest one in the group.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be the oldest one, the youngest one, we don't want to be the one that stands out.
Speaker 1: We don't know exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: We might not be the best talented in the group, so we just don't go there.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to say that.
Speaker 1: I'd rather just say, well, I don't trust everybody in that group.
Speaker 1: So now let's talk about, within this context, the body of Christ.
Speaker 1: There is a difference between groups here and anywhere else, because in a biblical community we are bound by love, and that's our big idea for today.
Speaker 1: Jesus himself said in John 13,.
Speaker 1: He said people should know you are a disciple or a follower of me by the way you love each other.
Speaker 1: Loving God is a given, but loving each other is how people are going to gauge if the message is real or if it's real and you are not.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're going to talk about from the book of Acts, chapter two, just for a second, a few minutes today.
Speaker 1: So are you there?
Speaker 1: Acts, chapter two, 42 through 47, we're going to talk about some characteristics of this biblical community that is bound by love.
Speaker 1: The first characteristic is in verses 42 and 43, and that is simply this the body.
Speaker 1: We are devoted to the body over our individual needs, over individuality.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 42.
Speaker 1: They devoted themselves to the apostles' learning and to the fellowship and the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Speaker 1: Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by all the apostles.
Speaker 1: Now some of you know what's going on here.
Speaker 1: This is right after that event called Pentecost, and Pentecost is where Jesus has ascended.
Speaker 1: He tells his followers, goes up a room, pray to like, give you further instructions.
Speaker 1: He's given them what we call the Great Commission.
Speaker 1: They don't know what to do next, but then at some point the Holy Spirit descends he promised it to them and comes in, inhabits all of them and they spill out onto the streets.
Speaker 1: Peter is the head spokesman.
Speaker 1: They start talking about what we call today the gospel, the good news about Jesus and why he came and why he died and was resurrected, and people are just cut to the quick and people are just standing up saying what do we need to do to get in that group and it starts to happen, and by the end of that encounter there's 3,000 people that are professing to be Christ followers.
Speaker 1: This is a time in history that literally changed the world and is still changing the world, because ever since we have the same promise you profess Jesus, your belief in him, your trust level in him, you will receive his own spirit and then you can authentically attach yourself to a group that we need so much.
Speaker 1: The world changed that morning in Jerusalem in the first century, and this is the follow up to that.
Speaker 1: So, right off the bat, the body is capital B.
Speaker 1: All that means is like the symbol for the church, which means the word Paul uses was the body of Christ, the corporate group.
Speaker 1: The group is more important than me and the group is more important than you.
Speaker 1: I've been saying this downtown every week almost of the new year.
Speaker 1: Let me just remind all of us it's I'm sorry, but it's not about you, right?
Speaker 1: You're important and I love you, but it's not.
Speaker 1: It can't be about you and it can't be about me.
Speaker 1: It's got to be about the body, the whole group, and so there's four parts that a healthy group is a part of.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 42.
Speaker 1: Can you pick them out?
Speaker 1: They're pretty easy teaching.
Speaker 1: That's why we do this.
Speaker 1: We look at the scripture.
Speaker 1: That's why we encourage you to get into a group where you're doing more Bible study.
Speaker 1: Fellowship what is fellowship?
Speaker 1: In this context, it was a word of Greek, pronounced Cornonia, and that meant a sharing.
Speaker 1: It's so close of a relationship that we're like brother and sister.
Speaker 1: You got something, you need something that I have.
Speaker 1: It's yours, what's mine is yours and yours is mine and, if need be, we would give our lives for each other.
Speaker 1: That's the type of deep, deep knowing each other.
Speaker 1: That's here.
Speaker 1: Breaking a bread is another.
Speaker 1: That's kind of a strange phrase.
Speaker 1: We do Lord supper here regularly, right?
Speaker 1: We believe that that's what this meant.
Speaker 1: But also, you got to eat.
Speaker 1: They were having a lot of meals together.
Speaker 1: Fellowship happens around mealtime, at the table in your family and in churches too.
Speaker 1: It looks like the practical thing was, it's like while we were having dinner together.
Speaker 1: Because they didn't, there wasn't a place to fit 3000 people, so they're meeting in houses at night.
Speaker 1: We think they met for a while every single night in groups in a house.
Speaker 1: While we're at it, let's do what he told us to do and have the Lord supper because he didn't tell us how often to do this.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe if he didn't tell us how often to do it, maybe we ought to do it like every night and cover our bases.
Speaker 1: And that's what they were doing.
Speaker 1: It worked out pretty well for a while, but then it started to get corrupted.
Speaker 1: Because if we, if you read 1st Corinthians 11, paul writes a letter to another church and he jumps all over them because he says you have corrupted the Lord supper because you're you're eating too much and you're getting drunk.
Speaker 1: That's not what he intended and so at that point they thought maybe that's a bad idea.
Speaker 1: Let's eat together but then let's have a sacred time for a sacred ordinance.
Speaker 1: But they were doing that very regularly and for, of course, prayer.
Speaker 1: Acts 20 says they started doing it on the first day of the week because that's when Jesus was resurrected.
Speaker 1: That moved one day off from what they called their Sabbath.
Speaker 1: But look at, look at verse 43.
Speaker 1: Everybody's filled with awe or reverence and there's wonders and miraculous signs done by the apostles.
Speaker 1: What's an apostle?
Speaker 1: An apostle was someone who personally was in contact with Jesus, who knew Jesus and was eye witness to some of the things that happened.
Speaker 1: Somebody set aside.
Speaker 1: It also just meant messenger, a messenger, to do the, the story, the gospel of Jesus, as he was leaving also.
Speaker 1: But notice what they're doing.
Speaker 1: They're doing miracles and prophecies and wonders that Jesus was doing.
Speaker 1: The Sanhedrin and the Pharisees got together.
Speaker 1: They killed Jesus, in part because he's threatening them with his supernatural abilities, and now the worst case scenario is all of his, seems like all of his followers are doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: The gloves are off.
Speaker 1: The Holy spirit has been unleashed and the Holy spirit is now in each individual follower.
Speaker 1: And this is the evidence of that.
Speaker 1: And it says if God is saying, if you're not going to believe the message, I'll just show you how powerful I am and I'll show you how much I want you in relationship with me.
Speaker 1: So what's your anchor group?
Speaker 1: What group are you a part of?
Speaker 1: That like that gives life to you.
Speaker 1: It lifts you up, because everything else in this world tends to tear us down.
Speaker 1: If you think about it, it will erode your personhood, it will take away your felt identity.
Speaker 1: Being in a biblical group that's based and bound on love is the opposite.
Speaker 1: It restores, it renews, it gives life.
Speaker 1: So those of you that are in such a group.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about, right?
Speaker 1: Some of your hosting a group like that.
Speaker 1: If you're not in one, we're going to gently, gently encourage you toward getting in one.
Speaker 1: And right as you leave this afternoon, around the little table, there's the settings.
Speaker 1: We've got some folks that are qualified to even recommend them for you.
Speaker 1: They're all during the week.
Speaker 1: They're on Sunday nights downtown at the church, they're on Wednesday nights downtown at the church, and I would highly recommend you doing that because there's these days, y'all there's a lot at stake.
Speaker 1: I know there's competition.
Speaker 1: I looked it up.
Speaker 1: You want to be depressed for a minute?
Speaker 1: The average American deals with 85 texts per day.
Speaker 1: Just like these, just like it's happening right now.
Speaker 1: Some of you right, 85 texts per day, 125 emails a day.
Speaker 1: Yet we've never been so isolated and we've never been so disconnected as a culture.
Speaker 1: Go figure, go figure.
Speaker 1: You know half of my texts these days are political guys running for office.
Speaker 1: They are yours.
Speaker 1: Are you hearing from all those people?
Speaker 1: I'm hearing from Democrats and Republicans, and independence.
Speaker 1: I never knew I was so popular.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, they're really after me.
Speaker 1: I can't wait on the election because I don't care who wins.
Speaker 1: I think this time next year I will have been invited to the White House by now.
Speaker 1: We know that's not the case.
Speaker 1: We know that does.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: The second thing is from verse 44.
Speaker 1: And that is basically we were devoted to unity over divided, over divisiveness or disconnectedness, unity over disconnectedness.
Speaker 1: All the believers were together and they had everything in common.
Speaker 1: Everything in common.
Speaker 1: Some of you know the scripture well enough to know that that was very literal.
Speaker 1: They were pooling some resources together.
Speaker 1: Some were selling property and bringing the money in to go into, like the kitty, to pay out to folks as they needed them the widows, the struggling the, the immigrants and things like that and so they're banding together for protection, but also for each other's welfare and everything.
Speaker 1: Why is this important?
Speaker 1: Because the attacks are coming.
Speaker 1: If you read chapter three, they start to get in trouble right away.
Speaker 1: And it happens first in the church.
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, these guys grew up in the Jewish temple.
Speaker 1: They still are trying to make that work.
Speaker 1: They're still going there every single day, but pretty soon they're going to get kicked out or they're going to be jailed and imprisoned and beat up and worse from the people in the religious establishment.
Speaker 1: And the enemy is right behind that they're even going to have some internal divisions after a while.
Speaker 1: Cause a couple of chapters over a guy named Ananias and Sapphira, a couple.
Speaker 1: They decided to do what some are doing.
Speaker 1: They sell some property, they sell a little real estate and they bring the money in to give to the church.
Speaker 1: That's a great thing.
Speaker 1: But they decided, you know, let's don't give all of it.
Speaker 1: I know we promised let's not give all of it.
Speaker 1: And so they go in and they do a little backwards accounting and when they bring the money in, the leader says this all of the price of the property, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: And the first one who comes in drops dead on the spot.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've read that all my life and every time I tend to say come on, lord.
Speaker 1: That's kind of harsh, isn't it?
Speaker 1: I mean, man, that belongs in the Old Testament rather than the New Testament.
Speaker 1: To me I just zapped both of them.
Speaker 1: But here's why it is the infancy of the church age, a new movement, and the groups and the dynamics of truthfulness and honesty within those groups has to be protected.
Speaker 1: And if they start to cut corners there and they start to take license there inside their group, with the truth and, with the honesty, guess what goes out the window.
Speaker 1: Trust and the truth is the truth, and we're just like any other group at that point.
Speaker 1: And so God, knowing that, said I got to make an example early and quickly here and then we'll take care of it.
Speaker 1: And sure enough, I don't read any more crooked real estate deals in the rest of the Bible.
Speaker 1: It probably did take care of that.
Speaker 1: So unity is something you actually have to work at.
Speaker 1: We're just talking about that down front here with some of my buddies here about how the more complicated and complex an organization gets, the harder you have to work at communication and the harder you have to make sure, or the more you have to press into the fellowship part and the just being together part and doing all of that.
Speaker 1: Colossians 314 says above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Speaker 1: Paul here makes the point that you want to be really close to some people, love them.
Speaker 1: You want to have a really super tight bond.
Speaker 1: Let them love you, let them be restorative in your life, and that will always happen in a good way.
Speaker 1: Again, let's go back to what's going on in our culture now.
Speaker 1: The technology and the science is getting so good that there are attempts there have been and there will be attempts every day to replace what we have as biblical community with technology.
Speaker 1: If you got about $350, you can go out this afternoon and you can order a robot to be delivered to your house.
Speaker 1: You can get robotic pets that run around on all fours.
Speaker 1: They make sounds like a dog, they will bark, they will wag their tail when you come home.
Speaker 1: They won't pee on the carpet, though, and you won't have to take them out in the middle.
Speaker 1: It's perfect, right?
Speaker 1: You can also get a robotic companion, and I Lord knows where that's going to go in the next several months and years, but you can get a companion and he or she they'll be glad to see you when you come home.
Speaker 1: They won't gripe at you, they won't criticize you, they'll make small talk with you.
Speaker 1: They could be programmed to talk about your favorite sports team.
Speaker 1: Ai is even trying to load them up to where they can be sympathetic with what they say when you come home whining about the long day that you've had.
Speaker 1: Colorado State University has a lot of really smart professors, and they've done these studies on designing these things and all, and this sounds more like a marketing thing than a professor.
Speaker 1: But the head of that department says we're getting them perfected to the point where these will serve the needs of companionship and will greatly take away the isolation and the loneliness in our country.
Speaker 1: Oh really, oh really, we know differently.
Speaker 1: There is only one level of relationship that will suffice and meet all those needs.
Speaker 1: It is the love of the Father into us, that goes into other people and we receive it also.
Speaker 1: That is the only thing that's going to work.
Speaker 1: So there's third one we got devoted to unity, and devoted to the body, not ourselves.
Speaker 1: That's verse 45 and 46, and that is basically.
Speaker 1: We're going to be devoted to giving over consumption.
Speaker 1: Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone who had need.
Speaker 1: Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, selling what they had and giving it to the poor as they had need.
Speaker 1: And then it goes back to their breaking bread together and their sincere hearts.
Speaker 1: Your translation may say singleness of heart.
Speaker 1: That's the unity part.
Speaker 1: We're going to give and we're going to be generous.
Speaker 1: There's a time for consumption and we all should gain something from our church family and our church fellowship, but we ought to be more concerned about giving than taking, and that's one reason I'm so proud of all of you and the group that we'll be in in the next hour is you came, those of you that came here day one.
Speaker 1: You came not to receive, you came to give right.
Speaker 1: And then the effort of giving.
Speaker 1: Other people are coming closer to God, or coming to God for the first time too, and God will bless you for that.
Speaker 1: So there's a giving, there's a stewardship of all of these things, but let's just talk about the monetary thing right now.
Speaker 1: Again, thank you, thank you, many of you who are giving, who are giving so other people can know Christ or get closer to Christ also, and thank you for giving above tithes and offerings, because you guys are going to be the prime ones affected one day when we're able to get this group to a permanent place, right?
Speaker 1: Can I give you an update on that?
Speaker 1: We had an excess amount given over budget last year, which is fantastic.
Speaker 1: The vast majority of that went into our Kingdom Come fund, which we're asking everybody to give to above your tithes and offerings, which goes toward where y'all will be permanently one day and also some renovations that we've got to do downtown that we've been putting off for a long time too.
Speaker 1: So because of that and because of what's already been given, we're like at 2.3, 2.4 million dollars right now in cash.
Speaker 1: That's awesome and y'all ought to feel good about that.
Speaker 1: Now that's not near enough yet, but it sure is a good start, right and proud and excited about that.
Speaker 1: There's two more years left in this pledge thing.
Speaker 1: If you've not pledged, you haven't been here long and you'd like to make a two-year pledge Love to have you do that.
Speaker 1: We can help you with all of that.
Speaker 1: If you just want to start giving and not make the pledge, that's good too, but I always feel like I need to give updates on that and everything, because that's just what we are.
Speaker 1: You know I'm going to get this off my chest.
Speaker 1: You know what's always been funny to me as a pastor?
Speaker 1: There's two groups of people that never get squirrely when I talk about money in the church and giving.
Speaker 1: Those are the devoted disciples, the growing Christ followers.
Speaker 1: You know why.
Speaker 1: They understand that A disciple is a giver.
Speaker 1: You're not a disciple if you're not a giver.
Speaker 1: So they understand that.
Speaker 1: And guess who else it is.
Speaker 1: It's people who are not even connected, not even members of the church, who walk in as guests.
Speaker 1: They may not even be Christ followers, yet they say well, of course it takes some money to run this place.
Speaker 1: They have no problem with it.
Speaker 1: Guess who has a problem?
Speaker 1: And guess who gets a little bit wound up when people like me just start talking about we're supposed to be givers, people that have been attending the church a long, long time but are not giving, and rightly so.
Speaker 1: They're the ones that are going to get defensive, and they're the ones that are going to get critical.
Speaker 1: But it's all through the Bible.
Speaker 1: The Old Testament clearly says tithe, tithe, tithe, tithe, a tenth, a tenth, a tenth, a tenth, a tenth plus offerings.
Speaker 1: The argument nowadays, though, is well, we're New Testament people, right, we go by the New Covenant, so why don't we do that with the money?
Speaker 1: Okay, let's switch it over.
Speaker 1: What did Jesus require?
Speaker 1: Everything he said you got to take up your cross, so the Old Testament doesn't look too bad after that.
Speaker 1: But here's what I really get fired up about too the way we're structured, with our budget, giving and everything.
Speaker 1: 12% goes right out the door.
Speaker 1: 12 cents of every dollar you give goes right out to missions all across the world.
Speaker 1: With our 12% last year 2023, that means right at $450,000 went right out the door to missions $450,000.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: And so here we sit in Somerville, south Carolina, but we have had a hand in spreading the gospel all across the world and we haven't left the county and that's why, again, a biblical community bound by love is the same to do it.
Speaker 1: The last part is we are devoted to outsiders and insiders, people that are just getting here as well as people that have been here.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 47, praising God and enjoying the favor of all of the people, and the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.
Speaker 1: We know in chapter four, verse four, that by the time they get to that point, there's 5,000 people who are calling themselves what we would call today Christ followers also.
Speaker 1: So, to answer the question, who should we be concentrating on?
Speaker 1: Guest?
Speaker 1: And if you're a guest today, thank you especially for being here.
Speaker 1: You're super important to us.
Speaker 1: Just don't listen to this part, okay?
Speaker 1: We're not talking to you now for about the next five minutes, so just tune us out.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to us who are part of the family right here, but you also are important.
Speaker 1: Ministry is not an option.
Speaker 1: Ministry is a key ingredient of every single church.
Speaker 1: We should love each other, we should take care of each other.
Speaker 1: We should do a lot of celebrating together.
Speaker 1: We should do a lot of grieving together.
Speaker 1: We should we should bear one another's burdens together.
Speaker 1: But also those who are just walking in here, who've maybe been out of touch with the Lord for a long time or have not ever yet had that relationship.
Speaker 1: You are the prime reason that we should be.
Speaker 1: We should be attentive to you and all of those things too.
Speaker 1: That's why we do some.
Speaker 1: That's why you've heard a lot of scripture read today.
Speaker 1: It's the truth that we can pattern our lives around.
Speaker 1: That's why we do the Lord's supper very regularly.
Speaker 1: It is a symbol of why we are changed people.
Speaker 1: It's Christ.
Speaker 1: That's why baptism is a big deal around here.
Speaker 1: It's a big deal here and it's a big deal downtown, right?
Speaker 1: How many of you remember your day you got baptized?
Speaker 1: Isn't that still like one of the vivid things in your life?
Speaker 1: And it should be.
Speaker 1: It should be.
Speaker 1: Can I give you evidence of the supernatural qualities of just doing something as simple as baptism?
Speaker 1: It's happened.
Speaker 1: It's happened several times, just that I know of in our church here, and that is simply this when we have a baptism, we set them aside, like once a month at the end of the month, and we'll always have some guests that I don't know.
Speaker 1: I get to meet some of them and they're here to support somebody that's getting baptized.
Speaker 1: And so, truth be known, they wouldn't be here, they wouldn't be in church, if it wasn't for the coworker, the friend, the cousin or something who's getting baptized.
Speaker 1: And so they'll sit in the back and they'll politely endure everything.
Speaker 1: But while we're singing about how great God is, they're watching y'all sing and what they're trying to put together is you know, boy, she looks like she actually believes God, is all that.
Speaker 1: And then somebody will pray and they're just watching and trying to check out is this real?
Speaker 1: And their conclusion must be you know, he actually thinks God's going to answer that prayer.
Speaker 1: And they watch the whole thing and they watch us read our word and talk about our word and break it out, and they're like, I don't really want to religion, stuff, but that sounds like good advice for life.
Speaker 1: And they leave.
Speaker 1: They came out of obligation the next Sunday.
Speaker 1: Guess what happens?
Speaker 1: They come back.
Speaker 1: It's not a baptism now, but they're curious.
Speaker 1: The same process happens.
Speaker 1: They watch you sing and they're starting to say, boy, they really believe this stuff.
Speaker 1: They watch you pray, they listen to the messages and they come back again and again and sometimes, maybe fourth, fifth week, something happens in here and they realize I don't want to live without this.
Speaker 1: I need this and I need him and I need her and I need to be able to trust a group with my life and my kid's life, and I sure would like somebody to be able to break out the meaning of why I'm on this doggone world.
Speaker 1: To begin with, because I'm having a struggle with my purpose and it starts to make sense.
Speaker 1: And then, glory, hallelujah, couple of months later, we have another baptism and guess who's in the pool this time and guess who's standing for him out there.
Speaker 1: That's a biblical community.
Speaker 1: We need you here, and if you're not yet a part of things and you know that the Holy Spirit has led you here, why are you waiting?
Speaker 1: Because the day may be coming when somebody very close to you but very far from God needs to see your example of commitment.
Speaker 1: Why should I join a church?
Speaker 1: I get that question all the time.
Speaker 1: Why can't I just attend?
Speaker 1: Why can't I go to yours awhile and go to that one awhile?
Speaker 1: I go to the ABC church for awhile.
Speaker 1: Well, you can.
Speaker 1: You can do that.
Speaker 1: But here's why it's important to join.
Speaker 1: We know practically it cuts down the isolation factor and it cuts down the tendency to walk away from your faith.
Speaker 1: It's a lot easier to walk away from your faith and unplug from God if you are not accountable.
Speaker 1: The other two reasons are for the corporate benefit, because it's about the body.
Speaker 1: We need your spiritual gifts because we don't have them all, and we need your talent and your experience and your heart.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you, when 300 people start praying for the same thing, that's much more powerful than if three are.
Speaker 1: We're better together and we're more powerful together.
Speaker 1: And so when you add all that up and oh yeah, we have a requirement we'd love for you to be a member officially of the church.
Speaker 1: That's an easy decision.
Speaker 1: That's why we have invitation times, ultra-cost.
Speaker 1: If you need to come and pray, I'll be here.
Speaker 1: Some of our other guys will be available too.
Speaker 1: Sherry's, my wife, she's on the front row.
Speaker 1: She'd love to pray with you If you'd like to join or if you'd like to rededicate your life or, even better yet, if you'd like to take Jesus up on his offer to become a follower of him, this would be the greatest time to celebrate that he died on the cross for me and you, and he lives in heaven now waiting to hear from me and you, and all he wants is a simple act of surrender and acknowledgement, and this involves and involves trust.
Speaker 1: Once, stan, let me pray for you, lord.
Speaker 1: We're broken, we're marred, we're disfigured, we are pretty messed up, but together we are powerful.
Speaker 1: United, putting the body ahead of our individual needs, we're an unstoppable force.
Speaker 1: God, I frankly believe it's worth spending our lives together and investing our future in your purpose, not ours.
Speaker 1: So, god, help us to.
Speaker 1: For those that are struggling with do they really have a relationship with you, lord, give them the heart to take care of that and to nail that down and to take that next step today so they can walk out of here free.
Speaker 1: For those that have been away for a while and they feel you just clear as a bell calling them home, to come back into the family, to come back into your fold and your love, help them to simply be obedient.
Speaker 1: In Christ's name, we pray, amen.