Untitled Sermon (15)

Introduction

Good morning church. It is a joy to be with you this moring and spend the next few mininutes in the word together. If you ahve your Bibles go ahead and open up to acts chapter 2 and in a moment we are going to start in verse 37.

When I gratuated HS my mom took me and Elizabeth to Disney for our graduation gift. It was an odd choice because well. I hate rollercoasters. But when I was in like 3rd grade I saw the ESPN zone at disney and have never shaked my desire to go there and hope to be on sports center. It’s strange I know but I need you to understand why I went. There was also the fact that Elizabeth had never been to disney so I thought they could be awesome for her

WE make it to Orlando....I am on a mission to find the ESPN zone and we are all together. We had all the ingrediates for a great trip. Someitme during the week we wen tot Animal kingdom....Just a frame of refrence for the rest of the story it was 2001. Steve Jobs had just invited the ipod not iphone.....so we all had flip phones that didn’t work great.

ok let’s dive back in. There we are walking into the park and I had this awesome Idea. When They go left, I will go right and they’ll think they have lost me and then I jump out and say suprise!

so when I saw the oppurtunity I made a break for it. and then it was time to suprise them. However. one problem. There was like a billion peiople at disney so as I am about to jump out and suprise them I CAN’T FIND THEM ANYWHERE> I had lost them completly. and I thought what do I do know. phones weren’t working. and I was alone

How do you find 2 people at disney with no phones. I wondered if it was like the walmart when I was young. See when I was young I would run from my mom. Run to the front of the story so the people on the innercome would say MARY DUNNE COULD YOU PLEASE TCOME TO THE FRONT WE HAVE YOUR SON.

I wondered if the people at Disney would do the same for me. Problem was I wasn’t 5 anymore I was 18 they didn’t really care :)

. so I tried to make the best of it. I went to see a bugs life in a the giant tree. I got some popcorn and walked around. but then I thought I am at disney. and I am alone this is no fun. So I went back to the room and sat there alone for the rest of the day.

When my mom and Elizabeth they asked what happened and told them. They gave me “that look” and then told me how awesome of a day they had. I was bummed and worst of all I had missed out and spent the day alone

and maybe you have been there before. Maybe you have your own alone story. Maybe you have done something similar…or maybe it’s deeper. Maybe you feel alone in your family, maybe you feel alone at work.....maybe it’s in a friendship and before we even look to the word to see what God would say about this can I just say

if you are feeling alone this morning

I am sorry. It’s hard. and I know even from my own expierences in life it can be super painful. My heart really hurts for you if you feel alone this moring. and I just want to tell you that you are loved.

You are loved by us here at whitesburg, and you are loved by God.

and maybe you’ve shared your loniness with others before and they have said you’ve got God and he’s all you need. And I am sorry for that. While they may have good intentions with statements like that it’s not Gods heart.

Sure he alone can satisfy the deepest longings of our souls but I would say one of the deepest longings our our souls is to be known, to have friendship to have real community.

and I belive God recogonizes that an dhe longs for that for you.

and for those of you in this room who still our convinced about Gods desire for community for you let me give you a few thoughts from scritpure that convince me otherwise.

Think about Adam....God is all he had. I mean he had perfect fellowship with God.....and God looks at adam and says it’s not good for him to be alone.

The only thing not good before the fall was Adams loninliness. SO God greates eve. And yes he performs the first marriage but it shows gods commintemnt to community.

Also proverbs

Proverbs 18:1 ESV

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.

so it should come as no suprise today when we look at the text and we see the first great movement of Gods spirit in the church.....one of the first things that happen is the people came TOGETHER.

Read

Acts 2:37–47 ESV

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe 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.

Pray

Out of peters simple, scirputre based message that was all about Jesus. God softens peoples hearts and 3,000 people repented and beleived the gospel.

I mean that truth alone is increadible. Theres something amazing about that. Just a day before there were about 120 people who were disciples of Christ. and now there are over 3,000 people who have come to know Christ and empowered with his spirit.

And it’s increadible becasue what happens next are some of the keys to spirtual growth and maturity

and I want us to recongnize from the start of this that they are together. They aren’t doing these things on there own

and the first thing they did is they devoted themeselves to the apostles teaching.

and it’s interesting because the apostels didn’t even have the NT at this point. So there teaching came from the teachings of Christ, and whatever the HS brought to mind

but this devotion was key. The people who got saved that day didn’t just hope that they would learn how to walk with Christ on there own. They recoginzed as they abided in Christ and were filled with the spirit they were going to need to be devoted to learning more about him. and through that devotion God would grow them in thier walk with him

THis was most likely so that when persuction came and when it got hard to stand firm in thier faith they could lean back on the teachings of the apostels.

a guess a way to illustrate this is that really great basketball players almost amazing me at the end of games. It’s like they have played the whole game, they should be exhausted and then they get fouled. and they step to the free thrown line....and for teh really good players they hit the free throws with almost no effort....Why is that? Devotion. They understand that there are going to be moments that they won’t have it in them so they will lean on what they’ve learned

I think it’s so much more critical to lean into the word and be devoted to the teachings foudn there....and don’t confuse devoiton with work. that’s not what I am saying. No I think the devotion that the earliest disciples had was out of a place of love for God. They had been so tranformed, so changed that it was grace that allowed them to be saturted with Gods teachings

says about the same thing except it begins with a charge to let the Word of God bear fruit within us:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in

and it’s in that devotion that they would learn what it truly looked like to live the spirit empowered life

Where the Spirit reigns, a love for God’s Word reigns. Those early believers studied the Scriptures—God’s communication to them

and the next thing we see was not only were they devoted to teaching, they were devoted to fellowship

know I know when we hear that word espically in baptist churches we think food. and while it looks like that was an aspect of it let me suggest that it was more profound then just food.

some would say

This kind of fellowship did not exist before the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Greek word used here (koinonia) is not even found in the Gospels.

but let me suggest this to you I think it’s the kind of fellowship that the disciples saw as the lived with Jesus.

See there was a richness to thier friendship with Jesus that was unique. THey travled together, they ate together, they did ministry together, they prayed together, they expierenced pain together…>They loved each other well. I think that’s what true fellowship looks like, and I ma convinced by what I read in the book of acts this is eactly what the holy spirit lead them to have

There is a beatuy in this. and as they expierenced this fellowship they awe came upon them and they saw signs and wonders

verse 44 tells us all who beleived were what: together and they had all things in common,

sold thier stuff and meet needs

know I don’t beleive this meant

they sold everything…one of the reasons this is obvious that they still had things is becasue they broke bread in their homes. But there was an increadible genoerosity and shared life among the early church

and if a need arose they stepped up and meet it. and this didn’t just happen on Sundays this was a day by day thing. and it made them joyus and glad. It allowed their worship of God to be true and sincer

and because of this they had increadible favor with the people around them. Why is that?

because who wouldn’t wan tot be a part of a community like that?

and as they got favor look at the result. THE LORD ADDED to their number day by day of those who were being saved.

IN the context of community on mission together God saved the lost. There is bauty in that for sure.

The message they proclaimed is the gospel

That God sent Jesus and Jesus lived a perfect sinless life

Died on the cross for our sins and had the full wrath of God poured out on him

was burried in the tomb and 3 days later rose again

and know he is asceded to heaven

and he offers life to anyone who would beleive this and repent of their sins

but not only did they proclaimthe gospel they lived it also. See those aren’t oppose ideas

I think the expecation in scripture is that this would be the rhtyme of life we would get into

that we would live the gospel and speak the gospel day by day by the power of the spirit of God in us

WHERE DID THEY LEARN TO LIVE LIKE THIS?

I think it all goes back to Jesus teaching in

Matthew 22:36 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

The most religous people of the day ask Jesus what’s the best rule

and look at how Jesus answers

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

and we get that. No one would argure that but look at what he says is next. He says love your nieghbor as yourself

Everything that’s been written depends on these two things

He basically says that you are going to expierence all that God has for you if you arent’ doing both of these things well

The loving God part we get but I would say that the disicples ealized how much God loved them, iand in turn loved him and their nieghbors well

and when you operate from that perspective, that view point it is no wonder that they saw sings and wonders, that awe filled the places they lived and that people were being saved day by day

becasue when we are living out the great commandment the great commision will happen naturally

And I am convicned this is what we see all thorughout the book of acts

so that leads to ask this question.....what might that look like today. almost 2000 years later

well I think the sam eis true for us. That when we love God with all we are and we love our nieghbor as ourseves the the gospel will explode in our spheres of influence

see we have to stop looking at mission just as something we do when we go ot a far away place. LIke if we aren’t careful we will miss out on what the Lord would have for us in our commintines, our nieghboorhoods, and our cities

I would contend that we have a greater oppurtunity to be on mission in our nieghboorhoods, or our communties then we do thousnads of miles away

and I think were it can be foggy for us is becasue when we go on those mission trips it seems easy…like we bleive we get on a 747 jet plane travel 3000 miles and we get super powers to share the gospel

I’ve ben there, most likely that was my mindset when I went to africa, mexico and even pr for years. man I was a bold gospel witenss in those palces. But then the Lord really got a hold of my heart and showed my there was some incositency with that.

so as I said last week I had somewhat of a gospel explosion in my heart and realized tha tnot only was I suppose to be on mission in those places but God had caleld me to mission where I lived, played and spent the majority of my time. He had planted me in a specific place to make his love known to those who don’t now him

and with some things that jsut seem strange I see gods soverighty

like I will just tell you.....I really hate my backyard it was suppose to be flat yet it is not…it’s a mess and I know one day it might be challenging to sell our house because of it.

but as much as I hate it I see gods hand in it. In this backyard that doesn’t work for us, that causes our grill to fall down the hill and be destryoed it forced us into front yard living

and really living that gave us a heart for those in our nieghboorhood. We started praying for our nieghboors 6 years ago…that they would know how loved they are. And by Gods grace he brough another great Christian family into our nieghboord that we could have kind of a n

acts 2:42-47 expierence together. We could talk about the Lord, pray together, we could have fellowship, we could love one another as christ has loved us

and out of that we have been able to be on mission in our nieghboordhood with them.

we have been able to share our possiesions with our other nieghboors those who we don’t know what they know about the Lord or the gospel

cook meals for them

invite them to the dinner table

here there stories, here there dreams, here there pain

and offer them hope…offer them the gospel....show them what real love looks like

we’ve been able to minster to them, pray for them and help them realize they were never meant to live alone

it’s been icfreadible. Is it alwasy perfect no

it’s messy someimtes

I can remember one time the lord allowed us to cook food for a ton of people in our nieghboordhood what started with just us and friends kind of turned into a nieghboorhood part

we pretty much cooked antyning we oculd find

It was so awesome! and we loved it so much

but at the end of the night when everyone went home one of my girls was sad becasue some of there toys were broken, and I was sad with her

but it gave me a great teaching moment to let her know that the people in our home were so much more important then our stuff

and itsn’t that something we all know. that people our more imprtant then anything. People are so loved by God they and we can show them that by inviteing them in

and what we’ve learned to do is not to just try to fix all their prblems but to step into them with them. To offer them compassion, comfort, hope and pray with them, cry with them and love them well

and when we do that they know the heart of our saviour

Love one another.....inestead of trying to fix all our nieghbors problems what if we said let me step in that with you…Let me love you well to the point where Jesus can step in

it’s truly awesomea

and I tell that story not to put a spotlight on us, but instead jsut encourage you and tell you if you are willing to live this way God is going to use it

he is going to give you favor with those in your spehres of influence

he is going to save people through livnging the gospel and speaking the gospel

and when that happens you will be in awe and praise him for it

see when we have been transformed by the gospel this is how we live. This is the LIFE that Jesu stalked about in John chapter 10:10 and this is how we expierence it

we are still learning, we are still rpaying, someitmes we really miss it but at the end of the day we know that we were created to live in community and in that community we would be on mission for the good of those around us and the glory of God

my prayer is that you would live that way also

Invite

To elvuatle how are you doing on the great commandment? Maybe it’s incoplete and if it is today will you be willing to ask God for his help in loving those he’s put in your life?

Still others you heard the gospel and you have realized for the first time Gods love for you....maybe it’s becasue of a faithful love a achrist follwer in your life but whatever it is if he’s working in your heart repent and belive the gospel and he will save you

you will epxpierence ral lvoe and you will be able to love like never before

and lastly if you are in this room and your kinda of like I was on the disney tirp. you’ve tasted and seen what community is like but you’ve gone away I just invite you to find a place that you can expierence this kind of life and if we can help you let me know.

pray