Gather For Growth (Acts 2:41-47)

Introduction

Patterns of life form Habits

Healthy Patterns form Healthy Habits just as Unhealthy patterns from unhealthy Habits!

Habits are powerful in shaping our lives.

One my favorite things to do is Smoke Ribs on the Grill. I have strict habits when I grill ribs. I have to take the membrane off. Bathe the ribs in Olive oil. Place a special seasoning on it. Smoke at 250 F for 4.5 hours. Taking it off the last hour to wrap in foil and simmer in Brown sugar and butter. This is my habit without fail. My craving for these ribs drives my habits.

I do this habit every time I smoke ribs on the Grill.

Habits are powerful as they make us more efficient.

Good or Bad Right or Wrong Habits impact your life.

Habits...follow cravings... as they seek rewards.

For instance, if you wanted to lose weight, you would address those cravings and the reward that made you overweight.

For healthy habits, we need to address the desire and the rewards that come from those habits.

Take this same premise as it pertains to the Christian life:

Do you desire to grow in your Christian life?

Do you desire to grow in Prayer?

Do you want to do the will of God?

Main Teaching

From looking at the Early Church we see that the gathering was the mechanism for growth!

Acts 2:42 CSB

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

Acts 2:42 details what they were devoted to when they gathered together: Teaching, Fellowship, Communion, and Prayer.

They Learned from God, Loved on each other, Remembered what Jesus had done, and Talked to God.

This was the pattern(Habit) of the Church and there were great rewards for their Habits

They were devoted! Devotion= persistence in spite of difficulties. Endure, stay in a fixed position.

Acts 2:46 CSB

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts,

In Acts 2:46 it states that they were committed “Every Day.” They continued/devoted!

Think about something that you are committed to.

What is your level of commitment?!

Is this commitment part of who you are?

The thing you are thinking about requires an unwavering consistent pattern in your life. It requires a habit.

Four Elements of Growth

The church was devoted to Teaching, Fellowship, Communion, and Prayer.

Teaching

Good teaching brings with it the reward of learning

Instruction grounds and strengthens the believer both new and old.

In instruction, we come together in our faith.

You can not be improved in the Christian life without the Word as the base for your improvement. (That is not the example of Jesus)

2 Timothy 3:14-17 (Wisdom for salvation, equipping)

Learning requires effort and attention.

The reward is a deeper understanding of God and a closer walk with Jesus.

Join me on Wednesdays for Bible Study.

Fellowship

A sign of your growth is by your FELLOWSHIP!

DO you have a desire to be around others in the FAITH?

“Iron sharpens Iron, and one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17) 1 John 5:1

To grow further you need to surround yourself with other believers.

What is spiritual formation?  There is an outer you—your body—that is being shaped all the time by the way you eat, drink, sleep, exercise, and live.  You may do this well or poorly, intentionally or not, but it will happen.  Then there is an inner you—your thoughts, desires, will, and character.  This is being shaped all the time by what you see, read, hear, think, and do.  We can call this inner you the spirit.  Spiritual formation is the process by which your inner self and character are shaped. … Everyone has a spirit.  Everyone’s inner life is being formed—for better or worse. - John Ortenberg

Jesus demonstrated Love towards others. His disciples must love as Jesus loved.

A great starting point for showing love is with other believers.

Fellowship (koinonia) is participation in the life of other people.

When we love our neighbor (self-sacrifice) we teach the neighbor and others and grow ourselves.

Communion

Celebratory meal

A common meal in their fellowship where they celebrated the person of Christ :

His sacrifice on the cross.

His body, broken for you and me.

His blood, the marker of a new and final covenant between God and man.

His death.

His resurrection.

His promise to return again for His church

What brings us together is Jesus.

Communion is when we remember Jesus together!

Prayer

Our dependence on Jesus

There is a reward in our prayer together.

My wife and I use to write down our prayer requests in a book that she had. We were dpecific in the requests and we were specfic in writing down the answers to those requests. So much so that we would place the date on when we asked and when God answered.

There was much training and reward in this process with my wife.

There is power in praying together (recognize a common need and celebrated God’s answer).

Growth is praying for one another and praying together.

Conclusion

We gather together for growth!

The early church was absolutely committed to these practices and I’ve got to believe that they knew a thing or two about the habits needed to persevere through life and all its difficulties.

So this is my challenge for the week;

Identify some of your habits and patterns.

What are things you do every morning? Every evening? Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc…

What is positive about them? What would you change?

And if you’re not in the pattern of gathering with other believers on a regular basis can I ask you to consider why this week.

Are there things keeping you from fellowship? Are there past hurts, fears, or other things robbing you of the rich rewards of a life lived in fellowship with others?

Let’s pray together.