Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning everyone…I am so glad to be here this morning and have the opportunity to open the word together with you.

Before we get going too far, I would like to take this time to welcome our kids to gather back in the back of the room and join together to attend kids church together.

I love so much the fact that we have teachers that are willing to sacrifice and teach the kids on their own level.

It is such a blessing as a church that we have men and women that have chosen to be a part of the discipleship of kids .

I mean, how amazing is that!

You know that is really one of the things that I love about this church.

There is a real value with having people learn according to where their needs are.

For instance, we have our kids classes, but we also have our online experience.

Welcome those of you that are joining us online.

Whether you are online becuase of illness, or injury, or geography or any other reason we truly are honored that you have chosen to join us this morning, or this afternoon depending on when you are listening.

The online experience has allowed us to expand out spiritual family over the years and it is such a blessing.

that said, if you are in the Ogle county area and you are searching for a spiritual family we would love to see you on any Sunday morning.

We have coffee, snacks, amazing people, worship and a quality time in the scriptures together.

You see, there is something really powerful about joining together with a spiritual family.

When you are with family you are typically encouraged and loved.

You experience healing and care when you are with the ones you love.

There is a reason that whenever you experience something traumatic you tend to want to see your loved ones.

You tend to want to be with family.

Listen, I want to share with you about a time that our family was without a church home.

We were without that spiritual family that you find within a church home.

It was around 2010 and we had just left the church were I was serving as youth pastor.

We spent a couple of weeks worshiping at home as we relied on the Lord to give wisdom and guidance.

Listen, finding a church home is not an easy task.

You are essentially making decisions about who your spiritual family is going to be.

So, we spent a few weeks worshiping at home and praying.

We attended a couple of churches but had not made any kind of decisions about any particular church.

Then we had a pretty hard situation arise within our extended family.

There was profound loss and uncertainty that we were experiencing.

We spent the next couple of months traveling alot to be with extended family and we spent a great deal of time essentially alone.

Listen, we did not have a spiritual family, we had not yet commited to a local church and we endured hardships seemingly alone.

Yes, we had our physical family, and they are amazing…However, there is just something different about a spiritual family.

That said, I want to encourage you if you are in the area and if you are looking for a spiritual family, join us in person, or if not us, there are a number of other Bible believing and Scripture teaching churches in the area.

Let me encourage you to take the step and make a commitment to join a spiritual family as soon as you can.

You do not want to be outside and alone when tragedy and hardships arise.

You know, that is actually something that Peter and John knew as well.

You see, we are in the middle of this series called The Book of Acts: and origin story.

We are in season one, episode 9 of this series.

We are looking at this in terms of a season becuase this is truly a story that build on itself every week.

We are getting further and further into the story every week.

Listen, we all love origin stories, we love to learn about the backstory and why someone or something exist the way that it does.

That is why we have taken the last few weeks to learn a little about why the church is the way the church is.

We also want to discover why we exist locally here.

As a matter of fact, did you know that back in 1984 LRBC formed and they took up a very specific mission.

The mission of Leaf River Baptist Church is to “Guide people to a life of faith in Jesus Christ then on to lives that are fully devoted to Him.” Thats a really important piece of information, becuase it is actually why we exist as a church today.

That historical mission of LRBC is still true today.

Yeah, we may do things a little differently that they were done back in 1984, but our overall mission is the same.

The same is true about the eternal church that was started back in the book of Acts.

You see, way back then we have seen that Jesus gave a job to the church.

He said that we would be his witnesses, right?

This is an incredibly important job…as a matter of fact I have occasionally asked you the question, Have you personally participated in the mission of the church?

You see, that question is relevant both to the mission given to the eternal church as well as this local expression here at LRBC.

But that is not all that has happened, you see we have also seen that the disciples, they knew they could not accomplish this job alone.

So, we saw that the early Christians devoted themselves to Spiritual growth and fellowship .

Then last week we saw that Peter and John were arrested and that they were able to speak boldly in the face of persecution.

Ultimately what we really saw is that The Holy Spirit provides boldness to proclaim the gospel in the face of persecution. .

But what about after that moment of boldness?

I mean, are you able to continue alone, are they able to continue with just the two of them?

That is where we join Peter and John again this morning as we learn how they recuperated from this potentially dangerous opposition that they just experienced.

We will see this morning that these men knew that being alone and not part of a spiritual family is not beneficial to them.

We will see this morning that they left jail and immediately went to be with their family…who was already praying for them and for the situation.

Lets dive in and look at how

They joined their family

OK, let’s read this passage together and see why I said they went to be with their family.

Acts 4:23–31 (ESV)

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

So right off the bat here I want to ask you a question.

What does a family do?

Well, a family listens to your hurts.

However, in this case there is a very specific thing that a spiritual family does with you, so let me rephrase this question for you.

What does a spiritual family do?

Well, a spiritual family takes your hurts to the Lord....a spiritual family prays.

Ok, so then of coarse when we read this passage it does not necessarily say that when they were released they went to family does it?

No, it says that they went to friends.

However, I want to show you something pretty cool.

You see, the original language for the word “friends” is not quite so simple.

No, the word used is the word ἴδιος.

This word idios means fellow Christians, or…family, to be more specific it means relatives.

So here we have Peter and John leaving the Sanhedrin who has just threatened them and immediately going to their spiritual family.

You see, that is actually one of the most profound things that we can do as beleivers.

Our physical family is immensely important and God willing they are part of your spiritual family as well becuase their is something unique about being with your spiritual family.

Do you know what that uniqueness is?

Your spiritual family includes the Holy Spirit.

In fact, that is the bond that holds us together in the midst of suffering and persecution.

So they are now together and the first thing they do is listen to what happened.

They are genuinely interested in what has happened.

However, the next and most important thing that they did is pray together.

Now for the next few minutes I would like to take a look at how they prayed and see what we can learn from the way that they prayed.

I think together we will see

3 themes of their prayer together.

And if we can incorporate these into our own prayer lives and I believe we will be blessed.

Now, that is not to say there is some magic formula, other than what Jesus gave s through the Lords prayer, but listen to how this spiritual family prayed together and see what we can learn.First of all when we look at the prayer of this spiritual family we will see that

1.

They acknowledged God

We see that immediately they begin to reflect back to God who he is.

Look at this,

Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them—Christians

You see they are reflecting back to God that they acknowledge his sovereignty and his oversight of these events.