One Heart, One Soul

Let's pray. Dear Father, we need Jesus. We need the

Word of God in our life. We need to be

men and women converted daily by the living and abiding

Word of God. So help the Word to do that

today in Jesus' name. Amen. The title of the message

this morning is One Heart and One Soul. It's taken

from the Bible. The gift of the Holy Spirit at

Pentecost finds its opposite power and misfunction at the Tower

of Babel. At the Tower of Babel, the people spoke

one language because there was no confusion of languages along

ethnic lines. It was a time when everybody knew how

to speak and it could be understood. There was a

clarity of communication. At Pentecost. God reversed the confusion with

the gift of tongues, so every person could hear the Gospel,

understand it, and believe. So Pentecost is the reversal of

the Tier of Babel. At the Tier of Babel, the

people scattered far and wide. At Pentecost that people who

heard the Gospel came together in Jesus. At the Tier

of Babel, they built a tower to reach into the heavens.

At Pentecost, heaven opened up, the Holy Spirit came down,

and God reached down to men and women to fill

their hearts with the Holy Spirit. At the Tower of Babel,

that people strove to make a name for themselves. At Pentecost,

the disciples strove to proclaim Jesus' name. It wasn't about them,

it was about Christ. At the Tower of Babel, the

tower builders sought God like powers when they said, let

us make, and then they did. At Pentecost, the Disciples

lost themselves in service to Jesus so Jesus could perform

his much needed work through the mighty Holy Spirit. It

wasn't let us make, It's let God make in us

something new for the good of others. At the heart

of the sin problem, which is our problem because we

have hearts. At the heart of the sin problem is

the heart that insists on self, the eye, me and

min that started sin in heaven with Lucifer. That's our

problem too, friend. God sent the Holy Spirit into this

world to save sinners from themselves and from the devil's

way of insisting on I, me and my instead of

God and others and the Lord Jesus Christ Hebrews eight eleven.

If you look at the Book of Hebrews. It has

a caastic structure. It moves from the end of the

beginning the exact sinners, verse eleven, and it is the

phrase they shall all know Me, from the least of

them to the greatest. The New Covenant is to put

the knowledge of God, the love of God, deep inside

of us, so that we all have a personal relationship

with God. To know God, we must be one with God.

Why because God is one. I mean this business that

you can go off and do your own thing. You

can insist on your will, You can ignore the good

and needs of others around you. You can live a

life for your purpose, your self actualization, and somehow forget

that you were placed on this planet for the good

of others. In God is to miss the point. You

cannot know God unless you learn to love by giving

to other men and women in life. The great Chamad

Deuteronomy six, which is the heart of the Torah, the

heart of the ten Commandment law of God, shamai ye

Israel at an eye at an eye of Lhinu at

an eye of God. Here O Israel, the Lord, our

God is one God. The tower builders at Babel were

united in a God kind of way, a one kind

of way that was not from God. It was from

them and from evil. Unity is either a great breast

blessing in our life or it's a terrible curse, depending

on how it works. Jesus told us that of Satan's

kingdom divided. You remember what he said, how will it stand?

A divided kingdom cannot stand. Divided kingdoms always fall. In time,

God divided the nations. Why because mankind had reached a

state of unity, of evil unity, the singularity that we

are approaching in the modern times. I mean, friends, you

don't realize it, but there are advances in science right

now in AI technology, in nanotechnology, in genetics and bioengineering

that will allow an artificial intelligence system to exceed human capacity,

probably in the next five to six years. And they

say that this threat is greater than any nuclear threat

that could possibly face the human race, because once intelligence

reaches that threshold, it can take over the world, It

can destroy humanity in a short space of time. We

have no idea the kind of things the new tower

builders are striving to achieve. So the unity of the

world order, the unity of evils, coming to a place

where the three sides of Babylon will be manifested the

time of the end, and we, as Christians, cannot afford

to unite with the world. We must unite with God

in his word, on God's terms to make a difference

in the world. God divided the nations deliberately because at

the Tower of Babel he came to understand that he

could not work with tower building arrogant kind of nations.

He abandoned the nations to work with a family, Abraham's

family and time to bring about a nation that was his,

whose constitution was the law of God, the charter of

the universe, and through that nation to bring us Jesus Christ,

so that through Jesus Christ, he could reclaim the nations

of the earth through the outpoint of all his spirit.

God divided the nations because humankind had reached a state

of terrible unity, the singularity where evils always wins in

the end, and it brings the end of the world. World.

God prevented that. Genesis eleven, verse six. The Lord said,

behold there one a god people, and they have all

one language. And this is only the beginning of what

they will do, And nothing that they purpose to do

will now be impossible for them. For the tower builders,

unity was a dangerous thing that had to be stopped

or the world would have come to an end. But

for God's people in the opposite direction, in light of Pentecost,

unity is absolutely necessary for God's cause, God's Church to prevail.

No unity, no victory. Jesus prayed for unity before the

cross as he was facing the specter of the separation

from the Father and the Holy Spirit. He prayed for

unity in his church. Turned to John seventeen. Let's look

at verse eleven, and he said, now I am no

more in the world, but they are in the world,

and I am coming to thee Holy Father. Keep them

in thy name. Now, when when Jesus says keep them

in thy name, it's just another way of saying, keep

them in thy law, thy character, because God's name, God's

character is exactly the same thing. So Christ is saying, Look,

a disobedient church goes nowhere, a church that turns its

back on the character of God revealed in the Decalogue,

goes nowhere. Father, keep them in thy name. You remember

the Lord's prayer, Our Father, who art in heaven, How

would be thy what come and help me Thy name?

And then what he's saying, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will

be done, where on earth as it is in heaven.

To know God's name is to know God's law. It's

for the Kingdom to come into our lives. So Jesus says,

Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast

given me. He says, I am the living, breathing expression

of the law of God, the character of God, the

book patriarchs and prophets. That very first line which I

love God is love, his nature, his law. His love

has ever been, ever will be. The everlasting Covenant is

God's nature, his law, is character, his name. And that's

why his name is written on the foreheads of obedient Christians.

At the time of the end, they have the Covenant,

the law of God, instead of the mark of the Beast,

which is the beast's law and sign. Christ prayed for unity.

He goes on to say, which thou hast given me,

that they may be one, even as we are one.

The humanity of Christ was filled with the divinity of

the second person, of the Godhead, of the eternal Son

of God. And in that fusion of natures we see

God with us Emmanuel. When the Holy Spirit came upon

those one hundred and twenty people in that upper room.

The Holy Spirit knit their hearts together in love for

Jesus Christ and love for a lost world. The world

doesn't need to hear more of us. The world doesn't

need more of us in the form of eye, me

and mice spilled out in virtue signaling the like talking

about the greatest things we're doing or not doing. The

world doesn't need that. The world that Jesus died for

needs the love of God that is one within the Godhead.

The hearted love of eternity is not hoarded. It has

been poured out in Jesus and the Holy Spirit for us.

The heart of love of Attorney the Godhead is the

love the world needs. And for this reason God has

established his church on earth. Why to love the world,

not the evil in the world, but the people of

the world. The latesty in church in the book Revelation

is a church era where believers are fully bent on

self love, on narcissism, on talking about how important are

they are, how big their church is, how impressive their

missions are. When the focus is on self instead of

the Lord and his work, God would rather work with

the few than the many. The latesty in Church of

the Last Days needs Jesus Christ formed in it anew. Now.

The early Church was characterized by love, a love for

members in the church. In fact, the Church of Ephesus

symbolizes the early Church. It had lost its first love.

It started with love and it lost it. You never

want to lose love. The early Church was characterized by deep,

abiding love. I love for the members in the church,

a love for the lost, a love for new people,

a love for their enemies. They wouldn't wear scowls on

their faces toward those they didn't like. They would love

and like for the sake of Christ. Turned with me

to Acts four thirty two, and let's enter this chapter

as we engage the scripture, allow the Lord to speak

to us. Now. The company of those who believed were

of one heart and soul. And no one said that

any of the things which he possessed was his own.

But they had everything in common and with great power.

The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and I like the way it ends,

and great grace was upon them all. The Greek reads

literally that these believers were heart and soul one. It's

the Greek it's not the Hebrew God, but it's the

idea heart and soul one. The Greek for heart means

the inner self where the affections reside. The Greek word

for soul means the inner self where the life energy resides.

You know, if you have affection but no energy, there's

no life. And so these two meet to create a

person's inner self. David said this when he messed up bad.

Have you ever messed up bad? We've all messed up bad. Okay,

he said, teach me truth in the inner man. That's

where this is, at the heart and the soul. The

Holy Spirit had healed the people like Peter had denied.

Christ had healed them on the inside, where the heart

and the soul is at. The Holy Spirit had brought

the unity of the God hit into the heart of

every believer, so that the love of God was not

just something out there. The love of God was in sight,

and it was shining out, and so spirit filled loving

Christians overtook the world in the first christ century. Now,

I've been in church ministry since I was boy. When

did I Diana? When did I start pastoring? How old

was I? I never get this right, so I don't

want to mistake it. What dear heart. I was twenty

two when I became a pastor. I'm sixty two, forty

years in the wilderness. No, just kidding. Now, look, forty

years I've been a pastor, and I didn't realize it

till today. Okay, Now I have seen the most loving

people I've ever known the world in the church. I

think of Norman and Alan Halleck, who took over my

life after my dad died at Fletcher Academy, who would

not let me go and slip away, but made me

one of their boys, who adopted me without the law

of the land, so I became a son of theirs,

so i'd be a son of theirs in the church,

so I would grow up to know Christ. I remember

Norman Halley driving me to Southern Avenue University. It was

Southern College. It was called Southern Matrimony College back then.

It worked because I got Diana there, but he was

blund he had glycoma and just kind of going through

the tunnels trying to get me there. And they made

sure that I had clothes and stuff I needed, and

when I failed, they never pushed me down, but lifted

me up. I didn't fail school, but I had failings

in life. I remember my first semester at college. I

had an emotional breakdown. My mother was suffering, my brothers

were My brother was lost nor he was at in

the whole country, and just the stress of the whole

place brought me down. I had to quit college for semester.

I went and started planting trees in the south get

my physical energy back. I became an athlete in four

or five months in terms of energy and capacity. I

needed that. And this dear couple just hung in there

with me, and somehow God allowed me to keep my

GPA at a very high level in spite of that.

And I got a scholarship which paid off my schooling

at the end because I didn't have enough money to

pay it off. But God takes care of us. But

I wouldn't have got anywhere in life without loving people

reaching out to help me. And that's what we got

to do in the church. And look at X four

thirty two. Now the company of those who were believed,

what does it say, were of one heart and soul?

And no one said that any of the things which

he possessed was his own friends at Satan's designed to

divide the church with sin and evil, so that it's

all about I, me and Mi, and not about what

God can do and give for others. It is the

work of the Holy Spirit in us personally and within

the church to unite the church with love and obedience

to God. As a disobedient church cannot unite in love

and the power of the Holy Spirit, because the love

and the power of the Holy Spirit is the unity

of the Godhead. That is the love of God, the

love of God, the name of God. As one. First

John one, verse one, turn our bibles. There. John is

here thinking about the gift of Jesus. What did it

mean for Jesus to come? What was the impact on

John and the church in that first century? What he

tells us here that which was from the beginning. Now,

he doesn't mean the beginning of his life. He means

the beginning of time. We know in Hebrews one three

that Christ created the eons. He is the potentate of time.

He's the panthecrator in Greek, the one who holds all

things space, time that Einstein described the universe as not

just space but time, as semile fabric. God created that.

And whenever a theologian comes along and says, well, God

is captured by his own creations, nonsense. But you see,

to be a God of love, he has to also

be in time. He can't just be out of time.

And so the God is overall, is also through all

and in all. And we know that Jesus Christ created time.

That means before there was a was, there was Jesus.

So don't give me this stuff that Christ is a

creative being. You can't create the eons and be a

created being. The hearted love of eternity was the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit, love that shares, love

that is not exclusive, love that can give and away.

We're out of love, not need. God created the universe.

So he says that which was from the beginning, which

we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,

which we have looked upon in touch with their hands.

Concerning the Word of life, now here he's identifying Jesus

as the word that came to Abraham and Genesis fifteen

one and spoke to Abraham as the word of the Lord.

He says, the word of life, we saw him, the

Word became a human being. Verse two, the life was manifested.

Now this is the Greek equivalent banaraoh. This is the

Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word mare that John's website

Angels in the Glen dwells on so eloquently in Daniel

chapter eight and nine. The mare of the Mighty Man

is the appearance of the Mighty Man, and that prophecy

points to the coming of Jesus at the end of

four hundred and ninety prophetic years. So John is saying, look,

what Daniel predicted was manifested. We saw the appearance of

the Word of Life. We saw it, and the Hebrew

could also, I mean the Greek you mean here, we

saw him, and we testify to him or it, and

proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the

Father and was made manifest again the equivalent of the

appearance of Daniel nine the mare the appearance of Christ. Now,

let's face it, God, who cannot be put in a jar,

came into the life in person and merged with the

humanity that was made the body he had prepared, so

that God became a man, the God Man, not either

or but both as one, and the human will of

Christ cooperate with the divine will of Deity in him,

so that together they atone for our sins at the

God level and the human level. Jesus is the eternal life,

that is God, that was manifested to those early disciples.

Jesus is the life that came to earth to reveal God.

You can't reveal God unless you are God. You don't

have a first hand take on the character of God

unless it is in you by nature. And so they

came to know God in Jesus Christ. Now, how many

of you want to have a relationship with God? Okay,

don't leave Jesus out of it. You can't have a

relationship God unless you're in love with Jesus Christ, who

came to reveal God Verses three and four. That which

we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you,

so that you may have fellowship with us. Now, why

did God send Jesus so it could just know that

God exists or DoD He send Jesus so that we

could have what love and fellowship here? And our fellowship

is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.

So we don't get the love in the community from ourselves.

It's not about us. John is saying, we get it

because we got a relationship with God, and there's a

fellowship in the God that has come into our lives,

and it's in the church. And we want you to

join the church so you can be in a community

of love that's not human love. It's God love like love,

it's God's love. Here and then verse four, and we

are writing this that our joy may be complete. It's

not good enough that we're sitting in the pew without

our friends and neighbors. Here. We want our friends to

be saved, to come to know the love of God

that we know. Now. I was talking to a pastor

years ago, actually looked yesterday, but who years ago ordained

me in Michigan conference. I'll let you know his name.

His name is Elder Jay Gallimer, God lead man. He

said something to me, He says, Mike, you know, if

you just look at how the Lord took care of

you here, here, here, and here, don't you allow yourself

to ever believe that God does not love you. He says,

those evidences that you have that He rescued from this

and that and the other thing. It doesn't matter how

it gets in one chapter of your life. Never forget

the good ones, so you know that God loves you.

It was a profound wisdom coming from this retired minister

who was the head of Michigan Conference and this kind

of thing. God blessed Jay friends. I asked a question,

what good is religion if there's no joy in it?

Is that a good question to ask? What good is

religion if there's no joy in it? What good has

come into church? If we don't enjoy each other and

live for others in the church. Now, I had the

joy yesterday of going out to see the RhI garden.

Did you see that? Well, you should just go out

there and look at the guard. Jonathan, raise your hand

high back. There we have a quiet man who's a

gardener for God. Here I ate a strawberry out of

our garden. We walked the property. Yeah, clap for that.

And we walked the property and I saw some tomatoes.

Diana donated that he's going to be planning. I hope

they all survive. I also saw this wonderful man that

just those those vegetables that are going to end up

in our potluck meal a little bit. He's going to

have to figure out how we can give them some

of that to the church, but one person getting at all.

But it's good and we you know, I won't tell you.

Just being with Jonathan, just being out there watching his

joy and doing something for God, you know what did

to me? Guess what it did to me? Oh? Yes,

made me. It made me happy to see this. And

when I see people connecting, loving, giving, carrying, charring, growing,

makes the pastor happy. Well, should make us all happy

because God created the church for joy. So what good

is it coming to church if we don't enjoy each

other and live for others in the church? Why bother

with God? If God is not good? Does it make sense?

Let's say God's a messed up fiend who wants to

worship him? Now, this is the problem with the doctrine

of an everlasting hell where you're tormented forever. The Bible

teaches an everlasting fire that is God's glory. Hebrews four,

you know, Hebrews twelve says that. Twelve twenty nine says

our God is a consuming fire. The fire is eternal,

but the sinner is not. But imagine a God who

would torture people for endless ages. To make a point,

I'm sorry, no worshiping a god like that from me.

Our God has to be good, and the goodness of

God was revealed in the life of Jesus, who said, Father,

forgive them. They know not what they do. Why bother

with a God who's not a good God? And why

join a church that is not a loving church that

cares about others as a good God would. Paul tells

us in Romans one five that the purpose of the

Gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith. People say,

o obedience, so it's legalism. You ever hear that? That

isn't The obedience of faith is love in action. It's

the character of God in the life of the church.

So you don't get unity and throwing out the law

of God. He described in Glatians five twenty six as

the faith working through love. Because love is active, it

is obedience, It is the product of faith. It is

the result and fruit of faith. In the Gospel, John

continues in verse five, this is the message we have

heard from him and proclaim to you that God is

like and in him has no darkness at all. If

we say we have fellowship while we walk in darkness,

we lie and do not live according to the truth.

Now he goes on to say, you walk in darkness

if you hate your brother. Later on, so if you

got somebody, you're just gonna trash, You're gonna run down

in your life. You're gonna be hard on him again,

mad at him. You're in the darkness. Look, it doesn't

mean you can't be hurt in life. It doesn't mean

you can't be wounded. Just means we have to rise

above it. We have to love people in spite of

these things in their life. So it says we lie

and do not live according to the truth. But if

we walk in the light as He is in the light,

So the grow models not the person who hurts you.

It's not the pastor and administrator. The role models Jesus.

If we do that, it says we have fellowship with

one another. I like this and the blood of Jesus's

son cleanses us from how much sin? How much sin?

All said, God does not want sin in any of

our lives, any of it. It takes the love of God,

the light, to reach the darkness and to dispel it.

John says in one John five to seven that God

is love. So what does God help me with this?

God is love? So if you want to be like God,

what do you gotta be got to be loving Christians?

Thus the Church of God on earth myths must be

just like God, or it is not God's Church at all.

See the remnant Church of the Apocalypse that keeps the

commandments of God and has the Testament of Jesus has

to be a loving church to be the remnant church.

Does that make sense? Because the Law is God's name

is character. Love is what the law teaches. You may

have correct theology and keep the Sabbath on the right day,

but if you do not have the love of God

inside your heart and soul in the inner self, then

all your brilliant ideas turn to evil, and your words

become sour grapes in the ears of those who hear

you instead of God's love in your life. You may

think of yourself to be a teacher or a leader,

the indispensable person the church needs. But if you do

not have the love of God inside of you, you

can't teach anyone anything that matters for their salvation. You

may choose to serve the church with your time and

energy and your money, and that's not a bad thing.

But if you are an unconverted person in the heart,

void of God's love inside of you, full of bitterness

and darkness, unwilling to pray for your enemies. Then you're

agenda and your preoccupation with yourself, the eye, me and

mind and your life will corrupt everything you would do

for God. If you do not have the love of

Christ inside of you, dear heart, your heart and soul,

it's an empty place. You're an empty vessel, and you'll

repel people instead of draw people through the love of God.

So this matter of heart and soul matters most to

God and our Christian life and law. It is the

single most important evidence that we belong to God as

converted men and women. Now, the Hosannah Church who meets

here on Sundays, they're not of our Seventh y Avenist tradition,

but they got something right going on within the within

the I'm trying to I know the denomination. I just

drew a blank. You ever draw a blank? You never

draw blank? Oh, come on. Church of the Nazarene, that's

their faith tradition. Church of Nazarene rejected the idea that

John Wesley's Second Blessing is in fact the speaking of tongues.

The chrismatic movement came out of that. It's an unbiblical movement.

They rightly understood that the great blessing of God, the

second Blessing, probably is best understood as the fruit of

the spirit, love, joy, kindness. So they have classes and love,

joy and kindness in their church. Can you believe that

have little children teach them how to be loving, kind, merciful,

mentoring kind of rather than teaching them how to impress

people how smart they are and this kind of thing.

That's a good thing. The fruit. I can come here

and I observe them, and you know, I want to

point something out there. You see all those boxes in

the back of the church over there, that's their sound system.

Now here's why it's there. They have to move that

thing every Saturday night from a storage room to set up,

and it makes it very hard for them to have

a worship experience on their day, which they get wrong.

They don't know the Sabbath Saturday. But we're trying to

be loving Christians in our relationship to them. So we're

leaving them there. We're going to try to get some

cloths for them. Maybe eventually we'll put a little booth

there but is that okay for us to bear with

that on most of the occasions so we can have

less loss of energy in their lives. Is that a

good thing? Can you put up with that? I can too,

because we're called to be loving Christians. Well, thank you.

I'll tell them we took a vote. Let's vote on it.

Eys uh oh, not all the hands went up. I

trust the rest of you to be right in your heart.

Now let's look at Acts four again together in unity.

First of all, the fruit of the spirit that starts

with love, then joy and peace like that should be

our primary concern as Christians. Look at verse thirty two.

Now the company of those who believe were of one

heart and soul. And one said that any of the

things which he possessed was his own. No one said that.

But they had everything in common and with great power.

The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of Lord Jesus,

and great grace was upon them all the sick. This

passage with me a little bit. Luke in the Book

of Acts here describes this group as the company of

those who believed. In my translation, the Greek word for

company is literally multitude. Some translations bear that out the

one hundred and twenty in the upper room. In time,

that small group, because of the Holy Spirit, because of

the commitment of Jesus, became a multitude of believers. I

mean by Asks four, we're not talking about a little group.

We're talking about a movement. It's hard to hold a

small group together, even of one hundred and twenty people,

but the unity of the one hundred and twenty grew.

They kept it in the unity of the multitude. Friends,

a multitude is a movement, and a groy want asks for.

They were united in faith. Now I am grateful that

as a movement we have a united understanding of the

Bible in the twenty eight fundamental beliefs voted in World

Session from the Bible. It's not the product of smart theologian.

It's not the product of someone who comes along lately.

It is the consensus of the church in scripture and

unity of what God teaches for our time. And this

movement Asks four was characterized by that same kind of unity,

without moral or spiritual compromise. The early church was not

a church. It's you know, we need to grow, so

let's just take our kids out to the bar. We

need to grow and let's just go oh, and let's

take them to a rock concert. That's not how the

early Church did anything they had. It was put through

this through the it was sifted through the word of God.

To get it right, there must be a generation of

young people are faithful to the Bible in our time.

There were three characteristics of the union of the early

Church found in these verses. Number one, they were heart

and soul one literally. Number two, no one claimed that

they own anything for themselves. That's a tough one. Got

an ira, got a bank accown. Number three, they held

all things in common together. The Bible teaches that the

returning of a faithful tithe is essential for the work

of God on earth. Is a sign of faithful obedience

to God in service for others. It's hard, but it

really gets to the heart of selfishness. Now, the Bible

doesn't say it's ten percent of your increase. You know,

when you take your business expenses out of your gross

that's increase. That's what the Bible teaches. But for most

people it's their paycheck. But for people in businesses it's not.

The Bible teaches that this is an important principle for

the church. It's a sign of faithful obedience to God

in service for others. It took me a while to

grow into this. I wasn't part of my culture. I

didn't understand it whenever I was writing my tieth check

early on or setting inside of wonder, well, how will

I make it? Do you realize at this point in

my life, I don't even ask that question, how will

I make it? I know I will. I know I will.

And before I even look at my bills, before I

even payal one of them, I make sure I write

that out. I put it there so I'm blind to

it being there, tithe and offering for God, and then

I'll figure it out. But these early believers went way

beyond God's command to return the faithful tithe and to

have free will offerings. They realized that for the early

Church in that critical time of its history to establish

the foundation for future generations, Like the Early advent Believers

in the eighteen hundreds, they realized that they would need

to pour out their life, energy and wealth and ability

to jump start the church and the Apostolic age so

it could reach the world and go through the centuries

to the Second Coming of Christ. The same attitude will

come again just before Jesus returns. The early church on

fire for God held nothing back from God. They realized

that Jesus came to this world as the gift of God.

Now this is not the first church where I've been

a part of a building program. Sacrificial believers put their

lives on the line to make this place go up.

There are some people who died in the exertion of

energy to create reaching hearts in national But when I

was the pastor of the Oakwood Church years ago, at

the beginning of my ministry, when I was an ordained minister,

I had my first pastors that led to ordination in

Michigan Conference. I remember my head elder who had grown

up in the church. His name was Donald Donald Weaver.

His dad was a surgeon. He became a world renowned surgeon.

And one of the members of our church started pouting.

He was the only millionaire in the church that he

wouldn't give a nickel for the building of that church

unless it was done his way, and we were all

doing it wrong. I remember going in his office. He

had a list of grievances with me and it was

this long. Really, it was printed out on a computer.

I mean, what I'm supposed to read all that? So yeah,

I did, in my brashness as a young pastor, I

tore it up right there and put it in the

trash can. Says, now, what else do you have to

communicate to me? That made me it in the best way.

But in time he had to step down as an

elder because he was all about him and not about others.

So that put a greater weight on the surgeon in

the church, and I would forget. After the church went

up after a four year struggle. It's a miracle at

church went up. Beautiful church. It was called the Church

of the Flags because we celebrated our multi ethnic diversity

with flags. That wouldn't be a bad idea here either,

But basically, right in front of the church, it looked

like a un A general conference gathering. He was crying

one day right there in the foyer of the church

where he had a Sabisco class. I says, done, okay,

He says, yes, I'm crying because I'm so happy. I'm

very happy. He says, what do you mean why you

cry and you're happy? He says, I don't have a

pinnion in my bank account right now, and I'm the

happiest I've been in all my life because this church

is here. He put everything he had into building that church,

and his health is not the greatest today. So pray

for Donald Weaver, doctor Donald Weaver. I named my son

Donald after doctor Donald Weaver. My son can't stand the

name Donald. He likes the middle name Matthew Moore. But

lately there's some famous people with Donald. Who knows how

that'll work out, but basically Donald, he says, Dad, I'm

not Donald Duck, you know so, I said, but you're

named after a great man. Remember, Donald Weaver doesn't always work.

But Donald Weaver's one of the greatest men I've ever

known in my life. Sorry, I just had to think

about that. These early Christians realized that Jesus humbled himself

in the garden of Gsemite. He went to the cross,

and Jesus bore every sin we have ever committed his

body on the cross. And when Jesus cried out his

finished on the cross, God had nothing more to give.

God gave it all. That's what love is. We are

told that the angel perfection is not enough to keep

angels from sinning. We are told that it is a

contemplation of the Cross of Christ, the love of God

in Christ that keeps sinless beings from sinning. The early

Church had a fresh view of the Cross of Christ.

They knew what it meant, and they gave because God gave.

What happened What happens when a man or woman makes

a life changing choice in life to give their hearts

to Jesus with no reservations. What happens when the Holy

Spirit surrender inside, reaches deep inside the heart and the

soul of the inner life and the affections is transformed

by God who is won. Wars cease, posturing ends, a

pursuit of greatness is gone, sins are confessed, evil is banished,

righteousness is appealed. Arrogant self will, anger, resentment flees from

the heart and the life of the Church that has

surrendered to the power of the Holy Spirit and the

inner man, the inner woman. It is at that moment,

that glorious moment, when the Church possesses the power of

God on God's terms. That's when miracles were wrought. That's

when for God's sake in Christ, he will work through

the Church to transform our neighborhoods our lives, our families

and those around us Acts four point thirty three. And

with great power, the apostles gave their testimony to the

resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them,

and wasn't saying in the Bible upon them all, the

all of them here was a multitude of them, a

huge number, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

It takes great power to hold many people together. The

power of God that regenerates the light was demonstrated in

the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Love yanked him out of

the grave because love would not let him go. And

love doesn't let others go. Love holds on to people.

Love cares about them, and love is not codependent. But

love cares. When we experience a great grace in our church,

that's when the great power of God is in the church.

We give because God is given great power. Great grace

was upon them all. When we come to the cross,

that's where we see the power, the glory, the grace

of God, the selflessness of God. And we should be

the people of the Cross. Now look at the fourth Chapter,

verses thirty four and thirty six. There was not a

needy person among them, for as many as were possessed

of lands or households, sold them and brought the proceeds

of what was sold and laid it at the apostles feet,

and distribution was made to each as any had needed. Thus, Joseph,

who was surnamed by the apostle Barnabas, which means son

of Encouragement Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field

which belonged to him, and brought the money and laid

it at the apostles feet before Paul came upon the

scene as the mighty Apostle the Gentiles. Barnabas, the Son

of Encouragement, became a source of strength and encouragement for

that early church, so we could reach the world. Barnabas

put his field money from it into the hands of

God's servants, and he spent the rest of his life

as a missionary, encouraging the early Church to share, to care,

to grow, to spread the knowledge of Jesus. What was

the secret of the early Church's witness for Jesus. It

was the fact that they were one. The love of

God had come into the church. And what was the result.

Great power and great grace was upon them all because

they are one heart, one soul, heart and soul one God.

Bless you in Jesus, dear Father. There's no glory in

being big if deep inside the heart, where it's small,

there is no love. So Father, help us, because we

can't put love in our hearts for other people. Only

you can bring Jesus into the heart and life. Thank

you that he revealed your life. Thank you for those

early Christians that were enamored with who he was. And

thank you that it is our privilege on the eve

of the Advent to be in love with Jesus. Dear Lord,

bless your people. May there be great power in their lives.

Why because of great grace upon them all in Jesus name. Amen.