Acts: Foundations of the Early Church

Well, if you have your Bible, if you're turn with me to the

Book of Acts. So that's the pass, John, and turn take a

rite and you'll come to the Book of Acts. We started a series of

the Book of Acts a few months ago and we're just continuing. Then that's

a chapter or not a month, about a month ago. So we're in

chapter one this morning, and we'll start at verse twelve. And so if

you'll turn there with me. I don't know about you. I like,

if I like make a purchase, if I buy something, I want to

buy something that lasts. I don't want to invest my money in something that

just is not going to last over the long haul. And so just this

week, I had a pair of shoes or dress shoes, and I had

them for probably five or six years, and they kind of fell apart,

and I was like, I just thinking about getting a new pair, and

I was like, well, I want to get something that's going to last.

I just don't want to spend money. And then you know, five

years later, I had to buy a new pair. And so especially for

dress shoes, that's something you should last around ten years or more. And

so anyway, so I want to think about things at last. And I

want you to think about for your life, when you invest your money into

things, you want to invest in the things that that lasts. But how

about your time? How about your energy? How about your love? When

you invest your time, your energy, your love into something, you want

it to last. And can I tell you today one of the things that

I can assure you today that if you invest time and money or you're giving

your energy into this thing I will submit to you today, it will not

only last, but it will last for eternity. Today. Just yesterday or

Friday, I got a call or Brandy got a message that a church member

in South Carolina. I started my first senior pastor. I was thirty one

years old at a church in South Carolina called Nickels, South Carolina called Spring

Branch Baptist Church. And I was a young pastor. And there was a

lady there in that church and was Patty Hemming. And Friday I got a

phone called it Miss Patty passed away. And I left there in twenty thirteen.

And in twenty fourteen, she planned out her funeral service and she planned

that she wanted me to come back, and she wanted me to have a

part in her service, and she wanted Brandy to sing. And so last

yesterday evening we or yesterday morning, we drove to South Carolina and we were

able to be a part of her service. But ten years later, or

even fifteen years from when I started passioning that church, the impact an investment

and the time, energy, commitment, prayers tears all that you may say.

An investment in God's Church? Can I submit to you, has made

an internal impact? And today Miss Patty's life was impacted through what through the

church. Today, as we come to this passage of scripture, we're looking

at the title of my sermon as foundations of an Early Church? Can I

tell you today one of the things that I can assure you that will last

for eternity. There are many things in this world will pass away, and

that's including old jees, But one thing that will never pass away is God's

Church. And today, as we come to this passage of scripture, we

say, you know what, if we're going to have asked my time,

my energy, my my gifts, my talents into this church, what are

important elements of this church? What are parts that should be things that are

within the early church? I you saw I brought a bunch of things to

day, and I really was not sure whether I should bring this to end

today. But this book, and you can see it is like taped up

like they use some electric tape and that didn't even last. But this book

is the first book but as the Baptist Church, this was the minutes from

business, minutes from Beth's the Baptist Church starting in my March of nineteen,

I mean eighteen eighteen eighty four. That's how old this book is. So

I would say they got their money's worth. Amen. First thought. Second

thought is think about where we started from. And you've read this book and

it's as you read the very beginning, you saw a group of people came

together and they met, and it gives you the vision of why they started

and where they started and how it all started, how it all begun here

here at Bethesda. And I think we want to look at these things and

say, oh, what wasn't things that were very important of the church at

Bethesda. But I want us to go all the way back to Acts chapter

one, and we have even a book that's even older and that is God's

Word, and see what really mattered to the early church. It's this church

is what we can invest in that will make eternal impact in our life and

the lives of others. What are principles that were in the early church,

the church was founded on, and what are some things that we need to

make sure as a church that we're continuing to be founded upon. So that's

what we're gonna look at this morning, Acts chapter one. So let's end

with me and let's read God's Word together Sacks, chapter one, and we'll

start verse twelve and we'll read through the end of the chapter. When they

returned to Jerusalem from the mouth called all of It, which is near Jerusalem,

on the Savensday journey away. And when they had entered, they went

up to the upper room, and they were staying Peter and John, James,

Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of

Alpheus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and

all these were one accord, devoting themselves to prayer together with the women,

and married the mother of Jesus and his brothers. In those days, Peter

stood up among his brothers. The company of person was in about one twenty

and said, or one hundred and twenty said, brothers. The scripture had

to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David,

concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who rested Jesus. And

he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Now

this man acquired a field with his reward from his wickedness, and following headlong,

he burst open in the middle, and all his vows gus out,

and it became known to all that habits and Jerusalem, so that the field

was called in their language. I'll just give over that word, that is

the field of blood, what it was written in the name of written in

the book of Psalms. May his camp become desolate, and there be no

one to dwell in it, And let another take his office. And one

of the men who are accompanying us during the time that the Lord Jesus went

in and out among us, the beginning of John's baptism, until the day

when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with

us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forth to Joseph called bas

Sabbath, and who was also it was called Justice and Mattheus. And they

prayed and said, you, Lord, who knows the hearts of all,

show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in

the ministry and apostleship would Judas turned aside to go to his own place.

And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Mattheists, and

he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Let's pray together, Father, I

thank you Lord for this passage you led us to do to today. I

pray Lord, just for the leading of your word. Lord, pray for

clarity of speech and clarity of thought. Lord. Pray Lord, that you

would lead me to rightly divide your word. I pray today that we would

be led to application of how we apply this to our life and to the

life of our church. God, we thank you for founding your church,

and we thank you Lord that investing our time in our energy into this church

will make an impact not only for the life of our ministry also but into

eternity. So let us considered, Lord, help but lead us to consider

today how we are faithfully following these foundational principles. And Lord, lead us

to these things. Lord, we love you. We thank you Lord for

your word. Today lead us, Lord, cleanse me, that you might

use me, Lord, for your glory and your name. We pray amen,

he may be seated. So I want you to see this one as

we walked through this passage. Just three quick things. This one and three

quick things that we see that we're foundational principles or foundations for the Early Church.

First, the Early Church was founded on unity. It was founded on

unity. As you come to this passion of scripture, you see the very

verse twelve. It says when they returned to Jerusalem, that was they were

on the Mount Olive right, and they'd been with Jesus, and Jesus had

given when he was last words, and we saw last time we were together.

Jesus then ascended into heaven. He was taking up into a cloud.

And then they heard the witnesses right. The witnesses declared that just as he

ascended, so he would descend when he came what we call the Second Advent

or the second Coming, he would come in the same way. Jesaid command

his disciples that after he latter, after he had snded, that they should

return to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit and so verse twelve is very

important because it shows their obedience. Jesus had commanded them to go to Jerusalem

and wait for the Holy Spirit. And what did their first response was they

were obedient. They followed jesus commands. They went back to Jerusalem. Scripture

tells us it was a Sabbath day journey aways. It was about a day

away. The Bible says when they entered in, they went into the upper

room where they were staying, and and the Bible outlines who was there.

We see just four different groups. A there was eleven disciples. The scripture

tells us that we're there. You can imagine these disciples. This is kind

of a ragtag group, if you will, not people who had it all

together, but really a lot of disciples who didn't have it together at all.

You had Peter just prior to this, forty days removed, if you

will, Jesus had denied Peter had denied Jesus three times. Peter had struggled

with just what was going through with Jesus, even one time rebuked Jesus for

saying he was going to die on the cross. He struggled with all this.

He struggled as a leader he struggled with finding fault. He would blame

John for leading him to the courts, and so Peter struggled. There was

then there was another disciple we know as Thomas, and we call him doubting

Thomas right who one who saw was eyewitness, was saw Jesus miracles, saw

Jesus walk on water. See Jesus do heal the lepers? So Jesus raise

up Lazarus. But when Jesus died and rose again, he forgotten all that

he had saw. And he doubted that Jesus had risen just as Lazarus had,

and said, what I would not believe unless I put my hand in

his side. And now these are the disciples. These are the ones who

are gonna leave the next church. The Bible says, not only where their

disciples there, But he looked at verse fourteen. Here it says, and

all of these were one accord and um they were devoting themselves to prayer together

with Um. There were women, their scripture tells us. With some of

these were um not named, but some of them were named. Mary,

Jesus's mother, was there. There's no doubt that probably Mary, Mary Magdalene

was there. Mary and Martha was there. If you remember, Martha was

the one who blamed Jesus for her brother's death. To hear these ladies also

struggle with their own things about what was going on with Jesus. The Bible

says that his brothers were there. In this pastor's scripture, Jesus the mother

of Jesus in verse fourteen, and his brothers Jesus's brother James, Judas,

and Simon were all there. We also know through scripture that these brothers would

struggle with believing Jesus, even accepting Jesus. We know that some it was

as early as eight months before his death, before that they had not believed

in their brother and that he was the Messiah. And then other scriptures.

Scripture tells us that in verse fifteen in those days, Peter stood up among

the brothers their scripture to tell us. Scripture describes that there's about one hundred

and twenty people there in that upper room, and they were together. This

is like our book here. This was really the first church service. We're

looking at the records of the first service of but as this is, we're

looking at the records of the first church service of their early church and wean't

you just see a few things that we see in this passage. Scripture Verse

fourteen says, and all of these were with one accord. The first thing

we see about this early church and their first meeting is that they were unified.

You know, they all had their struggles, they all had their doubts,

they all had their shortcomings. But one thing that brought them together was

they were united in their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what united

them. This imagery of they were one accord, as found through all the

several times throughout Acts actually six times. I won't go through all of those,

but Acts two we see forty six. And by day by day,

attending the temple together, breaking the bread in their homes, they received their

food with glad and generous hearts. They were together day by day, Scripture

says in five twelve. Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the

people by the hands of the apostles, and they were all together in Acts

fifteen twenty five. And it had seemed good to us, having come to

one accord, to choose men and descend them to you, our beloved Barnabas

and Paul, you see this early Church. A running theme out about this

early Church is that they were together. There were church that faithful gathered together.

There was a church that faithful was in unity. You know. I

think it's really important as we understand the early Church, the early Church was

founded in unity, because a church who was founded incoming committing to come together.

I think those are foundational principles. Also think you have to understand that

was the foundational principle of the early Church as unity. But Jesus knew and

Paul taught that unity would be a struggle. You know, Jesus taught his

disciples in Matthew, I mean in Mark chapter three, he's actually told a

parable. And in the parable he's talking about how Satan cannot be divided,

the even Satan and his demons must be united in order to be effective.

And this is what he said. A kingdom is divided against itself, that

kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will

not be able to stand. In that parable, Jesus is saying, listen,

even demons will not be divided against one another, because if they're not,

if they're divided, they cannot stand. So it is with the devil

and his demons. So if with kingdoms, if a kingdom is divided,

it cannot stand believe that was not only a principle of Jesus has taught his

disciples how important that they were to be unified, but also as a principle

that Paul talked. Paul taught and First Corinthians eleven eighteen. He talked about

the divisions in the early Church at Karth, and he said these words,

for in this first place, when when you come together as a church,

I hear their divisions among you, and I believe it. In part and

his letter to Timothy as a young pastor, he commends Timothy to battle against

disunity and divisions within the church. He said these words. If anyone teaches

a different doctrine and does not agreed with sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ

and teaches that according with God and Godliness, he is puffed up with conceit

and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy, for quarrels about

words, which produces dissension, slander and evil, suspicion, suspicious and constant

friction among people who are depraved in mine and depraved of the truth and imagine

that Godness is a means of gain. He talks about dissensions, He talks

about quarrels with words. You know, I think I was a pastor.

I've been again. I've been in a senior pastor since I was thirty one,

so it's roughly almost fifteen years now, or just a senior pastorate as

I've been in ministry for almost almost nineteen twenty years now, and I've seen

one of the greatest tools at Satan has done in his church should try to

destroy a church is division in disunity. I think of that church Spring Branch,

And there was an issue with some a Senday school teacher that was in

the church and she was in her teaching Sendate school. She would talk about

things that she didn't like about the church. She or sena school class,

and the deacons heard about it. And this was way before it was pre

Jonathan, before I was the pastor of the church. And deacons heard her

about it with the pastor there and said the deacons decided they would send the

Senday school teacher a letter basically telling her that she didn't need to basically talk

about the church and her dislike about the church in Senda school. So they

sent her this letter. It's probably not the I would not say not the

probably it wasn't the right way to handle that situation. Matthew eighteen says,

you have an issue with the brother, go one on one with that person

and so. But they didn't do that. They sent her a letter,

and that calls a lot of friction with that among families in particularly whoever the

chairman the deacons at the time, who led the deacons in that or who

was the one whose name was put on it because he was the chair There

was a big strife between that family of the lady who taught Senday school class

and the family of that chairman of deacons. When I became pastor there,

that was probably four or five years after that, and you can just feel

the disunity in the church struggle. You can see that some families wouldn't speak

to other families. I've seen that before. Having you you may not see

it just at Bethesda at some points and think the Lord God has done some

great things here, right, But you've seen this happen in your families.

You've seen this happen in your workplaces. You've seen this happen in your community,

in your neighborhood. You've seen how disunity and division can destroy a family,

it can destroy a home, and it can destroy a church. Well,

we could just see this at that church at that time. And I

don't remember if it was a revival or something we had at the church.

And the pastor spoke and don't believe it was me, it was someone else.

You know, the pastor. You can preach the same sermons, right,

and then the revival preacher comes in and says, exact same thing,

and did you said was saying for the last five years, and they just,

oh, man, I just amazing thing I've ever heard. I just

he just spoke with such clarity. I'm thinking I've been saying it for five

years. But anyway, I won't, I won't. I just won't digress.

But anyway, and so the preacher said something and um, and and

that lady, it was a family member. She I never she could get.

She pulled me aside. And this is a lady she was, you

know, just I don't know how to describe her. But anyway, she

came up to me, she pulled me aside, and and she just weeped

and she said, past her, I've been bitter. I've been bitter to

this family for a long time. And she said, I need to forgive

them, I need to let it go. And she went, she told

me, and I prayed with her. Then I said, you're right,

you need to go and just let it go. And she went to that

that that um, that deacon, and she confessed her struggle with bitterness and

unforgiveness of them. And I tell you, listen that there was something that

changed in that church. And I say that to you today because I don't

know where you are, families, and I don't know where you are moms.

Can I tell you you're either a unifier you're a disunifier. I don't

know if there's even a word, but I've just made it up on Mother's

Day. But you have a way to either bring your family together or you

have a way to divide your family. Maybe that's a better way to say

it. But can I also say that as church members, As a church

member, every individual, you have a role and you have a way to

either unite the Body of Christ or divide the Body of Christ. The Early

Church was founded in unity. It's committed of coming together with one accord.

You know what, we may not all see eye to eye. There's Duke

fans in here and I pray for you, and I know there's there's Duke

fans in here that pray for me and I need it. And we won't

even talk about the im then City State fans as a whole another ball game.

But you know what, we may not disagree on Duke or Carolina or

a Pepsi or Coke or Ford or Chevallet or whatever it may be. We

may disagree on different styles or different music styles, different decorational styles, whatever

it may be. But what unite us, listen to me today, watch

unite us is our relationship with Jesus Christ. And we should not let the

peripherals or the preferences divide us in what is the main thing. The early

Church was founded in unity, and may we as early church, as we

as a church at Bethesda, continue to be founded in unity and let the

other things go. Can I say to you today, Listen to me,

hear me today, because I promise you there are people in this church you

can't help. When your family you're gonna have little TIFFs, you know,

you're just gonna do it it's going to happen, and sometimes you're not going

to see I d almost someone and there's going to be can be a little

wedge of disunity, and sometimes I can put a strain on your your commitment

to come to be one together. It can put a strain on your commitment

and being faithful and what God's called you to do here and listen just like

that, lady, it can really be a stumbling block for you really receiving

what the Lord has for you here. And can I say to you one

of the things that some of you may ought to do the Lord may be

leading you today is saying, you know what, I need to let some

things go. I need to let some bitterness go. I need to seek

some forgiveness. I need to restore some relationships because God's called me to his

church, and what unites me as part of metasta is my faith in Jesus.

Amen. All right, I'll keep I'll go on. We'll be here

all night or all day. The Bible says the early Church was founded in

unity, but as also a church was founded in prayer. Listen to this

and all these one accord. We're devoting themselves to prayer together with the women

and Mary and the mother of Jesus and his brothers. Wow, man,

this is incredible to think about the early Church that come together, that just

Jesus and now they're now they're together praying. They walked with Jesus, they

knew Jesus, they seen his teacher, his teaching. You can imagine for

them, they were almost like walking Bibles. I mean, they had heard

all his teaching, they had heard him pray. And I think now that

you remember, the Bible shows us that Jesus was consulting his time with his

disciple as they constantly saw him praying. You imagine, these were most of

these were Jews, and they were faithful Jews. They had seen priests,

and they had seen others praying the sin of God before, but they had

seen Jesus constantly get away and pray, get away and pray, get away

and pray. And at some point that they saw that there was something different,

or they'd noticed it was something different in Jesus's prayer. And so finally

they go to Jesus that Jesus teach us how to pray. Here are people

who their whole life have been surrounded by prayer. A lot like many of

you who have been raised up into church, you've seen prayer your whole life.

You've heard other people pray, but they will notice that something different about

Jesus's prayer. They've seen that model, Jesus model to prayer for them.

I think they saw how jesus communication with the Lord was so important and how

that was founded in prayer. And so now that Jesus is gone, now

Jesus is ascended, they say, what are we going to do without him?

Well, how are we going to continue on without him? Well,

we do that in prayer, the same communication that we taught with him by

the Sea of Galilee, or we talked with him in the boat, or

we talked with him sitting over a meal, we talked to him as we

walked along the way. That doesn't have to change. That he's ascended,

we can do the same thing today. Can I say to you today,

Church, not only we didn't need to be a church that is unified.

We need to be members that are unified. We need to be a church

that praise, and we need to be members that pray. I think it's

so important for us to understand, just like these disciples did, how can

we walk through this life when we've we don't have that access to Jesus as

those disciples did. Can I say to you today you do have that same

access that they do they did, and how do you have that? You

have that in prayer? Early church was founded in prayer. We see the

first meeting together, it was a prayer meeting. You know, you have

a prayer meeting the Southern Baptist Church today, half the crowd will show up.

Their first church service was a prayer meeting. They prayed together. That's

what the church was founded upon, a church that prayed. It's something that

really is an important part for me. Something I really believe the Lord has

led to us to is to be a church. I want to be a

church, a praying church. I don't want to be a church that praised.

And he said, well preach you What does that mean? What are

you trying to say there? Well, if we're just to preach a church

that prays, that just something we just do. You know, we just

pray every once in a while. Pray and service is something we do.

Now. I want to be a church and who we are as a praying

church. You understand that this built upon our DNA has been the core of

who we are is that we pray. It's not just something we add into

the service. It is something we do. And so we are praying church.

And that's why. I don't know if you've ever seen this, and

you can going to see my nasty hen right, but this is our prayer

sheet. Now, I don't know if you've seen this. I hope that

you have, but this is our prayer sheet that comes If you're not in

ours email lists, you should call Kelly or call the office or email her

and get on this. But on Tuesday, this prayer sheet comes out.

It's a PDF that you can download. And as you come to this prayer

list, it's just different prayer neees that we can pray for, prayer needs

or sick needs, or sympathy, praying for staff, church wide prayer lists,

and so this is something that we should do every week. We should

take this list and pray over our church members, pray over each other.

Something that we started doing and I was a few weeks ago, a few

months ago was m We started praying for people who are who are not sick.

You know, sometimes we pray for people just want to get sick.

How a professor said, well, what happens if we start praying for people

before they got sick, and so we started doing that and we so we

have in this middle of this section we have things that people that we pray

for who are not sick, just people that need prayer and that we want

to pray for before they're sick, and so we pray for This week,

we pray for our staff. We're praying for um an Elder's van and Glenda

Lily, our elders were praying for them. We're praying for the country of

Algeria, not algae U. We're praying for our sports staff and these are

people who work at our preschool and Miss Kimberly Edwards, Miss Carolyn Davis,

Miss Carla, Miss Charelle um Teasley. We're praying for our deacons um We

pray a deacon family every week and this week we're praying for Tyson and Meredith

Mooney. Pray for church members. Jackson, Abigail Emory and Eli Carroll pray

for a church every week. So we pray. We believe in praying for

church in our community because we'd asked part of we're not just Bethasda, but

as a church body. We're part of the whole body of Christ. Amen,

we should pray for the other churches. So we pray for Life Spring

Church, we pray for growth groups, and this week we're praying for Mike

Cipher's group growth group at the Well. So every week we do this.

And you know, I had this, this idea that is from a professor

that we should pray for people before they get sick. Well once one Wednesday.

This is actually I think in December, or I know it wasn't It

was a few months ago. We had a family meeting and then the family

meeting and you can see my notes here. I kind of mark up on

stuff pretty pretty good. And what we do is in our prayer meeting on

Wednesday night, and I encourage you, by the way, to come to

our prayer meeting. We spend the first thirty minutes just in praying for people.

I think it's so important for us as a church. And one our

commitments is we don't want sometimes we just add prayer at the end. We

change our prayer meeting. Does we do prayer at the beginning because prayer should

be first. And so we spent about thirty minutes of praying. One thing

we do is we go through this list and we have different people pray and

so UM. So we went through this list and the church member of the

week that week was um Abbey and Laura m Ray as Miss Laura and her

daughter Abbey Abbey there. They're faithful members here and their daughter is in middle

school. I forgot what grade. So that night they were on our prayer

list to pray for them that week As a Wednesday night, We've divided up

their name and Van Lily prayed for Laura that day and Abbey and it was

interesting. The very next day, I got a phone call from Laura and

said, I need to talk to you. Pastor had no idea. I

said, okay, I called her and when Kelly Kelly she called left a

message church office. My secretary m Kelly called Laura and said, Hey,

Laura, it's so good to hear from you. You know, just by

chance, you probably didn't know this, but you're on our prayer list and

we pray for you last night at our family meeting and Van Lily prayed for

you, and she said, you know, I can't believe that. Well,

she ended up calling I call her back because she said, Pastor,

I need and she's this is only God. I can do this. She

said, Pastor, I need you to pray for me. Abby's going through

some health issues and we're trying to get some things figured out. She said,

this has been going on. Listen to this. This has been going

on for weeks now. And she said, I've been struggling. I've been

struggling to tell you to reach out. And she's said something came over to

me today and says, I need to reach out to you, Pastor.

She had no idea that the night before that we as a church had been

praying for her. Listen, there is power in prayer. Miss Patty,

the lady I talked told you about yesterday, she had a daughter who had

went wayward and I remember had Brandie just reminded me of this. We were

at that church there and she would come to me and say, Pastor,

pray for my my granddaughter. She's going through She had just kind of went

awful away from the Lord and was to some things that she should be in

and Miss Patty prayed and fasted for about a week. And about a week

later, Listen, that girl came home and she got right with the Lord,

and today she's married and got her life right with the Lord. And

I believed it started with a praying grandma. Can I tell you church family

members and church family, there is power in prayer. And we as a

church should be a church that's unified, but we are should be a church

that is a praying church that is founded in prayer. Can I say lastly

here they were another church that was founded in in unity. It was a

church that was founded in prayer. There's a church that was founded in godly

leadership. Bible says that as they came together, Peter stood up and before

the people, and he described how Judas fulfilled scripture and that he betrayed the

Lord, and described judas death and described the cursing that came upon Judith Judas.

Then he talked about how it was important for that would they now be

obedient de scripture, that they would should allow someone else to take up his

office. So he gave some different parameters of who this apostle should be.

It should be someone who who was there from the very beginning from verse twenty

two, from John's baptism until the day he had sented, So it should

be one of the ones that was in that upper room, who was part

of all, who was an eyewitness if you will, but I won't,

you see what happens that they put for two people and us These were probably

this kind of dwindled down the list. It had to be somebody from the

beginning of John's baptism to the end doing it down the list. And there

were two minute that came before them. I love this imagery here that they

didn't say, all right, let's pass out ballots, we're gonna taste secret

ballots, or we're gonna do by raising up hand now, didn't do any

of that right, the Bible says they they pray, look what happened.

They put forward two men Joseph called the Sabbath, who was also called Justice

and Mattheist, and they prayed. Listen what they said, You Lord know

the hearts of all, Show us which one of these two men you have

chosen to take the place of this many of apostleship for which you turned aside

to go his own way. And they cast lots for them. Casting lots

is like rolling dice or like drawing straws, and the lot fall ma Mattheist,

and he was numbered one of the twelve apostles. They prayed, they

brought these two men, they laid them before the Lord. They prayed,

They cast a lot, and then their understanding, whichever the lot fell that

was who God chose. They believed that God controlled the dice or God controlled

the straw, and whichever it fell upon that was the one who God had

chosen. This last week, we read a passage in umbers, and that's

why I brought the shepherd staff this morning. In numbers, we saw that

just I hope you're reading it in our Bible reading plan. But as you

looked then read through Numbers with us or with me, last week, you

saw that there's just a lot of disunity in their church. But there was

also a lot of disunity in Israel. The people of visual and the Wilderness

were constantly fighting with each other. And last week we saw how they were

upset over Moses' leadership. Didn't like him being leader, didn't like Aaron being

leader, and so a whole two tribes came up and stood against them,

and we saw God judge them, and Earth opened up and swallowed them up.

Hopefully you've read that. If you haven't, you need to go read

that. I think it's chapter seven or chapter eight. When that happens chapter

seven, I believe. And then they're grumbling over who's going to be priest?

Why is Aaron's tribe going to be priest? And so finally a little

lord tells Moses, I'll tell you what we're going to do. Everybody take

up a staff, and it probably staff a lot like this us. And

you're gonna take every for every tribe. There's twelve tribes. Every tribe,

they're going to take a staff, and they're gonna put it into tent meeting.

Tentp minty was the presence of God, was the Holy of Holies was,

It's where God dwelled with men. And you take that everybody's staff,

all different, twelve tribes, and you put them in that Holy of holies,

and overnight you keep them there. And the next morning Moses want you

to go in, and which every staff blossom or bloomed? That staff I

have chosen, and they are served me a priest. The Bible says Moses

went in, he took the twelve staffs, and he put them in the

upper in the tent meeting, in the in the upper room. And the

Bible says the next one he went in and there was Um Aaron's staff that

was a tribe of Levi and had blossomed. The Bible said it had blossom

and produced flowers, even produced almonds. One of what those tasted like.

I don't know if you ate them, but um, I don't know if

I would eat them. But anyway, he noticed. But and then it

was he brought all the twelve staff and he showed them, and he showed

this is who God chose. I think as important as you come to this

passage is understanding about godly leadership. That here for the early church, it

was God who chose the leader. It was God who chose the pastors,

God who chose the elder. Here like what died Carson and his devotion about

this this week said. The point is that God prescribed the high priest,

is that only God's prescribed high priests is acceptable to God for discharging the priestly

office. As the opening lines of number seventeen makes it clear, only Aaron

and his sons are to bear their responsibilities for the offenses of the sanctuary in

the priesthood, and the New Testament assist that no one takes this honor for

himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. You

see, a church was founded on unity, as a church that was founded

on prayer, but it was church that was founded on godly leadership that God

had chosen. Now, as we think about pastors and elders and who God

has to lead our church, I think it's really important church that we understand

that God is the one who chooses elders. God is the one who makes

pastors. Listen to me, very clearly, as clear as I can say

this, Our elders at Bethesda don't make elders. The church at Bethesda doesn't

make elders, nor does the church make pastors. God makes pastors. God

makes elders, and God is the one who chooses them, and God is

the one who raises them up. And we need to look to men who

God have chosen and don't settle for anything less than God has for his church.

I think for me, I don't know if you've ever heard my story,

but I was, of course the grandson of a pastor. At a

young age, I really had a desire to be a pastor. And then

I became a teenager and decided I didn't want that any longer and kind of

ran away from it for a while. At sixteen, I really turned my

life back around to the Lord and I was really involved in student ministry and

working as a as an intern and leader in the youth group as seventeen years

old, and I can remember it like it was today. I could actually

show you where I was sitting at First Baptistina Trail. I was up in

the hat a balcony. I was up in the balcony, and I have

no idea of what the pastor spoke on that night, but I remember that

night God calling me as a seventeen year old man, young man, God

called me to be a pastor. Can I tell you there's plant times that

I've thought about driving school, many other things besides pastorate. But today the

reason I am here before you is not a desire that Jonathan wanted. Is

that desire what God wanted for me and following his call that he placed upon

my life. And I really believe today there are probably something here today that

listen. You may not desire to be a pastor, you may not desire

to be an elder, there may be some here today that sees there in

this room or watching online and God's placing a call on you. God's choosing

you. God's pushing something on you that I've got something for you. And

you may run, but listen, the Lord will find you and God will

raise you up. Can I say, if God calls you, don't flee

from his calling. Run to his calling. He's got great plans for you,

and his church needs your leadership if you'll be willing to follow. I

understand this morning as we come to the early churches, the early church that

was founded in unity. It's the early church that was founded in prayer,

and it was early church that was founded on godly leadership and who God called

Just as we close the day, just when I ask you, is every

church member has a role to play in this body. God has a role

for you today, a role to pursue unity, to maybe lay down some

things from the past and seek forgiveness and restoration. Maybe God also has a

call for all of you to pray that God has a role for all of

you to look to the leaders and pray for leaders that God would raise up

to be leaders in our church. You know, the future of Bethesda is

in God raising up future leaders who would serve the Lord and I tell you

that's something that we have desperately needed in the last my last six years,

is that God would call young men to follow Lord and raise up to serve

his church faithfully. And listen, who the elders and who the deacons are

looking for is who God's calls, not who we can talk into it.

And so today maybe you say, you know what I need to pray about.

What is my role as as a leader here is? But I pray

today you would consider, Lord, what have you called me to do as

a church member? How can I pursue unity? How can I pursue in

prayer? How can I pray for the leaders and pray that God would raise

up future leaders for his church. I wonder today some of you as you

come in here and you say, well, you know, pastor, I

just I just you know, this is not a part of my life.

Unity and this church you new stuff that's not really a part of my life.

And really prayers not really a part of my life. And really I've

never even thought about leaders in the church and who should be leaders and who

should not be leaders. And really the reality is the reason why the unity

is not part of your life. Prayer is not a part of your life.

And a real reason that you don't care anything about church leadership is because

you're not a part of the body. And that's because you're not a believer.

You've never put your faith in Jesus Christ. You've invested your life in

many things, but you've never invested your life into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Can I say today there's one thing in this world that will never pass

away, and that is His Church. And another thing that will never pass

away is a relationship with Jesus. And can I tell you today there is

something about unity of the Body of Christ. And God would love for you

to be a part of this body. God would love to you to understand

what it's like to walk and talk with the Lord in prayer. And God

would love for you to see how godly leadership would work and how it can

use to be used as a tool to lead you in no relationship with Him.

So today, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, would today

you put your faith in Him and begin a relationship with him. Become a

part of the Body of Christ, become a partner and prayer. If allow

the leaders that God led here in the early Church and here at Bethesda.

Would you pray with me every about every eye closed. Lord, I thank

you for today, and Lord, I pray for just as we come to

this time of invitation. I pray for church members and church body, that

we would be a church body, would be united. Lord, that we

would be a church body that would be a praying church, that would cast

our cares upon you. And Lord, I've seen Lord, how the prayer

of prayer partners of war in the churches of the last few months, and

praying for the ray Ass family, the Rigsby family, Lord, for the

Husked family. Lord, I pray so many other prayers that we've been praying.

And God, we have seen your hand and your handiwork and through the

power of prayer. So Lord, help us be members committed to pray.

Lord, to seek you. Or I pray Lord that you would raise up

leaders just as you chose Matthews. Lord, May you raise up leaders here

at beth Asda that will follow you, Lord and lead this church to the

direction that you would have it to go. Lord. We love you.

Lord. I pray for a mom today that's here that has seen some disunity

in their family. Maybe some disunity in church, maybe disunity in their workplace,

and say, Lord, help me be a conduct for unity. I

pray for a mom here, our wife today who's been a mom of prayer

for their husbands and for their families. I pray that you would just reinvigor

their prayer life with you. Lord. Lord. It was the grandmother of

young Timothy and his faith, Lord that inspired him to be a pastor.

And Lord, I know there's mothers here today and it's their faith that will

inspire future leaders to be the leaders that God you call them to be.

So, Lord, I pray that you would help raise up ladies here today

that would nurture young men, young ladies to lead Lord faithfully as they have

Lord lead us in this time invitation, We thank you Lord for today in

your name, we pray Amen.