Acts 20:1-16 - Peaking Through Windows

[SPEAKER_00]: the Lord's Word as contained in the book of Acts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we're so very thankful.

[SPEAKER_00]: We praise you for your remarkable wonderful works, which you've recorded for us in the Word, which you've illumined by your spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord and the wonderful works which we see in our own lives in our own body,

[SPEAKER_00]: doing the work of transforming us into the image of your son Jesus Christ that we might shine as light and as love to this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus' name we pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Windows are kind of a funny thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all have them in our house because we want light to come in.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's also weird rules surrounding Windows.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, our old house was really oddly situated in a way because we were right across the streets from a major trail getting on the spring creek trail.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we'd have people on all hours of day and night kind of leaving the spring creek trail to get to their houses or whatnot.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our house,

[SPEAKER_00]: particularly on living room had a big window where in from the from the sidewalk you could pretty much look at and see most of what was going on in the in the living room and it was really fascinating to watch people walk by particularly at night when you felt a little bit safer and you know you just can't help but peek in the window and look so I just wanted to see how far this would go

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I put on my best exercise clothes and got out the we fed if anybody knows what that is and Hula hooped all night just accounts about you don't really hula hoop, but you just move around like an idiot and and just to try and see how many people would stop

[SPEAKER_00]: and stare until you waved at him, which was even less comfortable because evidently they weren't supposed to be staring even into the living room, yet there's something attractive about any window isn't there, just the idea that you might get a window into someone else's life or someone else's world and see what goes on there if it's the same as what your life is like or how it's differs from your life and on and on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, the great thing, the cool thing about the book of Acts, is it gives us some chances to peek through the windows of the life of the early church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as you can imagine, looking through the windows into any family situation, doesn't give you a full picture of robust picture of what was going on or what goes on in that family.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just gives you a sort of a snapshot, and even that a snapshot without sound, without certain, with certain elements missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, here in the book of Acts we get to peek through, now it's fascinating because we really very often want clearer pictures as to what the early church did.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to know so that we can dogmatically copy everything that we think that they were doing because we want to be as close to that original church that first century church is possible because that's the closest church that was to Jesus in the Apostolic authority and all that stuff and interestingly God denies us that information.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think very much on purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he doesn't want us carbon copying the outward or external practices, traditions and behaviors of the early church, any more than he wants us copying the traditions of other churches.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, what we're going to see is he discloses certain elements that are of primary importance and how those elements fit together might be a matter of taste or culture or a given time period or whatever other factors we might play into this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we have to remember as we're peeking through the windows of the early church that we are just peeking through the windows.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't answer all of our questions and yet when we get to see these precious pictures and these wonderful little images of how the early church operated We have to sink our teeth in and say what was really central was really vital to how they were operating in that church in that early church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so this week, we're going to get quite a few insights.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, this week, in next week, you get quite a few insights into how the church operated and what was meant to go on and what was maybe meant to stay or was culturally specific to a certain local church body at a certain time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bye!

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep ourselves thoroughly in context.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are still studying Paul's third missionary journey, which took him to Ephesus as going through Galatia and Frigia.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's deciding to again revisit churches to care for and reach out to those who met the Lord through his gospel before.

[SPEAKER_00]: We saw him taking two years plus an emphasis and writing first Corinthians, so many people convert that the silversmiths, who manufacture idols start a riot and we got to see this really ugly situation where the culture violently responded, a very clearly under Satanic control, culture violently responded to the wonderful

[SPEAKER_00]: movement that the gospel and the grace of Christ have been making through this ministry of Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got to look at that in great depths.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll refer you back to those studies if you want to review them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he goes off to Thessalonica, Beria Corinth, and then back up to Thessalonica.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the Macedonian and Greek period and that's when he writes second Corinthians and possibly Romans really in the context of the time of our passage today.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're seeing two important biblical books.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to look at second Corinthians as being very important because he gives information that the book of Acts that Dr. Luke does not seek to record about what Paul's doing and what Paul's next step are, steps are, and we're going to see that the book of Romans gives us this gives us a special backdrop, we'll say, and what is

[SPEAKER_00]: Possibly one of the most important and influential texts in the New Testament, and I say that not because there is our increasing levels of importance in the New Testament or in Scripture But because Romans is the place where in the faith is categorized and systematically presented to the Church It is the the fullest presentation of what we believe and what it means to be a part of the Church.

[SPEAKER_00]: So

[SPEAKER_00]: That's getting into our passage today, and then he leading on to Troyes, Philippi, and then that's our, yeah, that's our time today when Udicus really falls for Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, all right, and then we're going to see that this passage will also take us, we're going to see this passage also take us on Paul on his way home as it were.

[SPEAKER_00]: So,

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a lot of travel in this passage, which obviously doesn't give us a lot of details other than what's presented on the map.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to focus in on the doctor and abortions of this scripture and let us realize that there's a large chunk between one in five and there's a large chunk between 13 and 16 that have more to do with Paul's travel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is on the road again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we get to note very especially that Paul starts this journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says after the upper edge sees, it doesn't say how long this up or how long after.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't say also that because of the silver smith and the rioter, or if you say the mob issue, that's, he doesn't say that's why Paul left.

[SPEAKER_00]: but just says that Paul left some time after that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them and departed to go to Macedonium.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he calls them to himself and he embraced them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to make this very clear and make this point because it's easy to blow by that, like, of course, he gave him hugs.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he said,

[SPEAKER_00]: you know, I love you so much, and then move on.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, this attests to the personal relationship which Paul had to all to whom he was gifted and blessed to minister, and it's going to be our first major point as to our window into the early church this morning, and that's that it was never just about the cold exchange of information.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was never about coming to church to get an increased access to God because we know that the access to God is found in the person of Jesus Christ and doesn't fluctuate based on a person's attendance in church or interaction with the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: but in fact the relationships that Paul built were built on that mutual love shared in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to look at this more, but it was expressed in that amazingly, even when Paul gets to be in quite a hurry to get home, he can't stop by these places without spending some time, getting one more touch point, getting one more sermon, getting one more word of encouragement into each of the people whom he's loved and who he's ministered to and who have ministered to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So these goodbyes are a huge portion of our understanding of the ministry and relationships.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would go so far as to say that the ministry is relationship driven.

[SPEAKER_00]: It must be in a biblical sense relationship driven.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we can gain teaching, wonderful teaching from various sources.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not the core of what Christianity, what the faith is meant to be doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's meant to be a full scale integration or if you like meeting between two lives or more lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, if we are living in just a world where and we think our faith is coming to church to check a box or coming to church to fill our heads or whatever else we might think short of building real relationships and all the challenges and pain that that involves in joys, of course, and encouragements that we're falling short and Paul displays this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just stop off to dump off another sermon, he stops off to care for them, to hear what's going on with them, to look after them and to share his life and updates with them as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to see that as we continue.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the relational element.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, we see that Paul is keeping ahead of the plots.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 3 tells us, and when the Jews plundered against him, he was about to sail the Syria, so he decided to return through Macedonia.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the Jewish population in these areas obviously provided have already provided a significant amount of difficulty for Paul, and this stop is absolutely no change at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, what we're going to see is that one of the things that Paul tells us that he's doing in Corinthians, beyond just heading home for some other reasons, is to take up an offering.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's very likely that he's traveling with a reasonably large sum of money.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there even is a possibility that these folks aren't just to try and attack him or kill him for, for, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

[SPEAKER_00]: religious reasons, or for social reasons, but also willing to attack him to take the money that he might be carrying.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what I think is really neat about this is it shows that Paul is not floating so far above the earth that he's not willing to make common sense logical decisions.

[SPEAKER_00]: He hears that these people are out to kill him or out to get him, so what does he do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Will he change his plans?

[SPEAKER_00]: For lack of a better term, we could say that he tricks them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He reouts smarts them, or routes them.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words,

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul does not use his divinely given special place in the church to forego the use of common sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's a very common problem among Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to get so mystical and so spiritual that we think it would be somehow low to just use our brains and use our common sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here we see Paul doing that and responding to these situations that he got wind of a problem and we're actually going to see that happen more and more.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact,

[SPEAKER_00]: less and less frequently using super natural means to deal with and to direct Paul's life and more frequently allowing the states of affairs and events to tumble out as they're meant to and keeping God's will going that way which is kind of neat because that's more like what we see most of the time So again, he's taking up this offering.

[SPEAKER_00]: This shows a couple of cool spiritual principles.

[SPEAKER_00]: One

[SPEAKER_00]: It shows that the early church was already thinking about caring for the early church in other areas.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, even though each local body was independent, was unique and was not related to one another, hearing about another church in any kind of trouble, caused them to immediately react and say, that other church is in trouble, or the church that meets over there is in trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why wouldn't we be gathering an offering?

[SPEAKER_00]: The church that they're specifically taking up this offering for is the Jerusalem church.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pointed out in the past, but just to reiterate, it's a very high likelihood that part of the reason that they're having this financial problem is due to the fact that they made choices early on in the administration of the Jerusalem church that were not sustainable.

[SPEAKER_00]: that were in fact corrected in later iterations in other early churches.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by that I mean those choices that they made in order to hunker down, sell off property and move into a more of a communal looking circumstance.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that a resembled communism at all, it didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, what they were doing in the early Jerusalem Church because they expected Jesus to return within the several near years

[SPEAKER_00]: was to sell things off, quit their jobs, and just kind of try to coast on what they had so that they could focus all their energy on the important gospel work.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we see that was very valuable, especially in getting the church kicked off.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we also see that that comes with a price tag, and that's when things get tough.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't have those pooled resources left.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the rest of the church has to take up an offering, chooses to take up an offering, to care for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's Paul moving with this offering, let me spoke about in second Corinthians, and taking it there, and at this time, Paul writes the book of Romans.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is fascinating.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul knows his calling as especially to the Gentiles.

[SPEAKER_00]: and yet he can't has not been able to make his way to Rome just yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: something always calls him on or calls him back he's going again here back to Jerusalem to go on a whole another adventure and so he writes Rome or Romans this book of Romans to them because he knows there's a fledgling church there and he wants to make sure that they have the basic information and I'd like to point out to you that this was a frustration to Paul we can read in the first chapter of the book of Romans

[SPEAKER_00]: how he wishes that he could be there with them, and he wants to be there, and he plans to be there with them, but he just can't get there yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Paul was frustrated in his plan and his desire that church of God received, again, the cornerstone book in understanding the biblical faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if Paul realized that as he was writing this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to make sure that these Romans know, did he know?

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew he was writing the word of God for certain, did he know that he was writing the clearest, most complete picture of the Christian faith of what it means to walk with Christ, all because he couldn't get to where he wanted to get.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see again and again, Paul's frustrations bringing about the very best for God's church in many ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get to start asking some questions about how we do church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now again, we're going to go over two principles of interpretation.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first one, probably the most important, is the narrative normative fallacy.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a fancy way of saying that because I saw it in Scripture, I saw the early church doing it, we should do it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a fallacy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's not a good way to study scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't look at it and say, the early church did this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, we should do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The early church did this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, we should do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are cases wherein we would follow their example for certain.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we don't take it as a one-to-one carry across.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, the narrative normative fallacies are very, very important for us to realize.

[SPEAKER_00]: The second thing that we want to realize is that we are still peaking through the windows.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have all the information we have.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sadly, many of us and many people, good interpreters throughout Bible history and Christians throughout Bible history, have filled in the gaps without even realizing they're doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then trying to make some sort of almost legal standard.

[SPEAKER_00]: as a result of the assumptions that they brought to Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we want to both be humble in terms of how much information we have and realize that we're studying this not so much to get a preacher a standardized practice from the book of Acts, because Acts wasn't written to provide that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The epistles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, Romans, verse 2 and then he's not, that's what was written to provide that sort of stability and instruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is written to describe something that happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, we're going to do some comparisons there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But first we have to define this word church, and we will hope that this is review.

[SPEAKER_00]: We oftentimes will use the word church in various different ways in our culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll use the word church to describe a building.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to go to this church.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll use the word church to describe an organization if you like.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we are recognized or registered with the state of Colorado as Fort Collins Bible Church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in that sense, it recognizes the government recognizes a church.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is a sort of financial entity.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can look at church from secular standpoint and say it's like any group of people gathered together over a common cause or a common religious cause generally.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where you'll sometimes hear the church of this or the church of Scientology or the church of these other religious.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what I want to drive at here is that church is not necessarily in our generic use.

[SPEAKER_00]: the same as the biblical use.

[SPEAKER_00]: So whenever you get the word church or most frequently get the word church translated into your English Bible, it translates to a wonderful word called Ecclesia.

[SPEAKER_00]: It means out called one's Ecclesia, out called.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it means to be out called and it had a wonderful picture and image from the culture and that was at a town cryer would go through town and say there's a meeting tonight, particularly in democratic Greece.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a meeting

[SPEAKER_00]: and anyone who would come out to the call would be the out-call, they'd be the Ecclesia.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, probably a better way to translate it most of the time is the gathering, or the group, or the congregation, maybe, although congregation now has kind of church ideas attached to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the church is the out-called of Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people who have responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in the sense that we're using here, we have both the local church and the universal church.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the church is described often in Scripture as the church, and it means every single person who's placed their faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of where they're located.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we also see in situations like this, the local church being recognized, in other words, the church at Laudiceur, the church in Jerusalem, or the church at, and that is when all the believers gather together from that area, and there could be many local churches in a given city, just as we have here in Fort Cones.

[SPEAKER_00]: Colorado.

[SPEAKER_00]: So having defined our idea of church we have to ask which church is being discussed here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is very clearly contextually going to be talking about a local church assembly.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is a local church assembly that we're discussing here and it consists of those who are gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now,

[SPEAKER_00]: We're giving this special bit of information.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of those passages that becomes insanely important to people who have a wrong biblical idea to try to prove text.

[SPEAKER_00]: In first sevens is on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul ready to part for the next day spoke to them and continue this messaging to the night.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, the idea that they waited till the first day of the week to meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: sets an exciting precedent, especially to those who are dying to have biblical revelation on every single decision you might make.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the way this argument goes is that, well, you see the early church in this one verse, met on the first day of the week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And on that, when they were meeting on the first day of week, that must have replaced the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath from Friday night to Saturday night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so then that comes into this next weird perversion of trying to call the Christian gathering on the first day of the week, Sunday, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Trying to call that the Christian Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this takes two very different ideas and rams them together, if you like.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Sabbath was a Jewish weekly celebration.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was commanded by God in the Old Testament law as a national covenant for them to keep, but something that separated them and set them apart from the rest of the nations.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a day of rest that honored the creation week because God created everything in six days and then on the seventh day he rested.

[SPEAKER_00]: was that something that was meant to define the Jewish way of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't have to remind you that the most of the early church was Jewish, and they were still observing the law.

[SPEAKER_00]: And most of the early church, even at this point, and we're getting it seem likely less and less of that, would have been continuing to observe the Sabbath and then meet at other times to talk about Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they would have kept the Sabbath as a result of their ethnic Jewish identity, and then continued to talk about these new ideas, the new reality, and in other words, meet as the church

[SPEAKER_00]: on the other days of the week.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, if you look at Acts 2, 46, and 47, it gives the strong impression that they weren't just meeting a Monday, they were meeting every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: And probably not in all organized meetings, although some of those may have taken place likely took place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mostly, they were meeting day-to-day in homes, talking about Jesus, teaching the Word,

[SPEAKER_00]: and sharing the Lord's supper on a regular basis.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to look at some of those elements in a moment to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what I want to note is that there is no, there is no prescribed day of the week that the church must meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no prescribed day of the week that the church must meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it made sense for them to meet on Monday.

[SPEAKER_00]: Saturday was the Sabbath, so the Jewish folks in the congregation would have had difficult to get away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sunday was of course the first work day of the week and so everybody would work all day and then come together in the evening to meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it would make sense because that was also the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you're celebrating in a way.

[SPEAKER_00]: not that it added extra, you know, magical powers to it, but it made sense to celebrate this new faith in Christ or your faith in Christ on the day on which he rose from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: because that was the cornerstone of Christian faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: So having a meeting on Monday night wouldn't be shocking at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I want to drive at, and this will be impossible for us to defeat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Having tried to begin a church movement that did not meet on Sunday morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to say, we are religiously slave and slave to this cultural idea that church has to be a Sunday morning thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Folks would come on a Thursday night and they would do all the things that we're going to speak of.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would be taught the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would share in worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would be in prayer over one another and have fellowship.

[SPEAKER_00]: We would share the Lord's table.

[SPEAKER_00]: We would do all these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they'd say, I still don't feel like I'm off the hook.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unless I also go in Sunday morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Got a problem there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've already attached a sort of religious expectation and this may be even guilt-based idea in terms of our church attendance.

[SPEAKER_00]: My God's up there going, yep, yep, yep, oh sorry, you were one shy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't quite make it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So,

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I want to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue to meet on Sunday mornings.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our culture by God's grace is built around that idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: And many of us have time off work.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really convenient for us to go with the culture on this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what I want to point out is that meeting on Sunday morning,

[SPEAKER_00]: is not the be all and all of church gatherings, and I would go even further to say that you can come to a building even this one on Sunday morning and not really be participating in the church in the out calling.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's more to it than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we get this, this is where we get the idea of the Lord's Day coming out and that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see them meeting here on the first day of the week as it is convenient.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, let's look at what they did.

[SPEAKER_00]: as a part of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we have to admit this is kind of an atypical meeting.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not what they were doing every time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I can think we can safely assume because of the language you two that they weren't staying up to one and two or three in the morning every night doing all this.

[SPEAKER_00]: That this was kind of a special meeting to welcome Paul or because of Paul's presence with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what we can see,

[SPEAKER_00]: is that they gathered together with a few activities in mind that we're central and we're going to find that those same activities are called or told to us or explained to us as being central later in the in the epistles.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the first thing that they gathered around and of course they're going to do is teach the word of God and they have Paul here to teach the word of God to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's also something that we focus on here.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we might stop and ask

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why didn't they just have the potluck?

[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody hang out and talk with Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why did they get around and talk about the word of God?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm sure they had questions for Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure they could have had conversations till 1, 2, and 3 in the morning about where Paul was headed.

[SPEAKER_00]: What he wanted to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: What he was afraid of.

[SPEAKER_00]: How he felt God calling.

[SPEAKER_00]: What his concerns were for the and on and on and on.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they didn't do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: They chose to gather together in this time and have Paul give them a very, very, very long discourse in what might have been a very hot cramped and uncomfortable place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would they do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would they make teaching of the Word of God such a priority?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well,

[SPEAKER_00]: We could turn to Colossians 1, 27, or 29, kind of the theme verses for our church, and look at that principles.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, to them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: Him we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, and just by the way, man there, is gender non-specific, it's every person.

[SPEAKER_00]: uh... warning every person in teaching every person in all wisdom that we may present every person perfect and that would perfect meaning complete or mature tell us perfect mature in Christ Jesus to this end I also labor according to his working which works in me mightily to get the point here

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's laboring in part is preaching the Word of God and is also teaching every single person.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no such thing as a level one forever Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every believer is meant to be growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and that growth occurs in large part by the increased teaching or understanding of the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is taking in the Word of God as taught and as you study it on your own, that gives you that essentially is the prime mover in your spiritual growth towards maturity in Christ's Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when Paul stops by, he says, of course, we're going to spend all night teaching you about the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got a lot to hear at this point and they certainly did as we do now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we look at Ephesians 4, 11, through 15, we see the results and the need for that more clearly pronounces.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, once you denote that Paul here, especially getting to the end of having to bother with the carers, I think, gives all together because of what God was doing in the church, he mentions to a couple of different special gifts, apostles and prophets.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are they?

[SPEAKER_00]: They're the ones who gave revelation, that gave the word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Evangelist, so are they the ones that spread the word of God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Pastors and teachers here, we could really put, and you notice there's no comma there for good reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could say, pastors, that is teachers.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, one of the chief duties of any pastor is the teaching of the word of God, if not the chief duty.

[SPEAKER_00]: for the equipping of the saints, the result that the giving of revelation and the teaching of revelation is that you and I are equipped for the work of ministry, for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Till we all come to the unity of the faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we get that idea, especially in modern culture, where we're all kind of, we're all supposed to think different things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's the ideal.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the best thing that we all disagree about everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's hopeless that we would ever agree.

[SPEAKER_00]: A word of God presents something different.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's that we are all moving by God's spirit, by God's church, and by God's word to believing the same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is what God has revealed for us to know, to understand, and to believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, the unity of the Son of God, now we get to the negative side, or to a perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the word of God, the teaching of the word of God, playing an instrumental role in that, and our application thereof, says that we should no longer be children, toss to and fro, and carry it about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth and love may grow up in all things, and to him who is the head, Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: So on the negative side,

[SPEAKER_00]: If we're not taught the word of God, then we're like a ship without a rudder.

[SPEAKER_00]: Turned and tossed about, and that's the way most Christians sadly live their entire lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bobbling and tossing back and forth between worldly views, worldly opinions, wondering what's right, wondering where spiritually speaking up and down are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where should I head?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's God's will for my life?

[SPEAKER_00]: And because we're not rooted in this word of his and this revelation of his, we're unable to answer even the most basic questions about our faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we are a victim or made victim to all the tides of the world and all the events that might take place in our lives rather than being anchored and steadily put on the person in the work of Christ Jesus and the word which he's revealed to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that is why when Paul's with his dear friends

[SPEAKER_00]: And just about to leave town and only in for a night, they say, let's get around and let's have a sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: A long one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's hear the word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: but they didn't just gather around the teaching of the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says they also gather around the breaking of bread.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, highlight, they may have done other things in this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is just what Dr. Luke under divine inspiration chose to reveal to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the breaking of bread has caused all sorts of confusion and difficulty within the church even to this day.

[SPEAKER_00]: the point where some churches won't observe it at all and other churches will impute so much spiritual authority to it that they'll question or you'll put your salvation into question by missing it or by not getting it.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, the doctrine of, or the teaching of what the Lord's table or the breaking of bread means is very clear in Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can actually see it clearly displayed in Luke 9, or in my passage, you know, sorry, in Luke.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the book of Luke, he says, and he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: do this in remembrance of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Likewise, he always took also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you, which is a note a couple of things about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's very clearly speaking symbolically and he says this to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, even just the clear reality of what he's saying here at this last supper, his body was right in front of

[SPEAKER_00]: And his blood was all currently contained within his skin.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the idea that that was some sort of magical affair occurring at this would make no sense to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they were likely at a past, most likely, truly at a Passover Seder.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there were already used to these ideas of symbolic cups that had meaning that of remembering something in mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here we have Jesus saying, I'm going to give you a new meaning to this cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: and this bread, and I want you to do this with some regularity and remembrance of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, how regular?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the trick.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, the word of God, by the power and grace of God, by the design of God, doesn't tell us how frequently this ought to be celebrated.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people say, well, look, the Passover was a once-year deal, so let's do it once a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't miss it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Others will say that the word of God was the fellowship, sorry, the bread was broken in other passages in Acts on a weekly level that is whenever they met citing this and other passages to suggest that every time we get together We ought to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's fine

[SPEAKER_00]: I think more clearly from scripture than you'd be that extreme, you have to say that it was celebrated in believer's homes.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, there's nothing magical that happens there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could celebrate the Lord's table or communion every night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that was the Lord's design to be honest.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was meant to be celebrated corporately as well as we do usually the first Sunday of month, but it was really meant to be celebrated with incredible regularity in your home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Breaking bread and drinking from a cup of wine was the regular meal procedure at this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what was Jesus doing at one level, he was giving this important symbol symbol and right for the church to follow.

[SPEAKER_00]: But also, say, whenever you get together, break bread and think of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And remember that just as you rely on food to keep you going to sustain and nourish you, so you rely on the ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ, just as you rely on drink as fluid to give you peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I would recommend to you humbly that, yes, we need to celebrate the Lord's table as a part of church service, most certainly, with some regularity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although we're not sure exactly how much,

[SPEAKER_00]: from celebrating the Lord's table, every time you sit down to a meal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Taking time to remember that Jesus Christ gave His life for you, and shed His blood for you, that you might be returned to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, we've looked at these two things and I'd just like to kind of take a moment to give me this chart that we put together.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really nothing complicated, but what I'd like to do is get some of the central elements.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can add things or take things away, but I believe that you could not be a healthy function in church without seeing all of these elements at certain points in the course of a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: There needs to be an occasion for both corporate prayer, corporate led prayer and even private prayer within the context of a church meeting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: The praise of God, the collective praise of God, I didn't put singing there and I hate I dislike the fact that there is a connection between worship and singing that's so strong because we could worship

[SPEAKER_00]: together simply by saying what the Lord has done for us as individuals.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can worship together by repeating verbally a text or some sort of antifinal or call an answer.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's many ways we could worship and one of those, and to be honest, one of my favorites is seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: So a good church meeting ought to include worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord's table, again,

[SPEAKER_00]: because it's easy to start talking about, say, current affairs and, you know, what should we, how should we react to this or that legal or political or social issue and get taken away from the central core of our belief, which is the death barrel resurrection, ascension and seeding of the Lord Jesus Christ and our salvation in Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord's table,

[SPEAKER_00]: ought to draw us back.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's why the enemy was so excited to impute religious power or spiritual magical power onto the celebration of the Lord's table.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because then all of a sudden just celebrating you to know of itself would give you some sort of spiritual value, and then you had to come to this or that church in order to get it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what that did is it took the emphasis off Christ,

[SPEAKER_00]: and the symbol and the remembrance of Him and put it on the church and you need to come to me or this or that person in order to get that good stuff that will keep you good and saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: But a regular celebration of the Lord's table according to the biblical revelation means that we don't get too far away from Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, although it doesn't have to be last, the teaching of the Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the Word is not taught,

[SPEAKER_00]: If we're not getting the true scripture, the true word of God, we're not functioning as the church is meant to function.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not growing as we're meant to grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sadly, many much of the time in the church today, there's no even evidence of the word of God in the so-called sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: But rather, there's the collection of heartwarming low cat posters and silly slogans that make you feel good as you get into tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the other thing I want to point out.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of that exists very intentionally within the circle of fellowship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fellowships are not a separate thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: to the Christian gathering.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not another step.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so thankful that we're greeting one another and talking to one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm even more thankful that we spend so much time after each service sharing discussion and listening to each other and caring for each other and all those wonderful things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's what I want to point out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Queen and Nia is the Greek word for fellowship where that we often translate fellowship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it means to share something in common.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what we share in common.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is our fellowship in Christ that we pray together, that we worship together, that we share in the Lord's table together, and that we hear the teaching of God's Word together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we could add some other kind of extra elements like getting to meditate on the Lord's words.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hear beautiful music or are encouraged as someone sings to us, songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could add little elements, but these are the basics, OK?

[SPEAKER_00]: Our fellowship isn't just the warm fuzzy feeling that we might share for people who look like us, act like us and believe like us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's that common thing that we share in our salvation in Jesus Christ and our gathering around the worship of Him in the Word.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we get one of my favorite passages because it shows that even Paul had people fall asleep on him while he was teaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it's really kind of fun to read the commentators, because everybody feels the need to say, it certainly wasn't Paul's fault.

[SPEAKER_00]: It certainly wasn't because Paul is boring.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to allow that you might have been a little bit boring.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I never heard him speak, but doesn't change the fact that what happened in this meeting and it totally makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: After a long day of work, again, very likely for you to cause physical work out in the field, then you go out to the meeting and you spend hours and hours sitting in a small upper room.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's pretty interesting to talk about house churches in the early era.

[SPEAKER_00]: These were mostly, we'd more, you know, I think of them as apartment churches because this would be an upper bedroom above likely the city street where all the business was done, if you like, and it is, you know, it's cramped.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's hot, you're sitting, you're listening to someone talk, the candles in the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, some people even suggested that with the candles and everybody in this cramped space, breathing in, that it might have kind of caused a weird medical suffocation caused into fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because again, it's never possible to get bored and church.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to suggest that maybe you can get bored and church.

[SPEAKER_00]: That might be a thing that happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about that in just a moment to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, you to kiss, takes a fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: takes a long fall and falls down to the ground dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul rushes down to him and throws himself on his body.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see your two wonderful parallels when we see the Elijah and Elijah and these former prophets connecting him to the power of God to raise the dead in this specific way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And also we see a connection with Peter and Dorcus or Tabitha.

[SPEAKER_00]: Raising someone from the dead, and again, we see the Peter and Paul parallel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Peter raised someone from the dead, Paul raised someone from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: God spoke to Peter, God spoke to Paul, again, the uniformity of authority between the two of them, being put.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul throws himself on him, prays for Uticus, and it is worth noting that the doctor

[SPEAKER_00]: he said he was dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't just the appearance of death and it wasn't as if, although those stupid first century people couldn't tell when a person was dead or not, they certainly knew when someone was dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul threw himself on him prayed for this young man and raised him from the and the Lord, sorry, raised him from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love the phrases that were not a little encouraged.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, again, it's at the lettosis, that phrase that Luke continually uses is not a small city, no small commotion.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, we're not a little encouraged.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine if someone died in our church service, don't do it, just don't do it, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: I know some of you are close.

[SPEAKER_00]: If someone died and then someone else walked up and fell on them and they came to life, would you be a little encouraged?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd be more than a little encouraged, and they were too.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was another confirmation that God was at work.

[SPEAKER_00]: God was moving and affirming the truth of this message.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I just want to take a brief aside, and this is a bit of a rabbit show.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are going to move through it quickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have this in your hand out, but preparing for a church service.

[SPEAKER_00]: Preparing for when you're going to come and meet for the church as much as possible, something we don't often think about.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, most of the time we think we're doing God a good enough favor just by showing up at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, what we see when what happens when we meet as a church body is so important, it's worth considering.

[SPEAKER_00]: How we prepare for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how can you prepare for a church service?

[SPEAKER_00]: How can you prepare to meet with the people of God and be a part of the local gathering of the body of Christ?

[SPEAKER_00]: How can you put yourself in the best position to respond here, learn, grow and serve?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, one, review last week's study.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us are in as many two and three studies a week.

[SPEAKER_00]: But once you leave, do you just kind of like chuck that out the window?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or do you go back at some point and review and think about it?

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have to be a formal sit-down time, but just as you're going through your day, as you're driving in your car to take a moment and say, what did we study, what did we talk about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Review that, keep that fresh in your mind throughout the week, so you can apply it as you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, read next week's passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost always gonna be the one right after the one we studied, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Read up, find out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next,

[SPEAKER_00]: When you're looking at that passage and as you're going through the study, ask questions of yourself, write down, write them down in the terms of there, but it was your preparing, write down the questions that you have.

[SPEAKER_00]: The tough questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ones that you would be a little bit embarrassed to ask, how can we believe this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't this a contradiction?

[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't this contradict this or that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Ask those questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if they don't get answered in the sermon, come ask them after.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in Iraq, start interacting ahead of time with the text and with the study that we're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, this should be simple, but get a good night's sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you were going to an important job interview, or you were even just going about, I mean, goodness, I spent most of yesterday if you can't tell from my beautiful family.

[SPEAKER_00]: Playing bagpipes up at the, as this park, great day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Got to bed early the night before, because I want to make sure I was charged up for a big day of sun burning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was, it was great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get a good night's sleep before you come to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's gonna be a lot easier to sit there and study and engage with the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you slept the night before, it's not always possible for us, but in so far as it is, consider that as part of your planning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, you breakfast.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like your mother, eat breakfast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sit down and eat a large enough breakfast that you're not going to be hungry or kind of running down as we come to the, come to our study of the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, be careful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for you, especially in us in America, we're just coming to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just doing the Sunday morning thing and coming to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the spiritual world, you are coming to connect to your spiritual lifeline in the body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something major is going to happen, and that's that you're going to be taught and dig into the Word of God, and you're going to be transformed from glory and the glory and I promise you, there are powers at work in this world and within your own body.

[SPEAKER_00]: that want that not to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you notice, those of us with kids, that it's so much easier to get them up to do anything else than getting them up to go to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or if you're going to some special event for church, that that's the time when they want to act up, you think that's by accident?

[SPEAKER_00]: Their force is working against you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's why money's in Friday, your tires aren't flat, your brakes don't go out, but all this nonsense, they do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond guard.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't kick yourself out of spirituality out of your fellowship with Christ when those things happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that leads us to our final point which is be in fellowship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maintain your fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is there sin?

[SPEAKER_00]: Confess it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Agree with Him that you're out of fellowship with Him and be brought back in.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll get maximum spiritual benefit.

[SPEAKER_00]: by having your eyes fixed on Christ before you get here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Finding some pro tips for learning in church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we've got you here, now you're here, here's just some things I want to recommend.

[SPEAKER_00]: One, take notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: See a lot of you doing it already.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a note taker, not everyone is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people are active listeners and some people are auditory, but if you're a note taker, go ahead and take notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: We give you sheets, but feel free to bring your own spiral note book.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, write down what's in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had one class, it was a wonderful professor, but it was an A.D.M.

[SPEAKER_00]: class, and I was a continually tired, and so I just set myself to writing down every word she said.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to just be the her stenographer, almost, getting every single word that I could.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just to keep myself awake, and alert, and you know what, it worked, I did not fail, medieval European history.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was really exciting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead and do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I won't be offended.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really won't.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know boring sometimes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I put myself to sleep every night.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make connections.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make connections with previous studies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you heard this passage top before?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you thought about or studied this passage on your own before?

[SPEAKER_00]: Make connections to other passages, other studies, other passages, other times that you've heard it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Draw those lines.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, write down your questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: I say something silly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: I make a mistake.

[SPEAKER_00]: It happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: Write it down, write down your question, I also have very frequently done that I don't make a mistake, but people think I did.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's okay too, write down your questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you don't get a answer, that engagement is going to be a positive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, make your own applications as you're going right down, come hands to yourself, stop worrying this week, stop worrying about exit my job, whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make your applications.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, make eye contact.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I don't blame you for noting off, but I can't tell you how encouraging it is to me when I catch your eye.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll bring this kind of weird personal thing that will happen where you'll say, oh, I don't wish Brad was under a bus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Enough so that I'm going to pay attention and make that personal connection.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's part of how the body's meant to function.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, not that it's all about me or about me at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is something that we're a part of together.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one way that you can connect is through that personal connection of trying to make guy contact, trying to engage one-on-one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, stay awake, I know, just stay awake.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to stand up and walk around, stand up and walk around.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's totally fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to get up and get another cup of coffee, get up and get another cup of coffee.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing regardless.

[SPEAKER_00]: Keep assured on and we're going to be fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stand up, walk around.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to do laps, go to laps.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a great thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I understand we've got physical Challenges and some one of mine is falling asleep almost anywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well someone's talking or not whether I'm interested or not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next Chew gum you have my permission.

[SPEAKER_00]: Try not to smack But there is a reality that once you engage your jaw that things will you you can keep yourself awake.

[SPEAKER_00]: So go ahead

[SPEAKER_00]: Get a check letter, something, and shoot some gum, finally, doodle.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might not be a note-taker, but it can engage different parts of your brain to just doodle to write or to scroll or scribble, and you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Not everybody, but many of us are able to listen while doodling.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, you can absorb a great amount.

[SPEAKER_00]: So any of those, and finally, and this is one that's been hit near and dear to home here in our family, prepare to share.

[SPEAKER_00]: prepared to share that lesson.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it would be the coolest thing in the world if I heard that someone, any of us, goes to work or school or whatever it is and on Wednesday they meet with this other friend every, every Wednesday and they talk about whatever they talk each happened at each church, whatever topic, sermon topic it was.

[SPEAKER_00]: Prepare to share that with some

[SPEAKER_00]: whether or not you actually have someone to share it with.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most of our kids, they're most of the children of this church are off somewhere else.

[SPEAKER_00]: So figure out how to dumb this message down, just kidding.

[SPEAKER_00]: Figure out how to bring this message to your children.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the ways that they're going to understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Prepare to share it with someone else that's one of the best ways to remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in our final little section here,

[SPEAKER_00]: we see that Paul goes ahead and instead of taking the ship to the next stop he takes a land route and goes on a walk by himself and I do love this because Paul takes this walk at just an odd time and I love that Paul takes that moment to be by himself and to walk it out and figure out where he's going.

[SPEAKER_00]: Interestingly, he passes by Ephesus because he's so excited to get to where he's going for the various reasons.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is to say that he knows there's a financially hurting church waiting on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows there's risk in moving with money, and I think he may have a very clear sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll look at this in weeks to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: A very clear sense of what God has ahead for him, and all those things make it put and make it important for him to pass by Ephesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: and yet he calls them to him and still has a meeting with him that we'll get to look at next week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he's pressing on to reach Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be the next major exclamation point in this story that got us telling through Paul's life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, for our closing applications,

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to put on the wall of our church family values some really simple things that I want us to continually being about be concerned with relationships being connected to one another, listening to one another, knowing about one another, praying for one another, being open with one another, helping one another,

[SPEAKER_00]: being in relationships, growing in those relationships.

[SPEAKER_00]: Next, we're going to continue to be dedicated to the celebration of the Lord's table, the breaking of his bread, that we might proclaim the Lord's death until he comes, that we might remember him and never lose sight of our value or emphasis and our understanding of and our reliance upon him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so might we all, and may I challenge you to celebrate the Lord's supper at some point this week in your household.

[SPEAKER_00]: might feel a little weird, but I want to challenge you to try to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make an open remembrance of the Lord around a meal table, sometimes weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue to teach the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue to go five minutes over in most weeks, teaching the Bible, because the Word of God is what will transform and stabilize you and bring you to the perfect image of maturity in Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where the power is to see you transformed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, we're going to continue supporting the body.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue supporting missionaries and supporting other churches as best we can.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just as the early church saw the church in Jerusalem was hurting, so we will do the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: And continue to be about supporting other local churches in our area and around the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Church is never a competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: Other churches might be winning, but it's never a competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: We who are advocating for the name of Jesus Christ and his gospel are not working against each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: And whether the name of Jesus Christ is preached out of envy, rivalry, or vain conceit, what do we care?

[SPEAKER_00]: Christ is preached, so we should support our brothers and sisters in Christ and all things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of which building they come to in Sunday morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's close with the word of prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we thank you and we praise you for this time, for this study.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please, O Lord, be glorified in this local church body.

[SPEAKER_00]: May we listen to your word and make our priorities come in line with your priorities.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please bless our fellowship, our time together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please bless our breaking of bread and our remembrance of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please bless the teaching of your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please bless our care for other church bodies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, might we know you more and make you know in this world in Jesus, name we pray.