A Devoted, Joyful Church

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Good morning and happy Trinity Sunday.

I'm Tonya and I'm a part of the Oikos in the Oaks and the Women Reading Women Friday monthly

book group.

Today's scripture reading is from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, verse 8, chapter

2, verse 14a, and verses 37 through 47 as printed in liturgy.

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other disciples,

Brothers, what shall we do?

Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for

the forgiveness of your sins.

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promises for you and your children

and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

With many other words he warned them and he pleaded with them, Save yourselves from this

corrupt generation.

Those who accepted his message were baptized and about three thousand were added to their

number that day.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and

to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give anyone who had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God

and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thank you, Tonya, for that reading.

Well, we're considering the question, what is the Christian church?

What is the church's nature?

What's the church's message?

What's the church's mission?

Who are Christians?

What are they supposed to do?

If we want to know the answers to those questions, we need to look at the origins of the church.

We need to go back to the beginning and discover how the church started, what the church did.

And what do we find in the Acts of the Apostles?

We've been just kind of marinating in this text for several weeks now.

What we find is really the only divinely inspired authoritative account of the Christian church.

If you want to know the identity of the church, the task of the church, the character of the church's proclamation,

you need to look at the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the Apostles in the New Testament.

Because here we have an authoritative statement about what Christianity is and what it really means to be a Christian.

This is God's blueprint for the church.

And it's not just an exercise in theory.

It's a blueprint against which we can test ourselves and we can examine ourselves.

And we can make sure that we're Christians.

We can look at these marks and characteristics of the Christian church and what it's meant to be.

And we can ask, am I like that?

Are we like that?

Do we conform to this pattern that they've set?

Is this true of us?

Is this the sort of thing that we do and are planning to do?

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, he said,

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting.

It has been found difficult and not tried.

And so what we want to do is explore this difficult thing called Christianity.

And we want to try to do it.

And so we want to ask the question today, what are the marks of a healthy church?

What are the marks of a living church?

And I want to talk about five things today.

And don't worry, I've got a plane to catch this afternoon.

So I got to get out of here.

But we're going to talk about a learning church, a caring church, a worshiping church, a praying church, and an evangelizing church.

A learning, caring, worshiping, praying, and evangelizing church.

I want to start with a learning church.

And just look back at verse 41.

One, that those who accepted the apostle Peter's message, that Pentecost day when the Holy Spirit was poured out.

Those who accepted his message were baptized.

And about 3,000 were added to their number that day.

And it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

On Pentecost, the resurrected Jesus poured out the spirit of truth.

And the result was about 120 disciples who were praying there on Pentecost Sunday.

They began to declare the wonderful works that God had done to save humanity through his son, Jesus.

And one of those disciples stood up, Peter, the apostle Peter.

And he preached the first Christian sermon.

And as a result, 3,000 people were called by God.

They were baptized by God.

They were saved by God.

They were added to the number of the church by God that we talked about last week.

And it says that they immediately devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles.

Which means that they were hungry and they were thirsty for doctrine.

They wanted to, and they had a deep desire to learn the truths.

That Jesus had given to his apostles, Peter, John, Matthew, that he was going to give to the apostle Paul.

These spirit-filled Christians, they didn't just stop thinking on Pentecost.

And go, wow, we're filled with the spirit.

Don't have to think anymore.

They didn't neglect their intellect.

They didn't check their brains at the door.

Therefore, they didn't despise theology.

Rather, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, came and made their minds begin to feast on the truth.

Of the divinely inspired and authoritative revelation of God that's given to us in the scriptures.

And was interpreted for us by Jesus and by his apostles.

And this really started, you can go back to Easter Sunday.

Jesus, he was raised from the dead.

And what's one of the first things he does?

He finds two people and he says, let's do a Bible study.

This is Easter Sunday afternoon, okay?

If you're raised from the dead, are you starting a Bible study that afternoon?

Jesus went and he found two people, started a Bible study.

And it says in Luke 24, beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

Jesus explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.

And Jesus said, he said, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms.

He'd been doing this for three years.

But when somebody's raised from the dead, you start really paying attention to the Bible study, right?

And don't you wish you had been there?

Jesus pulls out the Old Testament, as it were, and he says, look, this is all about the promises that God made.

And you, my apostles, are going to go and write the New Testament about how all those promises of God have been fulfilled in me.

In my life, in my death, in my resurrection.

In Acts chapter 1, we learn that Jesus spent the next 40 days after his resurrection.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

He spent 40 days, all day, every day with his apostles.

And it says he was teaching them about the kingdom of God.

Teaching them about that grand theme of the Bible.

That God is king and he's bringing everything under his kingship through Jesus.

Well, the apostles would do what Jesus told them to do.

Which is that they would go on and they would write it all down.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Romans.

First and second Corinthians.

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.

First and second Thessalonians.

First and second Peter.

First John.

Hebrews.

All of it is the apostles' teaching.

It's the teaching that Jesus gave to us through the apostles.

And a Christian is somebody who feasts on that.

And they didn't just learn this teaching for one hour a week.

It says in verse 46 that every day they continued to meet together.

They came together regularly and willingly day by day.

When they finished their day's work.

They go to one another's house.

And they would study the Bible.

Because they were hungry and thirsty for the truth.

They were eager to sit at the feet of the apostles and learn.

And they would say, tell us, how is Jesus our prophet and our priest and our king?

How did Jesus in his death, how did he bring God's covenant with his people to a climax?

How did Jesus in his resurrection launch the kingdom of God?

How did Jesus in his life?

How did Jesus in his life?

What are the, if this is true, how should we then start living?

If that's true.

And this is what they were devouring.

Every day was the doctrine of God's word so they could apply it to their lives.

And let's just pause here for a little bit of application.

If you're exploring Christianity and you do not yet have a modern translation of the Bible,

we want to give you one of those because we're really excited about it.

We think it's great that we have the Bible in our own language and we can have a copy in our hands.

We would love to give you a copy.

And we'd love to encourage you to start reading the Gospel of Mark.

And just read the shortest of the stories of Jesus that we have.

Read it with a Christian friend.

Read it with a group of people.

We actually have an exploring Christianity group that's been meeting on Thursday night.

They would love to welcome you this week to explore the Gospel of Mark.

Secondly, if you are a person who's wanting to learn the big picture of the Bible and the golden thread of the Bible and the great themes of the Bible,

I brought a stack of about six of my favorite children's Bibles today.

And I found that these are not just good for children.

They're wonderful for adults, especially if you like pictures in your books.

These are phenomenal Bibles and I'd encourage you to get one if you don't have one.

And it's a great way to learn the Bible.

But also if you're a parent, if you're a grandparent, I just want to encourage you that part of your, if you're a Christian,

part of your duty, part of your responsibility is to get your kids or your grandkids on a daily IV drip of the apostles' teaching.

And if you don't have a way to do that, I've got a way for you to do that.

Third point of application is that if you're a newer Christian and you're trying to build your life on a solid foundation,

think about the fact that they devoted themselves to gather together before work and after work on a daily basis to learn the apostles' teaching.

They literally could not imagine owning their own copy of one of these and having it at their fingertips.

And they also couldn't imagine owning one of these but only reading it one day a week.

So, if that's you, if you're not, if you've got one of these but you don't really open it very often,

I think Peter and the other apostles will say, you're not yet devoted to the apostles' teaching.

And if you read it about five minutes a day, that's better than nothing.

But I think these first Christians on the day of Pentecost would come to you and they would say,

why are you starving yourself?

Why are you dehydrating yourself?

Aren't you hungry?

Aren't you thirsty?

Fourth point of application is that if you're one of those solo Christians, Lone Ranger Christians,

and you're not yet part of a weekly small group that's reading the Bible together and exploring the Bible together,

I want to encourage you to make that a top priority this summer.

Because we won't grow without other Christians.

We need other Christians to help us learn about the love of God the Father

and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We need other Christians to help us develop a personal relationship with this God,

the Father who made us and the Son who delivers us and the Holy Spirit who transforms us.

We need other Christians who can help us learn what it means to submit my reason

and to submit my experience to something greater than my reason and my experience.

to God's authoritative word, which is our only infallible rule for faith and practice.

We need other Christians to help us think through all of those downstream moral implications

and all those downstream ethical consequences of the gospel.

What does it mean to live my life in line with the gospel?

What does it mean to live a life worthy of the gospel?

You're not going to figure that out on your own.

And my fifth point of application is that if you're a more established Christian,

I want to remind you of something you probably already know,

which is that the verse 42 is a divinely inspired order.

The teaching and the doctrine is first and most important in all the marks of the church in this series.

Why is that?

Because the teaching defines and the teaching controls and the teaching determines everything else in the life of the church

and the life of a Christian.

And when the church lowers the authority of the teaching,

and when the church puts something else at its center,

the problems that follow are sadly predictable.

If you know anything about the New Testament or the history of the church,

if a church tries to substitute ethics for doctrine,

or politics for the gospel,

or philosophies and isms for the apostles' teaching,

the church is in serious danger.

And the apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus about this.

He says in Ephesians 4, he says,

it's possible to be tossed back and forth by the waves

and blown here and there by every wind of teaching,

every wind of doctrine,

and by the cunning and craftiness of people

and their deceitful scheming.

If you want to get a sense for the problems that arise

when churches lower the authority of the teaching

and they put something else at the center,

read Galatians.

Read Corinthians.

Paul's worked up because the church has gotten into a mess.

I have the privilege the next few days

of going to a gathering of pastors.

We're going to be with a great teacher

from the University of Oxford.

His name's N.T. Wright.

He's a great Bible scholar.

And he writes this.

He says,

where no attention is given to teaching

and to constant, lifelong Christian learning,

people quickly revert to the worldview

or mindset of the surrounding culture

and end up with their minds shaped

by whatever social pressures are most persuasive

with Jesus somewhere around

as a pale influence or memory.

And because we don't want that to happen

at Christ Church,

we put together some classes this summer, this fall,

and we hope that they'll help you learn

the apostles' teaching.

We hope that you'll take advantage

of these great opportunities.

But we see that clearly

we're called to be a learning church.

But also we're called to be a caring church.

We're called to be a caring church.

Look at verse 42.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching

and to fellowship.

The message of the apostles,

the message of Peter,

led to this inward change.

And then that inward change

was expressed outwardly

through these 3,000 baptisms.

And the reason they immediately

devoted themselves to the teaching

and to fellowship

is because these people

had been born again from above

by the Holy Spirit.

This is how Peter puts it.

Peter who preached that sermon,

he wrote a letter called 1 Peter.

And he says in 1 Peter 2,

he says,

like newborn babies,

crave pure spiritual milk

so that by it you may grow up

in your salvation.

That's what fellowship is about.

Fellowship is about

having the same cravings.

Fellowship is about

being a bunch of newborn babies

that are growing up

to become like Jesus.

You see,

that word fellowship

has become so watered down

that,

and so,

so shallow,

so superficial

that we think

the word fellowship means

that we'll gather together

two or three Sundays a month.

We'll get together

in a church building.

We will shake hands.

We'll do a thing

for about an hour.

We'll have a cup of coffee.

We'll be friendly and nice

and we'll go home.

We'll come back

and we'll do it again.

But the word koinonia

in Greek,

that word koinonia

means a deep sharing in common.

And what is it

that we share in common?

Peter says we're newborn babies

who are sharing

the same new life.

We're sharing

in the same cravings

for the same nourishment.

and we've been born

of the same spirit.

We've been regenerated.

We've experienced

the new birth.

We've had the divine life

of God the Father

planted in our souls

so that we now

are members.

We're sons and daughters

of a royal family.

We're rejoicing

in the same king

and the same savior.

That's the koinonia.

We share Jesus together

and we delight

in the same message

about Jesus.

We delight

in the same teaching

of Jesus.

We've come into

this realm

of grace

so that we share

in the resurrection

life of Jesus.

We share in the righteousness

of Jesus

and all of our eyes

are fixed

on the same person

and on the same thing.

We're looking out

to where we're going.

We're looking out

to the eternal glory

for which we're

preparing ourselves.

that is what

fellowship means.

That's what we share

in common.

The new life

of God.

The new cravings

for God

and that cannot help

but express itself

and that's why

they were meeting together

every morning

and every evening

before and after work

because they said

to themselves

if we've been united

by these eternal bonds

in the spirit

with Jesus

and in the presence

of the Father

well we've got to

express that

in real life

and that's why

the Apostle John

said in 1 John 3

he said we know

that we pass

from death

to life

because we love

the brothers

and we love

the sisters

and from that moment

that those 3,000

were converted

and baptized

nothing could keep

them away

from Christian fellowship.

Nothing of lesser worth

nothing of lesser priority

was going to crowd out

or distract them

from Christian fellowship

because it had become

the biggest thing

it had become

the deepest thing

in their lives

and how do we know that?

Well look at verse 44

it says

all the believers

were together

and had everything

in common

they sold property

and possessions

to give to anyone

who had need.

they put their money

where their mouth was.

The first fruit

of the Holy Spirit

is love

and when needs

began to arise

in the community

they began

to practice love

they began

to practice

radical

voluntary

generosity

because they thought

to themselves

well the father

shared his son

and the son

shared his life

and therefore

we

are going to mirror

the gracious

generosity of God

by sharing our resources

to care for our brothers

and sisters in Christ.

They were not just

devoting that most

precious resource

of their time

but they also said

that if God

has given me

a super abundance

and I find my brother

or sister in Christ

in need

or maybe even suffering

because of their faith

I'm prepared

to help them

as I would

my own flesh

and blood.

No wonder

the Acts

later says

in Acts 17

that they

they were turning

the world

upside down

because they were

living in a way

that was totally

countercultural

to the world.

They weren't just

caring for their family

and their nearest kin

they were caring

Jews caring for Gentiles

Gentiles caring for

Jews.

So let's just

pause here

for some practical

application.

If you identify

as a Christian

and someone

were to audit

your time

and they were to

audit your money

would it be clear

to that person

would it be obvious

to them that you

are devoted

to a caring

Christian fellowship?

And I say that

because our society

is experiencing

an epidemic

of isolation

and loneliness.

Our society

is experiencing

an epidemic

of addiction

to dopamine

to distraction

to our devices.

Our society

is living

in incredible

fear

and despair

about a coming

nuclear holocaust

a coming robot

apocalypse.

Our society

is like really

afraid

but the church

is called

to be different.

The church

is called

to be

a counterculture

and the church

says

to God

and to one another

we're going to live

like family.

We're going to live

devoted to each other.

We're going to care

for each other

in the most practical

of ways.

We're called

to discipline

our time

so that

we

will get together

often

with the people

who share

our same cravings

for God

and that is going

to remain

a top priority

for us.

We're not going

to let sports

we're not going

to let entertainment

we're not going

to let social media

we're not going

to let all these

things just drain

the time

out of our lives

and then we give

God and his people

the leftovers.

No.

We're going to have

predictable

persevering patterns

of time.

We're going to have

continuing

consistent

habits of money

so that we can show

our father's care

for our brothers

and sisters

in Christ

in practical

ordinary

everyday

ways.

The second point

of application

is again

if you're not

part of a small

group

which is our

matrix for

belonging

and care

and accountability

it's our way

of making sure

that people

are getting

together

to read

the Bible

and to pray

and to encourage

and strengthen

each other.

We have three

new groups

they've just

started.

We have

community groups

restarting

at the end

of the summer.

I want to urge

you to do

something different

than our culture.

I want to urge

you not to walk

alone.

I want to urge

you to find

people.

Take a risk.

Have some courage

to just find

some people

that are total

strangers to you

now

that God

probably has

designed to

become some

of your deepest

and closest

friends.

We have a

staff member

coming starting

on July 1st

Dylan.

He's really

tall and

convincing.

His job

he's our

groups and

formation director

and his job

is going to be

to come and

help you find

a group

that's right

for you.

He told me

I don't take

no for an

answer.

I get people

in groups.

Just know

he's coming

for you.

He's coming

for you.

It's a learning

church.

It's a caring

church.

But also

we're called

to be a

worshiping

church.

A worshiping

church.

The apostles

teaching led

to this deep

daily Christian

fellowship and

the breaking

of bread.

It says

that in

verse 46

that every

day they

continued to

meet together

in the temple

courts and

they broke

bread in their

homes and

they ate

together with

glad and

sincere

hearts praising

God and

enjoying the

favor of

all the

people.

There were

no church

buildings.

They met

in each

other's

houses.

They would

share a

meal together

like lunch

or breakfast

or whatever

and then they

would take

one loaf

of bread

and they

would break

it into

pieces.

They would

hand it

around to

the others.

They would

take a

cup of

wine.

They would

pour it.

They would

drink it.

They would

pass it

around to

the others.

And they

did this

because on

the night

before Jesus

crossed he

said do

this.

So that

when the

Holy Spirit

was poured

out at

Pentecost

these new

converts

immediately

began to

gather early

on Sunday

morning.

The time

when Jesus

was raised

from the

dead.

And they

said we

want to come

together at

that very

moment.

and we

want to

share in

holy

communion.

And that

ensured that

their worship

was unified

and centered

on Jesus

and on

his cross.

On his

sacrificial

self-giving

love and

his broken

body and

his outpoured

blood to

forgive our

sins and

to win a

victory for

us over

death.

This bread

and this

wine was

for them a

symbol of

their savior.

And what

happened in

their hearts

as they broke

the bread of

their savior

it says that

they had

glad and

sincere hearts

and that

they were

praising God

and they were

enjoying one

another.

Why were they

full of

gladness?

Why were they

full of

praise?

Why were

they full of

joy?

Because they

had been

set free.

They had been

set free from

sin and death

and hell and

the devil.

They were

excited about

that.

The apostle

Paul writes

in Galatians

2.20

I've been

crucified with

Christ and

I no longer

live but

Christ lives

in me and

the life I

now live in

the body I

live by faith

in the son

of God who

loved me and

gave himself

for me.

They were so

full of joy

that my

God, the

God who

created the

universe, loves

me so much

that he died

the cruelest and

most heinous

grotesque death

possible.

Death on a

cross in

order that he

might bring me

into a

relationship with

him of

holy communion.

And gladness

and joy and

praise filled

their hearts and

it began to

erupt from

their hearts like

a geyser because

it just had to

come out.

It had to

express itself.

And I love one

of my favorite

stories in Acts

is Acts 16.

Paul and Silas

they take the

gospel to

Europe.

They go to

Philippi and

they preach the

gospel and people

don't like it

very much so

they're stripped

and they're

flogged and

they have their

backs beaten

with rods and

they're thrown

into this dark

prison and

their feet are

fastened in

stocks.

And you

remember what

happened?

It says that

at midnight

Paul and

Silas were

praying and

singing hymns

to God and

other prisoners

were listening

to them.

And why did

they sing?

How did they

worship in the

darkness?

How did they

worship in

pain and

persecution?

How did they

have a worship

service in the

most unlikely

of places?

And how in

the world did

they worship

with low

budget non

professional

music?

I mean no

AV team,

no slides,

nothing.

How did

they, we

don't know.

How did

they, you

work that

out.

But what I

want you to

know is that

they had a

joy that

was not

dependent on

or determined

by their

circumstances.

Paul later

will sit in

another prison

cell and

he'll be

chained to

two Roman

guards and

he writes

this letter

to the

Philippians,

he says

Philippians 4,

rejoice in

the Lord

always.

I will say

it again,

rejoice.

In Romans

5 he says

we rejoice in

the hope of

the glory of

God and we

rejoice in

our sufferings.

Peter writes

these suffering

Christians and

he says you

rejoice with

joy unspeakable

and full of

glory.

Their joy,

it wasn't a

superficial or

shallow joy

because verse

43 says everyone

was filled with

awe.

It was an

awesome joy.

It was a

reverent joy.

It was a

deep and

holy and

wonderful joy

because they

realized we

are here in

the presence of

almighty God

and he is so

great and we

are so small

but he and

his greatness

became small

and had his

body broken

and his blood

poured out and

when they broke

that bread and

they poured out

that wine their

hearts were filled

with joy and

with praise and

with gladness

because God

loved me and he

gave himself for

me.

They were a

learning church,

a caring church,

a worshiping

church and at

this point you're

like he has two

more points but he

only has a few

more minutes.

Watch this.

They were also a

praying church.

They were a

praying church.

The apostles

teaching defined

and directed their

fellowship and

their bread breaking

and their singing

but also their

prayers.

You got to

remember that

these are Jewish

people.

The people of

God, they would

pray two times a

day they would

pray the Shema

from Deuteronomy

6.

Every night when

they would go lay

down for bed and

every morning they

get up from their

bed they would pray

Shema O Israel.

Hear O Israel.

The Lord our God.

The Lord is one.

You shall love the

Lord your God with

all your heart and

with all your soul and

with all your strength.

That's the praying

life of the people of

God from Moses

forward.

All the way back to

Abraham.

All the way back

probably to Adam.

Right?

And then we get this

great prayer book

called the Psalms.

And King David writes

in Psalm 55 he says

morning, noon, and

evening I will cry

out to you three

times a day.

And so there's this

prayer pattern where

the prophet Daniel he's

told by the king of

Persia you know he's

living as an exile

very far away from

the presence of God

the temple of God.

He's living out in

the empire of Persia

and the king of

Persia says Daniel

you're not supposed to

pray to the living

God.

In fact the only

person you're supposed

to pray to is me

the king of Persia.

And what does

Daniel do?

He says nope.

Daniel 6 three times

a day he got down on

his knees he prayed

giving thanks to his

God just as he had

done before this habit

of morning, noon, and

evening prayer.

These first Christians

this early church they

devoted themselves to

the habit of praying

this pattern from

Moses to David to

Daniel to Jesus and

Jesus said I want you

to have private times

alone of praying

before God.

He says in Matthew 6

the heart of the

Sermon on the Mount

he says when you

pray go into your

inner room, go into

your closet, close the

door and pray to your

father who is unseen.

And that was the power

of the early church.

But they also came

together in corporate

prayer meetings and

they were in the

middle of a prayer

meeting when the Holy

Spirit was poured out

on the day of

Pentecost.

They're in the middle

of a prayer meeting

in Acts chapter 4 when

Acts 4 · chapter mention

it says the place where

they were meeting was

shaken and all the

people were filled with

the Holy Spirit and

began to speak the

word of God boldly.

The Holy Spirit

devotes his people to

prayer.

And when we pray we

say Lord give us more

of the Holy Spirit

and the Holy Spirit

intensifies our

praying.

This is one of the

great tests for people

who say I have

Christian beliefs is to

say well how do you

live out those beliefs

in your practices of

prayer?

Do you have a set time

and place every day

where you meet with

God?

Do you have a set time

and place every week

where you meet and

pray with other

Christians?

Have you learned how

to pray by the Holy

Spirit?

Have you learned how

to pray willingly and

pray freely and pray

with power?

I want to urge you to

put this on the top of

your summer must do

list.

So learn how to pray.

Learning church,

caring church,

worshiping church,

praying church,

finally all this has

to flow outward

somewhere.

Right?

It needs to move out

like a river to the

ocean.

And so the church

began to be an

evangelizing church.

And it says in verse

47 that the Lord was

adding to their number

daily those who were

being saved.

And because I'm out of

time I just have to ask

is that our expectation?

Or do we think oh

we're that was

Jerusalem but we live

in Berkeley and God

doesn't work that way

anymore.

You see the church

they were praying that

the power of the

gospel would go out

from the church.

And they were

prioritizing outreach

because the Holy

Spirit was filling the

church with love

and joy

and peace.

And because of that

people were looking

around at the family

members they had and

the friends and the

co-workers and the

neighbors that they had

and saying Lord before

we were just kind of

annoyed with them

because they weren't

parking their car

correctly or they

weren't turning in their

reports at work on time

but now what I'm really

concerned about is where

are they going

ultimately?

what's going to happen

to them eternally?

And they began to pray

Lord let your kingdom

come in his life.

Lord let heaven come

down into her heart.

Lord open up their

hearts so that they

might be dissatisfied

and say there's got to

be more to life than

this.

Lord open up a door of

opportunity when I

when I invite them over

to my table would you

please would you please

let them feel the warm

welcome of the father?

Lord open my lips so

that I can ask better

questions.

Open my ears so that I

can be a curious

listener.

Give me courage.

Open my heart so that

I can have a simple

conversation that become

a serious conversation

that becomes a

spiritual conversation

because what we're

expecting as a church

Lord is that you want

to add to your number

those who are being

saved.

ignored.

And so the question

is is that what we

pray for?

Is that our priority?

And is that our

expectation?

To be a learning

church, a caring

church, a worshiping

church, a praying

church that is

ultimately an evangelizing

church.

It may be so in the

name of the father,

son, and holy spirit.

Amen.