"The Spirit Filled Church" | Acts 2 | Sunday AM | Pastor Keith

Please open your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Verses 41 to 46 will cover Wednesday will cover Acts begin

Acts chapter 3. When Peter is asked for money

Acts 3 · chapter mention

and he says silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I

thee raise up and he raises up this man, he's been crippled all

his life. Let's read Acts chapter 2 verse

Acts 2:41–46

41 to 46. I pray you have your Bible.

It's really good to go to church with the Bible.

Think it's important, important that you have a Bible and read

it. Then those who gladly received

his word. So there was some that didn't

receive the word like that. This is Peter's message.

We're baptised that day. About 3000 souls were added to

them, verse 42, and they that's the 3000 souls plus the 120

disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and

fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers.

As a result, fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and

signs were done through the apostles.

Now all who believed were together and had all things in

common, sold their possessions and goods and divided them among

all. Has anyone had need So

continually daily with 1 accord in the temple and breaking bread

from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and

simplicity of heart, praising God and having favour with all

the people and the Lord added to the Church daily those who were

being saved. Spirit filled church.

When I say a spirit filled church, what thoughts come to

your mind often you know, it's like wow, that's church that

just goes crazy. You know, people running around

and doing cartwheels and noise going on and people falling all

over the place and 100 people up on the stage and microphones

going around the place and pandemonium and no.

Does the term scare you? Spirit filled church.

Maybe you've been raised in a more traditional background.

I was raised in an Anglican church, spirit filled church.

Never knew what that was. When people go looking for a

church to call their home fellowship, it depends upon your

spiritual maturity and biblical knowledge.

Knowledge of the word of God or the lack of that will determine

what church you end up going to and looking for.

It's the Christian Bain Marie. I've always thought it was Bain

Marie, but it's Bain Marie. It's like, I want one of these

to it now. I don't want any of that bit of

this, bit of this. Yeah, that's the church I want

in our Kent Hughes book and I use many of his commentaries.

He's very good. He wrote a book called Set Apart

and we are Set apart, Set apart from the world.

He writes and I quote his definitions of the modern day

types of Christians that we have now existing in our world and

their their church appetite. There is the hitchhiker

Christian. You go to the meetings, serve on

the boards and committees, you grapple with the issues, do the

work of the church, pay the bills and you'll say I'll come

along for the ride, but if things don't suit, I'll

criticise and complain and then I'll probably bail out.

I'll leave then. There are, and it's very common

to write churchless Christians, you know, people who are just,

we have this magic word called spiritual.

It's spiritual like Casper, spiritual, churchless

Christians, they are nomadic. You see, if you don't join a

church, you don't have to attend a church, You don't have to

serve at the church, and you don't have to give it a church.

If you don't join a church, you can be on the perpetual take,

just whatever's gone, and it never costs, never put your hand

on the pocket, never takes your time, no accountability.

It's consumerism without paying. It's popular.

Then there is the absolute consumer, Christian.

He says they attend one church for preaching, send their

children to another church for its youth programme, go to a

third Church of small groups and their motto is what's in this

church for me, what's in this church for me?

Then there's the spectator Christian.

You know, like spectator sports. Spectator Christians produce the

same thing. Fans.

Fans who cheer on the players whilst they themselves are in

desperate need of engagement and meaning.

Then there's the drive through Christians.

Today would be the electronic EV drive through Christians.

You get what you want and a minimum time with no more effort

than the turn of your power steering.

They get the church fixed out of the way by attending a weeknight

church service or the early church service on Sunday.

So that way I've got the rest of Sunday to do my sport and my

recreation trips. And there's the and it's popular

today. Now since COVID, we introduced

online services because remember, we weren't allowed by

law to gather. It's a relationship relation,

less Christianity. And it's very popular today.

You can go to that church in your pyjamas with a cup of

coffee, eaten toast, bowl of cereal.

I'm in church. It's all by video, nothing in

the flesh. It's virtual church where

Christ's body can be surveyed by the camera and the Word can be

heard without responsibility or accountability.

Well, I'll switch it off now. That was good.

Done my church well. Following the day of Pentecost

and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit filled.

Church was born. Church was born.

What did it look like? What did it do?

How did they react and behave? Where do we?

Calvary Chapel, Secret Harbour 2026 fit in with the Biblical

definition of the Spirit filled church according to the Word of

God. Well, we know 3000 souls are

saved. Peter's first sermon under the

anointing and power of the Holy Spirit.

Now what? These are all Jews.

They're no longer looking to Judaism.

This is a massive shift in their life.

The old covenant, Jesus now brought a new covenant.

So we're going to look at 4 things today.

If you're taking notes, the Spirit filled church is a

learning church, the Spirit Filled church is a loving

church, the Spirit filled church is a worshipping church, and the

Spirit filled church is an evangelistic church.

So let's look at the first one. A spirit filled church is a

learning church. The very first evidence that

Doctor Luke who wrote the book of Acts writes about the early

church, the spirit filled church is that Acts verse, chapter 2,

verse 42, it says, and they continued steadfastly in the

Greek that means devoted. They were constant, they

persevered. It wasn't casual, they continued

steadfastly. What in in the apostles

doctrine, Doctrine means teaching and fellowship in the

breaking of bread and in prayers.

One could say that the Holy Spirit, following Pentecost,

opened a school in Jerusalem that day with 3000 students.

No air conditioning. That's if you read in the paper.

That's what the schools are going back to.

It's teachers were the apostles whom Jesus had appointed and

there were 3000 pupils in the kindergarten.

There are those who say well I have the Holy Spirit and he, he

teaches me alone. Since the Spirit came, that's I,

I just it's him, me and him. The Word of God is irrelevant to

me now since the Spirit has come because the, you know, the law

kills. And they always say that we

don't want to be legalists. And the word of God is

irrelevant to me now. I'm just led by the Spirit.

To which we see in our text that the early church converts did

not embark on a magical mystery. Experience, spiritual experience

which led them to despise or disdain theology.

No, the exact opposite. Listen carefully because you

need to hear this. Especially in these last days.

Anti intellectualism and the fullness of the spirit are

mutually incompatible. Why?

Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

Nor did these early disciples imagine that because they had

received now the filling of the Holy Spirit that he was the only

teacher that they needed and they could dispense with human

teachers. I don't go to traditional or

traditional church. God speaks to me direct.

Wow, good on you. I said big ears because in

Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11, Paul says he that's Jesus gave

Ephesians 4:11

himself some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,

and some pastors and teachers. Why?

For the equipping of the Saints. That's the church.

What for? For the work of the ministry.

What the church is to do what for the edifying of the body of

Christ. Pretty simple.

Now On the contrary, after Pentecost and the Spirit of God

fell upon these 3000 souls, filled them with the Holy

Spirit, they were baptised and now they're saved.

These 3000 converts then sat at the apostles feet, hungry to

receive instruction. They wanted to know all about

the change and what had happened in their lives.

They knew about Judaism, but what now?

Jesus is the Lamb of God. That means all these scriptures

that we used to know. There's a different meaning now.

Jesus is in the text, he's the Messiah.

What about the Kingdom of God? What do we do now?

When's he coming back? So hunger for the Word of God is

always a sign of true salvation, true conversion, and not just a

religious experience. You get saved and then you can't

be bothered reading the Bible or going to church.

I doubt your salvation. You can't say that.

Yes, I did, I just did. Because when Helen and I got

saved on a Tuesday and then we went to church on the Sunday, we

went in the morning, then we went again in the evening.

Because now I had the Holy Spirit of my life and I heard

preaching and teaching of the Word of God.

I thought, where has this been all my life?

And I needed to know. And I I would see things happen

in church and I'd see money go around, lots of money.

Not like in the days when I was Anglican church.

And I'd take a shilling. Those of you old enough, what a

shilling is, it's a peso or repair.

Back in those days, a shilling wrapped up in a hanky because

I'd lose it and I'd drop it. Hanky.

You probably don't know what a hanky is.

A handkerchief is a piece of cloth you stick in your pocket.

So I'd go up to church when the offering came around and the

Anken church in there went, went.

It was just coins. No one put pounds in there.

Not the church I went to anyway. Then when I went to church where

people had got saved, I went and the plate came around.

I went, there's money, money in here.

I need to, I need to. What's going on?

I've never seen this and so I wanted to know and I wanted to

know I needed to know everything about the Bible.

So the first thing I bought book I bought besides the Bible was a

concordance. Why?

Because I needed to be able to look up.

I didn't know where to look up things where they were.

Look up the word. There it is.

It tells you the the verse and the passage.

You can go there. Still recommend that you do

that. I would take my concordance to

Bible studies because someone said turn to and I go, where's

that? There's a concordance.

There is, there is. I'm so scared about having to

look at the index. Do you do that when you come to

church? I'm not looking at the index.

I'm just saying what books I've read through the Bible.

Nehemiah. Where's Nehemiah?

What pages? Don't be bothered about that.

Just learn. We just learn hunger for the

Word of God is a sign that you are saved.

Why? Because the inner man is

starving. There's an Eskimo who would

bring a black dog and a white dog.

He owned the two to town in the village where he lived on

Saturdays. And men would bet because he

would have these two dogs fight each Saturday and which dog

would win and he would take the earnings and he he never lost

his bet. They'd bring the black dog, the

white dog. And everyone said, how do you

know which dog's going to win? It's easy when I starve and when

I feed and the one that's fed the most is the strongest, they

always win. And so that's you and I.

We have a lot of starving people sitting in church today.

Don't read their Bible, don't study the word of God, don't

know anything about the Bible. Man does not live by bread

alone, Jesus says, but by every word that proceeds from the

mouth of God. And so these 3000 people, they

were really saved. Someone says, yeah, I've made a

commitment to Christ. They don't carry a Bible.

They don't read. I go, you're in, you're in

dangerous turf because if you have made a commitment where

you're starving and the old flesh, that's the old you,

you're feeding that and that's going to dominate your life,

Rule your life, rule your individual living, rule your

marriage, rule your relationship with your kids because that's

the one you're feeding. And the the born again part,

that's a, a, a skeleton that's struggling to survive.

And so these 3000 were hungry. They continued steadfastly in

the apostles doctrine and teaching.

So a spirit filled church is a New Testament church in the

sense that it studies and submits to the New Testament

instructor. You know, we use the Old

Testament as well. But a spirit filled church is

where the information comes for the Jews.

This is how to live now. And by the way, they didn't have

the apostles. They didn't get up and go.

Let's turn to the book of Luke. Luke haven't, I haven't written

it yet. Well, let's turn to the book of

John. Nah, not on the island of Patmos

yet. Nah, not haven't written that

yet either. And what about the, the, the

appalling? He's not saved yet.

They had the Old Testament, that's all.

The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the

word of God. Jesus said if you love me, keep

my commandments. You can only keep his

commandments if you know what they are, they continued

steadfastly. Second point, the spirit filled

church is a loving church. Oh well, that's what we need to

be more and more love you. We need we need to welcome

everybody and everything. Hang on a minute define

definition be discerning Acts 242 and they continued steadfast

in the apostles doctrine and the keyword is fellowship.

Fellowship is not when we come and just have a coffee together

and break bread and you know, and, and and talk about stuff.

It's the word Koinonia. Many of you know it.

It comes from the Greek word koinos.

KOINOS. It means common, the word

pictures and bears witness to the common life of the church in

two ways. It's what Christians do.

A it expresses what we share together, what you and I share

together. When you travel and you meet

another Christian somewhere in another country, you share

Christianity, you share Christ. All of a sudden you have a

brother, a sister in the Lord. You you're on the beach, you're

about to go out for a surf, and you're praying.

And I say you're praying. Yeah, man.

Well, let's pray together. Let's pray before we go out and

paddle out. You see, it expresses that you

and I, as we see here today, we share together that it is God

himself. He is our Father.

We pray the prayer, don't we, the Lord's Prayer.

We don't go my Father in my heaven.

We say our Father, don't we our father?

For our fellowship is with the Father in heaven and with his

Son Jesus Christ. He is what our Lord, He's our

Lord, our Saviour. And there is the fellowship of

the Holy Spirit. We are brothers and sisters.

Together in God's family. It's the same in a marriage.

Remember Helen just reminding me of that so that I needed to know

that we are brother and we're not just husband and wife.

We are brother and sister in Christ.

And the Bible tells us how to relate to brothers and sisters

in Christ. The church is the body of

Christ. Secondly, Koinonia also

expresses what we share together.

It's what we give as well as what we receive.

Koinonia is the word, the same word the Apostle Paul used for

the collection that he was gathering and organising among

the Greek churches to take to Jerusalem because Jerusalem,

they were starving. And the koinonikis is the Greek

word for generous. They shared their possessions

one with another. You know, we go, oh, hang on,

we're getting some dangerous stuff.

I'm not giving my keys to my car to somebody.

No, no, hold, hold. Hold your horses.

Should we do this today? You know, at different times in

church history, some have thought so and done so.

Jesus said to the rich young ruler, He said to him, Matthew

1921, go sell what they what you have.

Give it to the poor. You will have treasure in

heaven. Then follow me.

He didn't. Yet neither Jesus nor the

apostles forbid private property.

Because remember we were reading they men in their houses and in

the temple in Acts chapter 4. We're going to find out people

Acts 4 · chapter mention

selling their property and lying about it.

It was Acts chapter 4-5. But the Jerusalem experiment was

Acts 4 · chapter mention

never taught or practise as such beyond this time.

It was a voluntary thing. People did it off their own

back. But we as followers of Christ

are called to generosity. I, I, when people struggle with

giving and you go, well, you're going to talk about giving.

I don't, I don't do it often because it's, well, I went to

church and all we spoke about was giving.

But I struggle with people who come to know Christ as the Lord

and Saviour and never give. So you sit in the chair, someone

else is playful sucking on the air con that someone else is

playing for playing instruments and sitting up here or whatever.

We're using everyone else's stuff and you're just, you're

just bludgeon on everybody else. That's what the Greek says about

it anyway. You see, we are generous how

especially towards the poor and needy.

We sent $10,000 to Ukraine. We're sending, I think it's, I

can't remember how much per month to Israel as well. 5600,

about that 808 hundred a month to Israel for the work of Bethel

Mission, for the work in Israel. Where does that come from?

It comes from those who've been saved and who are generous.

Who could forget the story of the Good Samaritan?

That's one of the greatest stories in the Bible, Luke

Luke 10:33

chapter 10, verse 33. But a certain Samaritan as he

journeyed, came in where he was, when he from where he came where

he was. And when he saw him, that is the

guy who'd been beaten and left by the robbers, what did he do?

He had compassion on him. Remember, the others walked

around him. And this is what I love about

the story of the Good Samaritan is he picked up the guy, he

cared for them. Then he took him to the motel,

take him to the inn, pays for the accommodation of food that

he's going to need now. And he said, I'm coming back the

other way. I'll come back this way.

And if what I've given you now has gone short and you're still

looking out, having a, I'll pay what's needed.

You see, that's what the early church was about.

It was how they lived. We saw a need.

People always say, you know, I saw so and so.

You know that. You know, the church needs to do

they need help. No, you're the church.

You saw it. You help.

Well, you know, someone needs to go and fix up that old lady's

car. You know, it's just broken.

Well, you saw it. You got.

Why don't you take it down to the mechanic?

Why don't you do something about it?

You're the church. You see, the Israelites in the

Old Testament under the Old Covenant were called to give a

tenth of their produce so that the Levites, because they were

given no land, that was their way of source of income.

They were the priests, the stranger, the fatherless and the

widow could be supported. It was social welfare before

there was social welfare. How can spirit filled believers

possibly give less? Or do I have to type?

No, you don't. And in fact, you think that way.

Keep your money because God don't need money that's given on

earth. Yeah.

Yeah. Hang on a minute.

I'll just sort through was that A10 I gave meant to be a 5.

The principle is stated twice in Acts verse 45.

They gave to anyone as had need. This church does that.

Acts 434 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked for all

who were possessors of lands or houses, sold them voluntarily

bought the proceeds of the things that were sold.

And then verse 35, Here's another thing some of you are

not going to like. And they lay them at the

apostles feet, and the apostles distributed to each one as

anyone had need. It's not like here it is.

And this is where the money's got to go.

No, there's no strings attached. It goes to where the leaders of

the church, the apostles that this time said this is where the

need is to this family or to that need.

And I'm like, no, that's a that's only to go to there.

I'll give, but it's only to go there.

No, you don't direct or call the direction or corral the

direction. They lay them at the apostles

feet and they, the apostles distributed to each one as

anyone had need. So a spirit filled church is a

giving church. This church is a giving church.

Thirdly, a spirit filled church is a worshipping church.

Soon as we say worshipping, we automatically go to oh, that's

what all this is about. That's part of it.

It's just part of it. In Acts 242 they continued

steadfastly in the apostles doctrine of fellowship.

Here's the worship in the breaking of bread 1 and in

prayers, 22 separate items. Their fellowship was expressed

not only in caring for each other, but in corporate worship

as well. The definite article in both

expressions, literally the breaking of the bread and the

prayers, suggests a reference to the Lord's Supper on the one

hand and prayer services or meetings corporate the whole

church, rather than private prayer on the other hand.

Yes, there's a place for private prayer, absolutely, but also the

church, a spirit filled church, has people come and gather to

the corporate prayer meeting. This is what a spirit filled

church looks like. There are two aspects of the

early church worship which reveal to us today a beautiful

balance. One, it was both formal and

informal. Acts 246.

So they continued daily with 1 accord where in the temple.

Now these were Christians. Now the Jews were still going to

the temple. We'll find Peter and and and

John doing that, weren't they? They're on their way to a prayer

meeting at the temple when they'll heal this guy coming up

and breaking your bread from house to house.

Formal, informal. It is surprising that the early

church believers filled with the Spirit of God, continued for a

while in the temple. But they did.

They did not immediately abandoned what might be called

the institutional church, their upbringing, but I do not believe

they continued in participating now that they're saved in the

sacrifices that went on in the temple.

For they had begun to grasp that these had been fulfilled.

How? In the sacrifice of Christ.

He's the Messiah, the sacrifice to end all sacrifice.

No more need for the blood of animals.

Jesus was the Lamb of God, but they definitely continued in the

prayer services at the temple. We'll see that in the next

chapter. Whilst we are told at the same

time they supplemented, so they added to the temple services

with more informal and spontaneous meetings, including

the breaking of bread in their homes.

So secondly, the second example of the balance of the early

church's worship is that it was both joyful and reverent.

We, you know, the old pendulum, you know, we kind of go, man, I

went to a church and they, yes, man, that was like going to a

funeral service, wasn't it, man? Just and then the other one, you

go, man, that wasn't like a funeral service.

That was like a circus. It's like, I don't know when the

clowns are coming on, what's going on.

Didn't know what was going on. It was good wait for the service

to be over. I don't know whether I was going

to be called out the stage and if someone pushed me over or

throw something on me or what was going on.

There is no doubt about their joy.

I was saved for We are told of them as having glad and sincere

hearts. Verse 46, Glad and sincere

hearts. It says they ate their food with

gladness and simplicity of heart.

The fruit of the spirit, part of the flavour.

Love is what? Joy.

Yes, every service, every time we gather should be a joyful

celebration, as we have done this morning of the mighty acts

of God we sang about through Jesus Christ.

It is right in public worship to be dignified.

Shouldn't be chaotic, just something, someone running

around, someone drawing your attention away to themselves.

Now our focus as we worship is on an audience of one We are

worshipping as a choir. They're the musicians, wear the

choir, and we are singing the same words with 1 accord to A to

the audience of one gone alone. That's what worship is.

But joy was never irreverent. If the joy in God is the

authentic work of the Spirit, it is, then so too is the fear of

God. I don't know about you, but

often during times of worship I'm in awe.

So I'm reminded as we sing, especially the Psalms and

scriptures, I'm I'm reminded of my sinfulness.

I'm reminded of God. We sang about God's mercy,

mercy. It's new every morning.

I need His mercy here because I send enough the day before.

I need to wake up to mercy, not judgement.

So there is the fear of God and I worship Him out of fear of Him

because He is the holy God and I'm only in His presence by the

grace of God, by coming in His name.

Prior to Christ, I couldn't come into His presence.

A sinful man can't come into the presence of God.

But at the same time in the in the the early church, verse 43,

it says, notice this. Then fear came upon every soul

and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

The Spirit filled church is a church that is full of joy, but

also a church full of awe and reverence.

The spiritual church is an evangelistic church.

What does that mean? Means we're concerned about the

lost. So we've spoken of the interior

life of a spiritual church, the early church, within the walls

of what was going on, what they did.

But these tell us nothing about its compassionate outreach to a

lost world of sinners. Because on the surfboards there,

as you go out, it tells us, Mark, where to go, where we come

worship. And then what do we do?

We go into the world and what we preach the gospel to who?

To every creature, to a lost world.

And that action, you and I, when we're in the presence of God, we

worship him, we honour him, we give to him, then we are

changed. And then when we go out, we are

automatically thinking of the lost people who are have no,

they have, they have no hope. They can have money, they can

have a house, they can have all lots of things, but they're,

they're lost, don't they? As you get older, don't don't

you see people in a different way now?

You hear people talk to you at work and you they talk about

their situations, their problems with their kids and problems in

their marriage or problems in there, and you think their life

is just a cacophony of brokenness, heartache, sorrow,

and there's no light at the end of the tunnel while we just get

divorced. We have nothing to do with the

son. We don't talk to him.

We've quit that. We don't speak and that's that's

as we, you and I go out. That's the world.

We go out into a broken world. It says in verse 47 praising God

and having favour with all the people.

Notice what it says here. And the Lord added to the church

daily those who were being saved.

This is one of the most frustrating things as a pastor.

I can give an old call at every service and I have nothing to

do. I can't do anything I can't you.

You can go to your brother and sister and and they can be

struggling and you can talk to them, but you can't save them.

And it breaks your heart, doesn't it?

You talk to a couple that have troubles in their marriage and

you talk, but they need the Lord and you, there's nothing you can

do about that. But we can pray for them.

But it's the Lord, only the Lord who can save a soul.

How, you ask, did Jesus do this? And the Lord added to the

church? Well, he did it through the

preaching of the apostles, the witness of the church members as

they went out into the community, the impressive

genuine love of their common life that that people saw the

church and thought, man, I wouldn't mind being what is it

that these people have and their example as they were praising

God, enjoying the favour of all the people.

Verse 47 yet it was Christ who did it for he is the head of the

church. If you have a blessed marriage

and you're both of your believers, you've been, maybe

you've been given a child, a birth of a child, and you're a

Christian couple, You know what? When people say, oh, that's not

wonderful, yet the Lord is good. Tell people who brought the

child. He's the one who created the

little baby. Tell people about how God, yeah,

God has helped us in our marriage.

I see you get on really well with your son.

Yeah, we're both walking in the Lord together.

We're learning. And you know, we pray together,

tell people that it's the Lord, because it's not.

It's got nothing to do with you, nothing to do with me.

It is Christ Jesus alone who has the prerogative to admit people

into his Kingdom. You know, if you're a Christian

here today, it's only because Jesus did it.

Think about that. If you're a Christian here this

morning, it is only because of the love of Jesus Christ upon

your life. That's staggering.

You had nothing to do with it. Jesus said John 1516.

You didn't choose me, I chose you and appointed you.

John 1519 If you're of the world, the world would love it's

own yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out

of the world. Second thing about an

evangelistic church is what Jesus did was two things

together. He added to their number those

who were being saved and note He did not add them to the church

without saving them. I want you to note this because

this is very different to what's happening today.

Only those who went to this church in Jerusalem were those

who got saved. There is no nominal Christianity

at the beginning of the early church.

I just go along, you know, because they have great coffee,

a lot of music. That didn't happen.

The only ones who went to this church where people got saved

from the Lord, he added to their number.

There is no such thing today either.

And then as solitary Christianity either.

I'm a Christian. Yeah, I don't go to church.

No, sorry. Don't work that way.

That is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as

solitary Christianity, salvation and being part of Christ's early

church. The local church go together.

They still do. Thirdly, and the Lord added to

the church daily those who were being saved.

The Lord added people daily. It's an imperfect verb, meaning

kept adding more people, kept on getting saved.

The early church's evangelism was not an occasional or

sporadic activity. In other words, yeah, we got a

salvation meaning coming up in three months time.

Let's get to it. And that's how the church went

off into those programmes. Nothing against, you know, the

outreaches of Billy Graham and such like, Awesome.

But the early church was growing because the Lord added people

daily. It was not an occasion or a

sporadic activity. No, just as their worship was

daily, verse 46, so too was their witness each time they

went to the marketplace, each time they gathered water for

their water to take home. Their outreach was a natural

flaw on of being in a spirit filled church in the apostles

doctrine, breaking bread and praying together.

Pastor Chuck Smith used to say healthy sheep fed healthy fed

sheep, bigot healthy sheep. You know, people have often

asked, you know, what's the programme for Calvary Chapel,

Secret Harbour 2026 Teach the word of God, pray, gather,

worship the Lord. Because as you come and you grow

and you get closer to the Lord, then you go back out into the

community, you're evangelising, you're witnessing, you're

praying, you're sharing, you're seeing need, you're helping.

And so the work of the Holy Spirit goes out in you.

You do the work. It's not like, well, we're going

to have a programme, we'll spend so much money and get everyone

to come and what happens? Nothing happens.

Then everyone goes and we pack up and clean them.

Well, that went well. Had a lot of people come

anything happen? Nope.

So the early church spirit filled was all about

relationships. One they first related to the

apostles doctrine and we're in submission to it.

And then this is a rare book. You know, I gave six of these

out to the Fremantle Dockers Football Club pre Christmas.

Haven't heard a word back from those who who place them before

their lockers yet. But you know, the problem is

this is missing in your life, in the life of your marriage and in

the life of the church. This is where God speaks to us.

This is how the Holy Spirit directs and guides us through

this. And I want you to be hungry for

it. You'll only be hungry for it if

you know Christ. You won't be bothered with it if

you're a churchgoer, just a churchgoer.

Don't need it. It's an unemployment.

Never read it. Have no use for it.

Secondly, the early church spirit filled.

They were related to each other in genuine care and love.

One of the things that snuck in to us and you know, back in the

old days. Remember I rated my brother's

band aid tin. I forget the band aid tin.

He had a laser pass. He used to keep shillings in

there. So what do I do?

I decided to be a big spender one day.

Take out about four shillings, walk down to the corner store,

got all the kids in the neighbour ice creams are on me.

Double header, 6 foot. Go ahead, go.

Hey, ice cream, you are. Who are you?

I don't even give the kid an ice cream.

Get home, Mum comes in. Didn't go down the shop by.

Oh, no, because the corner store, the lady around the

corner store knew everybody. Yeah.

And so I don't know why I've told that story.

You see, lost, they had a genuine love and care for one

another. And they did it because they

were really concerned about others.

What happens is you and I come to church these days and we've

got like, there's a service nearly finished.

He's winding up. Come on, let's get going.

We don't want to be talking to anyone.

Got the motor running. I'll go out, get the car

started, get the kids. Come on, grab the kids early.

We don't want to. We don't want to have to talk.

I don't know. And they're coming.

Someone's coming over to say, come on, let's get out of here.

Because we want church without being touched.

We don't want to be accountable. We don't have to talk to

someone. We don't have to get on with

someone. Proverbs says iron sharpens

iron. You see, The thing is, if you're

a believer, you have a gift. God says we at least all have

one gift and your gift is for everybody else.

It's not for you. So when you're here, you bring

your gift. You know, do you know everybody?

Do you know, you know how many people in church have cancer at

the moment? You know, how many people are

going through tough times at the moment?

Do you know, do you have any idea?

You should not because you're a gossip, but because you're

concerned about people. See how they're not here, how

they struggling. Thirdly, the early church, they

related to God in worship. They worshipped him in the

temple and at home in the Lord's Supper and in prayers with joy

and reverberance. When we celebrate, I always give

a warning that the Lord's Supper we're going to have.

It's time to get your kids. Talk to your kids.

Are they old enough to have the bread and the wine?

Because they they shouldn't take it if they don't know what

they're doing and if they know what they're doing.

Have they been baptised? Are they reading the Bible?

He said it just thought it just you just can't.

Yeah, your common kids will just do this, you see.

No, no, you got to do it right. Spiritual church is a

worshipping church. And lastly, they were related to

the world in outreach. They were engaged in continuous

evangelism. No self centred, there weren't a

self contained church. No self contained church can

claim to be spirit filled because the Holy Spirit is that

missionary spirit. So as we wrap this up, you can

wake up the person next to you. He's finished early today.

What? I usually got another 10 minutes

from him. What has God spoken to you about

today? Because you're going to hear it

and go out and do nothing and be a fool or you can hear it and

apply it and be a wise man. Is God calling you this morning?

You say, Keith, I'm not part of it.

I don't. I'm just popped in.

I just, I come here occasionally.

Well, then you have an occasional God.

Oh no, I'm you know, I no Bible tells me different.

You have an occasional relationship.

Are you serious with the Lord? Are you serious about being part

of the body of Christ? Has God chosen you to be part of

this church or another church? Because you need to be part of

some church. If you say what church suits

you, drive through, you know, Bain Marie, one bit of this, bit

of that, Oh, I don't want that Christ Spirit filled church

exists. I want to ask you, are you part

of it?