The Church Needs to Be Welcoming | Every Minute Matters | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

Acts 242 347.

And they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching

and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread

and the prayers, and all came upon every soul.

And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together, and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings, and distributing

the proceeds to all, as any had need, and day by day

attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.

They received their food with glad and generous hearts,

praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved.

I wonder if I told you that God

wants to use this church to change the world.

What kind of a response that would elicit from you?

I mean, it's unquestionably true

that God has used the local church believing

and preaching the gospel of Jesus to change the world.

If you doubt that, consider this.

The passage we're reading is about a local church in Jerusalem.

We are reading it this morning in a part of the world

they didn't even know existed when this was happening.

The local church believing and preaching

the gospel of Jesus has changed the world.

But if I said he wants to use this church to change the world,

my guess is that might elicit a kind of an eyeroll.

At least it would for me.

I mean, it's just so big, so esoteric, so theoretical.

It's like, what, are you pushing a button?

Starting a program.

How are we changing the world? But.

But what if I said God wants

to use this church to change your world?

Now, that's a little more imminent, a little more practical.

There's a verse in this passage that I've been thinking about all week.

Verse 47, the very last verse.

And it says, and the Lord added to their number daily,

every day someone new was buying in to Jesus.

Now that's fascinating to me for a couple of reasons.

One is Christianity was pretty new at this point, so it wasn't like people

were moving into town and googling, hey, where's the coolest church in the area?

And the only thing most people knew about Christianity

is that previously their leader had been publicly crucified,

not exactly at the height of its popularity.

And yet, every day people were coming to faith in Jesus.

That's amazing to me.

I mean, we have experienced at this church something incredible.

In January 2021, we launched our reimagined vision.

We set some 30 year goals.

We kind of changed the way we approached church and since January 2021

to today, we've baptized 641 people.

That's amazing, in fact, that that happened over 1485 days.

So basically, we've been baptizing someone every two

and a half days, which is awesome.

But in this passage, they were doing three times that

someone

was getting baptized every single day.

If we had seen that here at the church over the last four years,

that means another 840 people would have come to faith in Jesus.

And it's not the number that I want you to focus on,

but the people in this passage who are adding to their number daily.

Where did they come from?

They weren't stumbling into the church.

These people that were adding to their number are they?

They were connected to someone in the church.

That's the only way they would know about what was going on.

That that was somebody's husband, somebody's wife,

somebody's brother, sister, mom, dad, coworker, neighbor.

So when I say that God wants to use this church

to change your world, let me ask you a question.

If one of those 840 people

that God wanted to reach had been your husband,

would that have changed your world?

If you didn't have to drag him to church?

But if he was calling you from the car in the garage

going, hey, we're all ready to go, where are you?

We have to get there. It's 10:00 in West.

If you don't get there early, you don't get a seat.

Would your world not be changed

if your wife wanted to work on your marriage

because of what Jesus was doing in her life?

If she wanted to work on your marriage because of what he was doing in your life,

would your world not be changed if he finally got sober?

If she got clean, if he was ready to forgive you?

You get the point.

Listen, God does want to use this

church to change your world,

to save your

family, to rebuild your marriage, to interject your life with joy.

That is the mission of the church.

And by the way, let me just say this.

If you're here this weekend and you don't really know where you are

with God, you maybe wouldn't call yourself a follower of Jesus.

I want you to see in this passage that God's mission for this place

is to bring you in.

God does want to change your world.

So the question then, of course, is how?

How do we become the kind of place where this kind of world changing happens?

How do we become the kind of place that sees three times what we've seen

over the last four years, in the next four years?

Well, to answer that question, I need you to open your Bible

to Acts chapter two and look at verses 42 through 47.

By the way, the verses I use are going to be on the screen behind me.

You don't have to have a Bible in your hands.

You can take out your phone or your iPad if you want.

If you want to hold something in your hands,

there are Bibles in this room or in the back of the room in East Hall.

And if you want to use one of these, today's reading is on page 857,

upper left hand side if you want to look at it.

But however you're getting there, let me hold out to the outline

I'm going to use to talk about

how this place can become a place that changes your world.

Three things very simple.

Change your verb.

Change your pronouns.

Change your expectations.

Change your verbs. Change your pronouns.

Change your expectations.

All right, let me start with the first one.

Change your verbs.

I don't love to talk about the original language.

Feels like a weird flex.

Now I get all week to get ready.

I don't I'm not really that smart,

but the Greek verb here is incredibly important.

Look with me in acts two verse 42, I just want you to notice

what was going on in the life of this church.

Verse 42.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching

and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Two things I want you to notice right off the top.

The first is that this church was pretty boring.

I mean, they weren't doing anything unusual.

The Bible says they were doing four things the apostles teaching.

That means they were studying the Bible.

They were spending time together.

That's fellowship.

They were taking communion, which we're going to do in a minute.

That's the breaking of bread.

And they were praying together those four things.

That's the same playbook that every church has been running for 2000 years there.

Their secret wasn't in their methodology.

They were doing the same things that every church is doing.

The secret is in the verb.

Look at what it says in the English and they devoted themselves in the Greek.

This word is really interesting.

It it's a combination of a preposition and a verb.

It means to point yourself in a certain direction.

That's the preposition, and then not stop moving until you get there.

That's the verb to to set your face to something and,

and to keep moving with relentlessness until you get there.

To be devoted is to move without stopping.

When I think about this verb, maybe the best way I can communicate to you

is that if you're like me, your life is governed by your calendar.

Now I use outlook, but you can use whatever you want.

Microsoft doesn't pay me, so go crazy.

But every morning the first thing I do is pull up

my calendar to try to figure out what I'm supposed to do that day.

And I wear a lot of hats.

I mean, I'm a pastor, I'm a boss, I'm a I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a friend.

And so usually my calendar

is full of things that other people are counting on me to do.

And that's great.

Sometimes, though, those things are competing.

Sometimes multiple people

want something from me at a particular time,

and then I have to decide who wins and who loses.

What this verb is saying is that there's something for each

one of us that tends to always win.

There's something for each one of us that almost never loses a tie.

It's that thing that we say, hey, when anything goes up against this, I'm.

I'm going to commit to that.

So maybe for you, it's, it's family or or work or your hobby

or but for this church, they said the thing on our calendar

that we don't deviate from is chasing after Jesus.

That's what it means to be devoted.

It doesn't mean

they didn't have families or jobs or or hobbies or dreams or ambitions.

It just meant they weren't willing to sacrifice.

Except asking God and experiencing his kingdom

for anything.

You see, this

church is sacred is that they built their lives around

Jesus instead of trying to fit Jesus in the nooks and crannies of their lives.

Now, that's important because the thing you're devoted to,

the thing in your calendar that always wins, that's the thing that defines you.

You know that everybody around you knows you don't bother her at work.

You don't get in the way of his family.

It's summertime.

He's on the golf course.

Everybody knows that. It's what defines you.

And it's also what everyone around you notices.

So for this church, what was happening is that people around them were going,

wow, they're not they're not like kind of into the God thing.

They're they're building their lives around God.

And so I'm going to kind of stand back and see what happens.

And what was happening is people were changing

and their brothers and sisters and husbands and wives

and mothers and, and were showing up because they were saying, what must

you have found for it to be everything else?

That's what it means to be devoted.

I'll give you an example up.

Who in Ohio State just won the national championship? Oh!

Let's go.

We're champions, baby, let's live it up.

We win every game except for the one that matters.

So Ohio State just won the championship.

I'm basking in the glory.

It was my freshman year of college.

Ohio State won the national championship.

If you remember, that was Jim Tressel.

Craig Krenzel Holy Buckeye against Purdue, right.

It's kind of a crazy year

because we weren't expected to win the championship that year.

Right.

And so you kind of watching

we just kept kind of winning games all the way up until now.

We're going to go up against the juggernaut of Miami,

in the national championship game.

And my dad this particular year, my dad was visiting me in college,

and I was introducing him to the girl I had just started dating, named Amy,

who's now my wife had been married

almost 20 years, and I was so excited for him to meet her.

And we're all sitting around talking,

and my dad and

I are talking about the Buckeyes, and Amy's just kind of soaking it in.

Right.

And we're talk about how amazing I say to my dad, when is the game

win is like, what's the date of the national championship game?

And he tells me and Amy goes, oh,

that's when we're going on that ski trip with my family.

My dad says all the

color just drained out of my face.

Because in that moment, two things that I really cared about

were competing the Buckeyes and this girl that I was falling in love with.

Well, of course I went on the ski trip and I don't regret it.

I don't regret it because that's what it means to be devoted.

I will let me finish that story, though.

I got on the charter bus that was going to and from the ski trip, and I

it was the night of the game, and I told everybody

from the front of the bus, I didn't know any of these people.

I just said, listen, my name is Zach. I'm a Ohio State fan.

I'm taping the game.

Here's a list of words you're not allowed to say.

Football or Buckeyes.

Hurricanes don't ruin this game for me.

Every guy on the bus was like, I got you.

Every girl was like, who is this jerk?

So until finally we stop at a McDonald's and,

for some coffee and use a bathroom, and we go in

and there's a USA today on the counter that's talking about the game.

And Amy goes, oh, look at Ohio State and the lady behind the register goes,

it's an overtime right now.

One day I will forgive my wife.

But that's what it means to be devoted.

Listen,

if you want to see your family members

become curious about Jesus, if you want to see three times

the amount of people, then Jesus has got to stop losing the things.

Because if we dabble in Jesus, but we're devoted to travel sports,

what are they going to think about Jesus

if we dabble in Jesus?

But we're devoted to family, devoted to work, then what shapes us is family.

What shapes us is work.

And those things are good things, but they're not the kingdom of God.

This church was devoted it.

They built their lives around God,

around the relationship with Jesus.

But not only that.

Second thing, you got to change your pronouns.

This is not that sermon, but I knew it would get your attention.

But I want you to look with me in verses 44 through 46.

I want you to notice the pronouns in these verses.

Here's what it says.

And all who believed were together

and had all things in common,

and they were selling their possessions and belongings

and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and day by day

attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,

they received their food with glad and generous hearts.

You see the pronouns you don't see in this passage

are I and me.

Christianity is a team sport.

It's about being part of the people of God.

It's about what God is doing in a group of people, in

and through them and in their midst.

Americans are so individualistic, and we've interjected that into Christianity.

Growing up in the church, I was always being asked like,

did you do your quiet time with God this morning?

Zach, how is your prayer life?

Zach, how is your obedience?

And listen, those things matter.

But if we're not careful, the idea is that it's you and God and me and God.

And when we gather, we're just kind of mutually helping each other progress.

But that's not what the Bible says.

I don't have time to explore this theme completely, but read the New Testament.

It is written to churches, not to individuals, but to churches.

Look at how many times the writers in the New Testament will say one another

when they talk about pray, when they talk about reading,

when they talk about obedience.

It's a group project.

And the reason this is so important

is because God moves in the midst of his people.

Listen, 20 years of being a pastor, I've spent a lot of time with people

who are struggling in their faith, and they'll say things like this.

Maybe you've felt one or all of these.

They'll say things like, I just don't feel close to God.

Hey, Pastor Zach, why doesn't

God do big things anymore like he did

in the Bible?

I just don't feel God's love.

Listen, if you've said one of those things,

let me try to make the point to you this way.

Can you imagine what those would sound like

if one Israelite was saying them to another?

And the banks of the Red sea,

like Pharaoh's army is pressing

down on you, and God splits the Red sea, and you take.

I mean, if at least offer me, you take that first tentative step

just to see if it's going to work

and you're crossing in between the waters, and what are you going to do?

You're walking to your buddy and you are talking and

and he looks at you and he goes, you know what?

I just don't feel close to God.

And you would just go.

And he would say, how come God doesn't do big things anymore?

Like my parents told me he did with Abraham, and you would go.

And he would say, I just don't feel God's love.

And you would say, the fact that you're not feeling an Egyptian spear

is God's love.

My point is, listen, God is moving.

He moves in the midst of his people.

You're chasing too much individual satisfaction.

Listen, I'm in the atrium, and a guy stops me the other day and he goes.

Pastor Zach passes. I guess what I said, what? He goes.

I just celebrated my 1,100th day of sobriety.

And he said, it all began when I came here and heard about Jesus.

My life has been totally changed.

Listen, you have any addicts in your family?

Is 1100 days of sobriety any less than the Red sea?

I can tell you stories.

Marriage is being put back together.

People being healed from cancer.

I can tell you all kinds of stories.

You know where you find those stories.

In the people of God.

Listen.

It's as we began to build our lives around Jesus and begin to become intermixed

with the people of Jesus, that amazing

things happen and everyone around us takes notice.

And the only thing that doesn't make sense is saying, I don't feel close to God

because you're sitting next to the family that just had their marriage

rescued.

You got to change your pronouns.

It's not about you and Jesus.

It's not about me and God.

It's about us and what God is doing in our midst.

That leads me to my third point, which is to say you have to change

your expectations

to change your expectations.

Look at verse 43.

I love this verse is what it says, and all came upon every soul,

and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

I take this to mean that God says, you show me a church that is devoted.

You show me a church that is together and I will blow the doors off that church.

This verse 43 is what only God can do.

It's what God has to bring to the equation.

But here's the thing I don't think acts two is a snapshot

of a particular church in a particular time and place.

I think it's a template for what God wants every church

to be.

God wants every church

to change the world of the people in and around it.

Like, imagine for a second you're a man on an island.

You're just just you on an island with the Bible,

and you read the Bible, and through it you meet Jesus.

You become a believer, a follower of Jesus.

You read in in acts two about the church and the day you read acts

two, a boat finally shows up

and you're rescued,

and the people on the boat are Christians and you're telling them, hey, listen,

you're not going to believe this, but I found a Bible.

Tom Hanks had a volleyball, I had a Bible,

and unmet Jesus.

And I've become a Christian.

And I just have one question for you.

Are you part of a church?

What's it like?

Friends, the expectations we should have for this

church are not about your past experience with churches.

The expectations we should have for this place are about what God wants to do in

and through his people.

He does want to reach your husband.

He does want to save your marriage.

He does want to change your world.

That's the best way I can think of saying this.

I've told you this before.

Is is is to contrast the experience of being a Browns fan and a Buckeyes fan,

and some of you feel this in your soul.

When I watch the Browns play, I know how they're going to lose.

About halfway through the first quarter.

You know, we'll miss an extra point and I'll go, yep, there it is.

Right.

You know you know,

and sometimes I watch a Browns game with someone who's not a Browns fan.

And about halfway through the first quarter,

they're like, you're so cynical, man.

Then by the end of the game, they're like, hey,

can I get the lottery numbers for this week?

Like, I've seen the movie?

You know, I expect the Browns to break my heart, but that's not true.

When I watch Ohio State.

When I went to the game Monday night, Notre Dame,

great team I won of the game feeling cocky, feeling good

because overwhelmingly Ohio State wins more of their games.

It's a totally different experience.

We miss a field going, I'm going, do we kick a field goal?

Sure. Just a touchdown pass.

Life has a

way of reducing our expectations

for who God is and what he wants to do to Browns

and levels.

You probably didn't show up this morning

expecting God to change your world.

But friends, we don't base our expectations for this place

on our past experience.

We don't base our expectations on how our week is going.

God is saying to us in this passage, I want three times more

than the amazing things you've already experienced.

I had a lunch with a guy this week and he said, hey Pastor Zach, this

premier night thing you guys keep talking about,

you tell us the sermon series, get ready for that.

He's like, hey, what's that really about?

You can tell me and the 100 people I will tell after this.

And I said, man, listen, I can't tell you I'm sworn to secrecy,

but I'll give you a little spoiler.

You want to get ready for premiere night?

You got to raise your expectations.

Not for us. Not for what we do.

Not for what happens on stage.

This church was doing all the things that we do.

We to raise our expectations because God wants

more.

More lives changed.

More eternities changed.

God wants you.

And to change your world.

Let me pray for us, father God, thank you

so much for acts two.

And the resetting of our expectations.

The call to think bigger, to believe bigger.

To believe that as we are

devoted, as we are together, you will interject this place

with the wonders that you talk about in verse 43.

And God, that is our desire

to see you move in our midst for your glory,

for the good of our family members and friends,

and for our joy.

In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.