A Healthy Church | Pastor Steven

You're listening to a message to go from X Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

But today we're going to talk about a healthy church.

What makes a healthy church? And what better way to

know how or what a healthy church looks like than

to go to the very early church when church was instituted.

We're gonna look at X chapter two. So if you

have your bibles, just flip it open, let it b ready,

put your bookmarks there. We're gonna look at X chapter

two a lot, especially from verse forty two to verse

forty seven. I'm gonna give you guys. As you guys

are flipping open your bible, I'm going to give you

guys a context of X chapter two, especially the early

part of what happened before we dive deep into verse

forty two to verse forty seven. So in X, of course,

it's called you know, in certain bibles, you see it's

acts of Apostles, as the title A right is basically

talking about the miraculous things that the apostles did after

Jesus ascended to heaven. Right before Jesus ascended to heaven,

how many of you remembered what Jesus promised to his

apostles and believers. Holy Spirit very good. So Jesus said,

when I go someone, I will send someone to you.

And then we know. Now you know in retrospect that

it is the Holy Spirit, because it's written in scripture.

But what happened was the believers after Jesus died, there

were about one hundred and twenty of them that met

in the Upper Room. Now to me, this one hundred

and twenty are the true believers. Why do I say so?

Because after Jesus was persecuted, ascended to heaven and whatsoever. Right. Actually,

a lot of the believers were Many of them were

scared because they don't know what was their future. Of course,

Jesus gave them something crazy, which is the great commission,

Go and make disciples of all nations. Where do they

even start? These believers are Jewish. Just to give you

guys a bit of context, and go over the ends

of the earth. But all the Jews are here. What

do you mean to share this gospel to everyone else?

What romans included, the very ones that knail Jesus to

the cross, They also have to hear the gospel and

be disciples, the disciples, the apostles, maybe the believers. More

on the believer's bit, they were probably a little bit

scared and quite uncertain. All they knew was Jesus giving

them a great commission and Jesus saying that I will

send you someone and you wait, which leads me to

believe the one hundred and twenty people that was mentioned

in Acts that gathered in a house upper room of

a house, praying, waiting, these are the true believers of Jesus,

because the rest will probably be afraid or scattered, or

probably may have left Jesus and left the faith. That's

why I believe based on my Bible study. So they gathered,

and we know that in that season when they gathered

on the day of Pentecost. Today we recognize Pentecost as

the coming of the Holy Spirit, but Pentecost was already

something that the Jews were celebrating, you know, after the Passover.

But it was on the day of Pentecost that the

Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and the believers, the

one hundred and twenty of them at the upper room

right and after that, we all know that they got

the gift of languages where they go out to the

streets and they started speaking different languages, the great and

mighty works of God. Right, and people went and started saying, man,

some of them go like, this is amazing. They are

speaking our languages, talking about God and the wonderful things

that God has done. But yet the review that say,

these people sound like drunkards, right, they must be high

on spirit. But liter did they know it was the

Holy Spirit? Right? So and then after that Peter, this fisherman,

Peter Peter, who probably had not much education, Peter who

was very brash and cut off the ear of a

soldier that's trying to catch Jesus. Peter who has one

moment saying, oh God, God, God, you are the Messiah.

You know you are the Christ, and the next moment say,

I don't know Jesus, the very same Peter act in

the Book of Acts. After, you know, the Holy Spirit came.

And after I'm sure the believers heard people say that

these are drunkards, Peter stood up and address these girl

people and said that that they say that these people

are drunkards. He said for certain that no, you think

that we are drunk, but we are here to tell

you about God. And there what happened was Peter's very

first sermon he preached. If you've ever wondered how to

preach a gospel, how to preach a sermon, you can

look at what Peter preached. It was very good how

he preached. He preached the full Gospel, tying in the

Old Testament to what Jesus did to the hope that

we have in the future. And of course, after Peter

the Apostle preached his first sermon, how many were added

to the Lord, how many accepted Jesus pop quas or

open book tests. Just just shouted out, just shouted three

thousand or three thousand. Oh so I told you three

thousand and three thousand, Yes, three thousand, three thousand were

added to the Lord, which if you plus one hundred

and twenty simple maths, it's about and tenty believers. There

was a church status already mega church or three thousand,

one hundred and twenty believers. This is the context that

I'm sharing so that you have a little bit of

a picture of how the early church was. They probably

had not much structure. They probably didn't know what to do.

They just knew Jesus asked us to go and make disciples.

The Holy Spirit is sent to us and will empower

us to do what Jesus asked us to do. Right,

they had no blue priad, but yet they did something

that grew the church every day. Even though they had

no blue priat, they had no program, they had no structure.

Fun fact, even until Paul's time, right, the church still

had no structure. There's no such thing as pulpit back

in those days. Back then, it was like a pasa

malam almost really, because people were just prophesying. People were

just like speaking tongues everywhere. Whoever has something to say

would just say, there's no order. This was very much

later what you see now how we do it. It's

very much orderly, and order is of God. Because if

you read also in Paul's letter, Paul was also addressing

order in the church, all right, And then after that, consequently,

you know, the church started to have a bit more order.

But just to share with you, at that time, there

was really no blueprint on how to run church. But

yet something or some things they have done allowed God

to add to their church every day. There must be

something there that we as a church can also learn.

So if we can just look at Acts chapter two

forty two. Before I get to my first point, you

can go to that slide verse We're gonna read this

scripture in Acts, chapter two, verse forty two. I'm gonna

read from the NLT version, it says all the believers

devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching, and to fellowship, and

to sharing in males, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer.

So the moment these three thousands were added, that was

what they did. So my first point is this, I'm

gonna give you three points of I believe we'll make

our church a healthy church, the ingredients to the healthy church.

First point is this, every single one of them were

devoted to the Apostles, teaching and discipleship. Just that I

read the NLT version which says devoted themselves to the

Apostles teaching. In the NKJV version, the one closer to

the original text, they used the race continued step fastly,

big word old English, steadfastly. Wow. You know the first

time I heard about state first was boys brigit. That

was in our motto, right, yeah, sure, and stay fast.

At that time I did know, I mean, you have

to be fast in what you do. I really didn't

know what it meant. Big word, old English. Right, So

what does continued steadfastly mean? Right? In the original text,

which is in Greek, it says this, this is the word.

In the next light, you see procas stereo. Well sounds

a bit Spanish. Can you look at your neighbor and

say procastereo? Proscas stereo means to attend constantly, to persist,

and to persevere. So if you read back the NKJV version,

you add those words in to replace continuous. Firstly, it

says this, they attended constantly to the apostles doctrine. They

persisted in the apostles doctrine. They persevered in the Apostle's doctrine.

What were they preaching that they had to persevere? That

leads me to also believe that whether they like what

they're hearing, they say follow. Because they persevered and persisted

in the Apostles doctrine, they focused on the apostles teaching

and not everywhere else. They did not go and seek

philosophical understanding from the Romans, from the Greek where they're at.

They were in cities that probably have a lot of knowledge. Uh.

You know, in Jerusalem there were learned scholars of God, right,

But yet they came to this former fishermen to learn

the Word of God. There are many Christians today, and

this may be an ouch moment that are so blessed

with online resource of the Word that we miss out

the simple principle of learning from the apostle of the house.

Are there better? Can I be honest with you? Past Kenneth,

he is the one with the Aposto gifting and leading

ex church. He doesn't have a Bible degree. I don't

have a Bible degree. There are a lot of people

out there that are way more qualified. But yet many

times we compare and we go like a ex church

teaching Shallola. No Bible degree can thrust not back. Then

there's no such thing as Bible degree. Also, I don't

think the apostles went to Bible school. They just followed

the Holy Spirit and the Law was leading them. We

find access to so many teachings and interpretations of scripture

that you don't get me wrong, It's good to grow

our knowledge in scripture study. You know. For me, when

I do my study, I've shared these many times. I

read the Word for myself. I no longer do as

much devotionals, but I read the Scripture for myself and

I will just let it marrin in it in my heart,

and I'll hear from the Lord Lord, what is it

you want to tell me? And I do my own

research and study. That's why I do. I go into

linear Bible, look at the original text, find out cross referencing,

whereas this exact word used in other parts of the Bible.

To give me a fuller picture. Right, I do my

own study. I go and study the history, the culture.

And if I can do it, all of us can

do it. Honestly, you don't need training to be able

to go deep in scripture, right, So it's good. And

sometimes if I want to get a little bit more perspective,

not necessary truth, but perspective of interpretation, I'll read commentaries.

But that's last for me. That's me, And I find

that I've been growing so much. Right, Today's sermon came

out of this. I did not read any commentary, but

it came on my own study of scripture. Right, So good.

To grow our knowledge in scripture, good, very good. Please

do that. But if you're not careful learning about teachings

and interpretations from elsewhere, we find ourselves more confused than

we are supposed to be. Growing Okay, this takes a

little bit of maturity to accept because some of us.

You go, isn't the Word of God the same everywhere?

But if you've learned the Word of God listened enough

to people talking about the world of God, you are

real that so many people have different interpretations of the scripture,

and if we just follow interpretation, we'll be straight back

and forth everywhere. Do you know that every church has

the same mission of yes, making these epperson all that,

but every church also has different ways of doing it

by and true interpreting scripture. So if you're not careful,

if I'm not careful me being the churchman coordinator of

expandao Tama, I go and listen to whatever church outside

big church, and I go listen to their vision, and

I go like this method works better, and I run

it here. I would do you guys at this service,

because I'm not honoring the Apostle of this church, I'll

be leading us confused. So I believe that one the

three and twenty believers did at that time was very wise.

They persisted and persevered in the Apostle's teachings, and many

of them, I'm sure are smarter than apostles. They went

to the streets. It could be anyone. They could be

merchants and traders that are learned hearing that and coming

to the Lord. Yet they persisted in the apostles teaching.

And I speak of this humbly because when God gave

me this word, I'm like, God, you want me to

say this. It's very scary. It's like putting myself out

there because I'm preaching to you and I'm being the

leader of this church plan. I'm also almost like saying,

trust me in what I share, in what I preach,

trust the doctrine that we are teaching. But somehow, maybe

for us, the knowledge side of us, cannot make sense

of this, and we feel like why so extreme on?

They still would have got preached in other churches. I'm

just pointing out what Scripture is saying. They also had options.

But yet for some reason, something they did grew the church,

and one of it is this. They devoted themselves to

the apostles, teachings and discipleship. They did not go elsewhere.

All right, There's one thing I just to share very personally.

There was one time I was invited to another church

and won't name the church. Uh. Another churches UH conference

there and no church conference where the vision ship just

like how we have our anniversary ex chanch anniversary where

we share our UH theme for the year. Oh, the

person appropriately is a leader of another church. That person

very convincing because that person said, I heard from the

Lord to invite you to our conference. Ah, I'm not

heard from the Lord or what on the This happened

just last year. This is fresh. So I went to

pass Kenneth, h little, let just invite me for there

and no confidence. Stay heard from the Lord and passa

Kenneth very quietly, just say it. If God puts into

your heart to go, then you go. But make sure

whatever you hear you bring it before the Lord first.

And it was after that I pray, I'm like, why

did pasta say that right? Unity of the church? MA,

we all want church right, one body of Christ. And

after that, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said

that Steven, you're going there to listen to the vision

of another house. Would that confuse you or edify you?

And I just give you a picture. Let's talk family.

Their parents here. I'm not a parent yet, my parents here.

Imagine your child, right, Okay, goes for I don't know,

stay over and say they they become teenagers, go for

a stay over at another family's house with their friend,

and they come back to you. The dema me, I

like the way the family run their house. Don't like it?

How you do it here? How would you feel? The

dma me their family don't beat their kids? One? Why

you beat me? The dema me their familier. The kid

asks for anything, right, the parents give one? Why you

don't give me? How would you feel as a parent,

And I'm sure every single parent here you would know

the best way to parent your child, right, you're thinking

about it. You're constantly thinking about what I do now?

What kind of precedents am I setting for my kid?

You're thinking about that, So you actually would probably know

that how you look like ten years from now hopefully

or you try to uh and your kid will probably

not comprehend for now why you don't do't spare the rod,

for example, But the kid can only see their family

don't beat no, no, why you beat me? But the truth

is probably the kid doesn't understand. But as a parent,

you know to a certain extent what you're doing. Of course,

as parents from my conversations with all of you. It's

always a learning journey. You're still learning, but as you're

doing it, you're doing to the best already of what

you know, right, and you're doing the best for what

you the best of what you know for your child.

So in the same way, let's apply in the church

setting right the post. If the believers are going around

the different synagogues and say, hey, bitter, why you preach

so like they want to use words like this, one

can't blame bitter, my bitter fisher manner. Why the scholars

in the synagogue preach are so power But they didn't

do that. You know, they persisted in an apostles doctrine.

If you call this church your church, and if and

only if you call this church your church, then you

ought to persist in the doctrines of this church. Again,

not trying to be extreme or sound like a cult.

I'm just sharing from the word of God. You search

the word of God yourself. I'm just taking up from

the word of God. Okay, it sounds strong, but I

hope we can see that all of this is actually

good news because the church grows from this. Right, the

believers of that time three thousand plars of them submitted

to the apostles discipleship. They took on the discipleship. They

were discipled by the Apostles, even though the Apostles were

probably not as wise, wise, or knowledgeable as them putting

air courts here right, But yet they took on the

apostles discipleship. The believers trusted the apostles teachings and instruction.

We should led them to be Here's my second point.

Devoted to fellowship and unity again x Chapter two forty two.

You'll see in the same verse that after the Apostle's teaching,

they were devoted to fellowship and to sharing in males,

including a lot of supper through the Apotheies. Why I

believe right they devote themselves to apostles teaching. Where did

the Apostles learn about the importance of fellowship? Where do

you think they learned that? Jesus? How did Jesus showed fellowship?

Jesus cooked literally grilled fish. Jesus ate with them, Jesus

was with them every day. That was their model. Oh,

if Jesus did that, we ought to teach her that

we have to also journey together. So true them persisting

in devoting themselves to the apostles teaching. They have learned

the importance of fellowship and unity. They have learned the

importance of being part of a godly community. So then

your question must be, what does a godly community look like?

Is it just meet together macan, play together, have fun,

that's it. But what that's a community? What about a

godly community that the early believers were part of. Let's

look at that. I've got three points. First, of course,

we love this. If you're Malaysian, you resonate eating together. Right,

they ate together, They shed males, right, and you know

what they did. They did it outside of church service

and after church lunches. We do it here we have lunch.

But they did it with each other organically. They build

relationships intentionally with one another. Right, it together and as

relations this is like our most fundamental hospitality case visitors

from overseas Cow, what do you do bring them out

to eat? Right? Can we do that with one another?

Because that was what the believers did. They shed males

together and it's over And Asians we know this in

an Asian household. Almost in every nation and culture, you

will realize the importance of a dining area, a circular

dining table. Have you ever wondered why our dining tables

are circular so that we can see each other and

talk to one another. This is very deeply ingrained in

Asian and even Middle East. I would say the culture, right,

I've got a very good Pakistani friend has invited me

for meals before. Everything is centered around the dining table, conversations, friendships,

talking of problems, sharing of how the day have been,

they has been. This is something that resonates with us,

as you know people of the region, and why not

use it and connect with one another. So eating together

is scriptural, all right, So don't worry about eating it

is scripture. Second thing that I want to share. What

makes a godly community is this, It's a community that

cares for one another. In X Chapter two, verse forty

four to forty five, it says this and all the

believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.

They solved their property and possession and shared the money

with those in need. Extreme So can you imagine selling

a property. We have to imagine selling a property to

get a better property, maybe like right or downsizing maybe,

but selling a property so that everyone shared in what

you earned from it extreme, but yet they did it.

I'm not asking you to sell your property or sell

your car, but have we done that before? Actually we have.

This was before I came to ex Church many years ago,

where there was a call to raise funds, and I've

heard of faith stories as parse Elvin he sold his

car and put that funds into the fundraising and all that.

You know. Of course, we know that it was towards

a building that never came to pass. That was a journey,

a painful journey that our church has to go through.

But God was teaching us a lesson about growing spa all.

Don't build me a monument, built me a movement. That

was God teaching us not to get a big building.

Others do it is not wrong, Yeah, they hear from

from us. There was experience you had to go through.

But yet in a in a very interesting and miraculous way,

those who gave at that time, God has blessed Even

though we didn't get a building, God still blessed the

individuals that gave. So is it too farveatch? I don't

think so. The important part is not in the selling.

I just want to let us know. But it's in

the obedience. If God asked, then if God don't ask,

don't smart smart and go and doulah. All right, uh

and so. But yet at the time, the principle is this,

they cared for one another enough to do that, right,

They genuinely cared for one another? Do we here? When

you look around? Do we have we said hi to everyone?

In a simple low hanging fruit? I'm preaching here and

this is gonna like make different ones uncomfortable. Have we

said hi to everyone here? Maybe a lot of people

this week cannot. But have you said hi to people

who have not met before? Low hanging fruit? How do

you care for someone if you don't even go and

talk to the person, ask how are you doing? What's

your name? Forget? Never mind? Sorry last week I asked

your name? I forgot? Can you remind me what was

your name again? This kind of things only, and we're

very forgiving because I also always forget names on right,

so I always try to write them down. I got

the names. Remembering birthdays. This is something I think a

lot of my leaders know this. I do this. I

put as many as I can birthdays into my own calendar,

your birthdays. It's my way of showing care. And what

I do is I try that. I try as much

as I can to if I have your number to

wish you personally, or if we're in the same check group.

We have a serving team check group. You guys know this.

What time do I wish? Twelve am? I die it? Also?

I try? Why so straight? No lies my way of

showing care. I want to be the first to wish.

I try, I try, I try, I try. Sometimes I miss.

Forgive me, sometimes I really are your twelve forty I

wake up my alarm twel forty said, or I wake

up seven am. Forgive me if I send at seven am.

But do we remember each other or are we occupied

with just coming to receive? Because if we are interested

in that the church, I can guarantee you will not grow.

Can I go a step further? We won't grow low

hanging fruit? Can I challenges go and know someone every

week that you have not met before or never may

have seen but never spoken to do that? Because we

are at church, and imagine there around here, maybe about

seventy seventy of us, eighty of us. Maybe yeah, I'm

going to give a very live example now when we

have children who fell or crying. Do we wait or

do we go and help? Simple examples, low hanging fruits.

Right back in those days we have again coming back

to this point, we are about seventy eighteen now on average.

If we find this hard to do, I've got a

very easy example to say it can be done. And

twenty they did it. Mega church Today, Mega church, we

can say very hard people can't find community. They did it.

There must be something they're doing right. If we don't

do it right now, we will never get it right.

There is a cry of a churchman coordinator. Do we

come here to receive and leave the caring for the leaders.

Let the leaders do the visitations. Lie. I can tell

you with a certainty and guarantee that we are visited

in the past two years people who are sick, people

whose loved ones have passed away. Some of you are

recipients of that. You notice, But many times it's the

leaders that go and we don't do it out of obligation.

We do it our genuine care. But can you imagine

if all of us do it. Wow, that's how the

church grew because everybody showed care to one another. They

don't feel alone, they don't feel isolated. They don't feel

that whatever their trouble is, they have to go through

it on their own. They share. No one was in lack,

and I believe that lack isn't just finances, it's all

forms of needs. Those who lack community, they found it.

Those who lack Jesus, they found it. They share. So

we cared for one another. In X we have a

phrase we call church partners instead of church members. We're

not trying to action and be different than the church,

but there's something we're trying to teach here that we

are all here to serve one another. That's why we're partners.

We're in partnership. We are not just members like a

clubhouse membership just to enjoy the benefits. This is not

the church. This is if you are you are seeing

seeing it as a membership just to receive. This is

not how the church should be. You can get that

in a clubhouse, not the church. This is not how

the church should be. The church is a place where

everybody shares and everybody gets. Pasa Kenne have a saying,

and I've shared this also, and I love this saying.

If everybody wants, nobody gets. But if everybody gives everybody gets.

That's how the church was able to meet every single need,

even though it was three people in the initial status.

Don't forget the lot added to their numbers daily. It

was exponential, but yet they were able to do it.

I want to introduce something we talk about church partners right.

I want to introduce you to partnership class. Many of

us here have been through partnership class. If you call

this your home, if ex Church is your home church,

I want to encourage you to sign up for this

because this is where you learn about our DNA, why

we do what we do, the doctrine that we follow,

what we believe in. Every doctrine I can guarantee you

is from here. We don't draw our teenaire. Every single

initiative and things we put in place is all based

on scripture. Derived from scripture. I don't carriage you. If

you're not part of have not signed up for a

partnership class, Go and have a listen what partnership is

all about. And be a partner of ex Church, not

a member. Be a partner, Be a contributing partner that

cares on one another. All right, that's my encouragement. Again,

it's not like I'm selling you MLM and you have

to climb by going to courses. No, it's for your

own benefit to learn about being part of the church,

all right. So that is caring for one another. So

we spoke about eating together. You spoke about carying for

one another. The next point is this worshiping God together.

That's putting God in community. In verse forty six, it

says they worshiped together at the temple each day, met

in home for the Lord's supper, and share their males

with great joy. Oh tho again, hallelujah, share the males

with great joy and generosity. Worshiping God together corporately in

the same time and space is important. If you think

that you can be a Christian without going to church,

that is the lie of the enemy. There's the devil's

plan to isolate you from the flow so that as

a wolf, it can devour you. That's what the wolf does.

And you all know the enemy has been described as

a wolf in scripture many times. Be part of the church.

Worship together, come together. That's why this is important. If

you think this is ritualistic and obligation, I beg to differ.

This is important for your growth and the church's growth,

the coming together to worship in unity as one voice

unto the Lord. And I also want to point this

out very interesting. I never noticed this. The early believers

worship together in the big that's in the temple, but

also in the small in their homes. Hey, those in

extious long enough know where I'm leading it with this.

Both are equally important, the big and the small. They're

coming together corporately and the breaking out of small. That's

what we practice in excios. Also, do you see that

what we do all this is all scriptural. We do

Sunday worship right here, and we also have bi weekly homes.

Scripture or not literally, any of they met in homes

always got capital hesha, but homes. These are the three

homes that we have. Sorry, if some of you are

not a part of these homes, are not inside, I

have to choose the pictures that has much as much

representation as possible. Homes is where we do the small,

where we do life together. And many of those who

are in homes that tell you that they really, actually

really grow is when they come to homes. It's when

we challenge serving. I'm going to be upfront if you

find it intimidating the challenge he does to Surfia serfing.

Homes are smaller setting, less intimidating, and you get to

serve the community. You get to share and care. Right,

I want to encourage you if you're not part of homes,

join homes right again, it's not about trying to grow

numbers and look good on paper. I am not interested

in looking good on paper. I'm interested in lives being changed.

This is where lives can get changed, and this is

where your life can be transformed as well. So I

want to introduce you to homes. Join us for home.

Talk to any of the leaders. We just had homes.

You know this past weekend we did tree. You currently

have three homes. They're part of Xama. We meet in

three different locations and do a lot of things together

my homes. Last wee can we play games. We play

Malaysian Dream and had a lot of fun with playing

playing switch, especially sports. Everyone's cracking their head on the

basketball game. How do you dunk? It's so hard? Yeah,

we had a lot of fun. But but beyond that,

it's about doing life together. When we do small, when

we go and do small, we can do life together.

So again to wrap up the three points, eating together,

caring for one another, worshiping, got together scripture. That's how

a godly community looks like. Of course from this you

can have subsets of what you want to do. All right,

So first point, just a reminder, what is it, uh,

that will make up a health church? What's the first point?

A truck question? Anah, that's the second point. The first

point is devoted to apostles, teaching, and discipleship. Second point

is yes, devoted to fellowship and unity and of course

with the with the godly community. Bit You've got the

three points and now the last point and now raised

to an end. The point is this, if you look

at X chapter two forty two, again, they devoted themselves

to the apostles doctrine, and to fellowship and to sharing

in males. They also devoted themselves to prayer. They were

devoted to prayer. A praying church is a healthy church.

We all know this. A praying Christian is a healthy Christian.

When we deprive ourselves of prayer, we are deprived of

self of a necessity in our spiritual work. We've got

same with the church. If a church does not pray,

we are depriving God. God's move in our church. So

pray in church is a healthy church. Pray for one another.

Pray for the church. I mean, pray for one another

is maybe common. I hope it's common. If not, let's

get there. But how many of us pray for the church,

the very community we are in. I will encourage you

to pray for the church. Pray for revival for our church.

Pray for people to rise up. Pray for more souls

to fill our seats, Pray for salvations. Pray that the

staff that serves us in Avante can get to know Jesus.

We can pray together united for one another and for

the church. In verse for the tree. If you trace

one verse after you will see that the apostles performed

many miraculous signs and wonders. This are slightly done through prayer.

Someone among the congregation is sick. They come the apostles,

laid hands and pray by the stripes of Jesus. You

are healed, and they were healed. I believe that was

how it was done. It was true prayer. So if

you want to see signs and wonders in this church,

you want to see signs and wonders in your life,

prayer and praying for one another and praying together. The

next slide, I put this line, Prayer carries power when

it's not ritualistic. Prayer carries power when you believe in

what you pray. Sometimes, as a Christian for so many years,

I can pray very pretty prayers. But do I believe

in what I pray? Because pretty prayers ain't gonna bring miracles.

Pretty prayers ain't gonna please God's heart. You want a

prayer to go up to God's thrown, you got to

believe in what you pray. There's no other way. Some

of you may know. A prayer point was prayer ling

was sent out that my mom wasn't in a good

place about a week class ago? Uh was there a

week ago? Last week? Right? Well? I felt like a

month ago, two weeks or two weeks about there? Yeah,

my mom was in a was admitted to emergency. She

couldn't breathe. Ah, she was faint, she couldn't she was

losing strength, couldn't work because she couldn't breathe, and was

in the ICU for three days for pneumonia and large heart. Uh.

Heartbreaking to see my mom on oxygen, not being able

to talk. But what was amazing was that we pray.

You all prayed for my mom. Thank you everyone prayed.

Passa Kenneth texted me in the morning to say, I

just prayed for your mom. She will be well. And

my mom became well a few days later and was discharged.

Of course, right now, there are further treatments she had

to do for her for her and large heart, but

the worst is over the pneumonia. Because a lot of

things can go wrong very fast. With where she was

at at that time, prayer was the one I believe

that saved her. We can be logical and go in

all lives a doctor, no ala, coincidence, No, life wasn't

as serious and all that, the doctors were really good.

I believe prayer is the one that saw her true. Really,

I sincerely believe so. And that is just one testimony.

You guys have heard of my mom's cancer, of different

things in my family, depression and all that. If it

wasn't prayer, my family would have been in a very

different state right now. I probably would have lost two

of my family members, if I can be honest, If

it wasn't true prayer, not just myself, but corporate prayer.

Thank you for praying for my mom today she stands

to testify that she was healed from pneumonia. You all

had a part to play. Now it's my third one

day you will need prayer and you would hope that

people will pray for you and with you. So let's

pray for one another. A praying church is a healthy church.

A praying church is a supportive church. Make prayer a lifestyle.

And when we talk about prayer, what do we have

in next church prayer survey? The see like I'm selling,

am I selling programs? Prayer service is happening? Is it?

Is it this week? Oh? Yeah, this is man devotion.

The next round we will have prayer service. Sorry so

it's not this Tuesday. Yeah, we have this where we

pray together as anyone that has been to prayer service.

We pray for the church. If your own time you

finally had to pray for the church, come this one.

This one. We pray for church, really pray every We

pray for aage group. We pray for local chich Plan,

we pray for global chich Plan. We pray for the nation,

pray for Jerusalem, pray for one another allowed allowing a

time of ministry. Come, come for prayer service. Again. I'm

not saying this just to look good on paper. I'm

saying this because it's good for you. Your breakthrough may

be one prayer service away. You never know, right, we

sent up prayer links in homes for people who are unwell.

How many of us actually pray? Confession I finally at

times there are some there I don't pray and very easy.

You want to be a praying individual for the church,

for the people around you. The moment you receive that praying,

you don't have to pray long, fancyful prayers on just

these seconds. Lord, this person is going through this, heal

this person in Jesus name, Peace upon the family. Amen. Done,

And of course, believe in what you pray. Right, we

have heard of a testimony of our very own Bradley

praying for a teacher and the teacher is healed on

the spot. Bradley, just pray a simple prayer, heal this

teacher in Jesus name, Amen, Hugh, because he really believed.

Do we believe in what we pray? Or is prayer ritualistic?

Before we will get there? Do we even pray a

good heart check and in conclusion x chapter two, verse

forty seven, all the while, all these three hundred and

thirty people plus plus plus while praising God and enjoying

the good will of all the people, and each day

the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

If this doesn't speak of a healthy church, I don't

know what do When we do point one two and

treat well and you see that round up in the

next life three points. If we can do this well, friends,

as a church, we will grow. I'm not saying growing

in numbers so that again it looks good on paper.

I'm saying every single individual here will grow. I believe

it from the bottom of my heart. Not only will

God add to us the numbers, God will also add

to us the depth of our faith. Every single individual,

every single one of us, would have been growing so

much in our faith that we too will be blessed,

because if there's no faith, there is no blessing. When

we grow in our faith, the blessing comes, the blessing grows.

Just to end it on any of this line, let's

build this church together. Will you join us to build

ex church together? To make this church an even healthier

church than it was before. Man, because I see we

have room to grow stale. Have we been doing well

by God's grace? Yes, hallelujah. Lives are being changed. We

have had salvations, people have been coming to the Lord,

people are being disciples, Praise God. But I think that

we can get even healthier. And it takes all of us,

all of us. So, as the church plank coordinator, I

employ and invite you to build this church together that

we can call this home. Just like how the three

hundred and twenty we're doing way back. If with that

number they can do it well, Man, we have no excuse.

We can do it well. If they had no blueprint

or program, they can refer to it and they can

still do it. I think we are in a very

good place to do it even better. Right. Allow me

to close in prayer. Let's pray. Thank you lot, Hallila

follow lot. I thank you a lot for the revelation

of what makes a healthy church. Sometimes we think about

a lot of things. We need programs, we need more fellowships,

we need more activities, we need this, we need that.

We need deeper teaching of the world. We need a

Bible degree for the pastor. We need a church building,

we need more instruments, we need to make the worship livelier.

We look at all these things, but we miss the

very tree ingredients that will actually help the church grow

grow in strength and not grow in facts. Because we

can have a lot of things, we can have a

lot of forms, but there is no power. So Lord,

I pray that we will be your followers and believers

that's devoted to the leaders teaching that you've put in place,

that we can trust that these are your anointed. And

I say this with fear and trembling because many times

I feel very undeserving and not qualified. And all I

do is to God you asked me to do, I'll

do it. I take preaching very seriously. I hope you

guys know this. I prepare very hard, and sometimes when

the word doesn't come, I get stressed out. And this

is my own journey. I need to learn not to

be so stressed out because I take it very seriously

because I want the best for all y'all. And can

we learn to trust God's anointed because the gods anointed

have to also be accountable to God in their responsibilities

that have been given unto them. So we may we

learn to devote ourselves to the apostles, doctrines and teachings

and discipleship. Secondly, to devote ourselves to fellowship and unity,

to build this community together, not leaving it to just

a select feel but all of us has a part

to play, to care for one another. Again, if everybody gives,

everybody cares, all will not be elected. All their needs

will be met. Needs of a community, needs of finances,

even needs of friends, needs of love, all can be found.

I pray that will be the case for Xbu, that

all needs can be met here when we learn to

share with one another, when we learn to love one another.

That's the second point and the third point. Lord, may

we learn to devote ourselves to prayer, so important simple things,

but yet we find it hardest to do. Pray. Lord,

that will help us to be a praying individual and

also a praying church, because when we come together to

pray in one voice. Wow, Lord, it's amazing to see

what you can do through the prayers of your faith.

I pray God Lord again that we'll see these church

grow in strength in faith, that we'll be able to

experience You in such a deep measure Lord, that it

will not just be religion, that we're in a relationship

with a mighty God, that our lives will bear much

fruit and we get to see the science and wonders,

just like how the church back then did. May we

become more and more like the early church. And with

this short story and end this prayer. You know, back

then there was this preacher that went to the church,

to a church to preach. I think it was Billie

Gray him. I may be wrong, I may be wrong,

but this preacher went to preach in the church and

the church leaders come to him and say, you have

brought our church ten years back with what you preached.

And the preacher said, man, I've done you wrong. You

have brought you back two thousand years to when how

the early church was. May we learn to make the

main thing the main thing, focusing on what really is

the church and everything else I just preferences as the church.

I pray we can come together focusing on what's important

so that we can see this church grow. And you know,

when the church grows, you grow.

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