The Life Jesus Gives | Myles Holmes

Before we get into God's word together this morning, I do want to invite you this Wednesday at our church office.

Our church is gathering together for our monthly worship and prayer night.

It's at 7 p.m.

It's a little different.

It is at the church office this time in Newmarket at 69 Davis Drive.

And it is a night that is so precious to the life of our church as we get to embrace a theological reality that sinners can enter into the presence of a holy God.

That is an amazing theological reality that is true to us.

And that is why as a church we pray.

That is why, as a church, we believe that what air is to living, prayer is to the church.

So incredibly important.

There are few hours so precious, so important to us as the hours that we get together to pray on these Wednesdays, night, Wednesday nights.

So I just want to put that before you, invite you to that.

And I would ask, now that you turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 2, we're going to be beginning in verse 42 this morning.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a copy of God's word, I am surprising the ushers, and they are going to get up here in about 20 seconds and work down the aisle.

And you can flag one of them down, and they will get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

Last week we heard Peter's sermon.

It was a sermon that declared that no matter how sinful you are, no matter what you've done to Jesus, he is the type of Lord who will forgive you.

It's an astounding gospel reality that the crowd that heard Peter preach embraced and having been cut to the heart, repented of their sin, were baptized in the waters, and we're told in verse 41 that on that day about 3,000 were added to the church.

We ended our time together considering the prodigal son.

Considering that when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you receive not only forgiveness, you receive the Holy Spirit.

We thought about the prodigal son, who you may remember, that rebel who came home to the Father just asking to be a servant in the Father's house, and at the Father's grace and mercy, he actually received a feast.

And so much of what we receive in Jesus Christ by faith is like that, more than we could have ever asked for, more than we could have ever hoped for, more than we ever could have expected.

And yet in Luke 15, as the gospel writer tells us about the prodigal son, it's a bit of a story that holds beauty and devastation side by side.

As the prodigal son enjoys the feast that the father throws for him, in Luke 15, you read about the older brother standing outside the party.

It's a bit of a vivid picture.

You can imagine him hearing the music, playing, seeing the dancing, smelling the food, and all the while outside the life of the party.

And Luke records the father coming out to the older brother and urging him to come in and partake in the food, partake in the life that is this party.

It's a sad picture.

There's a difference between being near a celebration, participating in the life of the party, and sharing in it.

You can hear the joy from the outside, but still miss what's happening on the inside.

And I want to use that as an illustration this morning of what the Father is doing with us.

In Luke 2.42, sorry, Acts 2.42, Luke zooms out from what has happened at Pentecost to what is happening in the life of the church.

And Luke shows us that the risen Jesus, the reigning Jesus, is pouring his life into this group of people who have repented of their sins and by faith been baptized.

The risen Jesus is pouring his life into these people.

They're learning his word.

They're loving each other.

They're worshiping God.

They're witnessing to the world.

You're gonna read in a moment of a gladness that fills them, a generosity that fills them, an awe that they all together corporately stand in of how great and good God is.

And what Luke is doing is showing us a picture of the church, showing us the life that is in the church.

And I'm praying that the Holy Spirit would be like the father of the older brother who this morning is urging us and saying, look what is in here.

Look at the life that Jesus is pouring into the church and don't stand on the outside.

The question I pray the Holy Spirit will press into our hearts this morning.

Am I sharing in the life of the church that Jesus has brought me into?

I want you to see this in the text with me, and so I'd ask you as we read God's word that you stand with me.

I'm gonna read from Acts chapter 2, verse 42 to 47.

Acts 2:42–47

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

And awe 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.

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.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can grab your seat this morning.

Luke is showing us the life that he pours into the church.

The life that the risen Jesus is constantly funneling, funneling into the body that is his church.

And he is inviting us this morning to experience life in the same places.

Now, as we think about where the life of the early church was found, I want you to see first four things you're gonna see.

Now, listen, I know I'm shocking some of the church because a few weeks ago we had a two-point sermon.

This week we have a four-point sermon, and so brace yourself, hold on to your seat.

There's four points this morning.

First one I want you to understand is that we share in Christ's life by learning his word.

We share in Jesus' life by learning his word.

Look down at your copy of God's word with me and notice that this early group of believers in verse 42, they devoted themselves.

They devoted themselves, Luke shows us, to multiple things.

The first thing that they devoted themselves to was the apostles' teaching.

They had heard the apostles' teaching in Peter's sermon.

And they had not only heard, they had received it, they had embraced it, they had repented of their sin, turned from their sin into the waters of baptism.

And here we find that this wasn't a once-and-done scenario, that moments after they found themselves devoted to the apostles' teaching still.

They kept returning to it.

This word devoted, it speaks to a persistence.

You keep coming back to it, you keep showing up.

In fact, in verse 46, Luke uses the same word in the original language.

He says, and day by day attending, being devoted to the temple together.

They kept showing up.

They kept coming back.

Day by day they were understanding, learning, being instructed in the apostles' teaching, growing in their theology.

They were devoted to it.

They were showing up for it.

Loved ones, you know they say, and I believe it's true, that half of life is showing up, isn't it?

Don't we know that to be physically true?

As we pursue physical health, we know that it won't work to sit at home in the basement on Instagram watching reels of other people getting fit.

We know that half of the battle is simply just showing up to the gym, showing up to that boring meal again.

Just keep showing up.

Half of life is showing up.

And here the early church does the work of showing up.

They give attention to the word, they let the word shape their lives.

They're devoted to the apostle's teaching.

Find it a strange contradiction in our lives.

That we long for spiritual life while neglecting the word of life.

Strange contradiction, isn't it?

That we long to meet Jesus, we long to receive life from Jesus, we we long to stand in awe of Jesus, and yet, isn't it statistically so clear in the Western Church how neglected the Bible is?

Isn't it a daily battle for us to get into God's word?

And yet here we see the Holy Spirit not leading the people who have experienced Pentecost away from God's word, but leading the people into God's word.

The spirit who Jesus tells us is the spirit of truth, is the spirit that brings our minds, that brings our souls, that brings our attention to the very word of God.

Loved ones, if you want to know the life of Jesus Christ, if you want to experience the life of Jesus Christ, you must show up to the word.

Do not be surprised that you feel spiritually weary when you are unwilling to open up God's word.

Do not be surprised that your thoughts are so filled with battles against shame and anger and anxiety and bitterness that constantly well up in you.

If you do not show up in front of God's word, if your heart is not constantly confronted by the reality of what God says.

Strange contradiction, isn't it?

A contradiction we bring to light, not to cover anyone in shame.

We we all struggle with this.

The only thing I'm asking is why do we?

Because the flesh, because Satan knows what life will be brought to you if you just open the word.

Half of life is showing up.

Loved one, are you showing up in front of the word?

I mean, isn't it funny that such a simple thing is such a battle for so many of us?

And I I mean, I need you to know I resonate with what John Piper once said.

He said, I wake up with Satan sitting on my face.

You ever feel like that?

I mean, isn't it a sad, sad reality that your flesh and Satan don't need a coffee in the morning to attack you?

And I find that to be the case so often, and in fact, a number of times, even this week, the first time thing I think about when I wake up is just this negative thought, so filled with shame.

And Satan's attack, I mean, he does not wait for your alarm clock.

Scripture says sin is crouching at the door, waiting to devour you.

And there, as soon as you wake up, you haven't got to the coffee pot yet, you haven't gotten out of the grog yet.

All you hear is the alarm clock, and yet there's spiritual warfare being waged on your mind.

And on the walk, I mean, sometimes it feels like I'm in a spiritual bog, walking from my bed to the coffee machine.

It's an important stop to the scriptures.

And in my mind, there are a hundred other things I would rather do.

A hundred other distractions I can give myself.

And there's this spiritual battle just to showing up to God's word.

And loved one, have you not experienced it so often?

It's the case that you just open it up, and there's this sort of spiritual breath of relief.

I'm here, and the Lord is speaking to me.

And how often does he have such a word for you?

What is the Spirit doing?

He is taking the word and injecting life into the weary souls of his people.

And it is no surprise that in the scriptures the Bible is called the Word of Life.

That it was Jesus who believed, like we believe, church, by faith, that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

We need to take it and eat it then.

Take up the word and eat it, show up in front of the word.

If we want to experience the life that Jesus is pouring out into the church, we must be devoted to the word.

Now, now notice that they're not devoted to just a little bit of encouragement from the word.

Notice in verse 42, they are they've devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.

They believe that doctrine matters.

They are growing in their knowledge of who God is and what God's word says.

They believe that it would be very strange to say to a spouse, I love you, but I don't want to get to know you.

Likewise, it's strange for us to live as though doctrine doesn't fuel devotion.

The two go hand in hand.

The more that you grow in your knowledge of who God is, the more that you grow in your knowledge of what the scriptures say, the more in your heart a love for Jesus Christ will grow.

Doctrine and devotion go hand in hand.

We need doctrine because you cannot love a Jesus you do not know.

We need devotion because knowing about Him should lead us to love Him and follow Him.

In other words, what we're seeing in the life of these young Christians is that you cannot go deep into the life of Christ while staying shallow in the truth of Christ.

That if you want to dive deeply into the life of Christ, if you want to experience the nearness of Christ, the awe coming upon your soul, the gladness of heart that these young believers had, you must go deep into the truth of Christ.

Now, you know, one of the reasons why we are studying the book of Acts together as a church is because my heart for you is to see in the church life, in the book of Acts, what you see in the life of Redemption Church.

You're gonna find this to be the case as we work through Acts, that so much of what was happening in the early church that the risen Lord was doing in the early church is exactly what the risen Lord is doing in this church.

It's not boasting, it's not saying we've discovered anything special or amazing.

It's saying that the risen Lord of the Church of Acts is the risen Lord of the church here at Redemption Church.

It's the same Lord, and so much of the work that he's doing is the same.

That's one of the reasons in this verse right here, because of our need to be devoted to the apostles' teaching, that we launched something this year called the Redemption Institute.

And you'll see there a graphic for it.

It is starting this Saturday with a three-part class that will run once a month on reading scripture well.

And you know, one of the things that is most encouraging to my heart as your pastor in these days is that over 20 people have signed up for that course.

I mean, this this amazing, this amazing heart that is alive in our church, I just want to give up my time on a Saturday morning.

You know, mornings are precious when you work.

I want to give up my time to learn God's word, to study his word.

And I love that, and I say that to invite you into that, to to commit yourself in this way and many other ways that you can to the apostles' teaching.

And in fact, maybe for some of you, that is the application for you this morning.

That's the one takeaway.

You gotta stop at Guest Central on the way out, you gotta talk to Adam, you gotta say to Adam, I am in.

Now the application for Adam is to be at Guest Central, so you can meet him there.

He's got that.

He's gonna be there.

Okay, maybe that's for like you just gotta say, listen, three Saturdays in the next three months, I'm gonna commit myself to learning the apostles' teaching, to learning how to study God's word.

The word, as they committed themselves to it, I want you to notice in verse 42 that it doesn't stop there.

Loved one, if you devote yourself to the word, I want you to know that you're devoting yourself to many other things.

The Lord will speak to you and he will fuel in your heart this passion for other things.

So I'm sorry to say, so long as you are reading God's word, you will be pulled into a living relationship with Jesus and with his body.

And that is exactly what we see here.

As they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, they also notice in verse 42, devoted themselves to the fellowship.

That's the second thing that I want you to see this morning.

That we share in the life of Jesus by loving his people.

We share in the life of Jesus by learning his word, but we also share in the life of Jesus by loving his people.

Notice that Jesus does not save us into isolation.

We are joined in salvation to his body, to a group of believers.

We we love to say here at the church that you are not saved to an island.

The joys, the needs of the other people in the body of Christ become yours.

What we find then in chapter 2, verses 44 and 45 is this community of love growing in the church.

The hearts of the church are being knit together.

The needs of one is is the need of all.

So that we read in verse 44, and all who believed, 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.

Now, some have looked at these verses and suggested that maybe the church needs to embrace this sort of socialism that's what your what's yours is what's mine.

And if that's your understanding of this verse, you haven't read very far because in verse 46, you read that they still had homes.

This wasn't selling everything, putting it into one spot and distributing it to the community.

This was a a group of believers whose heart being overwhelmed with the love of Jesus Christ, was overwhelmed with fulfilling the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Their generosity was a generosity that was not only willing, it was eager.

They were like the Corinthians to whom Paul applying the gospel said must be cheerful givers.

They were like Jesus, who said it is better to give than it is to receive.

And in Mark 8, looked at every one of his disciples and called every one of them to gain their life by losing it.

Love one, is it is a it is a gospel principle that you will never find life by trying to keep it.

You will gain your life by losing it.

It's this gospel reality, it's it's spiritual plumbing, if I can speak to some of the handy men, handy men and women this morning.

Now, in order for me to do this, I kind of have to speak in tongues because I don't often know what I'm talking about.

But here I can speak simply enough to say that the scriptures teach us of a spiritual plumbing, that when Jesus, when you are abiding in Jesus, he pours himself into you, so that out of the overflow, you then desire you have the the it you can't help, but then pouring yourself into others.

It is what Jesus promises in John chapter 7, when he said, Whoever abides in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

John 7 · chapter mention

Jesus pours in, believers then pour out.

It's it's spiritual plumbing, it is a spiritual reality of what it means to abide in Jesus Christ.

That's why the way that the church has been treated in Christ.

Canada and in the West in America is so sad.

It's treated like an individual experience.

Have you noticed that?

We've kind of structured church to work a little bit like the movie theater.

I went to the movies a couple weeks ago.

I was incredibly offended.

Someone came and sat by me.

You ever experienced that?

Like, what are you doing?

We got the whole theater here, and you're sitting right by me.

And I'm thankful because it would have been an even more of an offense if I they had talked.

What do we do at the movie theater?

We go, I want this to be as individual as possible.

In fact, I like those movie theaters with the recliners and the dividers between it, where it's like, okay, listen, we're here together, but let's not get you know involved in each other's life, okay?

I don't need to hear you chew your popcorn.

And in a lot of ways, we we kind of do the same thing with the church.

And many churches are structured around this.

You can come in, you can hear the word, you can worship, but you don't need to be bothered with the mess of other people's lives.

And I gotta tell you, listen, if you want to like experience church in a really easy way, just attend on a Sunday, but don't get involved in any other way.

Don't start serving.

Because if you start serving, there may be Sundays where someone's knocking on your door and saying, hey, listen, my whole family's sick, could you serve for me?

You might have to sacrifice.

Listen, don't go into a small group.

Don't go into a small group where someone might ask a question and there's an awkward silence, right?

And you gotta sit in this awkward silence as no one answers it and you're the only one willing to talk.

And certainly don't get involved in what's actually happening in people's lives.

If you want an easy experience, loved one, loved one, do not ever get deeper than how are you doing and expecting in response.

Well, I'm good.

It's messy.

It's incredibly messy.

But but here, as we see the early church, the question that's being asked of us is am I just sitting near people or am I giving myself for their good?

Am I giving myself to them?

You know, it's it's hard to read through the scriptures and not have the individualism that sort of is in all of us as we swim in the waters of this culture.

It's hard to not have that individualism confronted.

You know, in my own personal Bible reading this week, I was confronted with it in Philippians 1, where Paul's in jail, and he's contemplating, he's in jail, he thinks this might be the end for me.

I don't know what's better.

I don't know if it's better to depart and be with Jesus, to which every Christian in here says that's a that would be incredible.

You know, in a moment you've departed from the pain and the suffering of this world and you're in prison, and now you are with the Lord.

And and Paul says, you know, to die is gain.

I get that.

To die is gain.

He says, to live is Christ.

And at the end of this passage, as he wrestles with whether it's better to die or to live.

In Philippians 1, 25, Paul says, But I must remain.

And you know why Paul decides that he must remain on earth?

He says, I must remain for your progress and joy in the gospel.

And loved ones, so long as you try to make church an individual experience, parts of scripture like that will not make any sense to you.

The call of scripture is to find your purpose in life.

I mean, this is not hyperbolic, to find your purpose in life, in the progress and joy of other people.

That Jesus is filling you with his Holy Spirit so that you might be taught how to pour your life out for other people.

It is the way of the Christian life.

There is no other way.

Who is it in this church that just can't help but to grow because you keep encouraging them?

And you keep coming alongside them.

You say, keep press on, sister, press on, brother.

Keep going in the faith.

Stay encouraged, keep suffering well.

Who is it in this church who you know they they shared that struggle with you, and you just keep holding them accountable, and you keep saying, brother, how are you doing?

How are you doing in the struggle against that sin?

What are you reading in scripture?

Who who is it who's influenced?

Who's so influenced by your life?

The Lord has called us to pour out into others.

It is the way of our Lord, it is the way of his disciples.

Really three vessels that he's given us to pour out.

We talk about it often, it's such helpful to so helpful to categorize these things, our time, our talents, and our treasures.

And love one, I'd ask you to consider in a moment like this how you are using what the Lord has given you for the progress and joy of other brothers and sisters in Christ in this church.

To perhaps think about your time.

Is there anyone who is interrupting your calendar?

Who has interrupted your time this week, who stole the time you could have given to other things but left blessed because you were willing for them to steal it?

You're serving the church with your time.

What about your talents?

I'm not talking like a talent show.

I'm not saying you gotta come up here and sing some like Carrie Underwood or something like that.

I am saying that that each of us have things that we can do to bless others, whether it's the many who this morning came early and set up chairs so that we can sit and hear the gospel or set up a sound system so we could sing, or are in kids' ministry right now, teaching the kids the gospel, these formal ways to serve, but also just informal, having people in your home and sharing your cooking and meals with them.

And how are you using your talents to pour into the lives of others our times, our talents, our treasures?

Our treasures, the way that you use your money show that you are eager for the progress and joy of other people.

Now I want you to I want you to understand that if you are just trying to do like Sunday morning church, it is gonna be, if not very difficult, impossible for you to experience what is happening in these verses.

In fact, it wasn't for them.

Look down with me at verse 46.

I want you to notice something incredibly interesting.

It says, and day by day they were attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.

Scripture highlights how shortly after the church was founded, they found themselves in formal times of worship where they would attend the temple and certainly not participate in the sacrificial system anymore, but but likely pattern their times after the teaching that they had known as Jewish people, sitting under rabbi's instruction.

And so they would come then to the temple on the Lord's day, sit under the apostles' teaching, where they were instructed in the word.

It was this formal time where the church gathered and worshiped, and that is great.

What we do here on a Sunday morning is so necessary, it is so great.

But notice that the overflow of that formal time together then bled into the week, into breaking bread in their homes, into meeting together.

That's why, as a church, we are so committed to small groups.

That's why we say that we are a church of small groups, because we truly believe that it is impossible to experience the corporate life solely on a Sunday.

I mean, it's good.

I mean I mean, I'm here, my job depends on Sunday morning, okay?

So I will always say that it is good to gather on a Sunday morning.

But so much of the life that Jesus Christ has reserved for his children happens in those smaller settings, happen in people's homes, in a small group of believers where you can know the suffering that the person who sits beside you is going through, where you can know the struggle that the brother who sits across from you has been having over this past season, and you can pray so particularly for them, and you can hold them so so accountable.

And what we do here on a Sunday is important, but what happens throughout the week is so incredibly important as well.

It can't all happen on a Sunday morning.

And what we find here is the people of God having devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, having devoted themselves to the fellowship, are then growing and growing and growing.

And out of this overflow of a love for God, here they are serving one another.

It is no surprise then that the third and fourth thing that they devote themselves to are the breaking of bread and the prayers.

This love for one another, it grows out of a worshiping church, a church that seeks to encounter the living Christ.

And so, yes, they are eager to meet with one another, but this comes from an eagerness to meet the risen Lord.

Third thing I want you to see this morning, that if I want to share in Jesus' life, I must worship my God.

Notice the third thing that they devoted themselves to in verse 42.

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

Surely this talks about more than just what we experience at the Lord's Supper.

In fact, in verse 46, it talks about it again.

They were breaking bread in their homes, and so this is certainly speaks to meals that they were having together, to hospitality that they're showing to one another.

But in a formal list like this, we can also be certain that Luke here is talking about the Lord's Supper.

They kept gathering together at the Lord's table.

And it's this awesome theological reality that the Lord Jesus Christ has risen and he is now reigning, and immediately after the church believes in the gospel, they they are participating in the Lord's table.

Why?

Because it's where they symbolically meet the presence of the Lord.

It's where they say, I'm ready to live under the reign and rule of Jesus Christ.

That's what we do at the Lord's Supper.

The bread is not physically the body of Jesus Christ.

The blood is not physically the blood of Jesus Christ.

These things are symbols for theological spiritual reality, the realities of meeting the risen Christ at the Lord's table.

That through the blood and the body of Jesus we can live in relationship, in communion with Jesus, with God.

And loved one, next week we're gonna celebrate communion.

And I would ask you even to take this week to reflect on the reality of what is yours in the gospel and what you celebrate, a communion that you are able to come with your sin and your weakness and your need, and you come corporately so important.

You come with other brothers and sisters in Christ, and you see other people taking the blood and the body, and together corporately, we're we're making this declaration.

I need this.

I need to meet with Jesus.

I need communion with Jesus.

And so we eat and we drink and we give thanks to the gospel reality that life must come externally and that it has come from Christ on the cross.

This is an act of worship we do corporately together as a church as we worship the risen and reigning Christ.

I want you to notice that this church was not only devoted to the breaking of bread, notice in verse 42 that they were also devoted to prayer.

They prayed together.

They believed, again, that Christ had ascended to heaven.

And in heaven, Christ was reigning on a throne.

We'll see this all through Acts.

That when God moves in the church, it is always through the prayers of his people.

I want to actually show you this, and there's gonna be some verses coming up on the screen, that the church didn't merely just confess that Jesus was alive, that the church prayed like Jesus was alive.

The church believed that Jesus was not only on the throne, but that Jesus, seated on the throne, would also bend his ear to hear their prayers.

Notice then in Acts chapter 1, verse 14, before Pentecost, all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.

Acts 1:14

In Acts 4, when the church felt persecuted, threatened by the suffering that they're experiencing by the gospel, Luke says, when they prayed, the place which in which they were gathered together was shaken.

In Acts chapter 6, when the needs of the church were growing, it was the leaders who said in verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer was made for him to God by the church.

In Acts chapter 13, recognizing the great mission that was before them.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Luke records this they were worshiping the Lord and fasting.

After fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

In Acts chapter 16, are you convinced yet?

Acts 16 · chapter mention

We're still going, okay?

Acts chapter 16, verse 25.

Acts 16:25

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns.

Acts chapter 20, in seasons of painful departing and for the sake of ministry, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

What did the early church believe?

That Jesus Christ is seated on the throne and that he listens to the prayers of his people.

What an amazing theological reality.

And loved ones, I'm begging, I'm asking you, do you believe it?

Do you believe that at this very moment you can enter into the throne room of the God who he's not just the king of your life, he's not just the king of your family, he's not just the king of Newmarket, he is the king of the universe.

And the moment you enter into that throne room, what does this king do?

He bends down to hear you.

Seated on the throne, he he listens to you.

If the king of heaven has the power to act and he is willing to hear, why is it so often that prayer is our last resort?

Why does the church not believe more firmly in the power of prayer?

At his heart it's a an issue an issue of functional belief, isn't it?

If Jesus reigns and he's not listening to you, the prayer is pointless.

If Jesus is listening but he's not reigning, prayer is powerless.

Loved ones, if Jesus reigns and he listens, and prayer is a great privilege, and it ought to be a great priority.

The question is do you go there?

Do you kneel before the throne at a time of need and offer your prayers to a gracious and merciful God?

That's true.

Let me ask you then where you will be on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

It just so happens that the slide is right there.

At the church office when the church gathers expectantly.

But at the same time, we are at the throne of grace, and the king is listening to us, and so we pray.

And and can listen, can I tell you while we're here that between now and the conviction that I trust you're you're you're feeling in the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, that between this conviction that you have right now and Wednesday evening, there will be a great battle for your time and for your attention.

Can I tell you that on Wednesday night you will be incredibly tired?

And you will face this temptation.

Well, maybe I just shouldn't.

I mean, it's been a long week, and and X, Y, and Z, maybe I just shouldn't pray with God's people.

And loved one, I can tell you this because I know the I know the flesh is alive.

I know Satan wants anything but that the church gather in the throne room of God and request that the Lord move according to his power and according to his might.

And so I know many of you will be tired.

And can I ask you, urge you, just come, just just come and be tired.

I found that to be the case so many times to struggle with that in my own soul, and there is no moment that I'm so energized for the Lord as Wednesday night after worship and prayer.

Can I tell you, if you're not tired in that moment, you may be filled with shame.

So much so many times when it comes to worship and prayer, we we have this conviction, I want to go, but then the shame starts to fill us.

I just can't pray out loud.

Or I'm I'm afraid of what people might think of me if they hear me praying.

And can I tell you that's why corporate prayer is the best?

We got some of our kids in here.

I used to love group projects in school.

You know why I loved group projects?

Because you could get paired with a smart person and they would carry you on their back.

It was the best.

Anyone with me?

I mean, group projects were the best for that.

And you know prayer is a group project?

Prayer is something that we we do corporately.

All you need to do is say amen at the end of someone else's prayer, and you know what you've done, you've stolen their whole prayer and offered it up to heaven.

It's just the great spiritual hack, okay?

You don't need to pray.

No one here is judging anyone who's not prayer praying because you are.

You've shown up and you're giving your amen and you're saying, Lord, let it be so.

Let it be.

I'm joining my prayer to these people.

I mean, this is why corporate prayer is awesome.

This is why when we pray corporately, we don't all come together and just pray at the same time.

It'd be madness.

We we listen and we we say, Amen.

Yes, let it be so, Lord.

Now, if if if the reason you don't come is, you know, you got all the energy on Wednesday and and you're not filled with shame, I want to also tell you that a thousand other really good things will fight for your attention on Wednesday.

And you may feel this conviction, well, I need to be balanced in life.

I have to have balance.

I can't give too much to the church at the expense of my work or my family.

And I need you to know that the battle will be waged there.

Let me suggest that there is no balance in our lives if we don't leave room for prayer with God's people.

In other words, after all has been said and done, there will always be a reason not to come on Wednesday, but there's always a better reason to come.

Jesus is listening and reigning, church.

Amen.

Can we do it again?

Jesus is listening and reigning.

Amen.

That was verbal commitment.

You're gonna be there on Wednesday now if you said it.

No, I'm just kidding, it doesn't work like that.

But is it in your calendar, loved one?

Application here.

Application.

Is it in your calendar?

Are you coming?

Make the commitment now, wage the spiritual warfare that must be waged this week as the flesh and Satan do everything to get you away from that night.

So precious to us, so precious.

Now, notice in verse 43, they've devoted themselves to these things.

And notice what happens awe comes upon every soul.

Awe comes upon every soul.

We're told wonders and signs were being done in the midst of God's people, but it is after they have devoted themselves to these things that they are left in awe of who Christ is.

Their hearts are filled with wonder, their lives are filled.

Filled with praise.

They are standing in awe of a living God.

Now I find the order here to be incredibly important that before they experience the awe and passion of Christ, they devote themselves to the right things.

They devote themselves to the right things.

In other words, they don't wait for the feelings to come.

They act first and then trust that the feelings will come after.

And yet, what is it that so often we do?

Well, we wake up and we say, I just don't feel like reading God's word.

And we say, Well, I just don't feel like going to worship and prayer.

I just don't feel we just we follow our feelings.

Notice, loved ones, the early church does the opposite.

They devote themselves to the proper things and trust that feelings will come.

You need to know this.

Your feelings are horrible leaders.

Feelings make great followers, they are horrible leaders.

The early church had devoted themselves to the proper things first, and then after that came the awe.

After that, their hearts were filled with a sense of the presence of the Lord.

You know, spiritual life is so much like sailing.

I revealed my hand a few weeks ago that I was actually really bad at sailing, but let me again, like I did a few minutes ago, talk about something where I am pretty actually ignorant.

Sailing requires wind.

Some of you are like, wow, I don't know why I came this morning.

I don't know, I don't know why we're talking.

Sailing, it requires wind.

You cannot sail without wind.

You know, you also cannot sail without the hard manual physical labor of hoisting the sails.

You need both.

And here is what the early church did: they devoted themselves to the things.

They hoisted the sails and then they prayed for the wind of the Holy Spirit to come.

Loved one, would you do the same thing?

Would you devote yourselves to the Word of God?

Would you devote yourselves to the fellowship?

Would you devote yourself to worshiping God and trusting that then the feelings will come?

You will stand in awe.

You know what I'm incredibly embarrassed about in my own life is this conviction that is growing in me as I read about the church in Acts that I don't fight hard enough for awe?

That I don't think often enough about where my heart is with the Lord.

And loved one, can I ask you right now, how passionate are you for Jesus Christ right now?

Scale of one to ten, where are you at with passion for the Lord Jesus Christ?

Maybe you can think back to a time in your life where you're just like, I was just so much more on fire back then.

And I don't know what happened, but I'm just, you know, now it's like my affections for Christ are so dull.

And don't be so passive in that battle.

Loved ones, fight for the heart.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, the proverbs say, for from it flow the springs of life.

Understand that there's more than that you can do than just wait for the winds of emotionalism to fall over you.

You can fight for a heart that is on fire for the Lord.

And loved ones, that is what Jesus wants from us.

I couldn't help but find in my scripture reading again this this past week.

I'm just pulling from a week here.

But how many times I was confronted with the reality that God cares about the heart.

That he cares about the heart.

In my own scripture, let me just share some verses with you.

Psalm 95, where the psalm where God says, Do not harden your hearts.

If you hear the voice of God, do not harden your hearts.

Then I was in 1 Kings 8.

May he incline our hearts to him.

Again, 1 Kings 8.

Let your heart be holy, true to the Lord.

1 Kings 11, Solomon's heart was turned away because he loved many foreign wives.

1 Kings 14, David followed the Lord with all his heart.

I was in Ephesians, where Ephesians speaks about the hardness of the heart and doing God's will from the heart.

I was in Psalm 90, where Moses says, Lord, give us a heart of wisdom.

God cares about your heart.

He does not care about the religious performance.

He cares whether your hearts are soft or hard, whole or divided, inclined towards him or drifting away.

Loved one, would you fight for a heart that is passionate for God?

And if you find yourself in a place where your heart is dull right now, would you just bring your dull heart to the right things?

Keep on, keeping on, stand firm in what is right.

And so often, it's not always the case.

There are seasons of darkness, but but it's not the regular.

So often the Lord will meet you when you commit to the right things.

This was a church that was experiencing the risen God by worshiping God.

But I want you to see, lastly, that we experience the life of Christ by witnessing to the world.

Can you look down with me at verse 47?

Actually, the the second half of verse 46.

They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord.

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

I want you to notice who adds people to the church.

Do you see it here so clearly?

It is the Lord.

We can't save a single soul.

As Luke attributes the honor in verse 47, all the honor goes to the Lord.

It all belongs in him.

But I want you to notice the beautiful reality that the church has a part in it.

All the honor is the Lord's.

The church has a part in it.

Family worship this week, we were in Mark 1, and I love what Jesus says to his disciples.

I will make you fishers of men.

I will make you fishers of men.

It's the same thing he says to the disciples in Acts 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8

I will make you witnesses.

In other words, you will cast the net.

I'll bring in the fish.

I will supply what you cannot produce.

Notice that it is Jesus who adds to their number.

It is his work.

But notice what he does in salvation.

It's so crucial that we see this that he saves sinners and brings them into his people.

Those whom the Lord has saved, those who are being saved are being added to their number.

God does not save them without adding them to the number.

God does not add them to the number without saving them.

Both these things are true.

So that what is the church?

The church is a gathering of people who were once far off and have been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You know that's what unites us?

What unites us is your testimony is like my testimony that I was on a hellbound race.

My life was filled with anger.

It was filled with anxiety, and Jesus met me.

Just like he met you.

And when you were far off, Jesus brought you near.

When you were living in the kingdom of darkness, Jesus brought you into the kingdom of light.

He saved you.

And now you are a part of the church.

That is who the church is.

You know, I remember speaking to a pastor, and he was talking about this fellowship of churches that he's a part of, and he said, you know, well, our church is a church for the unchurched.

And sadly, you can't be a part of this fellowship unless you're a church for the unchurched.

To which I said to him, I am very glad to not be a part of the fellowship.

Why?

Because in so many ways the church is for the church.

I don't mean that to say that we're not welcoming to outsiders.

I mean that to say that the church is filled with people who have been rescued out of darkness into the family of God.

The church is not for the unchurched.

The church is for those who once were lost but now are found, who once were blind but now see because their lives have been transformed by Jesus Christ.

In other words, the church is a rescue boat that has been sent out into the waters where people are drowning, and the rescuer didn't save them by just adding water into the boat and saying, listen, you're gonna be really comfortable in here.

Instead, he reached out and he grabbed them out of destruction, of death, of their hellbound race, of an eternity without him.

He's he's Jesus saves them and he's bringing them into the church.

It was not a comfortable room that saved us.

If you are saved, you heard the message that Peter proclaimed about the salvation that is in the name of Jesus Christ, and you responded in repentance and baptism.

And on that day, you were saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and added to the number.

Notice that it is Jesus who saves and then adds to their number.

I want you to also notice that here in Acts 47, there's a registry.

There was some sort of process of understanding on that day when Peter preached the gospel, who decided to repent and believe, so that the early church could tell us 3,000 people on that day repented.

There is a church membership.

Many will say to me, well, membership's not in the Bible, and I will I will concede the word member is not in the Bible, just like the word Trinity is, just like the word incarnation isn't.

Word membership's not in the Bible, but clearly the principle is here that when the Lord saves a people, he adds them to a number.

Now, that membership doesn't give new life.

It's exactly what Luke says.

They were added to their number, those who were being saved.

Salvation came from the Lord Jesus Christ, it did not come separate.

You know, when I when we had uh in all of our kids, we received a birth certificate.

I always find a birth certificate to be a bit of a funny thing, isn't it?

If you want certification that, you know, we had our fourth daughter, I can bring you down to the nursery right now, and she's probably very loudly certifying it at this moment.

You don't really need certification that a baby is alive, and yet you get this piece of paper.

What does the piece of paper do?

It doesn't give them life.

We didn't wait to get the pieces of paper to bring those children into our home.

They were part of our family.

What did the piece of paper do?

It confirms something that was already real.

I find it fascinating that when scripture talks about the imagery of being in Christ so often it is corporate imagery.

The scriptures say you are a building, each of you a living stone, you are a family, each of you a daughter and son of the king, you are a body, each of you a different part.

It is a corporate reality that all begs us to ask this question, loved ones, if if I am saved, am I sharing in the life that Jesus has brought me into?

And we started with the older brother.

Close enough to hear the music, he can smell the food, but he's still outside.

Loved ones, we can hear the word without feasting on it.

We can sit beside believers without knowing them.

We can confess that Christ reigns without praying.

And the question of us this morning is if Christ has poured his life into the church, are you sharing it?

The Father comes out to you, and it does not matter your past lists of failures, it does not matter how inadequate you feel, he invites you in this morning.

I wonder if you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you've never turned to him in repentance and belief.

I want you to know that this morning it is an offer of salvation.

And if you have, it is an offer of life.

That there is life in the church.

Could you pray with me?

Father, we thank you.

By faith.

That because we have repented and believed in Jesus Christ, we are now invited into the life that he is pouring into his church.

God, we give you all the praise.

And we ask, Lord, that today would be a day that having heard his voice, we do not harden his hearts but turn to find the life that he has poured out.

God, we give you all the praise for all that you have done for us in Him.

And we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Could you stand and worship with me?