The Pillar of Fellowship

[00:00:00] And as a church, many of you know that it's our usual practice where we study through a section of the Bible, kind of systematically. We're taking a little break from that to start 2025, uh, where we're talking about these pillars of community church. And, and it really grows from this idea that as a church, we're totally committed to falling God's lead.

Uh, you know, the elders we're, you know, we're not the charge, you know, we're, we're under shepherds of Jesus. And so from for years we've been saying, okay, how do we study the Bible? Our whole mission statement grew from a study of the Bible. And we say, 'cause when we look at what God calls us to, we believe that, that, it's kind of a summation of that we call to be a people who know Christ his life-changing power to make him known.

And uh, but we realize in a short mission statement that doesn't say everything. And so we've deformed core values where we, where we use these to kind of set our priorities, to set our goals, to hold ourselves accountable. Um, they're longer, they're, they're kind of drawn out in such a way that they define specifics, but that's what we realized.

Okay. We don't share those that [00:01:00] long often because they are longer. So we took those, we simplified them down to seven pillars of community Church. You heard them on the video just a, a few minutes ago. These are the things that, again, that we feel that God has called us to, that should define us as a community.

We're a church where we're committed to worship. To pray, to fellowship, to testify, to disciple, to forgive, and to serve. And uh, and in this series we're taking one at a time and we're looking at a passage in scripture that kind of explains what that means, what it would look at for us to live that out in the context of our church.

And so this morning we're looking at the pillar of fellowship. Now you could go to just about any church and they talk about, well, fellowship. And that's important. And we've tried to fellowship together and. Uh, but for some fellowship could be a little more than a social gathering, you know, like our soup and pie tonight or, you know, we did a bowling with a men's ministry on, on Friday evening.

But what we're gonna see is while those things aren't bad, when the Bible talks about [00:02:00] fellowship and church community, it's talking about something that is far deeper and richer and more meaningful than just a church social. So we're gonna be looking at this morning at the end of Acts chapter two and seeing this first picture of the followers of Jesus Christ in Christian community.

And so let me begin by reading Acts two. If you, if you have a Bible, I'd invite you to turn, turn there to keep it open throughout our time. But let me begin by reading the, uh, starting in verse 38. And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For this promise is for you and for your children. For all of you who are far off, everyone whom the word God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. For those who received his word, were and were baptized.

And about three, uh, there were added to that day, about 3000 souls. And then they devoted [00:03:00] themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayers. And all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles and all who believed, uh uh, were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, any as he had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they receive 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 are being saved and God bless the reading of his word.

Let me pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we have to come together this morning, father, to be able to, to celebrate what you're doing, father, to worship you, to enjoy your presence, and Father now to be able to worship by studying your word. Father, thank you for what you continue to teach me.

I pray he'd get me out of the way. Father that I would just be a vehicle that your spirit would speak through and even in spite of. And Father, I pray that [00:04:00] you'd help each one of us that are here to have the openness to hear and to respond to what you may be calling us to today. Father, I pray your blessing in Jesus' name.

Amen. Now I, like many other church leaders, will often argue for the truthfulness of the Christian faith. You know, this is often referred to as apologetics. So, for example, last fall we did a series on Genesis and part of that we looked at, you know, the evidence in, in, uh, science and saw how the evidence of science actually agrees with the biblical count of creation and how it disagrees with the theory of evolution.

In a couple weeks, we're gonna be starting a series on the last chapters of Luke, where we're looking at the death and then the resurrection of Jesus. And, and I could take that and then argue about, based on historical evidence, there's more historical evidence for the, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ than any other ancient historical event, uh, that's recorded in ancient history.

And there's reason to believe that this is a actual event that [00:05:00] happened. And so as believers, I think it's important to be able to defend the reasonable of our faith. Over the years, I've talked to countless people who, who struggled to believe in Jesus because they doubt the existence of God or, or the truthfulness of the Christian story.

But that's not the only hurdle that people often have in putting their faith in Jesus. There are many others who say that their biggest hurdle in believing in Jesus and their message isn't the message, but actually their experience with Christians. They've seen things from their interaction with Christians that actually drive them away from the faith.

By no means this is a new problem. So, for example, many of you might know the name Mahata Gandhi. Ke Gandhi was, um, you know, somebody that was, was, you know, very well known as the leader of the resistance movement that resulted in India's independence from Great Britain. Uh, he was raised as a Hindu, but in the late nine or 18 hundreds, he, he lived in London for a number of years studying law, and in that time he was exposed to Christianity.

He even studied it. [00:06:00] He eventually rejected Christianity, not because he was unconvinced by the truthfulness of its claims, but because he was turned off by the character and the lifestyle of those whom he got to know, who claimed to be Christians. Commenting on why he rejected Christianity, he said this, I like your Christ.

I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. You know, man, that's hard hitting. And, and again, that's not a, an exclusive story. And again, many of us can struggle with these things now, but again, historically people have struggled with this. Another, another example of that is a guy named, uh, g uh, GK Chesterton.

It's a name that many of us may not know now, but a hundred years ago, he was probably one of the best known names in the English speaking world. He was a renowned, uh, English author philosopher, a Christian apologist who is famous for his writing, for his wit and for his wisdom. In the early decades of the 19 hundreds, he was an outspoken Christian who argued for the truthfulness of the Christian gospel.

But then he [00:07:00] speaking to Christians, shared that in his experience, most people who struggled to put their faith in Jesus didn't struggle because they didn't see the truthfulness of his claims, but because they didn't see the truthfulness lived out in the lives of those who claim to be Christians. And so Chesterton said the best argument against Christianity is Christians.

And this is a guy that would argue for Christianity. And, and those are hard statements. Now, again, I realize there may be some of you here that this is part of your struggle and, uh, you've had bad experiences. And, and if that's the case, I would love to spend talk time talking to you. And, and I could, I could try to reason and talk about, well, you know, Christians, we're not perfect, we're forgiven and, you know, people claim to be Christians aren't necessarily always Christians.

And, and we could spend time on that. I, I don't, don't have time to go there. This, this morning. One thing I do wanna draw your attention to is, is challenging us who are believers is when you look in the Bible, when you look, especially in the Book of Acts, and you look at [00:08:00] the at, you know, the history of the early church, what's evident is it was the most effective argument for Christianity was the lives and the community of those who follow Jesus Christ.

People were drawn to Christ by what they saw in the lives of his followers. I. And the Bible's clear in giving us this story that this should be the norm for us today. And what drew unbelievers towards Christ when they looked at the lives of his followers wasn't that they lived perfect lives. It wasn't that they had every answer for every hard question.

It definitely wasn't that they, you know, made their, their message politically correct by, by adapting it to the values and pressures of the time. No, their, their message was always countercultural. What drew unbelievers towards a relationship with Jesus was what they saw in the community and fellowship of the Ola Church.

They saw a love that people had for each other. They saw something real and something different. That was, that was different than anything [00:09:00] they experienced outside of the church, and they were drawn by what they saw. If we read the end of Acts two, you know, we, we read a moment ago, and you have this incredible description of, of what that early church was like and how they cared for each other.

And right after that description we read, uh, and the Lord added to the number day by day those who were being saved. And it's telling us this is how the church was growing. It wasn't in great messages. It wasn't in, you know, in, in, in, in events. It was in community. That people drew were drawn in and saw, and that led them to Jesus Christ.

That's exactly what Mimi shared in her baptism testimony today. You know, she had a young woman who reached out to her and cared for her and showed love towards her, and then, and then they envi invited her to a college ministry and she goes there and he says, these people are, these people are having fun.

They care for each other. She saw community. She saw Christian Love and fellowship, and the message that she saw prepared her to hear the message of Jesus [00:10:00] Christ. So let's dive into Acts two and see what God's word teaches us about this. Again, I believe this isn't just a description of what the early church was like.

It's God's teaching about what he wants the church to be like in all times, in all ages. The first thing is we need to see that the Bible is gonna teach us about this community and love, but it's all built upon the foundation of the gospel. The foundation of the gospel is that we need to, first of all get our relationship with God, right?

We do that through the gospel. And then one of the primary side effects of being right with God is that it will then transform our relationships with other people, especially flowers of Jesus. So if you have your Bibles open, I, I'd encourage you to open 'em to Acts two. We're gonna spend a lot of time there this morning.

Let me look there with you starting in verse 38. Again, this is the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit's just come, um, you know, the, the pe, the followers of Jesus are in the temple courtyard. And then Peter begins this message and he's explaining the mess, the gospel of Jesus, [00:11:00] his death and his resurrection.

And then in verse 38, we read the end of this sermon calling people to respond. He said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin. And you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for this promises for you and for your children, or for all who are far off.

For everyone who calls upon the uh, uh, God calls to himself. So he calls people to this response, you know, except Jesus Christ, get right with them. And then we're told that that 3000 people respond and are added to the church. And then right after this, right after, okay, these people got right with God.

There's a, they got the gospel right after that. We have this incredible description of church community and, and, and let me show you why this works this way. Why this is the foundation, why we need to be right with God, first of all, and that should always transform our relationships with other people.

That the fact is that if we look at the whole of the Bible story, the Bible shows us that we're designed for relationships. God designed us for [00:12:00] that. First of all, he designed us for an intimate relationship with himself that we would know him, that there would be nothing between us and Him. And then he also, then, as an extension of that, created us for close relationships with other people.

We actually see this in Genesis. If we look back in Genesis, Genesis three tells us about the fall. But before the fall, look what it tells us. In Genesis three, eight, it tells us before the fall, God would literally come into the garden and walk with Adam and Eve. They had a pure uninhibited relationship with God.

And then in chapter one we read of the description of God's creation and God repeatedly says, it is good. It is good. He's commenting on what he's done. And then in chapter two, he comes before the fall, he says Something is not good. He said, it is not good. That man should be alone. It's not good for Adam to be alone.

And it's important to see even what this is telling us. See, Adam was lonely. Not because he was imperfect, but because he was perfect. When we think about all the needs [00:13:00] that we have in life, you know, all the other hungers, all the other hurts that we have, all the other aches, they're all the result of sin.

You know, the hunger ache, the guilt ache, the sickness ache, oh, they all from sin, but there's one ache that isn't the result of sin. That's actually part of God's perfection. God made us so that we have a hunger for relationships. That in a sense, we cannot enjoy paradise without friendships, but that's what God created us for.

But then we have the fall, and so we have to look at the effects of the fall because the fall broke community, the effect is broken community. So after Adam and Eve's sin, what happens? The first thing they do is they cover themselves. They, they put up walls, they hide, they hide, first of all, from God, and then they hide from other relationships.

So, in other words, God designed us in this perfect thing for intimacy, but as a result of sin, we hide from what we're created for. See, if we go back to even Acts chapter or, or Genesis chapter two, we read that, um, you know, in creation, the man and his wife were both naked and were [00:14:00] not ashamed. And it's not only to saying that they were physically naked, but it's describing their spiritual and emotional nakedness.

They were totally open with each other. They had total intimacy. They let the other person see their every thought, their every feeling, their every aspect of her being, and they were totally free to be open with each other 'cause they had nothing to hide. But what happens immediately after they sin, suddenly they have shame.

Suddenly they have something to hide. And so the first thing that they do then is that they go, they put on clothes, they go hide, they try to hide from God. They hide from each other, and that's what we see from frighten in the beginning. That's one of the effects of sin. It always results not only in separation from God, but also in separation from each other.

We try and hide, and you know why? Because we're afraid that if somebody saw the real me, you wouldn't like the real me. You know, you would reject me. So I put up barriers and I wanna make sure you never see the real me. And, and then when I interact with you, what I do is I'm gonna put on now masks. I'm gonna hide the part that [00:15:00] I don't want you to see, and I'm gonna put on a mask who I think you wanna see.

And many of us have different masks. I go to church and we have one mask. We go to work and we have another mask. We and our, and our friends, we have another mask and, and we're longing for acceptance. But we realize that those that. We hope accept us, really aren't accepting who we are. They don't know who we are.

They're accepting the mask that we've put on. Or we may even think, well, I don't really need that, and, you know, strong and I'm independent. I don't need close friends. And, but here's what you need to realize. Again, you see Adam before the fall, God said it's not good for man to be alone. The fact is, the more healthy we are, the more we will pursue relationship.

The more broken we are, the more we'll distance ourselves from relationships. So sin not only broke our relationship with God, it broke our relationship with each other. But here's the wonderful thing. The gospel not only restores our relationship with God, it also transforms and restores our built relationships with each other.

It, it re restores relationships. It [00:16:00] redeems the community we were created for. Now here, let me go to Hebrews chapter 10 to make this point, because in Genesis, you just see the brokenness. And in the New Testament you see the restoration. In Hebrews 10, it's an incredible passage that talks about not only God restoring us to him through the gospel, but how it impacts our relationships with each other.

So in Hebrews 10 22, it emphasizes God's restoring work in our relationship with God. Let us draw near with a, a true heart and full assurance of faith with the heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies wash with pure water. There's an image there of, you know, of baptism, of just saying, with true faith in Christ that we're washed, clean, we're made right with God.

And then the the next verses then say, okay, if you have that relationship with God, it should transform our relationships with each other as well, because you're right with God. Now let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together is in the habit of some, but encouraging one [00:17:00] another and all the more as you see the day drawing Dear.

That we're committed to pursuing this, that this is part of who we are now. Why does it work this way? Why should it work this way? Again, the core problem that we have is sin. Because of our sin. We have shame, so we hide from each other. We put up walls. We, we, we hide behind masks. But accepting the gospel means that we start by understanding our own brokenness.

See, the gospel is, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not good enough. But I acknowledge before God that I'm a sinner. Not only that I've done bad things, but my heart is sinful and, and, and, and I can't try to work my way out. I'm not good enough to fix myself, but I, I've gotta come be completely broken and say, God, I'm a sinner, and I ask you to forgive me.

I only ask you to, to change me, to show me grace unmerited favor, because my only hope is God to come and invade my life and show me grace and love that I do not deserve. Now, it doesn't mean that as Christians, that we have a bad self-image. No, we don't. Because, because we look at that and it's, I'm not [00:18:00] living under guilt and shame.

No, because when I acknowledge my need before God, God, this is who I am. I'm then given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so I, who was nothing, who deserved God's God's uh, punishment, I was a helpless beggar. Now have been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I am now made a child of the king. And, and when you really understand this, you see it not only should restore your relationship with God, but it should transform the way that we understand relationships with other people.

Why? Because before I had to hide my brokenness. Before I had, I couldn't let you see who I really was, because if you saw who I am, well you would, you would reject me. I, I don't measure up, but if I understand the gospel, I realize in a Christian community. We all, the thing that we hold in common is we all admitted that we're broken beyond repair and that we need God's grace.

We're not a people group of people that have it together. We're not the group of people that are righteous because we've tried it. No. The beginning point of [00:19:00] our faith is uniting our our. And that unites us is admitting our brokenness. And if I know that I am broken and I come to you and I say, here's my brokenness, but God still loves me.

And, and I see your brokenness. I, why would I reject you? It's like, man, you're broken. Well, welcome to the club. I mean, we're all there. We've all fallen short, and so we can relate at the deepest levels because we know that we're deeply broken people who have been made whole by God's grace, we don't have to hide it.

I was talking to somebody even after the first service, who, you know, had some experience and, and he's coming new to our church and he's just even struggling. He said, but I can't show this. I can't. And, and he has things that he's still saying, you know, I've gotta put my past behind me. I gotta hide it.

And I'm saying, no, as long as you're hiding, it's controlling you. And you've gotta believe that. What we just even heard with, you know, what you hear in Christian testimony is when we come and understand the gospel, we bring our story of shame, our story of failure. And by God's grace, it now becomes God's story of glory.

And we say, man, what an incredible story. [00:20:00] Now let's see how that plays out in Acts two. Let's go back. Acts two. And see how it played out, and it transformed the relationships with each other so much that it was the most powerful witness and testimony to an unbelieving world. In Acts 2 42, we just read this description of the early church, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers.

So they devoted themselves to actively pursuing relationships that were defined by several things. It's not what the leadership did, it's what the members did. They devoted themselves, each one individually, and when it says they devoted themselves, it be, could be almost interpreted. They were continually devoting themselves to these things.

It's not just they did it, but this was part of their lifestyle. It was central to their, not only their church, but to their daily lives. And what did they devote themselves to? First of all, to the apostles teaching. Learning to understand, to apply and to apply the Bible to their lives. When it says the Apostles teaching, [00:21:00] it's they were committed themselves to truth, and we should understand that as a follower of Christ, I mean, we're only gonna grow when we understand God's word and how it speaks to us.

What is the Apostles teaching? Well, simply we could say, if you have your Bible, you have it there In the New Testament, it's the apostles teaching. It's the writing of the apostles about Jesus Christ and about what he taught. And, and they explained the Old Testament, so we can study the Old Testament as well, because that's what they were explaining.

So we should, it's applied to us. We should be committed to studying the Bible, which we are as a church. But it's actually more than that because it's telling us that they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching. It's not just stressing the content of what they studied, but also about the nature of the devotion.

What set them apart wasn't just, they studied the truth, but they were hungry for it. They made the learning of God's word and the application of God's word a priority. In verse 46, it says, day by day they attended the temple together. Day by day they were getting together, they were learning together.

[00:22:00] They were hungry. Not only individually, but together as a community. You know, the Bible would often Turk talks about hunger in, in the way, in describing how we should relate to the Bible. I love first Peter chapter two. Look what it says. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk. So that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Now, when I read that, I mean I see a couple of newborn infants that are here today. Okay? So I could, we could even ask the moms and say, okay, when you have your baby and that baby is hungry, I mean, does it just raise his hand and say, you know, excuse me, you know, he's just, you know. I mean is, I mean, what happens?

They let you know. I mean, they, yeah, rah, you know, they, I, they cry and they, and they, and demand, and they insist, and it's like this hunger. It's a need there, there's a persistence. And here's what we need to realize. God is teaching us that our hunger, our insistence, and [00:23:00] persistence and, and need for the word of God should be like that of a baby that longs to be fed.

And when it says that they devoted themselves to the Apostle's teaching, it's not only that they were studying these things, but they were learning together and they were saying, how do we not only understand it, how do we apply it? How do we, how do we make this part of what defines us as a church? It's calling us to be learners and see every time that when we come to church.

The Bible is God's word. There's always application. Truth. I, I love again what it talks about in Hebrews four, it says, the word of God is living and active, sharper than in a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and to spirit of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Every time we come, there's always something to learn. There's always an application. So lemme ask you, what is God teaching you? What has God taught you over the last couple weeks? It is not just, okay, I need to be more faithful, my devotions or you know's a cop out. You know, it's like, well, no, what is God teaching you?

And, and there should be something because if I'm diving into God's [00:24:00] word, there's always something to learn. And, and, and part of that is the question of not only what are you doing personally, how are you involved in community and the church so that God is using that community to help you grow? Because you know, one of the things that happens is that I could study God's word and I study with somebody else and they see something I didn't see.

Where there's something that I'm trying to avoid and they sometimes speak truth into my life, and so God is calling us to do this as a community. Is that true in your life? It's part of what he's called us to be, where they were committed to not only studying God's word, challenging each other, but in the context of relationship, so they had meaningful Christ-centered interaction.

Again, look at Luke two, four or, uh, acts 2 42. It tells us that the early believers in the church committed themselves to the apostles teaching that that's expected. Okay. The Bible, we'd expect that. But the next thing he mentions is to fellowship. To the fellowship. Not just they devoted themselves to to, to have fellowship, [00:25:00] but to the fellowship.

They've devoted themselves to it. They made it a priority as high as studying the word of God. And what does that mean? Again, I don't, don't think it means just that they got together and they had Wednesday night dinners and you know, they, uh, they went golfing together. He said, Hey, what's a group of us?

Go to the Coliseum and watch a sporting event. And a lot of times when churches talk about fellowship, that's the kind of thing we can think of. The early church was committed to do things deeper than that. Some things that were of a different nature than when we expect. Why? Because a lot of times in a church, when we think of fellowship, what we can almost think of is, well, church fellowship is we have a fellowship hall and we have, it's right next to the kitchen and we have events and, and, and we do things together and, and we don't do the bad things that the world does.

And so we're not cussing, we're not telling bad jokes, we're not getting drunk, we're not, you know, and, but when you look at the things in the fellowship and the Bible, it's far more than a Christian social activity. It's not just playing a game or it's not that those things are bad, [00:26:00] but it's defined not by what we take out, that we're not doing the things that the world would do.

It's defined primarily by what we put in, by what we're united around. In a sense, we're gonna celebrate communion in a minute. When, what's that idea? It's our common union. They were f fellowshipping around their common faith in Jesus Christ. Look at verse verse 46 and 47. Day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes.

They, uh, received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. I was challenged by this idea a number of years ago when I read a book, uh, by a guy named, uh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a, a pastor in Nazi Germany that refused to submit to Nazi pressure.

And part of being faithful, he, in that he founded a, um, a small underground seminary to train young pastors to be faithful. And in that setting of being underground in a small community where studying God's word, he learned a great deal around about true Christian community. [00:27:00] And he wrote this little book Life together describing some of that.

And what he said in that is that what we've gotta realize is that the thing that should unite us is our common faith in Jesus Christ. And it's often other common things that hurt our fellowship. Let me read some of what he said. He said, the more genuine and deeper our community becomes, the more everything else between us will recede.

And the more clearly and purely will Jesus and his work become the one and only thing that is alive between us that dismisses once and for all, every glamorous desire for something more. The one who wants more than what Christ has established does not want Christian Brotherhood. He's looking for some extraordinary social experience, which can be found no, uh uh, elsewhere just at this point.

Christian Brotherhood is threatened most often at the very start by the greatest danger of all being poisoned at its root. Now, here's what he's saying, that in churches, we can get together and say, Hey, let's get together. And we have, Hey, we're, we're interested in the same, you know, basketball or, or this or, or this.

And those aren't bad things. But what [00:28:00] happens is we can get together and we spend all of our time talking about our common interests and very little talking about Jesus Christ. And he said, a lot of times the closest relationships that you have at a spiritual level are people that you have nothing else in common with because all you're doing is you're saying, what's God doing in your life?

We're having these spiritual conversations and that's what defined them. And so let me ask you, when's the last time you had a meaningful spiritual conversation with a friend? And from some of us we're like, I'm not really sure how to do that. Well, that's why we emphasize all the different community groups we have before and after services and men's groups and, and women's groups and, and, and, and we're starting more.

We had to start a new men's group recently we're, we're starting trying to start some more groups, you know, even for people in the service. And we're looking at this and we're saying, how can we encourage you to have those relationships ideally, not only in that small group. But then ideally you take it outta that small group.

So you're saying, Hey, God's how God's working in your life. How can I pray for you? We're talking about [00:29:00] spiritual things, our common union and Jesus Christ. The third thing they're gonna commit to, I'm gonna touch on this one really quickly, is that they were committed to the worship of God together corporately, in Acts 2 42 we're told they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The definite articles are there. I. Now, later on it says that they broke bread together in each other's homes. That's, they ate together. There's a spiritual act. The Bible teaches we should eat together. It's a good Christian thing to do. But here it's not talking about that. The breaking of bread is talking about communion.

The prayers are talking about worship, and so it's talking about as a church, that they were committed to worshiping together. You know, sometimes I'll talk to somebody and I'll say, well, I don't really, you know, go to church on Sunday morning. Or I just go, you know, I'm in a small group and that's good enough, or I just hop around to different churches and, and what we need to realize is that God saw that weakness and he said, okay, no, you need to not only have the small group Bible study, but we need to get [00:30:00] together in corporate worship.

That's part of the strength, that's part of what defined them. I'm not gonna talk about that more because we talked about that several weeks ago when we looked at the pillar of, of worship, I. A fourth thing. They committed themselves to grows from these previous ones and they were committed to the relational demonstration of the gospel.

Look at verse 44 through 46, and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling the possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as they had need Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they receive their food with quiet and sincere hearts.

Now part of that is the generosity of the church, and that's wonderful. It was wonderful to see our church being so generous and reaching out and so many needs throughout the Christmas season. I mean, one of the things that we encourage, especially on a com, on a communion Sunday, is that, you know, we have a benevolence ministry and we encourage gifts to that there.

There's so many needs that are being met here in our community, and I love that, but it's also more than that because when you see this [00:31:00] description, it's not only that they gave to each other as they had need. But the church was also a safe place where they could admit that they had need and ask for help.

You know, I'll give you an example of this. We see this as a church. We wanna encourage people to say, Hey, if you have a need, let us pray for you. And we'll often talk about, come up here and pray afterwards. Or you ask the elders to pray for you. And we have a lot of people that want to pray for each other and very few people that will come and ask for it.

And you go in the prayer room and you realize there are a lot of prayer requests, but few of us feel the comfort level of admitting it to somebody and having people actually surround us and praying for us, right? Because we have a hard time admitting our need. We have a hard time being vulnerable and, and what we need to realize is that God calls us to be a church where we are vulnerable.

You know, when I think of a picture of this, this picture of the church, I, I have a weird memory. Follow me. It's gonna make sense. I, my, my, uh, my one son, uh, love loves baseball. [00:32:00] Uh, he's autistic, so when he is young, he couldn't play on most of the other teams. And so, but he loved baseball and we found this incredible thing for him called Miracle League.

It's, it's a, a league for special needs kids. And, uh, and he, he just loved it. And one of the things for him is that, is that at that point in time, he, he didn't have impulse control. So when a pitcher would pitch a pitch, he would swing right away. He wouldn't know how to wait for it. And so the coach would come up like halfway over and we'd get the heaviest bat we could find, so it would slow down his swing and it might take 10, 15, 20 pitches for him to finally hit.

Now, here's what I wanna tell you. If you have, if you've ever had kids, and sometimes your kids, they're striking out, they're not doing that well, you're kind of ashamed as a parent sometimes it's like, oh man, what are the parents thinking? Here's what would happen. These were all other special needs families.

And so he'd swing and swing and swing, and everybody's like, David, you could do it. You could do it on the 20th pitch. He hits it. Everybody erupts. Everybody's cheering. Why? Because all the kids were special needs. You see, we all related. And you had kids that had all kinds of problems and you had kids in wheelchairs and kids [00:33:00] that, you know, literally drop down in the middle and start having convulsions.

We'd all stop the game. We'd all, how do we help 'em? That was, that was normal. And nobody's embarrassed by that. Everybody's saying, okay, we're gonna support each other. It's a place where it was okay to be weak. And when I think of that, I think that's what the church should be. You know what, we're all special needs and we like to hide it, and we don't wanna strike out.

We don't want people to see where we mess. We're all special needs. We're all broken. We all have big problems. And you know what? There's a lot of places where we go and we pretend and we put on the mask and we say, okay, man, I, I, I'm not gonna show my weakness. And the church should be a place where we come and we say, man, I'm hurting.

And I'm struggling and instead of probably looking down at, man, I'm proud of you for admitting that because that's the gospel. We come in our weakness and we come in our needs and there is no judgment. There's a place where we're loved that we're able to help each other beyond ourselves. That's what defined the early church.

Not that only that they gave, but they asked for help. They admitted the needs and that's, I [00:34:00] hope I long for that. You might be thinking, you know, are you saying what the church we should learn from the secular group like Miracle League? Oh, in a sense, yes, but in a sense, no. You know why? Because the guy who led his team was a guy named Mr.

Jim, who was a believer, who was living out his faith and saying, I'm gonna live out my faith and bring, instead, I'm not talking about bringing the secular world into the gospel. He brought the gospel into the secular world, and it was his example that led then people to say, okay, what church do you go to?

And that illustrates the last part, because they were intent committed to intentionally spreading the gospel in the context of community. It wasn't something that, well, look, go back to verse 46. Day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, they received food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to the number day by day those who were being saved. See, here's what I want you to see. This was a natural expression of who they were. It wasn't like, oh, [00:35:00] now's the evangelism time. We're gonna go out and do evangelism. No, they were living out their faith, living out community, and the natural result was they invited people in and people saw this radically different community and they were drawn towards it.

They intentionally tried to include other people because they saw this incredible community as a place that wasn't exclusive but inclusive. They, they realized we were all ones outsiders. And now we've been brought in and we wanna bring other people in. There's a chance to, to see this place where we escape the world and where there's a home, there's a hope.

See, they saw the church as a place where God's grace was being demonstrated. It was proclaimed through action. And in a sense, we're showing grace to each other and we're loving each other by grace. And, and we invite people in because we hope that as they see this, some of that grace gets splashed on them.

And they see this grace and they say, man, these people love each other and it's a place to be safe. It's a place where I can be real. And, and suddenly there's a [00:36:00] draw there. And that's what God has called us to, to be this kind of place. That's what I love with Mimi and with her baptism story today. That's what she shared.

It was like, yes, I had a person that came and cared for me and loved me and, and they invited me to this college thing. I go to this college thing and suddenly I see this community. I see people care for each other and. And it drew her in. There's power in that. See, that's not only what God did is what God is still doing.

And in that you realize it's not that, okay, I gotta try harder to share my faith, or no, I've gotta realize, okay God, how do I live out in connect and community and then invite other people in as something that is natural? You see, the first question is, are you connected in that way? Because it's possible, it's common to come to church and, you know, walk in, walk out, don't really know anybody.

We're not in some kind of small group. We're not in deep relationships. And let me encourage you, let me challenge you. Take the effort, take the time to get connected. Help us to help you [00:37:00] find some kind of community group, some men's group, some, there's all these different things that we have. Let us help you find the right place to get connected.

A place where we are connected into this true community where you learn to love people and to be loved and have grace and, and be real. But then we have to invite people into that community as well. And that's what the holy church did. It wasn't in exclusive, it was inclusive. It was, we were all outsiders and we're gonna invite people in.

So we're thinking about how do I invite somebody and hey, just come and because, because there's a lot of grace going on here. And if you see that there's something. There's something attractive to God's grace and, and we hope that we're gonna love you, and you're gonna get splashed with that grace. And it's gonna, it's gonna invite you in.

You're gonna say, I wanna hear about the message behind this. But we also, when we do this, we each need to every week be sensitive because every week there are, there are gonna be people that are visitors, they're gonna be, and, and here's the problem that we have as a church. You know, all churches think they're friendly because I have [00:38:00] friends.

But what we need to realize is it's so easy to get caught up where I have so many friends that I see my friends, I talk to my friends and every week that we totally miss the fact that there are people that are coming in new, that are, that are seeking, that are open, and now nobody's talking to 'em. And so part of what I wanna encourage you to do is to have this heart and attitude of the early church where every Sunday, every, you know, come.

If you come tonight soup and pie, meet somebody new. You know, every Sunday, ideally try to meet, meet somebody new and say, Hey, I haven't met you before. And be a place that's warm and it's welcoming because we've gotta be this place where we not only are the church and we are the gospel and where we love each other in this way, but that we intentionally invite other people in because there's an attractiveness to this.

That's what I wanna be. That's what I think God has called us to. It's a church. We're not gonna be perfect. We're not gonna never disappoint somebody or mess up, up in, in, in a way, I don't think the early church was, but they were incredibly attractive, [00:39:00] not because they had perfect people who'd always did things right, who never offended.

They were incredibly attractive because they were real and they were community, and they cared for each other. The true fellowship, not only enjoying that amongst themselves, but in a way that invited other people in. And inviting them into that fellowship. They invited them into relationship with God as well.

If you have a question about the Message Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 0 432 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP Life slash connect There. You can also send in a prayer request. We would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day, and we'll see you on Sunday.